When you take a look at what is happening in your life, you may have difficulty making the connection between your THOUGHTS and what is actually happening. It seems like the two are separate. So, let's try to connect the dots.
Neither success nor failure happens by accident. The assumption of almost every person is that they believe something or someone OUTSIDE of them is responsible for their present circumstances.
The question that must be answered is WHO or WHAT is responsible for us NOT having what we want? Our parents? Our background? Our education? God? Destiny?
In fact, nothing OUTSIDE of you is responsible for not having what you want, even though it may appear that way. You experience what you experience in your life because you are in asleep and you don't even know it!
Everything that happens to us is because of our beliefs. For example, if you hold on to the belief that you are a victim of your circumstances, or that whatever happens to you is purely random or predestined, you will keep creating that same reality. This also becomes your excuse why others can have what you want, but it can never happen for you.
We live in a universe that is governed by a series of physical laws. We have no idea how gravity works, but we see evidence of it working every day. So it is not a matter of whether we BELIEVE it or not.
ONE law in particular is as certain as gravity and that ABSOLUTELY determines the outcome of your life. This law determines whether you have money, health, positive relationships, success or anything else in your life. It also determines whether you live a life that is full of worry, fear and stress, or a life that is carefree and happy.
This law is called The Law of Attraction. Without understanding how this law affects your life, your life will continue to appear chaotic and uncertain. The things you react to in your everyday life are a direct result of what you think, feel and believe.
Despite the fact that this law has been around before the beginning of time, most people who pride themselves as being "logical thinkers" will discredit it. They'll say that it's nonsense and it is not based on science or "reality".
As we know, for centuries we thought the earth was flat. But THINKING something is true or false does not make it so. What REALLY matters are RESULTS we experience when we live by those thoughts.
Let's take a moment and talk about the Law of Attraction and see if we can put it into perspective. You have heard the saying that "like attracts like". That is absolutely true. Why? Because everything in our universe is made of energy.
Science has proven that like energy attracts like energy. Everything on this planet - in this universe – including our thoughts, are made up of energy. If you don't believe this is true - that everything is made up of energy – then let me ask you this question. What do you think YOU'RE made up of?
You may say, "Flesh and bones". Okay, then the next logical question is, what are your flesh and bones made up of? Cells? Okay, then what are your cells made up of? Molecules. Okay, what are molecules made up of?
Eventually the answer must bring it back to the basic substance of which we are all made up of. When you run out of the physical stuff, you are left with only one thing: Energy! You cannot deny that we are made of energy. Quantum science has already proven that this is true. All energy has specific magnetic proprieties. We are basically magnets. As magnets, we are attracting things all day long, even if we are unaware of it.
Maybe this is easy for you to understand and accept. On the other hand, maybe your logical mind has trouble accepting that this is real. You may even be thinking that this is a bunch of metaphysical nonsense. It doesn't matter.
In the Science of Being Well Home Study Course, you will find many examples and stories to help you develop your own powers of healing using simply the power of your mind. This is not revolutionary. These secrets have been around for ages. To learn more, claim your FREE report of the First Secret to Abundant Health on www.thescienceofbeingwell.biz today!!
*From the desk of Dr Magne, author with Wallace Wattles of The Science of Being Well Home Study Course.
By Laurence Magne
Published: 3/30/2007
Article : http://www.buzzle.com/articles/quantum-healing-author-reveals-all.html
Thursday, February 14, 2008
''Quantum Healing''
© Interview With Deepak Chopra M.D.
Interviewed By Daniel Redwood D.C.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deepak Chopra is a physician whose unhappiness with western medicine led him to search for an alternative. An endocrinologist who is a former Chief of Staff at the New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts, and who has taught at Tufts and Boston University Medical Schools, Dr. Chopra was introduced to the ancient methods of Indian healing, known as Ayurveda, by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the man who has done more than any other to bring traditional meditation to the West.
Chopra proved an apt student, and has become a master teacher as well. He is the founding president of the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine, and has written and lectured widely, authoring the bestselling Quantum Healing,as well as Creating Health, Return of the Rishi, Perfect Health, Unconditional Life, and Ageless Body, Timeless Mind.
Dr. Chopra has initiated collaborations with medical associations in the Russia, Poland, Hungary and Brazil. He has spoken at the U.N. in New York, the World Health Organization in Geneva, the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Australia, the National Institutes of Health in Washington, and at medical schools worldwide.
Chopra has been instrumental in developing the practice of Ayurvedic medicine, which may well be the world's oldest living system of healing, in the United States. He is the Medical Director of the Sharp Institute for Human Potential and Mind-Body Medicine in La Jolla, California, and lectures and teaches worldwide.
Chopra Center for Well Being
7590 Fay Avenue, Suite 403
La Jolla, CA 92037
(619) 551-7788
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deepak Chopra Interview
DR: What led a western-trained medical physician such as yourself to pursue the ancient Indian practice of Ayurveda?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: Just an unhappiness with the mechanical approach of contemporary medicine, which says that there is a magic bullet in the form of a pill for everything we have. And the fact remains that none of our medical interventions either get to the root cause of disease, or make a significant difference in mortality or morbidity. They just alter its expression.
It's frustrating to see patients again and again, and to keep giving them sleeping pills, tranquilizers and antibiotics, for their hypertension or ulcers, when you know you're not getting rid of the problem or disease. The word "cure" is not even used. You are just treating the patient. "Curing" is a term that all physicians avoid. Our training is not oriented toward that.
DR: Can you explain what you mean by "quantum healing?"
DEEPAK CHOPRA: Quantum healing is healing the bodymind from a quantum level. That means from a level which is not manifest at a sensory level. Our bodies ultimately are fields of information, intelligence and energy. Quantum healing involves a shift in the fields of energy information, so as to bring about a correction in an idea that has gone wrong. So quantum healing involves healing one mode of consciousness, mind, to bring about changes in another mode of consciousness, body.
DR: How important is meditation in achieving and maintaining health?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: Meditation is a very important aspect of all the approaches that one can use in quantum healing, because it allows you to experience your own source. When you experience your own source, you realize that you are not the patterns and eddies of desire and memory that flow and swirl in your consciousness. Although these patterns of desire and memory are the field of your manifestation, you are in fact not these swirling fluctuations of thought.
You are the thinker behind the thought, the observer behind the observation, the flow of attention, the flow of awareness, the unbounded ocean of consciousness. When you have that on the experiential level, you spontaneously realize that you have choices, and that you can exercise these choices, not through some sheer will power but spontaneously.
DR: What aspects of contemporary lifestyles do you feel are most harmful to people's health?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: The most harmful is the loss of simplicity, and the loss of trust. The experience of alienation, fragmentation, isolation....this ultimately leads to all of the problems, like contamination of our environment, hostility towards each other, poor nutrition, and hard work, too much work . . . A work-oriented society, a success oriented society, in which we believe that somehow, material objects are the only source of our happiness.
DR: How do you find time for medical practice, writing, travel and family life, and still get to bed early, as you recommend in your books?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: That's a good question. I in fact don't believe in the existence of time. That's one thing I have to tell you, and the other is that I don't take myself or what I am doing seriously. I believe in the ancient saying that this is a recreational universe, for those who want to share God's one great passion, beauty. I feel that I'm having a wonderful time. I don't look upon any of this as work. It's a source of great joy and happiness for me.
I experience beauty in everything I do, and when I experience it emotionally, then I know intellectually that it must be the truth. So if I don't go to sleep by ten, it doesn't bother me, because I'm not tired. Most of my writing I do in planes, when I have plenty of time. I meditate whenever I have a chance, and that is actually more frequently than most of my patients meditate. I see patients about 50% of my time at this clinic. That too is a source of great joy to me, talking to people and interacting with people. In fact, I have learned more from my patients than from anybody else.
DR: What has surprised you most in your practice of Ayurvedic medicine?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: What has surprised me most is that when given insight, even a little bit of insight, patients find themselves empowered to do the impossible.
DR: Your father is a medical physician in India. How did his values influence you with regard to your choice of a career, and also regarding your outlook on western and eastern healing methods?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: My father was a great source of inspiration for me, because he was such a wonderful father, who never in his life have I heard raise his voice. He brought up his two children as princes, told them that their birthright was to have all their desires fulfilled. He was a very strongly western-oriented doctor, however. He is a cardiologist, very well-known in India. But he is also a very fun-loving person. I still remember going on vacations and picnics together, going to Shakespearian dramas together.
I never wanted to be a doctor. I always wanted to be a writer and journalist, but when I got to college, I felt that I also had to be a doctor, because that was a very important part of my childhood experience, watching my father heal people. He has that ability. Not only as a great, great cardiologist, but also as someone who cares about his patients. Even when he is not in the hospital or office, he cares about them, he thinks about them, he talks about them to his children and his wife. Not giving away any confidential information, but just wondering how he can help them. He has always been a great source of inspiration.
He was not, however, inclined very favorably toward Ayurvedic medicine until I introduced him to it. Now he is the most enthusiastic researcher on Ayurveda in India.
DR: What current research on Ayurveda interests you most?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: The research that interests me most is the research on Panchakarma, which is the procedure for removing toxins from the body, and how it affects biological aging. And of course the research on the herbal preparations, which yield very interesting and previously unthought of ways of healing. Herbs don't usually work the way pharmaceutical compounds do, binding to receptor sites. They seem to be evoking and amplifying the body's own healing processes. They are much more gentle. That means they probably take longer. It's a much more gentle, a much more holistic, and a much more complete effect.
DR: You said your father raised his sons to believe that their wishes could be granted. If you had one wish that you knew could be granted, what would it be?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: My wish would be for peace on the planet, and that we all fall in love with each other.
Daniel Redwood is a chiropractor, writer and musician who lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is the author of A Time to Heal: How to Reap the Benefits of Holistic Health (A.R.E. Press), and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. He can be reached by e-mail at redwoods@infi.net.
©1995 Daniel Redwood
Article Source : http://www.healthy.net/scr/interview.asp?Id=167
Interviewed By Daniel Redwood D.C.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deepak Chopra is a physician whose unhappiness with western medicine led him to search for an alternative. An endocrinologist who is a former Chief of Staff at the New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts, and who has taught at Tufts and Boston University Medical Schools, Dr. Chopra was introduced to the ancient methods of Indian healing, known as Ayurveda, by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the man who has done more than any other to bring traditional meditation to the West.
Chopra proved an apt student, and has become a master teacher as well. He is the founding president of the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine, and has written and lectured widely, authoring the bestselling Quantum Healing,as well as Creating Health, Return of the Rishi, Perfect Health, Unconditional Life, and Ageless Body, Timeless Mind.
Dr. Chopra has initiated collaborations with medical associations in the Russia, Poland, Hungary and Brazil. He has spoken at the U.N. in New York, the World Health Organization in Geneva, the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Australia, the National Institutes of Health in Washington, and at medical schools worldwide.
Chopra has been instrumental in developing the practice of Ayurvedic medicine, which may well be the world's oldest living system of healing, in the United States. He is the Medical Director of the Sharp Institute for Human Potential and Mind-Body Medicine in La Jolla, California, and lectures and teaches worldwide.
Chopra Center for Well Being
7590 Fay Avenue, Suite 403
La Jolla, CA 92037
(619) 551-7788
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deepak Chopra Interview
DR: What led a western-trained medical physician such as yourself to pursue the ancient Indian practice of Ayurveda?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: Just an unhappiness with the mechanical approach of contemporary medicine, which says that there is a magic bullet in the form of a pill for everything we have. And the fact remains that none of our medical interventions either get to the root cause of disease, or make a significant difference in mortality or morbidity. They just alter its expression.
It's frustrating to see patients again and again, and to keep giving them sleeping pills, tranquilizers and antibiotics, for their hypertension or ulcers, when you know you're not getting rid of the problem or disease. The word "cure" is not even used. You are just treating the patient. "Curing" is a term that all physicians avoid. Our training is not oriented toward that.
DR: Can you explain what you mean by "quantum healing?"
DEEPAK CHOPRA: Quantum healing is healing the bodymind from a quantum level. That means from a level which is not manifest at a sensory level. Our bodies ultimately are fields of information, intelligence and energy. Quantum healing involves a shift in the fields of energy information, so as to bring about a correction in an idea that has gone wrong. So quantum healing involves healing one mode of consciousness, mind, to bring about changes in another mode of consciousness, body.
DR: How important is meditation in achieving and maintaining health?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: Meditation is a very important aspect of all the approaches that one can use in quantum healing, because it allows you to experience your own source. When you experience your own source, you realize that you are not the patterns and eddies of desire and memory that flow and swirl in your consciousness. Although these patterns of desire and memory are the field of your manifestation, you are in fact not these swirling fluctuations of thought.
You are the thinker behind the thought, the observer behind the observation, the flow of attention, the flow of awareness, the unbounded ocean of consciousness. When you have that on the experiential level, you spontaneously realize that you have choices, and that you can exercise these choices, not through some sheer will power but spontaneously.
DR: What aspects of contemporary lifestyles do you feel are most harmful to people's health?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: The most harmful is the loss of simplicity, and the loss of trust. The experience of alienation, fragmentation, isolation....this ultimately leads to all of the problems, like contamination of our environment, hostility towards each other, poor nutrition, and hard work, too much work . . . A work-oriented society, a success oriented society, in which we believe that somehow, material objects are the only source of our happiness.
DR: How do you find time for medical practice, writing, travel and family life, and still get to bed early, as you recommend in your books?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: That's a good question. I in fact don't believe in the existence of time. That's one thing I have to tell you, and the other is that I don't take myself or what I am doing seriously. I believe in the ancient saying that this is a recreational universe, for those who want to share God's one great passion, beauty. I feel that I'm having a wonderful time. I don't look upon any of this as work. It's a source of great joy and happiness for me.
I experience beauty in everything I do, and when I experience it emotionally, then I know intellectually that it must be the truth. So if I don't go to sleep by ten, it doesn't bother me, because I'm not tired. Most of my writing I do in planes, when I have plenty of time. I meditate whenever I have a chance, and that is actually more frequently than most of my patients meditate. I see patients about 50% of my time at this clinic. That too is a source of great joy to me, talking to people and interacting with people. In fact, I have learned more from my patients than from anybody else.
