The Inductive Method of Science
Science
adopts the Aristotelian, inductive method to move from the particular to the
general, rather like assembling individual pieces of a jigsaw puzzle: discrete
observational data are collected and gradually fitted into a general picture,
the latter being a mental representational model of the physical effects
observed. The mind process is
predominantly intellectual, applied in a linear mode. The instruments of investigation are limited
to, and conditioned by, the five physical senses and their extensions, as
telescopes and microscopes, etc. The
result is a precise description of the appearances, behaviour and physical
mechanisms of the Universe—Nature in her manifold appearances. The prevailing
scientific paradigm of materialism has many unsupported and unsubstantiated
assumptions. Physical or mathematical modelling are central features of the
scientific method of inquiry. This means that science itself is not about truth
or knowledge, per se—rather an interpretation of the physical world.
The Deductive Approach of
Occult Science
By
contrast, Occult Science works in the Platonic tradition of moving from the
general to the particular within the Ring Pass-Not (i.e. limiting boundaries of
evolutionary growth) of every world system: the overall, grand picture is first
realized in its essential nature, and the way this presents itself as
particular effects then expounded. The
mind process is essentially ‘lateral thinking’ and intuitive, applied in an
all-inclusive mode. The instruments of
investigation are not limited to the physical senses. This gives profound insights into the origin,
essential nature and manifestation of Nature in her true self.
CONFLUENCE BETWEEN
SCIENCE
Why Many Scientists Are
Also Embracing Mysticism
These days
we find increasing numbers of scientists turning towards mysticism as a
complement to the rational scientific method. A review of the world-wide
Directory of Members of The Scientific and Medical Network will indicate this
fact. Furthermore, teachers and students at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology have formed an alchemical society and regularly study The Secret
Doctrine. During Millikan’s tenure at Cal Tech, a copy of The Secret Doctrine
lodged in the library was so much in demand that one had to put one’s name on a
long waiting list. This work is also discussed periodically at the Harvard Club
in
Why then, such an upsurge in
interest in mysticism and occult science? We explained above that in
investigating something by the scientific method, we can describe its
appearance, behaviour and characteristics by standing apart from it (the
discoveries from quantum physics notwithstanding). But by the occult approach
in order to understand its inner nature, we have literally to become the very
thing we wish to investigate—or at least to participate in it. This is why the occult system always operates
from within to without, and prefers to investigate Nature by participating with
her processes, rather than interrogating her outward behaviour.
It is by virtue of such interior
insights that Blavatsky was able to make prophetic remarks in The Secret
Doctrine about future developments in natural science, for example:
The wave motion
of living particles becomes comprehensible on the theory of a spiritual
The above statement displays
foreknowledge about three facts that are now commonly accepted by science,
namely: (a) the energy within the atom; (b) the wave-like nature of particles,
and the particle-like nature of waves; and (c) the vitality and ‘consciousness’
of particles. Blavatsky was in all probability the first person to use the
terms ‘atomic energy’ and the ‘wave motion of living particles’, which science
has discovered for itself, using its own methods of investigation.
In the field of life sciences, we
find similar portentous statements, such as:
It is not
against zoological and anthropological discoveries, based on the fossils of man
and animal, that every mystic and believer in a divine soul inwardly revolts,
but only against the uncalled-for conclusions built on preconceived theories
and made to fit in with certain prejudices.
Driven inexorably by the pressure of
their own discoveries, and increasingly inconsistent theories to account for
them, scientists are slowly awakening to the truth of Blavatsky’s assertion.
This will soon become apparent.
Hence in view of the foregoing, it
is not surprising that the greatest scientists, past and present, have realized
the limits of the process of scientific inquiry and sensed the need for more
intuitive approaches.
Edi
is Director of the Theoversity Project.
Edi has had his written work published extensively in the fields of science,
theosophy and occultism. His work is on Religion and
Spiritualities. He is the author of Mirages
in Western Science Resolved by Occult
Science and The Snake
and the Rope showing how current problems in Western science in the
broad fields of cosmology, life sciences, consciousness and the theory of
matter can be resolved through an understanding of the esoteric sciences.