printer friendly

2007 – International Scientific and Public Conference
”The Living Ethics and Science” (October 7–10)

From October 7 to 10, 2007, in the N. Roerich Center-Museum in Moscow, International Scientific and Public Conference “The Living Ethics and Science” took place. The conference initiators and organizers were the International Center of the N. Roerichs, the Unified Scientific Center for Problems of Cosmic Mentality, the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, the K. Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, the Russian Academy of Education, the International League for Protection of Culture, the International Association of World Foundations, the H. Roerich Charity Foundation. The conference was supported by the UN Information Center in Moscow.

More than 400 people from 24 countries and 93 cities took part in the conference. They included 7 Academicians, 22 Doctors of Sciences, 14 Professors, 40 Candidates of Sciences. Beside Russian scientists, the conference was attended by representatives from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Moldova, North Ossetia – Alania, from the Baltic countries – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and from Austria, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Germany, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Spain, Italy, Lebanon, Serbia, Finland, France, Czechia.

Extracts from reports

L. Shaposhnikova
the First Vice-President of the International Center of the Roerichs,
the N. Roerich Museum General Director,
RANS and TRAC Academician

The Living Ethics Principal Peculiarities

The Living Ethics philosophy, or, as we also call it, philosophy of Cosmic Reality, is as complicated (and maybe, even more complicated) as philosophy of Gegel, Kant, Schelling, Soloviev, Berdiayev, and other modern philosophers. Its method of exposition differs from the above philosophers’ writings, and presents as if an energetic spiral, going higher and higher from one book to another. In the structure of philosophic system itself, energetics plays a great role and is to affect the reader helping him to understand the complicated problems touched upon on the Living Ethics pages. <…>

The Living Ethics philosophy is today part of creative work of the world culture and science, without knowing which it is impossible to understand all the profoundness of its essence. Its amazing integrity comprises knowledge of antiquity and modernity, achievements of the East and the West, various systems of cognition. All this constitutes a deeply synthetic structure resulting both in a new type of cosmic thinking, and a new system of cognition. And the Living Ethics authors introduced into this thinking, this system of cognition, all the best that has been achieved by the history and culture of the planet of Earth, and all that the creative work of Cosmos itself has given and is giving to all this. <…>

By the XX century, two trends had formed in cognition: scientific, where empiric science dealt with experimental study of solid matter, and the so called extra-scientific cognition, or rather meta-scientific, or super-scientific cognition.

Meta-scientific methods of cognition are related to the spiritual space of man and his internal world. Meta-knowledge is coming through various forms from worlds of another, higher state of matter. There is earthly cognition and knowledge, and cognition, if it can be put this way, heavenly, or superterrestrial. The methods of obtaining knowledge of the latter are different from experimental methods of empiric science. There is a method of evidence, when such knowledge carrier’s spirit rises into the superterrestrial space and becomes a witness of other being. There is a method of visions, second sight and second hearing. There is knowledge coming to man through dreams, special intuition, through spiritual illumination or inspiration. Meta-knowledge, being ahead of scientific knowledge, has prophetic character, in other words, time is different in that space. The past, the present, and the future, which are separated from each other under earthly conditions, have integral, inseparable character in meta-knowledge. Meta-knowledge, or super-scientific knowledge is, as a rule, related to the Higher in Cosmos, and due to this, has the character of cause, while scientific knowledge, related to researches of solid matter phenomena, has the character of consequence. <…>

The Living Ethics philosophy, unlike many so called scientific philosophies, synthesized both the trends, scientific and meta-scientific, and opened a wide road to the study of Infinity before science as a whole.

The Living Ethics philosophy is dedicated in general to cosmic evolution and energetic world outlook in its study. The picture of the Universe which we find in the Living Ethics is different from the one provided by the empiric science of the XX century. According to the Living Ethics philosophy, the Universe is a grandiose energetic and spiritualized system consisting of various energetic structures including man and our planet. Both the planet and man make integral part of Cosmos, and act and live in accordance with its laws.

