Unity

MYSTICS & SCIENTISTS 20
11th - 13th April 1997
The Scientific & Medical Network
Winchester, England

'The Spirit of Science and the Science of the Spirit'

Sunday Morning, 13th April, 9:15 - 10:15:

The Experience of Unity at the Origin of Religion, Philosophy, and Psychology, and at the Ultimate Horizon of Physics, Cosmology, and Consciousness

Kurt Dressler

Good Sunday morning! Before I attempt to talk on the experience of unity, I need to prepare my mood, and maybe yours, for such an undertaking. I shall do that by reading a passage from a book which for me ranks as a sort of a 'modern holy scripture.' The particular passage which I'm going to read has been called 'The Forgotten Song.' It is a text which speaks to the heart as well as to the intellect; I think it will speak to us as mystics and as scientists. At first hearing it appears to be just another poetic spiritual text, but closer examination will show us that it simultaneously is of significant psychological, philosophical, and even physical and astronomical relevance. I have chosen to read this text because of its relevance with respect to the title of this talk.

So I invite you now to close your eyes if you wish, or keep them open if the projected written text helps you to better understand my accent.
Listen now, and try to think if you remember what we will speak of now.
Listen, - perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten;
dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar,
like a song whose name is long forgotten,
and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered.
Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody,
attached not to a person or a place or anything particular.
But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song,
how wonderful the setting where you heard it,
and how you loved those who were there and listened with you.

The notes are nothing. Yet you have kept them with you,
not for themselves, but as a soft reminder of what would make you weep
if you remembered how dear it was to you.

You could remember, yet you are afraid,
believing you would lose the world you learned since then.
And yet you know that nothing in the world you learned
is half so dear as this.

Listen, and see if you remember an ancient song you knew so long ago
and held more dear than any melody you taught yourself to cherish since.

Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars,
past everything you see and yet somehow familiar,
is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look
into a great and shining circle.
And all the circle fills with light before your eyes.
The edges of the circle disappear,
and what is in it is no longer contained at all.
The light expands and covers everything,
extending to infinity forever shining
and with no break or limit anywhere.
Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity.
Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside,
for there is nowhere that this light is not.

This is the vision of the Child of God, whom you know well.
Here is the sight of him who knows his Creator.
Here is the memory of what you are; a part of this,
with all of it within, and joined to all as surely as all is joined in you.
Accept the vision that can show you this, and not the body.
You know the ancient song, and know it well.
Nothing will ever be as dear to you as is this ancient hymn of love
the Child of God sings to his Creator still.

What is a miracle but this remembering?
And who is there in whom this memory lies not?
The light in one awakens it in all.
And when you see it in your brother, you are remembering for everyone.ⁱ

I shall refer to the various parts of this so-called "Forgotten Song" as we go along. I have structured the talk into seven parts which correspond to seven aspects of the title:

The Title

1 The Experience of Unity

2 at the Origin of Religion,

3 of Philosophy,

4 of Psychology, and

5 at the Ultimate Horizon of Physics,

6 of Cosmology, and

7 of Consciousness

The Talk

1 The vision of interconnectedness
and the experience of mystical union

2 The union of Self with All, experienced as
union with God, at the origin of religion

3 The distinction between maya and truth
at the origin of philosophy

4 The psychological evolution
from unconscious to conscious unity

5 The idea of unity in physics
5.1 Physical reality is an unbroken whole
5.2 Unification of space, time, energies and forces

6 The concept of unity
at the ultimate cosmological horizon

7 The unification of physical reality
and consciousness

1 The vision of interconnectedness and the experience of mystical union
The "Forgotten Song" never fails to touch me emotionally as well as intellectually, intuitively as well as rationally. It always reminds me that there is no separation between self and other, between myself and what I call the world. 'Everything is joined in perfect continuity;' my body, my consciousness, the world: all are 'joined as surely as all is joined in me.' The all-encompassing interconnectedness which is formulated here is a well known characteristic of the experience of mystical union. In mystical union all multiplicity "returns to its origin, which is One without any duality, and which comprises the multiplicity." Entering into mystical union one "returns from multiplicity and separation into the original unity".ⁱⁱ  The experience is essentially indescribable because who experiences it has become a unity. "The consciousness of the One comes not by communicable knowledge, but by an actual Presence superior to any knowing".ⁱⁱⁱ

