Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Quantum Physics and Consciousness: 4-5 Feb 2017, Rabindra Tirtha, Kolkata
Quantum Physics and Consciousness: 4-5 Feb 2017, Rabindra Tirtha, Kolkata
Quantum Physics and Consciousness: 4-5 Feb 2017, Rabindra Tirtha, Kolkata
Conference Report
Quantum Physics and Consciousness
4-5 Feb 2017, Rabindra Tirtha, Kolkata
“ For centuries the reductive model has been supreme… But over the waning years of the
twentieth century a return of interest in holistic issues has begun to emerge. Today there are
stirrings, especially in quantum physics and cognitive science that bode well for such a renewal
of science in a holistic and wholesome modus operandi. I think that in this century, science will
be admitted to the spiritual aspects of mankind,and vice versa ...”
- Karl H. Pribam
“... thanks to quantum theories. It has at least provided an indication to all our fellow scientists
about the mystery of consciousness. The field is no more just confined to philosophers. Now our
scientists friends have started thinking about it in their labs ...”
- Dr. T. D. Singh
Imagine a world where scientists and spiritualists join hands together to unravel the
deepest mysteries of the nature, a world where science and spirituality shaking off the
myths surrounding their seemingly disparate orientations, reveal the unity in their innate
nature. Such a world turned into a reality on 4-5 February 2017, when a unique conference
on Quantum Physics and Consciousness was held in the city of joy, Kolkata at the beautiful
venue of Rabindra Tirtha, New Town.
The study of Consciousness has become an integral part of Quantum Study as Quantum
patrons understand that it is impossible to answer the quantum paradoxes without the
inclusion of the element of Consciousness. Max Born, one the founding fathers of
Quantum Physics has said “The answer to this (wave particle duality) is no longer
physics, but philosophy.” Among all the disciplines, the small but very significant branch
of quantum physics has a special role to possibly unlock the mystery of consciousness. The
very development of this field from the early 20th century compelled all the founders of
quantum physics, Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Max Born, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli,
Werner Heisenberg or John Wheeler, and many others to consider the role of
consciousness. As Heisenberg mentioned, “... it is in quantum theory that the most
fundamental changes with respect to the concept of reality have taken place ....”
With the central theme being the understanding of the element of Consciousness through
the lens of Quantum Physics, the conference was jointly organized by Bhaktivedanta
Institute, Kolkata and Bharatiya Vidya Mandir, and witnessed a heartfelt participation by
people from various corners of society, be it from Physics, or Mathematics, or Philosophy,
or even Spiritual Seekers. The wide range of themes and topics across gave the conference
its splendid aura and profoundness. The expert speakers from across the country as well
as abroad kept the audience fully attentive and engrossed with their presentation styles
and talks. The conference was attended by over 300 participants who in turn came from
IITs, IISERs, AIIMS, IISC, Jadavpur University, IACS, ISI and many other elite institutions of the
country.
The conference commenced with an inaugural ceremony at 10:00 am on 4th February 2017
with chants of Prayers from Brahma Samhita, lightening of lamps and offering flowers to
the photos of Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder Acharya, Bhaktivedanta
Institute, Dr. T. D. Singh (His Holiness Bhaktisvarupa Damodar Swami Maharaj), founder
2
director, Bhaktivedanta Institute, founder, Vedanta and Science Educational Research
Foundation, and the conference visionary, and Late Sri M. D. Mundhra Ji, founder, Bharatiya
Samskriti Samsad, by the dignitaries. The chief guest of the conference was Honourable
Governor of Tripura, Sri Tathagata Roy. His Holiness Sri Subhag Swami Maharaja, His
Holiness Swami Samvit Somgiri, Prof. Ajoy Kumar Ray, Director, IIEST Shibpur and Shri
Prahlad Rai Agarwal, Chairman, Rupa & Co. Ltd were the other Guests of Honour who were
present on the dais during the inaugural session. The other dignitaries on the dais were Dr.
Amit Goswami, University of Oregon, USA, Dr. Sudipto Ghosh, Chairman QPC Conference
and Professor at IIT Kharagpur, Sri K. Vasudeva Rao, President, Bhaktivedanta Institute,
Kolkata, and Dr. B. D. Mundhra, Chairman - Emeritus, Simplex Infrastructures Ltd.
Dr. Sudipto Ghosh, the conference chairman, addressed the audience as well as the
dignitaries on dais and welcomed everyone along with stressing on the importance of the
conference. He introduced the conference visionaries- Dr. T. D. Singh and (Late) Shri M. D.
