GLOSSARY

Algorithm
A step-by-step procedure, bound by rules of mathematical logic which takes input and gives an answer.

Anima/ Animus, archetype of
The anima is the archetypal woman in man- the possibility waves in male minds that correspond to the female but are suppressed because the man’s genetic and environmental conditioning may find their expression inappropriate. The animus similarly is the suppressed male possibilities in women. Men need to integrate the anima because the anima in men also represents the quality of receptivity, an essential quality for creativity. Similarly, women need to integrate their animus because it enhances willpower which is necessary for creative process.

Anthropic Principle
First version also called weak version by Barrow and Tripler: The Anthropic principle states that all physical quantities (which include the cosmological) take on the values so that carbon-based life can evolve at some place in the universe. By this requirement the universe already has done so.

The second version or the strong version by Barrow and Tripler: The universe must have those properties which allow life to develop within it at some stage in its history. Third version by Wheeler: Observers are necessary to bring the universe into being.

Asana
An asana (Sanskrit for posture) is a position of the body or attitude that tunes our system in correlation with very precise macroscopic energies. In other words, an asana is a “resonating energetic” configuration that we create by arranging the body- and implicitly positioning the energetic structure- in a specific position. In this way, the asana becomes an expression of our aspiration to merge by nonlocal correlation into the energetic ambiance, specifically with the quality of the energies that the asana is in resonance with.
When practicing the asana, the bodily posture is firmly maintained, but without tension. The attention is entirely focused to perceive the phenomena of correlation with the specific universal energies. In the same way, with the mind is focused upon only one object of perception, the asana maintains the body still and the attention is firmly focused upon only one vital state of association.

Classical Mechanics
The system of Physics based on the Newton’s Laws of Motion and the laws of Electrodynamics discovered by Maxwell, Faraday and others. These are only valid for macro-objects and are approximately valid.

Conservation Laws
In any physical process the following conservation laws always hold:

1. Conservation of energy: If we consider a closed system, the quantity Σ (moc2 + E) always remains constant. Where Σ moc2 is the total rest mass energy of the system, and Σ E is the total energy of all other kinds.
Σ ( moc2+ E ) = constant

2. Conservation of linear momentum: When the resultant external force on a system is zero, the total vector momentum remains constant.
P = constant, when F external = 0

3. Conservation of angular momentum: When the resultant external torque on a system is zero, the total angular momentum is constant.
L = constant, when t external = 0

4. Conservation of charge: Total charge is conserved.
Δ Q = 0
In processes of elementary particles, there are other quantities which are conserved These are baryon number, lepton number, isotopic spin, strangeness and parity.

Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
According to the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, developed by Born, Heisenberg, and Bohr, we calculate quantum objects as waves and interpret the waves probabilistically. We determine their attributes, such as position and momentum, somewhat uncertainly and understand them complimentarily. In addition, discontinuity and quantum jumps- for example collapse of the sprawling wave packet upon observation- are regarded as fundamental aspects of the behaviour of the quantum object.

Correspondence principle
The idea, discovered by Bohr, that under certain limiting conditions (which are satisfied by most macro-bodies under ordinary circumstances) quantum mechanics predicts the same motion as Newtonian classical mechanics. A similar correspondence principle is found to hold for idealist science; under conditions of complete conditioning idealist science corresponds to materialist science.

de Broglie waves:
Louis de Broglie proposed that, since light waves have particle characteristics, material particles must also possess wave like character. This is known as the de Broglie hypothesis. The de Broglie wavelength associated with a particle which is moving with momentum p, is
λ = h/p (de Broglie equation)
where h is the Planck’s constant.

Obviously, the wavelength of macroscopic particles will be so small that they cannot be detected. For atomic and subatomic particles like electrons, neutrons etc. the de-Broglie wavelength can be observed through interference, diffraction of these waves.

Dharma
Hindus theorized, that we bring only a part of the karma to any particular incarnation. Every incarnation has a purpose, which is to fulfil the learning agenda that the incarnation was meant to fulfil. Hindus call this idea by the Sanskrit word dharma, spelled with small d.

