QUANTUM ENGINEER
not very important. Physics is a subject which changes rapidly
and is concerned with a very limited set of phenomena in the
world. I think it would be a bit absurd to try to find the support
for some big philosophy, or religion, in anything so ephemeral
and specialized as that. I doubt that they have analyzed it to that
degree. I think that they have just not paid attention to physics
very much. They don’t feel they need any support for their sys-
tem. They are not looking around, grasping for straws. They are
quite self-confident in their tradition. I don’t think they were
particularly interested in seeing me. On the other hand, I was
particularly interested in seeing them, because I wanted to know
what Buddhists think about these things. And especially people
who have grown up in Buddhism, rather than people from the
West who are going around, looking for a solution, and have
decided to try this one.’’
‘‘It must have been an amazing occasion,’’ I said to Bell, wish-
ing I had been there. ‘‘It was,’’ he answered. ‘‘The only parallel
in my experience was the time I met the Maharishi. He has an
international university, and they sponsored a little symposium
in a place called Vegas, near Lake Lucerne. The symposium was
on physics, and the implications of physics for religion, and so
forth. I was invited, among other people.
‘‘The Maharishi was a much more regal figure than the Dalai
Lama. He sat on a sort of white throne, in his white robes, sur-
rounded by about thirty acolytes, mostly ladies, also in white
robes—forming a kind of audience—looking very sweet, but say-
ing nothing. In the middle of the gathering—which for a scien-
tist is quite an uncomfortable atmosphere of adulation—were the
handful of people who had been invited to discuss these prob-
lems. We all made little speeches, and so I made a little speech.
My speech was, of course, very skeptical in character. He had, at
that time, as head of his physics department, a man called Larry
Domash. Domash was trying to see some analogy between the
state of lowest energy of a superconductor and the state that peo-
ple reach in meditation. I expressed great skepticism about that
also. Domash would occasionally ask the Maharishi for his
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