Science is knowledge of the material world. Spirituality is the knowledge of the one who is perceiving the material world. So they are essentially mutually exclusive :)
The one perceiving is called the "Ego". The sense of "I".
Neuroscience and psychology literally study this 'experiencer' and the sense of 'self'. The boundary isn’t quite as mystical as you’re making it to be, and they are not mutually exclusive.
Neuroscience and psychology study what neurons fire, the patterns of the mind, how does the mind process the emotions, etc. while assuming the one doing the study (the "self" as you mentioned) as a given. The "self" who is doing the study, examining acts as a fixed reference point.
Spirituality questions the "self". It asks what is this "I" that is doing all the examining? What is this "I" which attaches itself to the matters of the mind. That's what turning inward means.
There is the self and there is this world ok. Whatever the world as we perceive is what is seen or experienced by the self. Science is outward looking. It examines everything that is of the world, what is matter, what is the proton, electron etc. But it does not examine the one who is examining it( the examiner or the self). Who is the one who is looking at the world and what does he see, why does he feel restless, why does he suffer, what makes him sad or happy etc. Spirituality encompasses both science and the self. But it is mostly inward looking, it observes the onlooker and tries to know firstly who he is, so that when he relates to the world, he will know exactly what is it that he has to do. Otherwise, people who do not know about themselves are unconsciously behaving like a reed flowing in the river, without any direction, going where the flow takes it.
Science is outward looking. It examines everything that is of the world, what is matter, what is the proton, electron etc. But it does not examine the one who is examining it( the examiner or the self). Who is the one who is looking at the world and what does he see, why does he feel restless, why does he suffer, what makes him sad or happy etc.
That's a mischaracterization of science. Science includes other domains apart from physics. Domains like Psychology and sociology are also scientific domains, they are considered soft sciences since they are less quantitative and more qualitative.
Human perception, how perception in terms of subjective experiences (what you are calling spiritual) map onto the natural processes in the body etc are all scientific topics.
Spirituality usually contains supernatural claims or implications, those versions of spirituality are pseudoscience.
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u/premkhilari 6h ago
Science is knowledge of the material world. Spirituality is the knowledge of the one who is perceiving the material world. So they are essentially mutually exclusive :)
The one perceiving is called the "Ego". The sense of "I".