This article is based on my paper (with some updates) presented at the 8th International Conference on "Sustainable and Human Development Through Spirituality, Peace Economics and Peace Science" on 6th April, 2018 at Hotel Le Meridian at Bangalore, India. It has been published in International Journal of Exclusive Management Research, June 2018 (paper downloadable at ssrn). While this article describes Prem Spirituality Model in details, you can read a short introduction of the paper here

Summary  
Spirituality is a possible solution to today's world of hatred and violence. But Spirituality is highly misunderstood - it is beyond comprehension and confusing for most. Spirituality is commonly associated with god and religion, and major part of hatred emanates from religion. Spirituality can be more easily understood if correctly and scientifically defined.

Secondly, there is a misconception that spirituality is for a privileged few - "It's beyond my comprehension and reach". The reality is that every human-being is spiritual and has immense spiritual power. What's missing is know-how to tap our spirituality and spiritual power.

Prem Spirituality Model attempts to provide solutions to these two problems. It gives a very simple definition of spirituality with a scientific flavor. It attempts to make spirituality and spiritual power within reach of the common man with the vision of a future imminent "Spiritual Revolution". Just as the industrial and information revolution brought muscle-power and brain-power in the hands of the common man, the Spiritual Revolution will make the untapped mind-power available to the common man. Whereas earlier revolutions were a result of advances in material-science (Physical science), Spiritual Revolution will be driven by a new Mind-Science or Spiritual Science.

Using the analogy of basic school-level physical sciences, the model tries to extrapolate to create a vision of an advanced Spiritual Science, and open the doors to further research in that area. Prem not only provides a new vision-cum-dream of spiritually-evolved human beings and a violence-free peaceful world, he suggests new possible areas of research to actually realize the vision.

Prem's paper provides alternate framework for humanity to seek an elevation in their emotional well-being with a new definition of spirituality which is more scientific and less faith-based.

The diagrams in this paper may give an impression that it uses advanced mathematics and physics. Actually, all that you need is simple common sense and an elementary knowledge of school science. This article steers clear of difficult terms and concepts normally used in spiritual discourses like consciousness, nothingness, oneness, the Absolute, Ultimate reality, etc., except in some rare cases while trying to explain these terms in simple language. For instance, Prem Spirituality Model tries to explain "Enlightenment" in extremely simple terms within the confines of available common knowledge.

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Fig. 1: While science has helped us understand the vast universe around us, the small area within us which we call the Mind remains in the dark - Quote from my article " Is God a Myth?"
(Image: Public domain-pixabay)

1.2 Current Understanding of Spirituality

2. Need for a New "Science"

2.1 Physical Science & Mathematics Failed to Explain Spirituality - Need a New "Science"

2.2 Refresher of Simple School Physics - The Physical 3-Dimensional Space

You may skip this section if you remember school physics. We know that the physical world consists of a three dimensional space (Fig. 2.1). An object occupies a unique position in this space. We use x, y and z as the three co-ordinates of this physical space which measure distances in the three dimensions or directions from the Reference Point or Point of Origin (denoted by coordinates (0,0,0) in Fig. 2.1). The physical position of an object in this space is denoted by its x, y, and z co-ordinates. For example, in Fig. 2.1, if an object is at point P, its position is denoted by co-ordinates a, b and c respectively. So Fig. 2.1 is the all-familiar physical space.

Fig. 2.1: Physical 3-Dimensional Space

Fig. 2.2: An Object at Point P2 has higher Potential Energy as compared to an object at Point P1

3. Prem Spirituality Model - Definition

3.1 Physical Space and Mental Space

Fig. 3: High and Low Energy Points in Mental /Spiritual Space

3.2 What are axes of Mental Space?

Fig. 4: High and Low Energy Points in Mental /Spiritual Space

Table 1: Positive and Negative set of feelings

Fig. 5: Multidimensional Mental Space

Fig. 6.1: Physical Space

Fig. 6.2: Mental /Spiritual Space

3.3 Physical State and Mental State

Just as a point in the three-dimensional physical space indicates the physical position of a body in that space, a point in the mental space denotes a particular state of mind or mental state. My mental state or my position in the mental space can be defined by how much I measure on the feelings axes at that time. Conversely, how I measure on the different feelings axes at any time determines my mental state or my position in the mental space.

Different degrees of these feelings (Table 1) and their combinations result in different mental states. With every shift in our mood or in the intensity of our feelings, we move to a new position in mental space, and hence to a different state of mind and different mental energy.

