(JRT) In this blog, Preview #15 God and Reality, I am continuing from Preview #3, which both come from the same chapter. In the blogs I jump around a lot, because I want to give readers a taste of the variety of ingredients in the quantum soup of my fuzzy-minded book. Eventually, after much re-editing, I think I will put it on Amazon Kindle, where I have already put Lucifer, Bright Son of the Dawn since yesterday, February 06 2012.
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But now, in Paper 42 of the Urantia Book, the Mighty Messenger tells us that all matter/energy actually is God, but only as a minor and subordinate part of Him. I think that is probably the only way it can be completely understood by the mortal mind,
To explain this conundrum I have to fall back onto the teachings of Bhagavan Ramakrishna, who said that everything was actually the Brahman, and every person was Narayana. Provided you understand the Brahman as the impersonal energy of God and Narayana as the hyperpersonality of the Father in His Mystery Monitors and His personality gravity and personality circuit (which we will explain later), I think this is absolutely correct.
In order to understand fully the implications of Einstein’s attempt to defeat the Copenhagen School
The Paradox consisted of this: not only did it prove impossible to prove that atomic matter was real, it also proved impossible to localize it. It could not be localized. In other words it was discovered that the whole of physical matter in the entire universe was constructed in such a way that no part of it could be separated from any other part, or from the entire system. Matter was all one. We have already come across this idea in a quotation from Heisenberg, and he was the first man to discover and understand it. But he did not prove it. What proves it is the EPR Paradox. (Once again the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Einstein, had to put in his two cents). By exercising the minds and imaginations of many of the best scientific brains in the world for so long, the EPR Paradox has provided a rich seam of gold for new discoveries in quantum physics. We look to the future to find answers to most of the questions raised, but the questions are fascinating.
It is generally agreed that the Paradox can be solved in one of four possible ways:
1. Deny the validity of the EPR criterion of physical reality. That would then reduce matter to mind or consciousness.
2. Accept signals propagating from the future towards the past.
3. Assume that events are not separable and that superluminal connections between distant events are possible. This could be held to imply the reality of Spirit.
4. Assume that not all quantum mechanical predictions for correlated systems are correct. This implies a revision of the mathematical scheme of quantum mechanics, which no one has ever been able to accomplish.
Stapp made one of the most useful contributions along the lines of No.3 above in 1988 by distinguishing between the formal and informal interpretations of quantum theory. Formally, the Copenhagen
“…orthodox thinking , at least at the informal level, suggests that objective reality is built on myriads of macroevents which, arising from a sea of micro-level potentialities, create or actualize attributes that weave together to form the fabric of a macroscopic spacetime reality that is describable in terms of the concepts of classical physics. (Stapp,1988.)”
On that basis he argues that the Paradox no longer remains, because nonlocality has already been proved. We should, therefore, abandon the idea of separability of matter altogether. Notice, however, that the fabric of spacetime is created or actualized in the macroworld, not in the microworld. The microworld remains only an amorphous sea of potentialities, which presumably cannot be defined in terms of space or time. This is the crux of the matter. Heisenberg said that, while we cannot define any point at which time and space, matter or energy (in terms of their further division) disappear, we can reach a microscopic state where these terms become meaningless. Hawking once said very much the same thing. Therefore, I think Hawking was making a mistake in attaching the disappearance of time and space to the exact borderline of the singularity, because they have already lost substantial reality or meaning at least a millionth of a second before that point. But he has since corrected that mistake in his book A Brief History of Time.
From that point of view I think quantum theory has a lot to say about the nature of space and time, and it should now abandon its original shyness, and start questioning whether it is really true that there is no alternative to classical materialism in the macroworld. I would like to see a quantum theory of spacetime and gravity. This could be a higher priority than the discovery of a unified force, which in any case may have to wait for a clearer mathematical description of spacetime and gravity.
