Reflections on
Mathematics as a foundation for Reality
Updated 11/19/09
Sociological Reality
Sociologist Pitiram Sorokin sees “systems of truth” as a socially agreed upon construct. In his four volume classic Social and Cultural Dynamics, he postulates a cyclic alternation between two cultural values: ideational, which professes that truth lies beyond the material world (and is thus not in the domain of science or scientists), and sensate, which asserts that truth is in the senses; observable matter (and therefore via Einstein, energy) alone is real. (and thus is in the domain of science and scientists) Ideational and sensate values can be traced back at least to classical Greek civilization, with the ideational philosophy of Plato on the one hand, and the sensate philosophy of Aristotle on the other.
He also identifies an idealistic cultural mentality, which
synthesizes the premises of sensate and ideational into one inwardly consistent
and harmonious unity. Sorokin finds that reason and logic, particularly
“rationalistic” philosophy can provides such synthesis. [1]
The main concern of medieval scholasticism, for example, exemplified by the
Suma Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, was to reconcile
faith and reason. [2]
Thomas Kuhn, science historian and philosopher, implicitly concurs with Sorokin’s sociological definition of truth, or reality. The term "Paradigm Shift" was introduced in his 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. According to Kuhn a “Paradigm Shift” is a distinctively new way for a society to think about “reality”. A valid scientific idea may exist for years, without a corresponding societal paradigm shift.
The Copernican concept that the earth
revolves about the sun rather than vice versa is often given as an example of a
paradigm shift. The heliocentric
theory had some unofficial support in Copernicus’ time, but was not recognized
formally for many years. Yet this was not solely due to the influence of the
Catholic church. According to
some, astronomy in the time of Copernicus was taken as a mathematical
discipline which at best was a model. The reality of the physical world, on the
other hand, was established through causal investigation in natural philosophy,
not mathematics. Thus, many believed that Copernicus had not proved that heliocentrism was physically true, but that he had provided
a more accurate mathematical model, which was perhaps useful for making better
calendars. [3]
What appears to have
changed then, in the gradual societal acceptance of the heliocentric theory,
was the increasing credibility of mathematics in people’s minds as being based
in reason, and in not only describing the world, but representing the reality
of it. This trend has continued, and
today mathematics is considered the final arbiter of reality in western
civilization.
Mathematics as arbiter of Reality
Math as predictor
Newtonian Mechanics
In his Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or Principia, first published in 1687, Isaac Newton [1642-1727] extrapolated
on the work of Tycho Brahe [1546-1601] and Johannes Kepler [1571-1630] to develop his mathematical
laws of motion and the universal law of gravitation between elements of
matter. [4]
The Newtonian universe is made up of matter in empty space. The conceptual giant of “Newtonian Mechanics” developed over the next decades after the Principia, and required the contribution of many more scientists. Although applying only to the motions of macroscopic bodies [that is, the math was only applicable to a certain range of phenomena] it was thought by its supporters that if one had the necessary data, the actions of the universe could be predicted, like clockwork in absolute time and space, at any given time in the future.
As
mathematical physics progressed, it was found that
Einstein’s Theories
Michaelson and Morley, based on their famous experiment, concluded there was no ether medium to transmit light. From these results, Albert Einstein [1879-1955] deduced that light always travels at the same speed, no matter how fast or in what direction the observer is moving. This could be explained if distances and times appeared different to observers traveling at different speeds. Einstein worked out the consequences in his Special Theory of Relativity [1905]. The result was a formula for converting the times and distances measured by one observer to those measured by another traveling at different speeds. In this way he arrived at Hendrik Antoon Lorentz’s transformation from a new perspective. There were no “Newtonian” absolute measures of space or time.
Michaelson and Morley’s conclusion however, was disputed by Dayton Clarence Miller, a renowned physicist, who consistently found small positive results for an ether when his interferometer measurements were carried out at high altitude, to reduce the tendency of any alleged moving ether to be arrested by its local surroundings. His meticulous results were disregarded by those in the scientific seats of authority. [6]
James Clerk Maxwell’s Theory of
Electromagnetism
In the mid 1860s, James Clerk Maxwell [1831- 1879] developed
the analytic principles of electromagnetism. Maxwell’s Treatise is probably,
after
a Grand Unified Theory of Electromagnetism, and determined that light is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Einstein showed that Maxwell’s equations worked perfectly
through Lorentz’s transformation, but
Einstein showed that mass (matter) is just an immensely concentrated form of stored energy, expressed mathematically as Energy = Mass * (Velocity of light squared) [1905]
Einstein’s
theory explained perfectly the way atomic particles behave when traveling close
to the speed of light, and accounted for lost mass when a radioactive atom
decays into two smaller ones. [8]
Einstein wanted to expand his general theory to include
Maxwell’s Equations. For the last 20 years of his life, he secluded himself in
a modest house in
Math as the Grand Dissolver
Quantum Mechanics
Einstein's laws did not give good results for very small particles. Einstein and Maxwell’s theories were useless at defining what goes on inside atoms
Quantum Mechanics was developed in the 1920s, and has been highly successful at explaining many phenomena, including spectral lines, the Compton effect and the photo electric effect, where electromagnetic radiation causes a current of electrons.
In 1801, the British physicist Thomas Young appeared to prove light was a wave from the results of his “Double Slit Experiment”, which showed that multiple light sources produce interference patterns; yet in 1839, it was first shown that light waves falling on metal caused the emission of electrons, which suggests that light has particle properties.
Max Plank produced a formula in an “act of desperation” which allowed matter to absorb radiant energy only in discreet amounts, or quanta. Einstein completed the coup in 1905 by asserting that radiation itself comes in discreet packets, now called “photons”. [9]
Matrix Quantum Mechanics was proposed by Werner Heisenberg,
who won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics
for creation of "Quantum Mechanics". Heisenberg also postulated the
Uncertainty Principle:
The more precisely the position of a particle is determined, the less precisely
the momentum is known.
If the variability of particle position is represented by
Wave Quantum Mechanics was proposed by Irwin Schrodinger, known for his Wave Equation.
Transformation Quantum Mechanics was proposed by Paul Dirac, who showed that wave and matrix QM amounted to the same thing. Dirac found that a math description of an electron's wave using quantum theory is consistent with Einstein's Relativity Theory. The math allows a "+" and "-" solution, which predicts the existence of anti-electrons; ie antimatter.
Louis de Brogli generalized wave particle duality by
associating a wave length not only with
mass-less photons, but also electrons, and in fact to any material body.
