QUANTUMPHYSICS LOOKS AT THE 2004 ELECTION:
Did Bush winthe election or did he steal it?
by Paul Levy
Quantum physics points out that the way we observe theuniverse in this present moment literally evokes the universe that is observed.Our perception of the universe is a part of the universe that is happeningthrough us that has an effect on the universe that we are observing. Quantumphysics points out that it makes no sense whatsoever to talk of an objectiveuniverse separate or independent from the observer. To quote noted physicistJohn Wheeler “Useful as it is under everyday circumstances to say that theworld exists ‘out there,’ independent of us, that view can no longer be upheld.There is a strange sense in which this is a participatory universe.”
In a variation of the classic “two-slit experiment,” whichis the cornerstone of quantum physics, Wheeler has demonstrated in the “delayedchoice experiment” that not only does our act of observation in this presentmoment effect the way the universe manifests in this present moment, but thatthe act of observation in this present moment actually has an effect on thepast. This bit of quantum weirdness seems particularly relevant for our currenttimes after the controversial presidential election of 2004.
Consensus reality, as embodied in the views ofclassical physics, describes the present as having a particular past. Quantumphysics, on the other hand, because of its probabilistic nature enlarges thearena of history such that the past is an amalgam of all possible pasts thatare compatible with the version of the present moment that we are currentlyexperiencing. The quantum universe is one in which the past involves a widerange of possible pasts all co-existing in a state of unmanifest potential.Speaking in physics terms, by imagining the past to be a certain way, weliterally collapse the infinite potentiality of the past’s wave function, andconcretize the past as being something very particular. This is analogous tothe quantum physicist’s question: is it a wave or a particle? And the answer,of course, is that it depends on how we are observing
The quantum universe is one which pulsates in and out ofthe void multiple times every nano-second, endlessly recreating itself anew.Each moment brings with it a potentially new past, which we are the ‘builders’of in the present moment. In this present moment right now there are endlesspossibilities, it is an infinitely textured moment in time seething withunmanifested potential. In the future, when we consider this multi-dimensionalmoment we are in now, we will probably focus our attention and only remember acertain slice or aspect of this very moment, solidifying it in time, and thiswill be our ‘memory’ of that seemingly past event. And yet, by the way weremember this present moment in the future will have an actual effect on the waythat moment in the future manifests. So on the one hand, the way we contemplatethe past has a creative effect on how the present moment manifests.
What Wheeler is pointing out through the delayed choiceexperiment, though, is that the past doesn’t actually exist in a solid andobjective way that causes or determines our present moment experience like isimagined by classical physics. Rather, he is saying our situation is just theopposite. He is saying that by the way we observe in this present moment weactually reach back into time and create the past. It is not just the futurethat’s undetermined, but the past as well; just as there are ‘probable’ futuresthere are ‘probable’ pasts. Our present observations select one out of manypossible quantum histories for the universe.
We have entranced ourselves and fallen under aself-created spell if we imagine that the past exists in a solid, objectiveway. To quote Wheeler “It is wrong to think of that past as ‘alreadyexisting’…..the past has no existence except as it is recorded in the present.”When we become convinced that the past exists in a solid way, we solidify it inour imagination as being that particular way, which will thereby createcompelling evidence that proves the rightness of our point of view (that thepast really is that way). When we imagine that the past is a particular way,for example, this conviction effects our present moment experience AS IF thepast really was that way, which just confirms to us our conviction that thepast REALLY IS that way, which just makes the past seem even more AS IF itreally was that way, ad infinitum.
This is to fall into a self-created and infinitelyself-confirming feedback loop that is synchronistic and atemporal in itsoperation and thereby has the nature of a self-fulfilling prophecy. We haveunwittingly literally hypnotized ourselves by our own power of effectingreality by the way we observe it. Because of the limited and limiting way weview the past it seems convincingly solid and objectively existing in a waythat it simply is not. The past is much more malleable than we have beenimagining. For what really did happen in the past? For that matter, what isactually happening right now?
In a circular, non-linear and acausal feedback loop, thepast effects us in this present moment, while at the same time, in this presentmoment we effect the past. The way we observe the past in this present momentactually effects the past which simultaneously effects us in this presentmoment in what I call a ‘synchronistic, cybernetic feedback loop.’ The doorwayis the present moment, which is the point where our power to shape reality isto be found. In quantum physics the universe wasn’t created billions of yearsago in the big bang but rather is being created right now by what Wheelerrefers to as “genesis by observership.” The mystery of this universe doesn’tlie at some point way back in the past, but rather, right now, in this veryliving present moment.
This quantum perspective on the past arising or beingconjured up out of and into the present moment collapses the sense ofsequential time and linear causality. This points to the non-local nature ofspace and time, in that the past, present, and future completely interpenetrateand are inseparable from each other. In a bit of quantum weirdness, if we askwhether the universe really existed before we started looking at it, the answerwe get from the universe is that it looks as if it existed before we startedlooking at it.
Quantum physics is describing what I call the physics ofthe dreamlike nature of reality. Like a mass shared dream, we are all literallymoment by moment calling forth and collaboratively ‘dreaming up’ this veryuniverse into materialization. And dreams, by their very nature don’t exist ina ‘flat-land’ where they are fixed in meaning, but are extremelymulti-dimensional. When we contemplate the past in this very moment, it has thesame ontological status of and no more reality than a dream we had last night.Just like this present moment, when we contemplate it tomorrow, will in thatpresent moment have no more reality than a figment of our imagination.
What actually did happen on November 2? Did George Bushwin the election? Or did he steal it? And if he stole it, is thiscriminal act something we can do nothing about? If this universe is likequantum physics describes, then we are only not able to do anything about itbecause of our own self-imposed limitations and a failure of our imagination inthis very moment. If even some of the overwhelming evidence that Bush stole theelection is true, can we step into a universe in this very moment in which wehave the power to do something about it? Or is the past written in stone?Quantum physics points out that this is a participatory universe in which thepower to change reality is literally in our hands at every moment and that thechoice is truly ours. Let us not get fooled into giving away our power by thesource of our real power, namely, the reality-creating function of our ownsacred imagination.
PaulLevy is a spiritually-informed political activist. He can be reached at
© 2005 Paul Levy www.awakeninthedream.com