DR: What has surprised you most in your practice of Ayurvedic medicine?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: What has surprised me most is that when given insight, even a little bit of insight, patients find themselves empowered to do the impossible.
DR: Your father is a medical physician in India. How did his values influence you with regard to your choice of a career, and also regarding your outlook on western and eastern healing methods?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: My father was a great source of inspiration for me, because he was such a wonderful father, who never in his life have I heard raise his voice. He brought up his two children as princes, told them that their birthright was to have all their desires fulfilled. He was a very strongly western-oriented doctor, however. He is a cardiologist, very well-known in India. But he is also a very fun-loving person. I still remember going on vacations and picnics together, going to Shakespearian dramas together.
I never wanted to be a doctor. I always wanted to be a writer and journalist, but when I got to college, I felt that I also had to be a doctor, because that was a very important part of my childhood experience, watching my father heal people. He has that ability. Not only as a great, great cardiologist, but also as someone who cares about his patients. Even when he is not in the hospital or office, he cares about them, he thinks about them, he talks about them to his children and his wife. Not giving away any confidential information, but just wondering how he can help them. He has always been a great source of inspiration.
He was not, however, inclined very favorably toward Ayurvedic medicine until I introduced him to it. Now he is the most enthusiastic researcher on Ayurveda in India.
DR: What current research on Ayurveda interests you most?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: The research that interests me most is the research on Panchakarma, which is the procedure for removing toxins from the body, and how it affects biological aging. And of course the research on the herbal preparations, which yield very interesting and previously unthought of ways of healing. Herbs don't usually work the way pharmaceutical compounds do, binding to receptor sites. They seem to be evoking and amplifying the body's own healing processes. They are much more gentle. That means they probably take longer. It's a much more gentle, a much more holistic, and a much more complete effect.
DR: You said your father raised his sons to believe that their wishes could be granted. If you had one wish that you knew could be granted, what would it be?
DEEPAK CHOPRA: My wish would be for peace on the planet, and that we all fall in love with each other.
Daniel Redwood is a chiropractor, writer and musician who lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is the author of A Time to Heal: How to Reap the Benefits of Holistic Health (A.R.E. Press), and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. He can be reached by e-mail at redwoods@infi.net.
©1995 Daniel Redwood
Article Source : http://www.healthy.net/scr/interview.asp?Id=167
The integral worldview made simplePosted September 22th, 2007 by Ross Vaughn
Authored by Lawrence Wollersheim
At this moment in time, a dynamic, new worldview appears to have burst upon the global stage. It is called the integral worldview. A worldview is a meta-paradigm of reality, a unifying cultural consciousness that both underlies and conditions an individual's way of knowing, seeing and acting in the world.
A new worldview emerges when the previous worldview no longer adequately solves new problems that are arising. Each new worldview provides more effective solutions that simply cannot be seen from within the constraints of the previous worldview.
New worldviews have emerged just a handful of times in human history. In the order of their emergence, the previous worldviews were called: archaic, magic, mythic, modern and postmodern.
It is important to know about the dawning of any new worldview because it is the bellwether of the large-scale, powerful, cultural evolution to come. For example, it was the emergence of a new worldview in the eight eenth century called the Enlightenment, or what is also called rational modernism, that caused what many consider to be the greatest single surge in cultural and personal evolution in history.
What is the new integral worldview?
The Integral worldview has emerged in the global Internet age where the totality of every knowledge discipline and the wisdom of all existing and previous cultures is readily available. The new Integral worldview:
provides a deeper and broader map of the evolution of known reality that embraces an inclusive, multiple perspective way of looking at and understanding personal, cultural and biologic evolutionary development. It excludes nothing needed for balanced understanding and/or growth or wholeness in any area.
anticipates what more appropriate solution comes next in the unfolding of the evolutionary process. These new solutions are shifted away from today's polarizing and marginalizing, right or wrong, either/or, left or right partial choices toward more inclusive, comprehensive both/and solutions. That's because its new solutions embrace the entire evolutionary developmental spectrum of life and humanity, allowing the lessons of previously exclusive and competitive worldviews to be systematically meshed, layered and harmoniously integrated to serve the well-being of the whole spiral of life.
is based upon the integral method of inclusion, transcendence and synthesis. It includes the most useful perspectives and values from all previous worldviews where contextually appropriate, while simultaneously pruning away contextually inappropriate perspectives and values.
unites all things in a coherent and structured matrix of relationship. It combines inner (subjective), outer (objective,) and the inter-subjective (relational) perspectives on any phenomena, whether singular or collective.
re-embraces new forms of non-pathological, integral religion and integral personal spirituality that is congenial to science, philosophy and art and, more universal in its perspectives.
Why is this new integral worldview important to your daily life?
It creates more effective and life-affirming solutions for every challenge or dream you have, whether your interests are business, culture, politics, religion, science or the environment. It can do this more effectively than ever before because of its new perspectives and understandings relating to personal, cultural and biologic evolutionary development. Armed with this vital new information you now can more wisely participate in actively co-evolving any area of your own life and future.
It heals and rebalances the subtle cynicism that results from the fragmentation and complexity of 21st century living by creating a new holism as well as a revitalized sense of achievable purpose.
It releases vast untapped personal growth potentials by dramatically expanding who or what you conceive of self, nature and culture to be.
It helps you to find the new healthy boundaries and practical clarity that are needed for our globalized postmodern world where today's cultural relativity and contextuality can debilitate decision and action.
Introduction to the Integral Challenges of the Present
We are in a period of history futurists say will be looked back upon 1,000 years from now and called the 50 year period of the most intense change velocity in all of human history. Unlike the gradually developing industrial revolution spread over the 19th and 20 centuries our current age is and will continue to experience the convergence of 4 vastly more powerful technological revolutions. These 21st century revolutions are the information/internet/computer revolution, the genetic manipulation revolution, the revolution in robotics and nanotechnology and the emergence of the new Integral Worldview that can order and hold value and meaning through the coming intense change velocity.
By 2050, because of the convergence of four technologies some futurists predict 5 percent of the population w ill be able to produce everything needed for the total population. We clearly live in exciting and rapidly changing times. We also clearly live in the most challenging of times where environmental, political and social problems threaten biocide for the planet and the consequent destruction of the human species. Are we in the worst of times or, are we just entering what could be the best of times and, are we really in the beginning of the greatest new spirituality, art, philosophy and science enlightenment period in the history of mankind --- a new Integral Age that transcends the information age? This essay and article was created by Lawrence Wollersheim for Integrative Spirituality a non profit organization supporting open source integral spirituality.
Article Source : http://www.integralbuddha.net/topic_aqalsdi_tiwms.htm
Authored by Lawrence Wollersheim
At this moment in time, a dynamic, new worldview appears to have burst upon the global stage. It is called the integral worldview. A worldview is a meta-paradigm of reality, a unifying cultural consciousness that both underlies and conditions an individual's way of knowing, seeing and acting in the world.
A new worldview emerges when the previous worldview no longer adequately solves new problems that are arising. Each new worldview provides more effective solutions that simply cannot be seen from within the constraints of the previous worldview.
New worldviews have emerged just a handful of times in human history. In the order of their emergence, the previous worldviews were called: archaic, magic, mythic, modern and postmodern.
It is important to know about the dawning of any new worldview because it is the bellwether of the large-scale, powerful, cultural evolution to come. For example, it was the emergence of a new worldview in the eight eenth century called the Enlightenment, or what is also called rational modernism, that caused what many consider to be the greatest single surge in cultural and personal evolution in history.
What is the new integral worldview?
The Integral worldview has emerged in the global Internet age where the totality of every knowledge discipline and the wisdom of all existing and previous cultures is readily available. The new Integral worldview:
provides a deeper and broader map of the evolution of known reality that embraces an inclusive, multiple perspective way of looking at and understanding personal, cultural and biologic evolutionary development. It excludes nothing needed for balanced understanding and/or growth or wholeness in any area.
anticipates what more appropriate solution comes next in the unfolding of the evolutionary process. These new solutions are shifted away from today's polarizing and marginalizing, right or wrong, either/or, left or right partial choices toward more inclusive, comprehensive both/and solutions. That's because its new solutions embrace the entire evolutionary developmental spectrum of life and humanity, allowing the lessons of previously exclusive and competitive worldviews to be systematically meshed, layered and harmoniously integrated to serve the well-being of the whole spiral of life.
is based upon the integral method of inclusion, transcendence and synthesis. It includes the most useful perspectives and values from all previous worldviews where contextually appropriate, while simultaneously pruning away contextually inappropriate perspectives and values.
unites all things in a coherent and structured matrix of relationship. It combines inner (subjective), outer (objective,) and the inter-subjective (relational) perspectives on any phenomena, whether singular or collective.
re-embraces new forms of non-pathological, integral religion and integral personal spirituality that is congenial to science, philosophy and art and, more universal in its perspectives.
Why is this new integral worldview important to your daily life?
It creates more effective and life-affirming solutions for every challenge or dream you have, whether your interests are business, culture, politics, religion, science or the environment. It can do this more effectively than ever before because of its new perspectives and understandings relating to personal, cultural and biologic evolutionary development. Armed with this vital new information you now can more wisely participate in actively co-evolving any area of your own life and future.
It heals and rebalances the subtle cynicism that results from the fragmentation and complexity of 21st century living by creating a new holism as well as a revitalized sense of achievable purpose.
It releases vast untapped personal growth potentials by dramatically expanding who or what you conceive of self, nature and culture to be.
It helps you to find the new healthy boundaries and practical clarity that are needed for our globalized postmodern world where today's cultural relativity and contextuality can debilitate decision and action.
Introduction to the Integral Challenges of the Present
We are in a period of history futurists say will be looked back upon 1,000 years from now and called the 50 year period of the most intense change velocity in all of human history. Unlike the gradually developing industrial revolution spread over the 19th and 20 centuries our current age is and will continue to experience the convergence of 4 vastly more powerful technological revolutions. These 21st century revolutions are the information/internet/computer revolution, the genetic manipulation revolution, the revolution in robotics and nanotechnology and the emergence of the new Integral Worldview that can order and hold value and meaning through the coming intense change velocity.
By 2050, because of the convergence of four technologies some futurists predict 5 percent of the population w ill be able to produce everything needed for the total population. We clearly live in exciting and rapidly changing times. We also clearly live in the most challenging of times where environmental, political and social problems threaten biocide for the planet and the consequent destruction of the human species. Are we in the worst of times or, are we just entering what could be the best of times and, are we really in the beginning of the greatest new spirituality, art, philosophy and science enlightenment period in the history of mankind --- a new Integral Age that transcends the information age? This essay and article was created by Lawrence Wollersheim for Integrative Spirituality a non profit organization supporting open source integral spirituality.
Article Source : http://www.integralbuddha.net/topic_aqalsdi_tiwms.htm
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Comparing and Contrasting Quantum mysticism and Jewish mysticism
By Jeff Silverman
I would like to compare and contrast Cabalah1, or Jewish Mysticism, with Quantum mechanics, or Scientific mysticism. But before I do, I beg your indulgence for a moment with a glass of water.
It occurs to me that Jewish mysticism and modern physics have much in common with one another. For example, it is virtually certain that at least one molecule of water that I just drank has passed through the urinary tract of Moses. This is a consequence of the fact that there were more molecules of water in this glass than there are glasses of water in all the seas and glaciers and ice caps of our planet. I am amazed when I compare how small a molecule of water is and how big is a galaxy; and yet there are structures which are smaller than molecules and larger than galaxies. Clearly, a proper understanding of physics and a proper understanding of the nature of G-d can clearly lead to the same emotional response: awe.
I turned 40 last January, and Rabbi Jonathan and Jo Merrick both gave me books on Jewish mysticism. I have been studying both books, and I understand neither: Jo tells me that I have had an authentic mystical experience. However, there are some things I have gleaned from my study; one of which is that Jewish mysticism is both similar and different from Quantum Mechanics.
Before I can discuss Quantum mechanics or Cabalah, there are some terms I should define.
Mysticism = "The experience of a union of something having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence of the person. A belief without sound basis postulating possibility of direct and intuitive acquisition of ineffable knowledge or power".
Quantum Mechanics is the branch of physics that was invented by Albert Einstein - in fact, he won his Nobel prize for work that became quantum mechanics. Einstein discovered that when things become very, very small, they tend to come in packets which you can count with integers. These packets, called "Quanta", are a fundamental to the universe. One of the fundamental properties of these quanta is that they are so small that you can't tell where they are and how fast they are moving. I am sure that a real quantum mechanic would be offended at my calling Quantum Mechanics mysticalafter all, it has a sound theoretical and empirical basis. Nobody can use a modern computer or listen to a radio or a CD or see a laser and not be assured that quantum mechanics is real and not mystical.
Microscopic - an object is microscopic if its behavior can be understand using quantum mechanical principles. Molecules are borderline microscopic. Atoms and subatomic particles certainly are. Take this definition with a grain of salt: General Electric sells a superconducting generator for power plants that weighs well over 100 tons. Although it weighs more than this congregation, it is still a quantum mechanical device. Also, the fact that an iceberg floats in fresh water can only be explained with Quantum Mechanics.
Macroscopic - an object is macroscopic if its behavior can be understood using Newtonian mechanical principles. Viruses, bacteria, and anything larger is Macroscopic. I myself am about 5 Kgs more macroscopic than I would like to be.
Jewish Mysticism or Cabalah - I want to distinguish between Cabalah and regular Judaism. A physicist can't see the difference because both schools of thought are based on faith rather than experiment. A Jew, of course, does see a difference. Cabalah is a relatively recent (12th Century) creation based on a book called the Zohar which was written by Isaac the Blind and others.
