Six Reasons You Should Stop Referring to Quantum Physics When Talking About Spirituality (and one…

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ed to Catholic doctrine. What works in one order of existence may very well be irrelevant in another.2) You don’t understand quantum physics. Unless you’re a physicist, that is (and maybe even then). Physics is based on highly complex math, and mere mortals like us get simplified explanations and stories so that we can get a glimpse into the physicists’ world. But what’s really going on and what it means is uncertain — and don’t forget that even physicists argue about the data and how it should be interpreted.3) The quantum level is only one level of physical reality. Just as we should keep the domains of material and spiritual separate, we should remember that both are multi-levelled. What’s true at the quantum level probably isn’t true at the macroscopic level. Yes, quantum physics may show that an apparently solid brick is actually mainly empty space, but that isn’t going to be particularly relevant if said brick is winging its way towards your head. On what basis would we assert that the quantum level is more real than the macroscopic level on which we live, and so makes for a better guide?4) The understanding of the quantum world could change. Think of what happened to the Church when it turned out that the Sun was at the center and the Earth revolved around it. Their whole view of the universe — including their spiritual view — collapsed when new data emerged. So, if some unsolvable paradox in physics gets solved, whoops! there goes spirit!5) Spiritual understanding doesn’t need physics. Quantum physics is new, a little more than a century old, while spiritual traditions have been around for a long time. Sure, they need updating and new experiences to keep them fresh and vibrant, but those are experiences in consciousness, compassion, and love, not physics.6) Equating the language of physics and spirit is doubly confounding. Physics is impossible to understand without the math, and the math is very hard to understand, so

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physics gets conveyed in imprecise metaphors (like “Schrödinger’s Cat’’). Spirit is impossible to understand without experience, so the essence is pointed to through stories and other verbal means that are explicitly stated as inadequate. Now, it’s true that some of the stories from physics and some of the stories from spirituality have a remarkable similarity, but that shouldn’t inspire too much confidence, given that both are known to be only approximate ‘as if’ descriptions of their referents.See the point illustrated in the Coen Brothers’ movie, A Serious Man:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbzWYjVrvpI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbzWYjVrvpI</a>Hopefully, you can see why piggybacking spirituality on physics isn’t a good idea. Sure, it’s natural for anything that’s kind of on the outside of a society — and spirituality is on the outside of contemporary Western society — to try to draw strength from association with something closer to the center. It could even be a good idea, sometimes. It just isn’t in this case.Except, that is, when it is done very carefully. And that brings me to the one time when it is okay to make a comparison (not an equation) of spirit and physics.Much of the criticism of spirituality (and for that matter, many anomalous phenomena) rests on the idea that it is illogical, and that it violates the basic tenets of existence in the material world (such as, you can’t be in two places at the same time).What quantum physics has shown is that many of those tenets aren’t really real, at least at the quantum level. Spirituality seems very strange when viewed against a mechanistic, materialistic paradigm, but less so when seen in comparison to the quantum world. That doesn’t make it okay to say that spirituality is true (or spirit is real) because of quantum physics, but it is okay to point out that the world of spirit is no more kooky than the world of physics, for whatever that’s worth.</article></body>

Six Reasons You Should Stop Referring to Quantum Physics When Talking About Spirituality (and one situation where it’s okay)

Image by Geralt, via Pixabay

Back in the late Middle Ages, the Church had it all sewed up. As the seat of spiritual and political power, it dominated everywhere. The Church was highly invested in tying it’s cosmology to theology, which created a system whereby the Cosmos was mirrored in the spiritual and social order. At the top was God and Heaven, below that was Earth at the center of the universe, and below that was Hell. It was all neatly resonant on every level and across all domains. The only trouble was, the cosmology was wrong…

Copernicus. Image by Karl-Heinz Karisch, via Pixabay

Ever since reading The Tao of Physics back in the 1980s, I’ve had a difficult time with the correlations between physics and spirituality, which is a common theme in New Age thinking (sometimes the New Age tilts back towards esoteric spiritual traditions, sometimes it leans forward into new scientific ideas).

For our purposes, I’m assuming a broad definition of spirituality, including both experiences of a deeper or higher ground of reality, and also the many phenomena encountered on the way towards it (siddhis, telepathy, etc.).

Here is my list of reasons why you ought not to make the spirit-physics connection:

1) Physics describes the material universe, spirituality deals with spirit. These are different orders of existence. Of course, in a sense spirituality deals with everything, but you can’t expect spiritual truths to graft onto physical phenomena in a direct way. That was the Church’s mistake: assuming the physical universe conformed to Catholic doctrine. What works in one order of existence may very well be irrelevant in another.

2) You don’t understand quantum physics. Unless you’re a physicist, that is (and maybe even then). Physics is based on highly complex math, and mere mortals like us get simplified explanations and stories so that we can get a glimpse into the physicists’ world. But what’s really going on and what it means is uncertain — and don’t forget that even physicists argue about the data and how it should be interpreted.

3) The quantum level is only one level of physical reality. Just as we should keep the domains of material and spiritual separate, we should remember that both are multi-levelled. What’s true at the quantum level probably isn’t true at the macroscopic level. Yes, quantum physics may show that an apparently solid brick is actually mainly empty space, but that isn’t going to be particularly relevant if said brick is winging its way towards your head. On what basis would we assert that the quantum level is more real than the macroscopic level on which we live, and so makes for a better guide?

4) The understanding of the quantum world could change. Think of what happened to the Church when it turned out that the Sun was at the center and the Earth revolved around it. Their whole view of the universe — including their spiritual view — collapsed when new data emerged. So, if some unsolvable paradox in physics gets solved, whoops! there goes spirit!

5) Spiritual understanding doesn’t need physics. Quantum physics is new, a little more than a century old, while spiritual traditions have been around for a long time. Sure, they need updating and new experiences to keep them fresh and vibrant, but those are experiences in consciousness, compassion, and love, not physics.

6) Equating the language of physics and spirit is doubly confounding. Physics is impossible to understand without the math, and the math is very hard to understand, so physics gets conveyed in imprecise metaphors (like “Schrödinger’s Cat’’). Spirit is impossible to understand without experience, so the essence is pointed to through stories and other verbal means that are explicitly stated as inadequate. Now, it’s true that some of the stories from physics and some of the stories from spirituality have a remarkable similarity, but that shouldn’t inspire too much confidence, given that both are known to be only approximate ‘as if’ descriptions of their referents.

See the point illustrated in the Coen Brothers’ movie, A Serious Man:

Hopefully, you can see why piggybacking spirituality on physics isn’t a good idea. Sure, it’s natural for anything that’s kind of on the outside of a society — and spirituality is on the outside of contemporary Western society — to try to draw strength from association with something closer to the center. It could even be a good idea, sometimes. It just isn’t in this case.

Except, that is, when it is done very carefully. And that brings me to the one time when it is okay to make a comparison (not an equation) of spirit and physics.

Much of the criticism of spirituality (and for that matter, many anomalous phenomena) rests on the idea that it is illogical, and that it violates the basic tenets of existence in the material world (such as, you can’t be in two places at the same time).

What quantum physics has shown is that many of those tenets aren’t really real, at least at the quantum level. Spirituality seems very strange when viewed against a mechanistic, materialistic paradigm, but less so when seen in comparison to the quantum world. That doesn’t make it okay to say that spirituality is true (or spirit is real) because of quantum physics, but it is okay to point out that the world of spirit is no more kooky than the world of physics, for whatever that’s worth.