A Glimpse Beyond the Veil

"The universe is built on a plan, the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect." 

Dr. John Dee, 16th century polymath and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I

“My brain is only a receiver. In the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists”. 

Nikola Tesla, scientist and inventor

"Reality is simply the loss of the ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity, it will automatically vanish, and reality will shine forth by itself."

Paramahansa (Swami) Yogananda, Yogi and Guru

"I had always believed there had to be a reason for everything. But now I saw that there might be a reality beyond all that, beyond the universe itself. I came to see that there's more to our existence than meets the eye - that the beauty and the richness of the universe extends far beyond what we can see, or even comprehend."

Eben Alexander, neurosurgeon and NDE survivor

Dr. Dee, Nikola Tesla, Yogananda, and Eban Alexander were born in different times throughout history, in different countries, and raised in vastly different circumstances, educational systems, and cultural beliefs. Yet their quotes all hint at something similar. An ultimate truth that is just out of our reach, but perceptible in certain moments when we’re able to peer beyond the veil. A different dimension of reality that somehow transcends and enriches our own, and inspires great awe and wonder. The quest to understand this great beyond, the grandest mystery of all existence, has spurred spiritual seekers, poets, scientists, and philosophers for millenia. 

These life-changing moments of seeing beyond the veil, of ‘awakening’ to a deeper sense of reality, is what I’m really interested in, and the reason for me writing these words. I believe that every soul has the potential to experience the process of awakening. As the quotes above imply, such experiences are universal, though it requires the right circumstances - perhaps an intense curiosity and commitment, a deep intuition, or a near-death experience.

Knowledge as a Path to Awakening

Hindu spiritual philosophy has a lot to say about awakening and the various routes to awakening. As one of the oldest surviving spiritual traditions, it might be worth paying it some attention. What I find interesting in the Hindu system is the idea that there are four key paths to awakening: 

1) Karma - the path of selfless action

2) Bhakti - the path of devotion

3) Jnana - the path of knowledge

4) Raja - the path of meditation and self-control

Modern western cultures tend to be preoccupied with the accumulation of knowledge, so Jnana may be a more natural fit for most of us from such a culture. While the spiritual fringes of such cultures might also have a lot to teach about Raja, they tend to be ill equipped to help people walk the paths of Karma or Bhakti. It is through a combination of Jnana and Raja that I gained my spiritual breakthroughs, so pretty much everything I have to say can fit neatly into one of these two buckets, but the rest of this article is concerned with awakening through the path of Jnana.

Human beings, in all our vast ignorance, are capable of incredible feats. However, as a collective species, our impetus towards knowledge, truth and beauty ebbs and flows. The Dark Ages, a time of great ignorance and religious persecution, followed quickly after the grand accomplishments of ancient Greece and Rome. After 900 years of little cultural or scientific advancement, the Dark Ages eventually gave rise to the Renaissance, a whole new period of excitement, exploration, and discovery. Some of the most celebrated artists and scientists in history were born out of the Renaissance, including Leonardo DaVinci, Galileo, William Shakespeare, and Michaelangelo.

While on a cultural level we tend to go in cycles, the human impetus for spiritual awakening is always there, just beneath the surface. The urge to plumb the depths, to seek the hidden treasures, to unravel the mysteries of life, is a natural path for some people. In my own experience, my endless spiritual pursuit was spurred on by a deep discomfort. This nagging feeling of discontent provided the impetus to keep on going in the hope that I may one day find relief. I finally did, at least for a brief period of time. And while the daily challenges of life tend to keep such states at bay much of the time, the sense of relief has never really left me. I am a deeply transformed person, so much more emboldened, wiser, and authentic than before.

Jesus said “seek and ye shall find”. I believe this to be true. If you are driven by an insatiable quest for truth, you will eventually find what you seek. And, as Nikola Tesla, Yogananda, and Eban Alexander showed us earlier, there are many different ways to get there, no matter your background or upbringing.

A Convergence of Different Perspectives

In the days of Plato and Aristotle, scholars were encouraged to pursue a wide range of subjects spanning the arts, the sciences, philosophy, the humanities, as well as personal development. They used the term ‘Paideia’ to describe this well-rounded, ideal education. This concept was revived much later on during the Renaissance, another time of peak culture. 

While we, in modern times, cover many subjects in our primary and secondary education, anyone over eighteen pursuing further education has no real choice but to specialise in one particular field. Then, with each subsequent advancement in education and career, the aperture of our lens becomes narrower and narrower, until we eventually become laser-focussed on one specific discipline. We are actively incentivized to remain specialists in our fields, while being stifled from spreading our wings and exploring new horizons.

