Science and Spiritual Practices

We live in a strange world, and I envision a future where people will compare the present times to the Dark Ages.

But the deeper the night, the closer the dawn, they say. And I believe that too. How could I not, after reading Rupert Sheldrake's books?

Even though the scientific community, interestingly, doesn't seem to give Sheldrake due credit, it is indisputable that his method does indeed meet the tenets of science—along with being so fascinating and essential to would-be human beings like myself!
After reading The Presence of the Past and The Science Delusion, and watching many of his speeches on YouTube, I feel compelled to say that his teachings should be imparted in all educational institutions, from kindergarten to university. The world would be a much better place to be in, and our lives full of purpose.

What strikes me most from Science and Spiritual Practices is to learn how ironic it is that the scientific discoveries and the overall “progress” of the last few centuries, whose prominent actors have taken for granted that the spiritual plane is nothing but a fabrication of the human brain—whether done consciously or not—now seem to take us a step “back”, to admit that perhaps our ancestors, with their primitive beliefs and habits, were not that wrong after all.


If I could sum up this book in a sentence, it would be with the following recommendation:

“If you don't want to become a spiritual person because your materialist upbringing insists there's nothing but unconscious matter in this purposeless machine-like universe, then do it because scientific studies say it's good for your health.”


A few quotes from the book;

“As soon as we stop taking almost everything for granted, we begin to realise that we can be grateful for almost everything.”

“Materialism is not solely a philosophical theory. Below the surface, it is an unconscious cult of the Great Mother.”

“The ideology of progress is an all-pervasive, modern orthodoxy. But in traditional societies, there was no such ideology. The present repeated the past.”

“All traditions have sacred sounds that are repeated as meditations to rescue us from our exile in the delusion of past and future, from our endless loop of regrets and dreads and bring us back into the now.” ~Jill Purce.

“Atheism is a purifying fire. It burns up religious hypocrisy, corruption, laziness and pretension. But its scorched-earth policy can leave many people spiritually hungry, thirsty and isolated.”

“Militant atheism should come with a health warning.”