Validity of the de Broglie hypothesis has been confirmed for macromolecules, as
well as molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles. [11]
Non-locality The EPR thought experiment was devised
by Einstein Podolsky and Rosen in an attempt to discredit the new quantum
physics. This thought experiment said that if quantum theory were correct, a
change in spin of one particle in a two particle system would effect its twin simultaneously, instantaneously, even if the
two had been widely separated in space. A mathematical proof of this was
produced by JS Bell in 1964, and experimentally confirmed in 1982. At the
GUTS and TOES
Math as Grand Unifier
Physicists
have come to understand that the known universe is governed by the four forces
of gravity, electromagnetism (EM), and the weak and strong nuclear forces. The
strong nuclear force holds the protons and neutrons of the nucleus together;
the weak nuclear force allows neutrons to turn into protons, giving off
radiation in the process. The atomic bomb releases the power of the strong
nuclear force.
Physicists since Einstein have been trying to understand gravity, and to reduce the expressions for the four forces of the universe to a single equation.
According to Leonard Susskind, by
the 1950s, Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, Sin-Itiro Tomanaga and Freeman Dyson
had laid the foundation for a synthesis of special relativity and quantum
mechanics called Quantum Field Theory. [13]
The first and most successful expression of QFT was Quantum Electrodynamics
(QED).
The EM and weak forces have been unified. In high energy interactions, we can’t tell the EM force from the Weak force. Steven Weinberg et al got Nobel Prize for his development of “electro-weak” in 1979. [14]
According to Paul Davies, in 1973, Sheldon Glashow and Howard Georgi published a theory in which the new electroweak force was merged with the strong gluon force to form a “grand unified force,” the first Grand Unified Theory. [15]
According to Professor Alex Filippenko, unification of the electro-weak and strong nuclear force will require a Grand Unified Theory (GUT), while unification of the electro-weak and strong nuclear force with gravity will require a more difficult Theory Of Everything (TOE). [16]
Astronomers have discovered regions in space with enormous
gravitational pull. Most believe these regions are under the influence of black
holes, which are points, or singularities, so massive that gravity prevents
even light from escaping. Further, as already noted, the vacuum fluctuations in energy
density at every point in space are also enormous. However, Einstein’s General
Theory, today’s standard
theory of gravity, deals with large spaces and demands smooth
variations in space time.
Currently science has no equations
that can be used to describe something that is both very massive, where normally the
General Theory would apply, and very
small, where normally quantum mechanics would apply.
In preparing groundwork for such equations, and a TOE, Nobel prize winner
Sheldon Glashow and colleague Andrew Cohen, of
The search is on to develop the
TOE, or TOG, and some think a primary contender is the next iteration in
particle physics: [18]
“String” theory, or “Super String” theory.
Particle Physics
In the early 20th century, it was natural to speak of the elementary particles as being the “building blocks” of matter. At that time matter was believed to consist of atoms made up of a nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons. As the internal structure of the nucleus was probed, the number of “elementary particles” grew to a veritable zoo: [19]
The product of high speed particle collisions include several
hundred types. These are not the “constituents” of the collided particles, but
rather resultant debris created on site. In the 1960s, physicists were
completely bewildered by the seemingly endless variety of particles being
discovered. The varying quantities are mass, charge, and spin, and lifetime.
Particles with 0, 1, or 2 spin are called Bosons; ½ and 3/2 spin are Fermions.
Big particles which couple to the Strong force are called hadrons; those which
feel the weak force but not the strong are called leptons. (“light
thing”) There are only a handful of leptons, which include the electron and
neutrino. Neutrinos feel neither the strong force nor the EM force,
almost oblivious to matter they pass right through it. They are harmless so neutrino
experiments require no shielding. They are the most common objects in the
universe, outnumbering electrons or protons by a thousand million to one: the
universe is a
Werner Heisenberg argued that what was truly fundamental in nature was not the particles themselves, but the symmetries, or patterns that lay beyond them. These fundamental symmetries could be thought of as the archetypes of matter and the ground of material existence. The particles themselves would simply be the material realizations of those underlying abstract symmetries. These abstract symmetries could be taken as the scientific descendents of Plato’s ideal forms. [21]
String Theory, the
Next Generation of Particle Physics
String theory, which asserts that all phenomena are made up not of tiny particles, but of very tiny strings of energy, which vibrate in varying ways, has been a major contender in the attempt to shoehorn the universe into that single GUT, or TOE equation.
Edward
Witten showed that the original 5 different versions
of string theory were merely different perspectives on the same thing. His
theory, called “M” theory,
requires 11 dimensions. String theory also predicts multiple
universes. These dimensions and universes are predicted by mathematics. [22]
What is so alluring about String Theory? Its mathematical elegance; its aesthetics; some scientists think that certain relationships are so appealing that they must be correct. [23]
No experimental data support string theory. Read Davies
The concept of multiple dimensions and universes in string theory may be compared with the concept of epicycles in predicting the motions of the planets in medieval astronomy. Each is an analytical construction that fits the mathematical requirements, but provides no further physical insight.
Interestingly,
Susskind, with the publication of his latest books, The Cosmic Landscape and The Black Hole War is at the epicenter
of current thinking about the nature of the universe. [24]
According to the acknowledged “father” of String Theory, Leonard Susskind, String Theory is based on Quantum Mechanics and describes a system of elementary particles similar to those in our universe. It assumes all material objects interact through gravitational forces, that the universe has black holes, and notes we have impressive evidence that string theory is a mathematically consistent theory of some world…
The notion of a holographic principle in the universe pops up in String Theory. Susskind notes “There is something crazy about string theory that I first came across in 1969, but it is so crazy that string theorists don’t even want to think about it… the mathematics of string theory implies an absurdly violent case of quantum jitters [zero point fluctuations], with fluctuations so ferocious that the pieces of an electron would spread out to the ends of the universe… String theory … places every bit of information, whether in black holes or black newsprint, at the outer edges of the universe … To most physicists, including string theorists, that seems so crazy that it is unthinkable.” [25] The appearance of this information at the outer edges of the universe for Susskind constitutes a “holographic principle”; a peculiar type of non-locality arrived at apparently independently from Bohm’s holographic concept.
Beyond Particles: Information
Fields: The Quantum Potential, The Zero Point Field
Robert Jahn notes that physical, biological, and medical science have tended to trade in three conceptual currencies; matter, energy, and most recently, information. Einstein's identification of the transmutability of matter into energy has impelled much of 20th century physics. A somewhat subtler equivalence of energy and information has been established.
