How seminal were the parallels that were beginning to be drawn with Eastern mysticism in breaking out of this idea of learning being a linear progression and beginning to unite cutting edge physics with archetypal spirituality. Again – for some it was a passion, while for others it made no impact. But again it was on the table for discussion and exploration. That was fundamental to the Fundamental Fysiks group in fact – that all ideas were open for debate, no matter how wacky they sounded on first blush. Most famously, Fritjof Capra, who was a central member of this group, wrote The Tao of Physics which is now in 43 editions in 23 languages, although at the time Capra really struggled to find a publisher. Capra had a PHD and had trained with various postdoctoral fellowships, including one in Santa Cruz where he started to develop a serious interest in Eastern spirituality. And again the Bay Area was the centre in North America for some of these ideas about Eastern philosophy. There were all kinds of lectures, discussions and experiential sessions that he found himself in
the midst of. He began to draw the parallels with quantum physics and wanted to argue that modern physics was in fact rediscovering ancient wisdom, and some of the very first meetings of the Fundamental Fysiks group were dedicated to Capra putting forth his ideas as the book was just coming out.
So with all these different ideas flying about and some pretty out there lines of enquiry, despite the underlying drive to try and grapple with these questions through the empirical methods of ‘good’ science, how did the establishment react. To be honest, what really amazed me is that anyone found out about them at all. One of the most interesting aspects of tracing all this out while writing the book were the various filaments that kept this group connected to mainstream and often illustrious physics. They were on the margins of mainstream physics, but not totally adrift of it. They would exchange essays and letters with people like Richard Feynman and John Wheeler who were off the charts in the scientific firmament. They
Jack Sarfatti taught physics at San Diego State College alongside Fred Alan Wolf in the early 1970s. He left the institution to pursue his research in the foundations of quantum theory and the wider implications of Bell ’s theorem and quantum nonlocality. (Courtesy Jack Sarfatti) (page 62, figure 3.6)