Physics, reality, and the spiritual world.

Welcome back MyXXFam! This week we’re visiting the home of a monthly art exhibition near Westchester in Miami, to postulate on consciousness and divinity. From a street view the spray paint on the walls might be mistaken for graffiti, but take a closer look and you’ll notice it is a cohesive art piece that covers the entire perimeter of the building. Plastered with aliens, UFOs, and phrases in Spanish like “This life is an illusion” and “the gray ones are your friends” I’ve been dying to shoot here for weeks and when we finally got around to it I had to make sure to step up my outfit game.

The choker and earrings come straight from your middle school 90’s choker collection, (this was an old hand-me-down from one of my beloved co-workers). The black ruffled skirt was from my neighborhood salvation army, and the cropped navy blazer is part of a 2-piece set I found at a local Goodwill, (the matching bottom was featured in our FPL shoot). In what I’m calling “grown-up riotgrrl“, this outfit ticks off all my style boxes; fly, comfortable, and a little unexpected.

As I walked around the house while Frank chatted about art with the owner’s brother, I became inspired by the phrases on the walls. The concept that being is consciousness and energy, or that consciousness creates reality, is as old as shamanism in the ancient world, probably even older than that. Early man believed in the intrinsic power of thought to shape our truth. Many early religions are founded in the assertion that human will and the power of prayer or sacrifice have dominion on Earth. While science and spirituality are often seen as at odds with each other, modern science is catching up to these ancient ideas. Over time, the disconnect between the two seems less and less significant.

Quantum Physics

The very fact that we are conscious is a fucking mystery, and for centuries man has tried to make sense of why and how we “are”. A human is essentially a cluster of cells, but somehow, this configuration of cells no different or no more special than any other cells in the universe, somehow, results in consciousness. You’re feeling pretty good about yourself huh, you fancy little snowflake? I can’t blame you, being human is pretty fucking cool.

In Newtonian thinking, the universe was thought to be objectively real, meaning, it is a thing that exists and can be measured and all we had to do was devise the tools with which to discover the mysteries within it. The whole is the sum of its parts, math and logic explain everything, and the world is matter and the forces that act upon it. Well, the more we saw, and learned, the more we realized it wasn’t that simple.

 

Think of the chair you’re sitting on, or the room you’re in as you read this, to say that these things stop existing once you get up or walk away would be fucking crazy right? Your house, your car, the people in your life, they are still there when you’re not interacting with them. Well, sure, but in the non-observable universe or, the microscopic world, the rules are not as cut and dry as they seem in our everyday lives. Particles routinely behave in ways that seem impossible by our human perspective. These are the same particles that we’re made up, so how do they behave differently? Well, more on that later.

Consciousness, or at least observation and physics seem to be linked, in that subatomic particles behave differently whether we’re watching or not. In the perspective of quantum mechanics, there is no “matter” as we know it, only energy. Everything exists as a possibility, and only when we observe it do these possibilities collapse into reality.

Marinate on that for a minute.

Nothing happens in the physical world, until it is observed.

Alright Yesenia, that’s cute. You’ve got your little blog, and your outfits and that’s all fine and dandy, but you can’t just start making shit up.

Seriously bruh, there have been centuries of scientific thinkers since the idea of the Newtonian material universe was devised, and while we can discuss philosophical thought experiments for days, what we have learned is that matter is an illusion.

Nothing is matter, just energy.

The basic unit of life, the atom, is almost 100% empty space. Atoms are made of vortices of energy spinning, vibrating and radiating their own energy signature. What this means is that, at our very essence, we are beings of energy and vibration.

Quantum Entanglement

Space is a construct that gives us the illusion of separation, like the distance between you and your loved ones when you travel, or how separate we feel from each other or world events. Quantum entanglement however, proves that particles can remain linked regardless of the space between them. So what the fuck is quantum entanglement? Well, when two subatomic particles interact, they can can become entangled. Then, when separated, no matter the distance, whether millions of miles (or theoretically) across the universe itself, if one particle is manipulated, the other will react instantly. This appears as a transfer of information that has teleported, or traveled instantaneously, which would imply that it happened faster than the speed of light. Fuck if anyone knows how or why this happens, but it is experimentally sound and is one of the most astonishing phenomenon in modern science. Einstein himself called it “spooky action at a distance” and rejected it because well, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, but the universe is spookier than even Albert posited.

So let’s dive in a little deeper, because we’re open minded, and weird shit is fascinating ain’t it? Quantum physics deals in things that are unobservable, out of which all observable phenomenon arise. So while the chair your sitting on, or the room you’re reading this in doesn’t change or disappear when you walk away, particles behave in ways that are inconceivable in our “material” world.  A subatomic particle can be invisible, in multiple places at once, and even travel backwards in time.

The Double-Slit Experiment

 

In the observable universe, you can’t be in two places at once, you can’t go back in time, and unless you’re draped in Frodo’s cloak or donning the one ring, you’re definitely not invisible. The results of this experiment however, shows that particles (which are tiny balls of matter) behave in ways that are thought to be impossible, and implies that reality may not be physical at all.