The
His alternative theory to Quantum Mechanics assumes that elementary particles do not actually have a wave particle nature, but are particles with considerable internal complexity. In the more advanced version, this particle is represented by fluctuations within a quantum field. Bohm postulates a “Quantum Potential” which acts on an elementary particle, in addition to the conventional EM, strong, and weak nuclear forces. The Quantum Potential, unlike the other forces of nature, does not reduce with increasing distance. Because of this, even remote objects can have a profound effect. Also, the QP does not push or pull like other forces, but acts more like a guide wave, or like a radar signal received by a ship at sea. This is analogous to the way a morphic field would work. Although the amount of energy in the signal is negligible, the information it provides has a formative effect, as the radar information could be used by a ship at see to steer. The Quantum Potential carries information about the environment of the quantum particle and thus informs and effects its motion. Since the information in the Quantum Potential is very detailed, the resulting particle trajectory appears chaotic or indeterminate. Bohm’s causal interpretation suggests that matter has orders that are closer to mind than to a simple mechanical order.
His holographic theory, developed between 1970 and 1980, yields numerical results that are identical to conventional QM, but has not been examined in a serious way by the physics community.
In the quantum field version of the theory, the elemental particles themselves become a manifestation of the quantum field. Active information is responsible for the way quantum processes unfold out of the quantum field. For this reason, the inner structure of elementary particles may be of unlimited complexity, for they are an expression of the entire universe.
Bohm made use of the idea of a holograph to illustrate the concept of enfoldment of an implicate order. In holography, light from each part of the object is folded over the whole photographic plate, so each part of the photographic plate contains information about the whole object. [27] Bohm later identified the deeper level as the “implicate order”, a holofield where all the states of the quantum are permanently coded. Observable reality emerges from this field by constant unfolding, in the “explicate order:”
“In the enfolded [or
implicate] order, space and time are no longer the dominant factors determining
the relationships of dependence or independence of different elements. Rather,
an entirely different sort of basic connection of elements is possible, from
which our ordinary notions of space and time, along with those of separately
existent material particles, are abstracted as forms derived from the deeper
order. These ordinary notions in fact appear in what is called the
"explicate" or "unfolded" order, which is a special and
distinguished form contained within the general totality of all the implicate
orders”. [28]
As F. David Peat notes, instead of science reducing nature to the material, the whole notion of the “material” has been extended into the regions of indefinite intangibility.
According to Ervin Laszlo, various versions of Bohm’s theory are being developed today by theoretical
physicists who are unwilling to accept the mathematical formalisms of quantum
physics as an adequate explanation of the real world. They account for the
behavior of the quantum in reference to its interaction with a deeper dimension
that has
replaced the luminous ether of the 19th century. [29]
The concept of a “holographic universe” has been supported
by the results of an investigation into gravity waves by a German team. Their
gravity wave detector had been plagued by an inexplicable noise. According to a researcher at Fermilab in
The Zero Point Field
To quantum physicists attempting
to model the electron mathematically, the vacuum, or Zero Point Field was seen
as an annoyance which introduced infinities into their equations. In Paul
Davies words: “The presence of infinite terms in the theory is a warning flag
that something is wrong, but if the infinities never show up in an observable
quantity we can just ignore them and go ahead and compute.” [31]
To their delight, they found that not only could these infinities be subtracted
out mathematically, but the resulting theory of Quantum Electrodynamics proved
highly successful.[32]
This theory states that interaction between electrons is mediated by virtual
photons from the quantum vacuum (ZPF). Electrons feel each other by exchanging
virtual photons.
However, the very success of QED itself provided a clue to the
profound importance of the Zero Point Field.
This theory says that fluctuations of this Zero Point Field are really
occurring and effect the structure of atoms. Willis Lamb in 1947 found
that the energy levels in the hydrogen atom are not exactly where you would
expect them to be based on classical physics. The mismatch is called the Lamb
Shift, which is explained by QED: unless you include the effects of the virtual
particles, you will not get the classically expected values. The vacuum is also
manifest macroscopically, as seen in the Casimir
effect, in which two thin plates placed on one another experience a net
attraction. [33]
There is some controversy regarding the energy density of the Zero Point Field, or quantum vacuum. [34] The vacuum or quantum fluctuation theory, also known as the cosmological constant theory is among the major contenders in accounting for “dark energy”, which makes up 70% of the universe, and which is causing an acceleration in the expansion of the universe. [35] From astronomical considerations, many believe the vacuum energy density to be close to zero.
However, empty space may turn out to be a writhing sea of energy. The quantum vacuum itself obeys Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle: the smaller the distance and time the larger the uncertainty in energy. Even though space time is considered discrete at the Plank scale, (10 -33rd cm) the vacuum fluctuations in energy density are still enormous, being calculated variously as 1096 kilograms per cubic meter. [36] Richard Feynman, who made major contributions to QED , [37] noted that the energy in one cubic meter (variously one teaspoon) of empty space contains enough energy to boil all the oceans of the world. [38] Seen in this perspective, physical matter can be seen more as a froth appended to the churning sea. [39]
The combined theories of kinetic theory of gasses, thermodynamics, and Maxwell’s equations seemed to indicate that all of the kinetic energy of molecules should long ago have been radiated away, leaving a cold dead universe.
Quantum physicists struggled with the question of why an electron orbits around a proton, like a planet orbiting around the sun. In the atomic world, any moving electron, which carries a charge, would eventually radiate away its energy and spiral into the nucleus, causing the entire atomic structure to collapse. [40]
The hidden mechanism which
prevents atomic collapse appears to be the Zero Point Field. In 1987, Hal Puthoff was able to
demonstrate in a paper published by Physical
Review, that the stable state of matter depends on the dynamic interchange
of energy between the subatomic particles and the sustaining Zero Point Energy
field. [41]
In quantum field theory, the individual particles are transient and
insubstantial. The only fundamental reality is the underlying entity- the Zero
Point Field itself . [42]
Interestingly, Timothy Boyer and Hal Puthoff showed that if you take into account the Zero Point Field, you don’t have to depend on Bohr's Quantum Mechanical model. You can show mathematically that electrons loose and gain energy constantly from the ZPF in dynamic equilibrium, balanced at exactly the right orbit. Electrons get their energy to keep going because they are refueling by tapping into these fluctuations of empty space
Puthoff showed that fluctuations of the ZPF drive the motion of subatomic particles and that all the motion of all the particles generates the ZPF.
