The Large Hadron Collider and the Vedantic Perspective

In this episode, we’ll take a closer look at the progress made by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), as well as its limitations. The LHC has led to the observation of numerous new particles, sometimes referred to as the “particle zoo.” Despite these exciting discoveries, however, the LHC has yet to achieve its ultimate objective: identifying the fundamental constituents of reality. As we’ll explore in this episode, there are reasons to believe that the LHC may never uncover the true building blocks of the universe, as its approach may be fundamentally misdirected.

Drawing upon the teachings of Vedanta, we will present an alternative perspective on understanding the nature of objects in the universe. According to Vedanta, the search for ultimate truth requires a shift in approach—one that goes beyond the confines of particle physics and explores deeper questions about existence and awareness. In this episode, we aim to shed new light on the quest to comprehend the substratum of our world.

We look forward to your feedback. 

For questions or feedback please email us at

jayant@staminteractive.com

Transcript

Understanding the Large Hadron Collider

If you keep up with scientific advancements, you've probably heard of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Completed in 2008 by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the LHC was a monumental project involving 10,000 scientists from more than 100 countries. This impressive machine is situated in a subterranean tunnel with a circumference of about 27 kilometers. Within it, scientists collide elementary particles at incredibly high speeds to analyze their structure, aiming to uncover the fundamental components that make up our universe.

To grasp the functioning of the LHC, Einstein’s iconic equation, E=mc square, offers a helpful foundation. Atoms consist of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, surrounded by electrons. Scientists seek to go deeper and identify what lies beneath these elementary particles. In the LHC, particles like protons and neutrons are accelerated to extreme energies. According to Einstein’s equation, as the energy supplied to these particles increases, their speed climbs as well. This acceleration brings the particles close to the speed of light—though never reaching it, as doing so would require infinite energy.

Once these particles are moving at nearly the speed of light, further energy input doesn’t significantly boost their speed; instead, their mass increases. At these ultra-high energies, the particles possess both enormous speed and mass. Between 2008 and 2013, the LHC achieved energies of four teraelectronvolts. Scientists then directed two beams of these energized particles in opposite directions and crashed them together, observing how they fractured into even smaller particles. This process, repeated many times, allowed researchers to study the inner structure of these elementary particles and consistently validate their findings.

The LHC has enabled the discovery of many new particles, collectively known as the “particle zoo”—including fermions, bosons, tau particles, anti-taus, muon neutrinos, and various types of quarks. The catalog of particles continues to expand as research progresses.

Despite these breakthroughs, scientists remained unsatisfied. From 2013 to 2015, the LHC underwent significant upgrades, boosting particle acceleration energy to 6.5 teraelectronvolts —a leap of over 50%. This phase led to the groundbreaking discovery of the Higgs boson, the particle responsible for giving mass to everything in the universe. After three years of relentless experimentation, however, researchers felt there was still more to uncover and decided to further enhance the LHC’s capabilities. Currently, the LHC is undergoing another round of upgrades, with hopes that its improved power will help answer the universe's lingering mysteries.

This prompts a crucial question: Is it possible for scientists to uncover the universe’s ultimate foundation by smashing particles at ever higher energies? The straightforward answer is no—not now and not ever. No matter how much money is invested or how much more powerful particle accelerators become, the true underlying layer of the universe will remain elusive; the fundamental building blocks will not be found. Their search for truth is focused in the wrong direction.

Investigating a Recorded Image

The current approach adopted by science is unlikely to succeed because it tackles the problem from an ineffective angle. To illustrate this, consider the following analogy: Imagine you're viewing a playback of an event on a digital recording, and someone asks you to determine how many bones a person has by examining their image on a television screen. Is it possible? Not at all. No matter what methods you use, you won't uncover the number of bones inside that image of an individual. You might attempt to digitally zoom in on the image, hoping to see beneath the surface, but this effort will also fail. Instead, you'll realize that the image is composed of pixels. This realization might lead you to analyze the pixels in greater detail, expecting to discover the answer there. However, your focus has shifted from learning about the human body's structure to studying the properties of pixels. In a similar fashion, when scientists continue to smash particles together at the LHC and uncover new particles, they are actually moving further away from grasping the true foundation of the universe.

Universe is a Recording of events

How does this example help us in understanding this universe? If you study it carefully, you will discover that this universe is also made of “recorded” or “memory” objects. There are no “live” or “now” objects in this universe. As discussed in other episodes, the sun we see is a “now minus eight minutes” version of the sun. It takes light eight minutes to reach us; therefore, the sun is a recorded image and not a “live” or “now” sun. Take the moon; it takes light three seconds to reach us, so the moon we see is a recorded image of the moon and not a “live” image of the moon. The plane flying at 30,000 feet is a “now minus one millisecond” version of the plane, because light takes that much time to reach us, so the plane is also a recorded image.

