What would happen if a contemporary Physics PhD, trained at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore, bucks the establishment a bit and heads West to apply his technical chops to a more phenomenology-style approach to basic Physics research while never losing sight of the sociological, human impacts of what he pursues? Oddly enough, his results veer strongly into the arena of spiritual exercise and inner work. On top of that, they are invitingly accessible.

NOTE: Deep appreciation to Gopi Vijaya, whose fascinating talk (see the 4:36:00 mark in the video) given at the recent MysTech summer conference directly inspired this post. Essentially I try to outline his chain of thoughts while adding bits of my own commentary about possible implications (in parens).

21st Century Digital Culture

(What’s interesting about Gopi’s phenomonology approach is that his results are readily translated to any thoughtful lay audience and strike one as quite revealing, while he remains at the same time firmly grounded in his orthodox educational base. One notices that all abstractions are calmly eschewed in this approach. We never hear about electrons or wave equations or the topology of magnetic field shapes.)

(1) Whether realized or not, we live surrounded by all sorts of electro-magnetic devices and infrastructure, and have in fact become deeply dependent upon this.

(2) The pace of this partly unconscious societal transformation has been both stunningly rapid — any young person would barely recognize or function in the world of fifty years ago — and non-consensual — the “progress” was inevitable and underwent no democratic or individual scrutiny before adoption — in character.

(3) In everyday life we are broadly ignorant about workings at both the micro level — chips, lasers, wi-fi fields — and macro level — undersea cables, data centers, satellite transmission — all around us.

(4) The societal and personal impacts of our collective immersion in electro-magnetic life and devices have been widespread, unpredictable, and problematic. These effects show no sign of abating. Instead they are multiplying and our understanding of this situation is behind the curve.

(5) Electrical conveniences are not new; the light bulb and telegraph are over 150 years old. But there is a dramatic and rapid shift away from evident physical appliances to a more and more virtual infrastructure electrification, with the rise of the internet.

(6) Examples of the infrastructure metamorphosis (around electricity) since 1980:
REAL ESTATE ==> Web Space
BUILDINGS ==> Websites
MACHINES ==> Transistors
FACTORIES ==> Executable Code
LEGAL PATENTS ==> Software Licenses; Your Data
HIGHWAYS & RAIL ==> Internet Access
PIPES ==> Wires, Wi-Fi
LIGHT ==> Lasers

(7) Thus, there is a bridge to be found between earlier things and their current ‘electrical’ analogs. It is critical to understand this if we want to ford the gap between actually experienced things (past) and current things which are not very much or consciously experienced.

Electricity Contemplated

(Having laid out the general world picture, Gopi now turns to examining the readily observed qualities of Electricity as a phenomenon.)

(8) The only times we actually experientially come into contact with electro-magnetism as phenomena is when we receive an electric shock or when we play around with some refrigerator magnets. Considering how deeply entrenched these twin forces are in our global daily lives, this is pretty remarkable. We are distanced from their reality.

(9) This unhealthy imbalance must be corrected. To begin to do so, we will conscously explore first electricty, then magnetism, in terms of their observable effects, to try and de-mystify them… to un-conceal them.

(10) First it can be observed that we yield to the power of electricity in our common everyday metaphoric language. This represents an unconscious surrender, acknowledging its ubiquitous influence over us. We describe our very personal reality in terms of it.
“She’s liable to blow a fuse…”
“You need a down day to recharge…”
“A light bulb went off in my head…”
“He cannot help it; he’s simply wired that way…”

(11) A very widespread example is how we refer to the electrical nerve system aspect of us with deferential primacy and accord it causative control through our language:
“My brain did X…”
“My brain decided X…”
“My brain realized X…”
In other words, living unconsciously in a world suffused with electrical devices we begin to define ourselves in terms of these verbal analogies and come to think this way, casually.

(Gopi thus sets the stage for a deeper look at our devolving social behaviors under the influence of electrical forces, by leading us to examine how electricity naturally behaves in itself and then tracing some analagous changes within ourselves.)

