Updated: September 8, 2024
The mystery
of the universe is also the mystery of our own
existence. In fact, the mystery
of our own existence is crucial
to solving the mystery
of the universe. Because without us,
there would be no one
to ask the question. Without you and me to ask the question, the mystery of
the universe would be
an unaddressed mystery. So, as you know, a few years ago,
I wrote this book You Are the Universe, with physicist and cosmologist
Menas Kafatos, who is not only
a great cosmologist but a physicist
trained at MIT with Philip Morris,
who was connected, of course,
to Oppenheimer, who is in the news
right now. I'm going to be
speaking to Menas again
in an interview which will
publish here. But I think the mystery
of the universe is solvable, or we
can get close to it. If we think of quantum
consciousness as the ontological primitive
of the universe. Ontology
is that branch of philosophy
which deals with being, or the nature
of existence. Epistemology,
of course, is the branch of science that looks
at the limitations and the
methodologies of human knowing. So right now there are a lot of conundrums
in cosmology which I have
mentioned before.
What caused
the Big Bang? What happened
in the Planck epoch? Why is cosmic
inflation so precise? Why is the measured value
of the cosmological constant different from the observed
value? What is dark energy? What is dark matter? You can see there's
lots of loopholes right now in
our understanding of cosmology, but also of quantum
mechanics and the paradoxes
of quantum mechanics,
the contradictions of quantum
mechanics, which are totally
non-intuitive. If we look
at reality through our perceptual
apparatus. So let's look
at this a little bit in detail, because even
scientific constructs
are based on bias, based on what my friend Ellen
Langer might call, "premature cognitive
commitment" or implicit bias. Implicit bias,
implicit cognitive bias, implicit bias in understanding. And as you know, the
understandings of current science are based on the philosophy
of naive realism, which starts with
an implicit bias.
And the implicit bias is that matter is the ontological primitive
of the universe. That we start
with the assumption that there is
something called "matter", and then we build up
from there. How does
consciousness come about? How does evolution
come about? How does genetics
come about? How does epigenetics
come about? All of that. So let's address what we might call the theory
of quantum consciousness. This is a hypothesis that proposes that quantum
mechanics plays
a fundamental role in the brain's
function and could explain critical aspects
of consciousness. Okay, so right now
there's a bias here that quantum
mechanics plays
a fundamental role in the brain's
function. Okay. Assuming that the brain
is a physical object and not a modified form of
consciousness. So duality
is introduced right here. But if you understand non dual thinking, then the brain
is a modified form of consciousness
itself. In any case, this theory is still in its early stages
of development, but there are a
number of arguments that have been put forward
in its favor. One argument
is that the brain is too complex
to be explored by classical physics
alone.
Classical physics
is the theory of physics that describes
the behavior of objects and energy
at large scales, and it is not able
to explain the behavior
of objects at the quantum
scale, such as electrons
and photons. The brain,
as you know, is made up of billions
of neurons, each of which is a complex
quantum system. It is argued that classical
physics cannot explain how these quantum
systems interact with each other to give rise
to consciousness. Of course, I
don't think they do. I think
consciousness creates
the biological correlates
and consciousness also operates through
the principles that we associate with quantum
mechanics. In any case, there's
another argument for quantum
mechanics, for quantum
consciousness, and that is quantum
mechanics allows for the phenomenon
of superposition, which is the ability
of a particle to exist in multiple states
at the same time.
This is in contrast to classical
physics, which states that
a particle can only exist in
one state at a time. It is argued that superposition
could be involved in the way that
the brain processes information
and could be responsible
for some of the unique properties
of consciousness, such as its
subjective nature. And some researchers
have argued that the brain may
contain structures that are capable of supporting
quantum effects. For example,
microtubules, which are tiny
structures found within neurons,
have been proposed as possible
quantum computers. This is an argument that comes from
my friend Stuart Hameroff
and his colleague, the Nobel Laureate
(Sir Roger Penrose)
that he works with, who was also the thesis advisor
of Stephen Hawking. It is argued that these structures could be involved in the processing of quantum information,
which could be essential
for consciousness.
The Nobel laureate
I was thinking of is Sir
Roger Penrose. So in any case,
the theory of the quantum of quantum
consciousness among
scientists is still still controversial. There
are some arguments in favor
of that, too, by scientists. One is that the
brain is too complex to be explained by
classical physics, and quantum
mechanics allows for the phenomenon
of superposition which could be
involved in the way that the brain processes
information. So quantum consciousness
could experience some of the unique properties
of consciousness, such as its subjective nature, without
which we wouldn't be asking
these questions. Also, there are some things
that we actually would be asking, such as, you know, I think a cosmologist already asking
these questions. And these questions say if the Big Bang
was everywhere, that would imply a
non-local universe. So how could matter be non-local? Now, if you look at the Big Bang
Theory, you'll see that
some physicists believe that the
theory is consistent with non-local
universe, and the Big Bang Theory is consistent with non-local
universe. This is because
the Big Bang Theory states that
the entire universe was a very
hot, dense state in its inception and that it has been
expanding since.
