Infinite Quantum Zen

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~ ∞ ~ The Role of Consciousness in the Quantum World - Awaken the Living Awareness Within ~ ∞ ~

Experiments in Quantum Physics show that by looking at something as tiny as an electron – focusing our awareness upon it, changes its properties while we are watching it; this means that the very act of observation is an act of creation, in and of itself – our consciousness is doing the creating, you see? Most people tend to think that consciousness exists because there are human beings, because we have brains larger than any other bipedal mammal, because we have minds that can reason and think.

According to the quantum explanation, however, consciousness already exists in the domain of potentiality, whether human beings are there or not, which points to the conclusion made many times in this book: consciousness is universal. Yet, current quantum-level proposals do not explain the prominent empirical features of consciousness, and so it is paramount to note that Quantum Mechanics of today is by no means the end-all-be-all way to understand the deeper mysteries of life, but it can most certainly provide a wonderful bridge to what is yet to be realized.

Like mentioned earlier, Quantum Mechanics is often labeled as the “weird” or “strange” science, but here we should ask ourselves: Is it really so? Could it be the other way around? What if the Quantum World is really too simple for us to understand it from the viewpoint of the mind? What if the whole thing should actually be approached and understood from the perspective and viewpoint of a child?

Through playful discovery and subjective experiences, you see? What if the key to understanding the simplicity of Quantum Mechanics is to add the spiritual knowledge and understanding to the equation – especially the ideas of consciousness, awareness and presence? How would our attitude, actions, and overall outlook on life change if we would take into account the aforementioned factors?

As opposed to scientific approach, we have the spiritual worldview, from where we can find almost overly simplified approach to Quantum World. For all intents and purposes, this is only a good thing, because all of the equations, formulas, and other confusing “mind stuff” is taken away – leaving us with the pure amazingness of it all; applying the Occam’s razor*1, if you will. When things are simplified, everything is seen in more clarity.

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*1 Occam’s razor in a nutshell: the simplest explanation is likely correct.

There are a lot of good things about this worldview – this is because the approach is so much different – almost opposite to the scientific one. The difference is pretty clear: the scientifically oriented people often see only theories and mathematical formulas, whereas the spiritually oriented people see infinite possibilities for real, tangible and practical usage. Spiritual worldview introduces us the missing (ignored) part of the equation – that of consciousness and its inherent awareness.

So in this context, it is worth noting that if something really is strange – it is most definitely the very fact that somewhere along the way, scientifically oriented people wanted to ignore the most important factor altogether – that of consciousness; and in so doing, continued to focus on finding the answers from the “material world,” although scientific figures like David Bohm, Max Planck, Von Neumann, Eugene Wigner, and Niels Bohr emphasized the importance of consciousness.

Later in this chapter, we will take a look at what these figures have stated in regards to consciousness. It goes without saying that we are making a grave mistake by excluding ourselves from the equation; not including the effect of our very presence is a mistake of a profound nature. It seems as though since its inception, now more than 100 years, scientists have not quite got it, and hence they have twisted even the very foundations to fit their narrow perception.

On that note, the more I studied both worlds (scientific, spiritual), the more simple everything seemed to become. You could compare the situation to driving a car – you don’t necessarily need to know how the engine is put together, and yet you can still enjoy the many benefits that the car as a tool can provide for you. The same goes for utilizing the Quantum Mechanical principles of reality as our tools. That is to say, it is not needed for you to know all the mathematical formulas to utilize the underlying simplicity of the Quantum Mechanical Principles of Life for your benefit.

People all over the world are seeking answers more intensively and more extensively than ever before; what makes this increased, rapid, and almost desperate search for the God(Particle) even worse is the fact that most of the people are seeking the answers from a totally wrong direction (from outside sources vs. from within).

What we need as the collective humanity is the way to bridge these worlds (scientific, spiritual) together in a meaningful and constructive manner; the most obvious reason for doing so is the truth that these worlds are very much interconnected and therefore interdependent of each other.

What we need is a synthesis of science and spirituality, a combination of both – modern and ancient wisdom. You see, though their methods and ultimate concerns differ, both science and spirituality seek, in their own ways, to reveal the “truth” about life, existence, and the universe.

Science, relying on sensory experience, examines the objective, spatial universe. Spirituality, utilizing intuition and revelation, searches and dives into the depths of reality’s interior, symbolic face (Innerverse). Both sensory observation and intuitive modes of knowing have equal validity in humanity’s quest to understand reality, and ultimately, ourselves – the human experience, you see?

Ultimately, people in both worlds are trying to figure out the same phenomenon of entanglement, but just with a slightly different names and variations of meanings; essentially both agree that there’s an underlying structure behind the visible and observable universe connecting everything. This means that in randomness, there’s a Divine Structure that is contained within everything and no thing at the same time – emanating from one common Source.

The idea of consciousness is central for the understanding of Interconnected Nature of Living Life, and herein lies both the problem and the solution: our modern contemporary methods of studying consciousness are linear, whereas consciousness is very much a non-linear phenomenon. The inner experiences of the individuals seem to be the only viable way to gain profound understanding about consciousness, and as an extension, of reality, life, and of ourselves.

That is to say, instead of focusing on the external world, we should be focusing on the knowledge and wisdom that is gained from these inner experiences. When the necessary understanding is achieved, combining both sensory observation and intuitive modes of knowing could yield something great and lasting, you see?

