Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence--The Groundbreaking Meditation Practice by Daniel Siegel

Author:Daniel Siegel [Siegel, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143111788
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2018-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

the probability nature of reality;

the potential influence of measurement and observation on probability;

the relational nature of reality and the entanglement of quanta and its nonlocal influences; and

the arrow of time or directionality of change that may manifest only at the macrostate level of reality.

In case you are feeling concerned about where this may all go, let me start with a very controversial point that raises a lot of emotional reactions. This is the first of these four topics we will briefly review here—the questions regarding how observation influences the probability of energy.

The point that is of concern is when individuals offer a definitive statement to the effect that quantum physics has “proven” that consciousness creates reality. Among physicists, it appears that this is a highly debated inference regarding how to interpret an accepted, noncontroversial finding in science—that the act of observation of an electron passing through a double-slit metal barrier alters the outcome of what is detected. Some suggest that the act of observation “collapses the wave function,” meaning it makes the electron act as a particle—a certainty—rather than a wave, a set of probabilities. You may recall this finding from high school physics. What is controversial is not that discovery of a different outcome with measurement, but what to make of it—what it means about why the act of observation would be associated with something shifting from a range of probabilities to a singular certainty.

A perspective called the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation proposes that the act of observation changes this probability function, but this is only one of many interpretations; alternative views suggest that observation merely selects from a vast array of realities within the multiverse or that there in fact are no waves and particles, but some other way of imagining the nature of quanta. How that selection might occur or exactly what these basic units of reality might be and how observation influences them is not clear. Others suggest that this is a measurement issue, not the impact of consciousness. Quantum physicist Henry Stapp, a student of the founders of quantum theory, furthers the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation that proposes the general notion of the influence of mental activity on what we observe in physical reality, by suggesting that beyond the observation created by consciousness, the mental state of intention can also influence probability functions. At a quantum physics think tank with Stapp, I was struck by the clarity of his thinking and the passion of his conviction. You might imagine how a potential interpretation that places human consciousness at the center of the organization of the unfolding of probabilities into actualities in the universe might be quite appealing—and perhaps even accurate. But the scientific community is still filled with intense debate about this important issue. We will honor the controversy, and explore possibilities rather than assert absolutes.

Even if the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation holds true, or Stapp’s fascinating extension of it to include intention as well as awareness in the influential factors, the finding seems to

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