Week 10 - Charles Miin

My intended discipline and field of study is the biological sciences, specifically microbiology. I think there is room for great understanding within the field with the acknowledgement of the spirit realm but only with the defiance of certain challenges. As we've discussed in this quarter of study, spiritual understanding and inclusion in academia is severely reduced and hampered in Western society, especially so in the sciences. I believe that aside from the infrastructure that academia is built on that rewards conformity and adherence, the burden of proof and demonstration makes spirituality a hard concept to accept. Yet, as we saw with the first readings of the quarter, there may be explanations for some of the widest medical mysteries and phenomena in the spiritual link or structure of the universe such as the very cells that power our bodies. To imagine that it is somehow possible to find a correlation between the increase in exertion of a field or energy when cells are stressed or near death is a huge revelation if proven to be true. The true challenge here is to be able to even have the chance to figure out if a connection is present and that requires effort from all sides of the matter in order to achieve success. The established academic and scientific community must first seek to consider interrogating this field of study and proponents of this spiritual connection must compromise and seek to meet the community halfway. They must strive to find ways to fulfill the requirements that the academic and scientific community imposes on their members in order to maintain a standard of credibility and understanding. This was accomplished in the first reading where the existence of a cell-soul pathway was linked to specific data points regarding the body and allowed for the possibility of further investigation. This will likely be more difficult for other aspects of the spirit realm that are less similar and I believe a good strategy to achieve this is to help educate these spiritual experts in fields of science related to their studies. This can occur with a convention between respective experts and investigators who can present their respective understandings of issues and find commonalities and differences. The more that they understand about one another's mindsets and beliefs, the better they will be at drawing connections and bridging the gap between the two communities. However, I do believe that those who exist outside of academia will have to strive to work harder to open up the minds of others. I believe that it must be done this way because the existing academic and scientific community, for no true fault of their own, is designed in opposition and will find it extremely difficult to learn the knowledge of the spirit realm but just as I have been a part of this class, it remains a possibility nonetheless. Therefore, both sides must simply endeavor to learn more of one another so that the gap can begin to close between the two.

Question: What are the biggest challenges that prevent those who study the spirit realm from studying the scientific literature related to their interests? How can we better present and exchange information between the two communities?