Mundhra highlighting their respective contributions to the society at large, and encouraged
the audience to contribute to their visions through active participation during the
conference. Dr. B. D. Mundhra shared the thoughts which instigated the very idea behind
the conference which in turn he called a marriage between Science and Consciousness. He
gave a thoughtful definition of life as Layers of Integrated Fundamental Events (L.I.F.E) and
mentioned that the conference was meant to understand the principles of these
fundamental events. He welcomed everyone to delve into the subtle realms of quantum
world comprising of tiny humble particles. Sri K Vasudeva Rao spoke on various approaches
to gather knowledge. Top down is followed by those who accept knowledge as revelation
and then validate it by applying on themselves whereas bottom-up approach is the
empirical one. Even in bottom-up approach there are two divisions - One who says “Shut up
and calculate”; while the others, they are genuinely interested in the ultimate reality. Sri
Vasudeva Rao positively mentioned that the conference came as a blessing to Science and
Spirituality as it would prove out to be remarkably helpful in reconciling these different
approaches. Dr. Amit Goswami gave a glimpse of the Oneness of the consciousness as
propounded by ancient Rishis from India. He presented certain thought provoking
questions like, the observer and observed being of different natures, who is creating what-
Is Consciousness creating the world or is the world giving rise to the consciousness? He
also spoke on the deep moral conduct which Quantum Physics seems to be advising and
3
how this advice has a remarkable one to one correspondence with the teachings of ancient
spiritual leaders. His message was followed by a humble address by the Honorable
Governor of Tripura, Sri Tathagata Roy. Sri Tathagata Roy accepted that there must be
somewhere a deep connection between Quantum Physics and Consciousness and urged
that this connection should now be made clear to people at large including laymen. He
congratulated the conference organizers and wished all the best for the conference.
Photo 1: Sri Tathagata Roy, Honourable Governor of Tripura, addressing the conference delegates
Prof. Ajoy Kumar Ray started his mesmerizing address by calling the conference a
Chaturdhara, wherein four streams viz. Biology, Computer Science, Quantum Physics and
Consciousness cumulatively formed the subject matter, the reason being - the Quantum
computing (Computer Science and Quantum Physics) inside human Brain (Biology) as
proposed by Roger Penrose, may be giving rise to Consciousness. He sought and
encouraged the audience to seek answers to questions related to these four streams and
their inter-mingling, through the Conference. Shri Prahlad Rai Agarwal shared that the
concepts to be discussed in the conference were very similar to Upanishads. He
4
appreciated the motive of the conference and wished that conference might impart true
values in younger generation. His Holiness Subhag Swami Maharaj Ji told that Knowledge
obtained from the Supreme authority who also is Supreme Consciousness, is supreme and
faultless. This knowledge, he shared could be obtained only by developing the quality of
surrender-hood. And at last His Holiness Swami Samvit Somgiri talked about Brahma Vidya
as the highest knowledge. He clarified that everything is already there in Bhagavad Gita and
urged Scientists to relate their works to the teachings of Bhagavad Gita.
Sri Tathagata Roy and all other dignitaries present on the dais, released the conference
volume entitled “Quantum Physics and Consciousness - Thoughts of Founding Fathers of
Quantum Physics and other Renowned Scholars”. Web. April 1, 2017.
http://qpc.binstitute.org/qpc-volume.html.
Photo 2: Releasing the Conference Volume “Quantum Physics and Consciousness”. (Left to Right) Dr. Amit Goswami,
Sri K. Vasudeva Rao, His Holiness Sri Subhag Swami Maharaj, Prof. Sudipto Ghosh (Conference Chairman),
Sri Tathagata Roy (Hon'ble Governor of Tripura and Chief Guest of the Conference), Dr. B. D. Mundhra,
His Holiness Swami Samvit Somgiri, Prof. Ajoy Kr. Ray and Shri Prahlad Rai Agarwal
5
The invocation ceremony was followed by a humble Vote of Thanks by Sri Varun Agrawal,
Director of Bhaktivedanta Institute, Kolkata.
Prominent researchers, academicians as well as spiritual leaders and motivational speakers
from India and abroad delivered about nineteen lectures on following themes: What is
Quantum Physics; Quantum to Consciousness; What is Consciousness; Neuroscience, Artificial
Intelligence and Consciousness; Thoughts of Founding fathers of Quantum Physics; Theistic
Interpretations of Quantum Physics; and Thoughts on Quantum Physics and Consciousness.