Let me begin by discussing the nature of the Universe from the point of view of both Quantum Mechanics and Cabalah. In the quantum mechanical view of the universe, the universe is made out of an incredibly large number of particles which are held together by one of 4 forces. These forces are Gravity, Electromagnetism, the Strong Force, and the Weak Force. Gravity is the force that is pulling all of us towards the earth's core. Electromagnetism is the force that keeps us from sliding through the floor. The strong force is what holds the nuclei of atoms together. The weak force governs certain interactions between some subatomic particles. The electrons in the atoms are bound to the nuclei using electromagnetic force; and atoms that comprise the molecules combine using electromagnetic forces. Chemists call these forces covalent, ionic, or metallic; but physicists know that these forces are all electromagnetic.
Cabalah believes that the universe is comprised of little bits of matter mediated by a mystical force called ein sof. Rabbi Jonathan believes that ein sof is a kind of light that illuminates us. But Rabbi Jonathan doesn't understand how light can be within everything and between everything. Physicists know better: light is an electromagnetic phenomena. What we call "light" is actually a special case of radiation that includes electricity, radio, infrared, ultraviolet and X-rays. If a Cabalist were to tell a physicist that the world is full of light, even in the darkest cave or the rainyest, moonless night, the physicist would reply, "Nu?".
Cabalah discuses how G-d is everywhere and yet we cannot sense G-d's presence. Actually, the idea that there is knowledge we cannot know is older than Cabalah; such thinking dates back at least to the book of Job. At the end of the book of Job, G-d presents a list of wonders to Job, and then asks "Who are you, to demand of me that I account for myself?". Similarly, at the end of his paper, Heisenberg proves to us that we can not be omnipotent, that in fact there are some things we cannot ever know. Quantum Mechanics discusses how particles can be somewhere and not elsewhere, but it is meaningless to ask in detail where they are and how fast they are moving. Similarly, both quantum mechanics and Cabalah note that some things just do not happen. Water does not flow up hill, and two leptons cannot exist in the same state at the same time. So both Cabalah and Quantum mechanics are in agreement that there are some things which cannot be knowable and there are some things which cannot occur.
I want to discuss the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, since it is important to understanding the nature of the Quantum Mechanical Universe. We are going to do a physics experiment. I am going to walk around this room. In this experiment, we are bouncing photons from the incandescent lights and observing that they form an easily recognizable pattern on the retinas of yours eyes. Using stereopsis and your kinestetic sense, You can locate me, and measure my position and velocity simultaneously. This is no big deal, really, all animals do this all the time. What is interesting is if I look at, for example, a bacterium using the same technique, I can still locate the bacterium and measure its velocity at the same time. However, if I get down to the size of an electron, then at that point the momentum of the electron and the momentum of the photons I am using to locate the electrons become comparable, so we can't locate the electrons anymore. Why is this a fundamentally meaningless question? It turns out that whenever you accelerate a charged particle, you get synchrotron radiation. The electrons are moving so fast in their little orbits that the synchrotron radiation would cause all of the electron orbits to decay and the electrons would crash into the nuclei. We have been observing things made out of atoms for millennia and we don't see atoms collapsing like that. So Quantum Mechanics comes to the rescue and says that because the position and the velocity of the electron is smeared out, there is no acceleration as we understand acceleration with macroscopic objects, and the atoms don't collapse. Since this theory agrees with what we observe, we accept it.
Cabalah talks about the continual recreation of the world. The world is not just running on autopilot, but rather G-d is continually recreating the world and making it a more holy place. When Cabalists talk about G-d as a verb, we are talking about this continual recreation process. Since we don't observe the universe collapsing, we conclude, albeit on rather shaky logic, that G-d is still busy recreating the world.
One of the areas where Quantum mechanics and Cabalah diverge is in the field of ethics. Quite frankly, Quantum Mechanics says nothing about ethics. Although in my studies of Cabalah, I haven't really found anything that says "this is unethical", my sense of the authors is that their vision is so far beyond the day to day matters of the world that ethics can be assumed. Consider this thought experiment. If I were to hold in my hands two hemispheres of pure plutonium each weighing about 500 grams and each being roughly 4 cm in diameter, and bring them together rapidly, the ensuing explosion would kill every man, woman and child within a kilometer of here. That's what E=mc2 is all about. Quantum mechanics answers "Why does this occur?" while Cabalah would ask the question "Why would you want to something like that?". Quantum mechanics also describes how neutrons spin. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or NMR, allows physicians to probe into the brain of people with cancer, to locate tumors and save lives. Cabalah exclaims "isn't that wonderful?". The underlying physics of nuclear weapons and NMR imaging is roughly the same. The outcomes and the ethical considerations are vastly different.
Cabalah does hold, as a central tenet, the idea that all things and all people are interconnected together. This interconnectedness is a powerful argument for acting in an ethical manner. Any evil that I do to you is going to turn around and come back to me somehow or other. One need look no farther than Russia to see what happens when ethics and morals break down. Rabbi David Cooper in his book, God is a Verb, recounts a fascinating story which took place in the mid 1970s. A Catholic woman was dining with David and his wife, Shoshanna. All of a sudden, David noticed that this woman was crying. Apparently, since her childhood in the early 1950s, she had had this recurring nightmare in which she was on board one of the trains carrying Jews to the death camps of Nazi Germany. There is no logical explanation for this nightmare, no scientific theory that explains how this woman could have this memory. And yet it is so. A Cabalist would have no difficulty with the idea that the interconnectedness of all things is such that the death cries of 6 million people would reach this woman somehow. A scientist, and here I am including not just physicists but all scientists, should be very careful not to reject an observation simply because it doesn't fit into any of our established theories. Just because something doesn't make sense is not reason for it not to be true.
To wrap this up then, I've tried comparing and contrasting Jewish Mysticism and Quantum mechanics in four different areas: on the nature of the universe, on why the universe doesn't collapse, on what is knowable and not knowable, and on ethics and right behavior. Cabalah Quantum Mechanics
The nature of the universe The universe is little bits of dark matter which are surrounded and held together by a light called ein sof. The universe is little particles with positive and negative and neutral charge which are surrounded by and held together by 4 forces: gravity, electromagnetism, strong, and weak
Why the universe doesn't collapse G-d is constantly recreating the universe. The creation of the universe is an ongoing process. G-d is a verb. The smeary, indistinct nature of subatomic particles keeps the universe from collapsing
On what is knowable and unknowable The name of G-d is not knowable. The nature of G-d is not knowable. However, questions about the nature of G-d and the role of humans in the work of creation are very important issues. Since G-d's existence cannot be demonstrated by experiment nor predicted by theory, it is meaningless to talk about G-d.
On ethics Because of the interconnectedness of the universe, it is imperative to behave in an ethical manner. We are encouraged to think about how we have wronged others and dealt with others who have wronged us. Nothing
This is some heavy thinking material. I tried very hard to condense what I wanted to say into 10 minutes - and Rabbi Jonathan was adamant about 10 minutes. So I have posted this devar torah on my website, at http://www.commercialventvac.com/~jeffs/CAQM.htm and go from there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1
On November 30th 2003, my wife, Judith, noticed that I had consistently mispelled "Kabbalah". When I wrote this essay in 1998, there was no Google. In 2003, it is the premier search engine. As of this writing, Google thinks there are 1210 occurances of "Cabalah", over 11,000 occurances of "Kabalah", and over 219,000 occurances of "Kabbalah". Google appears to round these counts to 3 significant figures.
Article Source : http://www.commercialventvac.com/~jeffs/CAQM.htm
I would like to compare and contrast Cabalah1, or Jewish Mysticism, with Quantum mechanics, or Scientific mysticism. But before I do, I beg your indulgence for a moment with a glass of water.
It occurs to me that Jewish mysticism and modern physics have much in common with one another. For example, it is virtually certain that at least one molecule of water that I just drank has passed through the urinary tract of Moses. This is a consequence of the fact that there were more molecules of water in this glass than there are glasses of water in all the seas and glaciers and ice caps of our planet. I am amazed when I compare how small a molecule of water is and how big is a galaxy; and yet there are structures which are smaller than molecules and larger than galaxies. Clearly, a proper understanding of physics and a proper understanding of the nature of G-d can clearly lead to the same emotional response: awe.
I turned 40 last January, and Rabbi Jonathan and Jo Merrick both gave me books on Jewish mysticism. I have been studying both books, and I understand neither: Jo tells me that I have had an authentic mystical experience. However, there are some things I have gleaned from my study; one of which is that Jewish mysticism is both similar and different from Quantum Mechanics.
Before I can discuss Quantum mechanics or Cabalah, there are some terms I should define.
Mysticism = "The experience of a union of something having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence of the person. A belief without sound basis postulating possibility of direct and intuitive acquisition of ineffable knowledge or power".
Quantum Mechanics is the branch of physics that was invented by Albert Einstein - in fact, he won his Nobel prize for work that became quantum mechanics. Einstein discovered that when things become very, very small, they tend to come in packets which you can count with integers. These packets, called "Quanta", are a fundamental to the universe. One of the fundamental properties of these quanta is that they are so small that you can't tell where they are and how fast they are moving. I am sure that a real quantum mechanic would be offended at my calling Quantum Mechanics mysticalafter all, it has a sound theoretical and empirical basis. Nobody can use a modern computer or listen to a radio or a CD or see a laser and not be assured that quantum mechanics is real and not mystical.
Microscopic - an object is microscopic if its behavior can be understand using quantum mechanical principles. Molecules are borderline microscopic. Atoms and subatomic particles certainly are. Take this definition with a grain of salt: General Electric sells a superconducting generator for power plants that weighs well over 100 tons. Although it weighs more than this congregation, it is still a quantum mechanical device. Also, the fact that an iceberg floats in fresh water can only be explained with Quantum Mechanics.
Macroscopic - an object is macroscopic if its behavior can be understood using Newtonian mechanical principles. Viruses, bacteria, and anything larger is Macroscopic. I myself am about 5 Kgs more macroscopic than I would like to be.
Jewish Mysticism or Cabalah - I want to distinguish between Cabalah and regular Judaism. A physicist can't see the difference because both schools of thought are based on faith rather than experiment. A Jew, of course, does see a difference. Cabalah is a relatively recent (12th Century) creation based on a book called the Zohar which was written by Isaac the Blind and others.
Let me begin by discussing the nature of the Universe from the point of view of both Quantum Mechanics and Cabalah. In the quantum mechanical view of the universe, the universe is made out of an incredibly large number of particles which are held together by one of 4 forces. These forces are Gravity, Electromagnetism, the Strong Force, and the Weak Force. Gravity is the force that is pulling all of us towards the earth's core. Electromagnetism is the force that keeps us from sliding through the floor. The strong force is what holds the nuclei of atoms together. The weak force governs certain interactions between some subatomic particles. The electrons in the atoms are bound to the nuclei using electromagnetic force; and atoms that comprise the molecules combine using electromagnetic forces. Chemists call these forces covalent, ionic, or metallic; but physicists know that these forces are all electromagnetic.
Cabalah believes that the universe is comprised of little bits of matter mediated by a mystical force called ein sof. Rabbi Jonathan believes that ein sof is a kind of light that illuminates us. But Rabbi Jonathan doesn't understand how light can be within everything and between everything. Physicists know better: light is an electromagnetic phenomena. What we call "light" is actually a special case of radiation that includes electricity, radio, infrared, ultraviolet and X-rays. If a Cabalist were to tell a physicist that the world is full of light, even in the darkest cave or the rainyest, moonless night, the physicist would reply, "Nu?".
Cabalah discuses how G-d is everywhere and yet we cannot sense G-d's presence. Actually, the idea that there is knowledge we cannot know is older than Cabalah; such thinking dates back at least to the book of Job. At the end of the book of Job, G-d presents a list of wonders to Job, and then asks "Who are you, to demand of me that I account for myself?". Similarly, at the end of his paper, Heisenberg proves to us that we can not be omnipotent, that in fact there are some things we cannot ever know. Quantum Mechanics discusses how particles can be somewhere and not elsewhere, but it is meaningless to ask in detail where they are and how fast they are moving. Similarly, both quantum mechanics and Cabalah note that some things just do not happen. Water does not flow up hill, and two leptons cannot exist in the same state at the same time. So both Cabalah and Quantum mechanics are in agreement that there are some things which cannot be knowable and there are some things which cannot occur.
I want to discuss the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, since it is important to understanding the nature of the Quantum Mechanical Universe. We are going to do a physics experiment. I am going to walk around this room. In this experiment, we are bouncing photons from the incandescent lights and observing that they form an easily recognizable pattern on the retinas of yours eyes. Using stereopsis and your kinestetic sense, You can locate me, and measure my position and velocity simultaneously. This is no big deal, really, all animals do this all the time. What is interesting is if I look at, for example, a bacterium using the same technique, I can still locate the bacterium and measure its velocity at the same time. However, if I get down to the size of an electron, then at that point the momentum of the electron and the momentum of the photons I am using to locate the electrons become comparable, so we can't locate the electrons anymore. Why is this a fundamentally meaningless question? It turns out that whenever you accelerate a charged particle, you get synchrotron radiation. The electrons are moving so fast in their little orbits that the synchrotron radiation would cause all of the electron orbits to decay and the electrons would crash into the nuclei. We have been observing things made out of atoms for millennia and we don't see atoms collapsing like that. So Quantum Mechanics comes to the rescue and says that because the position and the velocity of the electron is smeared out, there is no acceleration as we understand acceleration with macroscopic objects, and the atoms don't collapse. Since this theory agrees with what we observe, we accept it.
Cabalah talks about the continual recreation of the world. The world is not just running on autopilot, but rather G-d is continually recreating the world and making it a more holy place. When Cabalists talk about G-d as a verb, we are talking about this continual recreation process. Since we don't observe the universe collapsing, we conclude, albeit on rather shaky logic, that G-d is still busy recreating the world.