2 The union of Self with All as union with God at the origin of religion
The experience of mystical union is at the origin of religion because the vision of interconnectedness and the union of Self with All is most often recognised as union with God. Martin Buber has written that
"there is almost no mystic who would not interpret her or his experiencing the true undivided self as experiencing God. In mystical union man receives a revelation of freedom and of undifferentiated presence: the experience of self. But he doesn't dare to lay it on his own poor self, being unaware that it supports the world-self. So he lays in onto God. The soul who is given the grace of experiencing unity is no longer caught in the multitude of distracting perceptions of self and world, but she experiences the unity of self and world. Normally the soul seems to lay onto God the explanation of everything she cannot understand of the world. But after the experience of mystical union she lays onto God the explanation of what she can least understand in herself: the experience of unity. This now becomes God's highest gift".^iv

A friend of mine says that "the deepest reality of humanity is experienced in mystical union. It reveals, at the very deepest level, that we are divine, we are all brothers and sisters".^v "The experience of mystical union is a rare phenomenon, but it makes up the core of religious life. It is the only direct and absolutely irresistible experience of the Eternal and Infinite as such. It is at the source of the great religions and it is decisive in keeping mankind's religious legacy alive".^vi "The essence of religious thinking does not lie in entertaining a concept of God but in the ability to articulate a memory of moments of illumination by His presence".^vii

I now turn to the observation that the "Experience of Unity" is not only "at the Origin of Religion" but also "at the Origin of Philosophy:"

3 The distinction between maya and reality at the origin of philosophy
I claim that the concept of unity is the answer to the fundamental philosophic search for the origin, essence, and end of our puzzling existence in a multi¬faceted world.
Two and one half millenia ago the pre-socratic greek philosopher Parmenides has drawn radical philosophic consequences from his own mystical experience. He stated flatly that "philosophic truth is in stark contrast to the way we ordinarily perceive the world. For, firstly, conventional wisdom imagines that the single thing in its individuality bears true reality and significance, disregarding the Whole to which the single thing entirely owes its existence. And secondly, conventional wisdom imagines the world as a conflict between opposites, forgetting that in each conflict there is a Unity on whose ground alone the opposites can arise. True Being - unlike finite being - is not split into single things, but it is One. In It all in all is interconnected. It knows neither contradiction nor fight, but it manifests wholeness, inseparability, sameness with itself. It is characterized by neither corruptibility nor incessant shifting, rather it owns steadiness and eternity. The one asking about true being must not rely on perception of outer reality nor lock his vision to it, nor orient himself on what is transitory. Rather he must view the Eternal and Everlasting which is beyond all perceived reality and which in all of it is the only true reality".^viii

Herakleitos, a contemporary of Parmenides, is famous for his dark and hidden sayings which become intelligible only when seen on the background of the experience of mystical union. Listen to some of those sayings: "True nature of being likes to hide itself. Reality is paradoxical as its true inner reality hides as well as reveals itself. The world is a fragmented world, but this is not the ultimate truth. Rather the fragments are deeply related with each other. Through their divergent actions the parts are joined into an under¬lying oneness. In the dependence of the opposites on each other and in their mutual inter¬relation¬ship a deeper unity reveals itself. In reality the invisible but inherent harmony is more significant than the outwardly visible fragmentation. What tends apart reunites and out of the dissimilarity grows the most beautiful harmony. All is one. All becomes one and one in turn becomes all. All trans¬formations reveal the one; while changing - all remains. All is alive, expanding and folding back into one. This is the deeper reality in the fragmented world".8

Based on these statements by Parmenides and Herakleitos I say that at the origin of philosophy lies the conscious recognition of the distinction between everyday reality and true being. "An ancient song we knew so long ago and held more dear than any melody we taught ourselves to cherish since:" this is true being, as we have heard it formulated in the "Forgotten Song," while "the world we learned or taught ourselves since then" is the way we ordinarily perceive the world.

4 The psychological evolution from unconscious to conscious unity
My claim that "The Experience of Unity" also lies "at the Origin of Psychology" is based on the observation that our consciousness of self evolves from unconscious unity at birth to conscious unity in the fully evolved state of mature wisdom. In the beginning, when we are born and within the first few months of life, consciousness still rests in all-encompassing undifferentiated unity. But life cannot continue indefinitely in this state of ALL-ONENESS. Consciousness begins to differentiate between self and non-self. In this transition the development leads out of ALL-ONENESS into ALONE-NESS. Our exit out of our unconscious, undifferentiated unity in babyhood into the differentiating perception of a world full of polarities and conflicts corresponds to the expulsion out of Eden, out of paradise, in consequence of our tasting the fruit from the tree of knowledge, i.e., as a consequence of our differentiating mind. 'Paradise' symbolically represents the un¬differentiated unity consciousness of babyhood.