Prominent eminent speakers were Prof. Amit Goswami, (Emeritus Professor) University of
Oregon, USA; Dr. Bernard Haisch, Astrophysicist, (formerly) University of California
Berkeley, USA; Swami Samvit Somgiri, Bikaner; Dr. Partha Ghose, (formerly) S. N. Bose
National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata; Dr. B. N. Gangadhar, Director, NIMHANS,
Bangalore; Prof. A.K. Mukhopadhyay, AIIMS, New Delhi; Prof. Bijoy Boruah, Professor, IIT
Delhi; Dr. G. P. Das, Indian Association of Cultivation of Science, Kolkata; Prabhat Kumar
Ranjan, TIFAC, New Delhi; Prof. Debashis Khan, IIT BHU; Madhu Babu Prakhya, San
Francisco, California, USA; and Dr. Sudipto Ghosh, Professor, IIT Kharagpur. Several other
academicians from different institutions like Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata; Bhadrak
Autonomous College, Orissa; and Defence Avionics Research Establishment, DRDO, and
others also delivered talks on their selected papers.
6
Day 1 hosted three technical sessions. The first technical session entitled “What is Quantum
Physics” was chaired by Dr. D. P. Duari, Director, M. P. Birla Institute of Fundamental
Research, Kolkata. The speakers of this session were Dr. Partha Ghose and Dr. G. P. Das.
Dr. Partha Ghose remarked that human perception is not just a singular but a result of
layers of concepts. He added that wave mechanics was born in statistics. Dr. G. P. Das
enthralled the audience when he said, “All Data is not information; All Information is not
knowledge; All knowledge is not wisdom and All Wisdom is not truth.“
Photo 3: Phenomenal Start - Dr. Partha Ghose introducing everyone with Quantum World in the very first technical session.
7
The second session “Quantum to Consciousness” was chaired by Prof. Ajoy Kumar Ray,
Director, IIEST, Shibpur. Dr. Amit Goswami, spoke in this session and shared with the
audience that Consciousness is the ground of all beings and that we and all living beings
are offset of a transcendental consciousness or cosmic mind. Dr. Bernard Haisch, the next
speaker in this session and he spoke on “Is the universe a vast, consciousness-created
virtual reality simulation?”. He expressed “The possibility that we are immersed in a virtual
reality simulation shows how it would be possible for a consciousness as real and primary,
physical as illusion and secondary, view to be the right one. “
Photo 4: Quantum to Consciousness- Dr. Amit Goswami provoking thoughts of pursuit to Consciousness
8
Photo 5: Consciousness and Universe- Dr. Bernard Haisch giving a completely new approach to link consciousness and universe.
The last technical session of the day in the next session was chaired by Mr. Priyabrata
Pramanik, Additional Director, Income tax, Kolkata. This session was on “What is
Consciousness”. Prof. Bijoy Boruah during this session fascinated everyone with his talk on
“I and Me” wherein he said “ You find yourself before or at least as soon as you find anything
else”. His talk was followed by a presentation of Vaishnava Vedantic view on Consciousness
by the next speaker Sri. K. Vasudeva Rao, President, Bhaktivedanta Institute. He said “One
who follows spirituality in life, gets a bigger picture of life and so then for him so called big things
start appearing small.”
9
Photo 6: Delving further - Prof. Bijoy Boruah’s mesmerizing the audience with his talk on “I and Me”
On Day 2 four technical sessions were conducted. The first session entitled as
“Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness” was chaired by Dr. Gurupada Das,
Airforce Research Laboratory, USA. During this session Dr. A. K. Mukhopadhyay in his talk
on “Cracking the hard problem of Consciousness” shared that Consciousness cannot be
10
defined but it can be qualified as immortal, eternal and infinite, conceived in biology as
‘Ananda’, the ecstasy of Divine perfectness. Dr. B. N. Gangadhar stressed on the journey
from Self-Consciousness to Cosmic Consciousness through Yoga. Sushant Sharma,
Alumnus IIT Guwahati and Conference Secretary, while speaking on “Inimitable Intelligence”
told that self referencing is a very important element of consciousness and that formal
mathematical systems lack. Dr. Prabhat Ranjan advocated the need of meditation to
positively influence our own minds.
