Edison’s Very Crude Explanation of Quantum Mechanics: Where Science and Spirituality Begin to Meet
By
Edison Thomas
Published by Edison Thomas at Smashwords
Copyright Edison Thomas 2011
License Note: This eWord is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share these ideas with another person, please cite the author and authors cited therein. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
... at the request of my father, who experienced a very interesting conspiracy of "coincidences"... as we all sometimes do... :)
----------------------
“Quantum Physics is the science of infinite possibilities.” –From the movie “What the Bleep do We Know?”
As far as I understand, and in a massively, pathetically simplified way… quantum goes like this…
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle deals with measuring the properties of subatomic units (namely electrons) and the “quantum” states thereof (electrons exist in certain energy states or “orbits” called quanta). This is the universe at the extremely, extremely small scale.
The principle states that, to the degree that you measure either the momentum OR the position of a said subatomic unit, you CANNOT measure or qualify… know… the property of the other.
This is not a failure on the part of the observer. Rather, it is a “failure,” if we can call it such a thing, on the part of the system itself. In other words, a subatomic unit exists as EITHER a wave or a particle, depending on the observer’s measurement of it. And furthermore (though not really important to our purposes here so don’t be tripped up if you can’t follow this last part), it is to the same degree that you measure one property that you cannot know the other. ("Knowing," it seems, can be in degree... if that makes sense.)
It follows then, (and here’s the really crazy part I think,) that before the measurement is made, the subatomic unit exits as… a potentiality. It exists as BOTH a particle, and a wave. It exists as a potential. It is either or, and both, at the same time. This is the seeming paradox of the universe that philosophers have dealt with since the beginning of philosophy… the… is, not is, “isness” of reality... how there is both nothing and something… how something comes from nothing… how space (nothing) holds, surrounds, and makes possible matter (something)… how silence (nothing) holds, surrounds, and makes possible sound (something)... etc.
Only it’s… not a paradox. Now science seems to be telling us. The paradox is actually… not a paradox. It’s reality. :)
Well… what the heaven does that mean? Really though.
It means that, basically… the observer is affecting reality.
The implication here is huge. Gargantuan, when you really start to understand it.
We typically think, according to classical physics, that we exist in the universe as separate, unbiased, uninvolved observers… that scientists are merely in labs conducting experiments that would otherwise take place, no matter who or what was there anyway… that we are merely measuring properties of the physical universe as independent bystanders. Our look at the quantum level reveals a vastly different reality.
At the quantum level, we realize that we are very much a part of… everything. Basically, that we are connected to everything, and that our being here influences everything. Perhaps… and this is my own developing hypothesis but one that many are beginning to adopt… it’s not merely that we affect the universe… but that actually… we ARE the universe.
And, what the heaven does that mean… ?
It means that the universe is out from us. That our deeper parts… spirit, soul… whatever you want to call it… is producing reality out from us… out from our consciousness. As Neale Donald Walsch puts it so concisely, we are “reality producing machines.”
This understanding drastically affects the way in which we view the world. It may mean that we have a great deal more control than we realize. Indeed, Jesus said that with faith like a mustard seed we could cast mountains into the sea. Many others too have reported miracles of all sorts… all sorts of fantastic, seemingly supernatural feats whereby masters could manipulate even the physical environment itself… not to mention the finer, more subtle vibrations of the psychological world of human interactions… all this begins to take on an eerie sort of feel, when you learn it more fully and then… really think about it.
What it means to me though, on a most positive, joyous, and wonderful level, is that… we are all one. We are all connected. We are never alone, and never separate. We are one with the universe, and one with each other… since we are all part of the same universe. :) Indeed, all is one.
But I’m quickly getting off track… and this isn’t supposed to be more than two paragraphs. :) I’ll conclude with an interesting thought experiment devised by the famous German physicist Erwin Schrödinger:
Imagine you take a cat and some cat food, and put both in a box. You put a lid on the cat food. Then, you manage to set up a way where, depending on how you observe… measure… the property of an electron, and thereby render it as either a wave or a particle to collapse the potentiality, the lid covering the cat food opens or remains closed. More simply put, for instance, if you determine the unit to be a wave by measuring its momentum, the cat food lid remains closed… and if you determine the unit to be a particle by measuring its position, the cat food lid opens.