(12) What are some evident qualities about electricity?
VERY FAST – moves at light speed
LINEAR – point A to point B via wiring
DISINTEGRATING – degrades contacted matter over time
SEEKS MATTER (GROUND) – needs matter to propagate and seeks grounding
PATH of LEAST RESISTANCE – easiest travel path possible

(Some notes about the above… LINEAR: unlike light which spreads out in space, electricity moves in lines, Think of lightning bolts, and obviously the wires which connect all devices to power generation stations ultimately. DISINTEGRATING: Electricians are well aware of the fact that components of electrical devices and hookup materials, composed of matter, deteriorate with usage. SEEKS MATTER: wants to be in material and flees to it hastily.)

(13) With these established qualities in mind, now think about the cultural qualities which have come into being with the internet et. al. age.

(14) We can ask: How is ubiquitous immersion into the speed of electricity within daily life affecting our being? Thought-speed is striving to match Perception-speed. We want to cram info as quickly as possible into utterances which are as brief as possible. Evident everywhere: in conversation, in work life, in cable dramas and films, in youtube shorts.

(15) What’s happening is that we are subordinating the vast bulk of our being to the ‘electrical/nerve’ parts of our organism. It is reflected in the absurdly out-of-proportion impatience and exasperation we feel when our screens respond too slowly — meaning non-instantaneously — to our requests, or when glitches occur. The instinctive, reactive (spinal column) portion or aspect of our cognitive life is dominating or usurping the contemplative portion or aspect (frontal lobe). All this is quite involuntary and indeliberate on our parts.

(This is the spot in Gopi’s talk where my interest suddenly deepened. He is beginning to conceive electricity in a more spiritual manner, as an active force which can transmit its own qualities onto our soul life if we do not pay attention and hold our ground. )

(16)When instinct operates, nerve signals bypass the brain altogether and rush down the spinal cord to effect swift unthinking action. With electrical device interactions, and spilling over into general life, we are being conditioned to not mediate our activity with contemplation. We are trying to match up the speed of our inner life with the external speed of the outer world which is suffused with electricity.

(17)The issue is worse for children because they have less experience building up their perceptions of outer reality. They are indoctrinated to not reflect but to react. Subtler situations requiring faceted reflecting strongly triggers their impatience or boredom.

Magnetism Contemplated

(18) Magnetism as a force has also permeated strongly into the metaphoric nature of our language:
“Opposites attract…”
“They’ve been deeply influenced by…”
“She has a strong pull…”
“The speaker had a magnetic personality…”
“I was instantly repelled by their ideals…”

(19)It is interesting and important to note that while in the process of using these sorts of metaphors, the speaker is very often thinking of the subject in an “inanimate” way, like an object with purely physical properties only. (got pulled in… under the influence of…) As opposed to an animate subject which would actively consider things and reflect about matters. Instead the action or effect is automatic.

(20) Similarly, we can consider the readily observable (phenomenological) qualities which magnets evince:
STICKY, BINDING – irresisible pull of attraction, automatic
SURFACE CONTACT ONLY – no penetration into objects
AGGLOMERATING – groups into huge chunks, lines and forms
SEEKS ONLY OWN KIND – ignores non-magnetic substances
PATH of MOST ATTRACTION – strongest field always wins

(Some notes about the magnet qualities above… SURFACE: What Gopi is pointing towards here is a certain kind of superficiality…magnetic attraction ‘cares nothing’ for the inner nature of things, it just wants to accomplish ‘sticking’ to the right substances. AGGLOMERATING: See the two images below which he used. Magnet force builds forms, in lines or thread and in 3-D shapes, wanting to compile more and more ‘correct’ objects. OWN KIND: Here I think Gopi is hinting at an exclusionary tribalism; only magnetizable materials such as Iron and Nickel will do.)

(21)In the same way that the nature of newly rampant electrical phenomena spilled over into our thought process, the nature of magnetic phenomena spills over into our feeling process. Think about this carefully to realize it is so.

(22)For example our feelings have become more and more susceptible to group influencing and manipulation, bypassing the individualized sentiment. Obviously within politics, we see the strong new tendency for groupwise opinion to be swayed in a highly polarized manner in which subconscious feelings shortcut more conscious, less automatic, thinking around issues.