This underlying, or Divine Structure, if you will, is such that it largely goes unnoticed, not only due to our lack of awareness, but also due to our lack of will to pursue such awareness. Another contributing aspect is our perception: what we perceive as regular, patterned information – we classify as order; what we perceive as irregular, unpatterned information – we classify as disorder, or simply randomness.

What we classify and label as being mere randomness, may indeed be Intelligence so far beyond our current level of understanding and comprehension that we pass it off by labeling it randomness; such level of Intelligence we humans have yet to recognize – after all, we cannot recognize, let alone know something that we are not yet aware of. What we humans perceive as randomness, may instead reflect a degree of complexity of order that we have yet to decode in understandable form. And so it goes that we disregard this type of underlying structure and Intelligence altogether.

Eventually, it shall come to pass, as it has been written in the Book of Life, that in due time, and in due course, the Divine Structure and Intelligence within randomness is widely recognized and acknowledged. And so you see, the realization of the Divine Structure within randomness leads to the recognition and acknowledgement of the undeniable truth of Oneness and the Interconnectedness of Everything.

This profoundly and inexorably changes the way we see and experience reality. Suddenly “this or that” becomes “this and that,” and eventually “this becomes that,” which simply just IS – Unity. If there is one – it always implies that there must be many – one cannot be if there isn’t many; it is only through the experience of the many, from where the one is realized, you see?

In spiritual terms, this means that there is a definite difference between the ideas of Oneness, Unity, and Non-Duality (Advaita). Oneness is an Idea; Unity is a Concept from the realization of the Idea of Oneness (a generalization from experience), and finally there is a Non-Dual Beingness within that realization.

So when we apply this understanding to the scientific paradigm, we arrive at a point where we can realize that Pure Non-Dual Beingness is both the “place” from where our Universe came out of, but also the very essence out of which it is made. This goes on to say that within this Non-Dual Beingness – Life has always existed, and always will exist; Life has always been, always is, and always will be – see?

Scientifically oriented people often think that consciousness is an emergent biological phenomena, making no difference to physical systems. More than that, these same people like to say, argue – and even insist, that the brain creates consciousness and that consciousness cannot survive without the brain. Also psychologists often speak of the mind and the body as two separate entities for convenience, while many still acknowledge that they are intimately entwined.

Both have largely ignored how consciousness manifests in our existence; this has been done by assuming that the brain produces consciousness, although it has never been verified. The only verifiable thing is that consciousness in human form is something that conceives, governs, constructs, and eventually becomes the activity of the body.

When we observe consciousness more deeply by utilizing our innate ability of being aware of our own consciousness, we eventually find that it’s also something bigger than us; something much more greater than just our ability of being aware of our individuated self. Even though the theories & hypothesis are more than plentiful, none of them really have answered to the primary question of what consciousness is.

In much the same way as biologists study and explain what life does, rather than what life is, so do scientists who like to focus on explaining what consciousness does, rather than what consciousness is. Although scientifically and spiritually oriented people have their differences, there’s much hope for learning to find a common ground – as Dalai Lama put it:

“Broadly speaking, although there are some differences, I think Buddhist philosophy and Quantum Mechanics can shake hands on their view of the world.” ~ Dalai Lama.

The famous quantum double-slit experiment is a very popular experiment used to examine how consciousness and our physical material world are intertwined. It is a great example that documents how the factors associated with consciousness and our physical material world are connected. The most significant of these revelations is the fact that the observer seems to be creating the reality by the act of observation alone.

The act of us looking creates the result of observation – in other words, we are literally creating the universe and the perception of the world as we go. A paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Physics Essays by Dean Radin, PhD, explains how this experiment has been used multiple times to explore the role of consciousness in shaping the nature of physical reality:

“In this experiment, a double-slit optical system was used to test the possible role of consciousness in the collapse of the quantum wave-function. The ratio of the interference pattern’s double slit spectral power to its single slit spectral power was predicted to decrease when attention was focused toward the double slit as compared to away from it.

The study found that factors associated with consciousness “significantly” correlated in predicted ways with perturbations in the double slit interference pattern. Observation not only disturbs what has to be measured, they produce it. We compel the electron to assume a definite position. We ourselves produce the results of the measurement.”

What did the historic scientific figures say about the significance of consciousness on the observed results?

Von Neumann:

Consciousness, whatever it is, appears to be the only thing in physics that can ultimately cause this collapse or observation.

Max Planck:

I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.

Eugene Wigner:

It is not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a consistent way without reference to the consciousness.

Niels Bohr:

Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real. A physicist is just an atom’s way of looking at itself.

John Stewart Bell:

As regards mind, I am fully convinced that it has a central place in the ultimate nature of reality.

So, when we take a look at all of those sayings about Consciousness, we cannot but ask ourselves: isn’t that the very same thing that Gautama Buddha talked about somewhere around the fourth century BCE by saying:

We are what we think, all that we are arises with our thoughts, with our thoughts we make the world. ~ Gautama Buddha

When we once again take another example from the modern world by Martin Rees, we cannot but agree.

The Universe could only come into existence if someone observed it. It does not matter that the observers turned up several billion years later. The Universe exists because we are aware of it.

