The Illusion of Past, Present, Future

Co-authored by Robert Lanza

The universe evolves backward in time, not the other way around as we were taught in school. "The histories of the universe," concedes Stephen Hawking, the famed physicist "depend on what is being measured, contrary to the usual idea that the universe has an objective observer-independent history."

Life is not just a collection of atoms -- proteins and molecules spinning like planets around the sun. It is true that the laws of chemistry can tackle the rudimentary biology of living systems, but there is more to us than the sum of our biochemical functions. Conversely, physical existence cannot be divorced from the animal life that coordinates experience. We are connected not only by intertwined consciousness, but by a pattern that is a template for the universe itself.

Quantum physics tells us that objects exist in a suspended physical state until observed, when they collapse to just one outcome -- we don't know what happens until we investigate, and our investigation influences that reality. Whether or not certain events may have happened some time ago, may not actually be determined until some time in your future -- it may actually be contingent upon actions that have not yet taken place.

Bizarre? Maybe you don't believe this is real. Consider an experiment that was published in Science a couple of years ago. Scientists in France shot particles of light "photons" into a measuring apparatus, and showed that what they did -- now, in the present -- could retroactively change something that had already happened in the past. As the photons passed a fork in the apparatus, they had to decide whether to behave like particles or waves when they hit a beam splitter. Later on -- well after the photons passed the fork -- the experimenter could randomly switch a second beam splitter on and off electronically. It turns out that what the observer decided at that point, determined what the particle actually did at the fork in the past. At that moment, the experimenter chose his reality.

Of course, we live in the same world. No physicist challenges the fact that particles do not exist with definite physical properties until they are observed. Every particle has a range of possible physical states, but it's not until the actual act of observation that it takes on defined properties. So until the present is determined, how can there be a past?

According to eminent physicist John Wheeler, one of Albert Einstein's last collaborators, "The quantum principle shows that there is a sense in which what an observer will do in the future defines what happens in the past."

It was only with the advent of quantum physics that scientists began to consider again the old question of the possibility of comprehending the world as a form of mind. Since that time, physicists have analyzed and revised their equations in a vain attempt to arrive at a statement of natural laws that in no way depends on the circumstances of the observer. It seems only natural that the daily circuit of, say, moon round earth, though satiable only by a mind, was independent of any perception whatever. But this was to prove an illusion.

In these days of experiment and disconnected theory, one point seems certain: the nature of the universe cannot be divorced from the nature of life itself. Indeed, the quantum theory implies that consciousness must exist, and that the content of the mind is the ultimate reality. If we do not look at it, the moon is gone. In this world, only an act of observation can confer shape and form to reality -- to a dandelion in a meadow, or a seed pod, or the sun or wind or rain. Anyway, it's amazing, and even your dog can do it too.

According to biocentrism, space and time are not the hard objects we think (Lanza and Berman, Biocentrism, BenBella, 2009). Wave your hand through the air. If you take everything away, what's left? The answer, of course, is nothing. The same thing applies for time -- you can't put it in a marmalade jar. Look at anything -- say this page. You can't see it through the bone that surrounds your brain. Everything you see and experience right now is a whirl of information occurring in your mind. Space and time are simply the mind's tools for putting everything together. We carry them around with us like turtles with shells. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, they are not "real and insurmountable."

In the end, even Einstein admitted, "Now Besso" (one of his oldest friends) "has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us...know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

(To be continued)

Robert Lanza, MD is considered one of the leading scientists in the world. He is the author of Biocentrism-Consciousness-Understanding-Nature-Universe

Published in the San Francisco Chronicle

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Comments

[dfings]

This is a total misappropriate of QM. Stephen Novella posted a pretty devastating takedown of this article over on Skepticblog.

http://skepticblog.org/2009/11/16/deepak-chopra-mangles-quantum-mechanics-again/

[DrLaurieMoore]

Thank you for this wonderful sharing, Deepak:

As a psychotherapist I found that people who rewrote their pasts to their delight began to live in delightful presents. People who described (which is, in a way,to write) their pasts as set plays they did not co-create began to experience life in the present as unpleasant and jail-like.

If there is a past where is it? If there is a future where is it. And the most valuable question: if there is a present where is it? Are we sure?

