“We are what we think, all that we are arises with our thoughts, with our thoughts we make the world.” – Gautama Buddha
One of the core principles of quantum physics is the idea that all possible states that reality could exists in do indeed exist ( ie: the many-worlds scenario), but that our subjective experience is the collapse of all those potential versions into one single option we live inside of (in more complex terms, our subjectivity is a result of quantum decoherence).
It sounds radical, I know, but this interpretation of reality (known as the “Everett Interpretation”) is a leading theory amongst quantum theorist. And the implications, once you truly start to consider them, are profound. In this 2 part series, I want to explore with you how this key facet of quantum physics can act as a sort of metaphorical guide, a framing you can use to understand your power as a sort of God, capable of altering external reality and the internal self. And with this framing, we can feel more connected to the world, understanding how deeply our Godlike choices impact our relationships and our ability to find happiness and avoid depression.
But before we dig too deeply into the internal to look at how you can choose from the infinite possible mental states that represent your Godhood, we should first look at a more simple example of how you have the power to manipulate the external world.
God Creates Reality: Quantum Wave Collapse Via Day-to-Day Observations.
“Observation not only disturbs what has to be measured, they produce it. We compel the electron to assume a definite position. We ourselves produce the results of the measurement.” (Radin, 2012)
Consider you’re sitting on your couch and you’re suddenly struck with the desire to do something different. You rise to your feet and are suddenly dealt with the decision between infinite permutations of reality: you could go to the bathroom; you could go to the bedroom; you could walk outside; you could grab a baseball bat from beside the door and bash your TV to splinters, or crawl on the ground and bark like a dog; you could take that bat and use it to rob a bank and use the money to purchase a plane ticket to some tropical location where you can choose to live like a monk or become an internet porn star. Or you could simply sit back down.
The point is: you could do nearly anything you can imagine. You are a God of Choice, only limited by your fear of pain and retribution from the law (quite a rational fear yes, but it doesn’t mean you can’t still make the choices).
Within the realm of logic and with enough time and effort, you can immerse your consciousness into any reality you want. But before you can enact this Godlike power, you must decide which action you will take, you must make a choice on which reality you want to ‘observe’ at the cost of becoming ‘blind’ to all other options. As soon as you select one and add momentum to that observed choice, suddenly the photons around you blur and shift as you pull yourself deeper into that reality; the options you didn’t select, however, now fade out of conscious thought, out of observation, and thus begin to experience a decay of likelihood as you continually move away from them in pursuit of your selected reality.
But that option which you did select–well, its photons are now becoming more vivid, turning from the abstract imagination of some non-existent future into tangible forms in the present you can interact with (whether its the bathroom door, the baseball bat, or eventually the sand on the beach). *
*(An aside that an ape might ponder…) This concept has always blown my mind, the fact that your internal consciousness, these synapses and chemicals manipulated by your thoughts, can alter the physical photons that surround you. As someone who contemplates the possibility that all of reality is a personal manifestation customized by each of us, I am often left wondering if we are actually navigating a physical plane with movement or if we are simply isolated minds in a theatre of our own creating, continually using our willpower to repaint the stage by altering the frequency of the photons that we are immersed within. Let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts on this.
This is the power you have in every moment: to see all the possible futures you could take, and then pull yourself consciously into the one that seems most inline with your desired outcome. I ask that you always remember this when you feel trapped within the illusion of a job or a relationship or any other label. If something in your life has become a true source of pain and sadness for you, you have the power to change it. Sure, there are many habits and pressures we have to overcome, but in essence, all you have to do is choose a different reality for your next moment.
Be Here Now–Because you can only observe one snapshot of reality in any given moment.
Let’s go back to the couch scenario momentarily. If you decided to go to the bathroom when you rose from the couch, then you’ve collapsed all possible photons to become a sink and a shower and a toilet and likely an ugly shower curtain with some mold. And all of those possible photons you ignored ( the bank, the airplane, and the beach ) are no longer real. You have no way to confirm their existence at this point. It could be the case that a bomb has wiped out every place on the planet save for your bathroom. Naturally you can safely assume that’s not the case, but you have no actual proof and you may be wrong.
Anyway, the point is: anything we’re not actively perceiving does not truly exist to us. This is the modus operandi of the “Be Here Now” movement, which is largely rooted in eastern philosophies. They realized that you can only perceive one place at one moment, and therefore anything outside of that single snapshot of space-time doesn’t truly exist. Knowing this, there becomes no reason to let your mind dwell and concern itself with realities you can’t actually prove are real, realities that–in that moment–have absolutely no impact on your life. And so the only option is to immerse yourself wholeheartedly into the current sensations that you can prove via subjective experience.
God Observes Imagination, Creates New Physical Forms
If you do decide to escape the moment, however, you gain the power to envision a future of reality that doesn’t currently exist. And so rather than simply choosing from an already existing form in your vision you wish to engage with, you can instead create new photon-forms that never existed before and inject them into reality.
This is the absolutely incredible ability our species has called imagination: the ability to mentally envision a tool or concept and then summon it into reality. All things you see today: skyscrapers, cars, planes, tables, chairs, computers, even the clothes on your body–these are all physical items we can now choose to interact with even though they originally only existed as thought forms inside someone’s mind. They were all once inert pieces of quantum possibility floating in the abstract realm of human imagination until certain curious apes came along and had the means to choose to pursue their creation, to decohere them into existence.
This unique ability to internally imagine gave us the inspiration necessary to create not only new inventions, but also new personalities and new versions of self. Thus we have the ability to look at all quantum possibilities for the roles we could play in society and what our personality could be, and then we can become that person. Combining this internal choice of desire with our external resources and manifestations, we unlock the true potential discussed in…
Part 2: Using Quantum Physics to… Observe Alone Time and Become A God