In the Universe, one of the most important processes moving the cosmic evolution takes place. This process is called energetic and informational exchange and it makes the main vital force of Cosmos. The exchange goes in horizontal, vertical, and in-depth directions. <…>

In the Living Ethics, we find one of the most important theses of its philosophy: Cosmos lives and develops, and the cosmic evolution of mankind advances in accordance with the laws of Cosmos. These laws penetrate the whole Cosmos and act not only in distant worlds and spaces of a different state, but on the planet of Earth as well, and they affect its humanity. These laws include general and particular, but all together they make a framework holding the Cosmos and its structures. Compliance or non-compliance with, knowledge or lack of knowledge of these laws result in these or those consequences. These laws not only have practical significance, but they also help to more profoundly and precisely understand the Universe itself and the laws of cosmic evolution. I will only mention some of them: the law of cause and effect relations, the law of Hierarchy, the law of duality, the law of contraposition, the law of priority of the Higher over the lower, etc. <…>

The Living Ethics phenomenon is an impulse of the Higher at our stage of cosmic evolution. The Cosmic Reality philosophy itself is a foundation for a new type of thinking – cosmic. This philosophy also contains such type of thinking system of cognition.

The humanity history knew three types of thinking before the XX century – mythological, religious, and scientific. <…>

From the bowels of mythological thinking, religious thinking grew when the impulse of the Higher had acquired a new form – appearance of Great Teachers of new spiritual Teachings. We can hardly say that modern, scientific thinking grew from religious thinking. If mythological and religious types of thinking were obviously related to the Higher Cosmos, we cannot say the same about the scientific thinking. <…>

New cosmic thinking, the concept and system of cognition of which we find in the Living Ethics, restores such relation in the new science. In connection with formation of a new type of thinking in the XX century, an important circumstance should be noticed. The Living Ethics philosophy was presented in the Russian language and was meant, first of all, for Russia. The Spiritual Revolution which started in Russia at the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century to a great extent contributed to this circumstance. It is in the space of this spiritual revolution that the sprouts of cosmic thinking started to appear. They could be clearly traced in the Silver Age philosophy in the studies of V. Soloviev, N. Berdiayev, S. Bulgakov, brothers S. and E. Trubetskoys, P. Florensky, and others. We find them in the Russian poetry in pieces by Tyutchev, Blok, Bely, Viach. Ivanov, and many other poets. Considerable contribution into formation of cosmism was also made by Russian scientists V. Vernadsky, K. Tsiolkovsky, A. Tchizhevsky. In many of their studies, we find echoes of the Living Ethics cosmic ideas. Russian artists, such as Tchurlenis, Roerich, Benois, Vrubel, and, later, “Amaravella” creators, being ahead of science in their insights, already carried in their creative work samples of new consciousness.

All this taken together made Russia a forebear of cosmism which afterwards went beyond its borders and exerted a great influence on the thought of the West. The Living Ethics as if summarized the cosmic thinking of the Russian Spiritual Revolution, developed its cosmic ideas and laid foundations for the cosmic thinking system of cognition. It is there, in the philosophy of Cosmic Reality, that we find fruitful ideas of new science, of synthesis which will provide for this science unlimited possibilities for further development and cognition of the Universe in all its diversity.

The XX century and the beginning of the XXI century made us witnesses of another energetic impulse of cosmic evolution – appearance of children of new consciousness, and this confirms the Living Ethics thesis of arrival of a new epoch and appearance of “man of spirit” as a new species of “man of sense”. Children of new consciousness with their unusual abilities, knowledge, and moral structure are the beginning of this new species of humanity. Our previous scientific and public conference was wholly dedicated to such children.

The Living Ethics gives us an idea of the new stage of cosmic evolution, of the new epoch, of the new man, new thinking, new science, and new future knowledge, so different from existing today.

R. Rovinsky
Doctor of Engineering, Professor,
Israel

Elements of Cosmic Mentality in Modern Physical Science

Our conference subject – the Living Ethics and Science – cannot leave unnoticed the circumstance that a series of most important scientific discoveries in physical science of the second half of the XX century changes previously formed world outlook understandings of our World structure and operation. This confirms one of the Living Ethics main theses of science as a forerunner of the new world outlook.