So, in contrast to the classical Greek period, modern academic careers tend to be built upon gaining a deep understanding of tinier and tinier slices of reality, and there are really no sanctioned platforms providing funding for looking at how different fields connect. Our hyper-specialist knowledge is incredibly useful in specific applications, but it is also a hindrance. We have become lost in the forest as we can no longer see the wood for the trees. Quantum physicists don’t tend to speak with philosophers. Scientists don’t tend to hang out with spiritual teachers. Artists don’t tend to mix with mathematicians. It is as though our cultural consciousness has become extremely fragmented. Each specialist is immensely knowledgeable about what they see under their own microscope, but they have no idea what the other hundreds of specialists all around them are seeing under their respective microscopes, or whether they are all somehow connected. 

This systemic tunnel vision is not surprising. Our social and economic structures have an inherent bias towards conservatism, as that tends to promote stability. New ways of thinking are often met with fear and suspicion as they have the potential to threaten established institutions and the livelihood of individuals whose careers depend upon the existing paradigm. Our history is littered with examples of academics who, after following their curiosity, started bringing in outside perspectives that shone a new light on the phenomena they were studying. Their new found perspective inevitably shook up the status quo, which sparked fierce resistance, and ultimately led to public humiliation and rejection, loss of funding, and the loss of their place among their peers. 

On a more personal, individual level, a new paradigm can generate fear if it contradicts pre-existing belief systems. The juxtaposition of the old paradigm against the new one can create a cognitive dissonance which can be extremely uncomfortable for many people. When cognitive dissonance occurs, rather than updating their beliefs, many will choose to reject new evidence in order to maintain their sense of certainty and stability.

There are, however, examples of heroic individuals who are not afraid to explore beyond the limits of current paradigms. People who are authentically driven by an urge to span many disciplines in the pursuit of a more holistic knowledge, undeterred by the potential social or financial consequences.

One example that I have very much enjoyed learning from in recent months is Zach Bush, MD; a trained medical doctor with a wide range of specialist experience in internal medicine, endocrinology, the microbiome, and hospice care. After spending decades in mainstream medicine, an authentic curiosity to really tune-in to what nature has to say drove him to reconsider the prevailing medical narratives. He speaks passionately about how many of our modern health and environmental issues can be traced back to our perceived disconnection from nature. His deep spirituality combined with his academic training and medical experience gives him a uniquely potent voice.

Another example is Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary, a high-profile neurologist from San Diego who went on a spiritual odyssey to Sri Shakti Amma’s ashram in Tamil Nadu, India. She felt such a strong draw to Amma’s teachings that she took a career hiatus and caught a one-way flight to India while her family stayed behind in the US. During her stay in India she developed a wealth of knowledge in ancient Ayurvedic medicine, including sound healing. Similar to Zach Bush, Dr. Chaudhary was dissatisfied with the limitations of western medicine and has found immense utility in ancient knowledge. She now runs an integrative medicine centre, applying her knowledge of western and eastern approaches in a powerful way that she is uniquely equipped to. 

I believe that the most important breakthroughs for the future of humanity will require connecting different perspectives into a wider, more holistic understanding of reality. Following such an extensive period of hyper-specialisation, surely the pendulum will swing back the other way? 

So read widely, take in many different points of view so you can eventually start to traverse the gaps and connect the dots between disciplines. 

Now, let’s dive in and go a little deeper into some of the different views that are out there regarding the fundamental nature of reality.

Perspectives on the Fundamental Nature of Reality

Let’s begin with Aldous Huxley, an author and philosopher-mystic responsible for many astounding works of literature, including Brave New World and The Doors of Perception. One of his lesser well-known books, The Perennial Philosophy, is an epic work of research on esoteric spiritual teachings across many different cultures and traditions throughout history. In this book, Huxley seeks to understand and convey the underlying principles and concepts that are shared across different historical traditions. He dives deep into many ancient spiritual texts and historical records and draws many fascinating conclusions.

One of the fundamental concepts that he identifies across traditions separated by time and geography is a shared belief in an ultimate ‘source’ of reality. Another realm that is not perceptible to our ordinary states of consciousness (hmmm, does this remind you of the quotes we read earlier on?). Huxley goes on to describe this source of reality as an underlying state of pure potentiality from which everything in the material world emanates. It is a state of unity or singularity, beyond the world of duality (our own material reality). Some may call this ‘God’, others ‘Source’, others ‘Brahman’. There are many different ways to describe it, but the significant point here is the fact that this has been an enduring idea across many different cultures throughout the ages.  

The notion of an underlying invisible ‘source of all things’ is not limited to spiritual and religious texts. It’s an idea that pops up all over the place across a wide range of disciplines…

Carl Jung, a protégé of Sigmund Freud and a founding figure of psychoanalysis, wrote extensively about the concept of a 'collective unconscious’. Unlike the personal unconscious, which is unique to each individual and shaped by personal experiences, Jung describes the collective unconscious as a shared field of information connecting all beings, accessible through dreams, images, stories, and ancestral memories. Although Jung often described things in terms of psychological frameworks, he was a deeply spiritual person. He was once asked by an interviewer, “Do you believe in God?” He famously replied, with a huge grin upon his face, “No. I do not believe; I know.”