Domain of Potentiality
Most scientists think reality is in the domain of space and time. Anything that refers to that outside space and time, they call supernatural. But quantum physics, says nature—reality—has two domains. And this domain outside space and time is experimentally discernible: communication via this domain is instantaneous and signal-less. Signal-less communication is impossible in space and time; so it must use another domain of reality outside space and time. And according to quantum physics, there is such a domain of reality; it is called the domain of potentiality.

Downward causation
Higher consciousness is causally empowered by the power of downward causation consisting of the capacity to choose among the many facets of a wave of possibility. It is conscious choice that transforms waves of possibility into particles of actuality. In quantum physics, objects are not determined things—they are quantum possibilities for consciousness to choose from, top down. This conscious choice is downward causation. You can choose your reality, your spiritual destiny. The new view of nonmaterial downward causation is that it involves signal-less non-local communication as opposed to communication with signals.

Energy
SI unit joule (J). The capacity to do work is defined as energy. It can be due to the motion possessed by a particle, which is called kinetic energy. It is given by the formula (1/2) mv². A particle or a system of particles can possess energy by virtue of its position. For example, a particle raised to a height h above the ground, has an inherent energy mgh, where mis the mass of the body, g the acceleration due to gravity, and h the height. This energy is called potential energy.
According to the theory of relativity mass and energy are inter convertible. The total energy E can be found from the equation
E²= p²c²+ m0²c4 (e7)
where p is the momentum of a particle with rest mass m0, and c is the velocity of light (see special theory of relativity).

Error
The difference between observed value of any physical quantity and the `actual’ value is called error of observation. All measurements in science are generally inaccurate so that the `actual’ or `accurate’ value can not be found. We can only specify the value within certain limits. The more accurate the measurements, the closer these limits. Errors are of two types, systematic and random. Systematic errors occur due to faulty apparatus or inaccurately labelled scale.
Random error arises primarily due to human errors. Taking average of a large number of readings reduces the random errors.

Fear
Biological systems obey the laws of physics, but they also perform certain purposive functions: self-reproduction, survival, maintenance of integrity of self vis-à-vis the environment, self-expression, evolution, and even self-knowledge. Some of these functions you will recognize as instincts that we share with animals. For example, fear is a feeling that is connected with our survival instinct. Fear is a vital body movement that we feel, and concomitantly, a vital program is activated that helps consciousness guide the cells of a physical organ to carry out appropriate vital functions in response to a fear-producing stimulus. As opposed to this molecular behaviour can be explained completely within physical laws without giving them the attribute of fear.

Feeling
Feeling is not sensing; sensing is the territory of the brain and the nervous system; feeling occurs in conjunction with the organs of the body, but is not of the body either. They are the movement of the vital body; the energy we feel is vital energy.

Gunas
Gunas are the propensity of or mind in which we process meaning. There are three Gunas: satwa, rajas and tamas. Sattwa is to process meaning engaging fundamental creativity – creativity consisting of discovery of new meaning in new archetypal context. Rajas is to process meaning by engaging situational creativity in which we look to invent a new meaning but only within known archetypal contexts. Finally, we can process meaning within what we know, within our conditioned memory, without seeking new memory. This is tamas, the propensity to act according to conditioning. Tamasic people are dominated by emotions of jealousy, hate, greed and competitiveness. Raj¬asic people use situational creativity and serve the archetypes of abundance and power. People of predominant sattva engage in profession of teaching, healing, arts, science, music, dance, justice and mathematics. They serve the archetypes of love, beauty and truth.

Infrared (IR) radiation
Electromagnetic waves beyond red end of visible spectrum, with range of wavelength 0.7 μ m to 1mm. Infrared radiation is emitted by all the surfaces at all temperatures below 6000 K. The molecular vibrations and rotations produce IR radiation. The night vision devices are infrared detectors. The optical parts of such devices are made of quartz, germanium or some varieties of polyethylene which are transparent to IR radiation.