Human consciousness then develops along a series of stages characterised by successively wider horizons and increasingly sophisticated differentiation until, in late maturity, we consciously search and strive for an all-encompassing integration and UNITY. This has been practiced and testified by the great philo¬sophic and spiritual teachers of all ages and cultures. Quite often this conscious search for unity is triggered by an existential crisis which arises from the confrontation with the fragmentation and brokenness of the world. The sacrifice to be brought in this development is our own part in this brokenness, i.e., ourselves. When we are ready to lose ourselves we find ourselves - in All-Oneness. The horizon then is radically unlimited: It widens to encompass all of heaven and earth. The path of development towards this end corresponds to ongoing progress from fragmentation towards unity. This end may appear to be un¬attainable, but it bears significance for us as individuals as well as for mankind as a whole in our search for meaning and orientation, as well as in any non-trivial, genuine integration of philosophy, psychology, and religion.^ix

We remember that the "Forgotten Song" reminds us of our almost forgotten state of unity at birth when it says:

"Listen, - perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten;
dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar,
like a song whose name is long forgotten,
and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered.
Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody,
attached not to a person or a place or anything particular.
But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song,
how wonderful the setting where you heard it, ..."

I understand this text as an expression of the experience of unity at the origin of our consciousness, an experience we all have shared but which we have forgotten. And what is the experience of mystical union if not a blessed moment of return into this eternal, timeless state of unbroken wholeness, interconnectedness, and unity?

5 The idea of unity in physics
We note, with some puzzlement, that not only the horizon of our consciousness, but also the horizon of physics and cosmology wants to converge onto a state of unity. What do scientists mean by that, and do these parallel develop¬ments in physics and in psychology point to deeper, hidden, meaningful inter¬connections between physical and mental reality? Let us postpone these questions until we have looked at what is meant by appeals to the idea of unity in physics and cosmology.
Let us begin with a few words about the holistic nature of physical reality:

5.1 Physical reality is an unbroken whole
What do we know about the true essence of reality? To our normal wakeful conscious¬ness reality shows itself
-   as a continuously changing dynamic NOW, represented by the rich coexistence of a multitude of seemingly isolated objects, and
-   indirectly - via our memory - as a NOW which seems to have been preceded by what we call the PAST.
The signals of our physical measuring instruments are also interpreted by us in that same state of consciousness. Thus physics describes the now, and cosmology describes the 'past' - if possible all the way back to an absolute origin in which all description comes to an end.
But now we realise of course that our normal state of consciousness is but a small cut out of much vaster possibilities of human consciousness. And physical reality is but a small cut out of much more encompassing aspects of the whole of reality. The whole of reality has a timeless and non-local quality which reveals itself in mystical union but not in our normal state of consciousness. Quantum theory describes the world as an unbroken whole which does not consist of parts. Our consciousness can analyse and cut the world, and it can do this in many different ways, e.g., into separate objects, into self and non-self, into spirit and matter, force and substance, space and time. Our consciousness can cut the cosmic event of quasi simultaneous genesis, evolution, and existence of the universe into a sequence of apparently separate moments, spread out along a coordinate called 'time': the dis¬entanglement of an essential, true, and unbroken whole, or oneness, or unity. To our mind reality appears to consist of individual objects. But a "scientifically complete physical theory [of isolated objects] is the (temporary) product of (philosophically) completely self-satisfied physicists".^x

5.2 The unification of space, time, energies and forces in physics
The underlying unity of physical reality reveals itself not only in this holistic quality of quantum physics, but also in what is called the unification of forces, of matter and energy, space and time.
The process of unification in physics reduces complexity. Each physical theory describes a wealth of phenomena on the basis of some unifying general principle, e.g., a law of force, or a principle of symmetry. Think, e.g., of Newton's principle of gravity: it permits a unified view of celestial mechanics and terrestrial mechanics; it unifies Kepler's laws of planetary motions and Galilei's laws of falling bodies into one common concept: the law of gravitation. Or think of Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism: It unites the totality of all electrical and magnetic phenomena into one unified concept. Or think of Einstein's special theory of relativity: It unites the concepts of space and time into a unified space-time, and it unites matter and energy. And take Einstein's general theory of relativity: It unites the space-time and the matter-energy density of special relativity into an inseparable space-time-energy continuum. In all of these steps of unifications two phenomena or two frames of perception that first appear to be of fundamentally different nature become one: When the two are regarded within the horizon of the underlying but initially hidden unity, then the unity reveals itself as soon as the appropriate mathematical and symbolic tools and view¬points are discovered.