(23)So both of these very prevalent forces in our lives, electricity and magnetism, seaped into our being, our behaviors, and social reality in a kind of clandestine backdoor way. Our very thinking and feeling functions are being subtly automated in directions we would not consciously choose if wide awake. It is not just the data centers, the intrusive software, the ubiquitous advertising fragmenting our working lives and communications, or the profound degradations to our basic privacy — no, it is such more inward than that. It is insinuating into our very feeling and thinking processes.

(This segment of the talk struck me as wonderfully insightful and a brilliant yet persuasive wake-up analysis of how everyday lives are deforming under the sway of modernity.)

(24)Real world aspects of magnetic force infection into our social world can best be contemplated in conjunction with the following ideas:
TRIBALISM
TRENDS
ADDICTION
POLARIZATION
INFLUENCERS
FOLLOWERS
LIKING, SUBSCRIBING
GOING VIRAL
DATA COLLECTING

(25)So this is how the battle lines are to be conceived. Due to the intense and accelerating saturation of our world and lives with electromagnetic forces, a kind of sub-nature, we are staring, those with eyes opened, at an inevitable marriage of the Path of Least Resistance (electric) in our cognition with the Path of Greatest Attraction (magnetic) in our emotions. Without much participation of our volition or willing. That picture is very aptly characterized as robotic. We must do something to confront this before it becomes irreversible, and we need an individualized remedial path to do so.

(Having laid out the situation with clarity, Gopi now will turn to describing proposed impulses for healing the deformity. What is striking is how akin to ‘spiritual’ exercise the various suggested measures are. Starting with objective forces commonly discussed in elementary science, we come around to solutions and tasks within the human soul itself. Note that nowhere does Gopi depict electromagnetism as an ‘evil’ or recommend that we reject and eschew it. Instead what is important is that we meet the effects in a more conscious way and learn to hold our ground against their invasive workings and eventually overcome them such that our spirits subjugate these forces to our principled aims and will.)

(26)We are at a decision point. Do nothing, notice little, numbly accept the devolving path to human superficiality. Or confront the problem head-on, become the controllers of these forces instead of letting them control us. How do we not simply yield, entertaining ourselves to death, but rather take the bull by the horns? Like the Cretan Bull in the labors of Hercules? That is the subject matter for the remiander of this presentation.

Heal Electrical Soul Disease Via Deliberate Thinking

(27)First, be assured that the “Brain = Cause; Consciousness = Effect” meme is untrue. There is clinical evidence on this but it is largely ignored by the forces (i.e. tribalism) of orthodoxy. Aside from examples like Helen Keller, whose inner being clearly manipulated and mastered serious organic malfunctions to mold her body into something useful she wanted, there is a recent research paper by a Dr. Marek Majorek which directly contradicts this neurological reductionist view.

(28)Majorek details a 2012 clinical case in which a 3-year old girl had an entire hemisphere, half her brain, removed in a risky procedure to deal with a life threatening issue. By age 7 the girl is not only normally functional but bilingual in Dutch and Turkish minus her left hemisphere. Take from this some measure of confidence that we are not hopelessly enslaved by the electrical realities of our brain and nervous system. Rather we have the potential to somehow mold what organic capacities we do have according to our willed vision and needs. Our consciousness can adapt our cognitive physical organs in fresh ways and pathways. We are, in other words, up to the task in terms of reversing the electrical force effect upon our thought lives!

(29)Next, we should temporarily embrace the electrical ‘folk’ metaphors for thinking and brain ‘wiring’ long enough to identify the following preliminary steps:
DISENTANGLING THOUGHTS
SORTING OUT
REPAIRING SHORT CIRCUITS
IDENTIFYING THE ‘GROUND’
CHARGING THE BATTERY

(30)DISENTANGLING and SORTING – We must aim to make a habit of not letting our thoughts run willy-nilly, become too ephemeral, or lull us into long segments of undirected thinking, which increases our passivity. When engaged in puzzling through some complex situation or a converation with multiple contending opinions, we need to sort out which thoughts belong where, and strive to order the concepts while discarding the embellishments. This is our initial homework, so to speak.

(Lest one opine that this entire endeavor is pie-in-the-sky stuff, notice here how perfectly in harmony with the ideals of scientific discipline these recommendations are. Especially within math reasoning, computer programming, research studying, and even legalistic analysis, it is vital and de rigeur to adhere to these ‘staying on track’ measures, and violators of this ideal will quickly be called out on it.)

