This observation works on both religious and scientific levels. As Capra observes in The Tao of Physics, "Shiva's dance is the clearest image of the activity of God. The dance of Shiva is the dancing universe; the ceaseless flow of energy going through an infinite variety of patterns that melt into one another."

Subatomic physics keeps delving deeper and deeper into the structure of matter, and finding less and less to depend upon. Physicist Max Born cheerfully confirms this view, "We have sought for firm ground and found none. The deeper we penetrate, the more restless becomes the universe; all is rushing about and vibrating in a wild dance."

Capra continues, "Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is .. the very essence of inorganic matter. (In) quantum field theory: all interactions between the constituents of matter take place through the emission and absorption of virtual particles ... Every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance ... Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter."

Myth-meister Joseph Campbell relates a conversation between a social philosopher and a Shinto priest: "We've been to a good many ceremonies and shrines, but I don't get your ideology. I don't get your theology." The priest repied, "I think we don't have ideology. We don't have theology. We dance." Birds do it, bees do it, subatomic particles do it.

As the matter/energy issue becomes ever more blurred with the discovery that the smallest subatomic units possess properties of both matter and energy - both particle and wave - it becomes more philosophically satisfying to assume that the mind/ body differential is equally illusory. The ancient Chinese symbol of yin/yang (male/female, light/dark) connects seeming opposites into a unity.

William Blake, the great Western mystic/poet/artist dismisses the duality, "Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discover'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age."

In more systematic Western thought, the Hegelian dialectic views history as the "absolute spirit manifesting itself so to realize its inherent nature." But, this is "not a smooth transition from one phase to the next ... Each stage gives rise to its opposite in a continual pattern of transcendence leading toward higher unities."

The duality is again illusory. The dance is where this duality is harmonized. Campbell believes that our existential search is "to be in accord with the grand symphony that this world is, to put (the) harmony of our own body in accord with that harmony." This is why dancing is at the center of parties. Dancing is among the last of our rites. Ritual, viewed from an intellectual point of view, is illogical, impractical. Hence the suspicion of dance in the age of science, where all things are judged by their objective result.