How can a superluminal connection of the whole material system be conceived of? Einstein laid down as an axiom of his theory of relativity that no message could travel faster than light. This axiom is based on an arbitrary premise of materialist philosophy. Einstein deliberately excluded as unscientific (in the sense of being beyond the subject matter of science) the possibility that thought could be capable of moving faster than light as it would then be moving outside of materialistic reality. But, if we now find that the whole of matter is one single system in a state of super-luminal connection this axiom should be abandoned. Taking into account the fact that large parts of that system would be inaccessible to one another if their velocity of internal communication were limited by the velocity of light, because they are beyond the distance that light could have traveled since the notional Big Bang, then the state of matter as such cannot be fully governed by the velocity of light. Matter itself then begins to take on – at least partly – some of the characteristics of pure idea or consciousness. In that case the velocity of light becomes simply a barrier between manifest and unmanifest ideas. Normally our human consciousness can only visualize two categories of things as manifested inside the material universe: one is light (including the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e. whatever moves at the speed of light) and the other is anything that is slowed down to a state below the vibration rate of the speed of light. For example we can roughly visualize the sub-atomic nuclear particles moving at approximately 40,000 miles per second and the electrons moving at 700 miles per second. It is this movement, which is really some sort of oscillation, which, as a sort of solidified energy, gives matter the appearance of solidity in relation to the phase of our conscious awareness. Ultimately it all depends on the phase of our own conscious awareness. If that perspective changed, our perceptions of manifest reality would also change. The question I ask is, if there is a single superluminal connection, do we have any material objects at all? Pari passu, if we have no separation but only unity is this recognizably a material reality at all? Is it not much closer to a state of consciousness or Spirit? In that case we are pushed back to alternative No.1 , the assumptions of pure idealism. Whether we are willing to accept this solution or not, we must surely admit that the EPR Paradox has made idealistic philosophy more plausible than ever; and pure materialism is in danger of becoming an obsolete concept, as it is no longer consistent with scientific observations.
Another very fruitful line of enquiry was No.2. Almost all the conclusions of those who tried to solve the Paradox on the basis of retroactive causality were based on a strong commitment to the idea of 4 dimensional spacetime given by the theory of relativity. It seems to me that this idea of spacetime leaves no room for a time-line, an existence-line, or any kind of one-directional causality.
Even so, this line of enquiry into causality backwards produced some very useful conclusions. For example, Rietdijk (1978, 1980, 1981) said that events rather than objects become the actual stuff of the universe. This conception must modify also the most relevant metric for describing our world. Just as it is natural in the case of objects to measure distances between them by other objects, for example measuring rods, so, in the case of events or occurrences, it is natural to measure their ‘distances’ apart by units of ‘occurrence’, that is by establishing how much ‘occurring’ or action is needed to get from event B to event A. In this way the quantum of action h (that is Planck’s Constant) naturally appears as the (indivisible) atom of occurrence. One discovers in this way, on analyzing some concrete physical situations, that the ‘distance’ separating some events, which is considered very large if one uses ordinary three-dimensional spatial distances, can actually be exactly zero when measured in terms of action.
This holds in particular for some EPR situations. What happens, on considering the action Et – p+x as a primary quantity and E,p,t,x as derived ones, is that one step beyond relativity has been taken. The unification of space-time and energy-momentum into action (reminiscent of the less specific joining of space and time into spacetime by relativity), leaves the Minkowski scheme merely as a theoretical construct (as earlier was the fate of the Euclidean metric). This outcome can give rise to discrepancies and contradictions if one imposes a Minkowski space description on micro-situations in which the quantum of action becomes important. Precisely such discrepancies give rise to the EPR Paradox, according to Rietdijk.
The solution of Rietdijk, when combined with that of Stapp, is, I believe, a great leap forward for our understanding of reality, and I have not found a more satisfying explanation of how the universe actually works. Perhaps this solution could provide some basis for the discovery of a teleological arrow in respect of existence, causality and time, or at least an event-arrow. The UB certainly does so.
But now I tend to regard time as we understand it as a psychological adaptation, while what is really there is a field of energy associated with movement in the three spatial dimensions.
