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THE SCIENCE OF DOWSING and THE DOWSING OF SCIENCE
Science today cannot explain dowsing because physics cannot yet measure the magnetic
and space/time energies involved. A future unified science should explain all aspects of dowsing (physical/biological/psychological/social).
Four major problems: magnetics, no explanation of chakras and meridians; no unity of quantum physics, general
relativity, and thermodynamics; no theory of consciousness (Searle 2007); no theory of survival after death of body. http://seri-worldwide.org/id71.html Physics
Empirical
Metaphysics. Dowsing phenomena do not fit into today's physics, so we take a "metaphysical" view. In the history
of science, such speculations are known as "empirical metaphysics". William Berkson (1974) recounts how physicists,
from Faraday in 1819 to Einstein in 1919, used Fields of Force as a model for guiding scientific investigation, a model lacking
empirical support at the time. Such models are metaphysical because they are used by experimental scientists despite incomplete
and conflicting evidence. Some metaphysical models fail: phlogiston theory
of heat, Newton's alchemy (Dobbs 1975), Goethe's theory of colors. Faraday's model was successful, for it led
to Maxwell's equations, Hertz's waves, today's electronic technology. Today's empirical metaphysics can be
found in Searle (2010), Lipton (2005), Baxter (2003), Tiller (2001), Narby (1998), Wilson (1998), Targ (1998), Arp (1998),
Yam (1997), Albert (1994), Bird (1990), Motoyama (1981), Puharich (1962), Tromp (1949), Reichenbach (1852).
Magnetics, Chakras and meridians have been known for thousands of year, and currently many
people agree they are magnetic; yet current science has no technology or theory about chakras or meridians.
In
1864, Maxwell derived the speed of light from the electric and magnetic constants. But with relativity theory in 1905, the
speed of light became basic and the magnetic constant derived (Feynman, 1964, p II-18-8). But then Feynman (1964, p II-37-13)
goes on to say that we don't understand magnetism. Magnetic energies are probably a function of magnetic monopoles (Tiller
2001, 1997). Maxwell's equations are invariant under relativity, so probably electromagnetism is more fundamental to physics
than Newton's mechanical energies, which are variant under Einstein's relativity.
Disunity of physics. A major problem of physics is
that in quantum theory, space/time are independent variables, but in general relativity theory, space/time are dependent variables.
Einstein failed to unify relativity with Maxwell's equations, so probably he was wrong that the speed of light is a basic
constant. Bell's theorem and entanglement imply something goes faster than the speed of light (d'Espagnat 1979). Bohr
was wrong that an electron has only the properties physics says it has (Copenhagen interpretation).
Electrons,
as Einstein said, exist independently of physics, and it is up to physics to discover (not invent) the properties of electrons. Future
of physics. Electric and magnetic energies seem to be finite and quantizable, but probably today's push to "quantize"
space/time will fail because space/time is continuous. My dowsing experience leads me to believe that space and time are energies
in their own right, not just a coordinate system, as in current physics. Geometry is full of non-quantizable/irrational numbers
(√2, π, ø, etc). Electrical/magnetic forms exhibit finite
Fibonacci numbers to reduce surface
stress (Li 2005), but growth in space/time may involve transfinite numbers (ø, Lawlor 1982, p 67). The principles of space and time are the subject of descriptive geometry
(Lawlor 1982). If we think of time as two dimensional (past/present/future, and duration/specious present, at right angles;
Broad 1959, p 769), then we can construct temporal right triangles and the progressions (arithmetic/geometric/harmonic) described
by Lawlor (1982). Space/time energies may be noncommutatative (Connes 2006). Probably, general relativity should be recast
in five dimensional space-time, with time having two dimensions.
If we write the Pythagorean theorem as a² + b² - c² =
0, it can be interpreted as a conservation principle (even if we are not sure what is conserved: length? space? energy?
etc?). In mathematical physics, + and - indicate conservationprinciples, divide indicates a ratio, multiply indicates an inverse ratio.
The Pythagorean theorem has been generalized across solid geometry, curved surfaces, and relativity theory. Thus, geometric conservation principles
constrain a physics of space/time continuous energy. Shu offers an interesting cosmology of general relativity.http://www.arxiv.org/abs/1007.1750 What is the relation of discreet energies to continuous energies? Any
field theory gives a relationship (quantum field theory, general relativity, Maxwell's equations, Newtonian potential
energy, etc). Einstein (1950) says Newtonian energies (mass, etc) relate to space/time as a symmetrical tensor, and Maxwell's
equations as skew-symmetric.