One of the areas where Quantum mechanics and Cabalah diverge is in the field of ethics. Quite frankly, Quantum Mechanics says nothing about ethics. Although in my studies of Cabalah, I haven't really found anything that says "this is unethical", my sense of the authors is that their vision is so far beyond the day to day matters of the world that ethics can be assumed. Consider this thought experiment. If I were to hold in my hands two hemispheres of pure plutonium each weighing about 500 grams and each being roughly 4 cm in diameter, and bring them together rapidly, the ensuing explosion would kill every man, woman and child within a kilometer of here. That's what E=mc2 is all about. Quantum mechanics answers "Why does this occur?" while Cabalah would ask the question "Why would you want to something like that?". Quantum mechanics also describes how neutrons spin. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or NMR, allows physicians to probe into the brain of people with cancer, to locate tumors and save lives. Cabalah exclaims "isn't that wonderful?". The underlying physics of nuclear weapons and NMR imaging is roughly the same. The outcomes and the ethical considerations are vastly different.
Cabalah does hold, as a central tenet, the idea that all things and all people are interconnected together. This interconnectedness is a powerful argument for acting in an ethical manner. Any evil that I do to you is going to turn around and come back to me somehow or other. One need look no farther than Russia to see what happens when ethics and morals break down. Rabbi David Cooper in his book, God is a Verb, recounts a fascinating story which took place in the mid 1970s. A Catholic woman was dining with David and his wife, Shoshanna. All of a sudden, David noticed that this woman was crying. Apparently, since her childhood in the early 1950s, she had had this recurring nightmare in which she was on board one of the trains carrying Jews to the death camps of Nazi Germany. There is no logical explanation for this nightmare, no scientific theory that explains how this woman could have this memory. And yet it is so. A Cabalist would have no difficulty with the idea that the interconnectedness of all things is such that the death cries of 6 million people would reach this woman somehow. A scientist, and here I am including not just physicists but all scientists, should be very careful not to reject an observation simply because it doesn't fit into any of our established theories. Just because something doesn't make sense is not reason for it not to be true.
To wrap this up then, I've tried comparing and contrasting Jewish Mysticism and Quantum mechanics in four different areas: on the nature of the universe, on why the universe doesn't collapse, on what is knowable and not knowable, and on ethics and right behavior. Cabalah Quantum Mechanics
The nature of the universe The universe is little bits of dark matter which are surrounded and held together by a light called ein sof. The universe is little particles with positive and negative and neutral charge which are surrounded by and held together by 4 forces: gravity, electromagnetism, strong, and weak
Why the universe doesn't collapse G-d is constantly recreating the universe. The creation of the universe is an ongoing process. G-d is a verb. The smeary, indistinct nature of subatomic particles keeps the universe from collapsing
On what is knowable and unknowable The name of G-d is not knowable. The nature of G-d is not knowable. However, questions about the nature of G-d and the role of humans in the work of creation are very important issues. Since G-d's existence cannot be demonstrated by experiment nor predicted by theory, it is meaningless to talk about G-d.
On ethics Because of the interconnectedness of the universe, it is imperative to behave in an ethical manner. We are encouraged to think about how we have wronged others and dealt with others who have wronged us. Nothing
This is some heavy thinking material. I tried very hard to condense what I wanted to say into 10 minutes - and Rabbi Jonathan was adamant about 10 minutes. So I have posted this devar torah on my website, at http://www.commercialventvac.com/~jeffs/CAQM.htm and go from there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1
On November 30th 2003, my wife, Judith, noticed that I had consistently mispelled "Kabbalah". When I wrote this essay in 1998, there was no Google. In 2003, it is the premier search engine. As of this writing, Google thinks there are 1210 occurances of "Cabalah", over 11,000 occurances of "Kabalah", and over 219,000 occurances of "Kabbalah". Google appears to round these counts to 3 significant figures.
Article Source : http://www.commercialventvac.com/~jeffs/CAQM.htm
Monday, February 11, 2008
Quantum Metaphysics
Victor J. Stenger
University of Hawaii
Paper presented at the Conference on New Spiritualities, Westminster College, Oxford, England, March 1995. Published in Modern Spiritualities, Laurence Brown, Bernard C. Farr, and R, Joseph Hoffmann (eds.) Amherst NY: Prometheus Books, 1997. Also published in The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine 1(1), 26-30, 1997.
In his talk at this conference, Antony Flew defined spirit as "incorporeal substance." As a physicist, I can relate to that. If such a thing as spirit exists, then I have no problem with it being incorporeal. It does not have to be made of matter as long as it has "substance." I interpret this to mean that although spirit may not be composed of quarks and electrons or other known constituents of matter, it still may be a meaningful concept, amenable to empirical testing or other rational analysis.
One test for whether a concept has "substance" is to use Occam's razor to excise it from all discourse. If the essential content of discourse remains unchanged, then I would say the concept has no substance. Of course, like most scientific tests, this can only be used to falsify the concept, not verify it.
The idea of spirit as a substantial component of the universe is of course an ancient one, fundamental to the traditional dualistic view most humans hold of the universe and themselves as part of that universe. In this view, planets, rock, trees, and the human body are made of matter, but matter is not everything. Beyond matter exists mind, soul, or spirit, an etherial substance that may even be more "real" than matter - the very quintessence of being.
In the mid-nineteenth century, many scientists thought that the marvelous new discoveries of science, and the methods of science, could be applied to the world of the spirit as well as to the world of matter. For example, Sir Oliver Lodge, a physicist who had helped demonstrate the reality of electromagnetic waves, argued that if wireless telegraphy was possible, then so was wireless telepathy. Lodge, like most others of the period, believed that electromagnetic waves, including light, were vibrations of a frictionless medium, the aether, that pervaded the universe. It seemed plausible that this medium might also be responsible for the transmission thoughts, that it was the long-sought substance of mind and spirit.
The electromagnetic field, like the gravitational field proposed centuries before by Newton, exhibited a holistic character that fit in well with spiritual ideas. Matter was particulate, occurring in lumps, and analyzed by the distasteful methods of reductionism in which objects are reduced to the sum of their parts. Fields, on the other hand, were continuous - holistic - occurring everywhere in space, connecting everything to everything else, and analyzable only in the whole. Even today, occultists confuse natural electromagnetic effects with "auras" surrounding living things. A popular con game at psychic fairs is the sale of "aura photographs" that are simply made with infrared-sensitive film. Kirlian photography is another example of a simple electromagnetic phenomenon, corona discharge, that is given imaginary spiritual significance.
Although the atomic theory of matter was well developed by the late nineteenth century, it had not yet been convincingly verified at that time. Many chemists, and a few physicists like Lodge, still held open the possibility that matter might be continuous. The mathematics of fields had been successfully applied to solids and fluids, which appear continuous and wavy on the everyday scale. These scientists suggested that continuity, not atomism, constituted the prime unifying principle for describing the universe of both matter, light, and perhaps spirit.
This comforting notion was shattered as the twentieth century got underway. First, the aether was found not to exist. Second, the atomic theory was confirmed. Third, light was found to be a component of matter, composed of particles we now call photons. And so, discreteness, rather than continuity, became the unifying principle of physics, with the universe composed solely of particulate matter. Quantum mechanics was developed to describe material phenomena in all their various, discrete forms.
However, the situation was not quite so tidy as this short and simplified review may imply. The phenomena that originally led people to postulate its wave nature of light did not go away. Those observations were correct. Furthermore, other forms of matter were shown to also exhibit wave properties. Electrons were found to diffract through small openings in exactly the same way as light.
The fact that particles sometimes behaved as waves and waves as particles was called the wave-particle duality. Although matter was sufficient to encompass all known physical phenomena, the apparent two-fold nature of matter gave die hard dualists some comfort. Some associated waves with mind. But waves and particles were not two separate elementary substances but characteristics of the same substance.
Whether a physical entity was a wave or a particle seemed to depend on what you measured. Measure its position, and you concluded that the entity is a material body. Measure its wavelength, and you concluded that the entity is some type of continuous field. Furthermore, you can imagine deciding which quantity to measure at the last instant, long after the entity had been emitted from its source, which might be a distant galaxy.
Some have inferred from this puzzle that the very nature of the universe is not objective, but depends on the consciousness of the observer. This latest wrinkle on ancient idealism implies that the universe only exists within some cosmic, quantum field of mind, with the human mind part of that field and existing throughout all space and time.
Quantum phenomena seem to be very mysterious, and where mysteries are imagined, the supernatural cannot be far behind. However, despite these misgivings, quantum mechanics developed as a quantitative physical theory that has proven itself capable of making calculations and predictions to a high level of accuracy. After seventy years of exhaustive testing, no observation has been found to be inconsistent with quantum mechanics as a formal, mathematical theory.
Quantum mechanics dealt early with the problem of the wave nature of matter by introducing a mathematical quantity called the wave function. Schrödinger's equation was used to calculate how the wave function evolved with time; the absolute square of the wave function gave the probability that a body would be found at a particular position.
In 1927, Einstein initiated a debate on quantum mechanics with Niels Bohr that continues today, long after their deaths, as others have taken up the arguments one side or the other. Initially Einstein objected to the picture, retained today in most textbooks, in which the wave function instantaneously "collapses" upon measurement. He called this a "spooky action at a distance" because it implied that signals must travel at infinite speeds across the wave front to tell the wave function to go to zero in the places where nothing is detected.
To modern dualists, the holistic quantum wave function, with its instantaneous collapse upon the act of observation, has provided a new model for the notion of spirit. They have been wittingly and unwittingly encouraged by various statements made by physicists, some of considerable distinction.
Eugene Wigner is widely quoted in the new literature of quantum mysticism. He once said: "The laws of quantum mechanics itself cannot be formulated . . . without recourse to the concept of consciousness" (Wigner 1961).
A similar statement by John Archibald Wheeler's is also often used, to his dismay, in justifying a connection between the quantum and consciousness: "No elementary quantum phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is a registered phenomenon. . . . In some strange sense, this is a participatory universe" (Wheeler 1982).
In their book The Conscious Universe, Astrophysicist Menas Kafatos and Philosopher Robert Nadeau interpret the wave function as ultimate reality itself: ". . . Being, in its physical analogue at least, [has] been 'revealed' in the wave function. . . . . any sense we have of profound unity with the cosmos . . . could be presumed to correlate with the action of the deterministic wave function. . ." (Kafatos 1990).
Physicist Amit Goswami sees a "self-aware universe," with quantum mechanics providing support for claims of paranormal phenomena. He says: ". . . psychic phenomena, such as distant viewing and out-of-body experiences, are examples of the nonlocal operation of consciousness . . . Quantum mechanics undergirds such a theory by providing crucial support for the case of nonlocality of consciousness" (Goswami 1993).
This view was also promoted by the late novelist Arthur Koestler, who said: ". . . the apparent absurdities of quantum physics . . . make the apparent absurdities of parapsychology a little less preposterous and more digestible."
In the United States today, alternative healing is all the rage. Traditional folk healing techniques are touted as holistic, in contrast to the reductionistic methods of modern Western medicine. Again, quantum mechanics provides a source of inspiration. Two recent best sellers by Dr. Deepak Chopra contain the word "quantum" in their titles: Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine (Chopra 1989)and Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old (Chopra 1993).
Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Patricia Newton explains the mechanism: "(Traditional healers) are able to tap that other realm of negative entropy - that superquantum velocity and frequency of electromagnetic energy and bring them as conduits down to our level. It's not magic. It's not mumbo jumbo. You will see the dawn of the 21st century, the new medical quantum physics really distributing these energies and what they are doing" (Newton 1993).
Despite the claims made in many books, neither psychic phenomena (Stenger 1990) nor the vast array of alternate healing methods (Butler 1992) are supported by controlled, replicable laboratory studies. They cannot be used as evidence for mind over-matter. Nor can quantum mechanics be used to make these claims more credible.
As we will now see, the mysteries and apparent paradoxes of quantum mechanics arise only when we try to cast the theory in words instead of equations, applying the language of everyday human experience to a physical realm where that experience may not be relevant.
The words used to describe quantum mechanics in conventional physics textbooks were gleaned from the writings of Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Born, the primary authors of what is called the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. In Copenhagen, the wave function is simply a mathematical object used to calculate probabilities. The results of measurements are not pre determined, but occur randomly according to the calculated probabilities. The measuring apparatus must be treated classically and is separate from the quantum system under study. No mechanism is provided for wave function collapse, and in fact collapse is not predicted by the Schrödinger equation.
Louis de Broglie, who first suggested that particles like electrons have wave properties, proposed in 1927 the first of the class of what is now called hidden variables theories of quantum mechanics. He hypothesized that the wave function is a real field associated with a particle. However, Bohr and his supporters talked most of the community, including de Broglie (but not Einstein or Schrödinger), out of hidden variables and they lay dormant until being resurrected by David Bohm in the 1950's.
Bohm, who became the major scientific figure in the quantum mysticism movement, had shown that all the results obtained with the Schrödinger equation can be obtained by familiar classical equations of motion, provided that an additional quantum potential is added to the equations to account for quantum effects (Bohm 1952). However, Bohm's theory, as it was proposed, gave no new empirical predictions; neither he nor his followers have yet produced a mechanism for generating a priori the quantum potential.
The hidden variables approach is based on the notion, which Einstein always believed, that quantum mechanics is fine as far as it goes, as a statistical theory, but that some deterministic sub-quantum theory that lies behind physical events remains to be uncovered. Einstein's famous quotation that "God does not play dice" referred to this notion, although he thought Bohm's version was "too cheap" (Born 1971). It should be noted that hidden variables theories are not properly labelled as "interpretations" of quantum mechanics since they imply the existence of a deeper theory, not yet discovered.
In the 1960s, John Bell proved an important theorem about hidden variables theories. He showed that any deterministic hidden variables theory capable of giving all the statistical results of standard quantum mechanics must allow for superluminal connections, in violation of Einstein's assertion that no signals can move faster than light (Bell 1964). In the jargon of the trade, deterministic hidden variables theories are nonlocal. In popularized language, they are holistic, allowing for simultaneous connections between all points in space. Bell proposed a definitive experimental test that has now been repeated many times with every increasing precision (Aspect 1982). In all cases, the results are fully consistent with quantum mechanics, requiring deterministic hidden variables, if they exist, to be nonlocal.