Along this path the entire complexity and wealth of forms in the material world has been reduced to the principles of gravity, of electro¬magnetism, and of the so-called weak and strong forces which govern the structures and reactions of atomic nuclei. But why should there be four fundamentally different types of forces? Why not one single root out of which the diversity of forces develops? This question lies at the core of most monumental experi¬mental and theoretical efforts in physics and astronomy during recent decades.

It has been found that unifying views can be discovered when matter and forces are investigated at ever higher densities and temperatures. Types of matter and of forces, which under normal conditions have quite distinctly different characteristics, approach each other at increasing temperatures and densities. The highest technically realizable densities and temperatures are generated in collisions between elementary particles, e.g. in the high-energy accelerators at CERN near Geneva and at Fermilab near Chicago. In these experiments it is found that the properties and strengths of the forces of electromagnetism and of the nuclear forces clearly tend towards unification with increasing densities and temperatures.

On the basis of the tendencies towards unification observed up to this time we may expect that under most extreme conditions, which cannot be realized in any laboratories, we may envision an all-encompassing unity in such an absolute sense that all distinctions - between force fields and energy fields with their material manifestations, and between these and space-time - vanish.

The present situation in unification physics and cosmology can be envisioned as follows: We find ourselves in the crown of a tree, within foliage, blossoms, singing birds and humming insects. Looking from our position in the crown further into the tree we clearly see the leaves and blossom bearing twigs uniting into thin branches which then merge into thicker ones. Looking even further into the tree we see that all branches of the entire crown are supported by four thick principal branches. Following these further inward we notice that first two of these merge into one which, still farther in, seems to merge with yet another one. The farther we try to peek into the tree the more fragmentary becomes our view. We believe we see short lengths of just two or three thick branches. Sharply focussing on the angles of those branches we notice that they all seem to merge into one common origin. The boldest ones among us firmly believe that ultimately all branches merge into one single trunk. That would be the most satisfactory overall picture. The trunk itself we cannot see. But wouldn't the crown of the tree make more sense if there was one branch-bearing trunk?

The four principal branches are the four force fields of electromagnetism, weak and strong nuclear forces, and gravity. Electromagnetism and the weak force have been observed to merge, at high energy densities, into the so-called electro-weak force which, in turn, seems to merge, at still higher energies, with the strong force into the so-called interaction of grand unification. Attempts to merge this latter one with gravity are jokingly called 'theory of every¬thing': The unity aspect of physical reality motivates the search for unification of the so-called Fermion, Boson, and Higgs fields with each other as well as with space and time in high energy physics and at the ultimate so-called 'Planck' horizon of cosmology. The concept of an all-encompassing unity of all physical reality cannot be examined in environments that are achievable on earth, but it plays the role of an absolute horizon in the application of physics to cosmology.

6 The concept of unity at the ultimate cosmological horizon
In cosmology the concept of unity corresponds to a world view according to which the whole rich diversity perceived by us in the present state of the world has evolved out of an original state of un¬differentiated unity. This powerful and attractive idea implies the breaking of an initial perfect symmetry, and the disenfolding of diversity out of a beginning under conditions of most extreme energy density and temperature. Many astronomical observations, when considered on the basis of known physics and astrophysics, strongly suggest this scenario of evolution of the present universe out of a dense and hot original state which seems to have occurred approximately 15 billion years ago. In this scenario the universe today appears to us as a huge transparent sphere of finite size with a radius of 15 billion light years, containing billions of stars in billions of galaxies. At the distance of 15 billion light years we seem to be completely and uniformly surrounded in all directions by the surface of a hot and ionised gaseous spherical shell, a brilliantly shining opaque mist which acts as a boundary to the transparent part of the universe, thus representing our horizon of visibility. We cannot look farther because we cannot look into this opaque mist. It represents the edge of the transparent part of the universe. It surrounds us completely and uniformly in all directions. It is our horizon of the visible universe and, as an archaic mist, it shows us a young stage in the evolution of the cosmos, when it had an age of some hundred thousand years.