Japa
One of the ways to meditate which means ‘repeated recitation’. A word or a group of words (mantra) is recited in the mind over and over. If a person persists in japa in all waking hours as best as he can, even while doing other chores, the japa becomes internally established and continues unconsciously all the time. This stage is called ajapa japa meaning japa without japa.

laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)
A device that produces coherent light beam. The word “coherent” means that the light photons are all in same phase and are monochromatic.
The ordinary light is produced when an excited atom makes a spontaneous transition to the ground state. Since such transitions in different atoms are completely random the emitted photons have random phases. In laser a large number of atoms or molecules are raised to a particular state which has a longer life by energy pumping. Stimulated transition from this state to a lower state produces photons which are coherent.

Morphogenesis
The behaviour of biological organs is interesting because these programs that run their functions are not related to the physical causal laws that govern the movement of their molecular substratum. Let’s call this behaviour program-like.

Rupert Sheldrake’s great contribution to biology is to recognize the source of this program-like behaviour. Sheldrake introduced nonlocal and nonphysical morphogenetic fields in biology to explain the programs that run biological morphogenesis—physical form and function making for biological beings.

To be sure, you need more details. The point Sheldrake makes is this. We all are born as one-celled embryos, which then divide making identical replicas having identical DNA and genes. But cellular functioning depends on the proteins the cells make. Potentially, all cells can make all the proteins, but they don’t actually. Instead, cells become differentiated; depending on which organ the cell belongs to, only certain genes are activated to make certain proteins that have to do with the functioning of the particular organ. So, there must be programs activating the appropriate genes.

How does the cell know where in the body it is, to which organ it belongs? Sheldrake boldly suggested that the programs of cell differentiation needed for organ functioning require nonlocal (and hence nonphysical) morphogenetic fields.

So again, the vital body is the reservoir of morphogenetic fields, the blueprints of form and function making. The job of the physical body is to make representations of the vital body’s morphogenetic fields; the representations are the organs. The job of the representations is to perform functions of living, maintenance, reproduction, etc. In this way, the vital blueprints provide the program for the “homeobox” genes to regulate ordinary genes to make proteins suitable for carrying out the biological functions of the organ.

Newton’s law of gravitation

Everybody in the universe attracts every other body that is directly proportional to product of their masses m1 and m2 and inversely proportional to the square of distance, r between them.

Newton’s law of motion
Sir Isaac Newton (in 1687) formulated the fundamental laws of mechanics. These axiomatic laws can be stated as follows.
First law: A body continues in its state of rest or constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force.
Second law: The rate of change of momentum is proportional to the impressed force.
The momentum is defined as the product of mass and velocity.
F = dp/dt
if the mass m is a constant,
F = m [dv/dt] = m a
The SI unit force is newton (N).

Third law: Whenever two bodies interact, the force on the second body due to the first, F21 is equal and opposite to the force on the first due to the second, F12.
i.e., F12 = – F21
The first law gives the meaning of force, while the second law gives the quantitative definition of force.
There is an inherent limitation of the validity of third law as all signals travel with finite velocity. F21 and F12 are equal if they are measured at the same instant of time. The third law may not be valid when duration of collision is too small, because of the finite time interval required for the forces to propagate.

Non-Local Communication
it involves signal-less non-local communication as opposed to communication with signals. These latter are called local because that kind of communication goes through the locality to reach distant places, as for example when we are communicating with sound; sound is a local signal. Whereas if we communicate without signals as via mental telepathy that would be nonlocal.

Prana
Prana, or chi, or vital energy is the quantum movement of the vital body blueprint. When you are having the internal experience of having an emotion, there is thought, but there is also an extra, subtle, vital movement that consciousness collapses in your internal awareness; this is manifest prana. Emotions involve vital body movements in addition to the movement of the mental. Just watch yourself next time you are angry: angry thoughts arise—I will show him. But behold! There is something else, something also subtle, that you feel internally. That’s the prana, the vital energy.

Quantum Physics
Quantum physics is the physics of possibility. The waves of wave-particle duality are waves of possibility. Consciousness chooses actuality out of quantum possibilities. That’s how we create reality including ourselves. Choice is downward causation.

