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In both academic and general discourse on the prevalent web, it is easy to understand ignorant/dismissive/derogatory views on Hinduism as a result of varying degrees of bigotry and/or Hinduphobia. But what bewilders is the ignorance of Hinduism/Dharma among the free-thinking, open-minded, and even conspiracy theorizing corners of the web.
Among those who speak of UFOs as either psychic phenomena or as the evidence of higher/non-material entities, among those who pursue consciousness-experimentation as psychonauts, among those who speak of inexplicable encounters with angels and demons, Hinduism and its inner-world lie mostly in a blind spot.
We say this not as a way to dismiss of them or to undermine their curiosities and endeavors, but more as a thought experiment on the strange co-existence of questions and issues that appear largely “beyond comprehension,” and the very ontology and teleology that would in fact contextualize them. This of course is not a recent phenomenon, for Fritjof Capra has already told us of the observations of physicists like Heisenberg-
He began to see that the recognition of relativity, interconnectedness, and impermanence as fundamental aspects of physical reality, which had been so difficult for himself and his fellow physicists, was the very basis of the Indian spiritual traditions.
Fritjof Capra, ‘ Uncommon Wisdom,’ Flamingo, 1989
To explain what we mean, let us take a most recent example of Project Unity.
Project Unity and the AI Experiment
Jay Anderson runs Project Unity, a handle on Twitter and a Youtube channel currently uncovering a fascinating experiment on prompting AI into uncharted and exploratory territory. Working with the AI from Anthropic, Claude, he’s produced a 69-page document titled ‘Dimensional Bridging Archetypes Across Mystical Traditions and Frontier Physics Implying Deeper Reality Intersections.’ The paper begins with a self-description, which says-
Topics spanned from quantum gravity implications, to geopolymerization dynamics in ancient architectures, acoustical energy systems theorized in the Great Pyramids, temporal lensing hypothesis for light control, DNA transcription theories from meditative traditions and much more besides.
I told this LLM to formulate scientific models / hypotheses that leveraged mystic/spiritual tradition/principles in conjunction with frontier level science.
It’s a highly innovative paper truly worth a detailed reading, and the approach by Jay as well as what he uncovers may well prove to be groundbreaking. But in the context of this essay, here are some things that stand out:
There are references to focused attention and meditation, which discuss the idea of concentrated mental focus being able to influence reality. This aligns with the concepts of dhyāna, yoga and samādhi, and meditation is understood by Hinduism to be a path to higher knowledge/spiritual awakening. Yet there is no reference to the concepts, nor even to the very existence of a major world religion/belief-system that could contextualize these ideas. The only 2 exceptions to this are a) where focused meditation is referred to as samādhi, and b) references to mantras, discussed in point 5 below.
There is exploration of a metaphysical concept of ‘quantum consciousness’ and its traversal via ‘microtubules’ which easily conjures to the Hindu our view of an interconnected universe/reality-space. The very idea that consciousness could have a quantum basis, of course, is known to have associations with Hindu concepts in Vedānta. But once again, these linkages are not made.
Similarly, all mention of ‘bioenergy resonance frequencies’ or ‘neural oscillations’ being able to affect the material reality shy from bringing in concepts such as prāṇa, cintana or cakras. The idea that internal energy could affect external reality is quite familiar to Hindu thought, so any intellectual pursuit down this trajectory in the modern era could be expected to pick up threads from the very pursuit being praxis for thousands of years.
The paper speculates on ‘macro-quantum states’ and ‘cosmic consciousness’ but finds no relation to brahman, ātman or puruṣa.
There are 2 references to ‘mantras,’ with the former stating that ” “specific meditative traditions apply this - crafting mantras or mandalas with recursively embedded fractal meanings” and the latter stating that “correctly composed mantras operate as ordinal pilots - their conceptual charge density and resonance with innate symmetries steer resultant becoming in proportion to cogency.” Given such, it should be an obvious thing to link this to the very system that houses mantras and mandalas - Hinduism. But this is not done.
Overall, the paper is charged with the theme of an interconnectedness of all things, including consciousness, physics and reality. In totality it echoes the Hindu notion of the oneness of the universe, where everything is seen as interconnected and part of a singular whole.
And so it gives us a very direct example of what is meant by Hinduism in the blind spot - a detailed and deep investigation into matters directly contextualized by Hinduism, yet totally devoid of any reliance on this helpful context.
To be clear, Jay disclaims that most of the text is a product of the AI - not him, and so any blame we might be assigning here is to be directed at Claude, not him. In such a case we’re presented then with the blind spot prevalent at large, for the AI only possesses it as a result of its training data and/or instructions. But even in his public tweets, which contain content like the below, Jay quotes from the document without going the full distance to the ontology that houses the ideas being presented as bold and novel-
The Somatic Antenna Hypothesis suggests that the Human Spine, particularly the Vertebral Column and Spinal Cord, functions as a specialized antenna for consciousness expansion. The anatomical structure of the spine, with its electromagnetic sensitivity, biophotonic transmissions and piezoelectric effects is proposed as a conduit for receiving and transmitting Psycho-Sensory signals during altered mental states, such as advanced meditation.
Imagine if the blind spot were non-existent, whether in AI, its developers, or in the prompt engineers. The quote above would instead be phrased somewhat such:
The suśumna nāḍī conduit theory suggests that the merudaṇḍa functions as a specialized antenna for cetanā expansion. The anatomical structure of the spine, with its electromagnetic sensitivity, prāṇika flow, and spandana is proposed as a conduit for mano-indriyaḥ pravāha during dhyāna, nidra and/or samādhi states.
The above isn’t simply a replacement of English terms with Sanskrit ones, it’s a positioning of the contents within an ontology that actually has rooted and contextualized taxonomies for them.
This concludes part 1, where we use a recent instance to illustrate what is meant by Hinduism in the blind spot. In part 2 we will go deeper, examining two more instances of the blind spot, to detail what we can learn from this, and what needs to be done about it.
Read part 2 of this essay here.