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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~

Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony

[ Click » here « to read the next part: Quantum Nonlocality & Multiverse ]

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~ ∞ ~ Quantum Mechanics & Quantum Entanglement - Awaken the Living Awareness Within ~ ∞ ~

In one way, this chapter continues the earlier discussion, and in another way, it moves the conversation forward. As such, this chapter can be considered as a preparation for what comes next, namely The Role of Consciousness in the Quantum World, which in turn plays a crucial role in laying groundwork for some of the more complex chapters dealing with the nature of time and the idea of a multiverse; their sole purpose is to expand one’s thinking in a way that might be of help in opening up new avenues of thought and appreciation, opening up new perspectives and ways of seeing.

This is done by providing a creative, stimulating and thought-provoking perspective that some would say is a bit over the top and outside the box; which is, after all, the whole purpose of this work. You see, nothing new can come out of anything old, outdated and outmoded, would you agree?

Earlier we briefly mentioned the Schrödinger’s cat paradox and the Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. From these foundational aspects of Quantum Mechanics we get to another reason as to why the understanding of Quantum Mechanical principles of life seems to be so difficult for most people. The problem is deeply rooted in the way in which we see the world – as if everything would be separate from ourselves.

There is no better way to illustrate this than to point out that the scientific learning often inclines atheism, or at the very least – agnosticism. This kind of mindset propels scientific inquiry, which makes you wonder many things, and in turn makes it irresistible not to formulate theories around them. From this, the question arises: What kind of science would there be if the premise would be the exact opposite?

The current stance at which science is done today reveals the irony within, and even hints of a great cosmic joke of sorts. You see, quite funnily enough, the atheist (or scientist) is God playing hide and seek with itself – utilizing the creative principle to create something that tries believably and convincingly deny itself and hence its very own existence.

In other words, the underlying belief that propels scientific inquiry goes like this: in the beginning there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing, and then this nothing magically exploded for no apparent reason creating everything, and then a bunch of everything mysteriously rearranged itself for no reason whatsoever – into self-replicating bits which then turned into living beings – makes perfect sense, does it not?

Now one should be asking oneself: Who’s playing who here? Is all this some sort of great cosmic joke being played on us? And if so, what is this joke exactly? Is the great cosmic joke precisely that you are what you are seeking?

Even though the modern-day science has slowly been catching up to the ancient mysticism and the concepts that were deeply embedded in various cultures throughout the ancient world – there’s still long way to go before we get anywhere near achieving the level of understanding needed to transform deeply ingrained beliefs and assumptions that weigh us down.

In other words, Quantum Mechanics is just the beginning in a long journey of discovery – what comes next and what will it look like is but anyone’s guess. Nevertheless, the coming new synthesis of science, ancient mysticism and spirituality recognizes matter and Spirit to be one unified energy in different stages of manifestation – constantly altering the way in which we perceive ourselves and our reality; awareness being the core of it all, and matter being its manifestation in physical reality – see?

So keeping all that in mind, it doesn’t take much to realize that the current scientific approach of objective reality is limited, and hence it doesn’t paint a complete picture – not by a long shot. It is quite clear that this type of approach has gotten us to only a certain point; to go any further, we would need to change our perception and also be willing to enter into a whole another paradigm altogether.

From this perspective, it seems that the “original creative thinking” that comes “outside” the limited human mind is “years far ahead” when it is compared to the current collective consensus reality and the approaches therein. This goes on to say that if we hope to someday master the mysteries of the universe, including the Quantum World, we would need to step up our game – big time.

In modern physics, we are constantly trying to objectify the world, but interestingly, again and again, we find that all things exist in relationships. Therefore, we should begin to see the world as an integrated whole, rather than a dissociated collection of separated parts. The biggest mistake that we as the collective human species have ever made in our hubris, is most definitely the repetitive ignorance over this undeniable truth of the Interconnectedness of Everything.

Granted, on a mental intellectual level, we may understand the concept, but on the deeper – more meaningful level, not so much. So what can be done about this? Well, we can start by learning other ways and perspectives. You see, we can learn tremendously from the ancient wisdom traditions; there is much we can learn from the Eastern view.

One such example is a Buddhist view of relativity: according to this view, everything is bound together in a network of interdependencies – everything is, therefore – connected, conditioned, relative and interdependent.

– When this is – That is.
– This arising – That arises.
– When this is not – That is not.
– This ceasing – That ceases.

To give another example of a profound insight that can be learned from these ancient wisdom traditions – let me introduce you a Buddhist conception of the universe in an image; it details the interconnectedness and interdependence amazingly well (similar to the Western view of a Holographic Fractal Nature of Reality).

“You could imagine a multidimensional spider’s web in the early morning covered with dew drops; every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. In each reflected dew drop the reflections of all the other dew drops can be seen in that reflection, and so on ad infinitum.” ~ Buddhist Conception of the Universe in an Image.

The world around us is governed by Quantum Mechanical principles that are inherently nonlocal. This makes the mind and the world aspects of the same thing – an endless sea of Living Consciousness that is realized through Living Awareness. So, now the question becomes: Why do we have such a huge blind spot in our understanding when it comes to consciousness and the nature of reality?

Why is it that we overlook the importance of consciousness in regards to all things Quantum? It is a well-known fact that the continual exposure to something reduces our awareness of its presence, so over time, we become blind to the obvious. Let us explore this through an analogy, shall we?