A quantum possibility is shorthand for a quantum wave of possibility. To understand the idea, consider how an electron behaves when it is released at rest in the middle of a room. In Newtonian physics, the electron would stay right there where it was released, forever, if you ignore gravity. But it is not so in quantum physics. The electron does not behave like a Newtonian particle at rest, but instead it behaves like a wave. When you throw a pebble in a pool of water, water waves spread out from where the pebble lands. In quantum physics, even an electron at rest spreads out in a similar fashion but three dimensionally and pretty fast, so fast that in a couple of moments it is all over the whole room; this is what quantum mathematics says. The electron is at many places at the same time only in possibility. Hence, the name possibility wave.

Quantum
A quantum is a discrete quantity first used with this connotation by the physicist Max Planck to denote the idea that energy exchange between bodies can take place only in terms of discrete quanta—one quantum, two quanta etc., but never half a quantum. A photon is a quantum of light. You can think of an elementary particle as a quantum of matter.

Relativity, special theory of
It deals with measurements made in reference frames moving with uniform velocity (v c) with respect to one another. When the relative velocity between reference frames approaches the speed of light, the Galilean transformations fails. Another set of transformations, called the Lorentz transformations, are applicable. The classical concepts of length, time, mass break down. These are no longer invariant quantities, but depend upon the reference frame from where the object is viewed. The theory emerged from the pioneering experiment carried out by Michelson and Morley and theoretical work by Lorentz, Poincare and others, were fully developed by Albert Einstein.

Tangled Hierarchy
A system with two components that have a circular causal relationship with each other: one affects the other, the other affects back, ad infinitum. This is called tangled hierarchy.

Best example of such tangled hierarchy is the perception and memory apparatus of the brain. There is no perception without memory and no memory making happens without perception.

We had simple hierarchy in our societies, kings ruling his subjects, but now most countries have democracy. We have much more causal equality among people. But of course, we still have it, simple hierarchy, that is; elitism is rampant and a lot of people vote for these elitist politicians that perpetuate elitism. But the future of democracy is tangled hierarchy between voters and their representatives.

Thermodynamics
A branch of Physics that deals with transformation of heat into other forms of energy, mainly mechanical, and vice versa. In thermodynamics we deal with variables that characterize the internal state of the system but are independent of its microstructure. The variables such as pressure, volume, temperature, internal energy, entropy, etc. are macroscopic, that is they characterize certain property of all the molecules of the system. The starting point of thermodynamics is the empirical laws or postulates.

Zeroth law of thermodynamics: Two bodies A and B placed in contact with each other are said to be in thermal equilibrium if no transfer of heat takes place between them. When this happens, the bodies are said to be in same temperature. The zeroth law of thermodynamics states that ‘There exists a quantity called temperature which is property of all thermodynamical systems such that if two bodies are at the same temperature they must be in thermal equilibrium. Further if two systems are separately in thermal equilibrium with a third system, then the two systems must be mutually in thermal equilibrium’.

First law of thermodynamics: It is the principle of conservation of energy applied to thermodynamical systems. It can be stated as,
‘The increase in internal energy (Δ U) of a system is equal to difference of heat added to the system (Δ Q) and the work done by the system’.
Δ U = ΔQ – ΔW (t4)
The internal energy U is the total energy content of the system, that is sum of kinetic, potential, chemical, electrical, nuclear and all other forms of energy possessed by atoms and molecules of the system.

Second law of thermodynamics: The first law of thermodynamics does not exclude many processes which otherwise do not occur in nature. For example, the heat from an ice cube does not flow into the environment which is at higher temperature. Mechanical work and heat are only different forms of energy. Mechanical energy can be fully converted into heat, but it is not possible to convert heat into work completely. The second law of thermodynamics deals with such questions. It is stated as,
‘It is impossible for a self-acting machine, unaided by any external agency, to transfer heat from one body to another at a higher temperature’ (Clausius statement).

