Dr. John Hagelin on the Physics of Consciousness at the Majestic Theater

the president of the David Lynch foundation most of you heard this but some of you came in late so I'd like to quickly reintroduce him is dr. John Hagelin a world-renowned quantum physicist educator author and science and public policy expert dr. Hegel and has conducted pioneering research at the European Centre for particle physics and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and is responsible for the development of a highly successful grand unified field theory based on the superstring his scientific contributions in the fields of electroweak unification grand unification supersymmetry and cosmology includes some of the most cited references in the physical sciences dr. Hagan received his doctorate from Harvard University he is currently director of the institute of science technology and public policy and professor of physics at Maharshi University of Management and he is establishing a much needed University of World Peace in Washington DC would you please welcome dr. John Hagelin thank you very much I normally am not afraid of public speaking but following David Lynch is a different experience he's got this million dollar coiffure which makes some of us feel a little follically challenged and what's underneath the coiffure is so incredible such an artist and so articulate in describing in such a poetic but lucid way these deep experiences of inner consciousness that it's not really much for me to say except perhaps to shed some scientific light on what this experience is which I'll try to do really the experience of unity beneath life's surface diversity is an age-old experience and understanding of every major tradition of knowledge on earth every major spiritual tradition on earth in the last 25 years particularly in the last 10 modern science through its own systematic means of gaining knowledge has probed deep into the structure of physical reality and also confirmed a fundamental unity at the basis of life's surface diversity the conclusion of all this centuries of research simply is the universe is superficially complex but fundamentally simple the universe is superficially diverse but fundamentally unified and the understanding is that if we scratch deeply enough beneath the surface beneath the cellular molecular atomic nuclear sub nuclear quarks and leptons electroweak unified grand unified and super unified scale millions upon millions of times more fundamental than the atomic nucleus we ultimately do arrive at a field of indivisible wholeness or unity a unified Fountainhead of all the diverse laws of nature that upholds the universe at every level all the particles that fill the universe and comprise our bodies all the forces make the particles move all the particles and forces the entire universe is understood today as various vibrational modes vibrational states of a universal field of existence field of unity field of infinite energy density infinite dynamism this Universal source of the laws of nature the source of all order displayed throughout the universe is the origin of universes and percolates universes like ginger-ale percolates effervescent bubbles most of these universes are duds but some of them undergo exponential inflation and expansion and are populated by galaxies and stars and presumably people we are the occupants of one such universe so it is a huge reality this ocean of existence the field of unity at the basis of life's diversity now the comprehension of this unity turns out is not the sole province of theoretical physicists with their impressive empirical and theoretical means mathematical means but it is an age-old experience of life and a prized experience in every major tradition on earth today this experience of pure consciousness or unbounded awareness that the source of thought has become a major study of modern scientific research in the fields of physiology and psychology this experience of unity within turns out to be a fourth major state of consciousness distinct from waking dreaming or sleeping it has its own subjective reality we've heard about that in its own objective reality for one thing the body gains a state of rest several times deeper than sleep the breath is barely moving because the mind is completely still but the brain itself is transformed markedly particularly in the direction of what's called global EEG coherence we're going to incredible demonstration of this live a very brave student is going to come up and meditate for us for a couple of minutes wired to a brain encephalo gram and we're going to see underneath the hood and find out what's going on inside the meditating brains fascinating but the hallmark of that brain transformation is one of coherence now you know how the brain encephalo gram works different leads measuring electrical activity at different points on the scalp the frontal and occipital lobes left and right hemispheres I don't know if any of you've ever seen your own brain and cephalo gram your own EEG it's depressing all the different areas of the mind and personality seemed to be completely uncoordinated it's very much mathematically like an orchestra prior to the emergence of the conductor and all the musicians are warming up their instruments sawing back and forth creating a discordant cacophony of sound that's what the brain looks like as you'll see in a moment suddenly the conductor comes raises the baton and