The nature of reality
I am delighted by the recent wave of media that beautifully illustrate what Einstein and the quantum physicists of late have uncovered. "The Secret," "What the Bleep Do We Know?!" and "The Elegant Universe," in particular are three movies that help us understand the real-life implications of quantum physics.
"The Elegant Universe," narrated by Columbia quantum physicist, Brian Greene, is a docu-series published by NOVA and was first shown on PBS. This series is the no-nonsense science-based exploration of quantum physics. It is illustrated artfully with graphics and layman's English. It leaves the viewer with an understanding of the true fluidity and dynamism of reality, informed by quantum theory.
"What the Bleep" goes one step further to help the audience understand that quantum physics is not something created solely for the intellectual delight of academics, but something to be understood by everyone, as it is as integral to our experience of reality as is gravity, respiration, etc. The movie interviews leading physicists and spiritualists to explain how reality is much more different and complex than what we currently perceive. "What the Bleep" is really just a clearer articulation of the possibilities that are uncovered by these physicists, specifically in that thoughts create things. Our inner state determines what our being attracts to it - like attracts like, the Law of Attraction. "What the Bleep" explains the ramifications of this principle, specifically that we are in complete control of our inner state, the thoughts, moods and feelings within us, and thus are in total control of our reality and future. Welcome, Jedi.
"The Secret" touches even more lightly upon the science, focusing instead upon how we can take these principles to create our ideal life using the Law of Attraction, aka quantum physics, aka Wayne Dyer's Power of Intention. Whatever name you want to give it, it remains the single most, if not only, effective tool for creating our ideal realities. The movie interviews a variety of physicists and personalities in the human potential revolution like Jack Canfield, Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith, etc. Briefly it is setting a clearly defined vision for yourself and finding ways to keep this vision everpresent in your consciousness through gratitude, visioning, etc.
Each of these movies gently guide us down the rabbit hole towards examining the two major assumptions underpinning virtually everything we think we know about the world. These two assumptions are:
Matter exists
Facts exist
If you are a woman/man of this world, it is likely you believe that matter exists, because we can own it, build it, steal it, modify it, move it around, etc. It is also likely that you believe facts exist, for we can empower ourselves with these facts and employ them to determine how said matter is utilized. We have become used to thinking in terms of stuff and facts about this stuff. We create technological and economic disciplines to study the manipulation and allocation of matter, employing and creating more facts in the process.
The implications of this sort of objectivist mechanism are wide-ranging and include classism, separateness, man's inhumanity toward man, war, genocide, violence, hunger, disease, etc. Simply put, the belief in matter and facts allows us to believe we are not connected to the outside world, since we can see other bodies, defined as not us through observation-based facts. The most severe of these however is the belief that we have no control over our fortune or environment and that our inner mental and outer physical states are not correlated, since we cannot yet prove this through reasoning. [At least not without quantum physics!] Despite the widespread prevalence of matter and fact based thinking, a true appreciation of quantum physics will undermine such thinking completely.
What we think of as matter is really just energy operating in a predictable and low frequency vibration. As Einstein so aptly put it, E=MC2, or energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. So mass is an accumulation of energy - energy of lower vibration. Matter is just a relatively predictable set of possibilities, but possibilities nonetheless, and not concrete by any means! As it turns out, mass is really just an effect realized through gravity, a pull of one grouping of energy towards another. The illusion of matter is created because of this assigned predictability of low vibration energy, such as that of a rock or a couch. The physical world is an illusion; it is only an expression of bonded energy which can be easily manipulated with the right energy releasing tools ranging from the common butter knife to the atomic bomb.
Thus, all is essentially energy. What then pray tell is all the fuss about? What are we doing with our lives if all we are doing is consuming energy (food and water for its chemical breakdown and energy release) to expend this energy (through physical and intellectual pursuits) to acquire energy (financial resources which act as energy containers to be expended at a later date when traded to an individual who also values stored energy)? Is this the grand plan for humanity? To create an endless Monopoly game with ever increasing complexity for our own amusement?