I
propose that a future physics may be constructed by:
- group together the laws/principles that give the relationships among discreet/finite
electric/magnetic energies;
- group together the geometric laws/principles that give relationships among continuous space/time energies;
- relate the two types of energies with
symmetric, skew-symmetric, etc, relations among them.
Consciousness
Quantum
physics went wrong in holding consciousness basic, not a product of biological evolution. Eddington (1928) describes "two
tables", the solid table we see/touch, and the table of physics: electrons/protons/empty space. He concludes the first
is real, but the second table is a mathematical fiction invented by physicists to account for their observations. Searle (2007)
drew the opposite conclusion: that the electrons/protons are real, and that the table we see is a construction of the mind
(Freeman 2000, p 90). Some scientist claim quantum physics solves the free
will problem. Some scientists claim a quantum computer is possible. The last place that we want free will is in a computer,
it seems to me; seems to be a logical disconnect.
Bertrand Russell (1927, p 383) claimed that when a neurophysiologist looks at your
brain, what he sees is in his own brain, not your brain. Russell's claim was build upon physics. Electrons, wavelengths,
etc, are not colored, so colors cannot be in the external world. Also, colors cannot be in the eyes, optic nerve, or visual
cortex because those are just electrons, etc. Thus the brain/mind builds a picture (colors/shapes/etc) of the world, and projects
it on the world; and our experience corrects the model over time, just as Buddhists have said for centuries.
Today, it is common knowledge among psychologists and neurophysiologists
that the mind/brain does not directly connect with the external world, but builds a model and projects it on the world (Freeman
2000 p90). How far down the evolutionary chain does consciousness go? Probably as far as there is non-coding junk dna. There
is a bacterium lacking "junk dna": probably a robot, no consciousness. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/309/5738/1242.abstract?sid=a44e18fe-96b1-40dd-9886-4bb57c38442a
From
my dowsing experience, I have become convinced that space and time are energies in their own right (morphogenic fields, Sheldrake
1981), not just a coordinate system (as in current physics), and that the field of consciousness (Searle 2007 p 5) is temporal/spatial.
That is, the stream of consciousness of our experience is a temporal energy, and the content of conscious experience (including emotions)
is spatial energy (pictures/maps/etc).
Tiller (2001) describes electronic devices imprinted by human meditation,
which affect the pH of water, enzymes (in vitro), fruit fly growth (in vivo), and "conditions" space. Tiller's book is mostly technical physics,
with consciousness joined to biology (not physics). Also relevant to the physics of time is the psychology of precognition,
which seems not to be a literal foreseeing of the future, but a "remembering of one's own future mind" (Targ 1998, p 127).
Precognition and dowsing involve
our intentions about the future. John
Searle (2007) does not have a solution to the free will/determinism problem, but I suggest that the brain appears deterministic
because it is made of (finite/discreet/quantizable) electromagnetic energy which seems deterministic because it is constrained by conservation (energy, charge,
spin, etc) laws. I propose the mind has free will because it is made of (transfinite/continuous/non-quantizable) space/time,
which is constrained only by the laws of geometry (Lawlor 1982). As Searle (2007, p 75-76) points out, quantum physics is of no help with the free will problem, because the mind
is no more random than it is deterministic.
It is said that the quantum the wave equation contains all possibilities;
but in practice, the wave equation usually has a 50-50 random probability of only two possibilities. Henry Stapp (UC Berkeley)
is so convinced that consciousness is a function of quantum mechanics, that he introduces causality back into quantum physics
to explain the causality of human perception and volition.
This is ironic, since Bohr and Heisenberg kicked causality
out of quantum physics, inorder to get consciousness into quantum physics. "Intentionality" is a technical term used by philosophers for meaning (or aboutness)
in analyzing how words or symbols can mean, or be about, something (or entail something, e.g., lightning means thunder). Most
philosophers seem to believe that meaning is purely linguistic or semantic (i.e., "es regnet" in German means "it
is raining" in English because both play the same role in their respective languages; the viewpoint of functionalism).
Searle (2007, p 6-7) thinks intentionality is a psychological
function outside language (extra-linguistic), and that meaning in language presupposes intentionality, which he analyses in
terms of "satisfaction".
