Edge #579: My Mystical Moment - Frank Wilczek

News from Edge To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves. May 18, 2021 [My Mystical Moment]( Frank Wilczek It came to me, viscerally, that the intricate calculations I’d done using pen and paper (and wastebasket) might somehow describe this entirely different realm of existence—namely, a physical world of particles, tracks, and electronic signals, created by the kind of machinery I was looking at. There was no need to choose, as philosophers often struggled to do, between mind or matter. It was mind and matter. How could that be? Why should it be? Yet I somehow, I suddenly knew that it could be so, and should be so. FRANK WILCZEK is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT, recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics, and author of Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality. MY MYSTICAL MOMENT I’ve had many varied experiences in my scientific career, including some that took me into unusual states of consciousness. Indeed, when I’m doing interactive work with my computer, I not infrequently enter trance-like states in which the passage of time seems suspended. At the end of a session, I can rise from my chair honestly thinking that a few minutes have passed, when in fact it’s been a few hours. Three times, upon suddenly seeing right through important problems that I’d been struggling with, I’ve had quasi-orgasmic experiences of mental release. But I’ve had only one experience that qualifies as mystical. It satisfied William James’ two main criteria for such experiences. [ [Continue...]( ] Edge Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit private operating foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. [EDGE.ORG]( John Brockman, Editor and Publisher; Russell Weinberger, Associate Publisher; Nina Stegeman, Associate Editor Copyright (c) 2021 by Edge Foundation, Inc., 260 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10001. All Rights Reserved. --------------------------------------------------------------- Visit [edge.org]( "Fabulous" —The New York Times • "Thrilling" —Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung • "Wonderful" —The Wall Street Journal • "Fantastically Stimulating" —BBC Radio 4 • "Astounding" —The Boston Globe • "Splendidly enlightened" —The Independent • "Audacious" —La Vanguardia • "Brilliant" —The Sunday Times • "Enthralling" —The Daily Mail • "Exhilarating" —The Evening Standard • "Stunning" —New Scientist • "Enjoyable" —Salon • "Provocative" —La Stampa • "Marvelous" —Prospect • "Awesome" —Wired • "The brightest minds in the known universe" —Vanity Fair • "A lavish cerebral feast" —The Atlantic • "An intellectual treasure trove" —San Francisco Chronicle • "The world's smartest website" —The Guardian --------------------------------------------------------------- Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](