Timothy Boyer showed that many of the weird properties of subatomic matter which puzzled physicists and led to the formulation of strange quantum rules could easily be accounted for in classical physics, if you include the ZPF: uncertainty, wave-particle duality, the fluctuating motion of particles all had to do with interaction of the ZPF and matter.
Gravity has remained a mystery to physicists, being billions of times weaker than the other of the four forces. Even Einstein, who was able to describe it thru his general theory of relativity, could not explain where it came from or how to relate it to the other fundamental forces.
Hal Puthoff demonstrated mathematically that gravitational
effects were entirely consistent with zero point particle motion. Tying gravity
to Zero Point energy solved a number of problems that had troubled physicists
for centuries. It answered why gravity is weak and can’t be shielded (the ZPF
can’t be shielded). it also explained why we can have
positive mass and not negative mass . [43]
In the 1960s, Paul Dirac showed that fluctuations in fields of material particles produces a polarization of the ZPF whereby it in turn affects the particles mass, charge, spin, or angular momentum. About the same time, Andrei Sakharov proposed that the slowing of clocks and shrinkage of lengths near the speed of light are the result of effects induced in the vacuum “due to the shielding of the ZPF by charged particles. [44]
Zero Point Field TOE
In his book Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything[45] [2004], Ervin Laszlo contends that the Zero Point Field is in fact a super dense information field which in addition to retaining a record of all events, holds the universe together and accounts for literally “everything”.
According to the Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell, information and energy are the stuff of the universe. “The quantum vacuum”, Mitchell said, “is the holographic information mechanism that records the historical experience of matter.” [46]
[note: in this view the holograph records the information, but does not create the universe.]
How could the quantum vacuum convey the “historical
experience of matter”? The German physicist Hartmut
Mueller has found that pressure waves may propagate through the ZPF, and claims that the observed dimensions of atom as well
as galaxies is determined by pressure waves in the ZPF. These pressure waves
may superimpose, creating standing waves. These waves determine physical
interactions by setting the values of the electromagnetic, gravitational, weak
and strong nuclear forces. By means of resonance they amplify some vibrations
and suppress others, and are thus responsible for the distribution of matter
through the universe. [47]
The Russian physicists G.I. Shipov
and A.E. Akimov et al proposed the “torsion wave “ theory, which has been elaborated upon by European and US
scientists. This theory shows how the vacuum can link physical events through
space time. The torsion waves act at one billion times the speed of light.
Particles that have “spin” also have a specific magnetic momentum, which is
registered in the vacuum
in the form of minute vortices made up of virtual bosons.
Hungarian Laszlo Gazdag has argued that these
vortices carry information, much the same as magnetic impulses on tape or a
computer disk. These vortices interact with each other to form interference
patterns that integrate the strands of information. An analog is the sea and
the way waves from objects in the sea interact. The persisting wave patterns
are the memory of the objects that moved in the water. [48]
It makes sense, says Laszlo, to name this ZPF information field of the universe the “A-Field”, after the Indian philosophical concept of the Akashic Chronicle, the record of everything that has happened in the universe.
Laszlo arrives at his ZPF as the explanation for everything by way of a grand generalization in assuming that the ZPF is the mechanism producing the well documented property of non-locality of quantum particles. He then notes that living tissue, being a Bose- Einstein condensate, may be considered a quantum system. He then goes on to assume that the coherence of biological systems, the linkage of organisms to one another and the environment in evolution, and the connection of individual consciousness to a larger awareness are all due to the ZPF. Information is carried by superimposed vacuum wave interference patterns that are equivalent to holograms.
A Maverick TOE
Nassim Haramein, a Swiss-born self-trained scientist, and physicist Elizabeth Rauscher have provided intriguing new studies, integrating not only the four forces, but the ZPF and complexity theory.
A 2004 paper [49] incorporates torque and Coriolis effects in "'plasma dynamics'" interacting with a "polarized geometric structured vacuum" [50]. The paper makes the case that “gravitational forces with spin-like terms may be related to the strong and electroweak forces”, thus providing a new unification of the four forces, otherwise called a “Theory Of Everything” (TOE)
Haramein and Rauscher have also developed
a "Scaling Law for Organized Matter", [51]
which characterizes all matter from subatomic to galactic and universal size as
various sized black holes. Haramein’s unified field
theory and the fractals associated with this scaling law are integral to his
concept of a "Holofractographic
Universe". Geometry is important to
Haramein, and since string theorists claim that Supersymmetry is related to geometry, [52]
he may be onto something.
Haramein’s 2009 paper The Schwarzschild Proton [53]presents
a model in which Vacuum (Zero Point Field)
energy is converted to a proton with Black Hole characteristics, such
that the “Strong Force” can be seen as gravitational attraction.
Biological scale
mathematics and reality
So far the discussion has been on
the very small and the very large scale. By subsuming the very large,
the very small, and the very fast under one equation,
GUT and TOE scientists would claim a major intellectual victory. However, other scientists have very different
views. Just
as most people would agree there is much more to reality than Newtonian
descriptions of the motions of material bodies, most people would agree there
is more to reality than a mathematical relationship between the known forces of
the universe. What about the middle scale, of earth
and biological organisms? What about love and life and the Arts? What
about consciousness? If we really want a theory of everything, don’t we also
need to consider the meridian structures of acupuncture, and subtle energies?
Math as descriptor:
Although elements of math as
descriptor also apply to the universe, descriptors at the earth scale are
particularly rich.
logarithms, fractals, Fibinacci series
Pictorial Perspective: Cartesian coordinates,
vanishing point
Complexity Theory: Its About More Than Just Particles.
In nature systems are observed to be governed by order in the midst of chaos. Ilya Prigogine addressed the question of why there is order in the world. He came up with a Theory of Dissipative Structures, in which a structure can become self organizing if it has an incoming supply of material and energy.
Phil Anderson is a Nobel Prize winner in condensed matter physics. He disagrees strongly with reductionistic sciences such as particle physics, which assert that "fundamental" particles hold all the secrets and are the most important. He supports the notion of emergent properties within a self organizing structure, which says that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts; i.e. unexpected behaviors "emerge" from large numbers of component parts. [54]
Biological structures are the supreme example of self organizing structures, and provide many examples of emergent properties, such as metabolism, blood and oxygen circulation, nerve stimulation and transmission. Although mathematics may be applied to the emerged structures, it has little to say about their emergence.
