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WHAT DOES

WHAT DOES. QUANTUM PHYSICS. HAVE TO DO WITH IT?. Jonathan Robison PhD, MS. 17th CENTURY WORLDVIEW. Mechanistic: universe as machine Reductionist: whole = sum of its parts. REDUCTIONISM. Whole = Sum of Its Parts classical Newtonian Physics matter as discrete particles

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WHAT DOES

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  1. WHAT DOES QUANTUM PHYSICS HAVE TO DO WITH IT? Jonathan Robison PhD, MS

  2. 17th CENTURY WORLDVIEW Mechanistic: universe as machine Reductionist: whole = sum of its parts

  3. REDUCTIONISM Whole = Sum of Its Parts classical Newtonian Physics matter as discrete particles atomic / subatomic building blocks standard for scientific investigation foundation for all human systems

  4. 17th CENTURY LEGACY Only those things that can be measured and quantified are real Anything else is considered to be unworthy of scientific investigation The purpose of science is to dominate & control the natural world

  5. 17th CENTURY LEGACY “ What is being studied exists external to and is independent of the scientist, who discovers and characterizes its properties and behavior.” Dr. George Engel, Psychother Psycosom, 1992

  6. “CARTESIAN” CERTAINTY “All science is certain, evident knowledge. We reject all knowledge which is merely probable and judge that only those things should be believed which are perfectly known and about which there are no doubts.” Rene Descartes

  7. 20th CENTURY WORLDVIEW Organic: living, spiritual in nature Holistic: whole > sum of its parts Ecological: connected “web of life” Partnership: feminine & masculine values honored

  8. 20th CENTURY CHALLENGE Anthropology / Archaeology Psychoneuroimmunology Quantum Physics Chaos Theory

  9. QUANTUM REALITY “No one understands quantum mechanics. Do not keep saying to yourself... ‘But how can it be like that?’ Because you will go ‘down the drain’ into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.” Richard Feynman

  10. QUANTUM REALITY “All my attempts to adapt the theoretical foundation of physics to this knowledge failed completely. It was as if the ground had been pulled out from under one, with no firm foundation to be seen anywhere.” Albert Einstein

  11. QUANTUM REALITY Principle of Complementarity Subatomic entities exist simultaneously as both waves & particles

  12. QUANTUM REALITY Uncertainty Principle Wave & particle nature cannot be accurately measured at the same time

  13. Quantum Uncertainty “ The exact properties of the duality must always elude any measurement we might hope to make. The most we can hope to know about any given wave packet is a fuzzy reading of its position and an equally fuzzy reading of its momentum.” Zohar, The Quantum Self

  14. Quantum Uncertainty “ This essential fuzziness…replaces the old Newtonian Determinism, where everything about physical reality was fixed, determined and measurable with a vast “porridge” of being where... everything remains indeterminate, somewhat ghostly and just beyond our grasp.”

  15. QUANTUM REALITY The Double-Slit Experiment “All of quantum physics can be gleaned from carefully thinking through the implications of this single experiment”

  16. QUANTUM REALITY Participatory Universe “What is being studied is inseparable from the scientist, who devises mental constructs of his/her experiences with it as a means of characterizing his/her understanding of its properties and behavior” Einstein, Heisenberg

  17. QUANTUM REALITY Participatory Universe “The act of observing alters the properties of what is being observed. Whether an electron acts as a particle or a wave actually depends on how we look at (measure) them.”

  18. QUANTUM REALITY Connectedness “ Isolated material particles are abstractions, their properties being definable and observable only through their interaction with other systems” • Niels Bohr

  19. QUANTUM REALITY Connectedness Sub-atomic entities are actually best described not as “things” but as interconnections or relationships between “things” • Niels Bohr

  20. QUANTUM REALITY Connectedness “Ultimately, the entire universe (with all its ‘particles,’ including those constituting human beings) has to be understood as a single undivided whole, in which analysis into separately and independently existent parts has no fundamental status.” • David Bohm

  21. QUANTUM REALITY Subatomic particles that once have been in contact retain an instantaneous connection no matter how far apart they are Nonlocality

  22. IMPLICATIONS Particle Wave Body Spirit / Mind Masculine Feminine Health Disease Science Spirituality Complementarity both / and vs. either / or

  23. SCIENCE & RELIGION “Science without religion is lame, Religion without science is blind.” Albert Einstein

  24. IMPLICATIONS “Quantum” Uncertainty “Twentieth-century physics has shown us very forcefully that there is no absolute truth in science, that all our concepts and theories are limited and approximate.” “Cartesian” Certainty Fritjof Capra

  25. IMPLICATIONS “There is no such thing as objectivity. We all interpret our perceptions in the light of our beliefs and expectations.” Scientific Objectivity Daniel Benor, Spiritual Healing

