At play in the Universe

Are scientists only cataloguers of information about nature, or are they explorers of their own dynamic interactions with it? Are all of us only passive observers of an unfolding cosmos or are we somehow active participants in its very evolution? These are heady questions, but they are preoccupying scientists and non-scientists alike as never before.

If it is true, as physicist Sir James Jeans once proposed, that the universe is more like a great thought than a great machine, then information rules the universe, not matter. Quantum physics has shown that this may indeed be true. And the shift of focus—from matter to information as the foundational aspect of the universe— fundamentally changes the rules of this grand game of existence that we are all playing.

As Einstein and so many other physicists have suggested over the years—and according to a view that has become part of what’s called the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum physics— Nature may know ahead of time what it is we are preparing to ask about Her and respond in kind. Physics has shown conclusively, according to the standard model of quantum physics, that an elementary particle is both wave and particle at the same time (its nature is to be in a superposition of all possible states). It is not until we set up an experiment and take a measurement that the particle shows itself as either a localised concentration of energy (a point particle) or a spread out flow of energy (a wave). The decision point in how it reveals itself is what kind of experiment we carry out—what kind of question we are asking or measurement we are taking. In some way we don’t yet understand and so cannot yet definitively explain, our decision—our intention—forces nature’s hand and determines how “reality” reveals itself. Reality at the macroscopic level of our everyday world appears to be based on—and perhaps even determined by—our interactions with nature at the deepest, most fundamental quantum levels.

As physicist John Wheeler says, we may live in a participatory universe. So how does it work? How do we actually influence or use the information that forms the cosmos?

British physicist and computer expert Peter Marcher and American astronaut Edgar Mitchell have proposed a mechanism by which we extract information from nature. They call their theory “phase-conjugate-adaptive-resonance.” It says, basically, that all information is encoded in phase waves and that we extract information from nature according to the level of our attention and intention (with consciousness as measurement device or questioner). Every “thing” in the observable world—including you and me—is encoded by a unique set of phase waves. The more you focus on something, the more information you can detect and process from those phase waves. Think of walking down the street, lost in thought about the meeting you are about to attend. You won’t take in many of the details about the cars, houses, businesses and people who surround you. Your perceptual filter is narrow. Pay attention, however, and you are flooded with information: colors, patterns, motions, sounds, smells, and more. As your awareness increases, information content expands.

In the parlance of NES Health, and independent researchers Peter Fraser and Harry Massey, the mechanism is a “matching” process. Matching is partly based on the Wave Theory of Matter/Space Resonance theory of astrophysicist Milo Wolff, which posits inwaves and outwaves. When an inwave and an outwave interact, they set up a space resonance, which encodes a pattern of qualities, characteristics and such that appears as a specific entity in or aspect of our observable world. Every “thing” in our universe has its own unique space resonance. But what’s more, every choice and intention sends out a wave, which matches to one of the infinite configurations of space resonances in the universe, which becomes the inwave that we interact with. We are all doing this matching, consciously and unconsciously. Matching underlies the so-called Law of Attraction, for according to this theory every aspect of your life is determined by how your own outwaves are matching to only some of the infinite resonance patterns (inwaves) of nature while excluding others. Shift your awareness and thus your own resonances, and you can match to different resonances than you were and so change your life and contribute to changing the state of the world (since everything is connected to everything else at the quantum level).

These are only two of the myriad explanations for how we participate in a universe that not only is awash in information but that may be fundamentally comprised only of information. Whatever the mechanism by which we interact with nature, consciousness seems to be key, especially in terms of applying our attention and using our intentions. Physicist Euan Squires has said, “Every interpretation of quantum mechanics involves consciousness.” And Neils Bohr was not being facetious when he said, “A physicist is just an atom’s way of looking at itself.” By extension, we are the universe’s way not only of looking at itself but also of interacting with itself, as at the quantum level there is no way to say where matter ends and information begins. Where do we (as in our physical selves) stop and the universe begin? This Zen koan-like question is no fool’s game. It is perhaps the most relevant question we face right now, as our very existence seems to be threatened by crises of our own making.

Maybe our precarious state is a primary reason why so many physicists, biologists and other scientists are ready to risk reputation and career to lecture and write books about “the self-aware universe,” “the God theory” and “the biology of belief.” It is becoming inescapable in a universe that appears to be fundamentally composed of information that consciousness is paramount to any and all scientific inquiries. In healthcare, for example, bio-informational medicine is an emerging trend, riding the coattails of mind-body medicine from the alleyways of alternative and complementary medicine into the arena of mainstream medicine. Biology and medical science stand to gain enormously from the switch from matter-based inquiry to information-based and consciousness-based explorations. In these conservative fields, the change so far has been spurred mostly by consumers, millions of whom are exploring the mind-body-spirit connections to health and well-being. Of late, however, the shift is increasingly attributable to researchers themselves, especially in the fields of epigenetics and environmental medicine. The evidence is that many subjects that were once deemed off-limits to the hard sciences or were considered outside the scope of their inquiry—such as the study of consciousness, nonlocal effects in the macroscopic world, mind’s influence on matter—are becoming areas of study that are not only acceptable, but necessary to the continued pursuit of science.

At the turn of the twentieth-century, budding physicists were advised to choose another field because all the main work had been done— nature’s major laws had been revealed—and all that remained to do was mop up the details. Then physicists stumbled upon the quantum realm. Our entire view of the universe and of ourselves has changed as a result. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we find ourselves where we were at the beginning of the last one. If you listen to and believe the mainstream media today, you might think that science was on the cusp on the grand theory of everything and that soon only the details will be left to be filled in. We know this is not true. We have only to look at how the reading of the human genome—which was supposed to revolutionise medicine and provide cures for most diseases—has failed to live up to its epic expectations. The reason is that we are more than matter. We are information. And so is the universe, and nature at large. For all of the advances in modern science, the playing field is expanding, not contracting. And humans as fully consciousness beings and not just as mechanistic bodies have finally been invited into the game. The next century is bound to be as exciting for science and medicine as the last one was. So let the games begin!