(31)SHORT CIRCUITS – In thinking about aomething we have to become aware and sensitive to when some tangential thought, perhaps only tenuously related via some unconscious thread we would not easily recall, comes along and “short circuits” our direction. It is not easy; at first one begins by simply noticing it happened after the fact. When we find ourselves shutting down in a mental sequence we have to learn to catch it in realtime, to fix our short circuits. We might find situations or ideas which make us, perforce, lose our temper or focus or spin our wheels. Thes situations and ideas must be recognized.

(31)IDENTIFYING GROUNDING THOUGHTS – When we find our mental processes continually returning to a repeated thought, no matter what, moving towards and getting stuck on a specific concept of viewpoint — this is the French notion of an “idée fixe” which seems to persist against our volition. This is the beginning of dogmatism. Our flow is grounded.

(32)After having done this basic homework for a certain period and having achieved progress in clearly observing the fault lines within our own usual thinking, we come finally to the most important step. This is where we have enough ‘juice’ and will stamina within us to work upon reversing, or inverting the effects of the ambient electrical forces upon our thought life.

(33) Recalling the phenomena characteristics we identified above (item #12) about electricity as a force, we now set out to deliberately invert these tendencies within our thought life until we can assume our rightful human role as master of our own forces. The task here is to counteract each characteristic individually, one at a time. We will feel the enhanced mental energy and power as we progress. This constitutes the core, the lion’s share of the whole transformative work.
FAST ==> Chew on it; Deliberate more; Contemplate
LINEAR ==> Consciously own Systematic habit
DISINTEGRATING ==> Think in totalities; Synthesize from the Entirety
SEEKS GROUND ==> Avoid facile conclusion; Seek the wider Context; Hunt meaning
LEAST RESISTANCE ==> Not just operational, but Creative; Steepest pathway

(Much more could be said here, and Gopi does expand more in the slide show. Each one of these five remedial items deserves its own essay and contemplation. This is intensive inner work and the results can be enormous if pursued with vigor and persistency. A good exercise is to try and see how each one builds on the steps before it. Build, for example, a thought chain somewhat like this: Be wary of speed and grow the tendency to mull conclusions and ramifications over and check for unwarranted assumptions (–FAST–) , yet be efficient and guard against intruding tangential concepts by taking control of the direction of thought and policing this… things are still –LINEAR– but now you are the controller, the overseer, not the preset ‘wiring’ from A to B. To retain this oversight be sensitive to the context that the ideas flow within, keeping the total picture close at hand. It is a constructive activity, not a destructive –DISINTEGRATING– one. Streamlining is good but reductionism is not. Assuming the responsibility to hold all of this in mind naturally disdains oversimplifying to a false –GROUND–, instead there is an inclination to synthesize something new, to grasp for meaning or significance which was not obvious before. All these demands, once accepted, takes our thinking upon a steep ascent open to revelations as opposed to settling for the –LEAST RESISTANT– route. Such alive thinking is much more than calculating. It is pushing insights into a new sphere.)

(34)To accept this challenge everyday in our dealings with our dozens of electrical devices we are immersed in is to reverse the role of our thinking in the digital age from passive, yielding, consumer to active masterful agent. We use the forces of electricity against its own physical tendencies to our own conscious purposes and heal our thinking. In a way, we are uniquely given, at this moment in evolution, a direct in our face adversary in order to spur us on to evolve something new. But that something is firmly within us, not in our technologies. Never in history has this opportunity existed so prolifically and blatantly. This realization carries a consoling optimism.

Heal Magnetic Soul Disease Via Awake Feeling

(Gopi’s talk goes through the ‘Magnetism’ part of things more briefly. He admits upfront that working with feeling life is more difficult than working with thinking life. This is because we are less wide awake conscious in our feeling than our thoughts. Feelings have a larger subconscious aspect, and more of an iceberg quality about them. More is hidden and harder to penetrate and notice. Still, it is of value to to see how magnetism is more akin to an attack upon feeling life while electricity as a force aims at corrupting our thinking. Also there is the real possibility that first working through the healing of thinking as outlined above will build a new kind of inner strength and robustness which can then be helpful in setting out upon feeling work.)

