Science offers spirituality new models of how the world works and new ways of seeing the world. A scientific model isn’t the truth about something: it’s a useful picture that explains the results we have and accurately predicts the results we’ll get. For example, light is a wave-particle. It’s actually neither or both, or something else altogether, but the model works. Ideas like light’s duality and quantum uncertainty excite our minds and give spirituality new approaches and metaphors. Of course it’s important to understand the model, to know when something is just a metaphor, and when it’s a total myth – which is part of what the blog will explore.

Spirituality offers science a safe haven for unproven ideas. Sometimes things work, but we don’t know why yet. An “operative fiction” is similar to a scientific model: it works (operative) but it’s not necessarily true (fiction). Believing you will get well, against all the scientific evidence, can improve your health – the placebo effect. The opposite is also true: the nocebo effect means you can die from being cursed or wrongly diagnosed with cancer.

Some ideas which spirituality and “old wives’ tales” kept safe have now been proven. The “superstitious” “unhygienic” practice of putting moldy bread on wounds, for example, was – of course – penicillin. Some are difficult to prove – for example, the idea that the full moon makes people crazy, “lunacy”. Despite massive anecdotal evidence, for years studies could find no link. Now, researchers have found a correlation with seizures, at least.

Of course, the two argue – mainly about how you know something is true. Science demands that a theory must be falsifiable: you must be able to test whether it’s true or not. On the other hand, spirituality questions whether the scientific method is effective for all things – what if that way of thinking actually stops something working?