“We don’t know who first discovered water, but we can be sure that it wasn’t a fish.” ~ Philosopher Marshall McLuhan.

For a fish in the ocean, all it knows is water. Born in water, it lives, breeds, and dies in the water. Water is the only reality the fish knows – its whole world is water. In exactly the same way, we humans are born into a physical reality, we become conscious of ourselves, our lives, our world, and we assume everyone else is doing the same.

Like in the Marshall McLuhan’s words, a fish swims in the water – likewise we humans swim in a sea of consciousness; and like a fish that has become oblivious to its aqueous environment, we have become dulled to the ubiquity of consciousness. In other words, just as the fish has no words in its vocabulary to express the nature of the solid land, so is the case with us humans when it comes to the subject of consciousness – see?

More to the point of this chapter: Quantum Nonlocality comes into play when we are talking about the idea of Quantum Entanglement, which is a state in which two particles act together in an entangled system. This means that they behave like one object even though they are physically apart. Throughout the universe subatomic particles act as they are connected to each other – meaning that what we do to one particle at one location, happens for another particle at the different location.

The interesting part is that this phenomena is not limited only to particles. You see, in its broadest sense, this phenomena covers not only such immaterial things as thoughts, intentions, feelings and emotions, but also consciousness, awareness, Soul, and Spirit.

Quantum Entanglement shows wonderfully that every action, thought, intention, feeling and emotion is indeed connected, and thus can affect the whole in one manner or another. And herein lies both the problem and the solution. You see, at best, if we stay open-minded and open-hearted, the aforementioned will completely and profoundly change the way we approach life.

But with the current stance that everything is physical, measurable or deducible; that everything is composed of matter and energy; that life can only be explained in purely mechanical terms, we will never know what entanglement truly means, and never know the true extent and implications of nonlocality – how deep it really goes, is but anyone’s guess.

This goes on to say that scientists will never be able to understand it all with the current level of consciousness and thinking – unless, of course, they are willing to explore new horizons and consider new ways of thinking – which also include subjective experiences, you see? When the subjective experiences around the idea of Quantum Entanglement is added to the equation – the reality of an Interconnected, Nonlocal Quantum World begins to open up in a whole another way.

When this wider awareness is coupled with the current scientific understanding – new doors of perception and understanding will miraculously appear. When things are simplified, everything will be seen in more clarity, and suddenly many missing links just seem to appear out of nowhere – making the whole become crystal clear.

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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~

Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony

[ Click » here « to read the next part: The Role of Consciousness in the Quantum World ]

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~ ∞ ~ Crisis at the Edge of Physics, Science & Cosmology - Awaken the Living Awareness Within ~ ∞ ~

By now, at this point in the book, it should have become obviously clear that there is a definite crisis not only in science and cosmology, but also in religions and philosophical thought, as well. And not only that, but also we as the collective human species are undergoing a crisis that is ethical, metaphysical, and even existential in nature.

It is quite clear that the more we know about life and the universe, the more confused, conflicted, and concerned we as the collective human species seem to become. This is why all too many place all their hopes in science, and even believe that happiness can be achieved by means of what material science can deliver.

Like we have seen earlier in this book, many people hold on the assumption that the scientific view of the world should be the basis for all knowledge – forgetting that there are other aspects of knowledge as well. This simply goes on to say that the current scientific model excludes many aspects of human existence and experience – among which are values, creativity, spirituality, as well as the deeper metaphysical questions about our existence.

It is almost as if in recent years, scientism has taken a considerably larger foothold in the world of science and technology. As a result, science has become ever more so pathological in nature, and thus taken a drastic turn toward being a faith, carrying religious-like undertones in its current structure.

To be honest, it needs to be noted that science is a wonderful tool for showing us the ways of interpreting the physical world, but we also need spirituality into our lives to help us cope with reality. You see, without integrating this component as part of our lives, we will always fall short in our attempts to live a fulfilled, happy and healthy life of wholeness.

The problem here is that the scientifically oriented people most often seem to believe that the only way to understand the nature of the universe is through deterministic facts and evidence, but the honest and harsh truth is that in science there are no facts – there are data and models, and all models are provisional and incomplete. Despite this obvious truth, these models that are based on incomplete data are taken as facts.

When we take a closer look, we can find that these scientific “facts” emerge out of a constellation of human perceptions, values and actions – in other words, out of a paradigm from which they cannot be separated. This goes on to say that our so called scientific facts are tied to our current paradigm through which we perceive the world and ourselves.

And when it comes to modern science, we find that it is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes its knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about nature and the universe. Science, as we know it today, relies on three basic assumptions that are needed to justify the scientific method. Scientists assume that there exists an objective material reality which is shared by all rational observers – independent of the contingency of its observers.

Scientists also assume that this objective material reality is governed by natural laws, and that these laws can be discovered by the means of systematic observation and experimentation – meaning that the data being analyzed within the experiments are also independent of preconceptions, perceptions and experience of the scientist who is performing the test and doing the analysis.

Quite interestingly, over the past few years alone, there has been a growing awareness that many experimentally established “facts” in the scientific worldview don’t seem to hold up to repeated investigation; this is sometimes referred to as the “decline effect” – the tendency of scientific results (i.e., effect sizes) to shrink over time.

