Quantum Comedy: Energy, Vibrations, Attraction, and Manifestation

We seek meaning in events, objects, and incidents. Meaning sates our intrinsic curiosity, but it also invokes the notion that the external can be controlled. In our quotidian lives, many situations are not influenced by simple, disciplined acts, raising unpredictability and anxiety. At such times, it is easy to be swayed by comforting claims that all circumstances are in our control. The claims of controlling our circumstances often involve celestial and cosmic entities. The diagnoses to life’s problems include unsuitable planetary or stellar positions, misaligned vibrations, buildup of negative energies, blockages in energies, or loss of synchrony with the universal rhythm. The arsenal to conquer our sufferings, we are edified, is through the re-establishment of harmony with nature via crystals, stones, chants, and the power of the mind. This sense of control is at once both soothing and seductive, especially when it is shrouded in a veil of science.

Of all the fields of science, physics has been misused the most by astrologers, faith-healers, and proponents of mysticism. One branch of physics exploited by proponents of nonsense verses is Quantum physics. Lately, there has been a surge of quantum solutions to life’s miseries. We are wrapped by “quantum medicine”, “quantum healing”, “quantum wellness”, “quantum aura”, “quantum energy blockages”, and “quantum turd”. Okay, not the last one; but you get it. Such quantum comedy is financially costly and extremely dangerous when applied to the medical field. An appreciation of the fundamentals of Quantum physics goes a long way in lifting the veil off the “mystery” of the Quantum without falling prey to the “mystical”.

Classical World

All entities we attentively interact with in our lives are macroscopic. We’ll call them “Classical Objects”. Our family and friends, flora and fauna, cricket balls, and mutton biriyani are a few. Upon further musing, we may think of the earth, planets, satellites, and the sun. These objects follow Newton’s Laws of physics, and our day-to-day lives are easily explained by the laws of motion or “Classical Mechanics”. The concepts of classical mechanics are intuitive and help predict the behaviour of bodies of mass “m” in time “t” over a distance “d”. These principles help us determine the positions of, inter alia, moving balls, satellites launched from the earth, swinging pendulums, the time and date of lunar/solar eclipses, the movement of planets around the sun, and the ETA of cars (not in Bangalore!).

Quantum World

In the world of atoms, the workings are different; even strange. When we try to explain the movement of entities such as electrons using the classical laws of motion, the predictions are dismal. The behaviour of atomic entities follows a different kind of physics. The set of laws that describes the physics of the atomic world is called Quantum physics. Here, we shall take a simplified look at the fundamentals of Quantum physics. Later, we will learn how in a spiritual worldview of the universe, these concepts are misappropriated.

What is Quantum?

“Quantum” is a mundane concept. It means that energy is not a continuous but a discrete entity, dependent on a fundamental value. This fundamental value is called the Planck’s constant, h and all energy exist in “integer” multiples of h. So, throughout the universe, any kind of energy can have a value of 1h, 2h, 3h…nh and not values of 0.5h, 1.3h, 39.7h, or other “fractional” multiples of h. The value of h is 6.626 x 10^-34 Js. It is the minimum energy that anything can have. Quantum means just this. It does not mean universal, spiritual, mind-body, vibrational, or anything else. ??

Wave-Particle Duality and Non-locality

In 1801 Thomas Young conducted an experiment by passing packets of light energy (photons) through two closely positioned slits onto a detection screen. His findings were profound, demonstrating that light energy behaves both as a particle and as a wave. This experiment, which has achieved celebrity status, is popularly known as Young’s “Double-slit” experiment. In 1961 Claus J?nsson did this experiment with electrons, making similar observations. This was ground-breaking and changed the way reality is perceived. Wave-Particle duality implied that at atomic scales, physical masses (in this case, the electron) can act as both a particle and a wave. Reality was probabilistic.

The Double-slit experiment with electrons also revealed that since quantum particles act as waves, at any given time, there is no definite location of quantum particles. As a result, they can be almost anywhere in the universe before they get to a specific place. However, the probability (“probability density” in Quantum physics) of the particle’s “being” in different places is different. There are locations where a quantum object cannot exist, locations where they exist with low probability, and locations where they exist with very high probability. Quantum physics does not show that everything is spread out and exists everywhere in the universe.???

