When we want to know something, there are three ways in which we can find out or come to a conclusion. They are as follows:
Direct evidence
Inference
Hearing from authority
Science is based on direct evidence which comes from experimentation. That’s how we are able to make planes and bridges and all the engineering feats, among other things. We study the properties of matter and then work with it to shape our desired results.
However, some things are more abstract and can’t be concluded by scientific experiment. This is where inference comes in to play. For example we cannot know for sure about our history, so archaeologists have to infer a probability based on a little evidence and a lot of speculation. Also Someone like Darwin came up with an entire theory of evolution but it was totally speculative, based on inference. He saw some things and inferred some others based on what pieces he had to work with.
Now even in the first option of direct evidence, we have to rely on our senses, and they are subject to four defects. We have imperfect senses. The four defects are:
Faulty senses
Tendency to make mistakes
Cheating propensity
Tendency to fall under illusion
We have imperfect senses which sometimes mistake one thing for another, or can be cheated by others or fall under an illusory conclusion. So even in science we are dealing with imperfect tools to measure matter, namely our senses. Therefore not only in observation but also in inference, we may not come out with the truth of the matter.
It is for these reasons that ancient Vedic scholars concluded that when dealing with the science of consciousness, it is best to use the third source of information, which is to hear from authority. In the Sanskrit philosophy of the Vedas the three sources of information are called
Pratyaksha – direct evidence
Anumana – inference
Shabda – hearing from authority
Actually the Sanskrit word “shabda” literally means “sound” and spiritual sound is called “shabda brahma”. When it comes to knowing the science of the soul, the Vedas recommend not following the imperfect senses or inferring, but simply hearing from authority. And the authority is the Vedic texts themselves, which are considered spiritual sound, not the writing of a mundane person.
Anyway, that’s how it’s presented in the ancient texts on the science of the soul. The Vedas themselves are considered more of a valid source of information than any person. Nowadays our scientific ability to obtain direct evidence via the senses is very accurate and verifiable by repeated experiment but still we have little evidence regarding the realm of the mind or consciousness. Like what happens to our mind and consciousness during sleep? And what happens to it at death?
Laboratory research has come a long way in studying sleep and the brainwaves that we fall into during the different levels of sleep. But little information is present regarding where our consciousness goes when the body stops showing signs of life. So there are layers of knowledge in these departments that are yet to be uncovered. Our senses and science may tell us that you cease to exist when your body stops showing signs of life, but we know that a person can fall into a coma for many months, ceasing to show signs of their presence, and then come out of it.
And we have case studies or anecdotal evidence of people feeling themselves leaving their bodies but then returning to avoid death. There is no scientific explanation for that. In the grey area of the coma of course the body still showed signs of life but in NDEs (near death experiences) symptoms of life may have stopped and yet the person can be revived. And the experience they may have of leaving the body and seeing it down below them, or meeting other discarnate beings, etc all defy scientific explanation.
Therefore in ancient times people were encouraged to accept the authority of the text books on consciousness, namely the Vedas. There are also cases of yogis who were able to defy the laws of physics altogether and perform so-called miracles or mystic feats, all totally against the verifiable laws of science that hold up our planes and bridges. So there is that grey area that science cannot explain...yet.
Nevertheless everything is going on by laws of nature. We simply don’t know all the laws yet. But in ancient times the yogis were far more advanced and were able to perform transcendental activities that were beyond our natural laws, though still operating under more subtle mystical laws of nature that they knew about and could harness. Even today we are accessing newer and newer laws of nature to produce machinery and technology unheard of to our the previous century, for example, but the potential was always there.
Similarly we have lost the knowledge of metaphysics and what we would call “mystical science” today. Yet it exists and has always existed. And it is these particular subjects that cannot be inferred, nor can the imperfect senses be relied upon to give us the facts because these laws defy the material senses. So for such information we have only the Vedas or other traditional books on the subject of consciousness from cultures around the world, and perhaps from an ancient past where humanity was quite different from today.
There are masses of reports, accounts and information in the Vedas regarding mystic abilities by yogis of old, and hints at how to attain them, as well as other heightened states of consciousness, where one can defy science, or transcend the limitations of matter. This subtle realm of the mind and consciousness appears to have vast untapped resources of power or ability, most of which are contrary to the understanding of science today, if the ancient narrations and accounts are anything to go by.
Therefore we cannot always only rely on science, or our imperfect senses, but have to sometimes defer to hearing from an authority on the subject. Or so I have heard.
(image pixabay)