The scientific rationale behind this worldview stems from the following observation: When we look at cosmic objects at distances of, let's say, billions of light years, their light has been travelling to us for billions of years. The farther we look, the farther back into the past we see. Thus it comes that at distances of approximately 15 billion light years we reach back into a time when neither stars nor galaxies had been formed yet. Behind the farthest stars and galaxies and quasars we see the universe in a very young state in which neither stars nor galaxies nor dense bodies of any kind had yet accreted. No, in that young state, when the universe was merely a few hundred thousand years old and had cooled from almost infinite temperature down to a few thousand degrees, the heavens were aglow in almost perfectly uniform and pure golden light, pervaded by a gas of ionised hydrogen that formed a hot, brilliantly shining, opaque mist.

Let us imagine the sight that this scene would have offered, had we been there to observe. We would have been immerged into that brilliantly shining but totally opaque golden mist. Then a dramatic spectacle would have presented itself to us. As the temperature dropped, along with the general expansion of the universe, the opaque ionised hydrogen gas of protons and electrons became a transparent gas of neutral hydrogen atoms. The mist became transparent everywhere. After one second we would have been at the centre of a transparent sphere of radius 300'000 km, after one year at the centre of a transparent sphere of radius one light year. Because, when the mist disappears everywhere simultaneously, then the light first must reach us to show us that transparency has occurred at other places too.

Therefore, the spectacle consists of this brilliantly shining golden mist seemingly racing away from us with the speed of light, leaving us in a rapidly growing transparent sphere, bounded by a seemingly still opaque spherical shell that recedes with the velocity of light. After one million years that brightly shining but opaque horizon would have been seen at a distance of one million light years. Today, approximately 15 billion years later, it surrounds us at a distance of 15 billion light years.
At this point I would like to read once more the central passage out of the "Forgotten Song":

When I showed this text to a young Californian astrophysicist recently he was so moved and impressed that he went straight out into the nearest book store to pick up the Course in Miracles,ⁱ the book which contains the "Forgotten Song." And that is exactly what I had done three years ago, after I had heard that text read to me for the first time: I immediately knew that I must get a hold of that book. And that is the reason why I just had to read it to you this morning.

But to those of you who are not astrophysicists I owe further explanations. Why can't we see this great and shining light which covers everything? The reason is that we are living in a huge and rapidly expanding universe. Because of the continuous general expansion of the universe the light from extreme distances is Doppler-shifted out of the visible range. If this were not so, if the universe were not expanding, and this archaic light were not shifted out of the visible range and out of the range of heat radiation, we would be totally surrounded by a sky background as bright and hot as the sun. It would keep everything everywhere at a temperature of several thousand degrees, preventing any possibility of condensation of water and of evolution of life. This was the situation for the first several hundred million years, or so, in the life of the universe.

As the range of visibility expanded farther and farther, with the speed of light, the brilliant horizon receded to distances where, in the expanding and huge universe, the expansion velocity of the ionised gas itself approached the velocity of light. Therefore, the brilliant golden light became shifted from the visible into the infrared and beyond. Today, at the age of the universe of approximately 15 billion years, the horizon has raced to a distance where the expansion velocity of the hot opaque mist at the horizon is only by about one millionth smaller than the velocity of light itself. Einstein's special relativity becomes a dominant feature in this situation. A relativistic dilation of wave lengths and oscillation periods by a factor of one thousand makes the golden glow, which is characterized by a temperature of three thousand degree Kelvin, appear to us as three-degree-Kelvin cosmic background radiation. The light and heat radiation fades away into the frequency range of microwaves. For this reason the night sky is black, and for this reason the radiation temperature of interstellar space is low enough to allow the formation of all sorts of molecules.

Hidden behind this hot curtain we may imagine an absolute horizon where the so-called curvature of space and time becomes so extreme that everything is merged into the one original, primary, primitive "unity."