So. Before you make the measurement… Is there then… a grumpy hungry cat in the box? Or, is there a sleepy happy cat… in the box? Remember, the subatomic unit exists… in the eternal, infinite moment of the now potential (J)… as BOTH… exists as both a wave and particle… at the same time… in potentiality. So… then… well… is the cat happy? Is the cat hungry? …
But… how? WHICH IS IT!!?? :) It can’t be both. That makes no sense. It can’t be… right?
So… you see. You see that this is tricky indeed. :) Very, VERY interesting, nonetheless.
What this really leads us to believe… to understand… and what is so exciting about it, is that the universe exists as, essentially, as an infinity of possibilities. The quantum world shows us the physics of infinity. It shows us that, essentially, we create our reality. And moreover, we do so from an infinite potential of possibilities. How glorious… What a gift.
Now, of course, you might say… whoa whoa whoa. This is simply not so. In the macro world, no way. But here we must stop ourselves and consider all these things… really.
I believe that man is made in “God’s image,” in this most important sense: we are given free will. I believe that this alone is a most central, crucial, absolutely most significant philosophical, epistemological, metaphysical declaration. If I didn’t believe this, I’d go insane, because there would be no meaning to anything. We’d simply find ourselves in a predetermined “chemical reaction,” if you will, where nothing we do means anything nor has really any bearing on anything.
In quantum though… in modern science… which even the skeptic of skeptics eventually must face, I believe… we see that this is not so. That life is not some predetermined, chaotic… thing… where we all just deal with being here and make the best of it we can… or whatever sort of cynical or otherwise mundane outlook we may adopt. But that, rather… we can decide whether the electron is a wave or particle. That life is in our control, and we are free to choose. We choose. IT’S ALL A MATTER OF PERCEPTION… of OUR perception. :) It's all a matter of... our imagination.
Where there is still likely much confusion for so many of us… all of us… and what some who might read this may be asking at this point is… how do we understand what we call “time?” Maybe we can accept the particle as either or AND both, but not the cat. The cat only becomes one or the other… rather, the cat is hungry until fed. It cannot be both…
But, it is both… according to the thought experiment… according to the potentiality of quantum.
This is definitely another topic of discussion entirely, the nature of “time,” that is. But for here, it must suffice to say briefly that Einstein basically showed us that time is relative… in other words, that there is actually no such thing as what we call “time,” but that rather this is a subjective creation of our minds (like everything else though, perhaps J) and that really what we think of as time is the measurement of movement through space. Time is the fourth dimension, or “extension”, of space. Indeed, we measure time by measuring movement through space… by measuring the movement of our planet circling the space around our sun and by measuring the movement around its own axis.
In his latter life it was Einstein’s foremost goal… his consuming obsession… to unite his theory of general relativity with modern quantum mechanics. He was unsuccessful.
Now, physicists think they’re close. It’s called… String Theory. I recommend… highly highly highly recommend… taking a look. Reeeaaaaadddddd. :)
We live in a world of infinite possibilities. Really think about this. In fact, your thoughts create your reality… the physical outward realm is a manifestation… a reflection… of the inner spiritual. It is our own concepts of the nature of reality that are the limiting factors of our experience.
Okay, okay. :) Well, I actually don’t know really at all what I’m saying or mean here, exactly. But I do know in my own experience that this does in fact seem to be true, on many, many levels. In more ways than I would have ever realized before… before learning some of these principles… when I start to look back and consider. I really do feel like I’m creating my own life, now all the more especially… having been “empowered” with this understanding.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way! :) Of course, there are limiting factors… many, even many many, limitations. But…
With the exploding growth of technology (and I mean EXPLODING growth of technology), things are beginning to change… rapidly. Even now, our potentials for expressing creativity are unimaginably vast. We have created entire digital worlds and communities with any physics or properties or rules or whatever we can imagine. Our means for creating and communicating art, music, stories… entirely new forms and paradigms of these and beyond… are becoming quickly more universal and affordable… and powerful. Technology is exploding, and with it the infinite potential for creativity. Complete, full immersion virtual reality is perhaps closer than we may think. Quantum computing is on the horizon, which is definitely one of the most exciting developing technologies... it uses a whole new paradigm for data storage and communication, where information is represented by bits that can be either 1s, 0s, and/or both... either or, and both!