‘It is impossible to construct a heat engine which operating in a complete cycle will draw heat from a reservoir and convert the whole of it into work’ (Kelvin Planck statement).
It can be shown that the two statements are equivalent.

Third law of thermodynamics: The fundamental feature of all cooling processes is that the lower the temperature is achieved, the more difficult it is to farther lower the temperature. The unattainability of absolute zero is the third law of thermodynamics. It is stated as,

‘By no finite series of processes is the absolute zero attainable.’
An alternative statement of the third law is,
‘The entropy change associated with isothermal reversible process of a condensed system approaches zero as the temperature approaches zero.’
This statement is also called the Nernst heat theorem. See also enthalpy, entropy, Gibbs function, Helmholtz function.

Transfer Potential Experiment
The neurophysiologist Jacobo Grinberg, in 1993 at the University of Mexico, was able to demonstrate quantum nonlocal communication between two brains. To this end, he first correlated them: the two subjects of his experiment meditated together with the intention of direct (signal less, nonlocal) communication. After twenty minutes, they were separated (while still continuing their unifying intention), placed in individual Faraday cages (electromagnetically impervious chambers), and each brain was wired up to an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine. One subject was shown a series of light flashes producing in his or her brain an electrical activity that was recorded in the EEG machine from which an “evoked potential” was extracted with the help of a computer upon subtracting the brain noise. The evoked potential was somehow found to be transferred to the other subject’s brain as indicated by the EEG of this subject that gave (upon subtraction of noise) a transferred potential (similar to the evoked potential in phase and strength). Control subjects (those who do not meditate together or are unable to hold the intention for signal-less communication during the duration of the experiment) do not show any transferred potential.

One of the most important aspects of the experiment of Grinberg–the power of our intention. Grinberg’s subjects intended that their potential nonlocal connection would manifest in demonstrable actuality. Control subjects who could not hold the intention were unable to manifest a transferred potential.

Unconscious:
In the domain of consciousness there are possibility waves of the object and the brain mind. In the unconscious there is processing but there is no collapse. The possibility waves interact with other possibility waves expanding in possibility but without awareness. When collapse happens in the consciousness there is a collapse and the subject and the object splits.

Upward causation
In Newtonian physics, objects are determined things made of matter; their movements are determined by material interactions among the base level objects called elementary particles. A group of elementary particles produces atoms, a group of atoms produces molecules, molecules produce cells, cells produce a living organism with brain, brain produces consciousness. This makes the world bottom up—this is called upward causation.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation
Electromagnetic waves * in the wavelength 4 nm to 400 nm, extending from violet limit of visibility to long X rays. It is divided into three regions, near, from 400 nm to 300 nm, far, from 300 nm to 200 nm, and extreme, below 200 nm. The extreme region is absorbed strongly by air. UV source in the laboratory is mercury vapor lamp, without the phosphor coating and made of special glass that transmits these radiations. Sun is a source of UV radiation, although much of the solar UV radiation is absorbed in the ozone layer of the upper atmosphere. The fluorescent pigments in paints and dyes absorb these radiations and reradiate in the optical wavelengths.

UV radiations carry higher energy than visible light, because they are of shorter wavelengths. UV radiations cannot penetrate beyond the skin’s outer layer. Excess exposure of UV radiation damages the skin and may even lead to cancer of the skin.

Vital energy
Any sensitive person knows that when we feel as in an emotional thought, we feel energies; the traditions call this energy by names like prana (in India), chi (in China), ki in Japanese, or just simply vital energy (in the West). We feel alive because we feel vital energy: aliveness is feeling the vital energy. Some people call vital energy the life force. Feeling is not sensing; sensing is the territory of the brain and the nervous system; feeling occurs in conjunction with the organs of the body, but is not of the body either. They are the movement of the vital body; the energy we feel is vital energy.

The vital body has the original blueprints, the morphogenetic fields that the physical body’s organs represent. Once the representations are made, the blueprints are activated whenever the programs, which carry out the functions of their organ representations, run. The representation-maker, the programmer is consciousness. Consciousness uses the vital blueprints to make physical representations of its vital functions that are codified in its supramental body, the body of laws and archetypes. When consciousness collapses a physical organ to carry out a biological function, it also collapses the vital blueprint; it is the movement of the vital blueprint that we feel as the vital energy of a feeling.

