On the interaction of human consciousness with weather phenomena
Lecture from 28.5.2025 by Bernd Klane in Lundo
On 8 January 2025, Heinz Grill published a short article describing observations on the weather and, among other things, the interaction of consciousness activity with weather phenomena. He suggests that the increased use of artificial intelligence is increasingly relieving humans of the burden of their own logical thinking and that this is not without effect on the Earth’s atmosphere: Heinz Grill writes: “The air no longer takes up the subtle forces of human sensitive perception in the striving for logical thoughts and truth and therefore it begins to live a kind of random self-generated emotionality. Artificial intelligence is interposing itself like an obstacle between human beings and the sphere of the earth and extremely unsettled conditions are therefore to be expected.”
We are living in a time of climate change and society is making considerable efforts to minimise the impact of its activities on the climate. Conventional science and politics have narrowed the focus entirely on reducing CO2 emissions. On closer inspection, a critical look reveals that this already represents one-sided modelling and causal thinking within conventional science.
Conventional science and the expansion through spiritual science
While conventional, materialistic natural science only analyses the effect of humans on the climate in terms of causalities in which a substance or energy radiation plays a role, Heinz Grill also addresses the effect of subtle forces of human consciousness. This approach goes beyond the self-imposed limits of materialistic natural research, which rejects subtle forces a priori without having worked in this field.
What significance would it have for our world view in science and everyday thinking if these different approaches were put in their correct place? How can these two initially opposing approaches be correctly categorised? How could a synthesis finally be achieved?
The processes in the quantum world cannot be described unambiguously
Hardly anyone realises that materialistic natural science had to acknowledge its incompleteness a good 100 years ago when natural scientists discovered quantum effects when investigating light and the smallest matter. The collaboration of three remarkable scientists from this era will be given initial attention here.
Niels Bohr: Light as matter and wave
The Danish physicist Niels Bohr attracted a great deal of attention at the time with his peculiar views and intuitions on the nature of matter, as did the young German scientists Werner Heisenberg. What they had in common was an inkling that the writings of the philosopher Plato contained truths about creation in figurative language, which also inspired them in their work on physics. “Study Plato’s writings, but you can’t read them, you have to meditate on them,” Niels Bohr is said to have advised his young colleagues.
Under Niels Bohr, the concept of the complementary took on a lively meaning. Depending on how the experiment is approached, light behaves either as matter or as a wave. However, classical physics rules this out: either – or. In the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory, Bohr found a way of dealing with this contradiction: depending on your point of view, you can arrive at two contradictory statements, both of which express an aspect of truth. According to Bohr, humans are both observers and participants at the same time.
Werner Heisenberg:
The researcher’s view influences his research results
Werner Heisenberg became world-famous with his uncertainty relation formulated in 1927. In layman’s terms, it shows from physical findings that the relationships of the smallest matter cannot be clearly clarified using physical measurement methods. The researcher influences his research object with his finest measuring instrument, light, and then only sees a reaction of the matter to the experiment set up in the laboratory. How the matter would have behaved without the observation remains uncertain. “Science does not simply describe and explain nature as it is “in itself”. Rather, it is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves,” Heisenberg later analysed this insight philosophically.
The discovery of quantum effects overturns centuries-old scientific dogmas
However, after 300 years of success, this overturned an established dogma of modern science. Since Galileo’s time, it had been assumed that the objects of nature simply existed, that the researcher took measurements and discovered the laws of nature in the process. Only if a finding is confirmed independently of the researcher’s approach is it regarded as true. Subject (researcher) and object exist independently of each other and must be seen separately. And further: there is a cause for every process in nature. Nothing happens without a prior impact. This causal relationship between cause and effect is deeply rooted in all areas of science and in our everyday thinking.
Werner Heisenberg calls to rethink the relationship between man and nature
With the discovery of quantum effects, these views were no longer universally valid. The attitude to life in the modern era, which gradually came to explain everything rationally and on the basis of materialistic research, began to falter and has not found firm ground since then. The established self-confidence of being able to refer to a coherent, scientific view of the world is no longer absolutely valid today and, according to Heisenberg, a new coherent world view is not in sight: “We need to rethink the relationship between man and nature. This message was more important to Heisenberg than his analytical discoveries in physics and he later described the philosophical implications of rethinking for the fields of chemistry, biology and psychology.
