The conventional understanding of the nature of matter is that it is an object, a solid object that our senses confront and our minds attempt to reflect as accurately as possible relative to the actual object itself- the more accurately one's mind and mentality represents the 'real, objective world out there', the better one's mind functions; measurement as the criteria for quality of mind. But this view depends on there being an actual split between the mind and a real, world out there, actual objects that have nothing to do with us apart from our interference with them; that our minds are inconsistencies in nature and only what appears to be solid matters. The curious thing about this the materialistic-reductionistic view is that the mind that produces it, and in fact any view, is what is being denied as a presumption. In other words, they regard consciousness-mind-the subject as being least real, least valid or valuable, but it is the mind which is granting them the ability to have any view at all. Science itself depends on mind and consciousness. Without it, nothing would be perceived at all and no matter how objective one intends to be, all things and events start with consciousness, and with sensory awareness- this cannot be removed from the equation. Consciousness, far from being a mere epiphenomenon of matter, a flaw in the universal plan, is the only self-evident truth- consciousness needs no evidence. It is its own evidence because we are never, and can never be, apart from it. Within the past one hundred years or so, science has been in a battle of denial because of the revelations of quantum theory. A lot has been said about it and it has been used by many individuals of a New Age type to justify a belief and one's beliefs are the primary or sole creative force of reality, which is interesting because such types often profess to be spiritual teachers of some sort and yet this theory of 'belief-makes-reality' puts the individual at center stage which is terribly narcissistic and it is decreasing narcissism which marks one's progress on the spiritual path, de-centering, rather than such over-blown egoism involved in 'my-beliefs-make-reality'. The importance of quantum theory is difficult to overstate, yet it is still done with a surprising frequency, because since Newton and the Age of Reason was born, science relied on the fundamental thesis that reality is defined by matter, only that which is material is real, and since the mind is the least material, it is also, by the constraints of this thesis, the least real and the least relevant. But quantum theory turned the materialist thesis on its head, where it rightly belongs since materialism was not really an awakening to reality but a radical response to the violent suppression of the Church of any person or view which professed that matter mattered. Quantum theory teaches us that material reality is in fact in a state of profound confusion, a strange schizophrenia, until and only until consciousness 'tells' it what to do. Our assumption was that matter is at its most fundamental level composed of particles, like incredibly tiny billiard balls. Conceiving of matter in such a way made it convenient for the materialists because it justified the subject-object split and the presumption of the solidity of matter. While particle reality is true, it is only half true. Prior to matter being particle, it is wave, and though the two 'states' are opposed, they are also both true, and in fact complimentary. Saying that matter is both particle and wave is like saying that my car both exists and doesn't really exist. But such a paradox is better understood when one realizes that matter-waves are waves of possibility, that in fact, rather then matter being an immutable, solid and preexisting truth, it is a field of possibilities, virtual particles, until some moment, some event, reduces or condenses this field into 'solidity', or the appearance of solidity. The stunning part of this theory, the part that is so ground-shaking, so earth-shattering in fact that the truth of it, though it has been confirmed the world over for a century and the theory is the most successful scientific theory in history, so shocking that it has yet to be absorbed even by the scientists themselves; this condensing event is Consciousness Itself. Consciousness condenses the wave function of 'matter', not individual consciousness, it is not that 'Jon Kary's consciousness condenses the wave function and therefore creates reality' (this is the New Age fallacy), it is that Consciousness, Awareness Itself, that force or entity or atmosphere that was, and still is, so thoroughly reduced and denied by reductionists, condenses the wave function of matter and therefore creates that illusion that we call matter, the objective world. Here, in science itself, we have the admission that the split between subject and object, mind and matter, has no validity, in intrinsically faulty. But the deepest truth about the reality we share intersects with spiritual truth. The word 'spirit' has taken on so many meanings and connotations that it is almost impossible to talk about it anymore without understanding the difference between the multitude of misconceptions and its authentic, yet buried and forgotten, meaning. Spiritual practice in its authentic form was never divorced from the realm of direct experience. Because of the prejudices, preconceived notions and egoism of our society in particular, our understanding of spirituality is most often a kind of narcissism where we are putting on a show for ourselves and others, where we are attempting to form a role and project an image as a spiritual person, where we are creating and living another story that becomes who we are but is only another sheath on top of the truth. Some of the most popular forms of spirituality are syncretism and New Age. The New Age I have partially defined above where one absorbs the thesis that 'beliefs-create-reality', when the truth is that beliefs co-create the appearance of reality, our preconceived notions, beliefs, assumptions, attachments, and conditioning participates in the creation of reality. Another feature of the New Age is the treatment of the multitude of spiritual practices and teachings as a buffet where the individual's ego becomes the guide in determining what pieces of each way they will choose- in other words, their ego runs their spiritual practice. They allow preference and comfortability to determine what they will believe, practice, and when they confront something too challenging in one system, they take something more comfortable from another system to replace it. While it is important to honor the unity-in-diversity of perspectives, the ground value, the common threads running through all spiritual systems, it is dangerous to drive one's spiritual practice with the ego. One way of defining the difference between authentic spiritual practice and popular spirituality, or religion, is that authentic spirituality is about transcending the egoic self, while religion or popular spirituality is about validating the egoic self, just retranslating it, building another story that becomes who we are and what we identify with, like a monkey leaping from branch to branch rather than returning to solid ground again. Another aspect of popular spirituality is regression; not only the honoring of the cultural beliefs, practices, and methods of the past, but an advocation of returning to the past as our salvation. This is the equivalent of someone attempting to return to childhood as a means of evading the trouble of adulthood. And while 'adulthood', or the Informational Age, or the Age of Reason, has the capacity for doing greater evils than previous ages could conceive of, our 'adulthood' also has the capacity for greater goodness and promise than ever before. Salvation lies always ahead and beyond, not behind. But the point of all this is to simply illustrate that while there is validity in being repelled by popular spirituality, authentic spirituality is quite beyond prejudice. It is not a mere return to emotionalism, and it isn't just a change of thinking or beliefs, it is the transcending of egoic, separate self-ness and the direct experience of True Nature beyond boundary. Science and spirituality are only opposed in their limited and narrow popular interpretation. Essentially, both science and spirituality are processes of direct experience where one begins with a practice of some sort, whether the scientific method or meditation. After time in the practice, through discipline, there are progressive illuminations or apprehensions of understanding or identity, whether the discovery of quasars or cell nuclei or the realization of Universal Being beyond personal roles and ego. And such illuminations are validated by others who have endured the same process in order to test for authenticity. Science and Spirituality have no conflict in their true forms, like all things. Conflict and contradiction, disagreement and discord, does not arise as an aspect of nature but only as a result of our limited perspective and misunderstanding of Nature- Nature neither knows nor possesses opposition- Non-Duality. So what is matter? What is a particle? A particle is the event of Spirit Forgetting Itself, forgetting Its True Nature. And evolution, the whole process from elementary particle to Enlightenment, is the process of Spirit Re-Membering Itself Again, Returning to Itself, which is all conducted in the realm of a dream. From galaxies, planets and stars, to language, community and everything in between, A dream, the Great Dream, that is God Coming To Wake.