Quantum Physics can shock you !

“Those who are not shocked by the quantum theory have not understood it fully”, said Neils Bohr. What happens in the invisible subatomic realm is not known to Newtonian Physics !

“The stuff of the world is Mind stuff”, said Aurthur Eddington. The course of an electron is uncertain, said Heisenberg. Matter is both solid-like and idea-like, averred De Broglie and Schroedinger.

“What we observe is not Nature herself, but Nature revealed to our method of questioning ” declared Heisenberg.

Quantum Physics is talking mystic language and has reached Transcendental Physics, which maintained that the Universe is a Universe of appearance, hiding behind it the Omnipresent Reality !

he New Physics radically changed the thinking of the scientist. Space and Time are not separate, they are one.

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle states that the course of an electron is uncertain and cannot be predicted. Given a beam of electrons, the probabilistic distribution can be predicted, but not the course of a single electron !

Newtonian laws do not apply to the invisible subatomic realm. The Uncertainty Principle undermines the Mechanistic Model of the Universe, created by a Designer.

The Law of Complementarity, the Matter-Wave Hypothesis, the Schrodinger Wave Equation, the Uncertainty Principle – all these laws indicate that the New Physics has reached the First Science or Transcendental Physics, which maintains the the Universe is a Universe of appearance, behind which hides the Indestructible Reality !

Right Hemisphere of the brain given its due !

Left Hemisphere of the brain deals with the Scientific, the Analytic

Right Hemisphere deals with the synthetic, the philosophic, the poetic.

Man has two types of Mind, Rational Mind, the scientific and the Intuitive Mind, the Philosophic.

So far, before the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics ( 1927), Physical Science had ignored the right hemisphere and had given priority to the Left Hemisphere. It is only after the quantum revolution initiated by Max Planck, De Broglie, Schroedinger, Heisenber, Pauli, David Bohm and others, that the New Physics gave the right hemisphere its due.

“Poetry should initiate us unto Philosophy ” said Plutarch. The great poets of yore indulged in Mystic Symbolism.

Dante’s Divina Commedia or Goethe’ Faust, or Tagore ” Geetanjali” or Aurobindo’s ” Savitri”, were the product of the Intuitive Mind or the right Hemisphere.

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Newton’s Laws of Motion or Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion, were the product of the Rational Mind or the left Hemisphere.

Poetry is divine. It is the center and the circumference of all knowledge and it comprehends all science !

The Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy

The Law of Conservation of Mass Energy states that Truth ( Mass Energy ) can neither be created nor destroyed.

The sum total energy in the Universe is an absolute constant. This Total Mass Energy was what the ancient Seer Poets called as the Indestructible Reality ( Avinashi thu tadvidhhi yena sarvam idam tatam ).

Our bodies belong to the universal sea of Matter. Our minds to the sea of Universal Mind. The conserved Mass Energy is the same ( Samam Brahma ).

If the total energy is not Kshara or destructible, then it is Indestructible or Akshara ( Aksharam Brahma ).

The ancient Seer Poets spoke of Reality negatively, initially. They said It is not this, It is not that ( as this is finite and that is finite, whereas Reality in Infinite ). At the same time they spoke of it positively, they said It is this, It is that, It is all ( sarvam brahmamayam ). Because they were first indicating that the Absolute is non-relative or the Infinite is non-finite. Then they said the Absolute is that which includes all relatives ! Brahman, the Absolute, they said, is Matter, is Life, is Mind, is Supermind, is Cosmic Delight, is Existence- Consciounsess – Beatitude !

The modern physicist, if he were to speak of the Total Mass Energy in the Universe, will say the same thing. That Reality or Mass Energy is this, It is that, It is all !

The Law of Complementarity !

Niels Bohr conceived the principle of Complementarity – that items have contradictory properties. The photon, for instance, is both a particle and a wave, two apparently mutually contradictory properties. One of his famous students was Heisenberg, who bequethed to the scientific world the Uncertainty Principle.

In Eastern philosophies, Reality was defined as an Indeterminate which include contradictory properties. Opposites coexist in Realty. The Absolute Being contains both the finite and the Infinite. The Law of Complementarity, discovered by Bohr, was not altogether new to the ancient mystics, the Seer Poets !

The Absolute Brahman was defined by them as both Impersonal and Personal, Nirguna and Saguna. It is both Being & Non-Being, The Absolute & Relative, the One and the Innumerable, the Formless and the delirium of forms. It is the Being which turns into Becoming but is always itself and other than its becomings !

The Universe as a Wave Function?

Matter, then, has dual properties. Is both Particle and Wave. The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics ( Copenhagen is the place where Niels Bohr came from )in 1927 accepted the dual properties of the Electron !

Does that mean that the ocean of Matter which we see around us, is only solid, particle like?

Or does that mean it is only Wave like ?

The De Broglie Hypothesis and the Shroedinger Wave Equation says that Matter has both properties – it has wave like properties and at the same time it has particle like properties !