4. Prem Spirituality Model - Implications

4.1 Physical Energy and Mental Energy

It is evident that a change in your mental state after you heard the magic words was immediately followed by a change in your energy state. You shifted from a "low energy state" before to a very "high energy state" thereafter. You shifted from negative feelings listed in Table 1 to positive ones after you heard the words of encouragement. Apparently, we are endowed with some power that lies dormant within us but can be activated. Since the energy does not seem to have come from outside, it appears that the energy was dormant within you when you were in one state of mind and suddenly turned active in another state.

In Fig. 4, point L represents a low energy state and point H corresponds to high energy state where the feelings are more positive. As the degree of our feelings keeps changing, our position in the mental space, and hence our mental energy also keeps changing.

4.2 Prem Spirituality Model - God State and God Zones

Fig. 7: God States and God Zones
High Energy Zones corresponding to High Energy States in Mental Space

Isn't this the same "God State" that we described right in the beginning in section "Current Understanding of Spirituality"? We said that the God state is characterised by three characteristics - Compassionate, Powerful and Enlightened. That definition fits in well with our "mathematical" representation in Fig. 7, as the God State is indeed characterised by high positive feelings (compassionate) and high mental energy (powerful). It is a highly spiritual and powerful state of mind. God Zones are zones where the measure of confidence, love, faith, hope, etc. is extremely high.

5. What is Spirituality?

Two of our characteristics of spiritual state, namely Powerful and compassionate fit well with our Prem Spirituality Model (Fig. 7). You can see why I called it Prem Model as love (prem in hindi) is a very important component of this model. We will see a little later that the third characteristic, namely Enlightenment, also fits into our model as described in Fig. 7. But before we do that, let us pause and see if we are getting a sense of the word "spirituality".

Our discussions so far suggest that spirituality is nothing but a state of mind, which depends on your position in the mental space or how you measure on various feelings. The closer you are to the God State or God zone, the more spiritual you are. At the same time it is clear that what we have been referring to as mental state and mental energy is synonymous with spiritual state and spiritual energy. We will be using these terms "mental state" and "mental energy" to refer to spiritual state and spiritual energy in future.

It is also clear that, though difficult with the current methods available, each of us can reach the god state as shown in Fig.7. If you can reach that state of mind, you can reach the state that Buddha reached. In other words, each one of us has the potential to be a Buddha. Buddha and most sages reached that state through meditation, but it seems beyond reach for most of us.

The moon too was beyond reach once. Just as reaching the moon in physical space was unthinkable at one time, reaching the god state seems impossible today. But just as physical science has found once unthinkable method to reach the moon, new inventions in spiritual science may one day provide a faster and easier method to reach god state in the mental space, a method which we cannot even imagine today.

Spirituality is simply a state of mind and can be represented as a position in the mental/spiritual space of our model. The higher you are in that space (represented by higher measure of positive feelings), you are in a higher spiritual state. Spiritual Science is a science of the mind which is still not fully understood. Psychology does try to understand the science of the mind, just as physics tries to explain the science of matter, but it is still in the domain of qualitative description and lacks the quantitative strength offered by mathematics to physical science.

I admit that we have not yet seen how the third characteristic of Spirituality, namely Enlightenment, fits in this model. It will soon be clear as we examine the two spaces in our model a little more closely.

6. What is Enlightenment?

6.1 Common Meaning of Enlightenment

Enlightenment commonly refers to an "aha moment", a moment when you suddenly get complete clarity over something which you always heard but could not comprehend. Something like an object on your office table or room which was always there but you never noticed. It is a sudden awakening or insight.

Other synonyms for enlightenment are awareness, illumination, wisdom, etc.

We will see that when they reached the god zone in the spiritual space, the spiritual saints got a sudden awareness or insight into something very special about the spiritual space which normal individuals completely fail to see. We will again use our model to examine what they got enlightened about with respect to the spiritual space that we are still groping to see. We need to first get introduced to the concepts of "Spiritual Laws of Universe", which we do in the next few sections.

6.2 Physical Laws of Universe are Known and Proved

We know that the physical space of Fig 8.1 is governed by the physical laws of universe like gravitational law, laws of forces and action and reaction. These laws have been fairly understood and explained. We can measure physical distances (x,y,z axes), denote in numbers a position in the physical space, measure the strength of physical forces and the potential energy. We know exactly what measure of force and at what exact angle the force needs to be applied to move an object from A to B in physical space (Fig 8.1). Physical science and mathematics tell us clearly what force should be applied (and at what angle) to move from A to B in physical space.

