Quantum Physics and Consciousness

Is it possible that the laws of physics hold the secret to creating the life you want? What is reality? According to quantum physics, nothing fully exists until it is observed—and the act of observation changes what is observed. Reality has an ever-shifting, dreamlike structure. Scientists from the fields of quantum physics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral genetics are building massive amounts of data validating the theory that how you think changes what happens to you and the world around you.

As a result of all of this data, scientists are presenting a picture of our world that is shockingly different than the one we were taught. We were taught that everything was material, however classical materialistic science cannot explain consciousness. Materialism cannot explain the concept of mind, of the soul, or life. Our mind is not what we think it is. Read more about consciousness here.

Consciousness is the fundamental foundation of our reality. Theoretical physicist, John Wheeler, was one of the first scientists in the early 20th century to theorize that our observations of reality influence its unfolding. We live in a “participatory universe,” Wheeler proposed, “in which mind is as fundamental as matter.”

Wisdom of the Ancient Masters

Ancient wisdom teachers had no access to quantum theory, yet they instinctively knew about consciousness and the quantum mind (aka quantum cognition). Quantum science is only just now validating the wisdom of the world’s greatest thinkers such as Greek philosopher, Plato who said in 391 BC, “like tends toward likes.”

Buddha said, “all experiences are preceded by mind, having mind as their master created by mind…guard well your thoughts…with our thoughts we make the world.”

Gandhi said, “a man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes…keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.”

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

“The future depends on what we do in the present. ”

What is the Quantum Mind?

In the 1930’s Eugene Wigner and John von Neumann first developed the idea that quantum mechanics has something to do with the workings of the mind. They proposed that the wave function collapses due to its interaction with consciousness. As a result of their groundbreaking research, many well-respected theoretical physicists have supported mathematical results on their theory. Physicists such as John Bell, David Bohm, Roger Penrose, Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen also contributed to this theory. Many of their theories included the concept of non-local consciousness and provided the first hints that our minds are potentially immaterial. In 1985 Physicist Freeman Dyson said that “mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every electron” (2004).

What is a Quantum Field?

What we interpret as “matter” is itself a quantum field. And these quantum fields are made up of particles. Quantum field theory (QFT) is the concept that the universe is an entanglement of energy waves. QFT was first theorized by Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Planck. What we perceive as particles are excitations of the quantum field. Moreover, QFT has been repeatedly validated over the last 100 years and is now considered accepted science.

Quantum mechanics is often counterintuitive, allowing for particles to be in several places or states at once – this is called a non-local superposition. But oddly, this is only the case when they aren’t observed. The second you observe a quantum system, it picks a specific location or state – breaking the superposition.

“Quantum fields are a mind-bending way of thinking. Everything that exists is just an effect of many infinite fields vibrating. The entire universe is made of fields playing a vast, subatomic symphony and quantum physicists are trying to understand the melody.” (Don Lincoln, Nova – The Nature of Reality – The Good Vibrations of Quantum Field Theories)

The Observer Effect

The term observer effect in quantum physics means that the act of observing something will influence the thing being observed and by the observation, waves turn into particles. The observer effect was validated with the double-slit experiment which revealed that particles are in the state of potential until they are observed. The outcome of the double-slit experiment depends on what the physicists try to measure: If they set up detectors beside the slits, the photons act like ordinary particles, always traversing one route or the other, not both at the same time. However, if the physicists remove the detectors, each photon seems to travel both routes simultaneously like a tiny wave, producing the striped pattern. This is the observer effect. A single outcome is realized out of many possibilities.

“Quantum physics presents a new and exciting worldview that challenges old concepts, such as deterministic trajectories of motion and causal continuity. If initial conditions do not forever determine an object’s motion, if instead, every time we observe, there is a new beginning, then the world is creative at the base level.” ― Theoretical Quantum Physicist Dr. Amit Goswami, The Self-Aware Universe

John Wheeler, theoretical physicist, a colleague of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, made enormous strides in laying out the link between quantum physics and consciousness. As a result of his research, Wheeler theorized that we are part of a universe that is a work in progress; we are tiny patches of the universe looking at itself — and building itself. It’s not only the future that is still undetermined but the past as well. And by peering back into time, even back to the Big Bang, our present observations select one out of many possible quantum histories for that universe.

Feedback Loop

Wheeler intuitively believed that the universe is built like an enormous feedback loop, a loop in which we contribute to the ongoing creation of not just the present and the future but the past as well. Wheeler explained that “this is a mind-stretching idea”. All in all, it’s not even really a theory but more of an intuition about what a final theory of everything might be like.

Physicist Ernst Pascual Jordan made significant contributions in forming the original quantum field theory. Jordan observed that “quantum mechanics not only disturbs what has to be measured, but they also produce it.” According to Jordan, every observation is not only a disturbance, but it is also an incisive encroachment into the field of observation: when we observe something, we produce the results of the measurement. Therefore, particles are in a state of potential until they are observed. They become something when observed.

When this ‘observer effect’ was first noticed by the early pioneers of quantum theory, they were alarmed. They feared that it undermined all of the basic assumptions behind their current science theory: that there is an objective world out there, irrespective of us. If the way the world behaves depends on how or if we look at it, then what can “reality” really mean? Is it possible that the observer effect can impact the outcomes of your life? If you intentionally ‘observe’ or visualize your future potential it stands to reason that you could affect the outcome.