The original state of unbroken unity, although hidden from our direct view, is to be thought of as an absolute horizon surrounding us in all directions in the farthest limit of the cosmos and in the beginning of time. At this invisible unity horizon all distinctions between space and time and matter and force come to an absolute end. There is no possibility of penetration through this horizon, neither in space nor in time: Our universe has neither a spatial nor a temporal 'beyond'. Whoever insists in mentally penetrating the unity horizon and 'looking' beyond always stays within our own universe. The unity horizon, at which all description comes to an end, cannot be penetrated. There is no physical sense in trying to think of a beyond. If we insist, in spite of that, to cling to time-bound thinking we can only say 'in the beginning there was unity', and there is no time beyond that.

The concepts of 'time' and of 'beginning', however, describe frames of our perception, conditioned by the limited abilities of our normal state of consciousness. That state, as we know, is only a small cut out of vastly more extensive possibilities of consciousness. Physics research approaching the state of ultimate unification touches on consciousness research, because consciousness is part of the whole of reality which any theory of everything would have to cover.

7 The unification of physical reality and consciousness
The experience of unity lies at the origin of consciousness research, of religion, of philosophy, of psychology: Today we note with puzzlement that the horizon of physics and cosmology, too, wants to converge onto unity.

Do these parallel developments point to deeper, hidden, meaningful inter¬connections? Does all this touch on the problem of unification between the realms of the rational and conscious with the realms of the spiritual and hidden?

In my own personal experience the unity of physical reality and consciousness reveals itself not in equations nor in a theory but in a way of thinking and living. There is no need to unify mind and matter. Because they are a unity already. The sooner I realize this, and the sooner I adjust my way of thinking and living to this insight, where-ever I believe I have encountered a conflict, the sooner I experience the healing power of this way of thinking. I used to believe that I am responsible for my way of living, for what I do, for my actions, but not for what I think. But the truth is that we are responsible for our thoughts, because our actions flow out of what we think.

One final remark: Do not conclude that I have ever had an experience of mystical union myself. I have a friend who has had one once.⁵ To him it suffices for his whole life to remember and meditate that one experience. To me it suffices to know about it.

There is something that accompanies the experience of unity that is at least equally important: that is the experience of purification of the heart; that is the experience of total and unconditional forgiveness.

There is no genuine unity without purification of the heart and unconditional forgiveness.⁵ This leads to "a vivid and overwhelming certainty that the universe, precisely as it is at this moment, as a whole and in every one of its parts, is so completely right as to need no explanation or justification beyond what it simply is".^xi

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.^xii

When your eye is single, your whole body indeed is light,
but if it is divided, your body is darkness.
Now if your whole body is light, having no part dark,
the whole is full of light
as when the bright shining of a candle fully enlightens all of you.^xiii

Some people meditate every day but make no real inner progress. The experience of unity is just the beginning of the life of the mystic. Thank you for forgiving me for having said that.

* * * * *

i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.

x.

xi.
xii.
xiii.

A Course in Miracles 1975, Foundation for Inner Peace (Glen Ellen).
Abulafia, in Sholem, G. 1962: Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, (NY), quoted from Wolpert 1996 (Ref. 5).
Plotinus, quoted from Wolpert 1996 (Ref. 5).
Buber, M. 1909: Ekstatische Konfessionen, (1984: 5th Ed., Schneider, Heidelberg).
Wolpert, A., 1996: A Meditation on Mystical Union Using System Dynamics, Arlen Wolpert, 411 Franklin St. #1008, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; awolpert@world.std.com; http://world.std.com/~awolpert .
Kolakowski, L. 1982: Religion, Fontana (Glasgow), quoted from Wolpert 1996 (Ref. 5).
Heschel, A. 1955: God in Search of Man, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy (NY), quoted from Wolpert 1996 (Ref. 5).
Weischedel, W. 1975: Die philosophische Hintertreppe / 34 grosse Philosophen in Alltag und Denken, dtv (Munich).
These remarks are based on: Staindl-Rast, D. 1985, Science and Religion, lecture, Cortona Week of ETH Zurich on Science and the Whole of Life; cf. also: Fowler, J. W. 1981: Stages of Faith, Harper & Row (NY).
Kyprianidis, A. & Vigier, J.P. 1988: 'Quantum Action-at-a-Distance: The Mystery of
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Correlations', Quantum Mechanics Versus Local Realism,
The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox, Plenum (NY).
Bucke, R. M. 1901: Cosmic Consciousness, Innes (Philadelphia).
Matthew 5:8.
Luke 11:34-36.