Quantum Paradigm: From Newtonian Age to Quantum Age

Human Alchemy of Personal Transformation and Professional Growth #1: Where begins the new eco-spiritual frame of reference

Everything in Life is Vibration – Albert Einstein

Friends! It’s great that you are on this page. This has been an article about the new quantum paradigm that is emerging to frame our lives, work, and leadership in the twenty-first century. For a few minutes, we will discuss on quantum alchemy of personal transformation and professional growth. Cautious of my philosophical background in personal/ professional transformation and ecological spirituality, but not a Physicist, I do my best to integrate recent research in behavioral neuroscience, and make the concept both simple to understand and easy to apply. The paper outlines the philosophical and psychological implications of quantum science and the paradigm shift the science stands for. From here, we will begin to embrace the major idea of this article that our (subjective) mind has an effect on our (objective) world.

Newtonian version (of classical worldview) was linear and dual

Newtonian science understood every phenomenon (either from small ants to big stars, for example) as governed through similar laws like regularities. It assumed that everything that happens has a cause. Also, it assumed that the universe operates like (a clockwork) machine. The worldview made a great impact in almost every sphere of societies e.g., politics, governance, economics, health, and education. People began to look for linear/ hierarchical structures.

To this influence, modern science and its earlier worldviews were largely shaped by mind/body duality.  For earlier physicists and behavior scientists, the mind was a different entity and matter was different. This dual worldview polarized the wholeness of experience. It shaped existential beliefs that as mind and matter are two different things, the mind (and thoughts) almost don’t influence the matter.

Nothing is independent: Nothing is in isolation

But, the scientific discoveries didn’t stop there. In the atomic and sub-atomic world, Newtonian laws began to experience many limitations. Scientists came up with new discoveries that the earlier laws of linear patterns couldn’t be observed at the quantum level. Instead, the particles are entangled (and/or connected) in the networks of chaos and order.

There emerged the non-dual/ non-linear quantum laws and eventually the quantum paradigm. It challenged many propositions of the dual/ linear Newtonian beliefs.

These recent discoveries in Quantum Physics have forwarded the eco-spiritual idea that we (and everything that exists) are part of the vast invisible field of energy, in which everything affects every other thing and every other thing is influenced by multiple relationships. It forwarded discoveries that the whole universe operates in ‘One’ ecological wholeness.

The Quantum version is non-dual and holistic

Forwarding these discoveries, it seems that quantum physics is giving a scientific basis to many of the age-old eco-spiritual wisdom traditions that were predominantly non-dual and holistic. This emergent eco-spiritual orientation, for example, is the quantum version of Aham Brahmasmi (I am the Brahma). This Vedic statement describes the entangled unity of the individual self with Brahman- ‘I am the universe and the universe is me’.  Also, the recent orientation seems to be the quantum version of tat tvam asi (thou art that). It indicates the undivided/ inseparable relationship between the individual and the absolute Oneness- I am that…and that… and also that…

It seems many of the religions around the globe named this entangled ‘Oneness’ by the ambiguous (and personified) term- God! But, in the Quantum Paradigm, this vast field of ever-moving entangled energy (One Universal Mind) is the vast electromagnetic field of all happenings. The Chinese call it the invisible source of the Tao. In quantum physics, God is not a person, not a man or a woman. Rather, God is energy and the source of all energy. God is a force acting throughout the universe, a Force acting inside you and me, and inside everything that exists. Here, either mind or matter, either subject or object, either individual or collective, all co-constructively arise.

 You are the one energy entangled to the universal wholeness

To go deeper into the meaning, let’s start by observing the discoveries of atoms. Atom is the building block of everything physical. The discovery was the greatest contribution of ‘Newtonian Physics’, which claimed that each atom is made up of subatomic particles, and they function in law-like patterns. Moving a step ahead, quantum discoveries introduced many (but ever-unfolding) mysteries of the atom. It claims that the atom is 99.99999 percent energy and .00001 percent matter.

If so, the material presence in an atom is almost negligible. Most interestingly, this matter appears as a wave. It continuously appears and disappears in the quantum field of possibilities. At the heart of quantum discoveries are the realization that an object is both wave and a particle. In the quantum universe, everything is both “particle-like” and “wavelike.” We, too, are both “particles,” unique individuals, and “waves,” patterns on the quantum sea of energy, overlapping with all the other waves.

The end of the journey of continuous discovery is a realization, where you realize the non-dual awareness of reality- that you are the one energy entangled to universal wholeness. Yogic Science understood this individual-universal harmonized state to be the state of Samadhi (in harmony with the universal field). In the Quantum world, it is the state where human consciousness is in tune with universal consciousness.

The quantum field is the field of possibilities

At the quantum level, .00001 percent of matters of an atom are everything and nothing; they exist everywhere and nowhere. In other words, these probable fields of energy are but the probable field of possibilities.

It is thus, the quantum (or unified) field is an invisible field of energy and information. In this subject-object, mind-body entanglement, there seems to be vast potential for personal transformation. It is full of the possibility of everything that ever was, everything that is, and everything that ever will be. Since our (subjective) mind has an effect on our (objective) world, it is just how prepared are we (and our thoughts, feelings, and action) in tuning into this new potential of the quantum.

The observer effect in quantum physics states that where you direct your attention is where you place your energy. In other words, this field of energy responds to humans’ thoughts and feelings- because our consciousness (thoughts and feelings) is energy and energy respond to energy in terms of frequency and vibration.

It is to this end, our subjective mind has an effect on our objective world. Our thoughts and feelings (our state of being) broadcast our electromagnetic signal to the quantum field. The studies on the placebo effect, neuro-plasticity, and ‘mirror neurons’ are the evidence. In doing so, the quantum worldview asserts that we create our personal reality in some sense.

The beginning of the ‘new’ frame of reference

This eco-spiritual observation of the quantum phenomenon so far eloquently suggests that- to change our personal reality, we need to change our personal beliefs about the nature of reality. The entire material world is nothing but frequency and vibration. At the quantum level, we are already in the alchemy of transformation. Being in harmony with quantum law could be a way. We can start our way through other ways of looking at the situation. For this, we need to learn the truth about this new quantum vision of reality and believe in the quantum field of possibilities.

“It’s the end of the world,” said the caterpillar.

“It’s just the beginning,” said the butterfly.

It’s just that their frame of reference is different. It seems that the only thing that’s necessary to make this work for us right now is to begin to believe that it is possible to change. Change begins from the shift in our frame of reference.

 So, let’s begin the journey of inner transformation with this question- what is my frame of reference to see and understand the world that surrounds me?