Although some believe that consciousness is an emergent property, there is insufficient evidence to support this hypothesis.
Simpler structures, such as solotons are also self organized. A soliton is a coherent group of particles or waves that is held together by an incoming energy supply. Examples are laser beams, hurricanes, and tidal waves. They are found in air, water, metals, plasmas, and can be thought of as material objects as well as movements of energy.
Interestingly
The division between Prigogine and Anderson mirrors the
disarray Complexity Theory advocates found themselves in when they attempted to
achieve a unified theory of complex systems. [56]
Quantum reality and human consciousness
Why, in the indeterminate and probabilistic theory of QM, are there definite
outcomes?
Quantum Mechanics researchers have
long accepted that the spin of a particle will always be found to point along
whichever axis is chosen by the experimenter as his reference.
Physicist Eugene Wigner suggested
that these definite outcomes, including looking where a wave was and seeing a
particle, are produced by the
consciousness of the observer acting on the quantum system; “collapsing” the
wave function into a well defined state.
Somehow the observer’s
consciousness is effecting what is observed, and this is certainly a
macroscopic effect. Perhaps for this reason, the study of consciousness as a
science has moved more towards the mainstream.
Some scientists see Quantum Mechanics at work in the
biology of living tissue, and see it as
a key in unraveling the mysteries of the human mind and consciousness. The Japanese physicist Kunio
Yasue, the American physicist Gordon Globus and
others claim that brain substrates uphold second-order quantum fields. [57]
Of course another issue is location of the seat of consciousness, which may not just be
in the brain. [58]
David Bohm
applied Eugene Wigner type observations directly to functions of
the brain and the problem of consciousness. He concluded that mind and matter
“are two aspects of one whole, and are no more separable than form or content.
…Deep down the consciousness of mankind is one. [59]
Holographic Brain
In the 1960s Carl
Pribram encountered the concept of holography and realized he had found the
explanation for the location of memory that brain scientists had been looking
for. Pribram believes memories are encoded not in neurons, or small groupings
of neurons, but in patterns of nerve impulses that crisscross the entire brain
in the same way that patterns of laser light interference crisscross the entire
area of a piece of film containing a holographic image. In other words, Pribram
believes the brain is itself a hologram. Pribram's
theory explains how the human brain can store so many memories in so little
space. It has been estimated that the human brain has the capacity to memorize
something on the order of 10 billion bits of information during the average
human lifetime (or roughly the same amount of information contained in five
sets of the Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Carl Pribram's belief that our brains mathematically construct
"hard" reality, arguably “consciousness”, by relying on input from a frequency
domain has received a good deal of experimental support.
Biological
electromagnetic information fields
Bernhard Ruth, working in conjunction with Fritz-Albert
Popp, developed a machine that could count photons. The photomultiplier
detected coherent photons of high intensity from cucumber seedlings and potato
sprouts grown in the dark.
In quantum physics, coherence means that subatomic particles are linked by bands of common electromagnetic fields, so they can 'communicate'. They are like a multitude of tuning forks that all begin resonating together. As they get into phase, they begin acting like one giant wave. Usually this level of coherence , called a Bose-Einstein condensate, is only observed in superfluids and superconductors, a few degrees above absolute zero.
Perfect coherence corresponds to an optimal state between total randomness and total order. In total randomness cells become disordered. Cancer patients were found to lack biophoton coherence. Too much order prevents flexibility. Multiple sclerosis patients were found to have too much order, and too many biophotons. This led Popp to think of biophotons emissions as a sort of correction by a living system to the fluctuations of the Zero Point Field. Photon emission may be a compensatory measure to maintain equilibrium.
Popp found with experimentation that molecules in the cells would respond to certain frequencies and that a range of vibrations from the photons would cause a variety of frequencies in other molecules of the body. From experiment, Popp showed that one of the most essential sources of biophoton emission was DNA.
Popp showed that all living things emit a permanent current of photons. The higher on the evolutionary scale, ; the more complex the organism, the fewer photons are emitted.[60]
Popp believed that bio-photons orchestrated bodily processes, and the French scientist Jacques Benveniste was learning how this process worked.
The conventional theory of how molecules communicate in the body requires some direct contact. this theory is too dependent on chance, and also requires a long time duration, and cant account for rapid emotional changes. According to Benveniste's theory, which has been supported by experiment, molecules rely on electromagnetic signaling at low frequencies (between 20hz and 20 khz)Each molecule has its own signature frequency, and can resonate with other molecules.
Robert O. Becker and Cyril Smith had conducted extensive
experiments on EM frequencies in living things. Jacques Benveniste's contribution was to
show that molecules and atoms had their own unique frequencies by using modern
technology both to record this frequency and to use this recording itself for
cellular communication. [61]
Herbert Frohlich was among the
first researchers to suggest that waves or vibration allow proteins to
cooperate with one another and carry out instructions from DNA. He predicted
certain frequencies, now called “Frohlich frequencies” could be excited in
the cell by vibrations in the proteins. He showed that once energy reaches a
certain level, molecules begin to vibrate in unison, until they reach a high
level of coherence, when they may take on certain properties of quantum
mechanics, including non-locality. [62]
Although Benveniste and Frohlich’s work
has been ignored or attacked by the status quo, validity of the de Broglie
hypothesis, which associates a wave with frequency and wavelength for subatomic
particles, has been confirmed for macromolecules, as well as molecules, atoms,
and subatomic particles. One might wonder how the de Broglie frequency is
related to Frohlich frequencies.
Morphogenetic fields
Clearly the development of the embryo represents a
staggering challenge to biologists, who must explain exactly how the fetus is
able to develop in exactly the right sequence to form a unique human being. The
conventional account is that the genetic blueprints of life are stored within
the DNA of each cell. In spite of many advances in understanding, current
experiment and theory is far from a whole theory of cell function, let alone the a theory of the development of the embryo. In short, it
is still only a hypothesis that the functioning of a living being can be
completely explained in terms of DNA and cell metabolism. A few maverick
biologists have argued that the genetic picture is too simple to provide a full
explanation of life. How does evolution fit in? The conventional argument is
that new variations are produced by changes in genetic material. But how does a
totally new species evolve? How do complex organs like the eye evolve? The
eminent biologist C.H. Waddington was never fully satisfied with the
conventional explanations of genetics. He stressed that growth involves an
element of wholeness that reflects the epigenetic landscape and is therefore
not totally determined by DNA. He appears to have been moving towards a notion
of development in which living matter responds in some way to a field of
information.
