Greetings Peter,

I would say that far from seeking a direct and authentic experience of reality most of the general poulation that I have met are obsessed with illusory socially defined concepts such as status, wealth, success, and often desperately seek refuge from the confusion that they experience in material goods. Jah knows that i&i have spent a considerable portion of my life doing much the same sorts of things, and still get sucked into the vortex of the "real world" all too frequently.

So i&i think that there is a considerable difference between a mystic and the average soul, although there is room for movement on both sides.

Yes, i believe that science, at least my experience of it, is usually approached from a position of very tightly defined specific questions or hypothesis. This is particularly the case in the 'hard' sciences such as physics, or chemistry. However, while specific investigations tend to follow this method, there are also much broader theoretical debates, and even broader speculations about the possible synergies that may exist between findings in a range of disciplines, or even to ideas from outside of what is traditionally regarded as science. I suppose that you could view it as a form of heirarchy, with individual experiments forming the base, and progressivley broader theoretical debates being conducted as a consequence of these individual findings.

I actually ran across an interesting article the other day ( i will try and find it again,,, ) that dealt with a slowly growing movement that is concerned with establishing a new scientific discipline that is concerned with the integration of the various ideas of the many branches of knowledge into some form of coherent and holistic whole. Sounds ambitious, could be interesting.

Peace and much respect,

Paul