In perception, the term "yellow station-wagon" is satisfied by a
yellow station-wagon (if it exists), a "mind-to-world" fit/satisfaction. In volition, "I intend to buy a necktie"
is satisfied by my buying a necktie, a "world-to-mind" fit/satisfaction. Wilfrid Sellars (1981) proposed that the colors we see are in the mind, and are both physical
and continuous (non-quantizable). That makes colors a spatial energy, in my sense. Sellars proposed that colors exist as part
of an act of perception. I propose that colors, in this sense, have intentionality and the act of perception is temporal.
A color in the mind is intentional (pre-linguistic) and is "satisfied by" whatever it is about. I believe Sellars'
account of colors can be extended to emotional experience. There is meaning, or intentionality, in perception, beliefs and language.
I believe intentionality starts
with perception, and goes from there, into beliefs and language. Hence, for Buddha, to release your suffering, please detach
from your dysfunctional misperceptions. To account
for social behavior, Searle (2007, 2010) introduces the concept of a Status Function: X counts as Y in context C. For instance,
a piece of paper in my wallet (X) counts as $1 (Y) in the US economy (C), because we all accept the status function of money
(and other social conventions: marriage/president/etc). In self-healing, Joe Wippich's harmony/disharmony ties back to Searle's satisfaction/dissatisfaction, and
dis-ease ties back to a 'self-status-function': dysfunctional emotional response (X) counts as dysfunctional behavior
pattern (Y) in that, cells in prolonged defensive/protective mode (Lipton 2005) bring about dis-ease (C). Thus self-healing
depends upon releasing disharmony and dysfunctional behavior patterns.
Reincarnation and
Past/Future Lives
If body and
personality are built by dna, then science has no account of how anything survives death of the body. Kelleher (1999) proposes
that dna creates a light body that "ascends"; dna may "condition" space/time (Tiller 2001). My dowsing experience leads me to believe that dna guides the creation
of body and psychic structure (page 15, poles 1-18, rows a-h.). Searle (2007, p 33) claims the Self "… is conscious,
rational, capable of reflection and capable of decision and action, and therefore of assuming responsibility." Searle
denies that any part of a human survives death, but I suspect this Self (poles 9-18 rows a-d) survives as a space-time energy.
If the soul is earthbound, an astral body may survive (for awhile, may be fear-driven). There is scientific evidence for human reincarnation (Stevenson 2000), though reincarnation would
mean the dna of two persons in one body (hence problems of multiple personalities/walk-ins/walk-outs/etc); but run-of-the-mill
past-life stories seem problematic, and seem to be a distortion of past/present/future time. Even so, past life stories are
at least symbolically true (like a dream), and are important in self-healing.
Problems with dowsed past-life stories:
1) When a past life trauma is resolved, it can no longer be dowsed.
Did the past change?
2) People can
resolve traumas with family members within a single life time. We are not so inept as to need 10,000 years
experience with the same persons over and over in order to resolve problems, as so often happens in past life stories.
3) Past/future lives seem to occur as a "set of lives" related
to a present life trauma, all cleared with the trauma.
4) Dowsing a person's traumas over a period of time, past lives seem to be overlapping in time, not sequential.
Perhaps the lives are concurrent, or perhaps past lives are mirrors of today's life (rather than today's life
being a consequence of past karma).
Earth Energies
Dowsing overlaps with Geomancy and Feng Shui, covering
a broad range of topics, from geopathic zones to sacred sites (Graves 1978/1986, Swan 1990, http://www.sedonanomalies.com/, http://www.jeffreykeen.co.uk/). Earth energies seem to be a composite of physical and biological. Yin and yang seem to be magnetic/physical,
but also masculine and feminine (dna),
which we then project back onto earth and sky. Shlain (1998, pp 1-44) describes the feminine right/spatial brain and left
side of body, and the masculine left brain/temporal and right side of body.
The
Biological effects of earth energies are
another challenging puzzle. Alex Champion (2001) proposes that mazes (Cretan, Chartres, etc) have two basic geometrical patterns:
the meander pattern (electrical/magnetic energies?), and the 180 degree circular or spiral pattern (space/time energies?).
A three-dimensional earth maze also has a sine wave pattern: the mound above, and the path below, earth
level.
Many growth patterns
are geometric, so 2-dimensional time seems to be part of the world, and not just a mental feeling of duration.