Fig. 8.1: To move from A to B in Physical Space, physics & mathematics tell us what force to apply at what angle φ

Fig. 8.2: In the Mental Space, we are in the dark as to how to move from a low energy position A to high energy position B that Buddha reached

In the mental space (Fig 8.2), however, we are completely in the dark about the laws of the spiritual space. We don't know what mental forces operate in this space, measuring them is a far cry. If I have to move from point A in Fig.8.2 (a low energy state in mental space) to point B - a high energy state in God Zone, I do not know what mental force I need to apply at what angle. We can't measure feelings (the axes of this space) and mental energies, so we don't know what measure of feelings can move me from A to B. What is worse, this is actually a multi-dimensional space with multiple feelings. (Fig.5).

If the physical space follows universal rules of physical science, then there must be some rules governing the spiritual space too.

It is not difficult to notice that the present method of religion and god actually help you to move towards the god zones by increasing your faith and love for god. Just as man discovered primitive methods to navigate in the physical space based on the position of stars, sun, tide, etc. much before physical science and mathematics gave advanced methods, man seems to have discovered methods to navigate in the spiritual space too, though they are slow, imprecise and not based on proven scientific methods.

6.3 Universe Has Yet-Unknown Spiritual Laws Too

Indeed this spiritual space too does have its own laws. What are these laws?

We all occupy a certain position in the spiritual space (Fig 8.2) at any given time. With change in our feelings and our moods, our position in that space keeps changing. When you are happy, you are in one position, and in another position when you are unhappy. We don't know why a person is happy and another person sad, why a rich person may be unhappy whereas a poor person may be happy. We do not know what forces will move us from an unhappy position to happy position or from a low energy position to high energy position.

When you are in a higher energy position, you are more likely to succeed than if you are in a low energy position. Today we do not know exactly why one succeeds and another fails, why we can do a job better on some days, on other days we cannot. A tennis player playing the same opponent may play well one day and not so well on other day depending on what state of mind he is in and what is his mental energy, or in other words what his position in the mental space is. Feelings like anxiety, fear, hope, confidence, etc., all of these change from day to day, hour to hour and define our position in the mental space at any given time. Again, we don't know how to move from a low energy position in this space to higher energy state because we don't know the laws governing this space.

Physical science has no answer to these phenomena such as causes of happiness and success, or how to move from one state to another - they are mainly phenomena of the mind. These phenomena also follow some laws and we probably unknowingly follow them also to be happy or successful. Each individual makes or discovers his or her own laws, and has his own spirituality. There are no standard documented laws which are proven beyond doubt.

In the physical space, if we want to achieve a result y, mathematics helps us define the dependent parameters x1,x2,x3 etc., and also define a relation or formula f(x1,x2,x3.) which defines what values of x1, x2, etc. will help you achieve the desired value of y.

y = f(x1, x2, x3..)

In the mental space, if we want to achieve a mental energy of value 'y', we do not know what the dependent parameters x1, x2 or x3 are, nor do we know how to measure any of the parameters like feelings.

The laws of spiritual space have not been quantitatively defined as yet because we do not have the luxury of a language like Mathematics in the spiritual space. Prem Spirituality Model, however, envisions a new language of Mentomatics, which could be the language of the spiritual space, just like mathematics is the language of the physical space. Those who lived in in pre-mathematics era did not know how to quantitatively define the physical laws. We all live in a pre-mentomatics era, so we are unable to define the spiritual laws. People born in post mentomatics era will have both the physical and spiritual laws at their command.

Now in the absence of a quantitative language of mentomatics, all we can do is find a descriptive explanation of the spiritual laws using simple English language. With this limitation, we will try to understand the spiritual laws using our model.

6.4 What are the Spiritual Laws of the Universe?

Indeed this spiritual space too does have its own laws. Scientific study of Spirituality will reveal that just as there are universal laws of physical science governing the world of matter, there are common and universal laws of spiritual science governing the world of mind, which are interpreted and expressed in different ways by different religions causing a divide. Most of the preachings of religions (in their pristine form, not with the corruption and distortion of religions over time) are nothing but universal laws of the spiritual space. For instance, this verse from the hindu scripture Bhagwat Gita which says "Do your duty without expecting the fruits of your work". The original verse in Sanskrit language translates to something like this -

"You have the right to work only but never to its fruits Let not the fruits of action be your motive"

Similarly, principles like "Do good beget good" - (Kar Bhala Hoga bhala, in Hindi) and "Truth always wins" too, according to me, are Universal Laws of Spiritual Space. Somehow we have very little trust in these laws.

