DIVINE ENERGY:
QUANTUM MECHANICS,
PSYCHOTHERAPY, AND
WORLD RELIGIONS
(in reference to St. Gregory Palamas)
According to D. M. Rogich
Presentation by Liza Tanczyk
Theology 3306
November 21, 2013
STRUCTURE OF PRESENTATION
Follows reading chronologically. Slide titles simplified. Rogich’s original titles in small print .
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THE SCIENCE OF ENERGY
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THEOLOGY – PHYSICS DIALOGUE
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Updating: Uniting the Greek East with the Latin West on (uncreated) grace
PSYCHOTHERAPY AND HESYCHASM
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Quantum theory supports the divine energy concept
EAST-WEST DEBATE
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Same title as above, plus “Aristotelian “created” categories”
PALAMAS RESONATES WITH MODERN PHYSICS
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Energy, time, space: hesychast christology and physics
CRITISICMS OF PALAMISM
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Jesus: the divine personification of E = mc2
PALAMITE COSMOLOGY
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Palamite energy and quantum theory. Dialogue on energy: Teilhard and Cobb
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CREATOR AND CREATION
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Energy in modern theoretical quantum mechanics (to p. 184)
Same title
HESYCHASM VIS-À-VIS EASTERN RELIGIONS
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The mysticism of world religions and hesychast christology
THE SCIENCE OF ENERGY
Energy and mass are not two separate things –
they interpenetrate.
 E = mc2
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c = speed of light; reduce c, and m increases
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Wave-particle duality
Distinction between matter and energy becomes fuzzy
around speed of light
Newton’s Laws of Motion: a body changes
according to exterior forces.
 Quantum mechanics: a body changes according
to ever-present interior energy.
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THEOLOGY – PHYSICS DIALOGUE
Some physicists are starting to recognize the need
to factor “consciousness” into laws of physics
 Theologians are also considering science parallels
 e.g. Tielhard:
 “There is a single energy operating in the world”
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– It occurs in two forms:
1.
Tangential
2. Radial
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Causes
physical effect
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Draws creation
forward
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Results in
creation
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Uncreated
Zone of participation
of creation in the
Divine
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CREATOR
AND CREATION
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Incarnation – duality of energy and mass reach
their unified potential.
Personal God works through uncreated energies
on physical world
God is not distant but co-mingling
Created nature is not ontologically autonomous –
it was created to participate in God
K. Ware: “God did not set the universe in
motion and leave it to tick on its own. Creation
is continuous and present.”
PALAMITE COSMOLOGY
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God’s energy is converted to physicality. Part of
it attaches to the creation.
This is the “image of God” within.
Human and divine energies co-mingle, bringing
about theosis.
Purpose of Incarnation was to re-activate divine
energy in humans.
Theosis is not brought about by an individual’s
imitation of God.
Because theosis is beyond space and time, it can
start while still in this world.
CRITICISMS OF PALAMISM
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Aristotelian “substance metaphysics”: God and
creature are ontologically distinct, interact as
separate autonomous entities.
Man can be sanctified by created, not uncreated
grace.
Aristotelian view is from “Outside”, Palamite
view from “Inside”.
Critics of Palamas are uncomfortable because he
is not being clear-cut.
Palamas: Answers to existence are not in
intellectual concepts but in “direct nonconceptual experience inexpressible in language
and philosophical construct”.9
PALAMAS RESONATES WITH MODERN
PHYSICS
Uncreated energy is changeless, appears in various forms,
is real and indestructible (is conserved).
 It is the “consciousness of matter” that pervades the
universe.
 Divine (radial) energies draw participant into encounter
with God.
 There is no “gap” between them and God’s essence.
 Physical energy manifests itself in different forms that can
be observed and measured (light, heat).
 But energy “writ large” – the source from where all the
manifestations come – is not readily observable.
 This can be used as a way of understanding the difference
between essence and energies in Palamite theology.
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EAST – WEST DEBATE
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The impasse between East and West is about the
essence and energies of God.
Divine essence is unknowable, yet energies are
manifestations of the essence.
If all beings can participate in God, He becomes
multi-hypostatic.
Palamas indicates that experience of divine light
is temporary.
Participation does not result in a permanent
union with God.
Hence the West (Aquinas) considers that the
beatific vision cannot happen until the next life.
PSYCHOTHERAPY AND HESYCHASM
Mind techniques can elicit physiological response of
relaxation.
 The Jesus prayer is not a therapeutic method, but a
means to go beyond the mind to experience the reality of
God.
 Is consciousness physical; does it reside in the brain, or
is embedded in other cells of the body?
 Is it a property of an independent mind / soul?
 Palamas: Soul gets its immortality from the uncreated
image that resides in the Nous
 Created consciousness is the neurophysiology of the
brain
 Uncreated consciousness is the image of God within.
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HESYCHASM VIS-À-VIS EASTERN RELIGIONS
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Palamas on mystical ascent: “One does not ascend by
reason or by transcendental meditation, but by the power
of the Holy Spirit. The intellect listens to inexpressible
words and sees the invisible”.
In contrast to other Eastern religions, this process is not
achieved by the meditator.
Hinduism and Buddhism seek to attain a state of
nothingness through the efforts of the meditator.
The goal of the meditation is a union with the divine
accompanied by a loss of personal individuality.
In hesychasm the object of contemplation is God, not
nothingness, and does not end in impersonalism.