This idea has been taken much further by Rupert Sheldrake, a Zoologist and author of A New Science of Life, in his concept of morphic, or morphogenetic fields. These are not matter and not energy, but information fields which contain the details to create form.
Sheldrake has proposed that these fields influence the structure of not only living organisms, but inanimate matter as well. According to Sheldrake, all matter has an associated field of memory which plays an active role in guiding the formation of structures and various processes. The first time a new molecule is created, or crystal grows, it must follow a piecewise blind path down the hills and valleys of the energy landscape. This process results in a morphic field, which is a kind of memory of the material processes involved. The next time the process takes place, it will be guided by the information in the memory field. With more repetitions, the filed builds in strength and is more active in controlling the process. Sheldrake hypothesizes a whole hierarchy of morphic fields to guide the development of the embryo.
What evidence is there for these hypothetical fields? Most arguments are anecdotal, such as the difficulty in formation of a first crystal, and ease in formation of subsequent crystals. Sheldrake’s ideas have been treated with indifference and hostility by the scientific community. There has not been enough interest to subject his hypothesis to rigorous examination. Sheldrake suggests that the processes of nature are far more subtle than is presently supposed, and in fact contain an aspect that is very close to what we call mind. [63]
Whenever one member of a species learns a new behavior, the remainder of the species learn it more quickly.
Sheldrake proposes that morphic, or morphogenetic fields explain this. One of the examples Sheldrake uses to support his views were a series of experiments carried out by Harvard psychologist William McDougall in the early 1920s. rats in a task were shocked if they swam to a brightly lighted gangway, but not f they swam to an unlighted gangway. The rat’s rate of learning was measured based on number of trials till they swan directly to the unlighted gangway. It turned out that later generations of rats learned more rapidly. The experiment was continued for 32 generations and took 15 years to complete. From first to last generation was a ten fold increase in learning. Much more surprisingly, when separate studies in Scotland and Australia were designed to replicate McDougall’s experiment, the first generation rats learned almost as rapidly as McDougall’s 32nd generation. [64]
Issues with the Sensate
mode of comprehending Reality
The
purely sensate mode of comprehending reality embraces mathematics, and can
ignore or deny the reality of mind and consciousness, seeing them as merely
incidental by-products, or epiphenomena [65],
of physical processes. It is odd however, that the mere epiphenomenon of mind
could itself bring forth the tool of mathematics, the final arbiter of
today’s reality. It is ironic that the
mathematics of quantum mechanics and information fields has made matter entirely
intangible.
Other sensate schools hold that reductionism will eventually explain mind and consciousness in terms of mechanisms of a biological system, such as action potentials, neurotransmitters, etc.
However, even assuming a connection between quantum mechanics and consciousness; even assuming the validity of Bohm’s implicate and explicate orders and the great significance of the Zero Point Field; even assuming science succeeds in building a theoretical bridge between matter and mind, science is still at an impasse with regard to “explaining” consciousness in a reductionistic way. Further, although many emergent properties arise in complex biological systems, there is no proof that consciousness is one of them.
Professor Daniel Robinson: The “Problem”
of Consciousness
In a 12 lecture course, Consciousness and Its Implications, [66] Professor Daniel Robinson discusses what is called the “problem” of Consciousness, being an embarrassment to both scientific materialism (physicalism) which assumes only matter, and dualism, which asserts two types of stuff; matter and mind.
He dismisses epiphenomenalism and explores the difficulty science has in explaining just how neurobiological processes of the brain gives rise to consciousness, in all of it’s multifaceted glory.
He
notes
Confidence in the ability of mathematics
to describe reality does not confine one to the sensate
mode of comprehension. It seems that at
least two mathematically accepted alternatives to quantum mechanics exist: the
Zero Point Field alternative, and the Bohm Holographic alternative,
and all three perspectives show that the perception of “matter” is an illusion.
The linkage of Mind and Matter: Consciousness creating reality
Synchronicity is generally seen as a confluence of an
individual’s mental experiences; ie consciousness,
usually in the form of thoughts or dreams, with that individual’s experiences
in daily life. F. David Peat has suggested that the existence of
synchronicity shows that both consciousness
and matter are linked. Random Event Generator (REG) experiments and the
work at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab also demonstrate a linkage
of mind and matter. Peat notes that various attempts
to explain how mind and matter relate often preserve features of Cartesian
duality. The duality could be resolved if mind and matter could be understood
as emerging from a common source.
There is, interestingly, a trend to see consciousness not just as the perception but also the creation of “what is out there”. Roger Sperry, a neuroscientist from Cal Tech, won the Nobel prize for work characterizing the left and right brain. He put his thoughts into a lead article for the 1981 Annual review of Neuroscience titled Changing Priorities. In the article he says we are leaving behind determinism, behaviorism, and the materialism of the science of the past. “we are having to recognize the primacy of inner conscious awareness as a causal reality.” [67] This is related to Sorokin’s Ideational mode of comprehension.
Ken Wilber on subtle
energies
Philosopher Ken Wilber has done some deep thinking on an integrative approach to subtle energies. [68] He looks at the world’s wisdom traditions: common to many traditions is the idea of a spectrum of energies and consciousness. Typically, these are gross physical, etheric, astral, psychic, and causal. The energies are not conscious. Rather, these levels of energy accompany and support their correlative levels of consciousness. In Wilber’s scheme, higher biological evolution corresponds to higher consciousness evolution, and thus to more subtle energy levels, in a holonic fashion (i.e., as spheres of increasing expanse; transcend and include). For example, atoms and non-living molecules constitute gross physical matter and energy; simple living organisms consist of an etheric energy and etheric consciousness in addition to gross physical matter and energy. Neural cord organisms include the levels for simple living organisms, but also consist of astral energy and astral consciousness. Triune brain organisms include all the lower levels and in addition consist of psychic energy and psychic consciousness. "Psychic," in this case, simply means "thought fields," which are said to be produced by sustained mental activity.
Wilber believes that the scientific community which has associated the quantum world and the quantum vacuum with consciousness and spiritual potentiality and are incorrect, because the quantum world and quantum vacuum have physical properties (The vacuum has energy density) . “Unfortunately, the physicists who started equating quantum realities with the Tao were simply ill-versed in the philosophical subtleties of the great traditions. Oddly, the original and pioneering physicists themselves—from Schroedinger to Planck to Einstein—refused to make that confusion—refused, that is, to identify the findings of quantum or relativistic physics with any sort of spiritual reality”.
