EINSTEIN AND THE THOUGHT REVOLUTION

In 1926, during a dinner with friends and guests, there was a discussion at the table about Copernicus' theory that refuted being the planet Earth, the centre of the Universe, themes about religion and God. In the middle of a heated conversation, Count Harry Graf Kessler asked Einstein: “Professor! I heard that you are supposed to be a deeply religious person?” Einstein replied calmly and with great dignity: “Yes, you can call me that. Try to penetrate with our limited means the secrets of Nature, and you will discover that, behind all the connections of ideas, something subtle, intangible and inexplicable remains. Veneration for that strength in the face of anything we can understand is my religion. To that extent, I am, in fact, religious”, and adds in another interview: “Everyone who is seriously involved in the search for science is convinced that a spirit is manifested in the Laws of the Universe, which is far superior to that of the man”.

And that was undoubtedly the best answer Einstein gave about his attitude to religiosity. At that same meeting, when dealing with Copernicus' ideas, Kessler suggested that Einstein's views on the Universe were also revolutionary, and Einstein abruptly demolished that idea by saying: “There is nothing revolutionary about my observations.” And in this point of view, one more truth can be revealed: everything is within the laws created by the Cosmic Powers and that the sensitive man can be the vector for the discovery of these laws and phenomena. And Einstein, in his humility, was one of those vectors!

Denis Brian, in his book “Einstein, a life”, considered as one of the best biographies of Einstein wrote that once, during a ceremony in his honour, Einstein withdrew momentarily to draft some ideas and came back clapping his hands as soon as he heard the audience applauding when someone beside him whispered: “Mr Einstein, those claps are for you”. Thus, showing that he was very much abstracted and of little importance gave to the applause received.

Among many other episodes in the life of this great man who refused to wear socks and cut off the long sleeves of his shirts because they bothered him, there was one in which when the performance at Princeton, of the African-American lyric singer Marian Anderson, in the height of insane racism in the USA, she was not allowed to stay at one of the local hotels due to racial segregation. And in a gesture of respect and humanity, at once, Einstein, as well as a lover of good music, hosted the singer in his residence saying that if he were not a scientist, he would be a musician.

Based on the statement that: “Intuitive certainty is prior to any test, but the evidence is necessary to justify certainty to those who are not sure, through intuition”, given by this great universal scientist, humanist, visionary and mystic, on March 14, 1979, commemorating the centenary of the birth of Einstein (1879-1955), Professor Huberto Rohden, who spent some time with him from 1945 to 1946 as a fellow at Princeton University gave a class about “Einstein and the Thought Revolution”, to reverence the man who added to the analytical thinking, the metaphysical intuition.

Analytical thinking was a constant in Einstein's life, as were the countless notebooks he carried with him, wherever he went, as he was immersed in his thoughts, he could not pass without taking notes, or lonely in his studio, or with friends and celebrities and even in front of entire audiences, where he retired momentarily to exercise his mind. However, not only did the intellectual analysis involve him, but another exercise of the mind, in making it quiet and leaving space for intuition to enter, allowing the soul of the Cosmos to dwell in his soul, thus sprouting the geniality in him.

These are Einstein's words: “I think 99 times and despite my efforts, hardly discovering answers. When I stop thinking and diving into a great silence, answers are revealed to me”. And this is exercising intuition, according to Rohden!

Rohden's coexistence with Einstein led to the book Einstein, the Enigma of the Universe, in which Rohden shows the human side of this scientist. However, much remains to be written about Einstein, as they are in custody in Israel, at the Hebrew University, most of their letters not yet open to the public and which may reveal more of the man who marked the fates of the science of the 20th century and perhaps may mark with his analytical-mystical thinking future generations in science. In early March 2019, the Hebrew University revealed 110 new Einstein manuscript pages.

At the end of his studies at Princeton in 1946, Rohden was invited by the American University of Washington - D.C., to be a professor of Universal Philosophy and Compared Religions, a position he held for 6 years. At the end of this period, he was invited by the International Christian University in Metaka, Japan, to teach the same subjects. However, due to the Korean war, the Japanese university was not inaugurated, and Rohden returned to Brazil. In São Paulo, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at Mackenzie University, a position he did not hold due to his ideological incompatibilities with a Presbyterian university.