This means
that all parts of the universe were once in contact
with each other and that they may
still be connected today
through a non-local entanglement. So there is evidence
to support the idea of a non-local
universe. Experiments
have shown that entangled
particles can be linked
together in such a way
that they behave in a coordinated way. They correlate their activities
with each other even when they are
separated by large distances. This suggests
that they may be connected. There may be some kind of
non-local connection between particles. So these are
all ideas that suggest any way that that the universe may be non-local. In quantum theory,
particles can be at several places
at the same time. So how can matter
be at several places
at the same time? Quantum theory also suggests that
particles may travel along many routes
simultaneously. For example, as in
photosynthesis. So in quantum
theory, particles do exist in a state
of superposition, which means they can be in
multiple places at the same time
and have multiple possible properties.
This is a very
strange concept and it is not something that we can easily
understand with our everyday
experience. The phenomenon
of quantum superposition
is closely related to the concept of quantum
entanglement, which is where two
particles are linked together
in such a way that they share
the same fate. No matter how
far apart they are. This means that
if you measure the properties
of one particle, even if they are on opposite sides
of the universe, you will
instantly know the properties
of the other. The implications
of quantum superposition
and entanglement are still being
debated by physicists and some physicists now believe that matter is non-local,
meaning that it is not
limited by the constraints
of space and time. Others believe
that these phenomena are simply a reflection
of the fact that we do
not understand how quantum
mechanics works. But here are some summary points
quantum mechanics, which means quantum superposition is a
very fragile state. As soon as we try to measure
a particle, it collapses
into a single state.
This suggests that the act of measurement itself
may play a role in determining
the outcome of a quantum
experiment. Quantum entanglement
is also a very strong
phenomenon. It has been shown to work out
over vast distances, even billions
of light years. This suggests that there may be
some kind of underlying
connection between all matter
in the universe. So what is all
this suggesting? If you really think about it hard, then you have to ask
the question.
If the Big Bang happened everywhere at the same time, and if the universe
is infinite in its dense state and its expanded
state, and if consciousness or quantum
consciousness is the ontological
primitive, then consciousness alone or universal
consciousness or cosmic
consciousness or quantum
consciousness, whatever
you want to call it, can explain all the conundrums of quantum mechanics and also of cosmology,
and bring about a reconciliation between quantum
mechanics and the grand theory of relativity,
the gravitational theory
of relativity. This is how it would
be explained, that consciousness
self-interacts and knows itself as the experience that we call space,
time, energy, information
and matter. That experience comes from a field of infinite
possibilities. That consciousness
is borderless, infinite, unbounded,
irreducible, without cause, spaceless, timeless,
fundamental, unimaginable,
incomprehensible.
But a fundamental
reality. It self-organizes,
self- evolves, self-regulates
into experience. And the experience
includes species-specific
knowers, modes of knowing and objects known,
which are in fact perceptual
activities in that
biological organism that in fact, the mind, the body and the universe
are all entangled. As a unified process
in consciousness. And this actually
solves every conundrum
of modern physics and modern
cosmology. The problem with
this is that right now our science is based
on naive realism, which I've mentioned
several times, is based on
subject-object split, matter as the ontological
primitive, the objective universe being the human look
of the universe, and the assumption that there is
a universe that exists
in the absence of an observer, which is impossible
to prove, which is impossible
to prove. So you can see
the problems with current
science. These problems are
actually solvable. All we have to do
is shift from a
bottom up approach to a top
down approach to start with consciousness
differentiating into all experience. And the fact that
we cannot reconcile gravity with quantum
mechanics is simply
because we are looking at gravity and quantum
mechanics through two different modes
of knowing in the same
consciousness and in fact,
consciousness has innumerable, almost infinite
modes of knowing, depending
on the instrument of knowing and the biological
organism is an instrument
of knowing.
A bio-sensor. So when
we understand consciousness
as a field of all possibilities,
consciousness as the source
of nonlocal correlation, entanglement,
superposition, consciousness,
determining events through the uncertainty
principle, consciousness
actually localizing itself through attention
and intention, then I think we've
solved the problem. There's a solution
to the hard problem, and there's also
a solution to the what looks like the impossible
unification of the grand theory of relativity and the quantum theories that gave rise
to the modern era.
As you know,
Einstein was on the fence and uncomfortable
with non-locality, even though he first
described it in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen equation, subsequently
reinforced by Bell's theorem
and now, absolutely known
experimentally. In fact, the Nobel
Prize to … at all
or Alain Aspect and his colleagues was for
experimentally reducing
non-locality. Non-locality answers
many conundrums, including, "Where
do we go off death?" If you're non-local, there's
nowhere to go. We are already
in that place, which is all places
in general and no place
in particular. In fact,
if you understand non-locality,
then you can see that the origins of
the universe are in
a field of awareness that is omnipresent, present everywhere.
Omnipotent,
the source of all energy and matter and omniscient,
the source of all information that ultimately
becomes knowledge. Omnipresent,
omnipotent, omniscient. And in the deeper reality, you may be that,
non-local, local. Let me know what you think..