6.5 Why We Have Little Trust in the Spiritual Laws

Today we do not believe in these laws of spiritual space because more often than not, they do not work for us. They do not work for us not because the laws are incorrect but because we do not exactly know the laws and practice them with incomplete knowledge. For that matter, the knowledge of spiritual science itself is not so advanced like physical science in physical space (Fig. 8.1) where you can precisely denote in mathematical formulas, measure the parameters involved and repeat them in laboratories or real life to get the same results repeatedly.

6.6 What is Enlightenment?

6.7 Supernatural versus Spiritual Laws of Universe

Our model shows that these capabilities are not supernatural really, they are part of the normal spiritual laws of universe, just like the physical laws of universe. They are available to every human being who can reach the God state - it is just that most of us do not know how reach that state. Everything happens and is governed by natural laws of universe. There is nothing transcendent or supernatural in this. Every one of us, can reach this state of mind, each of us can be Buddha. What is required is a jet age method to reach that state of mind.

7. Mentomatics

7.1 Mathematics helped explain the Laws of Physical Space

What gave clarity in the physical space is a field of study called Physical Science. But the tool which really helped explain and document the laws was Mathematics. Mathematics gave us a language with total precision to express how to move a body from A to B in physical space (Fig. 8.1). Before the discovery of Mathematics, man was completely ignorant of the laws of physical space. The discovery of Mathematics was one critical milestone which changed the history of physical science. It came like a bang after which the growth of physical sciences took a miraculous turn to zoom upwards. It drew man out from an era of ignorance and took him into today's era of scientific revolution. Mathematics not only explained accurately the physical nature of the universe, but also helped predict some effects. Then came calculus and explained the rest of the phenomena related to physical forces in the universe.

7.2 Mentomatics will explain the Laws of Mental Space

The language of Mathematics, however, fails miserably to explain the phenomena of the spiritual space. We need a new language to explain and express the laws governing the Spiritual space.

We need a completely new science and a new language, which I call Mentomatics, which will explain the laws of mental space and unfold the spiritual laws of the universe. Today, we do not have a language to explain mental forces. Before mathematics was devised, laws of physical space were as much a mystery as the laws of mental space are today without Mentomatics. We are in the same stage in the realm of mental forces as we were in the realm of physical forces before Mathematics and Calculus were developed. We look at the spiritual powers as miraculous or supernatural phenomena just as the common physical phenomena were considered as miracles by the aboriginals. Whereas we are in the space age in the physical sciences, we are in the stone age of spiritual science. We are still ape-men so long as the mental space is concerned. In the time graph of mental space, we are still in the Dark Age today. We know nothing about the laws of this space.

7.3 Mentomatics - The Key to the Spiritual Revolution

The key to development of spiritual science is mentomatics. If we can develop mentomatics, may be as a next upgraded version of mathematics and calculus, the mysteries of the spiritual world will be solved. There will be no religion and no god - only verified universal principles of Spiritual science.

But what is the key to development of Mentomatics?

The first step to development of mathematics was taken when we could measure the x, y and z exes, that is the distances in the physical space. Then the key to development of mentomatics will be when we can measure the axes of the spiritual space - that is measure our feelings.

The day we can measure our feelings, we may as well open the doors to the development of Mentomatics and to the next major revolution - the Spiritual Revolution.

Like mathematics led to the development of Classical physics and Quantum sciences, mentomatics will lead to the discovery of Spiritual Science. And as quantum physics explained not only the laws of classical physics of slow moving items but also explained the laws of fast moving particles of the physical world, spiritual science will explain the laws of spiritual world apart from the physical world (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9: Spiritual Science will encompass Quantum and Classical Science

8. Prem Spirituality Model and World Peace

How does the model contribute to world peace? In two ways.