Huberto Rohden's moral and ethical credibility cannot be challenged. Proof of this is the seriousness of the trajectory of his life, a man who exercised all his acts with character and truth and creating values that were widely publicized in his 65 books, many of which are still being published. It was more than half a century dedicated to humanity, to its spiritual growth, working towards expecting the mystical experience of the first commandment and the ethical living of the second. He went through an experience throughout his adult life, and even before moments while facing death, when he said, still in a state of consciousness: “I came to serve humanity!” Huberto Rohden can be considered one of the great men of the 20th century; he was a genius, a prophet of the New Humanity.

Below, the class on Einstein and the Thought Revolution.

 

“Today is March 14, 1979, the first centenary of Albert Einstein’s birth. The whole world is talking about him, from East to West, there is no other talk about anything else, all the press, magazines, newspapers, TV, etc. There was never an enthusiasm as euphoric and universal as this time.

The American magazine “Time” went deep into this story of the worldwide enthusiasm around Einstein, saying that it was a true “resurrection”. For some time after his death, it was silence, now there was a resurrection of “Einsteinian enthusiasm”. However, this magazine did not address the reason why for this enthusiasm properly.

Why this international enthusiasm?

Some say: “It's because he's the author of the Theory of Relativity”. But this is not the reason why! Almost nobody knows what this theory is about; there is not even 1% of humanity that knows what Relativity is. People cannot do anything with Relativity. They cannot improve their lives, social conditions, etc.

Relativity is a wonderful and true theory, but it does not affect human life. Can humanity be enthusiastic about a mathematical theory, physical, abstract, distant, and not in touch with human life? It is not possible! The newspapers may say this, but it is not the reason why for the enthusiasm.

So, what else would there be?

Well, they say: “Einstein was a good man, a humanitarian always defending human rights, the rights of minorities, he wanted universal peace, he wanted one government ruling the entire planet”, which he suggested, but it did not work! Humans are not able to have a planetary government, with equal laws for all men, as he wished. This, too, was not the reason for the enthusiasm.

I did not conclude this enthusiasm until I read a report from the newspaper “O Estado de São Paulo” (one of the most influential Brazilian newspaper) and at the very end of the article I found a wonderful title: “Einstein - The man who revolutionized the art of thinking!”

Now, that matters to everyone.

Then I discovered the reason why for the enthusiasm. And what does this mean? What was the revolution that Einstein introduced in the art of thinking? To think everybody knows, since thousands of years ago we think. Today, thinking is terrible mental acrobatics.

Let us, therefore, see what is this revolution in the art of thinking, this revolution to improve our way of thinking, which is creating great enthusiasm worldwide.

Before, the thinking was to do intellectual analysis. A major premise, a minor one and a conclusion are learned in logic, that is to think, to analyze, that is done by intelligence ... by thinking.

And the revolution ... where we can place it?

Einstein surpassed the intelligence; he accepts intelligence because to think analytically is the first step of thinking. But he used a second step on the way of thinking.

And how can you make a revolution in this way of thinking?

Many think that by exercising thoughts more intensely, we make a revolution. No, this is not revolution! It is to continue thinking on the horizontal level, on the analytical level. I can put a higher level on top of my thought, but we do not leave horizontality.

“To think more intensely” ... Einstein discovered that there is another way of thinking which is not analysis, not logic. This was not discovered by him; this was known from the beginning of the world. Some knew this: Buddha, Gandhi, Jesus, and a few others also knew of another way of thinking, which was not analytic. And why has not it been so revolutionized in other times? Because these ancient men were not known as scientists. A scientist, as a rule, relies only on analytical, purely intellectual, horizontal thinking. Until the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, almost all science admitted only intelligence; what cannot be proved intellectually is not certain. Many said that science was not just analysis, but these were rejected. There Einstein appears and says unheard things.

