The practice of the orthodox scientific method is based on some principles that have proven valuable in the history of humanity to manipulate and control our physical environment. The systematic use of "common sense" in accumulating empirical, objective data out of which valid causal inferences could be drawn lies at the heart of orthodox scientific method.
But, what is the scientific method? We cannot begin to address this question until we also address the epistemological assumptions related to our notion of facts. Two schools of thought have clashed on this subject and are modernly represented by two fundamentally different paradigms. The positivist paradigm promotes the belief that objective facts exist outside the observer's consciousness as things that can be analyzed into logical categories using quantitative and experimental methods of research. The positivist dogma asserts that quantitative methodology is the only valid means to practice legitimate science.
The phenomenological paradigm, on the other hand, promotes the belief that facts are established in consciousness as a result of inherently subjective experiences that can be synthesized into meaningful patterns using qualitative and experiential methods of inquiry. The phenomenological dogma asserts that decontextualized objective facts are nonexistent, and that even if they existed, would be meaningless.
Any definition of the scientific method will hinge on our belief in either one of the two epistemological paradigms. It is possible, however, to avoid dogmatic stances and still understand that facts are the result of experiences structured by some perceiving consciousness. We (THOTh) understand that a fact is essentially a subjectively validated experience. Whatever we accept as a fact is an act of interpretation governed by the frame of reference upon which our senses have been structured. When most people share the same subjective frame of reference we call that an objective fact. That is, given a standard subjective frame of reference we should expect minimal inter-observer variability and, hence, the apparently "objective" nature of an observation.
As the Sun seems to revolve around the Earth, so the notion that "objective" facts seem to exist apart from the observer seems to be supported by our daily experience. Our "common-sense" regards minimal interobserver variability as validity. However, most scientists would object to this notion because minimal interobserver variability is actually reliability (repeatability) and not validity (absence of bias or error). The "fact" that the Sun rises and sets every day may be used as a reliable indicator to support geocentrism but nonetheless does not validate it.
Types of scientific studies
Scientific studies may be classified as either descriptive or
analytic. Descriptive studies focus on the "who" (person), "when"
(time) and "where" (place) of a particular occurrence; analytic
studies focus on the "how," that is, on how strongly is a putative
cause related to an effect after considering potentially confounding
factors and effect modifiers.
Beyond these two classical approaches there is a third, synthetic, multidimensional approach: transcendental research. Transcendental research focuses on the why events occur, a realm usually reserved for metaphysicians.
Right observation is necessary to conduct good descriptive studies; both right observation and right inference are necessary to conduct good analytic studies. Right observation, right inference and true intuitive insight are necessary to conduct synthetic or transcendental research. These three scientific skills are also necessary conditions to achieve ultimate liberation from the bondage of error --the goal of transcendental research.
Transcendental research is necessarily related to the process of knowing (epistemology), a realm usually reserved for philosophers. Transcendental research methods allow the ascertainment of predictable causes and uncertain (probabilistic) effects in nonlinear, dynamic ways. Ultimate (but usually unmanifest) causes and radical observations are sought to explain individual and collective patterns of occurrence: predictable but unmanifest causes and uncertain, freely willed effects.
Causal relationships
The search for true and causal relationships may be traced back
to very ancient traditions. Right observation allowed the Great
Teacher of the East, Gotama Buddha, to describe the most fundamental
pandemic to afflict past and present humanity: the pandemic of
pain and suffering. Physical pain, as in illness;
emotional pain, as in anguish; intellectual pain, as in doubt,
have always been poignantly crucial to human experience.
Right observation and right inference also allowed Gotama Buddha to identify ignorance as the root-cause, and attachment to ephemeral circumstances as the intermediary factor, responsible for human pain and suffering:
Right observation, right inference and true intuitive insight allowed that Great Teacher of the West, the Christ, to take a step further and show us how the redeeming and uplifting power of love may reveal the world of spiritual perception, of truth and divine ideas. The combined work of these two great Teachers of humanity has permitted the pouring in of the light of reason (Buddha), and the intuitive recognition of truth that only love reveals (Christ). It was deep and abiding love for the human race that allowed an Einstein to scientifically express one of the most transcendental truths ever revealed to humanity: ALL IS ENERGY.
The transcendental scientist must be detached from biased structures of perception, but never from the facts that inform reality. The transcendental scientist, as a participatory observer, must be identified with the very roots of the real in order to attain true intuitive insights and make valid inferences. Intuitive love is the way through which true and total subject-object identification is made possible.
Validity and error: the battle between good and evil.
The goal of the scientific method may be broadly defined as the
discovery and identification of causes, the knowledge of which would
allow us to prevent the occurrence and recurrence of undesirable
events. In order to make valid (good and true) observations and
inferences, scientists need to minimize (bad and evil) error. Two
types of error are to be considered: random error and systematic
error.
Random error or inexperience is the influence of chance on our scientific judgement when analyzing the "reflections" of a true reality. These reflections are called "samples" by statisticians, and "shadows" by Platonic philosophers. Inexperience is usually overcome by observing a large number of occurrences. However, even a large number of occurrences may mislead an observer if: 1) the observed sample of occurrences is not representative of the whole universe of occurrences under study, or 2) the quality or depth of information obtained from each occurrence is not comparable to all others. These are instances of systematic error, also called bias in scientific parlance, that should be minimized in the earnest quest for the Truth. Triangulation, the combination of multiple observers, theories, methods and data sources, is an alternate qualitative strategy to reduce bias.
There is one class of bias, confounding bias, that seems particularly relevant in any discussion of the transcendental dimension of science. Confounding occurs when an observer allows an extraneous factor to misrepresent a causal relationship with an occurrence, thus distorting reality. The observer is thereby "confounded."
