Einstein was a Mystic

Are Physicists so intelligent that we simply aren’t smart enough to comprehend what they are saying, or are they talking about things that do not exist in reality, but in the spiritual realm?

According to Britannica, in the early 1900’s, Einstein’s theory of relativity, redefined space, time, matter, energy, and gravity, which are central to modern physics.  “The theory of special relativity draws conclusions that are contrary to everyday experience but fully confirmed by experiments. Special relativity revealed that the speed of light is a limit that can be approached by not reached by any material object; it is the origin of the most famous equation in science, E=mc²; and it has led to other tantalizing outcomes, such as the twin paradox.” General relativity – gravity, “describes large-scale physical phenomena such as planetary dynamics, the birth and death of stars, black holes, and the evolution of the universe.”

The claim that Einsteins findings were ‘fully confirmed by experiments’ is false because the twin paradox was a thought experiment in special relativity which doesn’t exist in reality.  According to Britannica, “The counter-intuitive nature of Einstein’s ideas makes them difficult to absorb and gives rise to situations that seem unfathomable.”  They cite the example of the twin paradox, in which “one of two identical twin sisters flies off into space at nearly the speed of light.  According to relativity, time runs more slowly in her spacecraft than it does on Earth; therefore, when she returns to Earth, she will be younger than her Earth-bound sister.”  Apparently, the opposite is true in relativity, where the earth-bound twin is younger.  This is the paradox which requires general relativity too resolve, which “shows that there would be an asymmetrical change in time between the two sisters”.

In the article Einstein and Mysticism, author Gary E. Bowman cuts through all the rhetoric about Einstein’s religious views, connecting his desire to focus on the essential to mysticism and the mystical experience, which is where the essential is found.  Einstein was, after all, a theoretical physicist! 

Bowman quotes New Age writer Ken Wilber, the editor of Quantum Questions – a collection of essays by famous 20^th century physicists, who stated “every one of the physicists in this volume was a mystic”, and Einstein had “a deeply mystical outlook”.  Einsteins colleague Philipp Frank wrote “the basis of [Einstein’s] cosmic religion.  It is a ‘mystical experience’.”  Physicist Banesh Hoffmann states “Einstein, with his feeling of humility, awe, and wonder and his sense of oneness with the universe, belongs with the great religious mystics.” To theologian Markus Muhling, Einstein’s scientific work was “an epistemic-mystical experience arising from the grandeur of nature, and finds an element of the mystical in Einstein’s cosmic religion.” 

Bowman believes that when Einstein expressed aversion to mysticism several times, he meant the forms open to ridicule, such as palm reading, tarot cards, communication with the dead, etc.  He creates a definition of essential mysticism, which applies more readily to physicists and scientists; “seeking after a heightened, expanded, or otherwise alternative connection to, or experience of, reality – one that transcends our ‘ordinary’ experience of physical reality.”

Bowman states that ordinary reality is incomplete, in that it is lacking the mystical experience, using the analogy that mystical experiences cannot be described to those who have not experienced them, anymore that one can describe sight to someone born blind.  He considers mysticism to be a-rational – outside rationality, not irrational – contrary to reason, because rational knowledge is based on reason and experience, and the mystical experience is only accessible to those practicing mysticism.