As a layman all I can say is that if Einstein himself could not disprove the ontological challenge of the Copenhagen
To avoid such an nebulous solution, I prefer to take refuge in the descriptions of the Mighty Messenger. The 100 ultimatons in each electron are divine and conscious, although the electron itself is not conscious, and therefore is only associated with the divine, not intrinsically divine. I would say that the ultimaton is the divine potential out of which matter/energy emerges in a variety of formats, but that it is itself absolute, above matter/energy, and even above the transcendental state. IT is the Brahman. IT is the "which art in heaven" of the Protestant viewpoint. IT is the fractal that is a geometrical expression of the Unity of the Three Persons in One. IT is the creative interface between spirit and matter/energy. IT is the key to the absolute truth of the immanence and transcendence of God. IT proves that both are true. IT is the little gods that are the strongest of all the gods. So does Infinity fold in upon Itself endlessly like a tidal wave, exalting the humble, humbling the exalted, until every dog has its day, for everyone is of infinite value to the Infinity.
Although it has generated an immense amount of controversy among physicists, it is a fact that Quantum Theory has been extraordinarily successful as regards both pure science and technology, and it has proved to be incredibly accurate in spite of the fact that no one has ever really understood how or why it works. That it does work is no longer in doubt. If there is any error built into the theory there must be some compensating error or errors that exactly balance out the original error so that no one can find it out. As a believer, it looks to me suspiciously like Someone is playing some kind of mischievous games with the physicists and laughing up His sleeve. I find the whole thing a good joke on materialism as such: God coming back to us through the hardest of hard science in a materialistic age! As Saint Paul
The technological success of Quantum Theory is simply astounding. It has given us the laser, the electron microscope, the transistor, the superconductor and nuclear power. At a stroke it explained chemical bonding, the structure of the atom and nucleus, the conduction of electricity, the mechanical and thermal properties of solids, the stiffness of collapsed stars and a host of other important physical phenomena. It has permeated many other branches of science and engineering and contributed to multifarious new discoveries in every field of industry, especially information technology.
However, we should bear in mind that quantum mechanics is wholly alien to general relativity. Mainly it describes the interactions that take place at the subatomic level, and its core is the uncertainty principle first announced in 1927 by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg. The uncertainty principle states that certain pairs of quantities, such as the position and momentum of an electron, cannot be measured simultaneously. This could possibly imply that the electron is not the absolute, objective and determinable bit of matter that classical physics describes, but a sort of strange entity that in a sense is smeared out around the nucleus of the atom. Such particles do not so much exist in a material sense; rather they have a mathematical propensity to exist, not the kind of existence we attribute to this keyboard for example. But who knows if this keyboard is any more real than they are? After all, it is also composed of subatomic particles. So is my hand.
As regards the Theory of Relativity, from the beginning Einstein wanted to construct such a theory. He knew in advance exactly what he wanted to get, and he got it. But nobody wanted quantum theory. Max Planck was at first horrified by quanta. They did nothing but make life more complicated for him. Werner Heisenberg spent hour after hour agonizing over quantum theory with Niels Bohr. He found it difficult to imagine that mother nature could play such strange tricks with the real world. Since then other physicists have felt the same. I think it was John Gribbin who said reality is not only stranger than we imagine; but stranger than we can possibly imagine. And Niels Bohr once said: “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”
Quantum theory crept up on its practitioners out of a subterranean crypt, (black box radiation of heat), the Ghost of the microworld come to call us to account for our macro-hubris, our self-proclaimed certainties and ‘omniscient in principle’ theories. (Yes, we will one day become omniscient, but only with God the Supreme-Ultimate, not without Him). It has changed the whole way we understand our world, our reality, our paradigm. We now know that we know very little about physical reality, and that only approximately. We know that without our consciousness nothing in physical reality can exist or have any meaning at all. We know that our consciousness calls the final shots about what exists and what does not exist. We know that Aristotle’s idea of 'potentia' stands at the heart of reality and translates probabilities into actualities. We now know that the whole cosmos is a single system and no part of it can be separated from any other part. We know that there is no such thing as empty space, but that every part of so-called empty space, even in vacuums, is filled with the strange activities of the mysterious quantum soup that comes out of nowhere and goes where it wills (like the Holy Spirit does).