Richard
Feather Anderson (1995) writes that there are eight "Patterns of Life", dynamic space/time patterns to guide the
energies of change and growth: Spiral, Alternation, Meander, Spheroids, Helix, Close-packing, Branching, Explosion-radial. Probably all
of these patterns exist in crop circles. Emotional traumas that unground dna may distort the right angles among spatial polarities,
and disharmonize growth processes by distorting the temporal progressions among the Patterns of Life. The work with geopathic zones raises the question whether these zones are pathological by nature, or because of our
limited understanding of the phenomena, or because of "pollution" by disharmonious people, animals, spirits, etc.
I
am inclined to feel that earth energies in-and-of themselves are neutral between good and bad, healthy and unhealthy (except
for problems such as hot sulfurous volcanoes, etc). What seems to be the case is that disharmoneous people can pollute their environment, and the environment then pollutes
people who are stressed. Global and local grid lines seem, for the most part, to be negative energies in
need of cleansing.
Ancient religion ceremonies may have evolved to cleanup the environment,
and to help people to heal themselves. Perhaps Stonehenge was built for such ceremonies. Walking a labyrinth
may unground people, causing them to confuse ungrounding with spirituality.
Biology
Environmental factors account for 70% to 90% of disease
risk, including such items as: radiation, stress, life style,infections, drugs, diet, pollution, internal chemical environment of
the body, metals, endocrine disrupters, immune modulators, receptor-binding proteins, etc. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6003/460.summary These factors effect the body by way of dna and epigenetics
(developmental, heritable, environmental, and behavioral). This epigenetic research seems to be on the right track.
From my experience with self-healing, my guess is that researchers will find that most illness stems from stress, and mostly
from emotional factors. DNA is an excellent receiver/transmitter of vibrations of all kinds (including psychic energies) that harmonize all
DNA in all cells. Given communication among cells and conscious minds (Baxter 2003), we have an explanation of how dowsing
and mental intention can bring about self-healing. Lipton (2005) describes epigenetic changes due to environmental effects.
Also electromagnetic effects are transmitted faster than chemical effects, so vibrational healing (accupuncture, homeopathic,
etc) can be more effective than western medicine. The body uses the same chemicals for different effects in different parts of the body, so drugs
(hitting all parts of the body) may have serious side-effects. Positive beliefs may heal you, negative beliefs sicken you. His book is the best account yet of how self-healing
works. His criticism of Darwin for emphasizing competition is more about "social darwinism" than evolution, and
he does not see morality as part of evolution.
There is a story from psychic archeology that indicates souls may be earth-bound for as long as four hundred years
(Schwartz 1978, chap 1). If we get a new theory of magnetics, we may also get a device to talk with earth-bound souls, and
our culture may be revolutionized.
Ed Stillman (1997, 1998, 1999) reports that dowsers (while dowsing) have an unusual brain pattern: strong coherence on brain right and left sides, across all
four types of waves (delta, theta, alpha, beta). People who meditate get into three or four of these brain-wave/brain-states,
but are more interested in the experience than dowsers, who are interested in information (yes/no answers)
rather than the experience. So meditators may take a few minutes to get into this brain state, whereas dowsers go in and out
of the state, to get an answer, in a fraction of a second. There have been suggestions that alpha/beta are for exploring the external world, theta/delta
for exploring the internal world; and that to go primarily alpha/beta results in experiencing one's body as external (out of body),
to go primarily theta/delta results in experiencing the world as internal (unified oceanic feeling).
The
human body is sensitive to biomagnetic energies, which are a function of earthly linear paramagnetic energies
and stellar nonlinear diamagnetic energies. Two thousand years ago the earth was entering the Pisces constellation,
and now it
is moving on to Aquarius.
The sun cycles through the 12 constellations of the Zodiac in about 26,000 years (Shlain
1998, p. 227), which may be a basis for astrology, and for numerology based on birth dates. In biology, there is a dispute as to whether microbes are monomorphic (single form), or pleomorphic
(form changing, Bird 1990, ch 1), which has implications for dowsing and self-healing. Freeman (2000) gives an excellent account
of how the brain functions, which seems basically correct. He gives a functional account of human consciousness (ch 6), but
he does not account for sensuous qualities (qualia).
