In2-MeC

Timisoara, Romania
2 August 2004

Scientific Certainty
A Seminar by Dr. Don Key
Part Four

What we have learned so far in this seminar is that the world is not matter, but is perceived. On this point, science and philosophy converge. To illustrate what I mean by "the world is not material," I'll speak to you now about "the brain in the vat" and the "brain in the brain. "

Suppose we have discovered how to keep a brain alive inside a glass vat or aquarium. Suppose we have decoded the data system the brain uses to generate its electrical copy of the external world. Suppose we know how to connect a computer to the brain in the vat. We can then feed data into the brain's sensory pathways, and let the brain do the rest. It will process and interpret the data, generating within--for example--the fully realistic 3-D moving image of a bird in a tree complete with twittering song. It will even generate imagery of the person from whose head the brain was removed--an image of that person sitting and thinking with his brain, which is really inside a vat.

How do we know that we are all not brains in vats? We don't. (This is, as you must know, more or less the premise of the Matrix movie series. ) In the same way, we do not know if there is a world outside our brain that corresponds to what we see, hear, smell, taste and touch. What science tells us for sure is that the world we are in touch with is not material. It is a world of perceptions.

Suppose we have discovered how to lengthen the spinal cord so that our own brain could be surgically removed from our skull and set down on a table in front of us. After we come out of anaesthesia, we would see our brain before us. We could even reach out and touch it. Again, that whole experience would actually be happening inside the brain, though we would be privy to seeing our own brain from the outside.

The brain, too, being "a physical thing" like all "physical things" we know, is an object of perception. Hence we can never be sure that it really exists as we think it does: as solid matter. We can only be sure that it exists as a thing we perceive. . . in other words, as appearance only. There may be a material world beyond our perceptions. It may even look exactly like the world we perceive within our brain. . . although, knowing what I do about neurotransmission, I doubt it. In any case, if there is a material world outside the brain, it is a metaphysical world that lies ever beyond our direct awareness.

Yet I, Dr. Don Key, do truly believe there is a world outside my brain. And I freely admit that this is an article of faith. This is where religion is important, in my opinion. We need faith. We need to believe there is something more to this existence than just what is screened inside of our heads. Science can tell us something about what the apparent world is about. But the world beyond can only be accessed by faith.

The problem with some of you ISKCON devotees is that you believe in transcendental knowledge, which is a step beyond faith. You believe you know what the real form of the world outside is. You want to nail down every detail of the brain-world to an archetypical absolute. You want to say: the atom is really this. The form of the universe is really this. Creation really took place like this.

Well, you can think that way, can't you? Nobody can stop what goes on inside your heads. And science can't prove absolutely that you're wrong. But at the same time, you can't prove me absolutely wrong either. . . at least, not with proof that I am prepared to accept. You see, I think our senses describe shadow-patterns that are meant to be better understood through reason. If you call me a Platonist, I'll accept that label gracefully. In Platonism, capital-R reality is the most beautiful and best truth. That's what I like about the Vaisnava philosophy. With your concept of the all-attractive Sri Krsna, you are on to something. I freely admit that. See? I'm not simply a demoniac scientist! But between that highest, most beautiful and good truth and this world inside our brain, there is room to explore. This exploration is there for reason in the company of faith to do.

For example, it is reasonable to conclude that if "the world" consists of just what we perceive, and our brains are also part of that perceived world, then we who perceive must exist in a way that is distinct from the world and even the brain. There must be a subtle, non-physical core self. Call it the soul, if you will. Along with St. Francis of Assisi, I call it "the one who sees. "

It is reasonable to conclude that if "the world" consists of just what we perceive, and our brains are also part of that perceived world, then there must be a source of what we perceive. This source cannot logically be us. We are the watchers. We are not the broadcasters. We, the non-physical core self, are watching this world like someone watches TV. The TV program, which like the world is a perceptual appearance, is not sustained by the watcher. It is sustained by a broadcasting station in the far distance. The program--and I mean this more in the computer sense now, as the directive behind what we are seeing--is evidence of a superior intelligence, a Programmer, that guides the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, of all things.

But I believe--and so do the freethinkers inside of ISKCON--that it is unreasonable to argue that sabda-pramana (the evidence of scriptural sound) has all this worked out in detail. It is fundamentalism to adhere to specific scriptural descriptions of the world outside the brain, descriptions that most people cannot swallow. With the aid of textual criticism, scientific-minded people can see the touch of the human hand--and human weakness--in these scriptural assertions. We can't forget that scripture, like everything else, is a product of the brain. Those who combine faith with reason can accept scripture as the best approximation in this world of the will of the Programmer.

Dr. Don Key believes the Divine Plan of the world is mental speculation.

This world is mental. That is proven by science with considerable certainty. Since the Programmer is broadcasting this mental world to us, the ones who see, isn't it reasonable to conclude that He desires us to "speculate," to use that word that is so pejorative inside of ISKCON? Oh, I agree--we shouldn't speculate haphazardly. That's why we have science, to guide us in our speculations. And that's why we have faith, to set a limit on how far speculation can go before it becomes total fantasy. At a certain point, we can only believe.

For example, some of you worship Salagram silas. Fine: as long as you understand the stone to be an iconic representation of transcendence, that worship is perfectly reasonable. Scientists know that the Salagram stone is really a type of fossil that we call an ammonite. It is unreasonable to believe the literal scriptural account, that this stone is God Himself, carved by a species of tusked worm called Vrajakita that is totally unknown to science. Why fight it? Accept that science has disproven the Vrajakita story, and accept that what you are worshiping is merely a fossil. But don't stop! Go on worshiping the fossil! But feel humble compassion for yourself in your predicament of being locked inside your brain, worshiping a mental image of a fossil stone in an attempt to reach transcendence. That is reasonable.

The frog from God

Last week my wife brought home a frog that fell from the sky and landed on the windscreen of our car while she was waiting at red light. Sometimes things like this happen. Science acknowledges it. The poor frog was still stunned when she brought it in to the house. I quickly revived it with a small jolt of electricity (that's the secret of my hairstyle, by the way) and placed it in a terrarium. Together my wife and I feed the frog daily as an act of faith. Much to my wife's amusement I even offer the frog incense. It's our Frog from God, I tell her.

Dr. Don Key, happily married to his wife Mollar for 6 years!

By reason we should learn to see the Programmer behind everything, and we can start seeing Him in anything: fossils, frogs, doesn't matter. Yes: it doesn't matter, because nothing is matter, everything is mind! My wife sometimes tells me I go too far, seeing everything in terms of the mind, because my brain is conditioned by mundane science. I suppose she is right. She is right about most things. Not that I'm henpecked! My wife always says she couldn't bear to have a yes-man for a husband. Therefore when she says no, I am quick to agree.

End of Seminar

Warning! Please Don't do this at Home!

Dr. Don Key is a qualified scientist who performs dangerous experiments upon himself by charging his central nervous system up with high-voltage electricity in order to decode the brain's data system. This is the reason why his hair stands up as it does. It has come to our attention that some devotees, being inordinately eager to emulate Don's philosophy and way of life, are performing such experiments with electricity at home. Please do not do this. It is very dangerous. Here is a photo of what happened to one devotee who tried for a "Don Key Do. "

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