On that note, it is evidently clear that the scientific process itself seems to fail us bigger than ever before. There was an article about this in the New Yorker back in 2010, titled The Truth Wears Off – Is there something wrong with the scientific method? The following is from the article:

“For many scientists, the effect is especially troubling because of what it exposes about the scientific process [...] Francis Bacon, the early-modern philosopher and pioneer of the scientific method, once declared that experiments were essential because they allowed us to “put nature to the question.” But it appears that nature often gives us different answers.”

Taking the previous into consideration, it is quite remarkable that modern science reads the Book of Nature, but doesn’t actually understand what it reads. If the scientists could realize that the knowledge they have accumulated isn’t complete in itself, but depends upon the metaphysical aspects of Philosophy of the Ancients for its interpretation – they would progress on their quest for understanding.

You see, ever since the classical antiquity, science as a type of knowledge has been closely linked to philosophy – this was also the case in the early modern Western world, where the words “science” and “philosophy of nature” were used interchangeably – until they were separated in the 19th century. While we are seeking answers to the big questions of life, we should remember that an older meaning of “science” was actually referring to a body of knowledge itself – of the type that can be rationally explained and reliably applied.

From this, the question arises: Could we use the aforementioned definition also as the solution? Could we then be able to explain why our own understanding of nature, the world, and the universe is so profoundly out of whack and out of sync with reality. Why is it that we are in the midst of this crisis in almost every area of life?

Could it be that we as the collective human species have been suffering from a certain level of self-pride and arrogance, or more aptly – hubris of monumental proportions, which in turn has resulted in an ignorance over our own unknowingness? Could it also be that this type of behavior has caused us to deteriorate and fragment from within, and thus we are suffering from the same decline effect than our own science?

Is it not obvious that we are, indeed, suffering from a disease that is eating us from within – a spiritual disease of immorality and inhumanness, inauthenticity and insincerity? Against this backdrop, one should be asking themselves: Could it also be that all of our past actions of ignorant nature has ultimately caused us to distance ourselves from the natural Living Life, which in turn has created profound difficulties in understanding the Mysteries of Life?

On top of the underlying spiritual level, there is the mental layer that plays a major role in all of this. You see, these collective restraints are the product of our mental programming, which goes on to say that our minds run outmoded dualistic software that is way outdated. To a large degree, our inability “to see beyond the box” has prevented us from utilizing everything that we already have discovered in the world of science in creative and beneficial ways.

We as a collective human species should finally mature as spiritual beings – we should loosen up the old habitual ways of thinking & being and upgrade our mental programming to match that of an eternal, evolved spiritual being. This means that we would need to switch the binary software of our minds to match that of Infinite Potentiality of Non-Dual Software.

This upgraded version of ‘thinking’ would be more in the lines of a direct acknowledgement and instant knowing. A way to begin to receive the upgrade of this sort is the willingness to unplug the unnecessary processes of identification, and to loosen up the old habitual ways of thinking and being. This would, thus then, open up a whole new way of perceiving reality and life as a whole, and in so doing, it would become crystal clear that one individuated mind is not separated from the minds of others – see?

From this, the question arises: Why don’t we just start from awareness and keep it as the basis of everything? Consciousness and its inherent awareness links us to spirituality, which in this context can be seen as a science – the type that we cannot understand, yet.

This goes on to say that consciousness can also be seen as a spiritual technology that we have so little knowledge about and understanding of. Consciousness is the most fundamental reality in existence; if we would account consciousness to the equation and see it as fundamental, the only thing we would have to change in science is our viewpoint of what we are actually measuring.

This is to say that everything we have discovered in quantum and relativity theory, molecular biology etc., still stands to a large degree, but to get any further in understanding the reality we inhabit, the scientific community would need to change the basic assumption of what they are measuring – meaning that what is being measured is not actually matter, but rather different levels of potentials for observation; the object for the measurement would thus be an aware field of information arising from consciousness.

Needless to say, the inner experiences seem to be the only viable way to gain profound understanding about consciousness. That is to say, instead of focusing on the external world and finding explanations from the materialist paradigm, we should be focusing on the wisdom gained from these inner experiences. By doing so, we could gain deeper, wider, and broader understanding of consciousness, and therefore of reality, life, and of ourselves.

As mentioned earlier, science is a wonderful tool for showing us the ways of interpreting the physical world; as a tool and system of inquiry, science excels in this role of exploring the physical reality. However, scientific paradigms can become a form of dogma, resisting the scientific revolutions of thinking and discovery that always, eventually, make these old paradigms obsolete.

We cannot solve old paradigm problems by dealing in old paradigm solutions – this is especially true with everything consciousness related. Therefore, it goes without saying that with the current approach, our ability to create and find solutions is also limited to the confines of our thinking, and so it goes that we can only produce limited, finite solutions to the many problems that we ourselves have created in the world.

It certainly would help if the bubble of scientific dogma would burst open and scientism would be dismantled altogether, would it not? Someday soon, once we reach a new way of thinking that will liberate our minds not only from dogma and bias, but also from ignorance and hubris, can we approach this from another perspective, and truly proclaim to do proper science. This is when we can find creative solutions and approaches that will benefit humanity as a whole.

