Quantum Principles

                                                     Quantum Principles

 

 

                                         

                “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”   Albert Einstein

From early into the 60's there has been a lot of interest in the ideas of Quantum Physics and the relationship to philosophy, psychology, and general explorations about the nature of reality. There has also been a lot of undue liberties taken with quantum principles and over generalizing them to make a case for everything from "you create your reality", to soul mates and beyond. I'm interested in the metaphoric aspects of quantum physics as well as perceptual cognition as it applies to cognitive psychology.

So let's look at some broad strokes with regard to some basic quantum principles and apply them to the human domain.

1) Particles are waves, and vice versa. This is the idea that includes the atomistic idea of 'things,' as well as the energetic fields, and waviness of processes. This principle is a call to always be looking and tracking the content as well as the process of our human experience. This plays out between men and women in that men tend to be very rational, concrete, and goal oriented and women tend to be more communal, relational and feeling oriented. Men need to balance their sense of the wave like nature of processes, and women need to balance their sense of goals, things, and the agency of doing.

2) Quantum states are discrete. The “quantum” in quantum physics refers to the fact that everything in quantum physics comes in discrete amounts. This is very much a masculine type of principle in that these quantum states are cut and dried, no leeway in a half, quarter, or eighth of a quantum state, you're going to get a whole number amount of one state vs. another, there's no in between. This is a contradiction in a sense of the wave like nature of reality, because waves are not discrete, they're wavy, but this is the nature of the quantum world, like life, it is fraught with paradox. No matter what you do, you will only ever detect a quantum system in one of a number of special 'allowed' states.

3) Probability is all we ever know. Now we're back to uncertainty, which is to say that when we are studying/measuring quantum states it is only probabilistic, so there's no certainty with one answer. The reader will see how we're jumping back and forth between firm, fixed, ideas, perceptions, and mystery, paradox, subjectivity. When physicists use quantum mechanics to predict the results of an experiment, the only thing they can predict is the probability of detecting each of the possible outcomes. "Given an experiment in which an electron will end up in one of two places, we can say that there is a 17% probability of finding it at point A and an 83% probability of finding it at point B, but we can never say for sure that a single given electron will definitely end up at A or definitely end up at B. No matter how careful we are to prepare each electron in exactly the same way, we can never say definitively what the outcome of the experiment will be. Each new electron is a completely new experiment, and the final outcome is random." This is the nature of human relationships and communication, we can only give it our best shot at meaning and intention and let the chips fall where they may!

4) Measurement determines reality. When we see something through a certain filter, the filter, model, and tools of perception will influence and create to an extent what we're objectively trying to understand and assess. So don't take your models very seriously, the map is not the territory!


5) Quantum correlations are non-local. One of the strangest and most important consequences of quantum mechanics is the idea of “entanglement.” "When two quantum particles interact in the right way, their states will depend on one another, no matter how far apart they are. You can hold one particle in Princeton and send the other to Paris, and measure them simultaneously, and the outcome of the measurement in Princeton will absolutely and unequivocally determine the outcome of the measurement in Paris, and vice verse." This is a statement of the ultimate connectivity of reality as well as the oneness of the universe.


6) Everything not forbidden is mandatory. "A quantum particle moving from point A to point B will take absolutely every possible path from A to B, at the same time. This includes paths that involve highly improbable events like electron-positron pairs appearing out of nowhere, and disappearing again. The full theory of quantum electro-dynamics (QED) involves contributions from every possible process, even the ridiculously unlikely ones." Included in oneness is simultaneity, our conceptions of linear time is an illusion, there is only space/time/matter/energy that is a fabric of tightly woven events, circumstances, and cause and effects all happening at the same time. This becomes apparent to us sometimes as pre-cognitions, Deja Vu, miracles and synchronicities.


7) Quantum physics is not magic. Even though quantum physics is very weird, the bedrock principles of physics are still intact: energy is still conserved, entropy still increases, and nothing can move faster than the speed of light. The quantum model is an extension of Newton's model, it includes and transcends, just as trans-personal psychology includes the psychology of ego and personality.

           “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”   Carl Sagan