Purusha and Prakriti: On the Co-Evolution of Mind and Matter


"So what do you think about the title of my paper?"

"I like it," Doc said. "What do you think about it?"

"I have to give it some more thought" I said.  "It's only a working title after all, I haven't even started writing the essay yet."

"Well, it's a good start."

"I agree."

"How 'bout you Doc, what's that you're listening to?"

"To Our Childrens Childrens Children, it's an album by the Moody Blues, one of my all time favorites. They made it a couple years ago as a tribute to the Apollo Moon landing."

"Oh yeah, sounds interesting."

"It is." Doc said, gazing in the distance.  "I understand they made this album with a sort of time capsule in mind, to let people a hundred years from now know how it felt when humans first left this planet to visit another world."

"Sounds trippy."

"Captures the journey perfectly I think," Doc said, still staring off to space. "But I add my own twist to it. I play side two first, then side-one. Feels more appropriate that way, starting with the song Gypsy and ending with Out and In."

"The cave drawings on the album cover sure are interesting. Their music here is about the present and future, but the cover image goes back to the past."

"That's those audio-visionary British lads for ya," smiled Doc. "The Moody mind goes beyond time and space, real creative synergy happening there,
powerful insightful music with lyrics to match. And the artwork on their album covers always reflects that."

"What you're saying makes me think of that other British band Yes."

"Yes!" Doc mused, "otherworldly synergy there too!"

"Lot of great music coming out of the countercultural movement."

"Lot of great stuff all the way around," Doc said, "With times of trouble and turmoil...change...a lot of creative energy is built and released. Hmmm...the power of chaos."

"Yes. Hey Doc, speaking of which, looks like you got some changes goin' on around here. The old place is gettin' a new life."

"That's right," said Doc most directly. "I'm movin' on for good. The Controlled Substances Act was the final straw. I can't with good conscience work in this profession anymore, at least by these new standards, which so easily turns healthcare matters into criminal issues. Besides, my work in Holoergonomics is taking precedence now."

"I can see that. Are you going to teach classes here?"

"Yes, this'll be my indoor classroom," Doc said "But we'll be spending as much time as possible outdoors, seeing how the real world works. That's where best learning occurs as far as I'm concerned. Books are great, but they're no substitute for direct experience."

"Much as I've loved books through the years and always will, more and more I'm drawn to the outdoors. I suppose that's why these days my interests lie more in geology and paleontology...ancient history."

"Sounds like you're moving-on too," Doc said.

"Yes I am. Hard to say exactly where I'm going at this point, but I do know I'm staying in history. It's just that the history I'm studying is getting bigger and
bigger, beyond human. Plus I'm beginning to see these patterns emerging through time, an organization and direction that indicates a greater intelligence at work."

"I think I see where your Purusha and Prakriti paper is going."

A long silence came between us, as we each, separately and together, pondered our future. So many changes ahead...so much uncertainty...so much excitement...so much promise...And yet, some things I hope will never change. No matter how old I get. I'll always eat sodas, malted milkshakes and root beer floats...hamburgers, French fries and onion rings. The All-American diet I'll keep, however healthly-minded I get. When enjoyed to the fullest, such simple luxury is as good bedding under a star-filled sky in the middle of nowhere, cuddling with your lover, dreaming out to forever...it's pleasure without measure, worth more than a thousand kingdoms.

"Doc, are you gonna keep the soda fountain?"

"Are you kidding?" Doc laughed. "Of course. I may even add a grill in the back, along with a ping-pong table."

"Sounds like my kind of classroom. Now all you need is a big movie screen."

"I'm working on that."

"Perfect!"

"How 'bout you genius?" asked Doc. "What are you gonna do with that big noggin' of yours?"

"Not exactly sure yet, but I sense there's more to this whole education gig than information and technology. There's feeling and emotion in learning! Tapping into the Nous, or the Noosphere as Vernadsky and Teilhard describe it, feels beyond human. Sort of hard to explain."

"I know. That's why we live what we learn and learn what we live. Being is ultimately beyond words."


"And yet I have to write."

"Of course. You're a writer. Yet writer's are nothing without subjects to write about. That's why you do everything else you do, all the learning and exploration, all the studying and thinking, all the dreaming."

"All the eating."

"Life is, if nothing else, is a wonderfully sensuous experience."

"Might as well make the most of it!"

"Right!"

I take a big bite of my hamburger, and a long sip of my chocolate malt. Along with my onion rings, no meal has ever tasted better. It's an ideal experience I think, a simple but elegant combo.

"So by the way," interrupted Doc, , "What'd you think of Wigner's essay, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences?"

"My initial read says this is a most intelligent man who has, in his own way, found religion."

"The fact that mathematics works to explain our universe," Doc said, "Wigner's amazement of this fact borders on recognition of the miraculous."

"Yes, no matter how smart we get, at some point, in some way, we still confront a mystery...or perhaps I should say, the Mystery."

"Seems that many of the quantum guys are confronting the Mystery," grinned Doc. "Schrodinger, Bohm and Wigner, just to mention a few."

"I think of it as the meeting of science and mysticism, " I said, "though they've always worked together in a way that's not always readily apparent. But it's exploration all the same."

"Always together, like two onion rings."

"The power of creative synergy," I said.

"The deep and inseparable connection inherent in holism."

"Doc, I have this idea in my head that when parts of a system work in opposition, the result is a sort of destructive summation, a negation of creation."

I paused to gather my next thought, eating my last onion ring in the process. Doc sat quiet, listening intently.

"On the other hand," I began again, "when parts of system somehow work in cooperation, there is a synergy of creation. And that is how we live successfully, how the whole of the Cosmos exists perpetually, survives and even thrives, growing ever more diverse and complex---even when subject to the most destructive forces. It is Creation's answer to entropy, a most fundamental mathematical precept on which this universe is built. The equation says in so many words that noncooperative efforts have only additive effects, while cooperative efforts have synergistic results. In this way, because it's built into the fundamental mathematical programming of the universe, creation always wins  out...for the product of a synergistic process always surpasses the mere additive result.

"Now, I really see where your paper is going!" Doc exclaimed. "Reminds me of the Wright brothers, and how they worked together to get humans in the air. And the Moody Blues too, and Yes, their music is the synergistic result of cooperative, harmonious effort."

A grand silence came between us as we both basked in the light of this apparent breakthrough. Then Doc shifted to the edge of his stool with a hint of excitement.

"So what's next Dr. Morbius?!"

"Prepare your mind kind human for a new scale of physical-scientific values."

Ding. Ding.