NON-FICTION ENDNOTES
P.47 Keats letter to his brothers 21 Dec 1817 (search the web for Project Gutenberg) refers to "Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason." Outstanding scientists like Michael Faraday may show a similar approach: see D. Gooding Experiment and the Making of Meaning: Human Agency in Scientific Observation and Experiment. (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1990 e.g. p. 207).
P.66 My first attempt to deliver a seminar on messy method was almost my last. One student said my supervisor should be sacked.
“What is science?” has many complex answers, taking us far from the simple image most of us probably carry round of objective, dispassionate men (usually men) in white coats building chunks of reliable data into impregnable theories, see for example discussions in Alan Chalmers What Is This Thing Called Science? 4th edition (Indianapolis: Hackett 2013).
A reasonably clear, modern definition of science that appeals to me, which includes some of the fuzziness of science, is at the end of the article “Should scientists run the country?” by Philip Ball, in The Guardian, Saturday, 25.9.21 p.75.
“ … (we should) respect science for what it is – a social system for arriving at reliable but contingent knowledge, based on data, embracing error and uncertainty and diversity of opinion” (permission of the author).
Of course, science can be neat and logical and, I cannot stress often enough, none of this discussion is intended to feed an “anti-science agenda.”
It is instructive to note that right at the beginning of Sir Karl Popper’s magisterial The Logic of Scientific Discovery (London: Routledge 1934/2002) he explains that the actual process of conceiving of a new theory – what most of us, in common speech, would include under the label “scientific discovery” – is not open to logical analysis. The book describes other important matters. I am, however, most interested in that puzzling initial “discovery” phase, with its serendipity and untidiness and the associated “creative” aspects of science. This is the area “messy method” explores. See above on Keats, and see also below on “The Art of Science”.
P.84 “consciousness is a mixed bag” See for example Clare Johnson Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming (Woodbury: Llewellyn Publications 2017) chapter 20 or Anil Seth Being You: A new science of consciousness. (London: Faber and Faber 2021) chapter 2.
For more on lucidity see also the online magazine “Lucid Dreaming Experience”.
P.89 I have tried to capture, in the newspaper seller episode, some essence of accounts from various gurus of their mystical experiences. See for example C. Norman Williams 33 Gurus of Modern India ( Mumbai: Yogi Impressions Books 2016).
P.98 “ crazy Carl Jung or sex mad Sigmund’s Freudian symbols”. For sympathetic (and quite readable) introductions to two giants, see for example Janet Malcolm Psychoanalysis: The impossible profession (London: Granta 1997) and Robert Johnson Inner Work: Using dreams and active imagination for personal growth (New York: Harper and Row 1986).
In my own professional life as an educational psychologist I found the work of Alfred Adler (who saw us as social creatures, and was, for instance, an early feminist) much more helpful.
For more on the positive value of the shadow and lucid dreams see Charlie Morley Dreams of Awakening: Lucid dreaming and mindfulness of dream & sleep (Carlsbad, Calif: Hay House 2013 ) esp. chapters 4 and 8.
P.125 See Darwin’s correspondence, letter 171, to J.S. Henslow 18 May 1882 https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/
P.129 The almost unbelievable sequence of one hundred dreams of awakening is mentioned in Bertrand Russell Human Knowledge: Its scope and limits (Abingdon: Routledge 1948/2009) p. 153.
P.182 The influence of the gravitational field of massive rotating objects on light – the frame-dragging effect – was predicted as far back as 1918.
Avid students of the future history of science, I am sure, will also know that the related phenomenon, announced uniquely in this novel, the anomalous effect of rotating anti-gravity fields on lasers (the Brompton effect, as described here) will not be discovered until the year 2944. Maybe.
P.193 “ideas pop up” The eminent sociologist, Max Weber, in an old, masculinist style explains his experience of research:
“Ideas occur to us when they want to, and not when we want them to. The best ideas ...occur... when smoking a cigar on the sofa ... or when walking ... ideas
come to mind when we do not expect them, and not when we are brooding and searching at our desks ...”
However, Weber adds a sting in the tail, for those who might be looking for what may appear at first sight to be an easy option – messy method – for their research. The enterprise is not for dilettantes. There has to be a background of hard work:
“… Yet ideas would certainly not have come had we not brooded at our desks and asked ourselves heartfelt questions.” See Max Weber, Wissenschaft als Beruf Science as a Profession, (Munchen and Leipzig, Dunker and Humblot 1919, trans. Kate McLoughlin 2021). The original is available on https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Wissenschaft_als_Beruf Or, see Norman Denzin The Research Act: A theoretical introduction to sociological methods 2nd edition (New York: McGraw Hill 1978) p.61.
P.202 I try to address the illusion of the “I” in Buddhism#now chapter 4. A vastly superior discussion, of consciousness in general, is in Philip Ball’s excellent The Book of Minds: How to understand ourselves and other people (London: Picador 2022) or Anil Seth’s Being You (see earlier).
Seeing the physical world itself as some kind of illusion / delusion, from a “scientific” viewpoint, is partly covered in Buddhism#now chapter 12
Descartes argued “I think therefore I am” but all he could really be sure of was that thinking was going on. He just assumed some “I” was doing the thinking.
I have missed out discussion of the situation where people have multiple images of themselves. I have also avoided discussion of those who have an immensely negative view of themselves. Sadly they may first have to deal with that crippling negative self image before they can work on rejecting the whole “I” concept. A double struggle. Your heart bleeds.
P. 211 “invisible college” is taken from Diana Crane Invisible Colleges: Diffusion of knowledge in scientific communities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1972).
P.219 Andy and Chantelle have both read James Gleick Chaos: Making a new science. (London: Abacus 1997). There are several articles on Pollock and chaos which Andy and Chantelle might have found if they had not been distracted from looking by more earthy matters. But lets leave them to their moment.