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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~

Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony

[ Click » here « to read the next part: Quantum Mechanics & Quantum Entanglement ]

Awaken the Living Awareness Within - Problems of understanding the quantum world, book of zen alan watts

~ ∞ ~ Problems of Understanding the Quantum World - Awaken the Living Awareness Within ~ ∞ ~

Now, let us look more closely as to why it is challenging to understand all things quantum. The following overview outlines some of the aspects that we have overlooked, dismissed and ignored, and hence they are rarely even brought up in discussions. For the knowledgeable – to someone who has gained wider perspective, these aspects are obvious, but for someone who is deeply embedded, involved in, and influenced by the current scientific paradigm – not so much.

You see, the continual exposure to something reduces our awareness of its presence, and so it goes that over time we become blind to the obvious; and for that reason, it is difficult for us to appreciate anything that goes against the norm, that is, logic and reason as we know and practice them today. That said, let us dive in.

When it comes to all things Quantum, metaphysical considerations are unavoidable and more important than most realize. In this respect, science could be the wisdom tradition par excellence of our modern age – but only after a paradigm shift. You see, if one is truly interested in comprehensive knowledge of the whole, it is necessary to burst open the bubble of every scientific dogma. The ever-emerging discoveries of quantum physics are thirsting for the next generation of daring thinkers to further unfold its deeper meaning.

In this context, it is of paramount importance to highlight something that most fail to notice, or just simply don’t have the interest to delve into: the discoverers of quantum physics were deeply spiritual people; unlike many of today’s physicists, the founding fathers of quantum physics were passionately interested in the philosophical implications of their discoveries.

This gets obviously clear when one takes the time and effort to actually read and study their thoughts and opinions about what they had discovered. A good place to start is, obviously, their own publications, but those who are not familiar with the subject matter, it can be said that what gets you really started is Fritjof Capra’s excellent 1975 book The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism.

For more than 100 years ago, Max Planck introduced his quantum theory, which can be regarded as the starting point for the modern day Quantum Mechanics. Even though so many years have passed since then, we still seem to be running in circles trying to figure out even the very basics.

One of the biggest problems in understanding the Quantum Mechanical principles of nature is most definitely the very fact that somehow we have learned to label everything that even remotely relates to the Quantum World as being “weird” or “strange.” This predisposition sets the tone by defining our expectations, which in turn creates even more limitations to our already narrow way of thinking, giving less leeway to creative and innovative approaches.

In other words, instead of breaking out of the box that is limiting our thinking, with this predisposition we are creating evermore tighter box around us than we already are in. The name Quantum Mechanics itself reflects not only the mechanistic worldview but also the underlying beliefs and assumptions therein; this in turn sets limits to our thinking and serves to constrain our ideas and solutions, you see?

As I started to write this chapter, it soon became obvious that the best approach to convey the message of this chapter was through personal experience. There was a time on my path several years ago when I used to listen different variety of lectures and speeches from various people, not only in the scientific world, but also in spiritual world as well. I spent countless hours on studying how consciousness, awareness, presence, intention, and focused attention relates to the Quantum World and the Quantum Mechanical principles of reality.

During this time period, I became very familiar with both schools of thought (scientific, spiritual). I came to realize that in the scientific worldview, there seemed to be a repetitive tendency for making Quantum Mechanics to look more difficult than it really is – almost as if there were a concentrated effort to do so.

Whether this was (is) done in an unconscious level or not, doesn’t really matter as much as the very fact that there is an unbeneficial pattern, a vicious cycle that needs to be broken – shattered into pieces, reordered, reconfigured and restructured, you see?

While I was listening the “best of the best” in the fields of Quantum Physics, Quantum Mechanics, and even Quantum Computing – I got almost irritated of the way in which these people kept presenting their understanding of the subject. What stood out for me especially was the fact that almost all of these people kept repeating the words “weird”, “strange”, “spooky,” and so on.

I couldn’t but wonder what could possibly be the reason behind this repetitive statement that has absolutely nothing to do with actuality. Then it occurred to me that maybe it is the collective human tendency to compensate and alleviate one’s own uncertainty by projecting it to a larger audience. And so it goes that this doubt and uncertainty has therefore driven this same ‘spooky program’ for more than 100 years now.

With this kind of behavior we are constantly setting limits to ourselves by forcing ourselves to believe that the Quantum World is weird, and therefore difficult to understand. What makes the situation even worse is the fact that we continue to teach this very same thing over and over to our children – this results in that this same limiting belief is passed down to another generation(s).

The truth of the matter is that every generation seems to be more adapted to this limiting belief because they accept the consensus opinion as default without even questioning its validity. This results in that the ‘average Jane & Joe’ has a very difficult time to grasp even the very basics, not to say anything about the deeper implications.

After a while, I got the impression that even the most educated scientists of today seemed not to be able to fully understand what they themselves were actually saying and lecturing about, and what they were studying and teaching to others.

To be honest, those people who like to believe that the world and its events are always certain and therefore deterministic – are fooling themselves, big time. When we take a look at the events in our own lives, we all come to realize that life is indeterministic. Therefore, all people all around the world can agree that no event is certain and the entire outcome of anything is a probability.

The aforementioned leads us to conclude that the worldview where nature and our own life are completely determined from the past to the future reflects the human need for certainty in an uncertain world. This brings us to one of the essential components of Quantum Mechanics, namely uncertainty principle, which is sometimes referred also to as Heisenberg’s indeterminancy principle; it states that precise, simultaneous measurement of some complementary variables – such as the position and momentum of a subatomic particle – is impossible.