Instead of giving up on hidden variables because of their apparent conflict with relativity, proponents have taken Bell's theorem to imply hidden variables are even more profound, providing for the holistic universe of the mystic's fondest desires. The problem of nonlocality is dismissed by claiming that no communication of signals faster than light takes place. This conclusion can be proven to be a general property of quantum theory (Eberhard 1989), and will be true for Bohm's theory as long as Bohm's theory is consistent with quantum mechanics. But, as we have seen, Bohm's theory by itself has no unique, testable consequences. We can use Occam's razor to excise it from our discourse, and nothing substantial is changed. The notion of hidden variables has no use unless superluminal connections are observed. This has not yet happened, and so hidden variables remain a non-parsimonious alternative to conventional quantum mechanics.
Another interpretation of quantum mechanics that has caught mystics' inner and outer eyes is the many worlds interpretation of Hugh Everett (1957). Everett was able to develop a formalism that solved some of the problems associated with the conventional Copenhagen view. In particular, he included the measuring apparatus in the system being analyzed, unlike Copenhagen where it must be treated as a separate, classical system. In many worlds, the wave function of the universe does not collapse upon a measurement. Instead, the universe splits into parallel universes in which all possible events occur. In Everett's view, these parallel universes that are deemed to be "equally real."
The idea that the universe is continually splitting into parallel universes whenever a measurement or observation is made strike many people as a rather extreme solution to the interpretation problems of quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, as long as the parallel universes cannot interact with one another, we can never disprove the concept. If we reject it, we must do so on aesthetic or parsimonious grounds.
More recently, a number of theorists have found ways to recast Everett's ideas in a more economical, commonsensical way. This new interpretation, which some say represents only a small extension of Bohr's thinking, is called consistent histories (Omnès 1994).
In the consistent histories view, as in Copenhagen and many worlds, the wave function allows you to calculate the probabilities that the universe will take various paths. Unlike many worlds, these paths are not deemed to be "equally real." Instead, the path taken in our universe is chosen randomly, as the toss of coin. The indeterminism of Copenhagen is retained but, unlike Copenhagen, the wave function "decoheres" rather than collapses upon the act of measurement.
Theoretical work has provided for a logically consistent histories theory that agrees with all known data without the introduction of holistic, nonlocal, or mystical elements. In this theory, the only consistent paths (or histories) are those for which probabilities add as they do classically. The quantum-to-classical transition occurs by the mechanism of decoherence induced by measuring instruments or the environment.
The idea of decoherence is quite simple. Quantum effects are characterized by phenomena, such as interference and diffraction, that are understood to be coherent properties of the wave function. These occur because the universe is granular, with matter existing in lumps separated by empty space. Only where lumps of matter exist, either in the form of a measuring instrument or environmental body, can particle paths be logically defined. At these points, the particles scatter and decohere and classical paths are produced.
Classical mechanics follows as the limit of quantum mechanics in a fine grained universe. In our experience, ordinary light is coherent in air because the probability of a visible photon colliding with an air molecule over the distances involved is small. Gamma ray photons, on the other hand, appear to travel classical paths because they have high probability to scatter, and decohere, over the same distances.
By being non-deterministic, consistent histories avoids the problem of nonlocality associated with hidden variables. Some still argue that the wave function is nonlocal, but if it is not a "real" field but a mathematical convenience, who cares? In any case, no signals move faster than the speed of light.
Still some commentators argue that any non-deterministic quantum mechanics, be it Copenhagen or consistent histories, is still incomplete. What "causes" the universe to take the path it does, they ask? Deterministic, nonlocal hidden variables are one answer. But, we have seen that they are necessarily nonlocal and we have no empirical evidence for any superluminal or sub-quantum processes.
Another even more poorly justified answer is that the path selection is made by consciousness itself. In the quantum mind interpretation of quantum mechanics, the path taken by the universe, whether you care to describe it in terms of wave function collapse or universe-splitting, is actualized by the action of mind (Squires 1990, Stapp 1993, Stapp 1994).
Now here the theories become impossibly vague and untestable, so I can only indicate some of the language. In some sense, the wave function of the universe is an etheric cosmic mind spread throughout the universe that acts to collapse itself in some unknown way. The human mind (spirit, soul) is, of course, holistically linked to the cosmic mind and so exists in all space and time. Once again we have and example of what Paul Kurtz calls the "transcendental temptation."
And so, quantum mind rescues the dualists from the damage caused by the destruction of the electromagnetic aether. But like so many similar proposals, the theory of quantum mind will get nowhere until it makes some prediction that can be tested empirically. In the meantime, its must be rejected as non-parsimonious, especially since we have in our hands a perfectly economical and logically-consistent theory that agrees with all the data and requires no additional component in the universe beyond matter.
The author is grateful for the hospitality provided by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the United Kingdom where this paper was written.
____________________________
Victor J. Stenger is professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii and the author of Not By Design: The Origin of the Universe (Prometheus Books, 1988) and Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses (Prometheus Books, 1990). This paper is based on The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology.,( Prometheus Books, 1995).
References
Aspect, Alain, Phillipe Grangier, and Roger Gerard 1982. "Experimental Realization of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Gedankenexperiment: A New Violation of Bell's Inequalities." Physical Review Letters 49, p. 91.
Bell, J. S. 1964. Physics 1, p. 195.
Bohm, David 1952. "A Suggested Interpretation of Quantum Theory in Terms of 'Hidden Variables,' I and II." Physical Review 85, p. 166.
Born, M., ed. 1971. The Born-Einstein Letters. London: Macmillan.
Butler, Kurt, 1992. A Consumer's Guide to Alternative Medicine: A Close Look at Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Faith-Healing, and Other Unconventional Treatments. Buffalo NY: Prometheus Books.
Chopra, Deepak. 1989. Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine. New York: Bantam.
Chopra, Deepak. 1993. Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old. New York: Random House.
Eberhard, Phillippe H. and Ronald R. Ross 1989. Found. Phys. Lett. 2, p. 127.
Goswami, Amit 1993. The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. p. 136.
Everett III, Hugh 1957. Rev. Mod. Phys. 29, p. 454.
Kafatos, Menas and Robert Nadeau 1990. The Conscious Universe: Part and Whole in Modern Physical Theory. New York, Springer-Verlag, p. 124.
Newton, Patricia 1993. Talk before the 98th Annual Meeting of the National Medical Association, San Antonio, Texas. Quotation provided by Bernard Ortiz de Montellano (private communication).
Omnès, Roland J. 1994. The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Squires Euan 1990, Conscious Mind in the Physical World. New York: Adam Hilger.
Stapp, Henry P. 1993. Mind, Matter, and Quantum Mechanics. New York: Springer Verlag.
Stapp, Henry P. 1994. Phys. Rev. A 50, p. 18.
Stenger, Victor J. 1990. Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses. Buffalo NY: Prometheus.
Wheeler John Archibald 1982. In Elvee, Richard Q. (ed.) Mind in Nature, San Francisco: Harper and Row, p. 17.
Wigner, E.P. 1961. "The Probability of the Existence of a Self-Reproducing Unit." In Polanyi, M. The Logic of Personal Knowledge. Glencoe, IL: Free Press., p. 232.
Article Source : http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Quantum/qmeta.html
University of Hawaii
Paper presented at the Conference on New Spiritualities, Westminster College, Oxford, England, March 1995. Published in Modern Spiritualities, Laurence Brown, Bernard C. Farr, and R, Joseph Hoffmann (eds.) Amherst NY: Prometheus Books, 1997. Also published in The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine 1(1), 26-30, 1997.
In his talk at this conference, Antony Flew defined spirit as "incorporeal substance." As a physicist, I can relate to that. If such a thing as spirit exists, then I have no problem with it being incorporeal. It does not have to be made of matter as long as it has "substance." I interpret this to mean that although spirit may not be composed of quarks and electrons or other known constituents of matter, it still may be a meaningful concept, amenable to empirical testing or other rational analysis.
One test for whether a concept has "substance" is to use Occam's razor to excise it from all discourse. If the essential content of discourse remains unchanged, then I would say the concept has no substance. Of course, like most scientific tests, this can only be used to falsify the concept, not verify it.
The idea of spirit as a substantial component of the universe is of course an ancient one, fundamental to the traditional dualistic view most humans hold of the universe and themselves as part of that universe. In this view, planets, rock, trees, and the human body are made of matter, but matter is not everything. Beyond matter exists mind, soul, or spirit, an etherial substance that may even be more "real" than matter - the very quintessence of being.
In the mid-nineteenth century, many scientists thought that the marvelous new discoveries of science, and the methods of science, could be applied to the world of the spirit as well as to the world of matter. For example, Sir Oliver Lodge, a physicist who had helped demonstrate the reality of electromagnetic waves, argued that if wireless telegraphy was possible, then so was wireless telepathy. Lodge, like most others of the period, believed that electromagnetic waves, including light, were vibrations of a frictionless medium, the aether, that pervaded the universe. It seemed plausible that this medium might also be responsible for the transmission thoughts, that it was the long-sought substance of mind and spirit.
The electromagnetic field, like the gravitational field proposed centuries before by Newton, exhibited a holistic character that fit in well with spiritual ideas. Matter was particulate, occurring in lumps, and analyzed by the distasteful methods of reductionism in which objects are reduced to the sum of their parts. Fields, on the other hand, were continuous - holistic - occurring everywhere in space, connecting everything to everything else, and analyzable only in the whole. Even today, occultists confuse natural electromagnetic effects with "auras" surrounding living things. A popular con game at psychic fairs is the sale of "aura photographs" that are simply made with infrared-sensitive film. Kirlian photography is another example of a simple electromagnetic phenomenon, corona discharge, that is given imaginary spiritual significance.
Although the atomic theory of matter was well developed by the late nineteenth century, it had not yet been convincingly verified at that time. Many chemists, and a few physicists like Lodge, still held open the possibility that matter might be continuous. The mathematics of fields had been successfully applied to solids and fluids, which appear continuous and wavy on the everyday scale. These scientists suggested that continuity, not atomism, constituted the prime unifying principle for describing the universe of both matter, light, and perhaps spirit.
This comforting notion was shattered as the twentieth century got underway. First, the aether was found not to exist. Second, the atomic theory was confirmed. Third, light was found to be a component of matter, composed of particles we now call photons. And so, discreteness, rather than continuity, became the unifying principle of physics, with the universe composed solely of particulate matter. Quantum mechanics was developed to describe material phenomena in all their various, discrete forms.
However, the situation was not quite so tidy as this short and simplified review may imply. The phenomena that originally led people to postulate its wave nature of light did not go away. Those observations were correct. Furthermore, other forms of matter were shown to also exhibit wave properties. Electrons were found to diffract through small openings in exactly the same way as light.
The fact that particles sometimes behaved as waves and waves as particles was called the wave-particle duality. Although matter was sufficient to encompass all known physical phenomena, the apparent two-fold nature of matter gave die hard dualists some comfort. Some associated waves with mind. But waves and particles were not two separate elementary substances but characteristics of the same substance.
Whether a physical entity was a wave or a particle seemed to depend on what you measured. Measure its position, and you concluded that the entity is a material body. Measure its wavelength, and you concluded that the entity is some type of continuous field. Furthermore, you can imagine deciding which quantity to measure at the last instant, long after the entity had been emitted from its source, which might be a distant galaxy.
Some have inferred from this puzzle that the very nature of the universe is not objective, but depends on the consciousness of the observer. This latest wrinkle on ancient idealism implies that the universe only exists within some cosmic, quantum field of mind, with the human mind part of that field and existing throughout all space and time.
Quantum phenomena seem to be very mysterious, and where mysteries are imagined, the supernatural cannot be far behind. However, despite these misgivings, quantum mechanics developed as a quantitative physical theory that has proven itself capable of making calculations and predictions to a high level of accuracy. After seventy years of exhaustive testing, no observation has been found to be inconsistent with quantum mechanics as a formal, mathematical theory.
Quantum mechanics dealt early with the problem of the wave nature of matter by introducing a mathematical quantity called the wave function. Schrödinger's equation was used to calculate how the wave function evolved with time; the absolute square of the wave function gave the probability that a body would be found at a particular position.
In 1927, Einstein initiated a debate on quantum mechanics with Niels Bohr that continues today, long after their deaths, as others have taken up the arguments one side or the other. Initially Einstein objected to the picture, retained today in most textbooks, in which the wave function instantaneously "collapses" upon measurement. He called this a "spooky action at a distance" because it implied that signals must travel at infinite speeds across the wave front to tell the wave function to go to zero in the places where nothing is detected.
To modern dualists, the holistic quantum wave function, with its instantaneous collapse upon the act of observation, has provided a new model for the notion of spirit. They have been wittingly and unwittingly encouraged by various statements made by physicists, some of considerable distinction.
Eugene Wigner is widely quoted in the new literature of quantum mysticism. He once said: "The laws of quantum mechanics itself cannot be formulated . . . without recourse to the concept of consciousness" (Wigner 1961).
A similar statement by John Archibald Wheeler's is also often used, to his dismay, in justifying a connection between the quantum and consciousness: "No elementary quantum phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is a registered phenomenon. . . . In some strange sense, this is a participatory universe" (Wheeler 1982).
In their book The Conscious Universe, Astrophysicist Menas Kafatos and Philosopher Robert Nadeau interpret the wave function as ultimate reality itself: ". . . Being, in its physical analogue at least, [has] been 'revealed' in the wave function. . . . . any sense we have of profound unity with the cosmos . . . could be presumed to correlate with the action of the deterministic wave function. . ." (Kafatos 1990).
Physicist Amit Goswami sees a "self-aware universe," with quantum mechanics providing support for claims of paranormal phenomena. He says: ". . . psychic phenomena, such as distant viewing and out-of-body experiences, are examples of the nonlocal operation of consciousness . . . Quantum mechanics undergirds such a theory by providing crucial support for the case of nonlocality of consciousness" (Goswami 1993).