  26. IMPLICATIONS • According to quantum physics there • is no such thing as objectivity • Facts and scientific data are created • in the act of observation Scientific Objectivity Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters

  27. The Effect of Age on the Association Between Body-Mass Index and Mortality Stevens et al., NEJM 1998;338:1-7

  28. “OBJECTIVE” EVALUATION? “An extremely important health problem…reinforces the hazards of body weight” Mortality risk of obesity “is slight …and nonexistent for the elderly” Stevens et al.,, NEJM 1998;338:1-7

  29. OBJECTIVE “ Uninfluenced by emotion, surmise, or personal prejudice.”

  30. IMPLICATIONS “ Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.” “Measurement Mania” Einstein

  31. IMPLICATIONS “Rather than ignore things we can’t measure we begin to see them as the true foundations of our being and our health.” Michael D, World Future Society Bulletin, 17(1), 1-6.

  32. IMPLICATIONS Descartes - Gain knowledge by eliminating uncertainty Bacon - Eliminate uncertainty by controlling nature “Outcome Obsession”

  33. “OUTCOME OBSESSION” “When we’re in complete control, everything will be fine. We’ll have fusion power. No Pollution. We’ll turn the rain on and off…We’ll turn the oceans into farms. We’ll control the weather. No more hurricanes, no more tornados, no more droughts…All the life processes of this planet will be where they belong - where the gods meant them to be - in our hands.” Daniel Quinn, Ishmael

  34. LINEAR CAUSALITY • Disassemble natural processes • Apply appropriate universal laws • Predict and control future changes

  35. CHAOS: The Science of Change • “Complex” Systems • Nonlinear Causality • Everything Affects Everything

  36. IMPLICATIONS “Chaos theory tells us that our interventions are limited and that their outcome is always, to a certain crucial degree, unpredictable.” Outcome Obsession Briggs & Peat, Seven Lessons of Chaos, 1999

  37. CHAOS & CHANGE “The simple laws of cause and effect do not sufficiently explain the life changes one experiences. We do not totally understand the complex feedback mechanisms at work in men and women. Nevertheless we can learn to rely more on our intuitive, creative capacities in the face of disorder and uncertainty, even though we may not “know” the mechanisms of cause and effect.” Gelatt, Chaos and Compassion,Counseling & Values 1995

  38. CHAOS & CHANGE “We can never be sure how important our own individual contribution will be. Our action may be lost in the chaos that surrounds us, or it may join with one of those many loops that sustain an open, creative community. On rare occasions it may even be taken up and amplified until it transforms the entire community.” Briggs & Peat, Seven Lessons of Chaos, 1999

  39. CHAOS & CHANGE “We may never know if or how or when our influence will have an effect. The best we can do is act with truth, sincerity, and sensitivity, remembering that it is never one person who brings about change but the feedback of change within the entire system.” Briggs & Peat, Seven Lessons of Chaos, 1999

  40. IMPLICATIONS Nonlocality Distant Healing Intercessory Prayer Precognitive & Shared Dreams Intuitive Diagnosis Telesomatic Events

  41. “HOLISTIC” SCIENCE “Scientists will not need to be reluctant to adopt a holistic framework, as they often are today, for fear of being unscientific. Modern physics can show them that such a framework is not only scientific but is in agreement with the most advanced scientific theories of physical reality.” Fritjof Capra

  42. HUMAN SPIRITUALITY “A feeling of belonging, of connectedness to each other, to nature, and to the cosmos as a whole”

  43. SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY “The main reason science is useful is that it attempts to solve our human problems. The main reason spirituality is useful is that it helps to solve our human problems. It’s time that we recognize that the solutions science and spirituality offer are one and the same” The Spiritual Universe, Fred Alan Wolf, PhD

  44. SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY “The world thus appears as a complicated tissue of events, in which connections of different kinds alternate or overlap or combine and thereby determine the texture of the whole.” Heisenberg

  45. SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY “The material object becomes… something different from what we now see, not a separate object on the background or in the environment of the rest of nature but an indivisible part and even in a subtle way an expression of the unity of all that we see.” Yoga Master

  46. SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY “ An elementary particle is not an independently existing unanalyzable entity. It is, in essence, a set of relationships that reach outward to other things.” Physics

  47. SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY “ Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves” Buddhism in Capra – Tao of Physics, 138

  48. SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY “A Chinese tale tells of some men sent to harm a young girl who, upon seeing her beauty, became her protectors rather than her violators. That’s how I felt seeing the Earth for the first time. I could not help but love and cherish her.” Robert Keck, Sacred Eyes

  49. SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY “The most beautiful and profound emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.” Einstein

  50. SCIENCE & SPIRITUALITY “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Einstein

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