Whether we choose the profession of aid worker or investment advisor, what is it that we are actually doing? Are we not just moving energy around? To what end? To increase our store of potential energy (bank account) or to empower others to seek out and manipulate energy themselves (philanthropy, education, healthcare)? What is a human? Is it more than its electric charges? Is there a soul or a spirit inside or associated with it? Where is it? What is art? What is God?
These are just a few of the questions unleashed by understanding that matter does not really exist, it's actually energy. The notion of intelligent design should also be considered in an exploration of matter, because without evaluating the consideration of an overarching organizing principle, we would quickly devolve into a world of hedonism and violence. Does the universe have meaning? If all is energy, then why have ever more complex forms of it emerged throughout the course of life on earth? Is it a grand accident? Or perhaps a vehicle for the revelation of meaning or higher spiritual reality?
Are we not moving towards a more complete and integrated understanding of things? Is awe and amazement not the effect of true knowledge? More importantly, the factors which allowed life and complexity to exist could not have been more precise. Specifically, if the rate of expansion of the universe were one-billionth of a percent faster or slower, the creation of life would have been impossible, i.e. any faster and the energy of stars would not reach the planets or any slower and the stars themselves would not have formed.
A world without factsThe second important implication of quantum physics is that facts do not exist, at least not as we think they do. Quantum physics has revealed that the observer and the observed are one. That is, once our attention is focused upon something, it exists. Prior to this attention, said object is merely a set of possibilities. All we see is informed not just by attention, but our own individual attention that is informed by - you guessed it - expectation. We see what we believe can exist, and nothing to the contrary. Actually, this is really just an extension of the first paradigm-busting revelation that matter is comprised only of a set of possibilities. Since the underlying premise of the scientific method, detached observation, is an actual impossibility, the entire structure of knowledge we have created is in question.
Everything is affected by the attention of the observer, thus the placebo effect, spontaneous meditative healing, power of positive thinking, unreplicable experimental results, etc. Quantum physics is the science of possibilities, however it is not a distinct discipline that can be relegated to the obscure backwaters of academia; rather, when taken together, it is an integral principle of life. If any world view or assertion is to be taken seriously, it must go forth only with the understanding that any observation or judgment cannot be taken as fact, rather only as a proposed trend in possibilities and nothing else, as it is subject to each of our own prejudices.
The scientific method itself is premised on this with its degrees of certainty, margins of error, etc. There is no such thing as complete causality as every event, though demarcated as having occurred at a point in time, is part of a much greater web of existence. Saying A causes B is like saying a particular wave was generated by one gust of wind, neglecting the currents below, all prior and subsequent gusts, air temp, water temp, biological activity, etc. This does not mean that all science is a worthless endeavor, just that perhaps the majority of conclusions drawn from said experiments are as artful and subjective as any fantasy an artist conceives.
The effect of a world without facts can manifest itself in two ways:
A world of lethargy and confusion.
A world of compassion and identity. Quantum physics prevents us from making judgments about others - this is the great lesson of quantum physics! It up-ends the entire basis of reasoning!
This implies that unless otherwise posited as a trend in possibilities, we ought to see ourselves and the world as a connected, tangled, marginally differentiated and therefore unified mass of energy. Quantum science is blazing the trail for the re-emergence of wisdom embodied in ancient spiritual traditions. All is One.
There are thousands of other implications of quantum physics, in matters relating to time, memory, superpositioning, etc. but it is a true understanding of matter and fact which first and foremost changes everything. Our manner of being, chosen profession, goals - everything is affected by understanding the realities brought forth by quantum physics.
I cannot recommend these resources any higher, as they will confuse you to no end. They collectively represent the Red Pill, talked about in "The Matrix." The process will uncover a great deal of uncomfortable truths, but please just think of them as a long overdue system upgrade. It's just a new rule book. Our old rule book delivers only a suboptimal experience of life. This new rule book will help us understand not only the nature of reality and the objective of the game, but how to achieve it. The new rules are matched in their radical departure from common perceptions only by the new capabilities afforded to the players. Ready to get your Jedi on?
Brandon Peele is Founder of blissquest, a curriculum and community for discovering your purpose in life, and Namaste Economics, a set of economic principles defining the path of conscious business. You can find more articles like this on his blog, Generative Transformation.