Observer Effect

Wave-Particle duality may be misunderstood as quantum objects behaving at once as both waves and particles. However, it means that quantum objects “can” act as both a wave and a particle depending on the nature of their “interaction” with other objects, but never at the same time. A stupefying observation of the Double-Slit experiment was that if electrons were “observed” using a detector before they reached the detector screen, they failed to show the wave effect. “Observing” changed the electron from a wave to a particle. A leading theory of this phenomenon is the Copenhagen interpretation. This posits that until a measurement is made, electrons exist in all locations with any probability density in the form of a wave. When a quantum object interacts with another object such as a leaf, an atom, a car, an eye of a human, its wave nature is obviated (collapses, in quantum parlance), and it becomes a particle.

Quantum Comedy

In the 1920s, experiments by the French scientist Louis de Broglie established that λ=h/m, i.e., the “wave nature” of quantum objects is inversely related to its mass. This had implications for Classical objects. It suggested that ALL objects can behave as waves. However, for large objects, the “wave” nature is so minor as to be rendered insignificant. Quantum principles break down in our “classical life” of humans, animals, stars, the moon, and every other object around us. This flies in the face of “all things spiritual” because these are based on such dictums as “we are manifestations of the universe”, and “we can change everything by the power of our thoughts”. Let’s learn about popular aphorisms where Quantum mechanics is misappropriated in the Classical world and the resulting ridiculousness. ?

Consciousness and Reality

A fashionable worldview, promoted by champions of “ancient wisdom”, is that reality exists because of consciousness. This is empowering. Reality is a “manifestation” of consciousness and altering perspective changes reality. From bank balances to genomes. The power of consciousness can change it all, is what is promised. The observer effect is invoked to justify that consciousness creates reality. However, experimental evidence shows that the observer effect has nothing to do with consciousness. Collapse of a wave into a particle occurs when it interacts with another quantum object without any need for consciousness. The critical point here is that “observation” is not dependent on an observer. It is simply an interaction between two objects and does not need eyes or human beings. Unless reality is composed of independent Quantum Objects moving about in chaos, the observer effect does not apply to your physical reality of Classical Objects such as humans and finances. There is a reality, full of material objects that is independent of conscious observation.

Positive and Negative Energies and Quantum Healing

A frequently held view is that “positive” and “negative” energies operate in our lives. The idea behind quantum healthcare is that quantum fields permeate the universe, and through consciousness, we “channelize” positive energy within our life and replace negative energies to fix ailments. Consequently, healthcare industries are tailored around such process as quantum “healing” or “cleansing”. Economic evaluations suggest that quantum liberation from our gloomy lives were a part of healthcare system with an estimate of USD $92 billion in the year 2021.

Like “Quantum”, “energy” is a straightforward concept. It is the ability to do work and exists in two kinds: kinetic and potential. Electrical, thermal, nuclear, light and others are forms of the two. In Classical physics, kinetic energy is positive and potential energy can be “negative”. A stretched spring, for example, has negative potential energy. In Quantum physics, negative energy applies to certain workings of gravity. An energy value greater than Zero is “positive energy” and less than Zero is “negative energy”. No “life energies” are positive or negative. Nothing emerges from indulging in their “cleansing” or seeking Vaastu experts to pervade houses with “positive” energy. In ailments, no energy chakras misbehave nor are there blockages in energy flow. If “negative” energy builds in your life, climb the stairs, or take the elevator; that will infuse “positive” energy in your life. This is all there is to positive and negative energies. ?????

Law of Attraction, Universal Vibration and Oneness with the Surroundings

A fashionable concept spanning cocktails to boardrooms is the “Law of Attraction”. At its core, the Law of Attraction is rooted in concepts of consciousness and the power of mind. It implies that we attract what we send back to the universe. The Law of Attraction draws from the Law of Vibration, which states that individual thoughts vibrate at specific frequencies. It is also exalted in the spiritual worldview that emotions have frequency with emotions such as guilt and shame having the lowest frequencies while peace and enlightenment having the highest frequencies. When we think thoughts imbued with positive vibrations, our lives “resonate” with things in the universe that have the same positive frequency. Conversely, diseases and illnesses are results of negative thoughts and vibrations. Quantum healers help regain or establish the right kind of vibrations within our life so that we attract positive energy and favourable outcomes. Through the power of thoughts, we can treat diseases, stabilize relationships and finances, or look like Hrithik Roshan. Pick your choice.