Photo 7: Consciousness to Cosmic Consciousness - Dr. B. N. Gangadhar linking the two through Yoga.
11
Photo 8: Cracking the hard problem: Dr. A. K. Mukhopadhyay speaking on the ineffable but blissful nature of Consciousness
The next session viz. “Thoughts of founding fathers of Quantum Physics” was chaired by
Swami Samvit Somgiri Ji. Sri Varun Agrawal, Director, Bhaktivedanta Institute, presented
insights from fathers of Quantum mechanics and encouraged the audience to seek
answers for fundamental questions. Prof. Debashis Khan presented a biographical tour on
Wolfgang Pauli. This session was followed by an interesting session on “Theistic
Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics”. Dr. B. D. Mundhra chaired this session. Madhu
Babu Prakhya in his talk during this session spoke on Quantum Physics and Destiny and got
the audience completely absorbed with his talk. He shared - When you are loving, you are
creating an algorithm, and God is the open source whereas Nature is the operating system. Prof.
Sudipto Ghosh spoke on Vedantic perspectives on Quantum Physics, making his talk
interesting with an imaginary conversation between a Vedantist and a Quantum Physicist.
12
Photo 9: Let’s talk: Prof. Sudipto Ghosh presenting an imaginative talk between a Quantum Physicist and a Spiritualist.
The last technical session was for selected papers. The session was titled “Thoughts on
Quantum Physics and Consciousness” and was chaired by S. Matilal, Rajiv Gandhi School of
IPL, IIT Kharagpur. Goutam Paul, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, Swami Samvit Somgiri,
and Rajat Kumar Pradhan, Bhadrak Autonomous Science College, Orissa, presented their
individual papers. Girish M, Scientist, DRDO, Bangalore, and Nikhil Samant, Senior Analyst,
Novartis, Hyderabad jointly presented their paper.
13
During all these talks, interactions between the audience and the speakers were
remarkably astounding. Certain instances of interesting questions are “Does one-to-one
correspondence between cause and effect have any relevance understanding the relation
between Quantum physics and Consciousness?”, “Can we assign a temperature or an
energy state to Vacuum?”, “If the universe is computable then won’t it be suffering from
incompleteness as per Gödel?”. Such interactions continued even during the meal hours.
14
15
The two days conference also hosted cultural programs on both days. On first day Manipuri
artists from a troupe with name Ranganiketan presented performances on Manipuri solo
dance, Martial arts, Drum beating (Dhon Dholok Cholom), Pung Cholom and Ras Dance.
These they accompanied with soulful Manipuri music played live. The second day
witnessed a marvellous performance by Bharatanatyam Dancers led by Jhinook and her
team.
Photo 13: Soothing the churned minds - Ranganiketan artists from Manipur presenting Ras Lila.
16
Photo 14: Soothing the churned minds - Artists presenting the Bharatnatyam Dance.
While all these programs turned the auditorium into a very energetic and an engaging
place, the outer world was also fully equipped and arranged to reiterate the essence of the
conference thus keeping the spirit of all delegates high and intact. Individual exhibitions by
Bharatiya Vidya Mandir, Bharatiya Samskriti Samsad and Bhaktivedanta Institute were
presented at the conference venue. Around the campus were displayed quotes by fathers
of quantum mechanics and other renowned scientists as well as Dr. T. D. Singh himself.
Some instances of such quotes are : “... I regard consciousness as fundamental - Max Planck”,
“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum mechanics has not understood it - Niels Bohr” and
“Consciousness is the very basis of all forms of knowledge including that of science and religion -
Dr. T. D. Singh”. The conference was relayed live at a facility in the venue that they call as
“Cinema Hall”.
17
The conference spanned a nice media coverage with top newspapers and FM radio
highlighting the event.
18
Participants of the Conference were all praises for the same and in their feedbacks have
expressed great appreciation for the conference’s organizers. Some of the their words are
as follows:
1) “I congratulate you for this occasion” - Dr. B. N. Gangadhar, Director, NIMHANS,
Bangalore
2) “The conference was a big success and I believe there was a wonderful dialogue that went
on between scientists and spiritual leaders” - Marsha and Bernard Haisch, USA.
3) “conference was absolutely amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed it” - Vilvanesh K., IIT BHU.
4) “Can’t figure out a single session that I didn’t like. I liked the openness in the conference” -
Sayan K Pal, S. N. Bose National Centre for basic sciences, Kolkata
19