Yes, Einstein got rid of the ether. But what was the ether but a totally imprecise and unscientific and indemonstrable substance, which could be observed only by yogis, and otherwise had no more than a theoretical existence in terms of connecting things across space? But the ether has been replaced now by a very demonstrable entity that reveals almost nothing of its true nature. It is much more mysterious than the ether was, but it is certainly demonstrable, scientifically accessible, and for all I know alive and well. So now instead of the poor old ether what we have now got is---well, a sort of new ether that has taken up permanent residence on the verandah, so to speak. (It is of course a scientific taboo to speak of Spirit in this connection. That is one question no one is allowed to beg. Is this an anti-dogma or just a plain, common-or-garden dogma?) But, rather than spirit, the UB explains the ether as the otherwise empty arena of a conglomeration of criss-crossing energy fields. But it also tells us that the Holy Spirit is the manipulator of all forms of energy in cosmos, both directly as well as through trillions of Her created spirit agents of all types.
Moreover, quantum theory has changed our idea of how creation works. Instead of a beginning at some point in the remote past, we have fresh bursts of creation about 30 to 40 times per second. This creation is not continuous like St.Anselm’s but discontinuous like nothing on earth ever thought of before except possibly by Boethius and the anonymous rishis of ancient Bharat. These bursts produce a kind of still colored photo of our world as a single burst of frozen light. In between these bursts are moments of neutral energy capable of producing any outcome since they do not appear to be conditioned by anything that has gone before. The only thread of continuity in this process seems to be the action of its Source in some kind of relationship with human consciousness.
As a would-be mystic myself, what I see in all this is nothing else but a graphically illustrated explanation of how God becomes His own creation by expanding it from out of His own potential. The scientific and mystical evidence and facts are such that I find it impossible to picture them coherently in any other way.
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Hawking’s two questions:
When I read A Brief History of Time by Stephen W.Hawking I found two questions about God. One was, if there is no beginning in time, what is there for a God to do? The other was, why does this amazing universe go to all the trouble to exist? What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? As a person who has spent a whole lifetime seeking for God, I can assure you that the second set of questions answers the first. Actually, God is not conditioned in any way by time, but He has everything to do with Existence. He cannot enter the time-worlds directly without diluting His power through a series of spiritual stepped down transformers (starting with the Seven Master Spirits).He is Self-Existent by the force of Will as Increate Love, including consciousness and intelligence to a degree that is beyond the power of the human mind to imagine; and all of what we think of as existence emerges from that state of Increate Love. That is what promotes, compels and controls existence, which we understand as being and becoming, two aspects that are inseparable. God Himself is outside time and lives forever in the Holy Instant of Now. However, that should not be understood to say that time, even though an illusion, is inaccessible to Him. Now is the only time that really exists and the only place where we come directly into contact with God. Now is the point of interface for us. It is the only real time for us, just as it is for God. The only difference is that most of the time we are not aware of it. The more we become aware of it, the closer we come to union with God in conscious awareness. That is something every mystic knows, regardless of his religion, if any.
The conscious awareness of God Himself is Infinite and Eternal, and so He experiences what we think of as past, present and future simultaneously. But He imparts existence to us only one infinitesimal moment at a time. I believe that He does this by a method called Quantum Mechanics! That is what we call the NOW. Strictly speaking it is not time at all. It is the moving point of imparted existence. So the poet wrote: “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on. Nor all thy piety nor wit can change one jot of it.” He was thinking of the biblical story of the writing on the wall in Persia
Moreover, the consensus opinion among mystics of Judaic heritage is that God is a consuming fire. So the phrasing of the second question is apposite and shows an instinctive and intuitive gravitation towards the underlying truth. Joy is the trigger for existence, that which turns potential into energy. Nothing can exist without Joy. But how does Joy exist? The Joy of God comes into existence in the presence of His Love. This is the raging Fire at the heart of all reality. This is what makes existence itself happen. Nothing else can.