I will confine myself to consideration of new world outlook ideas of cosmology creating a pre-revolutionary situation in the physical science. At the level of today’s scientific knowledge, such situation gives rise to problems, solution of which passes to the domain of physical science of the XXI century. Not only new knowledge will be required, but new methods as well, new scientific mentality will be needed, and cosmic thinking starts being comprehended by the scientific community as quite a real form of scientific thinking. <…>

The final confirmation of the hypothesis of existence in Nature of forces of gravitation repulsion was obtained experimentally at the very end of the XX century. Two groups of researches, independently from each other, discovered that peripheral galaxies move not with slowing down as it was expected, but with acceleration. This kind of thing can only happen under condition of existence in Nature of forces of gravitation repulsion which show themselves weakly at smaller distances, but reveal themselves in the periphery, at distances of billions of light years. This discovery has a global significance, especially taken together with those results which were obtained when the dominating in our World substance was discovered, which got the name of dark energy.

Discovery of the dominating in the Universe dark energy was the second most important astronomic discovery of the second half of the last century. The cosmological science faced a situation which cannot be ignored, but so far it is incapable of settling it. Until now, astronomy primarily studied the substantial part of the Universe, that part of it the basis of which is constituted by three classes of elementary particles: quarks, leptons, and bosons. However, it has become clear that substance is a small part of the Universe, only about 5% of its gravitating mass. And 95 % of the Universe gravitating mass is constituted by dark matter which, dominating in the World, so far does not manifest itself in any way except gravitation. These discoveries become the central event of the ripening scientific revolution of the XXI century. <…>

For substantial World, the paradigm of Developing Universe is correct. But there is no general cosmological paradigm covering the Universe as a whole, which cosmologists will only be able to form in the result of growth of the latest astronomic discoveries understanding scientific level, and in the result of possible appearance of new, equally significant discoveries.

During the whole last century, physical science intensive penetration into the depths of substance structure was going on. Quantum mechanics seemed to have stopped this process, having created as the outcome a standard model of substance in microworld. Elementary particles – quarks, leptons, and bosons - became the limit of penetration into the depth of substance. They usually call elementary those particles in which no internal structure can be found, and their size is smaller 10–15 cm, what cannot be measured using existing equipment. In a standard model, those particles are usually considered point particles.

But it became clear that such limitation interferes with solution of certain problems appearing at deeper levels of matter. In the depths of matter, an area is found in which quantum and gravitation states manifest themselves, for description of which quantum mechanics must be united with gravitation. But it was not possible to unite quantum mechanics with the classical general relativity. An understanding came that this kind of problems cannot be solved in principle in case of adhering to the model of elementary particles point character. A new theory is needed which would take into consideration such particles dimensionality. The theory of superstrings became one of the problem suggested solutions.

At that, physics enters a sphere in which it is not possible to conduct experimental researches in modern conditions. Ratiocinations, theoretical speculations, very complicated and incompletely developed mathematical approaches are used. Judging by statements of this theory elaboration participants, a great role is now played by intuition and illumination helping to promote the study. <…>

The so called strings are one-dimensional objects, according to latest estimations having the size of 10–16 cm. They are characterized with strong tensions and are in states of constant vibrations with various harmonics, otherwise called vibrational modes. Depending of the strained string vibration frequency at the level of the quantum theory standard model, to each vibrational mode one of known elementary particles corresponds. Consequently, the basis of elementary particles, and, together with them, substance, is made by elementary concentrations of energy vibrating with different frequencies.

Here, science comes to direct correlation with the Living Ethics ideas.

Lev Bondarev
pupil of school No.1, 10 years old,
Ukraine

Truth About the Truth

There are different opinions about the lie and the truth. For example, it is popularly believed that the truth must come first everywhere: “The bitter truth is better than a sweet lie”. And individual scientists and personalities believe that it is not possible to live without lie. Winston Churchill, for example, said that “truth is so precious that it should be accompanied by escort of lie”. But it is proved by scientists that biological energy of man is decreased when the man says obscene or rude words, commits violence, or lies. Besides, the Earth has an intellectual field of energy, and changes of biological field of man for the worse negatively affect this field. And the Earth intellectual field sufferings are transferred on cosmos.

That is why all kinds of cataclysms have happened especially often lately – global warming, earthquakes, etc. This is human negative energy passing into negative energy of cosmos, and the energy of cosmos passes onto the Earth, as cosmos is a huge biosystem, and all its elements are related to each other. Including us and the Earth. <…>

To my mind, only a free man can be really truthful.

And to start with, adults must admit to themselves that they are lying all the time. They are lying for different reasons, some – out of fear of their bosses, some – because of money, some – because they want to look better than they are, some – because they want to become Parliament members. But they all consider themselves very truthful people. When they acknowledge that this is not true, then they will be able to bring up their children in the right way, and then the society will start changing.

