Notions of God donÂ't go down very well in scientific circles. Paul
Davies has written that science has looked out to the edges of the
universe to deep space, into deep time -- to the beginning of the
universe, and into deep structure -- to the basic level of the quantum.
And science is proud to proclaim that it has found no need or place for
God. The universe works perfectly well without any divine agent. Science
has nicely got rid of God,-- thank you very much. But so far they have
ignored an equally important fourth area of study -- that of the mind. I
don't think any great spiritual teacher ever said God would be found out
there at the edge of the universe. If God is to be found anywhere it is
deep within ourselves, at the core of our own being ....

There are fascinating parallels between consciousness and light. Even in
everyday language we speak of the Inner Light, the light of
consciousness. St. John spoke of the light which lighteth every mind
that came into the world. Just as consciousness is a big anomaly for the
current scientific paradigm, so is light.

Light moves at the same speed relative to all observers. No matter how
fast you go, light will overtake you and go 186,000 miles/sec faster.
Even if you accelerated yourself to 185,999 miles/sec, it would go
186,000 miles/sec faster, not 1 mile/sec faster. It was this anomaly
that led Einstein to his famous Special Theory of Relativity. This
predicts that the closer you approach the speed of light, the slower
your clocks run, and the shorter your measurements of length. This goes
completely against common sense, but it turns out that in this instance
it is commonsense that is wrong. Atomic clocks have been flown around
the world, and they do indeed slow down by the predicted amount.

You have probably heard that nothing can ever travel at the speed of
light. The reason is that mass increases with speed, and at the speed of
light an objectÂ's mass would have become infinite, and it would take
more than all the energy in the universe to accelerate the object up to
light speed. But light travels at the speed of light, by definition, and
the reason it can is that it always has zero mass. EinsteinÂ's equations
predict that from lightÂ's own point of view time has stopped, and
distance has shrunk to zero. So all light knows is now. It doesn't exist
in time and space as we do. Light, somehow, lies beyond the world of
space, time, and matter. It is not part of the material world.

The same could be said of consciousness. It seems to have no mass. And
according to the mystics, who have delved into the nature of their own
consciousness, time and space disappear when you get down to the deepest
levels of consciousness. Saint Augustine said, "He that knows the truth,
knows what this light is and that it is eternity". And Emerson said,
"time and space are but the physiological colors the eye makes, the soul
is light".

So I think there is more to this than verbal parallels. It seems to me
that light is the first level of manifestation both in the physical
realm and the realm of mind.

Immediately the phrase "God is Light" comes to the mind. And I think
there may be more to this than we at first suppose. Mystics the world
over have repeatedly claimed two things. First that the true nature of
the self is pure consciousness, the light of consciousness. And second
that the self is also identical with God.

Of course, saying that "I am God" doesnÂ't go down well in most cultures.
When the German mystic Meister Eckhart said "I am God" or "I and God are
One," the Vatican told him to recant. You can say you have the
experience of God but not that you are God. But when the mystic says "I
am God", they are not talking of the individual self, not the ego which
identifies itself with things like "I am Peter Russell, I am British, I
am male, I think these thoughts, etc., etc.". What they are really
saying is that the pure self, the most fundamental level of our being,
is God. In other words, God is consciousness -- not consciousness of any
particular thing, but the very faculty of consciousness that is present
in all things. As Ramana Maharshi said, "I Am is the name of God. God is
none other than the self". Or, in the words of a Sufi mystic, "When thou
knowest thine own existence, then thou knowest God".

This is where we end up once we start investigating the true nature of
consciousness. Although science doesnÂ't realize it, once it embarks upon
this exploration and begins to delve into deep mind, it is going to find
itself confronting the one thing it has avoided and denied for so long
-- the nature of God.

From: Science. Consciousness (and dare I say it?) God by Peter Russell,
Albuquerque, 1999.

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