Quantum (Latin) = amount
Physics (Greek) from physikos = the things of the external, physical world
The preeminent German physicist Max Planck is considered to be the founder
of what later became known as quantum physics or quantum mechanics. On
December 14, 1900, he declared before the Physical Society of Berlin that
electromagnetic radiation (EMR)is emitted and absorbed in quanta. This
smallest irreducible value in nature, this step, this discrete process, is called in
his honor Planck’s constant and is denoted with the letter h. Quanta have a
magnitude hv or hf - h denoting the constant of nature and v or f the
frequency of radiation.
The 20th century witnessed the development of quantum theory which
describes the behavior of the atomic and sub-atomic worlds, in which physical
processes - such as atomic vibrations, energy and light waves, and the orbits
of electrons - are quantized. Atomic
systems are restricted to certain discrete, or quantized, or discontinuous
energies. When an atom undergoes a discontinuous transition, popularly
called a quantum jump or quantum leap (which is fact the smallest possible
change in our gross-physical universe!), its energy changes abruptly by a
sharply defined amount. In the process, a photon (particle of electro-magnetic
radiation) of that energy is emitted when the energy of the atom decreases, or
is absorbed in the opposite case.
Although quantum physics has been the foundation of extraordinary
applications in high-tech and related fields during recent decades, the fathers
of quantum physicists of the past century have referred to the implications of
quantum phenomena as mysterious, counter-intuitive, and incomprehensible,
just to mention a few expressions they used. The blessed fathers of quantum
physics of the past century did their very best to explore the basic mysteries of
quantum physics, among them: the wave-particle duality; the double-slit
experiment (or in Feynman’s words "the experiment with the two holes");
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle; the collapse of the wave function;
quantum superposition; vacuum and zero-point energy; the Casimir Effect
and virtual particles; Bell’s Theorem, EPR and nonlocality; the Copenhagen
Interpretation, and others.
Some quantum effects observed in physics laboratory experiments could be
interpreted to demonstrate that the physical world of matter and EMR (electro-
magnetic radiation) exhibits knowing and intelligence. This will soon lead to
a drastic revision of the conventional scientific distinction between animate
and inanimate matter. Science will discover what the Great Ascended Masters
and the mystics of all ages have known all along, that Universal or Cosmic
Consciousness is at the heart of matter/EMR and that it is creating and
maintaining our physical reality as well as all the finer vibrational worlds. As
Cornelia Jarica has been personally experiencing: "To me, matter is
crystallized energy or condensed vibration." More traditionally-trained and -
minded quantum, sub-atomic, and particle physicists will most likely repute
these insights more or less strongly.
Without nature’s phenomena which are beautifully captured in Heisenberg's
Uncertainty Principle, our known universe (matter/energy) would not exist.
In his book "Physics for the Rest of Us," Roger S. Jones writes: "... Heisenberg
confronts us with something entirely new in scientific law an ultimate
theoretical limit on knowledge. No improvement in experimental technique,
no refining of the methods of observation, no brilliant ingenuity can ever
eliminate the uncertainties in measuring the trajectory of an electron (or any
other subatomic particle, for that matter). For the first time in the history of
science, a natural law tells us that there is a fundamental limit on what we can
know. The uncertainty principle reinforces the idea that quantum theory
gives us no picture of the inner workings of nature...."
Quantum physics demonstrates that the impact of the interaction with the
object of observation (matter/EMR) cannot be made arbitrarily small.
Therefore, researchers cannot investigate the world without unavoidably
affecting and changing it in some way. Experimenters are no longer objective
and disconnected from the objects of observation - they become part of the
world they are trying to explore. As a consequence, the innermost nature of
physical reality, its non-physical core or essence, must in principle remain
hidden from complete scientific investigation and understanding.
In addition, when not observed, quantum particles appear to be wavelike. In
fact, nothing can be said about the physical world between observations (e.g.
the jumps of electrons between different energy levels), which led some
physicists like the German Nobel Prize winner Max Born and his colleagues in
Goettingen (Germany’s Cal-Tech at the time) to postulate that the physical
world cannot even be considered to be real when unobserved. These ideas
were later incorporated by their strongest and most outspoken proponent,
the Danish Nobel Prize laureate Niels Bohr, and eventually came to be
known as the famous/infamous Copenhagen Interpretation (much to the
distress of Max Born and colleagues, and justifiably so).
Contemplating these issues (including the Copenhagen Interpretation),
Deepak Chopra, M.D., proposes that the whole world is being transformed
"within us" into solid, physical reality through what he calls the mechanics of
perception or a trick of our senses. He surmises that in our normal waking
state of consciousness we will never know the true texture of reality. Deepak
believes that only in higher states of consciousness we would literally see that
this whole world is a projection of our own subjective consciousness. "Out
there is the quantum soup, in here is the world created."
Similarly mind boggling are experiments, which indicate that every electrically
charged particle (such as electrons and protons) 'senses' or 'knows' (for lack of
better words) the existence of every other charged particle due to its sending
out photons whose electro magnetic forces are considered to be infinite in
range. Apparently, there seems to be a profound interconnection of all
matter/energy in the entire universe. To blow everybody’s mind, the Wheeler
Feynman absorber theory tells us that waves may travel not only forward but
also backwards in time, a truly tantalizing concept.
Equally phenomenal is John Bell's Theorem, put into experiment by Alain
Aspect, which leaves us with such fascinating notions that either travel
exceeding the speed of light is possible or that the universe is non local and
information can be communicated instantaneously across space producing
"spooky action at a distance" in Einstein's words (though he was very
unhappy with this notion and with quantum physics in general. Figures he
never had a chance to take the Colloquium’s Unconditional Happiness course,
see below). Of course he was happy about his marvelous theory of relativity
that declares that matter and energy are interchangeable, that matter can be
converted into energy and vice versa.