Quantum Mechanics --- An embarrassment?

Saturday 03 Jan 2015

I wrote this this blog in response to a question from a friend who asked me to comment on the following Video Clip “Quantum Mechanics” (An Embarrassment) I know Neils Bohr famously said that “if you think you have understood Quantum Mechanics (QM), then you haven’t”. I can see what he meant, but perhaps an approach that allows you to just be with it and what it creates may give some insight. The You Tube clip is below and the You Tube clip referring to the “Arrow of Time” is at the end.

Hello Dave,

Thank you for the video clip speaking to “Embarrassment and Quantum Mechanics”. (QM).

I don’t pretend that I know anything about QM. I love to read about it and I especially liked listening to this guy Sean Carroll, as he is very clear in his explanations. I saw another clip come up where he speaks about the “Arrow of Time” which was also good and in some ways helps me put the QM options he was speaking about in context with my perspective.

The “particle/wave” duality thing in QM does not confuse me too much when I practice to be still. I have sat with and have thought about such things as part of my Buddhist practice. The Buddha pointed to a similar duality. He said “When you enlighten yourself you enlighten the whole Universe”. I am sure he was pointing to the same conundrum. Streams of consciousness can and do create discreet conscious minds that are born again and again into a discreet karmic entities, mostly born in ignorance from an entangled Universe. I am a good example! I can really only talk about this directly from my own practice and the way I have brought it all together in my own mind is through learning to understand to be with consciousness continually. The Universe is awash with consciousness. When consciousness, as a first condition, surrounds such questions as “Who am I?” you can see where the question came from! My consciousness throws up this question from my discreet self but also from the entanglement happening in the Universe. My discreet consciousness conditions the Universe and the Universe conditions my discreet consioussness.

Consciousness is a conditioning that has been habituated into existence. It is just there!  When asked about a beginning of things the Buddha said he had looked back over 24 Kalpa’s (Universal Cycles) and no beginning could be seen. (This is a great bookend to the Christian idea of forever after.) Anyway with practice, consciousness can be seen in its purity. It creates a space for us to see it move. From this space or emptiness (We can say Mind) we develop perspective to create a perception of the movement and then feeling usually follows. The aggregations continue to create the physical. Science seems to explain this Universe of physical creation well. Feelings seem to settle and reflect well from the physical, although they can be just at home in the mind itself. Consciousness however is malleable and is easily shaped and conditioned. All of this happens in the space we call our minds. The mind is really the Universe.  The Buddha always spoke about the Mind as being Chief. “Mind is Chief --- Mind is the forerunner of all things”

You will have heard me comment in the past about the way different concepts are taken from Buddhism without acknowledgement. In Psychology much of what works best has been adapted from Buddhist ideas. I believe Physicists would also benefit by borrowing stuff as well. I reckon they will only unify relativity and QM when they accept that consciousness is a building block of the Universe and not something created in our brains. The brain merely facilitates. As well as the obvious ethereal wave like nature of consciousness the Buddha talked about it as being like a “string of pearls --- without the string”. Once again he had the particle/ wave dichotomy in mind to explain it.

The little piece by Sean Carroll on the “Arrow of Time” may be useful to introduce here because as he says, it is the Macro (Where things become relative to one another --- Relativity) where the “Arrow of Time” takes hold --- here entropy is winds down!  From my perspective consciousness facilitates all of this and is all contained in and around what can be known.   Mindfulness can know all of this consciously and further it can also know when consciousness stops, as it can and does from time to time. Here there is no arrow of time.  I would interpret this as the Micro (QM) where entropy is full of potential. All this can be seen in the present moment; however the habituation of ignorance and fear along with desire and aversion keeps the mind creating by grasping at the movement. This is why it is Important to know consciousness and then to know knowing. The Buddha is the “One Who Knows”.

When one has “stopped” and life finishes (death) there will be no more rebirths and no more Universes. Stopping means holding consciousness still without movement, until eventually it too will cease. This is paradoxical, no more particle and no more wave, perfect balance and equanimity in the knowing.

So what happens to all the other beings in the Universe that are holding onto their consciousness? The reality is that this question too ceases. The entanglement ceases. One sees that what is being held is a “will of the wisp” that is not real in the balance of knowing in the present moment. No more relative truths, but absolute truth and peace in the knowing.

As for the different interpretations of QM, I must confess I find it hard to have an opinion. From my perspective I can see all the scenarios he canvassed as valid.

• The Copenhagen Convention where all the unchosen options of a wave form finish when a viewpoint is taken. I can definitely see this as valid provided the other options have really been let go. This may not be realistic however.

• The many worlds interpretation may be a better explanation to allow for influence from other supposedly unchosen options. This could be from stuff being held in the unconscious mind or impinging vicariously from what other people or unseen entities in the Universe are holding in their consciousness.  As he says there is entanglement everywhere.

• The GRW theory (Ghirardi, Rimini, Weber) is definitely in the mix from my perspective, because when my mindfulness has been strong, I have definitely noticed the whole system stop and then (collapse) and reconfigure quickly bringing everything with it, especially when there is panic in me, I grasp at re- creation. The Buddha does not grasp!

• The Hidden Variable theory is also possible although with practice and confidence, consciousness is most likely to catch everything.

• Treating the wave function as informational only is probably a good way to see it if you can. It could help the mind become more of an observer without being caught up in things. It might not be as satisfying though.  I have found for me that things are most believable when there is intellect and emotion in mix. Head and Heart. I think this is the hallmark of humanity.

   

It is obvious from what I have written just how important an understanding of what consciousness is for my personal practice. I think it opens the door for any meditator. You can really only know when consciousness stops when you know beyond any doubt what consciousness is. I think this will be true for science too. Scientists in the end may find a machine or an instrument to measure consciousness but until they do there is not a better instrument than our own body and mind. It can be calibrated with meditation and the Buddha’s eight fold path.  An understanding of consciousness is definitely needed for unification. Animals have evolved specifically to be conscious, and humans have the added benefit being able to reflect back on themselves. This allows for calibration and gives a good chance for enlightenment. Reflection is rare for the animal world and probably will be hard for beings that have evolved to be God like, where they can create their desires at will and eschew suffering for a long time. We seem to be evolving in that direction and I believe we do so at our peril.

The clip bellow is about the Arrow of Time referred to in the article.