Rogue astrophysicist, Thad Roberts, who gained notoriety for attempting to steal moon rocks from NASA, also has a compelling argument for a unifying source of nature. In his book A Perfect Universe, he explains how many modern scientific theories do not pass the law of parsimony. Roberts describes the complex and confusing ontology of the modern physics story as “a zoo of fundamental mass particles, photons, four forces, dark matter, dark energy… a wave function, the Big Bang event… strings, holograms, and a few more”. Through deep contemplation, backed up by pure mathematics, he proposes an ontologically superior theory of the universe, born out of a ‘quantum superfluid’. He goes on to describe how fundamental properties of this superfluid could generate our universe, even including an explanation for the constants of nature and their measurements, for example, the gravitational constant and the speed of light.

Even Brian Cox, populariser of mainstream science, agrees that we need to update the modern physics story, starting with the classic Big Bang theory. One cosmological alternative he has written about is the notion of a ‘cyclic universe’, which describes the universe as a sort of immense cosmic bouncy ball. In this theory, a ‘big bang’ marks the start of a period of inflation, which lasts for aeons until the energy gradually starts to dissipate. Eventually, the forces of gravity surpass the forces of outward expansion and the universe  begins to bounce back towards its centre, in a phase of contraction. At the culmination of this period of contraction, the universe resembles an extremely compressed ball of energy. Then, from this extreme state of compression, the universe bounces back again in an explosion of energy (another ‘big bang’), ad infinitum.

Another theory he is curious about speaks more directly about an underlying foundation of reality. This is the possibility that we live in an eternal universe, with a hypothetical ‘scalar field’ (known as the ‘Inflaton’) being the prima materia that orchestrates the expansion of the universe. Additionally, the theory explains how differences in the Inflaton’s energy distribution could account for local variations in expansion rates. 

Interestingly, some recent data collected by the James Webb Telescope (JSWT) lends some hard evidence to support this idea. Its findings recently confirmed that the universe is not expanding at a uniform rate. The speed of expansion is bafflingly different depending on where the telescope looks. This led Adam Riess, professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, to announce in a statement that “...what remains is the real and exciting possibility that we have fundamentally misunderstood the universe”.

Let’s transition now from the realm of physics to that of metaphysics and philosophy, where there is a resurging interest in a theory known as panpsychism. This theory proposes that consciousness itself is the all-pervading, primary substrate through which everything comes into being. As a primary phenomenon, proponents of panpsychism believe that everything in our observable universe is imbued with some form of consciousness. This re-emerging interest is partly fueled by ongoing debates in the philosophy of mind, particularly surrounding the "hard problem" of consciousness, which questions how and why we have subjective experiences.

Biologist and parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake (PhD) is a staunch advocate for panpsychism. Sheldrake predicts that we cannot, and will never fully, understand what consciousness is, as it is beyond what is possible for the human intellect to comprehend. 

It is absolutely true that across all branches of science, including neuroscience, psychology, and medicine, we do not have a satisfactory comprehension of what consciousness is and how it emerges.

This idea brings me full-circle back to esoteric spirituality, specifically to Hermeticism, which encompasses an expansive array of teachings attributed to Thoth in ancient Egypt and Hermes Trismegistus in ancient Greece. Panpsychism bears a striking resemblance to a fundamental principle of Hermeticism - the notion that the entirety of existence is fundamentally mental or consciousness-based. It suggests that the underlying nature of reality resembles a cosmic ‘mind,’ with everything being a manifestation of this universal mind.

Asclepius: “Tell me, Trismegistus, what is the world? What is it composed of?”

Hermes: “The world, Asclepius, is an image of the divine mind. It is composed of mind and matter, spirit and body. But it is the mind that gives form to matter, just as the potter gives form to the clay.”

Hermes Trismegistus teaching Asclepius, The Corpus Hermeticum

In Summary

The impetus to understand and experience deeper aspects of reality is a natural tendency for many people and there are many different ways to get there. Hinduism identifies four different paths to awakening, though Jnana, the path of knowledge, is perhaps the most accessible and acceptable of these in modern western cultures. 

Hyper-specialising has been immensely useful to us, but perhaps the most groundbreaking discoveries of the near future will require stepping back and taking in a much wider perspective in order to understand how apparently different phenomena are related. God. Quantum superfluids. Scalar fields. Consciousness. A mental universe. Could all these apparently disparate ideas actually be pointing to the same phenomenon? Are they all saying more or less the same thing in different ways? 

So be open and curious and don’t be so quick to judge or reject something that doesn’t immediately fit into the most well-trodden notions of reality. Perhaps there is valuable insight to be gained from an area that is completely new to you, which might provide complementary ideas or support. This new perspective might fill in some gaps, it might provide a counterbalance and enable a deeper understanding, and ultimately might lead to your next breakthrough.