Let’s say you’ve got a Rambo Complex and are practicing your second amendment right at a gun range. You got tired of the regular target practice, so you set up a barrier with two slits between yourself and a wall. Since you’re the fucking GOAT, you finish your shooting and then admire the perfect pattern of two bands left on the wall behind the slits. Predictable.

Now let’s say you’re feeling froggy and have a wave-gun. Yes, that shit shoots waves. Well, at this point, you’re just being a clown because waves will go through both slits without any marksmanship on your part. The wall behind the barrier will have a pattern of many bands because when waves go through the slits, they’ll interfere with each other on the other side. This is called an interference pattern, and is just as predictable. Yawn.

So now, you’re bored of that shit, and you get yourself an electron gun from a lab somewhere because, well, I guess you’re a maniac or something. You shoot it at your barrier, same ol’ same ol’, but instead of getting two bands (because electrons are matter) you get an interference pattern (like waves).

Go home electrons, you’re drunk.

Well, maybe they’re just interfering with each other like waves for whatever reason? Nope. You shoot them one at a time, and on the other side of the barrier you still get a pattern of multiple bands. So what in the actual fuck? The single electron leaves your electron gun as a particle and turns into a wave of potential. It goes through one slit, both slits, and neither all at the same time. Padre, hijo, y espiritu santo. Amen.

Well, then you decide to get your boy Rocky Balboa to look at the slits while you’re shooting the gun. Because why can’t Rambo and Rocky exist in the same universe when electrons are drunk? So your boy looks at the slits, and then, well, flip over a goddamn table. Those cheeky little bastards sobered the fuck up. They acted like the matter that they are, and you get two bands on the wall like you expected to in the first place.

At the subatomic level, observation alone, changes the nature of the particle. At the quantum level “reality does not exist if you are not looking at it”. I’m sure we’ve all heard that we should “focus on our goals”, or been told to “keep your eye on the prize”. We hear over the course of our lives that we can manifest our truth and reality through faith. It is ingrained in us that science and spirituality are at odds, but from my perspective, through the field of quantum mechanics, they are bosom buddies.

Oh, and if you try and get clever, and observe the electrons after they go through the slits (as waves), but before they hit the wall. They act as if they were never waves and go back in time, choosing one slit or the other. “Our choice of what experiment to do, determines the prior state of the electron”.

Philosophy and the Collective Unconscious

The more we learn about our selves and universe the more fantastical it seems. The disconnect between spirituality and science in my opinion, is that understanding consciousness in the context of science, gets pretty fucking spooky. The birth of quantum mechanics was only possible by science suspending its disbelief of the impossible. Even proposing ideas about the supernatural, or bringing up God in a lab is enough to be discredited or labeled a fucking madman.

But I’m not a physicist, and y’all can probably tell we’re all mad here, so I’m gonna go there. Now, I don’t pretend to know, or even understand physics or divinity. I am certain of my uncertainty especially having been educated in the “soft science” of psychology. The observable universe has proven to be but a tiny fraction of the universe itself and to say with any certainty that we unequivocally know what makes up the unseen is futile. You cannot scientifically prove faith, but feeling and intuition are still unexplained, unarguably real, and incredibly powerful.

I have seen the power of prayer, and the placebo effect. Have followed synchronicity down the rabbit hole of insanity and seen the spiritual power of healing. Physics has taught us how bizarre our universe is, and the field of psychology has proven time and again that cognitive function and perception have measurable quantifiable outcomes. Even though we may not understand the “why”, our attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs have power in shaping the outcomes of our interactions, lives, and reality.

 

Before modern science could back up that the Universe is in fact, made of vibrations, shamans knew this to be true and operated and healed under these “unverifiable” assumptions. In quantum physics all matter emerges from non physical probability waves, and unobserved matter essentially moves in waves of nothing. The way we live, the way things are. The paths that have been built for us, both literally and figuratively. The stop signs, and road blocks, the do not enter, and do not believe, are man-made constructs. The universe was thought to be objectively real but when we got down to the nitty gritty we realized it is but a series of probabilities. Whether we call this Consciousness, God or something else entirely there is no mistake that energy is linked, infinite and indestructible. While our perspectives are unique, we are inextricably linked to everything and everyone else.

So be a goddamn philosopher. Read, wonder, open yourself up to life’s possibilities and use your time in it to explore whatever mind-bending mysteries intrigue you. The philosophy of being, or metaphysics, encompasses the aspects of the Spirit, of space and time, of the Universe, of God itself. From Buddha, to Plato, to you and your buddies discussing the meaning of life while you’re high on a Saturday night, searching for these answers is part of the fun of being alive. Our ability to speculate and wonder and investigate and engage in discourse is how we’ve gotten this far as a species. Don’t stop now, remain open to new information, believe in the transformative power of love, and keep your double-x fly.