Einstein and Spinoza Walk Into a Bar

A few days ago, John Tumpane, a major league umpire, was walking to the PNC Park in Pittsburgh when he saw something that didn't look right. A woman had stepped over and was standing against the railing on the Roberto Clemente Bridge.  He walked over, wrapped his arms around her and held her, preventing her from jumping. He  held her against her protests until other people could come to their aid. He and the others were able to save the woman's life. Later Tumpane said of the incident. "I couldn't tell you how long we were waiting for everyone else to get in place. Obviously another power comes into be when you're hanging on and you know what the alternative is of letting go.and not having other people to help you."

An atheist, agnostic or a skeptic might say that this other "power" he referred to was adrenaline. We all have heard of feats of super human strength in crisis situations. Maybe that's what he meant and I'm about to attribute something mystical to a physical phenomenon. I have no way of knowing what he meant by what he said.

But regardless of his intention I am going to talk about "another power" of the mystical variety.

Recently, before the incident on the bridge, I had a brief conversation with a young lady who has lofty academic and vocational aspirations. We didn't talk much about her vocational dreams, but we did talk about college. Next year she will complete two  years at a local college and then she wants to transfer to Georgia Tech. It's not easy to get accepted into this school and once accepted it's not easy to stay there. She feels that she has the smarts to make the cut, but is concerned about the money. I said, "When you set your heart and your mind to something like this, I think that there are powers that help you."  She looked at me with a rather puzzled look on her face and asked, "What do you mean 'powers' "? I said, "Some call this power 'God', I'll just call it "powers." She just kept searching my face to make sure I was serious and asked, "And why would these powers help me?"  I continued, "Because these powers not only want you to survive, but they want  the world to survive. These powers want humanity to survive and  when they find someone like you who can help make that happen,  they  promote you. They help you." After another pause and another quick search of my face, she said, "Okay, I like that."

Yesterday, I read an article about how scientists are considering that the universe is conscious. Panpsychism is not a new theory.  The idea that the universe is conscious has been around for centuries. But now the idea that we are not only conscious of the universe, but the universe is conscious of us is no longer just the property of philosophers and mystics. This idea is being discussed at the highest levels of scientific studies.  Physicists, for example, know that quantum particles do not exist in any particular place until they are observed. But now they are considering this phenomenon as possible evidence  that these particles are actually conscious. In a nutshell, panpsychism suggests that human consciousness exists as a part of this universal consciousness. The universe doesn't exist because we see it, but we exist because it sees us. So what I suggested to my friend about her college was not so far-fetched after all. Maybe the universe does want to help  us.

If I could share a beer with John Tumpane to discuss what happened on that bridge, he would probably say, "I only meant that in situations like that, we find strength that we didn't know we had."  But then I could ask, "Then where did that strength come from? Who are what gave you that strength?" And then if I pressed it any further and started talking about panpsychism, he'd probably stand up, throw his thumb over his shoulder and say,  "You're out!"