by Arjun Walia
June 03, 2015
from
Collective-Evolution Website
Spanish version
"Matter": it's what atoms and molecules
are made up of.
On the physical material level, it's
what all physical objects are made up of; it is everything that
surrounds us and anything that has mass and volume. When scientists
attempt to gain a better understanding of the nature of our reality,
matter is what they look to.
However, when scientists observe matter
at the smallest possible level, they are left with more questions
than answers.
This is thanks to the fact that a tiny
piece of matter, like a photon, or an electron, can
exist in multiple possible states
(as a "wave") even though it is one single particle… which makes
absolutely no sense.
"We choose to examine a phenomenon
which is impossible, absolutely impossible, to explain in any
classical way, and which has in it the heart of quantum
mechanics.
In reality, it contains the only
mystery." (1)
Richard Feynman, a Nobel laureate
of the twentieth century
It is important to consider the notion
that our physical material world might be guided by non-physical
properties,
such as consciousness, and this
idea is best illustrated by what is referred to as
the double slit-experiment.
In this experiment, tiny bits of matter (photons, electrons, or any
atomic-sized object) are shot towards a screen that has two slits in
it.
On the other side of the screen, a high
tech video camera records where each photon lands. When scientists
close one slit, the camera will show us an expected pattern, as seen
in the video below. But when both slits are opened, an "interference
pattern" emerges - they begin to act like waves.
This doesn't mean that atomic objects
are observed as a wave, they just act that way. It means that
each photon individually goes through both slits at the same time
and interferes with itself, but it also goes through one slit, and
it goes through the other.
Furthermore, it goes through neither of
them.
The single piece of matter becomes a
"wave" of potentials, expressing itself in the form of multiple
possibilities, and this is why we get the interference pattern.
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How can a single piece of matter
exist and express itself in multiple states?
-
Furthermore, how does it
choose which path, out of multiple possibilities, it
will take?
"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." (1)
Richard Feynman
Here's Where
It Gets More Confusing
When an observer is added, or when scientists decide to measure and
look at which slit the piece of matter goes through, the "wave" of
potential paths collapses into one single path.
The particle goes from becoming, again,
a "wave" of potentials into one particle taking a single route. It's
as if the particle knows it's being watched. The observer has
some sort of effect on the behavior of the particle.
The quantum double slit experiment is a very popular experiment used
to examine how consciousness and our physical material world are
intertwined.
Again, just to reiterate, when
scientists decided to observe the tiny piece of matter, that act of
observation alone "collapsed" all those potentials into one state…
I regard consciousness as
fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.
We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk
about, everything that we regard as existing, postulating
consciousness."
Max Planck, theoretical physicist
who originated quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize in
Physics in 1918
"What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics
students in the third or fourth year of graduate school… It is
my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't
understand it. You see my physics students don't understand it,
that is because I don't understand it." (1)
Richard Feynman
This type of confounding phenomenon has
been repeatedly demonstrated, and examined a number of times by
experts from all over the world.
For example, one study published in the
journal Physics Essays explains how 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."
Dean Radin, PhD, Chief
Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences
Here is
an audio/visual demonstration of
the experiment to get a better understanding of something so truly
incomprehensible.
What Does This
Mean For US As Individuals And As One Human Race?
It's hard to know what exactly this means, but we are talking about
observing what we are all made up of, matter, at the smallest
possible level. If the same rules apply, then does this mean we
ourselves are existing as a wave of possibilities with regards to
the direction we take in our lives?
After all, we are all made up of this
"matter."
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Are there other versions of our
life playing out in some type of alternate reality?
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What "collapses" us onto our
choice of paths from a wave of potentials?
-
Is there an observer that does
this?
-
Is there someone watching us?
-
Is it our consciousness that is
observing ourselves, and is that dictating the makeup of our
reality?
So many questions to be asked, and so
few answers to be found.
One thing that resonates with me is the idea that quantum physics
and other discoveries in various fields are simply a pre-curser to
ancient knowledge. A step behind, in the discovery of what was
already known in our ancient world.
"Broadly speaking, although there
are some differences, I think Buddhist philosophy and Quantum
Mechanics can shake hands on their view of the world. We can see
in these great examples the fruits of human thinking.
Regardless of the admiration we feel
for these great thinkers, we should not lose sight of the fact
that they were human beings just as we are."
Dalai Lama
If you factor in these quantum
experiments, combined with the multitude of studies examining
parapsychological phenomenon (power of the mind, distant
healing, telepathy, and other unexplainable but observable
phenomenon), as well as all of the evidence pointing to the fact
that we can even influence our own biological systems with thoughts
alone (read more about that
here), the picture (to me) becomes
very clear.
We exist in a world that does not yet
recognize the importance or the power of thoughts, feelings, and
emotions when it comes to the type of human experience we create
for ourselves and the inner state from which we act and create it.
These things do indeed have the power to
change the world, they are what will lead to the correction
action, which is also necessary.
I will leave you with this quote, as I have before:
"A fundamental conclusion of the new
physics also acknowledges that the observer creates the reality.
As observers, we are personally
involved with the creation of our own reality. Physicists
are being forced to admit that the universe is a 'mental'
construction.
Pioneering physicist Sir James Jeans
wrote:
'The stream of knowledge is
heading toward a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins
to look more like a great thought than like a great machine.
Mind no longer appears to be an
accidental intruder into the realm of matter, we ought
rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of
matter.
Get over it, and accept the
inarguable conclusion. The universe is immaterial-mental and
spiritual'."
R.C. Henry, Professor of
Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, "The
Mental Universe"; Nature (436:29,2005) (source)
This definitely gives you something to
think about.
Source
(1) Radin, Dean -
Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences
In A Quantum Reality. New York, Paraview Pocket
Books, 2006
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