This view was also promoted by the late novelist Arthur Koestler, who said: ". . . the apparent absurdities of quantum physics . . . make the apparent absurdities of parapsychology a little less preposterous and more digestible."
In the United States today, alternative healing is all the rage. Traditional folk healing techniques are touted as holistic, in contrast to the reductionistic methods of modern Western medicine. Again, quantum mechanics provides a source of inspiration. Two recent best sellers by Dr. Deepak Chopra contain the word "quantum" in their titles: Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine (Chopra 1989)and Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old (Chopra 1993).
Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Patricia Newton explains the mechanism: "(Traditional healers) are able to tap that other realm of negative entropy - that superquantum velocity and frequency of electromagnetic energy and bring them as conduits down to our level. It's not magic. It's not mumbo jumbo. You will see the dawn of the 21st century, the new medical quantum physics really distributing these energies and what they are doing" (Newton 1993).
Despite the claims made in many books, neither psychic phenomena (Stenger 1990) nor the vast array of alternate healing methods (Butler 1992) are supported by controlled, replicable laboratory studies. They cannot be used as evidence for mind over-matter. Nor can quantum mechanics be used to make these claims more credible.
As we will now see, the mysteries and apparent paradoxes of quantum mechanics arise only when we try to cast the theory in words instead of equations, applying the language of everyday human experience to a physical realm where that experience may not be relevant.
The words used to describe quantum mechanics in conventional physics textbooks were gleaned from the writings of Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Born, the primary authors of what is called the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. In Copenhagen, the wave function is simply a mathematical object used to calculate probabilities. The results of measurements are not pre determined, but occur randomly according to the calculated probabilities. The measuring apparatus must be treated classically and is separate from the quantum system under study. No mechanism is provided for wave function collapse, and in fact collapse is not predicted by the Schrödinger equation.
Louis de Broglie, who first suggested that particles like electrons have wave properties, proposed in 1927 the first of the class of what is now called hidden variables theories of quantum mechanics. He hypothesized that the wave function is a real field associated with a particle. However, Bohr and his supporters talked most of the community, including de Broglie (but not Einstein or Schrödinger), out of hidden variables and they lay dormant until being resurrected by David Bohm in the 1950's.
Bohm, who became the major scientific figure in the quantum mysticism movement, had shown that all the results obtained with the Schrödinger equation can be obtained by familiar classical equations of motion, provided that an additional quantum potential is added to the equations to account for quantum effects (Bohm 1952). However, Bohm's theory, as it was proposed, gave no new empirical predictions; neither he nor his followers have yet produced a mechanism for generating a priori the quantum potential.
The hidden variables approach is based on the notion, which Einstein always believed, that quantum mechanics is fine as far as it goes, as a statistical theory, but that some deterministic sub-quantum theory that lies behind physical events remains to be uncovered. Einstein's famous quotation that "God does not play dice" referred to this notion, although he thought Bohm's version was "too cheap" (Born 1971). It should be noted that hidden variables theories are not properly labelled as "interpretations" of quantum mechanics since they imply the existence of a deeper theory, not yet discovered.
In the 1960s, John Bell proved an important theorem about hidden variables theories. He showed that any deterministic hidden variables theory capable of giving all the statistical results of standard quantum mechanics must allow for superluminal connections, in violation of Einstein's assertion that no signals can move faster than light (Bell 1964). In the jargon of the trade, deterministic hidden variables theories are nonlocal. In popularized language, they are holistic, allowing for simultaneous connections between all points in space. Bell proposed a definitive experimental test that has now been repeated many times with every increasing precision (Aspect 1982). In all cases, the results are fully consistent with quantum mechanics, requiring deterministic hidden variables, if they exist, to be nonlocal.
Instead of giving up on hidden variables because of their apparent conflict with relativity, proponents have taken Bell's theorem to imply hidden variables are even more profound, providing for the holistic universe of the mystic's fondest desires. The problem of nonlocality is dismissed by claiming that no communication of signals faster than light takes place. This conclusion can be proven to be a general property of quantum theory (Eberhard 1989), and will be true for Bohm's theory as long as Bohm's theory is consistent with quantum mechanics. But, as we have seen, Bohm's theory by itself has no unique, testable consequences. We can use Occam's razor to excise it from our discourse, and nothing substantial is changed. The notion of hidden variables has no use unless superluminal connections are observed. This has not yet happened, and so hidden variables remain a non-parsimonious alternative to conventional quantum mechanics.
Another interpretation of quantum mechanics that has caught mystics' inner and outer eyes is the many worlds interpretation of Hugh Everett (1957). Everett was able to develop a formalism that solved some of the problems associated with the conventional Copenhagen view. In particular, he included the measuring apparatus in the system being analyzed, unlike Copenhagen where it must be treated as a separate, classical system. In many worlds, the wave function of the universe does not collapse upon a measurement. Instead, the universe splits into parallel universes in which all possible events occur. In Everett's view, these parallel universes that are deemed to be "equally real."
The idea that the universe is continually splitting into parallel universes whenever a measurement or observation is made strike many people as a rather extreme solution to the interpretation problems of quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, as long as the parallel universes cannot interact with one another, we can never disprove the concept. If we reject it, we must do so on aesthetic or parsimonious grounds.
More recently, a number of theorists have found ways to recast Everett's ideas in a more economical, commonsensical way. This new interpretation, which some say represents only a small extension of Bohr's thinking, is called consistent histories (Omnès 1994).
In the consistent histories view, as in Copenhagen and many worlds, the wave function allows you to calculate the probabilities that the universe will take various paths. Unlike many worlds, these paths are not deemed to be "equally real." Instead, the path taken in our universe is chosen randomly, as the toss of coin. The indeterminism of Copenhagen is retained but, unlike Copenhagen, the wave function "decoheres" rather than collapses upon the act of measurement.
Theoretical work has provided for a logically consistent histories theory that agrees with all known data without the introduction of holistic, nonlocal, or mystical elements. In this theory, the only consistent paths (or histories) are those for which probabilities add as they do classically. The quantum-to-classical transition occurs by the mechanism of decoherence induced by measuring instruments or the environment.
The idea of decoherence is quite simple. Quantum effects are characterized by phenomena, such as interference and diffraction, that are understood to be coherent properties of the wave function. These occur because the universe is granular, with matter existing in lumps separated by empty space. Only where lumps of matter exist, either in the form of a measuring instrument or environmental body, can particle paths be logically defined. At these points, the particles scatter and decohere and classical paths are produced.
Classical mechanics follows as the limit of quantum mechanics in a fine grained universe. In our experience, ordinary light is coherent in air because the probability of a visible photon colliding with an air molecule over the distances involved is small. Gamma ray photons, on the other hand, appear to travel classical paths because they have high probability to scatter, and decohere, over the same distances.
By being non-deterministic, consistent histories avoids the problem of nonlocality associated with hidden variables. Some still argue that the wave function is nonlocal, but if it is not a "real" field but a mathematical convenience, who cares? In any case, no signals move faster than the speed of light.
Still some commentators argue that any non-deterministic quantum mechanics, be it Copenhagen or consistent histories, is still incomplete. What "causes" the universe to take the path it does, they ask? Deterministic, nonlocal hidden variables are one answer. But, we have seen that they are necessarily nonlocal and we have no empirical evidence for any superluminal or sub-quantum processes.
Another even more poorly justified answer is that the path selection is made by consciousness itself. In the quantum mind interpretation of quantum mechanics, the path taken by the universe, whether you care to describe it in terms of wave function collapse or universe-splitting, is actualized by the action of mind (Squires 1990, Stapp 1993, Stapp 1994).
Now here the theories become impossibly vague and untestable, so I can only indicate some of the language. In some sense, the wave function of the universe is an etheric cosmic mind spread throughout the universe that acts to collapse itself in some unknown way. The human mind (spirit, soul) is, of course, holistically linked to the cosmic mind and so exists in all space and time. Once again we have and example of what Paul Kurtz calls the "transcendental temptation."
And so, quantum mind rescues the dualists from the damage caused by the destruction of the electromagnetic aether. But like so many similar proposals, the theory of quantum mind will get nowhere until it makes some prediction that can be tested empirically. In the meantime, its must be rejected as non-parsimonious, especially since we have in our hands a perfectly economical and logically-consistent theory that agrees with all the data and requires no additional component in the universe beyond matter.
The author is grateful for the hospitality provided by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the United Kingdom where this paper was written.
____________________________
Victor J. Stenger is professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii and the author of Not By Design: The Origin of the Universe (Prometheus Books, 1988) and Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses (Prometheus Books, 1990). This paper is based on The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology.,( Prometheus Books, 1995).
References
Aspect, Alain, Phillipe Grangier, and Roger Gerard 1982. "Experimental Realization of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Gedankenexperiment: A New Violation of Bell's Inequalities." Physical Review Letters 49, p. 91.
Bell, J. S. 1964. Physics 1, p. 195.
Bohm, David 1952. "A Suggested Interpretation of Quantum Theory in Terms of 'Hidden Variables,' I and II." Physical Review 85, p. 166.
Born, M., ed. 1971. The Born-Einstein Letters. London: Macmillan.
Butler, Kurt, 1992. A Consumer's Guide to Alternative Medicine: A Close Look at Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Faith-Healing, and Other Unconventional Treatments. Buffalo NY: Prometheus Books.
Chopra, Deepak. 1989. Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine. New York: Bantam.
Chopra, Deepak. 1993. Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old. New York: Random House.
Eberhard, Phillippe H. and Ronald R. Ross 1989. Found. Phys. Lett. 2, p. 127.
Goswami, Amit 1993. The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. p. 136.
Everett III, Hugh 1957. Rev. Mod. Phys. 29, p. 454.
Kafatos, Menas and Robert Nadeau 1990. The Conscious Universe: Part and Whole in Modern Physical Theory. New York, Springer-Verlag, p. 124.
Newton, Patricia 1993. Talk before the 98th Annual Meeting of the National Medical Association, San Antonio, Texas. Quotation provided by Bernard Ortiz de Montellano (private communication).
Omnès, Roland J. 1994. The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Squires Euan 1990, Conscious Mind in the Physical World. New York: Adam Hilger.
Stapp, Henry P. 1993. Mind, Matter, and Quantum Mechanics. New York: Springer Verlag.
Stapp, Henry P. 1994. Phys. Rev. A 50, p. 18.
Stenger, Victor J. 1990. Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses. Buffalo NY: Prometheus.
Wheeler John Archibald 1982. In Elvee, Richard Q. (ed.) Mind in Nature, San Francisco: Harper and Row, p. 17.
Wigner, E.P. 1961. "The Probability of the Existence of a Self-Reproducing Unit." In Polanyi, M. The Logic of Personal Knowledge. Glencoe, IL: Free Press., p. 232.
Article Source : http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Quantum/qmeta.html
Reality & Quantum Mysticism
by William B. Lindley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A War of Ideas
There is a war going on — a very quiet war. It is not like the wars going on in Bosnia, Chechnya, the Middle East, and so on. You won't see it in the headlines of the daily newspapers, although it appears here and there in Scientific American, Atlantic, Omni, etc. It is a war of ideas.
On one side are those who believe that the world exists independently of our awareness of it. These include Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Paine, Samuel Johnson, Einstein, Ayn Rand, most working scientists and engineers, and the author of this article. On the other side are those who believe that our awareness creates reality. These include Plato (to some extent), Bishop George Berkeley, Kant, Hegel, Paul Watzlawick, Deepak Chopra, Amit Goswami, numerous mystics, a few physicists in our day, and a good fraction of the New Age movement. The first view is called realism or materialism; the second view is called idealism. There are other labels for both views. Interestingly, Descartes and most Christians do a straddle on this issue; their view is called dualism. There are also many noncombatants: those who have never heard of the issues and those who feel they can't take the time to explore and understand the issues. They live their lives, mainly using common sense, which itself draws mainly on the realistic view. Ayn Rand has put a concise label on the two views; she calls them the "primacy of existence" and the "primacy of consciousness."
Some call idealism as currently expressed "the new paradigm." This is a mistake. Idealism is a very old worldview. Some will run across it for the first time in a New Age book, but the ideas in that book go right back to Hinduism or a variation on Plato's philosophy. The same is true of realism.
What is new its that quantum phenomena, mainly subatomic hut also apparent at ordinary size levels in superconductivity, superfluidity, and lasers, have led to interpretations that appear to favor idealism. A new collection of 'gurus" has arisen among the physicists; people with strong physics backgrounds are promoting idealism; among these are John Wheeler, Frijtof Capra, and Fred Alan Wolf (he and I were in the same group at General Atomic way back when). This viewpoint, that the facts of quantum mechanics have rendered objective reality obsolete, I label quantum mysticism. For this reason, those of us who have taken realism for granted need to take a close look at the quantum world. Part One of this article, published here, tries to do that. Part Two, to be published next issue, describes an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics that is fully compatible with the realist position, and provides critical commentary on a book that expresses the idealist view, namely, Amit Goswami's The Self-Aware Universe: how consciousness creates the material world. I am informed that a rebuttal article will also appear.
The Quantum World
The place to start is the two-slit experiment. Electrons (units of electricity) and photons (units of light) are both subatomic particles that, in some experiments, show the character of waves. The wave character of light is well known, while its discreteness was not accepted until this century. (Light as particles was hypothesized back in the 1600's, but that idea lost out to the clear evidence of wave behavior, being resuscitated with Einstein's 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect.) Electrons were first conceived as particles, and their wave behavior came as quite a surprise.
The two-slit experiment shows this wave-particle duality at its strangest. You have a source of electrons, the emitter. You have a target, a sensitive wall where they impinge and are counted, one by one. Between them you put a blocking screen. With no slits in the screen, there are no electrons arriving at the wall. With one (up-and-down) slit in the screen, you have a sideways distribution of electrons, showing roughly a bell-curve-shaped (random) pattern. Now put up a screen with two parallel slits. You would expect two distributions rather like the case of one slit, an overlapping double hump. But that's not what you get. You get a wavy pattern, well known to people in optics as an interference pattern. Remember, you're counting the electrons one by one as they arrive at the target. Now put another instrument at the slits to count the electrons going through each slit. No change in the number of electrons arriving at the target, but the wavy pattern disappears and you get the double hump instead. Turn the instrument at the slits off, and the wavy pattern comes back.