At that time, researchers found processes in the world of atoms, radiation and light for which no cause is known to this day; they simply happen and cannot be causally predicted. For a time, they resorted to the aid of statistics and thus found a technically and physically useful way of dealing with them – but no cause in the sense of materialistic science. According to Heisenberg, the new observations exceed the cognitive capacity of discursive thinking and require the researcher to have a higher cognitive capacity for the whole, which he calls epistēmē with Plato.
For Carl Friedrich v. Weizsäcker, quantum theory connects the physical world with mental and spiritual processes
In this circle of scientists, Carl Friedrich v. Weizsäcker was initially a student of W. Heisenberg and continued the approaches of his role models. Heisenberg already noted that it would be easier for the Eastern world to grasp the significance of quantum mechanics for the understanding of nature. For example, v. Weizsäcker established a long-term collaboration with an Indian yogi. He also sees a wholeness in an atom that we cannot fully recognise physically. In our experiments, we tear this wholeness out of its context and create the familiar elementary particles. The conclusion “the atom consists of elementary particles” is misleading. According to his findings, quantum theory connects the physical world with mental and spiritual processes.
Let us realise that although these scientists received the highest recognition, such as Nobel Prizes and chairs in physics, the worldview consequences they described have not yet been incorporated into conventional science or our everyday thinking. The investigations into quantum effects have left gaps in the closed world view of modern science and it would be outdated to only search for further elementary particles and exclude non-material effects as an explanation.
Heinz Grill: Human consciousness and thinking and the (im-)balance of the weather are connected
If we have cited some new findings and basic ideas today, we will certainly listen to Heinz Grill’s descriptions with widened senses and imagine a lively encounter and a research-friendly exchange between profound scientists from different disciplines. When Heinz Grill writes “The air no longer takes up the subtle forces of human sensitive perception in the striving for logical thoughts and truth.. .”, this no longer sounds strange and unworldly. In weather events, the light of the sun and the matter of the atmosphere meet the warmth of the earth and water. The scientists quoted above would not think of ruling out the influence of human consciousness in this.
They would probably be more interested in Heinz Grill’s research, the role of consciousness exercise and the morality of the scientist. They would probably also be interested in the question of whether human activity only works destructively or whether it can also strengthen the environment and release new forces. These questions touch on the content of yoga as Heinz Grill teaches it here.
Hints:
Heinz Grill, “The battle in the heavens and the weather“
Originally posted in German on 8th January 2025 by Heinz Grill
Heinz Grill, The battle in the heavens and the weather, Link zum Artikel
Werner Heisenberg – Goethe and Abstraction (german – Original recording)
“The realm of light that Goethe was able to recognise everywhere through nature has also become visible in modern natural science, where it reveals the great, unified order of the world.” In this magnificent lecture from 1968, Werner Heisenberg explains why Goethe did not want to cross the line into abstraction and what a different path exact natural science has taken since Newton. It is shown how Goethe’s idea of the primordial plant basically unites both branches and how the ideas of Goethe and the Platonists come to life again in quantum physics (4 December 1968).”
“That I recognise what holds the world
Holds it together at its core,
See all the power and seeds
And no longer rummage in words.”
(J.W.Goethe)
Prof. Dr. Werner Heisenberg , “Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science”
Nobel Prize winner Werner Heisenberg’s classic account explains the central ideas of the quantum revolution, and his celebrated Uncertainty Principle. Heisenberg reveals how words and concepts familiar in daily life can lose their meaning in the world of relativity and quantum physics.This in turn has profound philosophical implications for the nature of reality.
Published at Penguin Classics
All Portraits wikimedia commons
Niels Bohr: Nobel Prize biography, from 1922
Werner Heisenberg: Bundesarchiv Bild183-R57262, ca. 1933
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Fotograf: Willy Pragher, CC BY 3.0 DE