Science Mantras

Freedom Located atop the dome of the United States Capitol Building Sculptor:Thomas Crawford Credit: dbking

Last year, in attending my brother’s spiritual wedding, I had the opportunity to experience an all-night hug-fest celebrating Amma the “Hugging Mother,” a Hindu spiritual leader, who travels the world hugging thousands of people a night and doing charity work. Despite being an atheist, I did take the opportunity to receive a darshan, a blessing and a hug, from Amma, as well as accepting a personal mantra from her.

The idea behind the mantra is that it is a sentence, in Indian, that is chanted to oneself during the day or in times of meditation. I won’t share my personal mantra because that will cause it to lose its power (Apparently this will happen even if you don’t believe in it), so instead I offer the Buddhist mantra:

In the interest of entertaining a thought without accepting it, I practiced my mantra, reciting it in my head and aloud for periods of time, seeing what it was like. And you know what? It was incredibly relaxing. The chant instilled me with a sense of peacefulness. It quieted my mind, clearing it of the clutter and distractions. I haven’t tested this yet, but I bet it lowered my blood pressure too.

There was nothing special about the mantra, nothing magical that instilled this sense of peace. It was the repetitive act, the chanting itself, that worked these physiological effects on me. So rather than practice religious chants that were mostly meaningless to me, I tried chanting one of my favorite science slogans, “Knowledge is power.”

…in Latin of course. Latin is the Sanskrit of science and Enlightenment ideals. Chanting this ancient phrase in Latin brought the same sense of tranquility and relaxation as the mantra Amma had bestowed, but it also brought the additional benefit of reinforcing an important ideal.

Ockham’s Razor, the rule of simplicity in Scientific Hypotheses, can be stated in Latin three different ways, giving us the option to choose the one we like to chant best:

There’s also the classic, “I think, therefore I am,” and the variation, “I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.”

Or go with a summation of the first law of thermodynamics with, “There’s no free lunch.”

Or Kant’s Enlightenment battle cry, “Dare to know!”

Or the predecessor to Newton’s famous demure, “Dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Or you can roll your own with an online translation tool, converting your favorite science quote to Latin as your personal mantra. Here’s my favorite Carl Sagan quote and slogan for this blog:

Or you can go with something a little bit closer to home; after all, some of the greatest thoughts of the Enlightenment originated right here in the good old U.S. of A.

Happy Chanting… for Science!