Quantum Physics of Belief – Effects of Universal Consciousness

As promised, the next few weeks, I am going to use quantum physics and business research to explore the correlation between the science of consciousness and patterns in the business world, to suggest innovative ways of using this wisdom to lead and succeed in a business environment that is constantly evolving at a rapid pace. [I hope you will stay tuned to these series of articles and provide any feedback via email or in the comments section below on this blog. I’d greatly appreciate your comments / suggestions and your experiences with any of this.]

The role of physics has always been to teach us how this physical world works. We now know our conventional understanding is not the whole story. It seems the very word “physics” takes us in the wrong direction, as it implies physical as opposed to the realm of the mind (and spirit, by extension). But, I hope, by the end of this series (it will take a few months to cover all the areas that I have researched so far); you will understand that the two realms cannot be separated.

Let’s first, consider the nature of matter. As I studied physics thru my graduate courses, I have learned that Einstein’s special theory of relativity, E=MC², is key to understanding the nature of this world. Like many of you, I have known of this equation for years, but never fully considered its profound implications. Literally it means that all matter is a form of energy, not a substance. The fact that matter is fundamentally energy means that objects are not static, but rather are dynamic and changeable. Furthermore, experimentation at the sub-atomic level has revealed that human beliefs influence how matter manifests.

Here is a classic physics experiment: The Double Slit Experiment shows us that the form of matter follows what we believe about the matter. The experiment streams a bunch of photons into two boxes, and then they come out of slits on the other side of the boxes to project a pattern onto a screen. Here is the interesting part: if an observer is expecting to see waves and so looks at the pattern on the screen, the observer sees the waves and the pattern persists, but if the observer expects to see particles and looks in one of the boxes, the observer will find particles in the box. In other words, the observer’s expectations, or beliefs, determine whether the photon is a wave or a particle. This same concept extends into the world of larger objects.

The book Quantum Enigma (Physics Encounters Consciousness) written by Profs Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner of the University of California in Santa Cruz in 2006 offers credible information to show that there is no avoiding the fact that our consciousness has a physical effect on our world. This means that the events occurring external to us are being influenced by the contents of our thoughts and beliefs. Let’s look at how this phenomenon shows itself in the real world.

Intention is a projection of awareness toward a particular result with the belief that the outcome can be influenced. Scientific experimentation has overwhelmingly proven that human intentions significantly influence events so that they are more likely to occur in the direction of the intentions. Some of the most prominent experiments have shown that human intentions have the ability to alter the output of a REG, Random Event Generator machine.

REG machines generate a random sequence of heads and tails, and without the interference of intentions, they produce roughly fifty percent heads and fifty percent tails. Experiments have proven that humans can “will” the machines to create more heads (or tails) impulses by focusing their thoughts on the machine’s output. These REG experiments have been extensively carried out, using rigorous scientific study methods, and have included thousands of participants and millions of trials. The odds of the results occurring by chance are less than one in a billion, and the U.S. National Research Council has verified the results. Other experiments have provided solid evidence that groups can change the pH (acidity) level of bodies of water and biological systems in insects through specific intentions.

Before quantum physics, people knew that human beings were conscious. We knew that animals were conscious. Some of the ancient traditions, particularly some of the Hindu traditions, or the Vedic traditions of ancient Indian origin, speak in terms of everything being conscious. They speak about consciousness pervading everything. But, in this twenty first century and with quantum physics, we begin to see what might be called a new role for consciousness - something that we know happens, but remained inexplicable until we began to realize that what we were talking about was the action of consciousness.

What is a fundamental act of consciousness? It's an action in which something is perceived. Now, in ordinary physics, or in ordinary physiology, or in most of the classical realms of science, perception is something which is taken to be outside the realm of physicality. In other words, if you perceive something, you know that you see something. Light will strike your retina; you'll get an idea, or something will pop off in your brain, or something of that sort. But we never got the notion that somehow the act of seeing something was affecting what you were seeing or what you were looking at. But, in quantum physics, we have learned that when you are looking at very small objects, subatomic particles for example, the very action of looking at them disturbs them to such an extent that we never really get a complete picture as to what they actually are. Now, this has led me to think that consciousness may be at the core of this problem as to how perception can affect and change reality, and that maybe what we are doing when we are thinking or feeling or sensing or even listening to a conversation is using this action of consciousness, this fundamental act, which sort of what flips the switch - that suddenly alters the physical reality of, the human being.

Several theoretical studies provide an explanation of how our belief systems are impacting our experience of reality. String Theory says that all matter and energy is composed of oscillating strings, and it hypothesizes that there are at least ten spatial dimensions. The Many Worlds Theory proposes that these dimensions translate into parallel states of reality that simultaneously exists with what we perceive as our current reality, and a person’s belief system largely determines which single sequence of events they experience. These theories are work in progress, but they are at least the beginnings of an explanation.

Before you write off parallel universes as nonsense, consider the following. Multiple parallel realities would seem to imply that there are multiple versions of our physical world, and that doesn’t match our experience. However, remember that science says the physical world is fundamentally energy, so the existence of parallel universes doesn’t imply the duplication of substance, but rather implies that there are multiple fields of energy. Plus, it sounds like nonsense to say that we exist in multiple realities, whereas in our day-to-day reality, we experience that there is only one sequence of events occurring. The Many Worlds Theory explains this by saying that our brains are designed to perceive only one thread of experience through the parallel realities. This, in my opinion, brings parallel realities into the realm of reason.

Now, let’s talk about some practical implications. In science, our life experience is similar to a video game, where we are choosing which path through the game we are going to experience. Instead of making that choice through actions and selections on a video game console, we are making it based on our beliefs or our experiences. Let me illustrate with a real world example of a friend of mine.

Sandra is a wife and mother of three children, and they once lived in Chicago for several years. When Sandra tells stories about her experience in Chicago, they are all positive accounts about how she met the nicest and most helpful people. One of her favorite stories is about a time when she stepped off the EL (the elevated train; apologies to those who are not familiar with the Chicago Transit system) with some heavy packages and a strange young man offered to carry them home for her. She didn’t hesitate to accept his offer of help, and he did indeed carry the packages to her front door.

Sandra’s family gapes at her in disbelief when she tells these stories of a “friendly” Chicago, because they had an entirely different experience, and they never would have given their packages to a strange young man. Sandra walked the same streets and rode the same ELs as the rest of her family, yet she had an entirely different experience.

Sandra drew different experiences into her reality. She didn’t do anything different than the rest of her family, and she didn’t just put a positive façade on negative experiences. She went to the same places as the rest of her family, yet she encountered friendly and helpful people, whereas her family encountered rude and harmful people. Sandra was not just luckier than the rest of her family, but rather her beliefs and intentions brought her different experiences.

We conventionally believe that the physical world operates objectively and is not influenced by us unless we take some physical action. We think our beliefs are formed based on how we experience the world. This scientific research tells us quite the opposite: our experience is formed based on what we believe about the world. We can use this knowledge to increase the likelihood that matter, and therefore events (which are interactions of matter) will unfold more frequently in the form that we prefer.

[You may be wondering at this point what this has all got to do with any business environment. However, I need to lay down the fundamentals and set the stage to explore the correlation between the science of consciousness and patterns in the business world. In this article, having explored how our experiences are formed based on what we believe about the world; I’ll write more next week on turning around business practices using quantum physics of beliefs. See you next week…]