In Part III, we described the basic findings of quantum physics and the pivotal role played by consciousness to explain quantum phenomena. This week we’ll show how a universal spiritual tradition that underpinned most major religions past and present predicted and reaffirmed the finding of quantum physics.
THE SPIRITUAL WISDOM TRADITION
The astonishing knowledge quantum physics brings about creation, life, and reality were revealed thousands of years ago by the threads of a universal spiritual tradition, the wisdom of which permeated every major religion or philosophy, pagan and modern. One branch of this tradition, in particular, was striking in its many parallels to modern science. It was called Gnosticism, and it was closely related to the Kabbalah. Listed below are some of its key beliefs:
- God is One, encompassing Energy, Mind, and Matter
- The One appears as many
- The kingdom is within you, the spark of the divine is within you
- You are made in the image of God
- As it is above, so it is below
- Do unto others as you would do unto yourself
- God is everything, everything is God. All these wisdom teachings were echoing quantum theory thousands of years ago in the non-technical languages of their day saying that every single thing in creation proceeds from conscious intelligence, and we as human beings are part of that conscious intelligent awareness.
We’ll limit the discussion of the ancient tradition to three key precepts:
God is Consciousness, the one and only energy that permeates all reality seen and unseen
Light is the vehicle by which this Consciousness expresses itself. Light is intelligent energy and it carries directive information
This Consciousness divided itself into many points of consciousness as an outflowing of its light essence
We saw in the previous article how consciousness is the only thing that explains the paradoxical and strange behavior of the quantum world that makes up our physical reality. Einstein’s famous formula E=MC² shows that matter and light are interchangeable forms, that is, matter comes from light and resolves back into light. This is a bookend proof of the findings in quantum physics that particles do not occur at the most fundamental levels of reality, only waves of light exist. At some point owing to the actions of consciousness, these light waves crystallize into particle matter. Astounding but true (see Part IV of my article, The God Particle and You).
Quantum physics has also confirmed that light contains intelligent information. It‘s by the action of light photons (pulsations of light) that matter combines into the unique forms that make up the variety of objects we see in the world. Only something containing intelligence can make such distinctions, only something containing information can create organized forms the way DNA contains the exact information to form our bodies.
Taken collectively, these findings of modern physics do nothing but reaffirm the three spiritual principles above.
TRADITIONAL SCIENCE AND RELIGION REVISED
The limitations of traditional religion and science may now be superseded by a liberating new paradigm. I say superseded, not trashed, bashed, or discarded, for this assumes there is nothing good or redeemable in science and religion and that’s just not so. Let’s take the three pillars of traditional science, Newton, Descartes, and Darwin. Quantum physics exposes their theories as incomplete or incorrect in some of their applications and conclusions. That’s not to say they are categorically wrong. If true reality is the size of a silver dollar, these theories are like dimes. They explain certain functions accurately within their dimes, but they can’t explain the whole dollar of which the dimes are a part.
Newtonian physics works well in explaining certain functions of the observable world, but it can’t account for effects under Einstein’s relativity or the sub-atomic world and it can’t come close to explaining the fundamental operations of matter and consciousness. Therefore, its view of a determined universe as a giant machine is incorrect. Descartes’ dualism seems to define a working relationship between mind and matter for day-to-day purposes, but it is fundamentally incorrect in missing the true underlying unity of the two. Darwin’s theory only explains evolution within species. It never explains the creation or origin of life. It doesn’t even demonstrate how one species evolves into another, like apes into humans, except as an article of faith. The fossil record supports a more quantum leap view, that is, that species like human beings came about quite suddenly upon acquiring consciousness.
The Third Way poses two big course corrections in traditional science and religion. First is the limited and damaging view of materialistic science that life derives from matter instead of matter deriving from consciousness. Second is the traditional religious view that humanity is a separated creation of God as opposed to being a projection of the divine consciousness itself in material form.
In the final article of this series, we’ll discuss the practical implications The Third Way poses for our lives.