Anyone who has studied educational psychology is familiar with the concept that joy produces energy. The learning process gobbles up vast amounts of energy, so the educationalist has to strive hard to avoid boredom, lethargy and exhaustion during the process. How does he do that? By striving to make learning enjoyable. That is the only way. The more joy comes into the process the more energy abounds.
And if you don’t know that the greatest Joy comes in the presence of Love, then all I can conclude is that you have never yet fallen in love.
These basic mystical principles have little to do with religion or belief systems as such. That is hardly surprising. When Wordsworth wrote his “Ode to Immortality” what religion was he following? It was certainly not orthodox Christian theology of any known brand. His thought is much closer to the Vedas. When Beethoven put the same ideas, or their equivalent emotions into the musical symphony of the “Pastorale”, what religion was he following? None at all. But he was contemplating the divine, and his work is the divine Itself in action, as in the case of Wordsworth. When I saw Yehudin Menuhin playing the violin I felt as if I was watching God Himself playing the violin. Religion in itself is not all-important. But God is important, and we neglect Him at our peril. It is not anthropomorphic sentiment that makes me say that God is the most human of all beings; and it is not foolishness that makes me say that without God we cannot be fully human ourselves. Without Him our humanity will fail. Apart from anything else, this is a question of sheer survival. Yet, as I said before, He doesn’t bother about whether we believe in Him or not. He loves us just the same.
I am really glad to see that my above beliefs (which date back a long way) are fully in line with what the Universal Censor said about human consciousness (which I came to know recently).
In the beginning, not in time, but in ordering of purpose, God wanted us to be God, the same as Him. But we could not be fully God unless we were both Love and Freedom, and could have the experience of creating ourselves. In some ways our own very freedom has been our greatest cross. But, at the end of the day, one has to ask oneself, is it all worthwhile? That is the question each of us must answer for himself. If you answer yes, then you can forgive everything, and that is the magic wand for your redemption.
It only remains for me to add a few useful observations from modern Jeshua. He tells us that the key to our future scientific understanding lies in a radical shift in our concept of time itself. Our present concept of time is due to a limited psychological perspective on reality. More precisely, it is due to our tendency to think of ourselves as being separate from one another as well as separate from reality as a whole. Only when we realize our true unity with God and with one another, and, not simply intellectually, but practically, by setting up a world political and economic system that embodies caring and sharing as intrinsic to its functioning, will we at last take a further step in our spiritual evolution and arrive at a state of liberation from the tyranny of time. Instead of our present perspective, we will then experience time as cyclical movements of activity and inactivity that flow through all reality in an harmonious manner. It seems that this is the same kind of perspective that the inventors of the Mayan Calendar had. This perspective cannot be understood until it is actually experienced, and it cannot be experienced outside of the experience of Unity from within Itself. That is the divine.
There are some other points about time that we can already understand quite easily and include in our paradigm. Jeshua says that most people see reality as emerging in a continuous cause and effect relationship on a continuous timeline from past to present to future. In fact, there is no such chain of existence. Existence is quite independent of time as we now experience it. What we were yesterday does not pre-determine what we are today, nor what we must become in future. Through simple survival, we have actually demolished our past. It does not cause us, and we are not the product of our past. We are not defined in any way by our past. We are always at the point of creation in the Holy Instant of Now. Jeshua says:
“The power of love is that it commands the zero point where time and space become one, in the eternity of divine energy and divine awareness. At this holy zero point, God is both the bird and the breeze, the trees and the land, the boat and the river, the lamb and the lion. Whenever you live within the power of your own love, you also experience that zero point, and resistance falls away.”
When they asked Pythagoras what time was, he said: “It is the soul of the world.”
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And Buddha said: “The only time you need to be enlightened is NOW.”
And Buddha said: “The only time you need to be enlightened is NOW.”
Werner Heisenberg used to keep a horseshoe nailed to his front door. Once someone asked him if he believed that it brought good luck. He said: “Not really, but they tell me it works whether you believe in it or not.”
(JRT) It will take me a few months to knock this book into some kind of shape. Then I will probably publish it on Amazon Kindle. Signed, John Robert Thwaytes at Malbazar on February 7th 2012.
