Deno Kazanis - Mysteries of the Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Deno Kazanis is a rarity among scientists. As a biophysicist who is also a serious spiritual practitioner, he has the unusual ability to see the wisdom of both the scientific approach to truth and the spiritual experience of truth. Even more important, he is able to see a relationship between these two seemingly contradictory ways of knowing—an unlikely marriage that has led him to some novel perspectives on the relationship between the unexplained mysteries of the physical cosmos and the subtle realms that mystics throughout history have described.

Hypothesizing where few physicists dare to tread, Kazanis proposes that “dark matter” and “dark energy,” the enigmatic entities that account for ninety-six percent of the mass of the universe, may actually correspond to those subtle energetic states of consciousness encountered in meditative practices. It’s an innovative, even audacious, proposition. As he explains to EnlightenNext editor Tom Huston in this exclusive interview, it requires that we consider how much more full our understanding of the cosmos can be when we open to the full breadth of human knowledge.

BIO

With the publication of his book The Reintegration of Science and Spirituality, Deno Kazanis has established himself as a unique voice in the quest to integrate science and spirituality. Trained as a biophysicist, he formerly taught physics at the University of Central Florida and was a research associate at Duke University. He has published numerous academic papers in a variety of scientific journals and is a frequent presenter at professional and scientific conferences. Kazanis is also a longtime student and accomplished practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and Taoism.