R. P. Feynman, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, has anticipated your next thought. He says: "I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics.... Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will get 'down the drain' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that." Amit Goswami, author of The Self-Aware Universe: how consciousness creates the material world, thinks he knows how it can be like that, and he tells us. But I'm getting ahead of the game.
Albert Einstein's primary concern, despite his famous saying, "God does not play dice," was with objective reality. Abraham Pais reports a discussion on this with Einstein, where Einstein "asked whether I really believed that the moon exists only when I look at it." In 1935, together with Podolsky and Rosen, Einstein "published an argument that quantum mechanics fails to provide a complete description of physical reality." This "EPR paper," Einstein's "more powerful attack on the quantum theory, focuses on... the doctrine that physical properties have in general no objective reality independent of the act of observation." It is a challenge to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, a positivistic view that "includes declining to discuss 'meaning' or 'reality' and focusing interpretive discussions exclusively on observables."
Let's look at the different ways the moon question is answered. "Is the moon there when nobody is looking?" The realist (believer in objective reality) says yes. The working physicist says "probably" (with many, many 9's after the decimal point). A Copenhagen advocate such as Bohr or Heisenberg will answer the question with a question: "Who's to say?" Bishop Berkeley, author of the dictum "esse est percipi" (to be is to be perceived), would say "Yes, but only because God watches everything." Amit Goswami, as we shall see, replies: "we must say no."
Progress has been made. The EPR challenge was reviewed by John Bell, a particle physicist, and, to his surprise, he came up in 1964 with a theorem that showed that the well-established formalism of quantum mechanics was incompatible with "local realistic theories." That is, if standard quantum mechanics is right, a theory has to be either nonlocal or incompatible with the philosophical position of objective reality. Something like the thought experiment" he suggested was carried out in the late 1970's, and it supported the standard quantum mechanics as against Einstein's challenge.
In an excellent article in the April 1985 issue of Physics Today, N. David Mermin gives a simplified model of the thought experiment: Consider a source — something that emits stuff — and consider two detectors placed some distance away at opposite directions from the source. If you put something between the source and a detector, there is no signal. There is a slight delay between pushing the button at the source and getting the signal at the detectors. and this delay is longer the farther away the detectors are. So the detectors are indeed responding to something the source puts out. They're not making it up. There are no connections between the source and the detectors other than the stuff the source emits, and there are no connections between the detectors at all. (No private lines of communication.)
Each detector has a switch with three settings 1, 2, and 3. Each detector has two lights, a red one and a green one. When a detector detects what the source emits, one light goes on. An experimental run consists of (1) setting the switches of the two detectors, independently and at random; (2) pushing the button at the source; and (3) noting which color light goes on at each detector. There are lots and lots of experimental runs. What are the results? Mermin says: "There are just two relevant features: (1) If one examines only those runs in which the switches have the same setting, then one finds that the lights always flash the same colors. (2) if one examines all runs, without any regard to how the switches are set, then one finds that the pattern of flashing is completely random. In particular, half the time the lights flash the same colors, and half the time different colors.
If you think about this long enough, you will see that the results are odd — very odd, even odder than the wave pattern generated by the two slits. However, it is just what standard quantum mechanics predicts, as Einstein knew and complained of. To the mystics, this strangeness of the quantum world is a way of knocking down the (to them) 'oppressive stone wall" of material monism or objective reality, especially if the confusion level can be kept high enough. To those of us who take objective reality as an axiomatic foundation for our worldview, it is, quite frankly, a challenge. We have to give up either objective reality, locality, or both. Can we give up locality alone and thereby meet the challenge? The answer is yes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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A War of Ideas
There is a war going on — a very quiet war. It is not like the wars going on in Bosnia, Chechnya, the Middle East, and so on. You won't see it in the headlines of the daily newspapers, although it appears here and there in Scientific American, Atlantic, Omni, etc. It is a war of ideas.
On one side are those who believe that the world exists independently of our awareness of it. These include Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Paine, Samuel Johnson, Einstein, Ayn Rand, most working scientists and engineers, and the author of this article. On the other side are those who believe that our awareness creates reality. These include Plato (to some extent), Bishop George Berkeley, Kant, Hegel, Paul Watzlawick, Deepak Chopra, Amit Goswami, numerous mystics, a few physicists in our day, and a good fraction of the New Age movement. The first view is called realism or materialism; the second view is called idealism. There are other labels for both views. Interestingly, Descartes and most Christians do a straddle on this issue; their view is called dualism. There are also many noncombatants: those who have never heard of the issues and those who feel they can't take the time to explore and understand the issues. They live their lives, mainly using common sense, which itself draws mainly on the realistic view. Ayn Rand has put a concise label on the two views; she calls them the "primacy of existence" and the "primacy of consciousness."
Some call idealism as currently expressed "the new paradigm." This is a mistake. Idealism is a very old worldview. Some will run across it for the first time in a New Age book, but the ideas in that book go right back to Hinduism or a variation on Plato's philosophy. The same is true of realism.
What is new its that quantum phenomena, mainly subatomic hut also apparent at ordinary size levels in superconductivity, superfluidity, and lasers, have led to interpretations that appear to favor idealism. A new collection of 'gurus" has arisen among the physicists; people with strong physics backgrounds are promoting idealism; among these are John Wheeler, Frijtof Capra, and Fred Alan Wolf (he and I were in the same group at General Atomic way back when). This viewpoint, that the facts of quantum mechanics have rendered objective reality obsolete, I label quantum mysticism. For this reason, those of us who have taken realism for granted need to take a close look at the quantum world. Part One of this article, published here, tries to do that. Part Two, to be published next issue, describes an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics that is fully compatible with the realist position, and provides critical commentary on a book that expresses the idealist view, namely, Amit Goswami's The Self-Aware Universe: how consciousness creates the material world. I am informed that a rebuttal article will also appear.
The Quantum World
The place to start is the two-slit experiment. Electrons (units of electricity) and photons (units of light) are both subatomic particles that, in some experiments, show the character of waves. The wave character of light is well known, while its discreteness was not accepted until this century. (Light as particles was hypothesized back in the 1600's, but that idea lost out to the clear evidence of wave behavior, being resuscitated with Einstein's 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect.) Electrons were first conceived as particles, and their wave behavior came as quite a surprise.
The two-slit experiment shows this wave-particle duality at its strangest. You have a source of electrons, the emitter. You have a target, a sensitive wall where they impinge and are counted, one by one. Between them you put a blocking screen. With no slits in the screen, there are no electrons arriving at the wall. With one (up-and-down) slit in the screen, you have a sideways distribution of electrons, showing roughly a bell-curve-shaped (random) pattern. Now put up a screen with two parallel slits. You would expect two distributions rather like the case of one slit, an overlapping double hump. But that's not what you get. You get a wavy pattern, well known to people in optics as an interference pattern. Remember, you're counting the electrons one by one as they arrive at the target. Now put another instrument at the slits to count the electrons going through each slit. No change in the number of electrons arriving at the target, but the wavy pattern disappears and you get the double hump instead. Turn the instrument at the slits off, and the wavy pattern comes back.
R. P. Feynman, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, has anticipated your next thought. He says: "I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics.... Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will get 'down the drain' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that." Amit Goswami, author of The Self-Aware Universe: how consciousness creates the material world, thinks he knows how it can be like that, and he tells us. But I'm getting ahead of the game.
Albert Einstein's primary concern, despite his famous saying, "God does not play dice," was with objective reality. Abraham Pais reports a discussion on this with Einstein, where Einstein "asked whether I really believed that the moon exists only when I look at it." In 1935, together with Podolsky and Rosen, Einstein "published an argument that quantum mechanics fails to provide a complete description of physical reality." This "EPR paper," Einstein's "more powerful attack on the quantum theory, focuses on... the doctrine that physical properties have in general no objective reality independent of the act of observation." It is a challenge to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, a positivistic view that "includes declining to discuss 'meaning' or 'reality' and focusing interpretive discussions exclusively on observables."
Let's look at the different ways the moon question is answered. "Is the moon there when nobody is looking?" The realist (believer in objective reality) says yes. The working physicist says "probably" (with many, many 9's after the decimal point). A Copenhagen advocate such as Bohr or Heisenberg will answer the question with a question: "Who's to say?" Bishop Berkeley, author of the dictum "esse est percipi" (to be is to be perceived), would say "Yes, but only because God watches everything." Amit Goswami, as we shall see, replies: "we must say no."
Progress has been made. The EPR challenge was reviewed by John Bell, a particle physicist, and, to his surprise, he came up in 1964 with a theorem that showed that the well-established formalism of quantum mechanics was incompatible with "local realistic theories." That is, if standard quantum mechanics is right, a theory has to be either nonlocal or incompatible with the philosophical position of objective reality. Something like the thought experiment" he suggested was carried out in the late 1970's, and it supported the standard quantum mechanics as against Einstein's challenge.
In an excellent article in the April 1985 issue of Physics Today, N. David Mermin gives a simplified model of the thought experiment: Consider a source — something that emits stuff — and consider two detectors placed some distance away at opposite directions from the source. If you put something between the source and a detector, there is no signal. There is a slight delay between pushing the button at the source and getting the signal at the detectors. and this delay is longer the farther away the detectors are. So the detectors are indeed responding to something the source puts out. They're not making it up. There are no connections between the source and the detectors other than the stuff the source emits, and there are no connections between the detectors at all. (No private lines of communication.)
Each detector has a switch with three settings 1, 2, and 3. Each detector has two lights, a red one and a green one. When a detector detects what the source emits, one light goes on. An experimental run consists of (1) setting the switches of the two detectors, independently and at random; (2) pushing the button at the source; and (3) noting which color light goes on at each detector. There are lots and lots of experimental runs. What are the results? Mermin says: "There are just two relevant features: (1) If one examines only those runs in which the switches have the same setting, then one finds that the lights always flash the same colors. (2) if one examines all runs, without any regard to how the switches are set, then one finds that the pattern of flashing is completely random. In particular, half the time the lights flash the same colors, and half the time different colors.
If you think about this long enough, you will see that the results are odd — very odd, even odder than the wave pattern generated by the two slits. However, it is just what standard quantum mechanics predicts, as Einstein knew and complained of. To the mystics, this strangeness of the quantum world is a way of knocking down the (to them) 'oppressive stone wall" of material monism or objective reality, especially if the confusion level can be kept high enough. To those of us who take objective reality as an axiomatic foundation for our worldview, it is, quite frankly, a challenge. We have to give up either objective reality, locality, or both. Can we give up locality alone and thereby meet the challenge? The answer is yes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Quantum Mysticism or Jnana Yoga
Jnana means Wisdom & Jnana Yoga means Union with the Divine via Wisdom.
Wisdom has been defined as organised Life. Wisdom and knowledge are different. Wisdom is a special kind of knowledge. What is the use of knowing everything if one doesn't know the Self ? Knowledge of the Absolute Self alone is Wisdom. ( Sa Vidya Tan Mathir Yaya ).
The Quantum Field Theory
Quantum Mechanics postulate that the finest state of matter is the Vaccum State. The universal sea of matter exist in the Vaccum State. It is defined as the Field of all possibilities. This Vaccum State of the Quantum Field
corresponds to the Indestructible Being of transcendental philosophy.
The Sevenfold Chord of Being ( The Septenary Principles )
The Universal Substance, by which all this is pervaded, manifests with Its septenary principles with Matter as the lowest term and pure Being as the highest.
Matter ( Annam )
Life ( Prana )
Mind ( Mana )
Supermind ( Vijnana )
Existence ( Sat )
Consciousness ( Chit )
Bliss ( Ananda )
These are what the ancient sages meant by the sevenfold mode of cosmic existence, the septenary principles through which the Universal expresses itself.
These, then, are the seven colours of the light of Divine Consciousness, the seven rays of the Infinite, and by them the Spirit has filled in the canvass of his own selfexistence conceptually extended, woven of the objective warp of Space & the subjective woof of Time, the myriad wonders of his self-creation, great, simple & symmetrical in its primal laws and vast framings.The Light, the Sound is One;their action is sevenfold. ( Aurobindo )
How to overcome the Ego
All knowledge is threefold (" Thraigunya Vishaya Veda "). In Freudian Psycho-analysis we have three impulses, Id, Ego and Supergo. The Vedantic Satwa, Rajas and Thamas correspond to these impulses.
The mind is always gripped by these three impulses. Sometimes we are Rajasic ( worldly ) and go after wealth. When intense anger and other negative emotions grip us, we are Thamasic. When divine qualities like Love and Peace influence us, we are Satwic ( divine ).
The Ego with its ten heads ( symbolised as the ten-headed Ravana ) is the major block in attaining Self_Actualisation. The ten heads of the Ego are Lust,Anger,Pride, Avarice, Sloth, Covetousness, Attachment, Mind, Intellect, Conceit & Egoistic Mentality. Only when the ten heads of the Ego are removed can we hope to get Self-Realisation. ( Symbolically only when the Ravana in us is destroyed ).
When we do our yoga, we will be assailed by three type of Ego. Rajasic ( wordly ), Thamasic ( bestial ) and Satwic ( noble ). In order to overcome the three types of Ego, we are given certain commandments.
" Ma the Sanghostha karmani " - (Let there be not in you any attachment to inaction. ) This commandment is given so that we can overcome the Thamasic ( bestial ) ego.
" Ma Karma Phala Heturbhoo " - ("Dont expect any reward") This commandment is given to protect us from the Rajasic ( wordly ) ego, which always expects rewards for work done.
"Ubhe Sukruta Dushkrute " ( "Be beyond good and evil " ) This commandment is given to us to overcome the Satwic Ego, for one should not hang on to Punya ( divine merit ).