P.225 The peculiar sounding approach to engineering design concerning failure, is described in Henry Petroski Success through Failure: The paradox of design. (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2008).
P.226 “ it can’t tell you how to deal with life and death” Without a traditional Buddhist (or, indeed, any other religious viewpoint), dealing with the anticipation of the end of life may present deep concerns, quite apart from any suffering that may be involved in the process. Some Buddhists feel that concentrating on the idea “I might die today” can help waken us up to the importance of life, not the trivia we normally pursue.
The current book, however, among its many other faults, was never designed to tackle the issue of mortality.
P.226 “ Science good, scientism bad” To simplify matters here I have omitted any discussion of pseudoscience and “bad science”, see Ben Goldacre Bad Science (London: Fourth Estate 2008). For types of scientism see. Harry Collins and Robert Evans Rethinking Expertise (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2007).
In chapter 9 of Buddhism#now I attempt to untangle some of the potential overlaps between science and non-science. The messy creative processes they may to some extent share probably lies in the 1% that is not “perspiration” (see later).
P.227 “Most studies are neat and tidy and logical” although they may be long and challenging. I stress once again that I am not in the business of undermining scientific endeavours.
Richard Hamblyn The Art of Science: A natural history of ideas (London: Picador 2011) is worth dipping in to as a readable starting point with regard to those aspects of the scientific discovery, creative process, where messiness lies. Also see Royston Roberts Serendipity: Accidental discoveries in science. (New York: John Wiley and sons 1989) and Michael Brooks The Secret Anarchy of Science (London: Profile Books 2011).
But if you want to doubt well-tested science, like the law of gravity, try walking off the edge of your roof. No, don’t.
P.234 For more on double fitting, see the thesis mentioned above, chapter 8.
A diagram of the interactions is in the thesis ch.8 p.134. I use the more general terms of “exploration” for reading and “ideas” for theory. It is fun to see examples of how one’s perspective (ideas/ theories) alters the “data” seen. Take a glass of water in the pub. Maggie might say the data amounts to half a pint of water. That’s it. Full stop. But imagine the data seen by the pub’s dishwasher, or the accountant, or Klappy the Clown with an empty water pistol, or auntie Veronica trying to paint something that has no colour, or the chef, or the cleaner with a steam iron, or….
P.237 “look at what everyone had looked at, and see what no-one had seen” is an approximation to the phrase attributed to Arthur Shopenhauer in 1851.
P.239 “bardos” For the purposes of simplifying this novel, I have avoided any discussion here of the many views of the meaning of the bardo (and, later, the many views of enlightenment and meditation).
P.298 “emptiness” has had many meanings in different schools of Buddhism over the centuries (try a web search for emptiness or “sunyata”). For some there is even the emptiness of emptiness! A phrase such as “the neutral nature of things”, I hope, gets to the heart of one aspect that is relevant to this story. For simplicity I have omitted discussion of those vital facets connected to the interdependence of all things, and the nature of our apparently solid “reality”. There is more on these issues in Buddhism#now
Western Psychology can offer some insights into the problem of the “I”, especially the so-called bundle theory. A clear outline is in chapters seven and eight of Susan Blackmore Consciousness: An Introduction (London: Hodder and Stoughton 2003).
Careful readers will note I have glossed over discussion of what this “mind” thing might be, which creates the illusion of the “I”. Put simply, I feel the mind is best seen as a bigger bundle of the sorts of things that make up the “I”, plus all our other mental apparatus.
The mind may feel like one thing, but it isn’t. Cars are another good example – they feel like one “thing” but their operation relies on thousands of parts and several systems. See Philip Ball’s The Book of Minds or Anil Seth’s Being You (see earlier).
Genuine Buddhists may take a different approach to problems of mind. Try searching for “skandha” on the web.
P.308 There are different ways masters use their sticks with Zen students. For this novel I have chosen to focus on enlightenment being precipitated by a “zen slap” especially when students are blocked. See a brief introduction on
https://wiki.c2.com/?ZenSlap or Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki An Introduction to Zen Buddhism (London: Rider 1991) chapter 3.
P.319 I apologise to scientists for this poetic vision of “the end of the universe”. It is a dream, however.
P.326 The interpretation of Rumi’s saying, is generally religious: the light of God entering. I have chosen a more mundane implication that Maggie would subscribe to: understanding can arise from painful confrontations.
P.337 For more on Sun Tzu see Michael Nylan The Art of War: Sun Tzu (New York: W.W. Norton 2020).
P.342 Regarding the Mara, there are many interpretations of who or what the Mara is. For story purposes I have chosen views from 19th century texts (there are many original sources dating back centuries). Karen Armstrong in Buddha sees such stories as originally mythological, intended to enhance understanding.
Schools of Buddhism differ in their use of terms such as enlightenment, liberation and awakening. I use liberation to imply liberation of the mind: to be able to see things as they truly are. This leads to liberation from mental suffering. See for example Introduction and Journey into Now, in Steve Hagen’s Buddhism Plain and Simple (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books 1999).
P.352 The role of doubt in Buddhism is explored, for example, on https://imperfectbsuddha.com I have taken the notion a great deal further here. I hope not too far. In “The Light of Asia” doubt is sown by the Mara.
No offence is intended to any genuine Buddha who may appear in the world, however, any ordinary mortal who found themselves with supernatural powers and believed themselves to be awakened would, I imagine, entertain some doubt, as Ramesh/Chodak/ the meditator does here. Perhaps a genuine full enlightenment would provide certainty. For the purposes of this story, I leave the point unresolved.
P. 354 “meditation … induce fabrications” As a starting point see for example https://bit.ly/meditationvisions where there are links to the original article.