(35)First, realize and take energy from the fact that a tremedous reservoir of strength is afforded, in potential, by our feelings. Surprising feats of resiliency, persistence, devotedness, and strength can be accomplished purely therough the momentum of feelings even in the absence of concrete know-how. Women understand this better than men, in general. There are many verified anecdotes of mothers lifting up the ends of automobiles, for example, long enough for their trapped child to get free from underneath — a physically impossible deed by rights of normal reckoning.

(36)We all hear of such miraculous stories on occasion but do not take the time to seriously consider them. What does it mean? It means that we all have a huge untapped capacity within our life of feeling to fuel great resolves and undertakings — a latent power we have not taken the time to develop.

(37)We begin by paying attention to how our feelings pull and push us around during the course of our days. The task is to notice how automatic these feelings are. Are they legitimately triggered in either a direction of attraction or repulsion by thought-out values we possess? Or like the workings of an inanimate magnet, do they operate without our consent? Form here, we then try to notice what things we repeatedly are getting stuck to or driven away from. In most cases, we can find that the instances of our sympathies and antipathies experienced in daily living all have space for a more objective assessment if we exert the will to bring ourself more into the equation rather than spectating within our entrenched habitual behaviors.

(38) As with electricity and thinking, we now recall the magnetism characteristics identified above (item #20) while looking at magnetic force phenomenologically. Then we see how to take charge and reverse these inanimate tendencies:
STICKY, BINDING ==> Pull away; make distance from the feeling to ‘see’ it
SURFACE CONTACT ONLY ==> Permeate, penetrate, look ‘inside’
AGGLOMERATING ==> Separate; Assert Independence
SEEKS ONLY OWN KIND ==> Open to other groups in sympathy; Seek Others
PATH of MOST ATTRACTION ==> Notice what is good, true, beautiful

(39)Filling out these exercises a bit: try to PULL AWAY when we are yanked into something attractive, but automatically. Pull away from the unwanted argumentation, the trip to the donut shop, the mindless browsing. On the opposite pole, cultivate the habit to PERMEATE beyond the surface about something we automatically dislike. Stand our ground against the inanimate proclivity to be repulsed long enough, calmly enough, to feel deeper into the situation. When noticing our unfeeling acquiescence to group behavior or opinion, it is time to stand our ground as a free agent who considers the emotional reality in an independent manner. Expanding on this effort, we teach ourselves to work against the ‘tribal’ nature of magnetic force in our feelings (SEEKS OWN KIND) by opening, heartwise, to groups quite alien to our usual routine or feeling circles. It is not a matter of joing another group or harmonizing with them, but instead practicing how to feel what it is they are feeling.

(Lastly, Gopi illustrated the final magnetism reversal exercise by describing an instructive legend drawn from Persian lore about the life of Christ: Jesus was walking with some disciples when the group of them came upon a dead dog’s carcass along the side of the path. The disciples immediately (automatically) turned away in repulsion and disgust. But Christ studied the animal and exclaimed to the group what beautiful teeth and bone structure the corpse’s ribs revealed. So, the moral question presented is the following. Are we able, when suddenly confronted by some repugnant thing, to harness our feelings with enough presence of heart to look for the tiny speck of a positive quality within the experience?)

Conclusion

(40)These commitments towards inward development undertaken freely by our own resolves will be seen to have broad positive spiritual effects. On ourselves and our ability to navigate mental and feeling life. If followed by sufficient numbers of persons, it will also go far to allow us to redeem the broken social climate we currently are constrained to operate in. By learning how to use the characteristics of electricity and magnetism with conscious understanding, we can redeem the corrupting nature of these forces in our inner beings, our souls, and step upwards not only into positivity but towards realms where higher evolution is seen as on offer. The oppositional adversity is there to awaken us.

_______RS

[ Image : from a web ad for a popular kid’s STEM educational Christmas toy on the theme of electricity and magnetics. ]

[ Note : I found Gopi’s talk really inspiring and stimulating, but I could hardly do it justice in outline form like this. So I recommend listening to his presentation yourself, during which many things are expressed more eloquently, or in greater detail, and illustrated with various slides. It lasts an hour and begins around the 4:36:00 mark. ]

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