LUNCH WITH MAX PLANCK, KURT GODEL, CHARLES DARWIN....

We are having lunch with a bunch of scientists at a restaurant in Positano.

Charles Darwin orders a few bottles of 1995 Chateau Margaux Bordeaux.

Albert Einstein suggests the green tortellini with seafood and the lamb medallions 'in crisp quinoa with herbs on winter roots with pepper sauce'.

We all agree.

We are here to discuss the meaning of life.

Max Planck

Max Planck, the founder of quantum mechanics, holds up a piece of bread and says that bread is derived from consciousness.

"It is consciousness, or mind, that makes bread, or matter, exist," he says.

"Therefore," says Max, "the mind cannot be produced by the brain."

Eminent Researchers

Erwin Schrödinger, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics, nods in agreement.

Erwin says: "Consciousness is not produced by the brain and and cannot be explained in physical terms."

Our tortellini arrives.

Wolfgang Pauli is one of the pioneers of quantum physics.

"Look," says Wolfgang, "the tortellini is gliding onto my fork."

Wolfgang believes he has 'psychokinetic powers', which he cannot always control.

Otto Stern, a Nobel laureate in physics, smiles.

"I banned Wolfgang from entering my lab" says Otto, "to prevent his powers from damaging my experimental apparatus."

..

When the lamb is served, I ask Albert Einstein about so called 'natural laws'.

"Natural laws," says Albert, "were designed by an intelligence or spirit."

"I am an agnostic," says Charles Darwin.

"But," says Kurt Gödel "a human being is a non-physical spirit.

"It is a spirit connected to a physical body."

"Yes," says Karl Popper, "the mind is non-material."

Robert Boyle, the founder of the Royal Society of London, points out: "I believe in spiritual healing."

Eminent Researchers - Spiritual Development

I ask the group what they think about 'evil spirits'.

"Do you mean Vodka?" asks Charles Darwin.

I relate that the term 'demon' appears 63 times in the New Testament.

..

Emanuel Swedenborg says: "I have communicated with spirits."

"Tell us more," says Darwin.  

"There is not a single hell and a single heaven, but rather a series of higher and lower heavens and hells.

"After death, people become their desire or impulses."

What decides your desires?

Erwin Schrödinger says: "You decide. 

"Nothing has a 'fixed state' - until your mind decides what its 'fixed state' will be."

"In other words," says Max Planck, "if you come across Mr Schrödinger's cat lying very still on the grass, the cat is neither dead nor alive - until your mind decides what its 'fixed state' will be."