In the body do we feel these vital energies at the major chakras. These are located near major organs for our body’s biological functioning.

The concept of vital energy was discarded in biology and medicine because of the implied dualism and because of the advent of molecular biology when it seemed that we could understand everything about life through the chemistry of DNA, etc. But DNA alone cannot explain everything about our body, many aspects of healing for example. As every physician and patient knows, often healing requires vitality, vital energy. Vital energy is not the product of body chemistry. Chemistry is local, but the feelings of vital energy, the feeling of being alive, is quite nonlocal.

Molecules obey physical laws, but they know nothing about the contexts of living, such as maintenance and survival let alone love or jealousy, that occupy us much of the time. The vital body belongs to a separate subtle world and contains the blueprints of form and function making, forms that carry out the fundamental vital functions—the contexts of living. In other words, the vital body provides the blueprints of the organs of the physical body that play out the vital functions in space-time.

Wave particle paradox
Particles are localized things; they move in trajectories; they can only be in one place at a time. And waves are always dispersing, spreading out displaying their capacity of being in more than one place at the same time. Can the same object be both particle and wave? Logically, no, it is a paradox. And this paradox goes also for the elementary particles like electrons. They all are both waves and particles.

When we say that an object is both wave and particle, the confusion is created if we think that an object is both wave and particle in space and time in this very manifest space-time domain of reality. Instead, what we have to recognize is that the wave-ness of an object is true in a domain of reality that is beyond space and time. That is unmanifest. There is a domain of reality beyond space and time, which we call the domain of potentiality, and in that domain the object is a wave of potentiality or possibility.

The paradox-free way to think is this: the waves are waves first in a domain outside of space and time; when we measure them, they appear as particles in space and time. Quantum objects are waves of possibility and the domain they inhabit is called the domain of potentiality.

Wave, traveling
A disturbance that travels in a medium due to repeated periodic motion of the particles of the medium. The motion is handed over from one particle to the next resulting in the net transfer of energy from the source, generating the disturbance to the surroundings.

In transverse waves the displacements of the particles from the mean position are at right angles to the direction of propagation, while in longitudinal waves these are along the direction propagation.
In a simple harmonic wave each particle in the medium executes simple harmonic motion. The chief characteristics of such wave are its velocity, ν frequency, ν wavelength, λ and amplitude, A.
The velocity (or the wave velocity) is the distance covered by the progressive wave in one second. The frequency is the number of oscillations executed by the particles of the medium in one second. The wave length is the distance between successive points in same phase in the wave. The amplitude is the maximum displacement of a particle from the mean position.

Since in time, T=1/ν , the wave progresses by one wavelength, the wave velocity is given by,
ν=ν λ
In a plane progressive simple harmonic wave, the amplitude remains constant.

X Rays Electromagnetic waves
In the wave length range 4×10-9 m to 10-11 m, lying between ultraviolet rays and ϒrays. X rays are produced by X ray tube. Electrons from heated cathode, are accelerated in electrostatic field and then rapidly decelerated using targets of heavy metals. The spectrum of radiated X rays from X ray tube shows a continuous spectrum along with lines characteristic of the target used. The lines are due to electronic transition occurring in atoms that have lost inner electrons after colliding with bombarding electrons. The continuous part of the spectrum occurs when the electrons decelerate rapidly in the electrostatic field of the nuclei. This process is called Bremsstrahlung. The maximum frequency of the continuous spectrum is proportional to the kinetic energy of the electrons.

Due to their short wavelength X rays show the particle characteristic of light. In particular the Compton effect, which is particle like scattering of photons by electrons, occurs with X rays.

X rays have higher penetrating power than UV radiation. Consequently, it finds wide applications. It is used for investigating the structure of crystals (see Bragg law). Another use is detection of flaws in materials. It is also an important diagnostic tool.