News – Part 4 – Quantum Revelation

“When we pass beyond space and time, from the world of phenomena
towards reality, individuality is replaced by community.”

~ Sir James Jeans

Press play to hear an audio enhancement as you read.

Discoveries in quantum science are revealing an intricacy of interconnectedness that defies logic and overturns traditional understanding based on finite and rigid structures. The deeper we look, the more life seems to be a mystery!

If we took the news seriously we’d assume that humanity is going to hell in a handbasket, as the saying goes. Doubtless, there is a dark side to modern life – which we need to acknowledge – but it’s just one side. Simultaneously, quantum revelations, like the one quoted above, are opening up a vision of meaning to how life works that sound very much like the wisdom of ancient spiritual traditions.

The quote continues: “As it is with light … so it is with life; the phenomena may be individuals carrying on separate existences in space and time, while in the deeper reality beyond space and time we may all be members of one body.”

For those of us who embrace spiritual values, it’s heartening when science legitimizes our understanding. Of course, we don’t need that to “believe,” but it is helpful for those beginning their journey who haven’t yet had enough depth of experience to know the path is real. This brings to mind another quote, from Antonio Machado: “Traveler, there is no path. The path is made by walking.”

This highlights the primary feature revealed by quantum discoveries, namely that the newly realized nature of the universe is participatory. In fact, there is no universe, “out there.” And it would also be inaccurate to suggest that the universe lives within us. More properly, we are the universe and what we consider “reality” turns out to be some kind of mysterious interplay between the observer and the observed, with no clear line of demarcation between the two … which turn out to be one. We are both what is looking and what we are looking at.

In his new book, Quantum Revelation, Paul Levy records a provocative question from American theoretical physicist, John Archibald Wheeler: “Beyond particles, beyond fields of force, beyond geometry, beyond space and time themselves, is the ultimate constituent, the still more ethereal act of observer-participancy?” To which Levy adds: “Are we, through our ongoing acts of observing the universe, the ultimate constituent which makes the whole universe?” 1

This phrase has become a meme, repeated millions of times and meaning “To no longer be in a place that one knows or where one is comfortable; to be in a completely unfamiliar and/or discomfiting environment.”

Imagine, knowing that our momentary experience is forever being determined by our own observing. This would mean that when we change the way we observe, we can change our reality. That sounds like the very definition of personal empowerment.

Lest this become too ponderous, pretentious, and even intimidating, let’s recall something D.H. Lawrence once said: “it’s as if the atom were an impulsive thing always changing its mind.” Referencing Paul Levy again, he explained, “Until the moment it is observed, a quantum entity exists in a realm of potentiality, in what is called a state of ‘superposition,’ where all possible quantum states coexist simultaneously (a state, interesting enough, which has never been observed). The hallmark of an unobserved quantum entity is to hover in a ghostly ethereal state between the extremes of existence and nonexistence, where it can be said to both exist and not exist at the same time.” 2

As esoteric as this may seem at first glance, the description is actually pointing to something familiar to us all. This in-between state shows up in special moments and we all have our unique memories. Like, that first kiss. The symphony, a sunset, news – terrific or terrible. Are these rare moments of quantum awareness, forever fleeting and unpredictable, or are they simply events that, for various reasons, prove jolting enough to awaken us from our dream of the moment, in order to experience true reality through our sudden more intensified participation? If so, then the variable of significance here is our attention. Perhaps what’s going on is secondary to how we choose to observe it and, through that prioritization, we can reposition ourselves in the creator/creation relationship.

Ironically, all this conceptual exploration sifts down to one very simple and familiar instruction, although to experience it fully would represent truly earth shaking news: “Be here now!”

References:
1. Quantum Revelation by Paul Levy
2. Ibid