This phenomenon isn't limited to celestial bodies like the stars, sun, and moon. It extends to all objects, whether large or small, animate or inanimate—trees, animals, people, and everything else. Every entity in the physical universe is, in effect, a "recorded" or "memory" object. This means that the external physical universe is comprised solely of such "recorded" entities. No matter how diligently you search, you'll never encounter a truly "live" or "present" object in this universe. Just as investigating a person in a recorded image leads only to the discovery of pixels, probing the material world reveals only atoms and subatomic particles within these "recorded" objects.

Given this reality, the question arises: What is the correct way to investigate the true foundation of the universe? There must be an alternative, more effective strategy for uncovering the underlying reality and the true nature of objects.

Moving Beyond Particle Physics to Grasp the True Nature of Reality

Modern science, through endeavors like smashing particles in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), seeks to uncover what physical objects in the universe are made of. However, this approach may be fundamentally limited. Trying to reveal the true composition of matter by analyzing particle collisions is like attempting to count the bones in a human body by examining a photograph—an inherently impossible task. If particle physics cannot provide the answers, where should we turn?

The Vedantic Approach to Understanding Objects

Ancient Vedanta, as contemplated by the rishis of India, offers a different—and correct path to understanding the essence of physical objects. Instead of dissecting objects into sub-atomic particles, Vedanta encourages us to look at their fundamental nature. To illustrate this, Vedanta uses the metaphor of the clay pot.

Clay pots are found in countless shapes and sizes: tall, short, round, ornate, simple—the possibilities are endless. Despite their differences, every clay pot consists of two basic components: the content which is clay itself and the form that the clay takes. In this analogy:

1. The clay is the content, the material reality of the pot.

2. The pot form is the shape or design imposed on clay.

No matter how varied the pots may be, their content —the clay—remains constant. The clay is the true content, while the pot form is just a temporary form that the clay assumes.

Consider the question: What is the weight of the clay (the content) and what is the weight of the pot (the form)? The answer is clear—the clay holds all the weight; the form itself has no independent weight. Furthermore, it is impossible to separate the form of the pot from the clay that gives it existence. The form is simply an idea or concept superimposed onto the clay. Without clay, the pot cannot exist, and the form cannot be separated from the material.

This Vedantic metaphor provides profound insight into the composition of every object in the universe. Each physical object consists of:

1. Content: The underlying substance or reality that gives the object existence.
2. Form: The shape, structure, or appearance that the substance takes.

While modern science focuses on breaking down object form into sub-atomic particles, Vedanta teaches us to look at what is truly real—the unchanging content—and the temporary, mutable forms. Understanding this distinction helps us appreciate the deeper truth behind the objects we encounter, moving beyond appearances to grasp the ultimate reality.

What is content of Objects? 

What truly makes up the content of everything in the universe? Vedanta suggests that a good starting point is to ask: how do we recognize the existence of an object? The straightforward answer is that we are aware of it. We see it, understand it, and can interact with it.

For example, how do we know a tree is green? It’s because we are aware of its color. How do we identify the sweetness of sugar? It’s because we are aware of its taste. How do we know we possess two legs and two hands? It’s because we are aware of our own body. How do we feel the smoothness of silk or realize we are listening to music? The answer in every case is our awareness.

The connecting link among all these examples is Awareness. Awareness is fundamental—it’s required to observe or experience any object. In fact, awareness is essential for anything to exist for us. Without it, we wouldn’t know of any objects perceived by our five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Any sensation from these organs must meet Awareness before we can experience it.

To help understand this, Vedanta uses the analogy of the sun. In the absence of sunlight, nothing is visible; but when the sun shines, everything becomes apparent. Similarly, when something enters the “light” of Awareness, it becomes observable. Without the light of Awareness, nothing can be perceived, and not even the sun. 

But what exactly is Awareness, and why is it so vital to the substance of objects? The answer is: everything. According to Vedanta, Awareness is the true essence of all objects in the universe. Everything we experience, everything that comes through our five senses—has Awareness as its fundamental content.

At first glance, Awareness might seem like just another word in English, defined simply as “knowledge or perception of a situation or fact.” However, Vedanta explains that Awareness goes far beyond a mere definition. It is an extraordinary force, the ultimate reality underlying the universe itself. Awareness fills up objects forms so that you can experience them in your mind.

