In Greek mythology, Procrustes was a robber who forced travelers to lie down in a bed and then made them fit by stretching or shortening their limbs. (Procrustes eventually suffered the same fate at the hands of Theseus). In Thomas Kuhn’s seminal work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, the author writes that scientific revolutions become necessary when the facts encountered through experience no longer fit the governing scientific paradigm. At some point, the mounting pile of contradictory facts can no longer be explained away, and the old model topples. Today, in science, we are witnessing a similar phenomenon: the evidence, and the credibility of the sources, continues to build against the materialistic paradigm. But like old Procrustes, modern science continues to force the facts to fit the theory, imagining new particles, new forces, and ever more worlds to explain the features of our universe. The book, Science, Consciousness & Ultimate Reality, edited by this week’s guest, David Lorimer, contains 11 articles by prominent thinkers all pointed in the same direction: consciousness, not mind, must be fundamental to the workings of the universe. At some point, science will be unable to ignore the facts, and it too will change.