Dr. Laurie Moore 831-477-7007
www. Animiracles .com
(or visit Psychology Today .com Type in Santa Cruz, Ca and "Dr. Laurie Moore".

[krypton86]

- "[...] quantum theory implies that consciousness must exist, and that the content of the mind is the ultimate reality. If we do not look at it, the moon is gone. In this world, only an act of observation can confer shape and form to reality [...]."

No! no No NO! This paragraph is not in any way supported by what quantum physics says about our universe. This is a conflation of scales: quantum mechanics only apply to particles on the (at most) microscopic level, yet Dr. Chopra says that it applies to the macroscopic universe. This is categorically false.

Quantum phenomena do not apply to macroscopic events. By definition, quantum effects/events vanish when considered on the macroscopic scale because they average out in the presence of a large number of particles. This negates Dr. Chopra's claims. This is, I believe, the main challenge to Dr. Chopra's entire ideology. You cannot claim a basis in quantum mechanics unless you reconcile these questions of scale, and this is actually prohibited by the nature and structure of quantum physics. I openly challenge Dr. Chopra to prove me wrong about the importance of scale in relation to quantum physics. In doing so he will not only prove me wrong, but he will also earn a Nobel Prize by demonstrating the connection between the macro/microscopic worlds as defined by quantum theory.

I eagerly await a devastating rebuttal.

[Write4U]

According to Einstein, an observer travelling on a light beam (speed of light) would see reality as a static (still) picture. But if a single instant in time yields a still picture, then how does reality change from one moment to the next?
Reality (energy/matter) happens in Quanta. The fastest possible way for reality to manifest itself is at the speed of light. Time is a result of quantum. A quantum event is the change from one reality into the next, interrupted by an unreal state of suspension.
I believe the change takes place in the "suspended state" of a quantum event. I call this suspended "unreal" state; Potential (the memory of the previous reality instant and the unrealized image of the next reality instant). (Websters: Potential, "that which may become reality").
Thus we get something like this; R1>suspension (potential­)suspensio­n(potentia­l)

[pattoye]

You are misinterpreting what Einstein was saying about time dilation. You can't make an observation while travelling the speed of light relative to something else (which is impossible itself) because time has asymptotically dilated to infinity, it is moving infinitely slow, so that you cannot make an observation. If a photon were somehow self aware, it would percieve it's travel from origin to destination as instantaneous, not being able to observe any of it.

And that's just the mangling of relativity. Your interpretation of quantum mechanics isn't worth correcting.

[Write4U]

(continued from previous comment)
Thus we get something like this; R1>suspension (potential­­)suspensi­o­n(potent­ia­l)

[Write4U]

continued from previous comment
Thus we get something like this; R1>suspension (potential­­)suspensi­o­n(potent­ia­l)>R3..­.etc.
Is it possible that at the macroscopic level we only see one half of reality, while the other half is in suspension (potential state) and thus unmeasurable.
Might this account for the Dark Matter in the universe. We know its there, but we cannot measure it.

[Write4U]

Krypton,
I have a question.
Do quantum events happen only under special local conditions or is quantum the way reality propagates? Is everything (matter/energy) in the universe in a state of quantum at any given moment?

[krypton86]

There are no clear cut answers to your questions and QM is too involved to explain here. I recommend that you read a good book on the subject, or at least some chapters from a good book.

Try Chapter 7 of Greenstein & Zajonc, "The Quantum Challenge: Modern Research on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics." It's entirely about the Schrödinger's Cat paradox and how QM relates to the visible world.

You can probably find it on Google books.

[PlaceboStudman]

Doesn't this all simply boil down to the simple supposition that perception is reality? If it doesn't exist in your mind, within your awareness, then whether it exists in the physical world is irrelevant, because you won't know it exists until you perceive it with your thoughts

[Write4U]

At a subjective level: what is real to a person, is real to that person.
But, unless we accept an Objective Reality, independent of observation, science would cease to have any value, especially the concept of Relativity, where reality happens relative to the point of the observer. There is only one Objective Reality, but we all see it a little different, depending on our position in space/time.
In order to be able to communicate, we must make an effort to try and "see" the other person's viewpoint and adjust (expand) our personal perception of reality. This is the function of science.
Example: A train track with two men, placed a distance apart along the track. Between them a moving train blows it's whistle. The next day the two men discuss the pitch of the train whistle. The first man states with conviction that the pitch was in the key of B, the second man (with a pitchpipe) emphatically states that the pitch was Dflat. Who is lying and who is right?
Actually they are both speaking truth, but both are wrong!!
If we add a person or any recording device, standing on the roof of the train beside the whistle, the true "objective" pitch would be C. The doppler effect, created by the speed of the train, away from one and toward the other, altered the soundwaves to each observer along the track, though to them it was true reality. Therefore, other realities may well be relevant.