Yuri Liubimov-Golubitsky
Pupil of the 7th form of school-lyceum Economic School-Lyceum, 12 years old,
Moscow

The Universe and Cosmos

Cosmos has existed for ever. There is Life in Cosmos. Life is interaction of Information, Energy, and Substance. They are interrelated and are transformed into each other. In Cosmos, constant and eternal pulsation of life takes place. In Cosmos, there is a countless multitude of Universes, and our Universe – is only one of them. Each Universe is pulsing: it is born, it lives, and it dies, same as all that is alive in Cosmos. Our planet of Earth is also a living organism. Living substance is multi-layer, it gets united into communities or complicated systems – live organisms. Any live organism is part of communities or other organisms. For a live organism, there is life time, dimensions, structure, hierarchy of subordination, probability, and many other things which determine cosmic life forms diversity. <…>

Everything that happens in Cosmos is related to Information. Information fills the Cosmos and is present in any of its points in the form of a field, wave, or vortex. Information is a contents characteristic of space. Information does not appear from Nowhere and does not disappear without any trace. Energy and Substance are the source of Information. Information is synthesized, copied, exchanged, accumulated by Substance, and destroyed together with it. Informational field of man is consciousness, intuition, memory, codes of access to the informational field of Earth. Russian scientist Vernadsky called the informational field of Earth noosphere. Information receipt and transmission is impossible without energy. <…>

Everything that happens in Cosmos is related to Energy. Energy, same as Information, does not appear from Nowhere and does not disappear without trace. Energy and Information are sources for synthesis of Substance, but Substance, in its turn, is the source and reason for accumulation and discharge of Energy and Information. <…>

Energy penetrates the Cosmic space and is present in any of its points in the form of a field, wave, or vortex. Energy is a dynamic characteristic of space, its potential. Energy can be transformed from one type to another. We know many types of cosmic energy: light, heat, sound, electricity, magnetism, radio-frequency emission, gravitation, bioenergetics, psychic energy, nuclear energy.

<…> Matter can be solid, concentrated. For example: water, gases, minerals, metals, protein bodies, essential oils. The solid world of concentrated matter can be seen by man, heard, touched, smelled.

Matter can be subtle, low concentration. For example: ethers, souls (concentrations of cold plasma or plasmoids), mental images. <…>

I hope that scientists will understand that life is not only nutrition and multiplication of protein organisms on the planet of Earth and will notice various forms of life in the Universe.

V. Sidorov
Independent Researcher,
Irkutsk

Intuitive (Meta-Scientific) Method of Cognition

Rare unusual states in which scenes from life of people of past historical epochs are visually observed can happen either in wakefulness – in a sequence of mental images, or in a colorful short sleep before awakening. These states are caused due to focusing on specific findings or famous historical events. And they can be observed by not only people with special abilities, but ordinary people who do not usually pay due attention to such rare states. Thus, this is a common human property – to see life scenes from distant historical epochs under some unstudied yet conditions. I observed such scenes myself a few times, and at that, in some of them, I directly participated in the role of one of those previously living people.

Properties of such observed <…> historical scenes are a short, as a rule, time interval; intense emotional and psychic situation, brightness of colors and impressions; active psychological attitudes not characteristic of the observer in modern life; new information not known to the observer until this moment; absence of a possibility to willfully influence the events, only their fixation; an extremely complete picture of one’s own motives and emotions. Proceeding from these historical scenes specific qualities, in accordance with the Living Ethics theses, two variants of explanation can be suggested. The first one – information is stored in a human individuality accumulations for the latest several thousand years. And the second – this information is deposited on ancient objects and becomes visible in a chain of images when coming to contact with energetics of man – peculiar, rarely observed storage of information in an unknown yet to science form.

For the historical science, for restoration of the past epochs character and specific features, intuitive impressions which carry new information of distant epochs are the most important. These qualities also make criteria for determination of received information authenticity (if there is no new essential information, or the observer’s modern psychological attitudes are preserved during observation, then this state does not refer to those considered in this study). Most people do not attach significance to such life scenes of the past historical epochs. It results in a loss of many precious details and specific circumstances from which mosaics of humanity life in the past, even very distant, can be formed. It is time that the above phenomena method of study, and criteria of its authenticity and limits of applicability be formed. It is time that information obtained by subjective way be officially introduced into the sphere of historical science analysis.

