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INTRODUCTION

Matter and mind have always been discussed and investigated in many different facets, but at the end of the day a solution that satisfies everyone is yet to be found. There is, however, an urgent need to explore the issue because modern technologies will, already in the near future, allow us to operate on a level which in all likelihood forms the basis of mental and spiritual states. In order to assess what we are actually doing when we engage in such novel experimental activities, we need to know more about the mind ’s origin and significance and what its relation is to ordinary matter. With this monograph, Alfred Schmid presents a ground-breaking and exciting approach to solve the matter-mind problem.

It is well known that Descartes proposed we understand mind and matter as two connectionless elements, each part existing independently of one another. Yet this view raises serious problems and today has at best historical value. It is common to try and explain mental-spiritual states with the methods of modern theoretical physics by means of specific models. Mind is then based on the material level, and mental-spiritual states are merely secondary phenomena that are not really fundamental. Alfred Schmid rejects such attempted explanations and positively turns the matter upside down by suggesting exactly the opposite approach. According to him, the transcendental produces the material states. What can Alfred Schmid ’s wisdom give us? Not only can it strengthen the individual sense of self-worth, but it can also tie in with the possible potential of so-called nano-technology and give content and direction to all of this. Some brief remarks on this:

A few decades ago, the controlled manipulation of atoms was accomplished. This was the birth of nanotechnology, which currently runs all over the world through a highly accelerated development phase. This new technology is, so to speak, the very basis of everything that immediately affects man in the material domain. There is no level of development above that of nanotechnology. We are now capable of developing materials whose astounding properties can be defined absolutely: this is not only the strongest material that has ever been produced, but the strongest material that it is generally possible to produce. There is nothing above and beyond.

Yet nanotechnology also wants to affect brain functions on an atomic level, and it does so very decidedly and with the above-mentioned claim to absoluteness. “Computational neurogenetics ” is a new line of research that, within a nanotechnological framework, mathematically examines brain functions with the purpose of enabling us to demonstrate what needs to be done on an atomic level to remedy functional defects in the brain, which expressly includes the mental-spiritual domain. If there is to be a connection between mind and matter, then it surely manifests itself on this absolute, nanotechnological level. In this situation, we must give attention not only to the basis of matter, but we must also look into the origin of the mental-spiritual states and attempt to explain the connection that exists between mind and matter. Alfred Schmid’s approach is unusual, but this also means that it is very different from the existing, less successful attempted solutions. It can provide orientation especially to those nanotechnological activities. In this respect, Schmid ’s world view is highly topical. Although Schmid does not commit to the customary standards of modern theoretical physics, he does not violate them either, which means, however, that some of the details he provides will prove to be in need of correction. In the form presented here, his remarks are kept general, as it was already his practice in his 1957 monograph The Marvel of Light. His worldview is comprehensive and largely eliminates the difficulties that arise in the context of standard physics. To make this easier to see, let us briefly consider the current situation in standard physics.

The problem of modern theoretical physics is that it claims to be able to describe the world in its entirety. The current state is all too clearly reflected when Steven Hawking, without provoking any meaningful objections from his colleagues, asserts that we will soon hold “God’s plan” in our hands. It also makes it obvious how inappropriate that claim is. And yet public opinion follows the same line, I suppose mainly because our technological achievements are indeed stupendous. That is convincing, so it seems to follow logically that we should be able to describe the world in its entirety. It is a fact that physics gives us the foundations for all technological developments, many of which are no doubt fantastic, breathtaking and also helpful. On the other hand, however, the more we advance in this process, the more lucre and the acquisition and exhibition of luxury are pushed to the fore. Those who are in possession of this wealth and luxury certainly don’t mind, and many who are not would not mind either. The trend is clear!

It is certainly true that modern theoretical physics, in all its forms of development, constitutes an outstanding intellectual system the likes of which has never existed before and that in the way it creates its standards closely follows experimental facts. Seen from this angle, the “physical method” is certainly irreplaceable. We must, however, judge as inappropriate its claim that it can understand everything in the world. The success of physics on the material level, which is evident particularly in the largely complete reproduction of experimental results, no doubt suggests that there is indeed nothing of substance besides the mathematically formulated laws of physics. Accordingly, it is precisely those elements that are believed to hold the world together at the core; here, metaphysical elements have no right to exist. That, however, is careless! In particular, it denies that modern physics is not free from transcendence or metaphysics either.

Theoretical physics is certainly free of mystical entities in whose real existence people in pre-scientific times still used to believe more or less firmly. In those days it was by no means absurd to be convinced that what was going on in field and forest was brought about by gods, demi-gods, capricious fairies, or other mystical “persons”. Of such mystic entities modern physics could, as I said, easily dispose. However, with its conceptualizations, it has by no means detached itself from transcendence and metaphysics. On the contrary, some basic elements and assertions can, as a matter of principle, not be measured. Take for instance the concept of the field. Modern physics expresses almost everything as a field property; the vacuum is positively stuffed with fields. With physical means of observation, however, we do not, due to the field’s infinite value range, even get close to experiencing fields in their entirety, because once we have experimentally identified a particular set of values within an infinite range (and that is all we can do), there is still an infinite number of field elements left.

Alfred Schmid makes a fresh start. He does not graft physics onto metaphysics, but asserts that everything has its origin in the transcendental. For him, metaphysics is not an accessory and a leisure activity that has no place in our professional dealings with the world. Rather, Alfred Schmid puts the transcendental at the core of everything that happens in the cosmos, resulting also in the laws governing the material domain.

Alfred Schmid argues as follows: everything in the world, humans, animals, plants, minerals, and even elementary particles, do not act because they are causally conditioned to do so, but all those things act, as it were, of their own accord. Every part of Creation has the ability to act. Everything that exists is therefore elevated to the status of the “persona”, and there is no causally produced passive activity as the pull and push forces of Newtonian mechanics would suggest. According to Alfred Schmid, self-originated action is a primordial phenomenon, that is to say, the most fundamental thing in existence.

This means that every outside correlates with an immanent inside, the transcendental, which makes this outside possible in the first place, but which man can neither experience like a material object nor explain, even though we can notice, observe, and also influence its effects. This inside that is immanently at work in everything that exists in the world Alfred Schmid calls principium motus; according to him this is ultimately what holds the world together at the core.

In Alfred Schmid ’s view this insight is generated by “gnostic thinking” and requires faith. This faith, however, is not simply a belief in something, but it is a knowing belief in something. Since what we are dealing with here are absolute, ultimate truths, it must be a faith with no conditions and one that is not supported by reason. Yet standard physics does not deduce its laws exclusively through logical thinking either. Rather, it always starts with a specific image that is posited and that results from a “higher insight”. Theoretical physics is here tangent to Schmid’s worldview. Schmid, however, has other and new areas of emphasis. Of this, the present seminal monograph is a convincing demonstration.

Karlsruhe, February 2007

Wolfram Schommers