He sees the quantum vacuum as prana, which gives rise to matter. He believes David Bohm’s concept of a single implicate and single explicate order was too simplistic. For him Prana is implicate to gross matter; etheric is implicate to prana; astral is implicate to etheric, etc. According to Wilber, Bohm later added several epicycle orders to his theory, including “super-implicate” and “beyond super-implicate” orders, supposedly all based on physics. For this reason Wilber believes that Bohm professed a colossally reductionistic game that reduced the levels of biology and psychology to hidden variables in his theory of the quantum mechanics of gross matter-energy. Based on the traditional wisdom of many cultures he subscribes to the two truths doctrine, which states that there exists absolute or non-dual truth, known only through the direct experience of satori (or revelation), and the relative or conventional truth of science. He also believes that the etheric, astral, and psychic fields are part of the manifest realm, as is the quantum vacuum (prana) and so they are the proper object of study of science.
Wilber’s views thus take us to a very sophisticated creationist vision of Sorokin’s ideational conception of true reality, which
includes the spiritual; God, Nirvana, and Tao.
Mathematical correspondences
Still, Mathematics is amazing. It not only describes, predicts, and dissolves the gross material universe.
Intriguing correspondences between nature and mathematics continue to be discovered, whose significance is not understood.
For example, , Georg F.B. Riemann added an
improvement to an early formula for determining prime numbers which gives the
“steps” we see in the actual distribution of prime numbers. The improvement
consisted of adding waves at certain frequencies. Rieman’s
guess of frequency values needed is called “Rieman’s
hypothesis”, and
also “the music of the primes” as well as the “zeros of the Rieman
Zeta function”. These waves are the key to the successful prediction of prime
numbers. Quantum systems have discrete energy levels, corresponding to waves
vibrating at certain frequencies. Likewise the distribution of prime numbers is
encoded in a discrete set of wave frequencies: the “magic frequencies”
Amazingly, Rieman’s frequencies look like the
frequencies of a “quantum chaotic system”.
There is some undiscovered chaotic system whose quantum counterpart would
hold the secret to the music of the primes. Chaos, atoms, and prime numbers all connected. The
Prime numbers of our mental world are connected to the atoms of reality, and
the link between them is chaos. [69]
Still, although some mathematics can describe or predict aspects of our material universe, or offer tantalizing hints of connection to it, much in mathematics appears to be unrelated to the material universe. Could it be related to the absolute or non-dual truth?
888888888888888888888888888888888888
Enlightenment intellectuals such as Descartes resolved the problem of consciousness in a material universe by assuming two types of stuff: matter/energy and mind/spirit. Traditionally, another option asserts that consciousness creates reality.
According
to Willis Harman, social scientist,
academic, writer, visionary, and former President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the philosophical metaphysical
options for reality are “materialistic monism,” in
which only matter and energy are real; “dualism”, which assumes the universe
consists of two types of stuff: matter/energy
and mind/spirit; and “transcendental monism”; which asserts that
consciousness creates reality Willis Harman, Global
mind change Berrett-Koehler
1998 p. 29 For Descartes the
human body and the human mind were discrete entities. The human soul, unlike
the mechanical world, was something that could not be broken down.
One of the most challenging questions for
Cartesian dualism is that if mind and matter are so radically different, how do
they interact?
8888888888888888888888888888888888
math
Sub Chapter: variation principles and the law of the whole
For certain applications, Newtonian causality has been very successful; namely in
dealing with mechanistic systems. An alternative system began with the idea of
the “whole path.” Rather than analyzing motion into causative elements, the “variation
principle” considers that motion emerges out of the whole action.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Fermat, Maupertius, Euler and Lagrange were able to provide a math basis for these earlier intuitions and showed that motion and change were always achieved in a way that minimizes the “action” of nature. This action is a measure of the momentum and velocity associated with a moving particle and can be generalized in the case of more complex systems.
It has been shown that the theory of relativity and quantum
theory both follow from variation principles.
F.
David Peat Synchronicity The Bridge Between Matter and Mind p. 52 f.
The Hamilton-Jacobi equation (the Irish William R. Hamilton and Prussian Karl Gustav Jacobi) provides a uniform framework for treating everything from moving particles to light. This new formulation of dynamics shows that all motion and change emerges out of the “law of the whole.” In its purest form, it treats the world as composed of interacting waves, so that motion emerges out of the whole complex movement of these waves, rather than through the action of a force acting on infinitesimal elements of a trajectory. [70]
( would these
waves be related to DeBroglio’s association of a wave
character to a particle?)
The
HJE provides a natural framework for discussing field phenomena, but also
suggests a metaphor for the structures and movements of matter in which material objects are pictured
as concentrations or packets of wavelets that undergo coherent motion together. While at one level colliding billiard balls
interact according to
[1] Pitirim Sorokin Social and Cultural Dynamics (4 vol., 1937–41; rev. and abridged ed.
1957)
Social and Cultural Dynamics: A Study of
Change in Major Systems of Art, Truth, Ethics, Law and Social Relationships (1957 Cloth (reprinted 1970) ed.).
Revised edition: S.M. Stern Transaction Publishers 1985:
[4] The First law or law of inertia: Every body perseveres
in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward except
insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed. The Second
Law: A change in motion is proportional to the motive force impressed and takes
place along the straight line in which that force is impressed.
The Third law; For every action, there is a
reaction
Note
that the Force = Mass times Acceleration formulation did not occur in any of
the three editions of the Principia.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-principia
[5] Davies p. 57 f.
[6] Richard Milton: Michelson-Morley & the Story of the Aether Theory www.cellularuniverse.org/AA2MM_Aether.htm
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_equations:
Gauss's law,
also known as Gauss's flux theorem,
is a law relating the distribution of electric charge to the resulting electric
field.
Gauss's law for magnetism is one of Maxwell's equations, the four equations
that underlie classical electrodynamics. It states that the magnetic field B has divergence equal to zero, in
other words, that it is a solenoidal vector field. It is equivalent to the
statement that magnetic monopoles do not exist. Rather than "magnetic
charges", the basic entity for magnetism is the magnetic dipole. (Of
course, if monopoles were ever found, the law would have to be modified, as
elaborated below.)
