Is the Bible True?, page-561

Recent trends in physics, science, and thought

I do not follow a wide range of scientific literature but large scale issues interest me.

In this connection I would like to point out some ideas in David Bohm's book, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, published in 1980.

I do not understand everything it it by any means. A lot of it is impenetrable for me, but there are some things in it that I am able
to understand, that I find interesting.

One of the ideas is that meaning/intention/consciousness/awareness might be a realm of reality that is on a par with the concepts of energy and matter.

In other words, as we have come to accept that energy and matter are two "realms" that appear different but are actually interactive and exchangeable (E=mc2), the realm of (meaning/intention/thought/consciousness) may be a third "realm" that can also interact with energy and matter.

This appears completely plausible to me, since (meaning/intention/thought/consciouness) are very poorly understood in scientific terms. There is interaction with the physical world of energy and matter; of this we are all sure.

Yet this certainty is based on our own personal, subjective experiences. Meaning/intentions/thoughts/consciousness are no less "real " than any of the phenomena that are subjects of scientific inquiry or eveyday experience, yet they are not objective and proveable and observable like the subjects of scientific inquiry. They are "real", but non-existent as physical entities, at the same time. Existent and non-existent.

This mental realm has direct interaction with the physical world, but the mechanism by which it does this is
really not understood. We know that we are enabled to see and hear and touch by the existence of certain physical organs,
but meaning, consciousness, awareness, intention etc. is not explained thereby.

The entire realm of mental experience is pretty much uncharted territory for science, and may never be explainable in the terms customary to that discipline. On the other hand, we live with it every day; we can observe it subjectively. But it remains a personal and subjective realm, not directly communicable "objectively" to any one else.