Quantum Mechanics
The Theory in a Nutshell
In Classic Physics, also called Newtonian Physics based on Sir Isaac Newton’s 17th Century observations, a researcher conducts experiments presumably as an outside observer who doesn’t influence what is being observed. In essence, Classic Physics views the world as a machine, where each motion should have a calculatable outcome. This mechanistic perspective uses a linear thought process that views the world as a giant clock—to understand the clock, you need only to disassemble it and study its parts.
A startling discovery, however, revealed a crack in the Newtonian paradigm: When physicists broke down an atom to its smallest form, they discovered that subatomic particles were actually vast regions of empty space. The basic stuff of the universe has no dimension. Things got more confusing when these scientists made another unforeseen discovery: When they observed the particle, it was there; but when they weren’t observing it, they couldn’t definitively determine whether or not it was still there. They could only calculate the probability of a subatomic particle existing at a given point in space: This led physicists to introduce a language of probabilities into discussions regarding physical matter, and the Newtonian, linear viewpoint of the physical world began to look more like the abstract realm referred to by mystics and poets.
The founders of quantum mechanics discovered that you couldn’t eliminate the observer from the equation because the observer of a system affects the system by mere observation. In quantum mechanics, the line between the observer and the observed is obscured—you can’t definitively make a distinction between the two.
For further discussion of quantum mechanics, see A Quantum Perspective of the Kinesiologic Response.
Significance to Consciousness and Spirituality
The Newtonian, linear world represents the domain of form and physicality (the ordinary levels of consciousness up to 499). The quantum reality represents the convergence into the realm of nonduality, nonlocality, and nonlinearity—the spiritual domain (levels 500 and above).
In the quantum world, the consciousness of the observer is connected to that which is being observed. As Dr. Hawkins explains: “Perhaps the closest approximation of the crossover from the microscopic, Newtonian, measurable world to the submicroscopic, invisible, underlying Reality is afforded by Quantum Mechanics in which ‘observables’ are subject to influence and change by the mere act of observation (the Heisenberg principle). The infinite quantum potentiality deflects the interaction of consciousness and the substrate of matter, namely, the wave/particle potentiality and unpredictability in space or position. ‘Observables’ replace ‘measurables’ and are therefore seen to be selections of the intuition of the observer rather than a self-existent, fixed, ‘objective’ reality.” (I: Reality & Subjectivity, p. 265)
More on the Scientific Convergence:
Quantum Mechanics: The Observed and the Observer are One
Chaos Theory: Nonlinear Dynamics & the Science of Wholeness
Fractal Geometry: The Organizing Patterns of Life
The Implicate Order: The Universe as a Giant Hologram
Hypothesis of Formative Causation: Morphic Resonance & Hidden Fields
References:
Capra, Fritja. The Tao of Physics. Boston: Shambhala, 2000.
Stapp, Henry. Mind, Matter, and Quantum Mechanics. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1993.
Zukav, Gary. The Dancing Wu Li Masters. New York: Bantam Books, 1979.
Discussion by Dr. Hawkins in The Eye of the I:
Linear vs. Nonlinear 295-300
Nonlinear Dynamics 78, 111
Nonlinear vs. Linear
Nonlocality 112
Time 157
Discussion by Dr. Hawkins in I: Reality & Subjectivity:
Newtonian Paradigm 83, 265
Nonlinear 265, 272
Quantum Mechanics, 83, 265, Appendix D
Time 181, 373
Space 182
