Quantum Physics is the science of small particles. The strange and counter-intuitive phenomena it predicts often leave us stunned. It says that if two particles were together once, they never lose their connectedness even after they get separated. Each particle readjusts itself in response to any change in the state of its counterpart which might even be several millions of miles away. The readjustment is instantaneous and happens without any sort of messaging link between them. So if you met Dr. Singh once, you can never escape from getting affected by what happens to him, even if you run away to another galaxy!
Unconvincing? Do not blame yourself.
Dr. Albert Einstein also could not digest this sort of “spooky action at a distance” taking place. He, therefore, felt that Quantum Physics was an incomplete theory. He, along with a couple of colleagues, designed a thought experiment in1935, to mock at the possibility of one particle being affected by a far away counterpart. It became famous as the “EPR Paradox.” It took 47 years to develop the paradox into a verifiable theorem and then conduct an actual experiment to test it. To everybody’s surprise, the test confirmed what Quantum Physics predicted. The idea that physically separated objects are really separate got demolished!
From Einstein’s theory, one can deduce that the entire universe was no more than a small point about 13.8 billion years ago. Everything was together in that single point. All the forces, chemical elements, stars and galaxies and you and me evolved from that point. Once together always together, says Quantum Physics. Therefore, all of us who evolved from that point continue to be interconnected affecting each other in unknown ways. There is no dodging the intertwined and entangled web that we are.
Psychic abilities like remote viewing, premonition, clairvoyance etc. appear extra-ordinary. But they are no longer “rare human talents, divine gifts or ‘powers’ that magically transcend ordinary physical boundaries. Instead psi becomes an unavoidable consequence of living in an interconnected, entangled physical reality”, holds Dr. D. Radin.
Quantum Physics gives us a clue on how to materialize things instantaneously over long distances. It is called ‘teleportation’ in physics. Suppose we measure a quantum property of a particle. Our measurement affects immediately its counterpart entangled particle at a distance. Say we manipulate a few particles to be arranged in the shape of a particular object here. Because what we do to one particle here instantaneously affects its entangled particles somewhere else, it amounts to transferring information from where we are to that distant place immediately. So the manipulations done by us here in creating an object will be instantly transferred and exactly similar object gets created at the far off place. This is not a hypothetical claim. Physicists did successfully teleport quantum states for the first time in 1998.
So far quantum teleportation had been done between similar objects, say from light (one photon) to light (another photon) or one atom to another. But Dr. E. Polzik and colleagues in Denmark could “entangle photons with cesium atoms, transmit the light and then teleport the properties of the photons on to equivalent properties in cesium atoms” by a distance of half a meter in 2006. A team of German, Chinese and Austrian scientists teleported quantum bit information across a distance of seven meters in early 2008. These may not sound great to us, but they are very significant achievements from a scientific angle to lead us towards teleporting far larger objects.
Every particle being entangled with every other particle implies that each particle possesses full knowledge of all other particles. Expressed differently, it means every point in the universe contains information about the entire universe. We find this incredible feature to be the characteristic of the “holograms.” (You might have seen a hologram in the stickers that some manufacturers attach to their products). “Any piece of a hologram, if illuminated with coherent light, provides an image of the entire hologram. The information of the whole is contained in each part.” Hence, if you break a hologram, each piece still shows the total picture. A hologram becomes smaller “Wholes” and not smaller parts on breakage. Because of this reason, some physicists describe the universe as ‘holographic.’ The total is never lost by losing any part!
Instantaneous transfer of secretly coded information exploiting the property of entanglement is being developed for facilitating financial and bank transactions over large distances across the globe. Recently USA and Japan collaborated in transmitting encrypted information over telephone lines for a distance of 200 kilometers.
We can draw two conclusions from what we understand from Quantum Physics learnt thus far. One is that every particle is interconnected to every other particle. Second is that each particle exists as if it is smeared everywhere without a definite position unless it is observed. In other words, in an unobserved universe (i.e. in the absence of sensory perception), each particle is everywhere in the universe and is interconnected with every other. One way to understand this is to conceive of them all to be only ‘one’ and not many different particles. Expressed in cryptic Upanishadic terminology, “It is ONE, there is no second.”
We have talked thus far about every point in space. Einstein’s Relativity theory says that time and space are not independent and absolute dimensions. The universe thus constitutes a four dimensional spacetime fabric. Extending the logic of interconnectivity of particles in three dimensional space to four dimensional spacetime, we can expect every point on different timelines to contain information of all points of all timelines. In other words, each point contains the whole universe of (our) past, present and future. This is completely incomprehensible from our day to day perspective and leads us to a puzzling situation of the entire past, present and future universe being at one point!
If everything of everywhere and of all time periods exists at each point, it is tantamount to nothing being anywhere. Then what and where is creation? We are reminded of what Gaudapada declared: “The highest Truth is nothing is ever created” — III-48, Gaudapada kArika on Mandukya Upanishad.
(The above article is from the Book: Religion Demystified, 2008. Two more articles will be posted in this series).
1. Reality ‘Out There’ And Quantum Physics: https://www.advaita-vision.org/reality-out-there-and-quantum-physics/
3. The Weird World Of Small Things: https://www.advaita-vision.org/the-weird-world-of-small-things/
4. Invisible Energy In Empty Space: https://www.advaita-vision.org/invisible-energy-in-empty-space/