Glamour and Illumination
In esoteric parlance, BIAS is referred to as a mirage or
"GLAMOUR." Although, technically, three classes of glamour have
been described, for purposes of this essay glamour will be defined
as a distorted perception and conception of the causes of an
apparent effect due to emotional attachments to a mistaken
viewpoint. Emotional glamour hinders the understanding of true causal
associations among occurrences like a heavy fog distorts visual
images to an observer. For instance, an untrained observer may be
led to believe that events
revolve around her/his personality. The notion of an impersonally
conceived plan in which s/he may play a role is inconceivable until
s/he renounces to her/his egocentric view of reality. Her/his
judgement is confounded by egocentrism.
The stereotype of an emotionally detached scientist entrusted to snatch Nature's secrets is probably due to the fear that emotional (subjective) attachments may distort an observer's perception, conception and judgement. The blind randomized clinical trial is the accepted golden standard to eliminate bias. However, the Arcane Wisdom had already contemplated the potentially misleading effects of subjectivism and the Technique of Light (ref: Glamour: A World Problem by Alice A. Bailey) has provided many inquirers with the technique to prevent and eradicate bias. The Technique of Light consists of subjecting one's emotional nature to the illuminating effect of hard straight thinking, using the mind, through analysis, discrimination and right thought, as the instrument whereby glamour can be dissipated.
Meditation, or prolonged concentrated attention given to some idea, is a discipline that allows the user to focus the light of the mind to dissipate the fog of bias. Only then, subjective, intimate contacts with facets of truth, called illumination, become possible and revelations (such as the equivalence of energy and matter) become possible. Therefore, the notion that subjective observations are necessarily biased should be revised. That some, even if currently most, subjective impressions may be biased neither implies nor proves that all subjectively validated facts are biased.
The Arcane Wisdom holds that many glamours can be dissipated when subjected to the potency of the informative mind, for the mind is essentially the subduer of emotion through the presentation of FACT. For instance, we have witnessed how the fear generated by rumors, especially in emergency circumstances, may be dissipated by validated facts provided by well designed information systems. FEAR is one of the outstanding glamours experienced by humanity.
The LIGHT of TRUTH dissipates glamour. Illumination and perception of truth are synonymous terms; not abstract truth but concrete, factual and knowable truth --truth which can be formulated and expressed in concrete form and terms. However, few people have the courage to face the actual truth for it requires the ability to recognize error and to admit mistakes, and the prideful mind would not allow it. Therefore, humility, that adjusted sense of right proportion, becomes one of the most potent factors in releasing the illuminating and healing power of the mind.
Limitations related to the misappropriation of truth or the
tyranny of opinions
We all know the devastating effects that authoritarianism has
on the progress of civilization, as was the case of ecclesiastical
authoritarianism in the Middle Ages. It was only recently that the
Church officially conceded to Galileo on the matter of heliocentrism.
The danger that individuals may use powerful institutions, religious, economic or political, to impose their opinions (biased or not) on others must be readily acknowledged. Thus the qualified usefulness of quantitative experimental methods to protect society from such danger. Some may misappropriate truth and shield behind subjectivism to evade accountability. Such is not transcendental science. True transcendental scientists are authentic servers of humanity who have scientifically worked within themselves to master selfishness, greed, cupidity and any emotions that may distort the expression of truth. It is imperative for us to scientifically deal with our emotions to dissipate glamour in our lives and the world around us.
Transcendental approach to causality
The transcendental scientist, as a participant observer, is no
longer estranged from "objects" in the act of cognition. The act
of cognition becomes the identification with the object's essential
nature in the scientist's consciousness. It is a new and distinct
awareness of a sense of simultaneous relationship between object,
subject and the Whole which contains them. It is a timeless
apprehension of the causal world.
As a parallel to the Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, the transcendental scientific method postulates the Soul's Certainty Principle: the uncertainty (U) of causal knowledge decreases (in a mathematical scale from 1 to infinity) as the scientist's scope (S) and depth of consciousness increases (in a mathematical scale from 0 to 1).
According to this fundamental equation of cognition it is only when S is maximized at unity (S = 1 or "at-ONE-ment") that the transcendental scientist can wholeheartedly identify with the Soul's certainty of causal knowledge (U = 1 or uncertainty minimized at unity). Conversely, unity or atonement of the part with the communal Whole is attained through minimizing uncertainty, such as controlling subjective bias. The transcendental scientist must become rightly integrated into the LIFE of the Whole to experience the certainty of the Soul and thus hold an enlightened judgement about the causal world.
Pythagoreans called the harmony of the parts with the Whole, and of the parts among themselves, the "Music of the Spheres." The transcendental scientist aspires to become an earnest student of the Song of LIFE, particularly of the human life in its societal, planetary and cosmic dimensions. Music, the art and science of harmonic proportions, is seen as a most aesthetic expression of the science of right relations, and a key to transcendental causality.
It is from an expanded state of consciousness that we may re-cognize the necessary simplicity of facts to penetrate true causality. The search for certainty, and thus, for true causal associations, is intricately related to our ability to love in the most scientific sense of the word: to understand the meaning of essential relations among parts within some organic, multidimensional Whole so that we, "being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend what is breadth, and length, and depth, and height." The resulting synthesis, the Pythagorean Music of the Spheres, does not reduce the Real or causal world to the limitations of our mechanisms of perception, but, by expanding into ever more inclusive and multidimensional frames of reference, we are able to identify with, and thus know the Real... "And then shall we know even as also we are known."
Thus we progress from the world of meaning, through the world of causes, to the world of being.