The current Western paradigm favours a very mechanistic approach to the universe, and frequently insists on divorcing itself from that universe. Westerners place great stock in consistently reproducible results, independent of the people performing any given experiment or procedure. Modern Western science grew out of the observations of Ceremonial Magic. This magical system, popular in Europe for many centuries, proposed that the universe could be bent to the magician’s will if said magician said the right incantations, wore the right robes, and had the right materials on hand. Such obvious silliness has long since been mostly removed from our culture, but the basic assumption has not. The basic assumption that migrated from Western magic to Western science is that universal laws exist outside oneself, and are a universal constant that can be seen in action by anyone with the right equipment and/or training.

Eastern science, on the other hand, favors a completely different approach to reality. While Eastern science also grew out of Eastern magic, the original emphasis that migrated from one to the other is that the entire universe stands in relation to the observer. In Eastern thought, the observer is always a part of the system and objectivity is an exercise in futility. Therefore, the observer’s personal experiences are valid and important parts of any given experiment. The result of this approach is a huge body of empirical evidence spanning over 5,000 years. This enormous body of work is what informs Eastern scientists of their assumptions, as it is considered to be statistically relevant even though almost none of it can be scrutinized to detached inquiry.

Overall scientific research has shown both Eastern and Western frameworks to have valid applications in our modern world. For instance, within the medical field the Western framework is wonderfully adapted to study such subjects as acute disease and bodily trauma, whereas the Eastern framework has revolutionized such things as human psychology and chronic disease.

Which framework will work best in what context is still a matter of massive debate. Western scientists don’t like the “fuzziness” of Eastern methods, claiming that if any given thing can’t be objectively proven then it’s not reliable. Eastern scientists dislike the “mechanical” world view of Westerners, claiming that the universe is far too complicated to be broken down into simple rules, and that to ignore a human’s perspective is to discount the human race. Both of these paradigms have proven to be important to our race as methods by which to explore our universe, but much work remains before we can communicate well enough to achieve that goal.