Contrary to the principles of classical physics, the simultaneous measurement of such variables is inescapably flawed. That is to say, the more precisely one is measured, the more flawed the measurement of the other will be. Werner Heisenberg explained his uncertainty principle in a 1927 paper as follows:

“The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.”

Somewhere along the way in my explorations of the Quantum World, I came to the conclusion that it must be the mathematical side of things (mind oriented logical approach) that’s distracting people from the simplicity of the quantum principles; thus making them less attracted to the beauty of the creative infinite potential within the mechanics itself.

As you read on, it gets more clear why this is so (mind oriented thinking vs. intuition). In the context of Quantum Mechanics, this battle between the mind and the intuition seem to boil down to the argument whether the Schrödinger’s cat is dead or alive.

This is to say that those individuals who perceive reality as only being solid, material and predictable – will always see the Schrödinger’s cat as being either dead or alive, and therefore they cannot grasp and accept the idea that the cat is actually both alive and dead at the same time (Quantum Superposition). This leads up to the judgement which denies the co-existent possibility, and therefore causes people to label everything quantum as being “weird.”

The problem originates from the way in which we acquire and process information, which goes on to say that in the world at large, the importance is often placed on the mind and the linear, rational thinking; this type of information gathering and processing is valued over the heart-based wisdom – it always builds up walls that narrow down our perception, and thus limit our understanding.

In the modern world, our understanding comes largely from the mind oriented approach that always involves thinking instead of trusting our intuition. The basic problem with this kind of approach is the fact that the mind won’t ever be capable of understanding something that has been created “outside” of the human mind.

This is to say that Living Life that’s made out of pure Living Awareness – Intelligence far more advanced than we currently know of – must be experienced directly for it to be known; this also means that in order to study Living Life, we would have to become conscious Co-Creators to fully know it.

This implies understanding without using the thinking mind – Innerstanding, you see? At this point, in this context, it is good to remind ourselves of the truth that the human mind was originally created to handle and process worldly matters in physical reality – like figuring out how to use things as tools, not to exhaust ourselves with excess thinking – see?

In summary, it is important to remind ourselves of the following truth: because consciousness and its inherent awareness are the basis of all Living Life – there’s ultimately nothing to discover, but everything to be realized through our innate ability of being aware. It is evidently clear that if the scientists remain within the limited boundaries of their material worldview – they are going to continue running in circles.

This goes on to say that in science everything meaningful has already been discovered, and there is nothing new to be found anymore – at least not in a traditional way; all that remains are more and more precise measurement; what makes the difference is how skillfully we learn to utilize everything we have already discovered.

Hence, it goes without saying that once we reach a new way of thinking that will liberate our minds not only from dogma and bias, but also from ignorance and hubris, can we truly proclaim to do proper science. It would certainly help if the bubble of scientific dogma would burst open, and as a result, scientism would be dismantled altogether, would it not? To crystallize the message of this chapter, let us end with these words by Nikola Tesla:

“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane; The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”

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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~

Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony

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living-quantum-world-new-synthesis-of-knowledge-the-book-of-zen-alan-watts-awareness-joy-samadhi-sutra

~ ∞ ~ Living Quantum World: A New Synthesis of Wisdom - Awaken the Living Awareness Within ~ ∞ ~

In the previous sections, we explored not only the core of our being, but also the essence of reality. In our discussion, we considered the relationship of our experience to reality, how our experience of life is filtered through our senses, how our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and intentions affect and shape our reality. The discussion in this section continues the trend by expanding our exploration to cover science of reality, as it were. As such, it is a natural continuation of the previous sections and chapters.

In this section, we will further our understanding of life and our experience of it, by expanding our horizon even further – it is dedicated to the Mysteries of the Quantum World, as the title suggests. The purpose of this section is not by any means to give an all-encompassing overview of the subject, neither is it to give a lecture of some kind, nor is it to focus on physics, math and formulas – rather, the purpose of this section is to expand one’s own thinking; to open up new perspectives and ways of seeing.

By now, at this point in the book, it must have become obviously clear that there is an overarching theme throughout this book, namely Interconnectedness of Everything. This section is no exception as it continues to highlight the importance of this Truth.

That said, there is one thing to keep in mind before we dive in: Quantum Mechanics is by no means the end-all-be-all way to understand the deeper mysteries of Life, neither is it some magical solution that will fix all of our problems, but it is a very useful tool that can most certainly provide a wonderful bridge to what is yet to be realized, acknowledged, understood, accepted and appreciated by humanity as a whole.

All things Quantum is just the beginning in a long journey of discovery. As is the case with so many other things, in due time, and in due course, Quantum Physics will have a paradigm shift of its own, so that we will one day redefine, in ways not yet imaginable, reality. In other words, as it has become apparent from the previous sections, there is more to life and reality than meets the eye – a spiritual dimension or component, if you will.

And so you see, without integrating this component as part of our worldview, we will always fall short in our attempts to understand Life. To evolve and develop further – as individuals and as a species, we need a synthesis of science and spirituality, a combination of both – modern and ancient wisdom – see?

Now, let us begin with the following: we as the collective human species have come far on our journey to understand our relationship with the world and the larger universe, our place in the world that conforms to the reality of Creation and of our place within it.