“Thoughts” are “outputs” of neural interactions (a felt experience like love and pain) and not matter or waves and the concept of “thoughts” vibrating is meaningless. However, “thought-creating agents” like the electrical signals (brain waves) or neuropeptides (serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine, and their uncles) are matter. Because matter and energy are interchangeable (E=mc^2), every object in the universe can be expressed as energy and so, their constituents have frequency (E=hν; here, “ν” is the frequency) or vibration. So, are we onto something? Could the vibrations of our thoughts be vibrations of electrical signals or atoms that comprise the neuropeptides?

First, we shall unravel the concept of vibrations. Vibration in the “Classical world” of humans, cars, jewellery, watches et al. is the number of times the object shows a repetitive movement per second. If you jump 10 times in a minute, your vibrational frequency is 10/60 or 0.6 Hz (Hertz). Stationary objects have vibrational frequency of Zero. Similarly, molecular bonds (bonds between Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen etc.), which make up all Classical objects, show molecular vibrations. Consequently, molecular vibrational frequency reflects the number of times the molecular bonds vibrate in a second. These range from 10^12 Hz to 10^14 Hz. Let’s now evaluate how vibrating thoughts resonate with things with matching frequencies and attract them into our lives.

Using EEG (electroencephalograph), we know there are five kinds of brainwaves, each with varying frequencies. These are: gamma (30-45 Hz); beta (13-30 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), and delta (<4 Hz). Brain waves are related to the levels of arousal and bring into action both conscious awareness and subconscious processing of cerebral information. Higher the level of mental awareness, higher the frequency of electrical activity. For e.g., deep sleep is associated with the delta waves and heavy mental activity is associated with gamma waves. If vibrating thoughts act via brain waves, then they should attract things (“manifest”) with “vibrations” ranging from 1 Hz to 45 Hz (delta to gamma waves). We saw that the vibrational frequency of stationary cars, humans, and wades of cash is zero, which is below the frequency of the brainwaves that one would deploy while thinking about them. Therefore, using the electrical signals of thoughts, we cannot attract stationary objects. We might be able to attract humans jumping in one spot between 1 and 45 times per second. We may also attract cars with wheels moving at 1 to 45 rotations per second. Or we might be able to attract humans experiencing epileptic fits or cold shivers. But not much beyond these.

If vibrating thoughts act via the molecular vibrations of thought-creating neuropeptides, then they would not be able to attract or manifest anything with frequency less than 10^12 Hz. This precludes attracting any meaningful entities such as humans. There are no principles that link the vibrations of thoughts with the attraction of things of matching vibrations. For the same reason, attributing frequencies to emotional states is ridiculous. For emotional states to have frequencies ranging from 20 Hz (shame) to +700 Hz (enlightenment), as a certain Dr. David Hawkins would prefer, there needs to be an entity oscillating 20 to 700 times a second. Nothing that has anything to do with emotions vibrates at these frequencies.

The Bottom Line

Spirituality is a noble construct. Enough evidence supports the mental benefits accrued through spiritual inclinations. None of the arguments presented in the paragraphs above directly discredit the benefits of spirituality. However, when spirituality uses convenient scientific ideas but simultaneously requires the suspension of painstakingly developed scientific understanding of the world, the results are less than beneficial. It leads to individuals abandoning medical treatment for ailments or shelling out finances in “higher” life pursuits. The next time (and believe you me, this will be very soon) an acquaintance waxes eloquent about “energy” as she asks you to seek a healer, enrol in “quantum cleansing” programs to open blocked energies, or a Vaastu-compliant overpriced interior designer, do remind yourself that Quantum mechanics does not say anything about spirituality. Just because quantum physics is mysterious, it does not mean it is mystical.