As discussed in an earlier episode on self-awareness, Awareness consists of three elements: Subject, Object, and Intelligence and the three powers - Power of Knower, Power of Known and Power of Knowing. Importantly, these components are not external things found somewhere in the world. They are intrinsic to Awareness itself, forming its very nature.

Wherever there is Awareness, the Subject, Object, and Intelligence—along with their three powers—are always present. They are inseparable aspects of Awareness, and together, they constitute the true content of all objects in the universe. To understand how the content of every object in this universe is only Awareness, we need to understand Power of the Known.

Power of Known

The Power of the Known is an aspect of Awareness that specifically relates to objects perceived through our five senses. Rather than creating objects, this power enables Awareness to become or take the form of any object presented to it by sensory experience.

Awareness, in its pure state, is without form. However, it holds the potential to assume the shape of any object, depending entirely on sensory input. Imagine Awareness as a lump of Play-Doh: by itself, Play-Doh has no defined shape, but it can be molded into countless forms. Regardless of the shape, the substance remains Play-Doh. Similarly, no matter what object is perceived—whether a tree, a melody, or a splash of cold water—the underlying reality is always Awareness.

The next time you see, hear, or touch something, remember that what you are experiencing is Awareness itself, manifesting as that particular object. The essence of every object in the universe, despite its form or appearance, is Awareness and nothing else.

What Is Form Made Off?

We now recognize that the essence or substance of any object is pure Awareness. But this raises another question: What constitutes the shape or appearance of the object? Where does this form originate? To fully grasp this, it's important to understand how the mind operates.

As discussed in an earlier episode “Understanding the Mind”, the mind functions through mental patterns or waveforms, often referred to as vrittis. These patterns are composed of knowledge and intelligence. They enter our minds through the five sensory organs—eyes, nose, tongue, ears, and skin. These sensory inputs create intelligent mental waveforms, which serve as the foundation for the form of objects.

When these intelligent waveforms interact with Awareness, Awareness fills these waveforms and they take on the recognizable forms of the objects we perceive in the physical world. In this way, while Awareness is the essence or content, the forms we experience are constructed from the sensory inputs provided by our five senses. For example, waveforms from the ears become the sounds we hear; those from the eyes create the visual shapes we see; waveforms from the tongue give us taste; and similarly, smell and touch arise from inputs via the nose and skin.

Consider the earlier analogy of a clay pot: the only real substance is clay, while the pot itself is merely a form imposed upon that clay. In the same sense, Awareness is the true content of all objects, and their forms are created by the sensory information superimposed upon Awareness.

This understanding is accurate, yet in our everyday lives, we rarely feel that Awareness is the content of the objects around us. The reason is that our attention is almost always fixed on the outward form of objects, causing us to overlook their deeper content. For instance, when you visit a furniture store, your attention is caught by the various designs. You may think, "I like this style," or "That piece would look great in my home," focusing entirely on the form and not on the substance. Our habitual focus on form is so strong that we seldom realize that Awareness underlies every object.

Even scientific inquiry has traditionally concentrated on the form of objects, investigating ever-smaller components—molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles. While science has uncovered many layers of form, it seeks to discover the fundamental content of objects. However, by focusing solely on form, science misses Awareness, which cannot be found by breaking apart particles in a collider. The search is directed at the wrong aspect of reality—the form instead of the content.

In truth, there is no need to search for Awareness; it is always present and obvious. Whenever you perceive an object, Awareness is already manifest. It is right before you, in your act of perceiving. The next time you observe something, try shifting your attention from the object's form to the simple fact that you are aware of it. Practicing this regularly reveals that Awareness pervades everything, and that the forms we see are merely superficial layers atop an ever-present Awareness.

We hope this discussion has made it clear that Awareness represents the true essence of all objects. Awareness stands as the most powerful force and serves as the foundational reality of the universe. Based on this, it is regrettable to suggest that the Large Hadron Collider will ultimately struggle to achieve its deepest objective. By concentrating solely on the physical form of objects, the LHC is unlikely to uncover the content of all objects. A fundamental change in perspective is necessary.

If you’re interested in delving deeper into topics like this, we invite you to explore our blog at Vedanta and Science dot com or discover more in my book, Science Meets Vedanta, available on Amazon. Additionally, we offer a growing library of episodes covering many different topics —feel free to browse through them at your convenience.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, we encourage you to share it with your family and friends. Don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast so you never miss an upcoming episode.

Thank you for tuning in—we look forward to connecting with you again soon!