Dr. Nobre’s lecture is a broad overview of the concept of “top down causation” in science. We are so used to “bottom up” causation as an embedded scientific metaphor that we don’t even realize that in fact science (just the facts Ma’am) is not a philosophy at all! It is a system of thinking, a rational and logical way of understanding the world.
Until recently, the prevailing scientific philosophy was a type of materialism developed several hundred years ago. Matter, the solid material the world consists of has changed considerably over the ages, in Western thought. Aristotle’s “matter” contained the concept of the potential for change. His world was made of substances that existed in their own right and functioned as living things do! By the time of Isaac Newton, matter became solid teeny tiny particles which formed a clockwork mechanical Universe, where “god” became an unnecessary hypothesis in terms of the World order.
Gravity: The First Unruly Action At a Distance
Even in the very mechanistic materialistic world view, there has always been the “ugly” concept of effects at a distance, now most prominently seen in entanglement and energy healing. Newton and the subsequent scientific materialistic philosophers could never get away from Gravity, a puzzling “glue” that exerts an influence at a distance and yet cannot be directly measured. There are no gravity rays, no gravity particles, and yet it is a known force in the Universe. So even in the heyday of Scientific Materialism, there has always been a mysterious force causing actions at a distance, a Materialistic skeleton in the closet.
Not Your Grandfather’s Matter!
Physics today has resoundingly rejected the ”matter” inherent in scientific materialism! Matter is now considered to be “baryonic matter”, the stuff of the stars and planets and ourselves. It is not just the actual particles that make up reality, but all of the radiation, kinetic and potential energies of all known particles, leading to a Mass-Energy definition of matter. And even more horrifying to the scientific materialist, the known matter of the Universe doesn’t add up to the calculated mass necessary to explain the movement of the galaxies in the Universe. There must be hidden matter that we can’t see! Dark Matter! Indeed this dark matter is intertwined with this reality, only called dark because we can’t see it! Or for those of you who have seen angels, perhaps you have seen it!
with Chaos Mathematician Jay Kappraff
The Spiritist Medical Model
Dr. Nobre presented the Spiritist medical model, which is that consciousness and spirit underlie all of physical reality. She reviewed the concept of “top down causation” which is that consciousness creates our material world. I have reviewed above the old paradigm that the material world created consciousness. Dr Nobre feels we are at a time where our denial of the importance of spirit in our lives has “petrified” our society. She feels Spiritism is a creative small group dedicated to re-energizing medicine.
She reviewed the work and research of William Miller PhD, a Psychologist at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Miller developed an innovative and successful program to cure alcoholism by integrating spirituality into the therapy of alcoholics. Click Here for more information on William Miller.
Next Dr. Nobre reviewed the research of Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief. Dr Nobre was very eloquent on the need for forgiveness in our lives, as a medical intervention! “To forgive is to forget the shadows” she said. We are healthier when we forgive others. I was very impressed with this. I often think that foregiveness is something we should do for spiritual well being, but did not think of the damage we are doing to our own body when we don’t forgive others. Click Here for More Information on Bruce Lipton
Dr. Nobre’s point was that many of the foremost scientists in the world have “top down” consciousness, meaning that their research supports the philosophy that consciousness creates material reality. When I trained at Johns Hopkins, we were rigorously taught to not have ANY philosophy or metaphor embedded in our science. However, in the real world that simply is not the case. Many scientists think the brain secretes consciousness like the liver secretes bile, and someone is a traitor to science if they think otherwise. In other words they are both scientists AND materialist philosophers.
Dr. Nobre cites the work of some of the top scientists in the world including Kazuo Murakami who showed that thoughts can effect our DNA. He wrote The Divine Code of Life. He is a Professor Emeritus at a leading Japanese University. Other important thinkers include Physicist Russell Targ who wrote The End of Suffering. Her point is that many top scientists, including the scientists at the conference who included Amit Goswami PhD, Peter Fenwick MD, PhD, Stephan Schwartz, Gary Schwartz PhD MD, as well as researchers from the University of Washington, the University of Arizona, the University of Maryland and the National Institutes of Health are not materialists but embrace the New top down paradigm.
She concludes with the inspiring words of the Brazilian psychic Chico Xavier:
“Our Inner Peace is Not the Result of External Factors, but the Peace of Mind We Achieve When We Fulfill Our Obligations” Francisco Candido Xavier ( Brazilian psychic)
Dr. Nobre and Melody discuss Dr. Nobre’s lecture