Certainly, we have some very exciting times before us. Indeed!!! (Personally, as an example, I would like to get together with some old college buddies of mine in a full-immersion virtual realm, via the internet, and play basketball… even those these buddies of mine are now scattered throughout the country. Furthermore, we’d play on a glass court... on a tropical island... on top of beautiful volcano… with magma gently creating patterns of unimaginable color and beauty across the glass at our feet. And beautiful hoolah dancers cheering us on. :) I use this as a brief creative illustration of the infinite potential for creative social experience, communication, artistic expression of all sorts… etc., that we are soon to be endowed with. Hopefully. :) Perhaps we will be able to create any experience we can imagine... which to me is at once both terrifying and extraordinary... or rather... is either terrifying or extraordinary, and both... either or AND both!! :) As in the essence of all quantum phenomena itself, whether it is terrifying or extraordinary or both depends very much how we look at it... how we observe this fact and then, how we use it... and what we use it to accomplish.
Careful we must be… lest technology become our God. If technology develops disproportionally to the development of our humanitarianism/spirituality (which is kind of what seems to be happening, I think… though hopefully I’m wrong about that), then we may face dire consequences on this planet. We must realize that WE ARE ALL ONE. Really, its not that we can create our own individual realities with our thoughts… this is not what I mean to say, exactly (though indeed, to some extent, this must be true.) Acutally, it is collectively, as a whole, that WE ALL, together, are creating this reality of ours… with our thoughts... with what we are in the depths of our beings. We as one giant connected universal being… are creating this world around us. We choose. I don’t believe God will ever interfere with our choice, because it is God’s greatest gift not to… I believe God’s greatest gift is our free will. We can develop any way we choose. This is what gives meaning to everything.
Obviously I’ve digressed to a considerable degree here, as far as a brief and crude description of quantum mechanics goes. But it is all related.
The point is that science is quite exciting these days, and quantum studies are revealing and opening a whole world we’ve never imagined… a world of possibilities. More studying and investigation… much more… is required on all our parts, if we wish to tap and harness the vast, glorious, wonderful potential of our full human experience. We need far less politicians and money movers (though we still do need some of these)… and we need to pursue science... we need more scientists... engineers, architects, artists... educators, writers... thinkers and creators of the future...
and so on...
Science rules. Science and God. Science and spirituality. Science and Love. LOVE!!!
Some comments that followed…
RUSSELL CLARK: So half-way through my second semester of quantum mechanics, I gave up. Wave theory and zero dimensional boxes were really not fun to me. "Energy is quantized. That has cool side effects." That's what I walked away with.
RUSSELL CLARK: nd I think you were supposed to shoot Schrodingher's cat, right? Not feed it.
EDISON’S FATHER: Edison, I very much appreciate your effort to explain QP for me in "one or two paragraphs", ha ha. There is obviously a lot of meat to chew on here for someone such as myself with a limited understanding of science and mathematics. I will try to condense your thoughts into a paragraph or two for my own purpose, which is not, I should add, to discourse on my experiencing a "conspiracy of 'coincidences'" as you described them at the outset of your note. Rather I like to think of the events you and I spoke about on the phone yesterday as a merely a "series of coincidences" which appear strange or odd or bizarre, but are in fact ordinary, in light of what you are saying above. To be clear, I did not use word "conspiracy" in our conversation, nor would I, as it has, at least in my mind, a somewhat negative connotation. Thanks again for your help on this.
EDISON: Dad, what you described is in fact quite extraordinary, if you ask me. I was thinking about it a lot more yesterday. Very interesting indeed. Deepak Chopra has a great book called "The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidences." He gives a great discussion there of quantum... very good... and notes that the more we are aware of this principle, the more we will notice and then utilize this phenomenon in our lives... to "create" ourselves however we wish. It's awesome.
Ultimately, and I'm almost sure of this... we are just quantum units of the infinite reality we can call here "God." All the principles of the micro, quantum world apply to the macro. We are subatomic units of the fullest, most grand reality. And just as all the principles of the micro apply to the macro in our lives, so do we as subatomic units of God contain all the "essence" of God.. we can therefore "create" our lives and our world, TOGETHER (which is the most important qualifier here, since we are all One), however we choose. It's a matter of choice... Our choice. We can choose drama... suffering, boredom, vanity, fear, whatever on the negative side.... or we can choose glory, love, righteousness, splendidness, infinite creative delight... all things wonderful... on the positive side. It's all up to us. We have to realize this... The world has to realize this. We all need to wake up.