He was once interviewed at Princeton University; on occasion, he would edit a book on the “Unified Field”, which he never published for he did not reach a definitive conclusion. But at the time, it was a fascinating idea. The reporters from the major New York newspapers went to Princeton to interview Einstein on the Unified Field. One of them asked, “Professor Einstein, are you sure of the truth of what you are writing in your book?” Einstein replied:

“--- I am quite sure.” And the reporter continued: “Can you prove this to be true?”

“No, I cannot prove it”, Einstein said. “Well, said the reporter: “if you cannot prove it, and still say that you are sure, proof does not come from evidence?”

And what should Einstein have answered, as a scientist? Certainty comes from evidence, and where there is no evidence, there is no certainty, but he did not answer this to the reporter's great disappointment. What Einstein replied was this:

“--- I cannot prove what I'm going to say in my book, but I'm absolutely sure it's right!”

The reporter asked: “Where does the certainty come from, that you cannot prove it?”

Einstein replied: “Certainty does not come from evidence. Certainty is before any proof”.

And the reporter asks: “So why are these proofs that you will write in your book?”

Einstein replies: “Evidence is to justify certainty to those who are not sure”.

And this is a revolution!

Human nature has two poles:

1)- The peripheral pole of intelligence;

2)- The central pole of reason.

Man is not only “ego-thought”; he is “cosmo-thought” as well.

Our inner cosmos is rational, but the peripheries of our ego is not rational; they are only intellectual.

When a man can surpass the periphery of his intellectuality and allow himself to be invaded by the centre of his rationality, then he is in intuition. Intuition is not something external from us. Intuition is not presentiment, imagination, creativity. It is not the external God who sends us a message; it is not mysticism; it is not a divine gift! Intuition is the outbreak of the centre of our own human nature. Something that was inside me, incubated, without my knowing and emerges suddenly. I was not aware of my centre; I was only aware of the periphery as an intellectual. Suddenly there was an eruption, an awakening from the centre to the periphery, from reason to intelligence. And I came to see the world with other eyes so that I came to know things that intelligence had never told me.

This is what Einstein said: “I think 99 times and despite my efforts, hardly discovering answers. When I stop thinking and diving into a great silence, answers are revealed to me”. This is exactly what we call intuition! Because reason does not work, while intelligence is making noise. Because intelligence makes a lot of noise. The thought makes noise! One after the other ... Endless amount of thoughts. So, with this noise of thoughts, there is no intuition. As long as man does not polarize his mind on a single object, he can achieve nothing.

Einstein speaks about the truths of the Universe’s laws, and we cannot know the Universe’s laws with thought alone unless we also work with reason. Because science is not only intelligence, it is also the reason ... it is science in its plenitude for Einstein.

This is a great evolution when reason begins to speak. Many thousands of years ago, intelligence is speaking, but when reason begins to speak into intelligence, it is a gigantic step forward. This is the evolution of man. Man’s nature and his evolution have to do with two poles:

1)- The peripheral pole, intellectual;

2)- The central pole, rational.

If a man comes to the plenitude of this evolution by making the two poles of his nature work, then he has reached the highest degree.

Usually, intuition is momentary. Many times, we have seconds of intuition, but it lasts little, sometimes not even that. A second of rational intuition is worth more than 100 years of scientific studies, and so we have a much more accurate view of the Universe than is found in any book. Therefore, to provoke intuition, to awaken it, emptying our minds from time to time of any thought, plunging into a great silence, the truth will be revealed to us. This is the revolution of thought.

In one of his books, a great American scientist, Tomas Edison, whom we owe the electric light bulb, said: “I need 90% intelligence to have 10% of reason”. But he does not say exactly with these words, instead: “I need 90% of perspiration, to have 10% of inspiration”. To work is hard, heavy, it is tiring and makes sweating, intellectual work, to think a lot, analyzing.

By this, I mean that Einstein was not the only one who revolutionized the art of thinking; other great geniuses have also revolutionized it.

Talent is the power of intelligence.

Genius is when there is an invasion of central rationality within the peripheries of intelligence. Geniuses receive a message from their rational centre. Intelligence is usually a common attribute in men, but geniality is rare.

Einstein said: “From the world of facts, there is no path that leads to the world of values because values come from another region”.