First, it provides alternate framework for humanity to seek an elevation in their emotional well-being with a new definition of spirituality which is more scientific and less faith-based. When individuals are spiritually more evolved, the world will be much better

Secondly, the model shows that the objective is to reach the high energy state of mind. What we call god is reaching a state of mind. Religion and god are just methods or means which help to reach that state of mind (Discussed in full details in the ebook God in Two Minutes, listed in 'Related Readings' at the end). Reaching the goal is important, the means to reach there are not. Different religions could be different means to reach the same goal of high energy state (Fig. 10). It is only a matter of time before Spiritual Science will make all this crystal clear. Is it not foolish then to fight and kill for religion as we do today? Man will then look back and laugh at us and our beliefs in several religions and gods, just as we laugh at people who thought the earth was flat. This can be an eye opener to bridge the religious divide and reduce religious conflicts.

Fig. 10: Different Religions are different means to the same goal of Spirituality

9. What Next? The Way Forward

9.1 Summary of "Prem Model of Spirituality" & The Way Forward

Let us summarise the features of our model. The model also helps us define spirituality and to suggest a way forward towards the Spiritual Revolution

1. The universe consists of not only the physical space we are so familiar with, but also a spiritual space. All of us occupy a certain position in this space, just like we do in a physical space.
2. Spirituality is nothing but a state of mind, or a position in this spiritual space. There are positions with extremely high energy in this space, which we call god zones. Reaching these zones is like reaching a very powerful state of mind which we call God State.
3. Reaching god or attaining god is reaching god state, or reaching these high energy zones. Every human being is capable of reaching there, every human being has the capacity to be Buddha.
4. Laws of physical science work in the physical space and are fairly well explained by Mathematics. Spiritual Space too is governed by equally precise laws of spiritual science but are not yet known. Spiritual principles are nothing but simple universal laws of Spiritual science.
5. Phenomena of the physical space like gravity, wind, light, etc. too were unexplained (or explained as will of god). They lacked a language to explain them till Mathematics explained them all. What we lack today is a language to express phenomena of spiritual space as mathematics fails miserably in that space.
6. Man is sure to discover a new language (or an enhanced version of Mathematics) called "Mentomatics" which will not only explain spiritual principles as precisely but also provide the much needed repeatability.
7. Just as ability to measure distances or the x,y,z coordinates of physical space opened the doors to development of Mathematics, our ability to measure feelings, the axes of the mental space, are the much needed first steps to development of Mentomatics.
8. Historically, spirituality has got associated with religion as a marriage of convenience. Religion, by its very nature of 'faith-dependency' has blocked all free thinking and research in spirituality as a science. There is need to break spirituality free from the shackles of religion, from closed door of temples to universities and research centres.
9. Today half learned men try to "spread" half-baked concepts of spirituality. Spirituality is not something which needs to be spread or taken to common people. It is already there in every human being in the form of latent spiritual energy. What is required is not the age old slow methods of tapping this latent energy, but much faster scientific, space-age methods to access it and utilise the spiritual power latent in every individual. Science needs to aim for attaining "God in Two Minutes" or being "Buddha in Two Minutes"
10. Spirituality is a science which relates to you and your mind alone. It has nothing to do with the concept of religion or god

9.2 Skepticism, Criticism of "Prem Spirituality Model" & Further Reading

Because of limitations of scope and time for this paper, I know that a lot of questions are unanswered. The paper raises serious doubts in the minds of cynics and skeptics about the feasibility. It is not possible to satisfy all doubts in this paper. This paper is limited to using the Prem Spirituality Model to define Spirituality, explain the possible meaning of enlightenment and to introduce the concept of Mentomatics.

Most of the doubts raised here are hopefully cleared in the book "God in Two Minutes1". The book builds on "Prem Spirituality Model" to explain the origin of God and Religion, how the "method of god and religion" works, and what the pitfalls of a faith-based method are. It elaborates on concepts not covered or briefly touched upon in this paper like "marriage of convenience between the concept of God and Religion", Mentomatics, Spiritual Science as a superset of Physical and Quantum science, etc. The book peeps into what the world will look like with Mentomatics. Temples may be replaced by Spiritual Clinics where you may get prescription how to raise your spiritual state, or to reach a particular position in the spiritual space!

The book uses the model to explain how the method of god and religion works for spiritual upliftment, but at the same time the method has had a serious side effect. There is an inherent flaw in the method which has resulted into big religious divides, violence and bloodshed in the name of religion. The model can help bridge this religious divide and usher in the spiritual revolution with unimaginable possibilities.

Here it suffices to say that if unthinkable things have become a reality in physical space by physical science, one has to "Think the Unthinkable" to imagine what is possible in spiritual world once mentomatics is discovered.