And, I believe we are. Faster and faster, I believe we are. I'm personally filled with optimism and hope concerning our future. Indeed, only by being filled with such hope can we create the world as such ever and always eternally increasing stupendous-ness.
EDISON: Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, "I said, You are gods''? -John 10:34
EDISON: O! and a few more things dad... 2 more. Really, there's a LOT more to discuss... and hopefully we'll get that chance sooner than later. :) but for now, here...
Deepak gives a very interesting interpretation of what we call "death"... along the lines of quantum understanding. He says that death is the next "quantum leap" of our soul.
In quantum mechanics, subatomic units (electrons... the "smallest"... if there is such a thing as "smallest"... units of matter/energy... for matter IS energy.. :) ... einstein showed us this with general relativity... e=mc-squared) "jump" energy states. Very interestingly, in doing so, they don't traverse space, as we may mentally picture this taking place... they aren't "moving" in the conventional sense of our conception of... movement.. They are literally INSTANTANEOUSLY (ultimately there is no such thing as time anyway... :)... einstein again... einstein our hero... :)) ... changing.. changing their "status"... if you will... changing their energy state... the frequency of their vibration.
Well... Deepak, very astutely in my opinion, postulates that in "death", we... what we REALLY are (which is NOT our mere physical body... I ASSURE YOU!! :) ) "quantum leaps" to the next "level"... energy state... whatever that may be. Can you follow the logic here? (Maybe more explanation is needed to follow this... or maybe less.. :) ) If we are indeed "subatomic units" of God, this concept takes on a very rational and promising quality. :) (I must also note here though, importantly, that electrons... subatomic units... can jump up OR DOWN... that they can increase their energy state or... decrease it. In this case, the idea takes on also a bit of a sobering quality... as we may be responsible for which "way" we go... after "this life"... that what we "accomplish" or... don't "accomplish" in this life... matters for the journey of our soul... accelerates or delays... our return to God.)
The other thing I want to mention, trying to be as brief as possible, is along the same line.
These units... these electrons... the billions and trillions and zillions of them... they are constantly, literally coming into and out of... existence... out of our... "plane", or our... "realm of experience." They are jumping into and out of what we can "see" or observe.
What does this mean?? Well... like frames that make up a movie... we can't see this "flashing." Frames are separated by blankness, in movie reels. We see a continuous motion picture because the reel is moving so fast through the projector. Same in quantum... Our very reality... everything we see... literally jumps into and out of existence... or better put... into and out of our dimension........ cool, huh?! :)
Same with us too... our souls. Every night, we go to sleep... coming out of this "realm." :) We are quantum units. :)
At the beginning of "time," God "burst" into infinite quantum particles. We are these.. :)
Maybe. I don't know. :) Interesting thoughts though, for sure.. :D
Haha...! It's all so crazy, and all so glorious. The more we know, the less we know... kind of. I'd love to discuss this more with you... and anybody else.
What really though... does all this mumbo jumbo mean???
I believe that in understanding quantum, we can learn so, SO much about the true nature of reality... the true nature of spiritual truths. And this is, ultimately... eventually... one way or the other... what we are all after... what we NEED to know. :)
All this science MUST be balanced with... you guessed it... LOVE. LOOOOVVVVEEEEEE.... XOXOXOXO... for this is what we truly are. Pure love. :)
(I know... I used a whooooolllleee lot of "quotations" and ... ellipses... and even CAPITALS... whatever these all mean. :) I think you get the point... It's so very hard to define and explain and put into words these... concepts. Fun to try though, for sure.. :))
EDISON: you're right clark... it is shooting the cat, not feeding it.
But I like the idea of feeding or not feeding better than killing, anyway.. :)
EDISON: o actually... according to what i just read, Schrodinger used hydrocyanic poison... not gunpowder. Einstein used gunpowder... maybe I'm wrong though about this?
Needless to say, it's quite a fascinating idea.. :)
RUSELL CLARK: lol. I guess there's more than one way to skin Schrodinger's cat.
EDISON: :D indeed.. ;)