JOHN STEWART BELL
context of contemporary physics and physiology. I am inclined
to think that even physics is in its infancy, and that entirely new
things will be found, if there is time.’’
Bell has also occupied himself, on occasion, with exploring the
connection (if any) between the quantum theory and Eastern re-
ligions, something discussed, for example, in Zukav’s book.
Many of the founders of the quantum theory, such as Bohr,
Pauli, and Schrödinger, had deep interests in Eastern religion.
Schrödinger, in fact, wrote a brief book entitled My View of the
World, in which he described his rather mystical Eastern beliefs.
However, he took great pains in the preface to point out that
those beliefs had nothing to do with the quantum theory. He
said, ‘‘I do not think that these things [quantum mechanics and
the rest of modern physics] have as much connection as it is cur-
rently supposed with a philosophical view of the world.’’ Bell has
had the chance to discuss these connections, whatever they are,
with two of the most prominent contemporary representatives of
Eastern religions, the Dalai Lama and the Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi, although in the case of the latter ‘‘discuss’’ may not be
quite the appropriate word.
On August 30, 1983, the Dalai Lama visited CERN. As Bell
explained the visit, ‘‘CERN is now one of the monuments of Eu-
rope, so from time to time, important people come to pay their
respects, and if they’re important enough, they are received in
state. And the Dalai Lama was one of those.’’ In his book Seven
Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer, who was the Dalai Lama’s tutor
when the Dalai Lama was fourteen, observed that as a boy the
Dalai Lama was fascinated with the workings of technological
devices, such as movie projectors. He learned, for example, with
no instruction from Harrer, to take apart and reassemble the one
Harrer found for him in Lhasa. After his visit, the Cern Courrier,
the laboratory’s house journal, ran a delightful photograph of the
Dalai Lama seated at the controls of one of the huge CERN par-
ticle detectors with an impish smile on his face.
I asked Bell whether, in that vein, he thought that the Dalai
Lama might have been aware of some of the connections people
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