In the world of modern science, consciousness is reduced to a fading epiphenomenon, left over after the brain has been physically explained. It seems to arise when matter is suitably organized, but scientists and philosophers have been unable to explain why complex organization should produce anything beyond complex physical behavior. Yet consciousness won't go away. One possibility is that, instead of being produced by matter, consciousness is a separate element, added to physical systems. This can be modeled using the idea of a virtual reality, in which a human subject enters a computer-simulated world through a sensory interface. In this book, virtual reality is used as a metaphor for our situation as conscious beings. The basic theme is that what we can imagine doing in a virtual reality system may actually be happening in nature on a vastly greater scale. Nature may be like a computer simulation interfaced with conscious observer/participants. This groundbreaking book shows how conscious beings could interact with a physically realistic virtual world. It shows how paranormal phenomena can be reconciled in a natural way with the laws of physics, and it sheds light on paradoxes of time, on life beyond the body, and on cosmic and terrestrial evolution. In a sweeping synthesis, the ideas and data of modern science are used to illuminate the ancient theme of consciousness in a world of illusion.

Maya: The World as Virtual Reality

Science & Math

Thompson, Richard L.

History & Philosophy

Institute for Vaishnava Studies

In the world of modern science, traditional religion is often seen as a force of ignorance which attempts to impose outdated ideas on scientific truth. At the same time, many scientists see science giving rise to a materialistic doctrine of scientism that aims to eradicate the spiritual world view of religion. This may seem to be an irreconcilable conflict. But there is another way to look at it. Science and religion can interact synergistically to generate new and interesting ideas. God & Science is a collection of essays that examine the relationship between modern science and the Vaishnava tradition of India. Although little known in the West, the Vaishnava tradition is based on a monotheistic philosophy having much in common with Judeo-Christian thought. When brought into contact with modern science, Vaishnavism generates some of the same questions that arise from the confrontation of science and Christianity. At the same time, there are significant differences. These essays contain a smorgasbord of novel insights that provide new perspectives on the relation between science and religion.

God & Science

Religion & Spirituality

Hinduism

From the flat earth to the sun’s chariot — traditional spiritual texts seem wedded to outmoded cosmologies that show, at best, the scientific limitations of their authors. The Bhagavata Purana, one of the classical scriptures of Hinduism, seems, at first glance, to be no exception. However, a closer examination of this text reveals unexpected depths of knowledge in ancient cosmology. Mysteries of the Sacred Universe shows that the cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana is a sophisticated system, with multiple levels of meaning that encode at least four different astronomical, geographical, and spiritual world models. By viewing the text in the light of modern astronomy, Richard Thompson shows how ancient scientists expressed exact knowledge in apparently mythological terms. Comparison with the ancient traditions of Egypt and the Near East shows early cultural connections between India and these regions — including a surprisingly advanced science. However, quantitative science is only part of the picture. Mysteries of the Sacred Universe also offers a clear understanding of how the spiritual dimension was integrated into ancient Indian cosmology.

Mysteries of the Sacred Universe

History

Asia

For decades, researchers have exhaustively documented modern UFO phenomena, but questions remain about the origins of these strange objects and the intentions of the beings associated with them. In Parallels, Richard L. Thompson shows that answers may lie in the records of ancient civilizations claiming thousands of years of contact with races appearing to have an unearthly origin. Startling parallels between modern UFO accounts and events described in the ancient Sanskrit writings of India offer fresh insight into the nature of exotic incidents reported throughout human history. PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This book was originally published as Alien Identities: Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Phenomena. The new title, Parallels, was the author’s original choice.

Parallels: Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Phenomena

The mysteries of the Fifth Canto of the Srimad- Bhagavatam have long puzzled students of Vedic cosmography and astronomy. Confronted with a description of the universe that seems much at variance with the information provided by our senses and standard astronomical calculations, foreign observers—and even Indian commentators—from the Middle Ages up to the present have concluded that the Bhagavatam's account, elaborated in other Puranas, must be mythological. On the other hand, the same persons have been much impressed with Vedic astronomical treatises, the jyotisa-sastras, which provide remarkably accurate measurements of the solar system. In Vedic Cosmography and Astromomy, Dr. Thompson shows that the Fifth Canto's cosmography and the accounts of the solar system found in the jyotisa- sastras are not contradictory, but that they in fact represent distinct yet mutually consistent ways of comprehending a universe with important features beyond the range of ordinary sense perception. solar system found in the jyotisa-sastras are not contradictory, but that they in fact represent distinct yet mutually consistent ways of comprehending a universe with important features beyond the range of ordinary sense perception.

Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy

Religious Studies

This work makes a sober, thorough, carefully reasoned, and well-documented case that the prevailing theories of physics and biology have grave shortcomings which can be traced to their reliance on an underlying mechanistic framework. Dr. Thompson shows how physics is incapable of dealing with the phenomenon of consciousness and how biology is unable to account for the existence of complex living forms. Arguing that valid scientific theory does not have to be mechanistic, Dr. Thompson outlines a nonmechanistic science that would complement mechanistic science and round out the human quest for understanding. Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science may well set the stage for the next revolution in scientific thinking.

Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science: An Investigation into the Nature of Consciousness and Form

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