Our modern-day understanding about the nature of reality has improved profoundly thanks to Quantum Physics and Quantum Mechanics; the latter being a subset of physics that does its best to explain the behaviors of matter and light on the molecular, atomic and subatomic scales. What’s interesting is that Quantum Mechanics indicates a fundamental discontinuity in the nature of all phenomena, yet we perceive a seamlessly coherent world around us.

This macroscopic integration of a seamless reality from which we derive the characteristics of space and time leads us to believe that they are somehow independent entities in themselves, which brings us to an important point: we are so conditioned to believe that space and time are a priori determining conditions of Creation that we easily forget, or better yet, willingly and willfully ignore the fact that there may be some other factors in play; factors that are found deep beneath the surface.

You see, if we look deeper, we can find that instead of a lonely void with isolated particles moving through it – space appears to be filled with connections and interconnected fields; these quantum fields are energy, manifesting into form when they intersect. This is why ideas, concepts and metaphors transform into a web of information and weaving, or to the world of dreams and infinite possibility.

From this, it becomes clear that the Quantum World opens up a totally new level to our understanding of the world. The understanding from the Quantum World challenges our entrenched beliefs about the nature of reality, and thus it goes without saying that this new paradigm shifting synthesis of knowledge will usher in a whole new era for humanity.

And so it goes that eventually, we will face the inevitable – we need to modify the deeply entrenched belief that body and mind; spirit and nature; mind and matter – are separate and distinct. This will change the way we see and experience reality, the way we live and act, which goes on to say that it is inevitable for us to develop a holistic view of life. It will open up new ways of thinking and being – resulting in sustainable living, prosperity and blossoming humanity as a whole – see?

Now, if we take a brief moment to consider the differences between the classical view of the world (“legacy physics”) and the new paradigm shifting view (Quantum World) – one may be better equipped to understand everything that was discussed in earlier sections – PROLOGUE, INFINITE, TRANSFORMATION, LIFE, CONSCIOUSNESS, AWARENESS – respectively.

The basic premise of classical physics is that the world is material – made from the solid basic building blocks called particles. This material world is based in time & space, and is regarded as being highly predictable. This type of classical or “legacy” physics assumes that there exists an external reality independent of our perception of it; and yet quite interestingly, when the science goes down to the very core of even the most solid-looking object – separateness dissolves, and all that remains are a set of relationships, revealing a deeper level of reality – Interconnectedness of All Things.

This means that everything connects to everything else and nothing is separate from the whole. The interesting part is that the subatomic particles themselves come into form and are observed only as they are in relationship with something else; particles come into being through the interactions with other forms of energy. These unseen connections are fundamental ingredient of all Creation – see?

Interconnectedness of Everything is a key factor in the Quantum World – relationships are everything. There are no familiar ways to comprehend the levels of interconnectedness within the Quantum World – so the best way to get a glimpse of it is to think in terms of infinitely repeating self-similar patterns known as fractals. A fractal is a natural phenomenon or a mathematical set that exhibits a repeating pattern – a pattern that displays at every scale.

Another way is to think in terms of an invisible interconnected network, or mycelial network of sorts. You see, mycelium of belowground fungi connect plants and trees together and have even been shown to communicate with each other*1, which makes it “Earth’s Natural Internet,” doesn’t it? Besides communicating, through this interconnected network, mycelium can transport nutrients between different plants or trees.

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*1 BBC (2014-11-11): Plants talk to each other using an internet of fungus.

In much the same way as the mycelial network connects plants and trees together, so can the Quantum World be imagined to work as well – connecting the seen and the unseen, the outer and the inner, uniting the small and large-scale happenings seamlessly together – making instantaneous communication possible.

If we combine this idea with fractals and holograms (Holographic Fractal Nature of Reality), we would get something as amazing as the “Holofractographic Mycelial Quantum Network” – a vast microscopic web spanning across the multiverse, an intergalactic, interdimensional ecosystem, or an infinite number of roads leading everywhere.

~ ∞ Entanglement ∞ ~

In whatever way this communication in the Quantum World happens, it surely is both more complex than we can imagine, and yet more simple than we think. To further understand this, let us introduce a term that frequently appears in discussions of this kind.

In the Quantum World, entanglement is a phenomenon in which two particles can communicate instantaneously to one another – this enables them to behave like one object even though they are physically apart; something is clearly connecting them faster than the speed of light.

The integral part of entanglement is instant communication – meaning that connectivity is “outside” time and space. The key principle of entanglement is correlation; this means that throughout the universe subatomic particles act as they are connected to each other – meaning that what we do to one particle at one location, happens for another at different location – see?

A musical style called Jazz conveys perfectly the idea of interrelated connections within the quantum canvas of Creation. Jazz musicians are sensing the nature of the Quantum World – only requirement is to be present in the moment and to be willing to surrender to the flow of inspiration through improvisation.

In Jazz, the players have a shared idea of what they might play; they agree on the melody, tempo and key, but the music itself rely heavily on improvisation. The players listen carefully, communicate constantly, and suddenly there is music with the possibilities beyond anything imagined.

The music itself comes from the interconnected whole – the unified field of information in which patterns are contained within patterns. And so you see, every player have accessed this field among themselves, which goes on to say that this type of music is undivided wholeness in flowing movement, or a relationship that transcends the sense of separateness – fascinating, isn’t it?

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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~

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