Quantum Entanglement

When two particles can be initially linked in some way, they will always be bonded together beyond space and time. That means that since we too are made up of particles, we are all implicitly connected beyond space and time. We are all connected. Jesus knew this 2,000 years ago. He said in the Sermon on the Mount to do unto others as you would want to be done unto yourself. For more information on quantum entanglement see the Science of Consciousness resource page.

Everything is Energy

The body is 99.9999% empty space and .0001% matter. Everything physical in your life which seems to be solid matter is instead, simply fields of energy frequencies. “Physicists have discovered matter to be completely mutable into other particles or energy and vice-versa. On a subatomic level, matter does not exist with certainty in definite places, but rather shows ‘tendencies’ to exist. Quantum physicists are beginning to realize that the universe appears to be a dynamic web of interconnected and inseparable energy patterns.

If the universe is indeed composed of such a web, there is logically no such thing as a part. This implies we are not separate parts of a whole but rather we are the whole.” ―Barbara Ann Brennan, Ph.D., author of Core Light Healing: My Personal Journey and Advanced Healing Concepts for Creating the Life You Want to Live

Everything is Potential

Everything in our physical reality exists as pure potential. If subatomic particles can exist in an infinite number of possible places at the same time, then we are potentially living in an infinite number of possible realities. Let’s say you can imagine a future event in your life based on any one of your desires, that reality already exists as a possibility in the quantum field, waiting to be observed by you.

If your mind can influence the appearance of an electron, then theoretically it can influence the appearance of any possibility. That means that the quantum field could contain a reality in which you are healthy, wealthy, and happy, and possess all of the qualities and capabilities of the idealized self that you hold in your thoughts.

Your subjective mind affects your objective world. Dr. Joe Dispenza says, “you have the ability to change the brain and body by your thoughts alone. Dispenza is the New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon. When you focus your thoughts on your purpose, along with passionate emotional engagement, you broadcast a stronger electromagnetic signal that pulls you toward a potential reality that matches what you want.

Joe Dispenza postulates that energy responds to your mindful attention, and thus collapses into the solid state of matter. Energy is everything. Everything in the physical universe is made up of vibrating particles such as electrons. These particles exist as pure potential and are in their wave state while they are not being observed. They are potentially “every-thing” and “no-thing” until they are observed.

Mind and Matter

According to cell biologist, Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., it is not our genes but our beliefs that control our lives. Most of us live on auto-pilot. We have memorized a set of behaviors, beliefs, habits, associative memories, conditioned responses, and perceptions that are now subconsciously programmed into us.

There is a principle in neuroscience called Hebb’s law. It was introduced by Donald Hebb in his 1949 book The Organization of Behavior. It states that “nerve cells that fire together, wire together.” Clusters of neurons have fired so many times in the same ways that they have organized into specific patterns with permanent connections. Every time you have a thought, there is a biochemical reaction in the brain—you make a chemical. The body is so used to memorizing the chemical responses of our past experiences that it grows attached to these emotions. We become addicted to those familiar feelings. Your body becomes addicted to guilt or any emotion in the same way that it would get addicted to drugs. The body wants you to return to your memorized chemical self, so it influences you to think in familiar, routine ways. Your body loves the auto-pilot mode.

“Your beliefs act like filters on a camera, changing how you see the world. And your biology adapts to those beliefs. When we truly recognize that our beliefs are that powerful, we hold the key to freedom.” —Bruce Lipton Ph.D., author of The Biology of Belief.

Mind and matter are entangled. Your mind has effects on matter because your consciousness is energy and energy has consciousness. In the quantum model, the physical universe is an immaterial, interconnected, unified field of information, potentially everything — but physically nothing.

“One way we can expand and grow is to change our consciousness to cultivate understanding and compassion for one another. While on the earth, souls create their vibratory rate with their attitudes, choices, thoughts, and belief systems.” ― N.Y. Times bestselling author, James Van Praagh, Adventures of the Soul: Journeys Through the Physical and Spiritual Dimensions

Change Your Mind

When you change your thoughts only then can you change your life. How can you expect to see something different to show up in your life, when you think the same thoughts, perform the same actions and experience the same emotions every single day? When you continually think about your problems, you will only create more of the same type of difficulties for yourself. As long as we use familiar feelings as a barometer, as feedback on our efforts to change, we’ll always talk ourselves out of greatness. You must break the negative feedback loop of your mind.

Training Your Mind Through Meditation

Our thoughts are energy, with a specific link between our emotional states and our heart rhythms. Higher states of consciousness like love and joy produce highly ordered, coherent patterns that HeartMath researchers have scientifically validated as heart coherence. Read more on HeartMath in the companion articlehere.

The practice of meditation can help you to open the door to your conscious and unconscious self. You can use meditation to change your mind and your reality. When you enter the realm of your unconscious self you can wipe away the feedback loop of your unwanted memories, habits, and behaviors. Meditation helps to quiet the strength and frequency of your thoughts. When you can create some space between thoughts through regular meditation, it enables you to observe them. This you that can observe your thoughts is the real you or the true self. This is the transcendent you.

Letting Go

According to Joe Dispenza, you must hold a clear intention of what you want but leave the ‘how’ details to the unpredictable quantum field. Surrender, trust, and let go of how the desired event will unfold. Be in a state of gratitude for this desired event as if it had already occurred. This is when you can make permanent and lasting changes to achieve the life you want.