Psychology
Science today has no explanation of sensory experience, of how we experience
colors, shapes, emotions of love/fear, etc. Searle (2007) explores the issues, and the lack of scientific
theory. Consciousness may be a field with conservation of space/time, but no electromagnetic mass/energy (so a feeling of
free will). The brain/mind is plastic. People wore periscopes
that turned the visual field upside down (or reversed right/left), but two weeks later vision was normal. When they took off
the periscopes, the visual field again was upside down (or reversed right/left), but two weeks later was normal (Dolezal 1982).
We need a theory of how that is possible.
Today's
psychological theories of perception involve the mind in building models of the world, projecting the model onto the world
(Freeman 2000, p. 90), and then correcting the model in light of feedback from the world and people in
it. So it seems that our mind constructs our conscious experience (colors, emotions, intuitions, etc). In _The Tibetan Book of the Dead_, the point of chanting over the deceased
for seven weeks is to assure the soul that whatever heaven or hell it experiences, is of its own making.
So our
dowsing experiences are created by our minds in response to energies from the world. Dowsing makes sense as another mode of
mental creation based upon external energies. It may be that retrotransposon DNA "conditions" space (Tiller 2001,
ch 6) so that a psychic structure can exist in time/space long after the DNA that created it has disintegrated with the death
of the body. We do not have a scientific theory of human sexual
energy, which seems to be involved with UFOs/ETs (Vallee 1988).
Probably masculine is magnetic/sky (north/east),
feminine magnetic/earth (south/west). The left-brain processes temporal information, the right brain spatial information (Shlain
1998 pp 1-44). Human thinking involves abstractions, created when
we sort items of our experience into categories. Wilson (1998, p 153) describes the human "dyadic instinct":
the tendency to sort phenomena into two-part classifications, such as day-night, masculine-feminine, block-white. etc.
Then we refine these dyadic with refinements, dawn, twilight, etc. In dowsing, this shows up in distinguishing yin-yang, ego-soul, mind-body, but then not really
knowing what yin, yang, ego, soul, mind, and body really are; but only in knowing that one is different from the other. Abstractions,
such as numbers, are not outside the mind (Casti 1996). Narby (1998) explores, in his superb research, how shamen learn which herb heals what, from talking to plants. They
see a "cosmic serpent" or a ladder, which Narby thinks is dna.
His work suggests ways that a mind may
comprehend and cause self-healing by way of dna, and lends support to Walt Woods' (1994) suggestion that dowsing techniques
can repair "broken" dna. If mind affects dna and dna affects evolution, evolution may not be mere random mutation,
but partly mind-driven (Narby ch 10).http://www.sciencemag.org/content/303/5664/1626.abstract?sid=f2ac7356-7388-4f44-820c-47e875e7028f
Engel (2002) points out ways in which chimps know how to use local plants for self-medication.
One wonders if apes also communicate with the dna of plants to determine which plant is good for which ailment. Who
knows, maybe chimps are dowsers. In theories
of dreams, we have Freud's theory that dreams arise from the subconscious, but mainstream neurochemistry claims that dreams are random results
of brain chemistry during non-REM and REM sleep. I suspect both are true: that brain chemistry contains
the 18 polarities of the psyche/body, so dreams result from both chemistry and the subconscious.
The Social Sciences
Deepak Chopra tells an interesting story of his two-week training to
be ordained as a Buddhist monk in 2010.http://deepakchopra.com/2010/07/a-monks-journey/ These monks are meditating 20 hours a day, including 4 hours of self-examination.
The abbots, of the ashrams he attended, are probably very enlightened meditators, to guide their monks through deep mediation,
releasing all personal hangups. I would think this is a continual and challenging effort to the abbot and his monks. How can it be that the villagers are willing to trade food for blessings
from the monks, each day? My guess is that over the generations, the villagers have found that the monks radiate such harmony
and healing, that the villagers are happier and healthier, for the daily trade. We stressed-out westerners may have something
to learn from them.
Dowsing
and self-healing are part of a much larger picture. Morgan (1994) sketches how a pre-industrial people
use dowsing and healing in their daily life. She describes how the Australian native people set out on a desert trek each
day, and dowse for water and food on their way (a feat we "moderns" find hard to fathom). She also describes various
healing techniques of the native culture. The healing
traditions of Shamanism are widely documented (see references in Narby 1998).
The shaman tradition combines dowsing,
geomancy, and much more. Shamanic drumming seems to release traumas and to stimulate unconditional love and harmony in all
parts of the body.
The shaman has
the power to control spirits, at least to prevent harm to her/himself and clients, at most to gain help from spirits to heal
clients. Merely to hear and speak with spirits, without controlling them, is a sign of madness, not a sign of being a shaman.