If Matter be Truth or Reality, will we not pray to Matter thus

O Matter ! thou art both Particle and Wave !

The ancient Seer-Poets spoke the same mystic language, the language of Transcendental Physics !

Thou art Being, which turns into Becoming but is always other than its Becomings,

Thou art the Indeterminate, which teems with mutations and differntiae

Thou art the Universal, who individualises itself
Thou art the Individual, who universalises itself

Thou art the One, which turns into an innumerable multitude

Reality and Unrealty, both are Thee !

I desire nothing from Thee
I desire only Thee !

He shook the foundations of Physics !

Werner Heisenberg, postulated the famous Uncertainity Principle. He postulated that we can never know what goes on in the invisible subatomic realm and that ” therefore we should abandon all attempts to construct perpetual levels of atomic processes”.

Independently of Schroedinger and De Broglie, Heisenberg developed experimental data into tabular form, which he called matrices. His method was called Matrix Mathematics.

The quintessence of his theory is sample. The course of a single electron cannot be predicted and is uncertain. Newtonian Physics do not apply to the subatomic realm. Quantum Theory can predict the distribution ( probable ) with a beam of electrons, but Quantum Theory cannot predict the course of a single electron !

The earlier idea of the causal Universe is totally undermined by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

Niels Bohr, another New Physicist, wrote

Quantum Mechanics, entails, the necessity of a final renunciation of the classical idea of causality, with a radical revision of our attitude towards the problem of physical reality

Physics and Philosophy

The quantum physicist, David Bohm defined Reality as ” That which Is”

This is reminiscent of Spinoza and the Indian Seers who averred ” Absolute Being is that which Is”.

When De Broglie postulated that the electron is both a particle and a wave, the New Physics ( Quantum Physics ) was speaking the language of the mystics !

Is Man good-bad ? Yes, says Mysticism. Man is a composite creature. He is both good and bad, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and all human beings are dual personalities. Man is a contradiction ! Man is a paradox. Like the Electron, which is both a particle and a wave.

Shroedinger opined that electrons are standing Waves!

Heisenberg, another quantum physicist, opined that the highest levels of philosophy and physics are the same, in his magnum opus ” Physics and Philosophy”.

Matter, a derivative of Consciousness

” Matter is a derivative of Consciousness ” said Prof De Broglie. “I regard Consciousness as fundamental” said Prof Erwin Schroedinger.

Truth is that, on the subatomic level, Science is not exact ! The Old Physics of Newton does not apply to the subatomic realm. The New Physics states that electrons are standing waves and Matter exhibits two properties – that of a particle and a Wave. Prof Shroedinger was sure that electrons are standing waves. Something was standing and he called it the Psi function or rather the Wave Function.

There is no such thing as Space and Time, as Newton thought. There is only an inseparable SpaceTime and we live in a four dimensional Space-Time Continuum. Fritjof Capra had voiced the same truth earlier. The dance of sub atomic matter, the galaxies, the black holes and of the Universe is Poetry in motion, is the Cosmic Dance & is symbolised in Oriental Philosophies as the Dance of Siva, the Lord of the Dancers worshipped by the Indians !

The Four Dimensional Space-Time Continuum

Like Capra’s “Tao of Physics”, Gary Zukav’s ” Dancing Wu Li Masters” shook the philosophic world.

It is called the overview of the New Physics. The Old Physics was Newtonian Physics which maintained that Space and Time are separate.

Einstein differed from Newton. Space and Time are not separate, they are one whole called Space-Time.

Old classical Physics of Newton gave way to the New Physics, that is Quantum Physics. De Broglie’s Matter_Wave Hypothesis postulated that Matter exists as both Particle and Wave. The fourth Dimension of Time was added to the three dimesions of Space, that is length, breadth and thickness.

Hermann Minnowski, the maths teacher of Einstein, postulated the theory of the Four Dimensional Space-Time Continuum. We live, breathe and exist in the four dimensional Space-Time Continuum, which is an Eternal Now.

This recent finding of the New Physics is the corroboration of Eastern Philosophies, which maintained that the Unified Field of Consciousness is the only Reality and that the Universe is a Universe of appearance.

Pauli’s Exclusion Principle

Wolfgang Pauli revolutionised Physics with his statement ” that no two similar electrons can exist in the same atom”.

This came to be known as the Pauli’s Exclusion Principle. One electron excludes any similar electron.

In the heavens, we find that the Solar System is like the Atom. The electrons revolve in elliptical orbits around the central nucleus. Similarly the planets traverse in elliptical orbits around the central Sun. ” As Above, So Below” !

Kepler in his first Law of Planetary Motion opined that planets move in elliptical orbits with Sun as the Focus of the Ellipse !

If you extend the Exclusion Principle, we find that in the Solar system, no two planets are alike ! Jupiter differs from Mercury and so on !