this cacophony turns into flowing music it is an extremely striking feature signature of the meditating mind a so-called meditating state or spiritual experience or holistic experience or up machay tainha self-consciousness or whatever it may be called in different traditions now as an educator let me just quickly say that this already constitutes an educational discovery of the foremost magnitude and the reason it is is because orderly brain functioning correlates with rising IQ intelligence increased creativity improved memory and learning ability academic performance moral reasoning psychological stability emotional maturity alertness reaction time everything good about the brain depends on its orderly functioning and now orderliness of brain functioning can be systematically developed in students of any age just by exposing human awareness to the source of thought the state of unbounded awareness within and that a complete transformation of what has been the common understanding of human potential which has been bleak the story has been that at age 16 or 17 we've peaked from there on intelligence begins a slow and steady decline gray matter starts to shrink quickly now when you get to be my age we explain we say that well we make up for that through our experience and our wisdom and maturity it's still a bleak view of you in potential and wrong the human brain as we'll see in a moment is so plastic so malleable continuously forging new connections it has the capability of developing in intelligence and creativity and self-esteem and inner strength and bliss throughout life so it's really remarkable what happens when you take something like meditation and put it into education and watch the students of any age grow in intelligence brightness alertness performance happiness for this reason alone I think this is the missing element in education but I want to put this experience in a different context this field of pure consciousness is not foreign from any of us we may not experience it directly but it is our own subjectivity it is our consciousness left alone finally for a moment to experience its own nature what I mean by that is the problem with waking consciousness where we live our lives is that the structure of waking experience is always a process of awareness of something some little thing in contrast to the nature of the knower which is cosmic universal unbounded creativity bliss but the consciousness is forsaken in a sense sacrificed for the objects of experience in the moment you get up in the morning you hear the alarm you realize you're late for school late for class it's one experience after another at the expense of the experiencer so although this experience of consciousness is intimately familiar on one sense it's really never or rarely experienced on another sense and that consciousness is the one thing in our life that never changes it's the one thing that's been there since infancy that has never changed and allows us to believe correctly that we're the same person today ultimately than we were even though our bodies have changed for the worse our friends have changed our environments have changed our beliefs have changed our professions have change our spouses of change or whatever everything changes but that and that unfortunately is the most fundamental of experiences and tragically missed that's what meditation is for that's why it has been treasured throughout the ages even though today in the world I think meditation is misunderstood a lot and many of the techniques just aren't that effective and actually reaching that goal so the experience of the self is sometimes called self realization liberation enlightenment because it is so huge and fundamentally contented that it's a sacrifice to lose it for the sake of spinach or okra or mashed potatoes or whatever it is we're eating at the moment that really becomes our experience of life get it back now the problem and the solution are pretty simple education focuses human comprehension very sharply very skillfully we come very proficient at doing whatever it is we specialize in doing by the time you become a master student you realize you're starting to learn more and more about less and less at the doctoral level you've become the world's greatest expert in nothing my doctoral thesis was called weak mass mixing CP violation in the decay of beat quark maisons how many have read it almost everybody it's it's a wonderful thing it's the specialization is not the evil it's the lack of a few moments and a little bit of training to allow the attention to withdraw from those narrow confines of perception to begin to reacquaint itself with its own nature to expand and expand until comprehension becomes suddenly unbounded and then you become familiar with the Eternity the non-changing invincible core of yourself which brings great strength great creativity as David said really more eloquently than anyone

Channel: David Lynch Foundation

Views: 53,177

Keywords: Dr John Hagelin, David Lynch, Bob Roth, David Lynch Foundation (Organization), super string theory, quantum physics, unified field, electroweak unification, grand unification, supersymmetry, Cosmology (Field Of Study), transcendental meditation, meditation, TM, stress, health, healing, wellness, science, Consciousness (Quotation Subject), Physics (Field Of Study)

Id: LqdPZs254xA

Length: 12min 49sec (769 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 19 2014