For the shaman, control of spirits and psychic energies plays the role that predictability and control play for
scientists, engineers, and dowsers. Eliade
(1951) recounts a healing by an Eskimo shaman, which has recurred for years, and several generations: There comes a time when the fish and mammals of the sea no longer come
to the people's fishing grounds, and starvation looms.
The shaman, in trance, journeys to the bottom of the
sea to plead with a goddess to release the fish and mammals she has penned up because of her anger at the people. When the shaman awakens
from trance,
he does not immediately tell of his journey. Instead, he tells the people of the anger of the goddess. The people begin to confess their misdeeds, there is
a communal catharsis, then the shaman says the goddess has agreed to release the fish and mammals because the people have repented. I suppose there are many ways to understand this event.
What
comes through to me is that human misdeeds may so pollute the environment that the animals cannot live
there, and a group meditation can cleanse the earth. Perhaps Stonehenge was built for such ceremonies.
The Frontiers of Science and Religion
Dowsing takes us not only to the frontiers of science, but also to the
frontiers of religion. As our knowledge progresses, we may have to shift both religious and scientific
views.
Traditionally,
possession by demons, spirits, etc., has been a spiritual concern. If dowsing is a matter of natural energies, then
possession may be a matter of energies and psychological traumas. The ancient Tibetan Buddhist beliefs may be true after all: the soul survives
the death of the body, and god(s) are part and parcel of the natural world just as living human beings and disembodied human
spirits are (Evans-Wentz 1927). Targ and Katra (1998, 1999) explore the relation of spirituality to healing. Sometimes science moves slowly. Physicists took 250 years (1600-1850)
to figure out that a thermometer measures units of heat per unit volume. It took 100 years to settle the foundations of mathematics.
By 1900-10, Frege and Russell had found the basic problems. In 2008-10, Feferman published his constructivist/naturalistic
account of the foundations of mathematics. http://math.stanford.edu/~feferman/papers/Conceptual_Structuralism.pdfhttp://math.stanford.edu/~feferman/papers/Continuum-I.pdf Biology and psychology are putting human capabilities into an evolutionary
perspective. Waal (1996) extends evolutionary theory to account for non-human primate morality and culture. Deacon (1997)
extends evolutionary theory to account for human language and social development.
The evolution of epigenetic
rules (Wilson 1998) may account for differences in cultural behavior (Benedict 1934, ch 5 on the Trobianders and the Dobu).
In the future, political and economic behavior (Diamond 2005, Warburton 2003) may also fall under evolutionary theory.
The capability of humans to learn language and morality is nature, but
which language and which morality, is nurture. When capabilities have survival value, they may become genetic (Deacon 1997).
Culture, if stable over 100 generations, becomes part of the environment to which humans genetically adapt. Some biologists
have doubts about Darwinian evolution, but the doubt seems to be mainly about whether mutations are truly random, or have
(unknown) causes. Londa Schiebinger (2004) explores "scientific
ignorance".
In the 1700s, botanists in the West Indies knew that the peacock flower induced abortion (as
did the native peoples), and shared their knowledge of medicinal plants with European naturalists, who published much about
herbs and healing, but not this particular fact. The plant, with flaming red and yellow flowers, was well-known to European
gardeners, but not it's abortion power. Neither the peacock flower nor any other West Indian abortifacient was ever mentioned
in any published pharmacopoeia. Apparently, European (male) scientists had an ideological slant to believe that the human population should expand,
and were not interested in anything that might limit human numbers (nor interested in women's rights).
We have the same problems today, "scientific ignorance" of
dowsing is certainly holding up all branches of science, from physics to the social sciences. One wonders if for the past
eighty years, ideology-based scientific ignorance in physics (e.g., Eddington's mistaken two-tables opinion, Einstein's
emphasis on mechanics over electomagnetics, Bohr's insistence on his Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics), has
held up the unification of Relativity Theory and Quantum physics, and kept the Big Bang theory alive.
There were other hold-ups, of course. In psychology, Godel's
so-called theorem (a variation of the liar's paradox) held up the theory of mind for 40 years until Quine (1969) announced
the "naturalization of epistemology". In the social sciences, G E Moore's so-called "naturalistic fallacy"
(Wilson 1998 p 249) held up moral theory for 60 years until Searle (1969 ch 8) showed how to derive "ought" from
"is".
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