How can an ordinary scientist comprehend such a thing? The world of facts are things we can prove: physics, chemistry, electricity, biology, electronics are facts. He said that beyond the world of facts, there is another world, far superior to facts, which he calls “values”. And values do not come from facts, and no fact can lead to values. What is this region other than facts?

So, Einstein states that while we multiply science facts, we will never reach the world of values. And where do the values come from? “They come from another region”, he said. Values are not produced by facts.

You can discover as many facts as you want; you will never reach a value because you will only discover facts. He also said that: “Human life here on earth has no value because of facts”. Imagine a scientist saying such a thing! “You will accuse me that I am an enemy of science. But I am not”.

Science is of the facts. Consciousness is of value. He plays with science and consciousness. Consciousness creates values within us, not externally to us. Value is a subjective thing; fact is an objective thing in nature.

Nature cannot create values, but my consciousness can create positive, good, and negative evil values. My consciousness can make me better than I am and can make me worse than I am. The facts leave me in the “status quo”, does not make me better or worse. If I am a graduate of all sciences and have degrees from all universities, I am a discoverer of many facts, but I do not become a better person because of this. The individual does not value himself by discovering facts alone.

How then is the individual valued? The individual only values himself from within, not externally. Facts are things externally to us. Consciousness is an inner thing. How the individual uses his consciousness values or devalues him.

For a scientist like Einstein, to speak in this way is surprising for scientists generally did not speak about consciousness about values; they had a horror of these words. They usually say: “Do you speak about consciousness? This is nonsense; this thing belongs to the churches, philosophy, not of science. Leave those things of consciousness and be alone with science ...”

Einstein states that consciousness is that it gives us values, and facts only give us science. Science uncovers facts, and consciousness is a creator of values.

That is to say, that Einstein revolutionized the art of thinking. He left the horizontal level and moved to the vertical one.

He accepts the facts; he was a great discoverer of facts. The Theory of Relativity is a fact and many other things he had discovered. But he always said: “I am not better because I have discovered many facts of nature, this has happened to me, but this does not value me. If I do not do better through my consciousness, I am not good for science”. Einstein, with this thought, is openly entering into philosophy. Philosophy refers to man, science refers to nature. Science is cosmo-centric; philosophy is anthropocentric. The centre of philosophy is the man; the centre of science is the Cosmos. Einstein enters boldly into the realm of philosophy, saying that man values himself through consciousness and after him, many other scientists have created the courage to follow. Many thought like Einstein, but everyone was afraid to say that consciousness gives value and science only gives discoveries. Because other scientists are afraid of losing their “halo” of scientific glory, they are afraid to say that man values himself through consciousness. Then there appears a giant like Einstein, famous for science, for his discoveries and simply states that man is not good because of science; he is good because he creates conscious values.

Einstein introduced into science the concept of value, the concept of consciousness. This is already a great revolution. This he calls “my intuition”.

The Latin word “intueri” means: to see inside. Einstein says that we can analyze the facts and intuition of ourselves. We can analyze the facts, and we can intuit ourselves.

To analyze is to see from the outside, and to intuit is to see from inside, that is to say, an external vision and an inner vision. He says that the laws of the Universe cannot be discovered by simple analysis. If we use only the horizontal level, which is intelligence, we have science, and Einstein calls this analytical science imperfect. Complete science, to him, is intelligence with reason. Uniting the two lines: the horizontal of the intellectual analyses with the vertical of the rational intuition, we have the complete science.

Einstein introduced the word intuition into science.

Intuition was not a scientific word; intellect, intelligence was scientific words. It used to be said: “A scientist cannot speak about intuition, this degrades science”. But Einstein clearly speaks at all times in intuition, when he says that the great laws of the Universe cannot be discovered only by analysis and logic, but they need intuition, so he has revolutionized the art of scientific thinking, not only the normal human way of thinking, day-by-day, but he revolutionized the art of thinking in science, which he calls Integral Science.

Partial science is intellectual.

Integral Science for Einstein is equal to horizontal + vertical, intelligence + reason, analysis + intuition. And he claims that everything he did in science was through intuition. He seems to run away from science, seems to appeal to something else that is not science. But he made a revolution uniting intellectual analysis with rational intuition”.