The Holographic Universe, Quantum Mechanics, and Parapsychology
An overview of quantum mechanics, black holes, and our holographic universe and how these may relate to spirituality. Based in large part on an article published recently in the New York Times (NYT) with my added commentary.
At the Quantum Mechanics, subatomic particle level of reality an electron can be nowhere and everywhere at the same time. A mouse can be both alive and dead at the same time–until it’s observed. Two paired electrons on opposite sides of the universe, when one changes, the other changes instantaneously, something called, entanglement; and the laws of our ordinary, four-dimensional spacetime (length, width, height and time) don’t apply. In this spacetime, gravity rules. At the quantum level, quantum mechanics rules. There are some interesting parallels between these two worlds, especially in terms of ancient, indigenous spirituality and its contemporary derivatives. Additionally, phenomena such as past-lives, distance healing, divination, Shamanic seeing, and Wiccan magic, and miracles, may be explained.] Then there are spirits…earth spirits, of the dead, … a quantum connection? This is one level.
At another level and with a separate science are such phenomena as spirit guides, goddesses and gods. These, as I have written about to some extent in my Guru book, are better understood in terms of biological evolution, Jungian psychology, and neurobiology.
Einstein’s theory of General Relativity describes the warping of space-time by energy and matter, with matter being another form of energy as related by his famous formula: E=MC², where E = energy, M= mass, and C²= the square of the speed of light. At the subatomic level of electrons, protons, neutrons, photons, neutrinos, etc., quantum mechanics rules. As Alice in Wonderland said, things can be “curiouser and curiouser!” A ‘particle’ can be a wave or a particle, depending on how it is measured, and, it can be anywhere and everywhere at once; and a cat can be both dead and alive until it is observed. (Or like my cat, Outlaw, wants to be inside and outside at the same time?)
Gravity rules the outer space world, creating galaxies, stars, people, etc., and, oh, yeah, cats. Quantum mechanics rules the inner space creating the subatomic world. How do these two worlds interact to create the world we see around us? How do the four forces of Nature: electromagnetic, gravity, and weak and strong nuclear, interact to give us the world around us? Is there really more, perhaps much more, to the world (universe) than what we see or think we see? Of course there is. Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know; or go ask the Cheshire Cat.
Physicists have long struggled to unite these two inner and outer worlds into a unified theory of everything, with one of the more general versions currently being String Theory, which describes subatomic particles as one-dimensional vibrating strings which interact to create subatomic particles and gravity. Unlike the four dimensions (length, width, depth and time) in which we are aware in our everyday lives, string theory posits extra dimensions, from 10-26 depending on which version you use. This theory was developed to help us understand such gravity-massive phenomena as black holes and neutrino stars.
Black Holes are places in spacetime where gravity is so massive that not even light can escape it. Because light can’t escape it, they are invisible. The boundary of a black hole where light can’t escape is called the Events Horizon. Such regions form when a star collapses in on itself, which occurs at the end of its lifetime. These black holes will continue to grow by pulling in nearby matter and energy: stars, planets, asteroids, etc. The presence of black holes can only be inferred from their effects on surrounding matter and light (electromagnetic waves). These holes can be massive in size, referred to as solar masses. One near the center of our galaxy is estimated at 4.3 solar masses, i.e., the mass of 5.3 suns, a.k.a., stars.
Einstein predicted that black holes could form in pairs, connected by what are now called wormholes, shortcuts through spacetime. Theoretically, you could go into one black hole and pop out into the other even though they were vast distances apart, instantaneously, i.e., faster than the speed of light, the limit of how fast something can go.
Research now is suggesting that black holes may actually represent holograms–and that the universe and even ourselves are holograms. Holograms such as those ghostly images on your driver’s license and credit cards that help prevent counterfeiting. Holograms are three dimensional images made entirely by light. You know, like Princess Leia in Star Wars movie. They are produced by shining a laser on a real object, Princess Leia or Alice’s’ cat, and recording the refracted light onto a photographic plate. When that plate is illuminated– a three dimensional Princess Leia or cat image is produced. Now we are fixing to go down a rabbit hole…Curiouser and curiouser… But first, there is another character in this play, information.
Information
In quantum mechanics not only energy, but information is preserved. That is, neither is lost. The same applies to energy in classical world of four-dimensional spacetime, but what about information? In the classical world we’ve all lost information. Think files on a computer and accidently deleting them or when the hard drive crashes and you didn’t have backups. It is easy to looe information in the classical world. But wait! Not so fast. as it turns out, that information is still there, you just can’t retrieve it or would have to find a way to retrieve it.
Timespace may be a type of ‘photographic plate’! onto which massive amounts of information can be stored. Black holes may be holograms with their information of what went inside recorded on their events horizons. We may be holograms with our information stored onto the spacetime matrix around us. We and the rest of the universe are in reality just energy and information along with the processes between the two.
Our Soup-Can Universe
The universe and everything in it can be thought of as soup can. We are part of the soup inside and our information, the ingredients, is the label on the outside of the can. The information, everything in the soup and what happens to it is encoded in the quantum fields on surface of the region’s boundary, that is, the outside of the can. The inside of the can and the information about it on the boundary are complimentary descriptions of the same phenomena just like a hologram’s three-dimensional image and the information on the photographic plate that delineate it. And this information is preserved, all of it!
What’s cool about this is that if you can imagine a sophisticated laboratory that could create a large sphere with the quantum information inscribed on its outside, you could interact with what’s inside and get answers or replies from the entities inside. Yet, if you popped open the sphere and looked inside, there would be nothing there! We don’t read the hologram. We are the hologram! Unlike this hypothetical laboratory experiment, and the mathematical model that reveals it, out universe has no boundary, no finite, outer limit, so information is “written” into spacetime itself at the quantum level.
At this point, and the main thrust of where I am trying to take us, we can start thinking about spiritual, non-material dimension/entities/phenomena, as being understood as holograms encoded on the background of spacetime. Here I reference my first article, Quantum Connection: Spirits previously posted. Others to follow.