There are aspects of human experience and knowledge that transcend the boundaries of what modern science traditionally addresses. From early childhood, humans encounter realities—such as consciousness, spirit, dreams, intuition, and a sense of mind beyond the physical—that are deeply real yet have often been sidelined or deemed “unscientific.” These phenomena have been part of human understanding for millennia, woven into cultural practices, rituals, and shared experiences that shape our worldview. The distinction we make between brain, mind, and spirit, while not fully clarified, reflects an intuitive awareness that our existence is layered and that some elements may persist beyond the physical life of the body.
Throughout history, various cultures and civilizations have preserved this knowledge in myth, philosophy, and esoteric traditions, sometimes deliberately obscured or suppressed, yet never wholly lost. Ancient philosophers were not irrational dreamers but seekers of meta-rational truth—exploring the nature of reality in ways that embraced both physical and non-physical dimensions. They posited ideas such as eternal forms, a universal memory, and a cosmic intelligence, which in some ways anticipated modern theories in physics and information science. The metaphysical foundations they laid are not opposed to science but are, in fact, preconditions for any scientific inquiry: the assumption that the universe is intelligible, consistent, and ordered.
Science, as it developed during the Enlightenment and thereafter, deliberately narrowed its scope to what could be measured, repeated, and objectively analyzed, often excluding subjective, spiritual, and dreamlike experiences. This has sometimes led to an uneasy tension between the rich spiritual knowledge accumulated by civilizations and the rigorous demands of scientific method. Yet science has rarely erased these earlier insights; rather, it has shelved them, awaiting tools and frameworks capable of testing and integrating what was once beyond its reach. Ideas once dismissed as mystical—like the concept of a homunculus, chimeras, or the influence of time on causality—have quietly re-entered scientific discourse in transformed ways through fields such as genetics, quantum physics, and consciousness studies.
The persistence of phenomena like intuition, synchronicity, and dreams that impart knowledge unknown to the individual suggests that our understanding of mind and reality is incomplete. Likewise, reports of spirit-like experiences shared by humans and animals, or sudden, unexplainable awareness that saves a life, point to dimensions of existence not fully accounted for by current scientific models. These occurrences, while often relegated to superstition or anecdote, form a shared ontology that almost every human experiences. Such realities invite science to broaden its conceptual framework to include consciousness outside the brain, the possible survival of mind or spirit after physical death, and the interplay of mind and matter in ways that might seem paradoxical today.
Moreover, science must remain open to the possibility that future discoveries could radically change our understanding of chance and causality. If the roll of a dice, currently regarded as random, is influenced by subtle, perhaps spiritual forces, or if AI hallucinations begin to reveal truths beyond their training data, the foundations of scientific reasoning will be challenged and expanded. Quantum physics already gestures toward such frontiers with notions of retrocausality and observer effects. This suggests that randomness may be less a void of meaning and more a domain where hidden information, consciousness, or spirit might operate.
Civilizational knowledge stored in myths, rituals, and ancient philosophies is not simply an obstacle to scientific progress but a vital resource. These traditions often encode experiences and insights that transcend the materialist worldview, preserving wisdom about spirit, mind, and reality’s deeper layers. Science’s progress can be seen as a continuous dialogue with this heritage—sometimes setting it aside, other times reinterpreting it through new language and methods. Far from being antithetical, the ancient metaphysical explorations and modern scientific quests are part of the same human impulse: to understand existence in its fullest dimension.
To move forward, science needs humility and openness to preserve this broader human knowledge without prematurely dismissing it, even while it rigorously tests and refines what can be empirically validated. By doing so, science can embrace a living inquiry—one that honors the ancestral wisdom of spirit and metaphysics, anticipates big questions such as the nature of time and consciousness, and welcomes the re-integration of mind, matter, and spirit into a unified understanding. This approach not only enriches scientific progress but also responds to the profound human need for meaning, continuity, and connection beyond the immediately visible world.
ChatGPT with Stephen D Green