<…> Using the intuitive method, it is possible to obtain not only knowledge of historical epochs, but of individual human fates, knowledge of previous lives, and even memories about important events between lives. At that, children’s recollections are the most significant. <…>

The intuitive method is applicable in both historical science and natural science. M. Lomonosov, D. Mendeleyev, V. Vernadsky – these great natural scientists referred to it in their studies to this or that extent. In the middle of the XX century, in the heyday of materialism, geologist N. Martianov created his concepts of pulsing Earth proceeding from intuition which he compared to the feeling of beautiful: “I determine intuition itself as sensual perception of dialectics of nature”. Martianov was one of the few natural scientists who asserted out loud not only the intuitive method of thinking applicability in natural science, but intuition as a method of cognition.

And all the more natural and indisputable is the use of intuitive cognition in artistic creation. Invisible deposits on a painting make the essence of the emotional effect on the spectator. On the one hand, fixation of a visual image on canvas or carton preserves it for the future. On the other hand, an artist puts into the image his attitude towards this phenomenon. A bright example is creative work of Russian painter M. Potapov who restored by memory stored in the depth of his subconsciousness ancient life of Egypt, its rulers, even their specific portrait features. Emotional constituent which is also captured on the painting draws attention. And this is the artist’s inner world’s projection. <…>

An extremely long sequence of meta-scientific observations was performed by Helena Roerich. Bright philosopher of the XX century, one of the Living Ethics books creators, she described in her diaries a number of visions of persons known in history, and also unknown ones, who lived hundreds of years ago and more. Besides, possessing good artistic skills, she drew those images in pencil sketches. For Helena Roerich, no question of intuitive method existed, she just applied it in a natural for her way. <…>

From ancient times, the intuitive (meta-scientific) method of cognition has participated in the study of the Higher World and in the movement of man to the Higher, as well as in the study of the Cosmos effect on man. It is productive for historical and archeological researches, for the study of the internal world of man, for the search of a source of artistic creation and ways of its influence on the spectators.

The term “meta-scientific” can be understood as applied in spheres not yet involved in scientific researches, as preparing foundation for scientific hypotheses, for future scientific discoveries. Applied at all times under other names, it is equally ready now to deliver rich results in many spheres of human creative work. Science is to analyze and systematically generalize the experience of intuitive cognition of the world accumulated by the humanity, to assess its fully valid role in the general process of cognition, and to study its energetic and informational mechanisms to make them modern researchers’ common property.

David Volodin
pupil of Municipal General Educational Institution Lyceum No. 3, 14 years old,
Tula

Pavel Florensky’s Universe

Pavel Florensky created his unique image of the Universe. Being a priest, he cognized the universal structure with his soul. The heavenly, spiritual world made this Universe integral part. In his study “Iconostasis”, he wrote that the Lord created both a visible world – the Earth, and a spiritual one – the Heaven. <...>

Little Florensky was in all ways guarded from all kinds of mystics (they did not even read fairy-tales to him to avoid his developing a taste for the mysterious), but it was useless, as this bent was inborn in his soul. In his book “To My Children. Memories of the Past Days”, in chapter “Impressions of the Mysterious”, he remembered: “Something looking ordinary and simple, the most common in terms of its frequency, often attracted <...> my attention. And then, it suddenly became revealed that it was not simple. Indeed, something was recollected in this simple and usual phenomenon, and it opened something different, noumenal, standing higher than this world, or rather, deeper than the world. <...> A usual stone, tile, stub reveal themselves as not usual at all, and become windows into another world. It happened to me not once in my childhood. But while some phenomena always enticed my soul, never letting it satisfy its hunger, others, on the contrary, opened their mysterious depth only snatchingly, even sporadically, only once”. <...>

Being a teenager, Florensky took interest in exact sciences. “To the question what I am striving for, I would answer: “For cognition of the laws of nature”. He believed that his methods of cognition will not be useful to science in the future, but will help his own world outlook. Those laws constituted Florensky’s world understanding, but in their turn, they were inseparable from spiritual and divine laws of the world. <...>

Skepticism, duality in perception, rattletrap sensations of being were never characteristic of P. Florensky. Another world was always in contact with him as a true and giving no rise to doubts reality.