Faraday's law of induction describes a basic law of electromagnetism, which is
involved in the working of transformers, inductors, and many forms of
electrical generators. The law states
The
induced electromotive force or EMF in any closed circuit is equal to the time
rate of change of the magnetic flux through the circuit.
Ampère's circuital law, discovered by André-Marie Ampère in 1826, relates the integrated magnetic field around a closed loop to the electric current passing through the loop.
[8] The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James
Clerk Maxwell Basil Mahon p. 180 f.
[9] The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell p. 182.
[10] Heinz Pagels The Cosmic Code; Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature. Bantum Books 1983. p. 69 f.
[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Broglie_hypothesis; http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/quantumzone/debroglie.html
[12] Diverse perspectives on the significance of non-locality: http://www.physlink.com/Education/askexperts/ae634.cfm
[13] Leonard Susskind, The Black Hole War p. 7.
[14] Notes on Teaching Company Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy 2nd
edition
Prof Alex Filippenko.
Cosmology sections Lecture 89.
[15] Davies p. 130.
[16] Filippenko lecture 89.
[17] New Scientist 20 January 2007 Spinning Einstein by
Amanda Gefter:
http://physics.bu.edu/documents/ns.pdf
[18] Davies p.
[19] F. David Peat Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Matter and Mind. p. 94
[20] Paul Davies Superforce:The Search for a Grand Unifying Theory of Nature Touchstone Books, 1984 p. 80 f.
[21] F. David Peat Synchronicity:
The Bridge Between Matter and Mind p. 94 f.
[22] Paul Davies Superforce
[23] Filippenko lecture 89
[24] The Cosmic
Landscape review: http://www.nyas.org/publications/readersReport.asp?articleID=48
The Black Hole War review: http://physics.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_black_hole_wara_review
[25] Leonard Susskind The Black Hole War p. 293 f.
[26] David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order 1980. Google preview:
[27] F. David Peat Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Matter and Mind p. 168 f.
[28] Wholeness and the Implicate Order p. xv.
[29] Ervin Laszlo Science and the Akashic Field Inner Traditions. 2004. p. 73.
[30] http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126911.300-our-world-may-be-a-giant-hologram.html
[31] Paul Davies Superforce p. 109 f. also The Field p. 109
[32]
Paul Davies Superforce p. 111 f.
[33] Filippenko lecture 87
[35] Filippenko lecture 86 and 87.
[36] Filippenko lecture 89. See also http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/vacuum.html
[37] The application of
quantum mechanics to fields rather than single particles, resulting in what are
known as quantum field theories, began in 1927. Early contributors included Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli, Weisskopf, and Jordan. This line of research culminated in
the 1940s in the quantum electrodynamics (QED) of Richard Feynman, Freeman
Dyson, Julian Schwinger, and Sin-Itiro
Tomonaga, for which Feynman, Schwinger
and Tomonaga received the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics.
QED, a quantum theory of electrons, positrons, and the electromagnetic field,
was the first satisfactory quantum description of a physical field and of the
creation and annihilation of quantum particles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_electrodynamics
[38] The Field p. 23 f.
[39] ???? the field???
[40] Lynn McTaggart The Field p. 24f.
[41] The Field p. 24, also note 14 p.230: Physical Review D 1987, 35: 3266-70
[42] The field p 23 Fritjof tao of physics.
[43] Lynn McTaggart The Field p. 25.
[44] Laszlo, Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything: Inner Traditions, 2004 p. 47f
[45] Ervin Laszlo, Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything: Inneer Traditions, 2004
[46] Laszlo p. 51
[47] Laszlo p. 49.
[48] Laszlo p. 51
[49] The Origin of Spin: A consideration of Torque and Coriolis Forces in Einstein’s Field Equations and Grand Unification Theory, http://www.theresonanceproject.org/research.html#torque.
[52] Davies p. 145 f.
[53] http://theresonanceproject.org/pdf/schwarzschild_proton_a4.pdf.
In 1916, German astronomer
Carl Swarchfield (Schwarzschild) proposed what we now call black holes.
He postulated these would arise in cases where the mass was so concentrated
that gravity was strong enough to prevent even light from escaping.
[54]
Mitchell Waldrop Complexity
George Cowan was administrator at Los Almos during the
development of the atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project. He became director
of the Santa Fe Institute, which was dedicated to the study of non-linear
science. Cowan observed that science in the 20th century has typically been
reductionistic: to do science, you must dissect the world into smaller and
smaller pieces. This leads to fragmentation of science and the overlooking of
opportunities. Real world problems demand a more holistic approach.
[56] From Complexity to Perplexity: Scientific American http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/hogan.complexperplex.htm
[57] http://www.qo.phy.auckland.ac.nz/superradiance.html;
http://www.scaruffi.com/mind/yasue.html: book review
[58] The heart has been associated with intelligence and consciousness in ancient Chinese and Egyptian cultures, as well as in most religions. Heartmath is a modern scientific institution which has been re-exploring the heart as seat f consciousness. http://www.unitycenter.net/id31.html
[59] Daniel Robinson: Consciousness and Its Implications CD The Teaching Company, 2007
[60] Lynn McTaggart, The Field p. 42 f.
[61] Lynn McTaggart, The Field p. 60f.
[62] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Fr%C3%B6hlich http://nonlocal.com/hbar/frohlich.html
Lynn McTaggart The
Field. p. 67f
[63] F. David Peat Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Matter and Mind. P. 159 f.
Peat
writes that the morphic field is analogous to Karl
Jung’s archetype; both are a type of memory. Just as the evolutionary and
developmental history of an organism is enfolded within the morphic
fields, the history of a people, or even a whole race, are enfolded within an
archetype.
[64] Global Mind Change p. 45-47,
[66] [66] Daniel Robinson: Consciousness and Its Implications CD The Teaching Company, 2007. see also Daniel N. Robinson, Consciousness and Mental Life, Columbia University Press, 2007, 264pp. Several reviews of his paper appear at http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=14906, including a review by a proponent of monistic materialism.
[67] Global Mind Change p. 9.
[68] Ken Wilber Online : Toward
A Comprehensive Theory of Subtle Energies Part 2
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part2.cfm
The
major theorists addressed include Rupert Sheldrake, Michael Murphy, William
Tiller, Allan Combs, Robert Becker, Deepak Chopra, Hiroshi Motoyama,
Marilyn Schlitz, Larry Dossey, and Gary Schwartz,
among others.
[69] Steven Strogatz Chaos DVD The Teaching Company 2008
[71] Peat, P. 56 f.