The Universe we see with our scientific equipment is referred to as the “Observable Universe” approximately 90 BILLION light years in diameter and containing on the order of hundreds of billions to a few trillion galaxies. While we may think of space as objects separated by vast tracts of…well…space, that’s not entirely the case. NGC 6888 the “Crescent Nebula” has been said to resemble a giant brain in space There are on the order of 100 trillion connections between neurons forming the neural network that creates who you are. Neurons are also networked, communicating to each other through connections called axions and dendrites. Your brain has about 80 billion neurons – the cells that process input from the senses and send signals to your body through the nervous system. The human brain is literally one of the most complex structures known in the Universe – which is itself the greatest of all complexity. After all, how can these two things be similar given the vast difference in scale between them? But what if beyond the visual similarity between the networks of neurons in the brain and webs of galaxies in the Cosmos, an objective measurement could compare just how similar they truly are? That’s what Franco Vazza (astrophysicist at the University of Bologna) and Alberto Feletti (neurosurgeon at the University of Verona) set out to discover combining both their disciplines for a publication in “Frontiers of Physics.” But the similarity between the images could simply be a case of apophenia – perceiving likeness where none actually exists. The implication? You may have an entire universe in your head. Juxtaposition inspired by Lima (2009).Ī neuron in the brain juxtaposed with clusters of galaxies and their connected filaments of matter and dark matter. The green central cell body is ? 10µm in diameter. Another spiritual moment was seeing this image for the first time: Hippocampal mouse neuron studded with synaptic connections (yellow), courtesy Lisa Boulanger, from. Like when I first learned that I was literally made of the ashes of the stars – the atoms in my body spread into the eternal ether by supernovae. Learning about the Universe, I’ve felt spiritual moments, as Sagan describes them, as I better understand my connection to the wider everything. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual.” – Carl Sagan “The Demon-Haunted World.” “Science is not only compatible with spirituality it is a profound source of spirituality.
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