Yitzhak Bentov and the Science of Consciousness: Can Physics Prove the Soul?

Yitzhak Bentov was a brilliant scientist and inventor who served in the Science Corps of the Israel Defense Forces and helped develop the first missile of Israel’s defense industry. He later specialized in biomedicine and was among the pioneers of cardiac catheterization. From there, he turned to the study of human consciousness — a field in which he arrived at highly intriguing conclusions pointing to the existence of the soul. In 1977 (5737), he published a book on this subject, but tragically, he was killed in a plane crash in 1979, and his research was not continued thereafter.

Consciousness Beyond Biology

Nevertheless, Bentov’s book and various articles present a deeply fascinating picture. He demonstrated that human consciousness — the experience of thought and emotion, cannot be explained as the product of electrical or biological processes alone. From a scientific standpoint, he argued that there is something beyond the purely physical within the human psyche.

Quantum Theory and Consciousness

Bentov claimed that, according to quantum theory, consciousness is closer to energy than to matter. Theoretically, it can expand and communicate with hidden layers of reality that ordinary human awareness cannot access. He developed this idea further and ultimately concluded that the universe itself must necessarily be built upon a form of consciousness that connects all of its parts. This concept has a parallel in the teachings of the early Jewish sages (referred to in their language as the “Active Intellect”), and some argue that it also corresponds to the doctrine of the sefirot described in the holy Zohar.

A Holographic Universe

According to this view, we live in a holographic universe, meaning that all information exists everywhere simultaneously. The human soul may be connected to knowledge and wisdom that already exist, and the more refined it becomes, the more of this inherent wisdom it can comprehend and attain. All of reality likewise draws from this abstract wisdom, from which the laws of nature ultimately unfold.

Physics, Consciousness, and the Nature of Reality

These ideas also play a role in ongoing efforts to formulate physical theories that can explain the fragmented information we currently have about the nature of matter and the universe — an endeavor pursued by well-known physicists as well. Theoretical nuclear physicist Dr. Amit Goswami of the University of Oregon states that “consciousness is the ground of all being.” He believes that the universe is self-aware and that consciousness itself gives rise to the physical world.

Science and Jewish Thought

Of course, we do not derive our understanding of Kabbalistic concepts from secular philosophers. Still, these perspectives are sufficient to show that the profound ideas we have learned from our own sources also possess a solid and faithful scientific and philosophical foundation.