[alwaysthere]

it'd funny how much more i can see
when i turn out the light's and listen

[wietog]

We grasp desperately at and hold on tightly to that which we think is true or wish to believe in order to cope with the vast unknown.

[khanti]

There was a story from Bodhidharma who introduced Zen Buddhism to China. While having a cup of tea another monk eager to show off his knowledge of the Dharma came to him and started to recited from the Heart Sutra, “Forms is emptiness, emptiness is form….” Bodhidharma then got up and knuckled the monk’s head.
“Ouch! Why did you hit me for?” asked the Monk.
“If it is empty then why did you feel pain?” replied Bodhidharma.
Fantastic knowledge but does it help us in reality?

[Arithrianos]

Who was hit on the head? Empty means empty of all duality, there is no one being hit, no one hitting, there si only the totality of the situation, which has no form, but allows form "within" the emptyness, much like sound arises from silence, but does not damage it. Does it help? Only if you know from experience, the words never help, they are stumbling blocks until you step on them.

[khanti]

That is so. In the quest for knowledge there are knolwedge to show off your ability but of little practical importance and there are knowledge that are useful to end sufferings.

[JohnFromCensornati]

Did this blog exist at 4:07 PM when DownerCow commented or did it wait around until 5:02 PM for me to observe it?

[minimalist syntax]

Do you mean that in a metaphysical sense-- as in, did this blog exist if you didn't observe it or do you mean that in a literal sense? (Why did you change your avatar?again.)

[JohnFromCensornati]

Why do I have to choose one or the other?

I like to change them. What do you think of this one?

[meloearth]

I have to agree with the first comment in that a lot of self-help, new age, positive thinkers (or whatever they are called these days) are misappropriating of the word Quantum to support their theories. A clear case is the annoying movie The Secret. As far as I know Quantum is still at it's infancy but if you believe these folks you'd think that you can think everything into reality. Sounds like the same mindset we can see in some folks who suffer from religious delusion.

I'm not a disbeliever in the importance of attitude and a good, positive, contextual mindset, but when taken to the extreme it spells trouble.

Quantum is such a promising field, and such a beautiful word...I wish that people wouldn't mention it so casually and, thus, end up killing it, as it was done to the word "Natural".

(the above related to the first comment, not the article)

My main comment, though, is why the person who posted this couldn't take the time to reformat the text? I can't read that scrambled mess! Had to go to SFG: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/10/19/chopra101909.DTL

[TryToBeFlexible]

I don't think you have a really good understanding of quantum theory. The moon does NOT disappear when you look away, and was there before any conscious being looked at it.

[Pearlswan]

If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make any sound?

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

What about Shrodinger's cat? Is it alive or dead in that black box? You can't know the truth until you observe it.

Quantum theory can't be understood. If you think you "understand" quantum theory you don't really know what you think you know. Its paradoxical, not rational.

[recless]

You seem to be under the same misinterpretation that TryToBeFlexible is referring to. Nothing in QM indicates that we control the universe by thinking about it.

[Romulus]

"If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make any sound?"

Yes. Sound waves are created. No ear may be present to interpret those waves but the waves exist.

"What is the sound of one hand clapping?

I suppose it's possible that sound might be created by the hand moving the air but it's not of a frequency to which our ears respond.

"What about Shrodinger's cat? Is it alive or dead in that black box? You can't know the truth until you observe it."

You may not KNOW the truth but it exists whether you observe it or not.

[DownerCow]

It could also be interpreted that quanta are packets of probability, and that our observation defines the outcome in only one of an infinite number of universes. If so, it would take an infinite amount of energy to change everything back; hence the arrow of time proceeds only in one direction: that of cause and effect.