The Power of Science to Take Us From Fear to Joy: Part III

Quantum Physics For a Brighter World: Helping Us See Our Own Light

In Part 1 of this article series on using science to rid ourselves of our fears and move towards more joyful lives, I highlighted the key ways that understanding Neuroscience can empower us. In the second part, we dove into Epigenetics and its proof of the significant impact our mental states have on our physical well-being even despite our conditioning or hereditary patterns.

ENTERING THE QUANTUM WORLD

Now we are onto one of my favorite topics — the world of the quantum. Down at the most fundamental level, this is what everything in our universe is made of.

Every field of science is a function of what happens on the subatomic level. Quantum physics presents a beautiful world of hope, of possibilities that our brains may never be able to fully grasp. But why not attempt and see where it can take us?

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ― Albert Einstein

EVERYTHING I DO, I DO IT FOR YOU

All of life is intricately connected. What happens in one corner of the Universe affects another. What happens in Vegas, doesn’t stay in Vegas — it reverberates through the cosmos. Whatever I do for myself I do for you. Whatever I do for you, I do for myself — the only thing that separates you and I is the thought that we are separate. Even that thought itself is part of one vibratory field that permeates all of life.

From Einstein to Max Planck to Niels Bohr and a host of other Nobel Prize-winning physicists, we have been told repeatedly that the universe is one indivisible, ever-changing fabric in which everything is connected.

The deeper we go into the quantum world, the less our normal mental constructs of the world can adequately describe the dance of universal forces and particles appearing and disappearing within this complex fabric of space.

ENTANGLED TO THE CORE

Using our intelligently designed brains to understand and integrate the truth of our interconnectedness into our lives can bring tremendous hope to the long-term well-being of humanity.

• Quantum physics applies at every level of the universe — everything is made of atoms.
• Atoms can further be broken down into subatomic particles which interact with the four forces of nature: electromagnetism, gravity, weak nuclear force, and strong nuclear force.
• These quantum particles exhibit behaviors that to our physical senses seems to be “non-sensical” even as we are using our limited brains to interpret it. Yet these behaviors point to findings that remind us of our connection to one another and all the life around us.

Quantum entanglement is a concept that describes the interconnectedness of all matter/energy.

• The measurement of one particle influences other particles instantaneously, even when the other particle is light years away. In 2017, physicists from MIT used distant quasars to determine the measurements on pairs of entangled photons (light particles). They found correlations that proved that all particles affect each other — even 12.2 billion light years away!
• On a fundamental level, our bodies are no different from quasars — we are also made up of subatomic particles including electrons — and yes photons as well. Our body emits light, but we are blind to it — literally. Its intensity is 1000 lower than the sensitivity of our naked eyes.

NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS — UNTIL WE MAKE IT SO

The concept of superposition discusses how particles exists in multiple states simultaneously. Electrons swim in a sea of potential where possibilities turn into probabilities and probabilities turn into matter upon measurement.

As illustrated by the famous double-slit experiment, light can be both particles (“matter”) and waves (energy) at the same time. If you want to learn more about this mind-boggling concept, watch this quick 5 minute overview of the double-slit experiment with Dr. Quantum.

The double-slit experiment shows that the act of measurement determines whether light manifests as a wave or a particle.

When the wave potential is measured, it ultimately collapses the possibilities into one because the act of measurement itself causes all other possibilities to be excluded from the observation.

We are made of subatomic particles, including electrons and photons (light)!

Could it be that our limited capacity to only observe one aspect of infinity at a time is what determines our experience? And that choosing to observe another aspect of infinity excludes all others? Consciously deciding to place our mental or physical focus on one thing means that we can’t use it to focus on something else. If we’re looking out the window, we can’t be looking at our dog on the other side of the room at the same time. If you’re reading this sentence, you can’t also be reading something else at this exact second.

NARROWING THE POSSIBILITIES DOWN TO OUR REALITY

We are using our focus to collapse all given possibilities into the highest state probabilities that we will experience once filtered through our brain.

We alter our own experience by where we choose to focus our attention. We live in an interconnected system with other complex laws that, to a degree, constrain our ability to shift matter within the time-space continuum simply through our individual focus. We are part of a much larger collective with many other factors in play that are still beyond the scope of our brain’s understanding.

Nevertheless, our ability to focus may be our greatest superpower. It determines how we will perceive the next moment — and while that moment might not be the ultimate reality, it becomes our reality. That is what matters, literally turning our focus into what appears to us to be matter.

Every time we make an observation, we change what is going to happen next because that observation will cause us to elicit a certain reaction based on how we tend to think and feel.

We bring our own behavioral biases into every new experience and thus unconsciously tend to notice what is already consistent with our current model of reality. We thus keep reinforcing our viewpoint over and over again until we think of it as just “the way things are.”

When we change where we place our mental focus, our unique version of reality becomes different.

IT’S ALL RELATIVE — SO NONE OF IT IS OBJECTIVE

The quantum world is a world of relationships, correlations, and waves of possibilities. While mathematical equations can elegantly describe the complex interactions of nature, words will never be enough to help us truly grasp the mysterious nature of our own existence. Our existence is to be experienced, and it can only be experienced through US. We literally bring meaning to life.

Science is a tool. We can use it to help us shift from fear to love if we choose to do so. Yet even that tool has its limitations. Words, ideas, mental constructs, and even equations are simply ways for us to taste the infinite.

“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of the mystery we are trying to solve.” — Max Planck

In the end, we ourselves are part of the “objective reality” we are attempting to measure. We can’t take ourselves out of the equation. Our very existence affects what we measure. We are the observers even as we attempt to observe the nature of the oneness that we are all part of.

Beyond the words — there we are. Simply here. Now. Alive.

Thank you for you. For being on this cosmic journey through eternity with me.

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Links to other articles in this series — The Power of Science to Take Us From Fear to Joy:

Part I: Neuroscience

Part II: Epigenetics