In other words, during the process of Yoga we will be assailed by all sorts of negative thoughts. Our aim is to identify with the Source of all thought, the Self. We will find, as we progress on the path of yoga, that these negative thoughts leave us slowly and steadily. Conquering our negative aspect is not easy. The negative elements in man are the true villains. Alone, powerful, cruel are the dark and dreadful forces that profit from the reign of Night and Ignorance and they dont want any change in the body. We have to annihilate them one by one.
In tragic life, God wot
No villains need be, passions spin the plot
We are betrayed by what is false within !
The entire Vedic wisdom is contained in one word " Transcend ".
Transcend both pain & sorrow, transcend the triune attributes of Nature.
Transcend negativity !.
More information about Transcendental Philosophy & Yoga can be had from http://www.astrologiavedica.com/html/yogamain.htm
We are always confronted by the negative qualities. Perfection has to be worked out, harmony has to be established. Ignorance, limitation, sorrow, - these are the negative qulities as pitted against Knowledge, Infintiy & Bliss. These negative qualities are merely the first terms of the formula - unintelligible, till we have worked out the wider terms and reintepreted the formulary. They are merely the initial discords of the Musician's harmony. To rise from the Negative to the Positive, from Ignorace to Divine Knowledge, from limitation to the Illimitable, from sorrow to Bliss Infinite, from Matter to revealed Spirit, is Yoga. To achieve this end for ourselves and for our brethren is the aim of our Yogic practice.
- ( Aurobindo)
Wise men like Ramana Maharshi advises us to annihilate the Mind. For it is that which gives you pleasure that gives you pain. The root cause of all bondage and all sorrow is Mind ! Annihilate the mind by thinking on its real nature. The true Source of the Mind is the "I", the primal Thought. Because of the Primal Thought, the mind exists! He advises us to enquire into the nature of the Self. The thought " Who am I " will lead us to the annihilation of the mind. This thought " Who am I " is like the the burning log which will burn all other logs!
I am pure Being, by whom all things be !
The Negative Method in the Upanishads
In the Upanishads Reality is defined by a series of negatives because the Negative is less limiting than the Positive.
This is known as the Neti ( "Not this " ) method. We deny the Finite in order to affirm the Infinite.
We say this is my shirt. That means that I am not the shirt. Similarly we declare my hands, my legs etc which means I am not the hands or legs. Then who am I ? The body is mine, therefore " I " am not the body. Then who is this "I" ? We therefore apply Intuitive Logic and deny everything. All these are mine, but I am not they. A state will come, during this process of denial, that I cannot deny one thing. What is this thing which I cannot deny? That which I cannot deny is "I", the Self, the Consciousness !
The finite is negated to affirm the Infinite.
The Superconscient as the Base
The Superconscious Mind and not the subconscious is the base of all Life.
Let us analyse why the Superconscient is considered as the foundation.
Deep within the five sheaths which compose our being - the material, the the vital,the mental, the gnostic & the blissful - is the Absoulte Self , the divine component in us which Jesus referred to as the Kingdom of
Heaven ( " The Kingdom of Heaven is within you and whomsover shall know himself shall find it " ).
The dreadful forces or " hostile forces" as they are known - lust, greed, anger, jealousy, sloth & covetousness - lie in the dark caverns of the Subconscious mind. Wisdom declares that they are our inner enemies.
Man houses dangerous forces in his house
The Titan, the Fury and the Djinn
Lay in the subsconscient's cavern pit
And the Beast moved in his antre den
The Enemy means who ? Our inner enemies which lie in the Subconscient!
Socrates is poisoned. Jesus crucified. Bruno burnt alive. This phenomenon is known in Yogic Psychology as the downward pull of the mind, when the dark forces that lie in the subconscient triumph ( in the collective
subsconscient ). The reverse phenomenon, the upward pull of the mind is that which pulls us from death to immortality and realises in this body of earth the luminous Kingdom of Heaven ( Self-Actualisation ).
The four faculties of the Intuitive Reason - Revealation, Inspiration, Intuition and Illumination are all the properties of the Superconscious Mind and can be experienced if we make ourselves pure and make our mind still (" Be still and know that I am God " - Bible ).
The aim of Yoga is pull ourselves out of the darkness of the subconscient into the Light of the Superconscient and to receive the intuitions and the revealations of the Self and ultimately lead us to Self_Actualisation. The aim of Nature is to effect Super-Nature. The aim of Yoga is Self, is
Self-Actualisation.
The great battle between good and evil which was depicted by the poets ( Iliad, Odyssey, Ramayana,Mahabharata etc ) is actually the great war happening in the human bosom between the conflicting forces of good and evil, ever locked in eternal combat. Utlimately the positive elements - Truth, Dharma, Peace, Love & the Discriminative Intellect will win over the negative elements in us and we will be transmuted into the Divine Man. This is the ultimate formula of Wisdom - the divine transmutation of Man!
Yoga as Divine Alchemy
Alchemy is the science of transmuting baser metals into gold. Yoga is divine alchemy as it transmutes base metals ( our human nature ) into gold ( divine nature ).
Scientifically, Alchemy is possible. By proton bombardment, the atomic number of any element can be increased to form another element. So, theoretically, any element can be converted into Aurum ( gold ).
Alchemy is symbolic and no physical transmutation is meant here. Divine Alchemy is the ultimate formula wherein we are transmuted into the Divine Being-Knowledge-Bliss!
This is what the ancient Yogis meant by Transmutation, Transformation & Transfiguration !
Wisdom has been defined as organised Life. Wisdom and knowledge are different. Wisdom is a special kind of knowledge. What is the use of knowing everything if one doesn't know the Self ? Knowledge of the Absolute Self alone is Wisdom. ( Sa Vidya Tan Mathir Yaya ).
The Quantum Field Theory
Quantum Mechanics postulate that the finest state of matter is the Vaccum State. The universal sea of matter exist in the Vaccum State. It is defined as the Field of all possibilities. This Vaccum State of the Quantum Field
corresponds to the Indestructible Being of transcendental philosophy.
The Sevenfold Chord of Being ( The Septenary Principles )
The Universal Substance, by which all this is pervaded, manifests with Its septenary principles with Matter as the lowest term and pure Being as the highest.
Matter ( Annam )
Life ( Prana )
Mind ( Mana )
Supermind ( Vijnana )
Existence ( Sat )
Consciousness ( Chit )
Bliss ( Ananda )
These are what the ancient sages meant by the sevenfold mode of cosmic existence, the septenary principles through which the Universal expresses itself.
These, then, are the seven colours of the light of Divine Consciousness, the seven rays of the Infinite, and by them the Spirit has filled in the canvass of his own selfexistence conceptually extended, woven of the objective warp of Space & the subjective woof of Time, the myriad wonders of his self-creation, great, simple & symmetrical in its primal laws and vast framings.The Light, the Sound is One;their action is sevenfold. ( Aurobindo )
How to overcome the Ego
All knowledge is threefold (" Thraigunya Vishaya Veda "). In Freudian Psycho-analysis we have three impulses, Id, Ego and Supergo. The Vedantic Satwa, Rajas and Thamas correspond to these impulses.
The mind is always gripped by these three impulses. Sometimes we are Rajasic ( worldly ) and go after wealth. When intense anger and other negative emotions grip us, we are Thamasic. When divine qualities like Love and Peace influence us, we are Satwic ( divine ).
The Ego with its ten heads ( symbolised as the ten-headed Ravana ) is the major block in attaining Self_Actualisation. The ten heads of the Ego are Lust,Anger,Pride, Avarice, Sloth, Covetousness, Attachment, Mind, Intellect, Conceit & Egoistic Mentality. Only when the ten heads of the Ego are removed can we hope to get Self-Realisation. ( Symbolically only when the Ravana in us is destroyed ).
When we do our yoga, we will be assailed by three type of Ego. Rajasic ( wordly ), Thamasic ( bestial ) and Satwic ( noble ). In order to overcome the three types of Ego, we are given certain commandments.
" Ma the Sanghostha karmani " - (Let there be not in you any attachment to inaction. ) This commandment is given so that we can overcome the Thamasic ( bestial ) ego.
" Ma Karma Phala Heturbhoo " - ("Dont expect any reward") This commandment is given to protect us from the Rajasic ( wordly ) ego, which always expects rewards for work done.
"Ubhe Sukruta Dushkrute " ( "Be beyond good and evil " ) This commandment is given to us to overcome the Satwic Ego, for one should not hang on to Punya ( divine merit ).
In other words, during the process of Yoga we will be assailed by all sorts of negative thoughts. Our aim is to identify with the Source of all thought, the Self. We will find, as we progress on the path of yoga, that these negative thoughts leave us slowly and steadily. Conquering our negative aspect is not easy. The negative elements in man are the true villains. Alone, powerful, cruel are the dark and dreadful forces that profit from the reign of Night and Ignorance and they dont want any change in the body. We have to annihilate them one by one.
In tragic life, God wot
No villains need be, passions spin the plot
We are betrayed by what is false within !
The entire Vedic wisdom is contained in one word " Transcend ".
Transcend both pain & sorrow, transcend the triune attributes of Nature.
Transcend negativity !.
More information about Transcendental Philosophy & Yoga can be had from http://www.astrologiavedica.com/html/yogamain.htm
We are always confronted by the negative qualities. Perfection has to be worked out, harmony has to be established. Ignorance, limitation, sorrow, - these are the negative qulities as pitted against Knowledge, Infintiy & Bliss. These negative qualities are merely the first terms of the formula - unintelligible, till we have worked out the wider terms and reintepreted the formulary. They are merely the initial discords of the Musician's harmony. To rise from the Negative to the Positive, from Ignorace to Divine Knowledge, from limitation to the Illimitable, from sorrow to Bliss Infinite, from Matter to revealed Spirit, is Yoga. To achieve this end for ourselves and for our brethren is the aim of our Yogic practice.
- ( Aurobindo)
Wise men like Ramana Maharshi advises us to annihilate the Mind. For it is that which gives you pleasure that gives you pain. The root cause of all bondage and all sorrow is Mind ! Annihilate the mind by thinking on its real nature. The true Source of the Mind is the "I", the primal Thought. Because of the Primal Thought, the mind exists! He advises us to enquire into the nature of the Self. The thought " Who am I " will lead us to the annihilation of the mind. This thought " Who am I " is like the the burning log which will burn all other logs!
I am pure Being, by whom all things be !
The Negative Method in the Upanishads
In the Upanishads Reality is defined by a series of negatives because the Negative is less limiting than the Positive.
This is known as the Neti ( "Not this " ) method. We deny the Finite in order to affirm the Infinite.
We say this is my shirt. That means that I am not the shirt. Similarly we declare my hands, my legs etc which means I am not the hands or legs. Then who am I ? The body is mine, therefore " I " am not the body. Then who is this "I" ? We therefore apply Intuitive Logic and deny everything. All these are mine, but I am not they. A state will come, during this process of denial, that I cannot deny one thing. What is this thing which I cannot deny? That which I cannot deny is "I", the Self, the Consciousness !
The finite is negated to affirm the Infinite.
The Superconscient as the Base
The Superconscious Mind and not the subconscious is the base of all Life.
Let us analyse why the Superconscient is considered as the foundation.
Deep within the five sheaths which compose our being - the material, the the vital,the mental, the gnostic & the blissful - is the Absoulte Self , the divine component in us which Jesus referred to as the Kingdom of
Heaven ( " The Kingdom of Heaven is within you and whomsover shall know himself shall find it " ).
The dreadful forces or " hostile forces" as they are known - lust, greed, anger, jealousy, sloth & covetousness - lie in the dark caverns of the Subconscious mind. Wisdom declares that they are our inner enemies.
Man houses dangerous forces in his house
The Titan, the Fury and the Djinn
Lay in the subsconscient's cavern pit
And the Beast moved in his antre den
The Enemy means who ? Our inner enemies which lie in the Subconscient!
Socrates is poisoned. Jesus crucified. Bruno burnt alive. This phenomenon is known in Yogic Psychology as the downward pull of the mind, when the dark forces that lie in the subconscient triumph ( in the collective
subsconscient ). The reverse phenomenon, the upward pull of the mind is that which pulls us from death to immortality and realises in this body of earth the luminous Kingdom of Heaven ( Self-Actualisation ).
The four faculties of the Intuitive Reason - Revealation, Inspiration, Intuition and Illumination are all the properties of the Superconscious Mind and can be experienced if we make ourselves pure and make our mind still (" Be still and know that I am God " - Bible ).
The aim of Yoga is pull ourselves out of the darkness of the subconscient into the Light of the Superconscient and to receive the intuitions and the revealations of the Self and ultimately lead us to Self_Actualisation. The aim of Nature is to effect Super-Nature. The aim of Yoga is Self, is
Self-Actualisation.
The great battle between good and evil which was depicted by the poets ( Iliad, Odyssey, Ramayana,Mahabharata etc ) is actually the great war happening in the human bosom between the conflicting forces of good and evil, ever locked in eternal combat. Utlimately the positive elements - Truth, Dharma, Peace, Love & the Discriminative Intellect will win over the negative elements in us and we will be transmuted into the Divine Man. This is the ultimate formula of Wisdom - the divine transmutation of Man!
Yoga as Divine Alchemy
Alchemy is the science of transmuting baser metals into gold. Yoga is divine alchemy as it transmutes base metals ( our human nature ) into gold ( divine nature ).
Scientifically, Alchemy is possible. By proton bombardment, the atomic number of any element can be increased to form another element. So, theoretically, any element can be converted into Aurum ( gold ).
Alchemy is symbolic and no physical transmutation is meant here. Divine Alchemy is the ultimate formula wherein we are transmuted into the Divine Being-Knowledge-Bliss!
This is what the ancient Yogis meant by Transmutation, Transformation & Transfiguration !
Introduction to Quantum Mysticism
Quantum Mechanics postulates that Matter has dual properties, Jekyll-Hyde properties, that it is both Wave and Punctiform ( Particle )
Mysticism postulates that the Indeterminate is both Being and Non Being.
Hence Q M validates the observations of Mysticism
Mysticism postulates that the Indeterminate is both Being and Non Being.
Hence Q M validates the observations of Mysticism
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