The Wheel of Change - The Uncertainty Principle

Niels Bohr Family Coat of Arms

Niels Bohr acknowledged the similarities between the complementarity concepts of Quantum Mechanics and the I Ching’s taiji (yin and yang) symbol when he added it to his design of his family coat of arms. This relationship deepen in his consciousness, because he realized this fundamental characteristic becomes more apparent as you move towards the quantum level of reality. Niel Bohr was a pioneer in QM who developed the famous Copenhagen Interpretation which discovered the “Complementarity” properties of matter that are opposite in nature. The bases for this theory was the famous Double Spilt experiment where the wave-particle duality was discovered. A photon emitter was pointed towards a panel of double slits where a light detector was placed behind it. At first, the detector showed an interference pattern as if each photon was passing through the double slit at the same time and acted like a wave. (see video below)

However, when they added a measurement to determine which slit the photon passed through it only detected the photons in two places showing light acted like a particle. This discovery demonstrated the wave-particle duality and the measurement problem became known as the observer effect. While many in the physics world were shocked by these strange discoveries, Niels Bohr and his colleague Werner Heisenberg described the wave-particle duality as a wave-function. The wave-function serves as a probability amplitude which is a mathematical representation of the magnitude of change for a quantum particle over time.

“thus it was the interaction of the observer obtaining information within the experiment which caused the wave function to collapse. According to Heisenberg, “reality is in the observation, not in the electron”. (Werner Heisenberg).

This understanding totally changes the relationship between the subject (observer) and what we perceive as our objective reality, because it is the information we collect as the observers of the material world which determines what we perceive rather than viewing nature as an independent entity. Neils Bohr said,

“For a parallel to the lesson of atomic theory regarding the limited applicability of such customary idealization, we must in fact turn to quite other branches of science, such as psychology, or even to that of epistemological problems with which already thinkers like Buddha and Lao Tzu have been confronted, when trying to harmonize our position as spectators and actors in the great drama of existence.” (October 1937)

The source of this understanding did not only relate to the effects of measurement on the wave-particle phenomenon but it also showed up in experiments in determining the position and momentum of particles because it was found that the electrons in atoms were shown to not follow exacts orbits. Werner Heisenberg later discovered the Uncertainty Principle where a particle’s position and momentum can not be measured simultaneously with precision. This is because as you measure either position or momentum of a quantum particle the error will increases in the other property.

This principle has a certain elegance because it’s able to scale the universe by the level of uncertainty between its complementarity properties and allows us to understand why the macro world doesn’t emulate the quantum level. For example, when calculating the uncertainty of throwing a baseball the result is 10 to the minus 30 millimeters which is too small to be noticed but if you measure the momentum of an electron, the uncertainty of its position is very large.

The work of Edwin Schrodinger tired to move away from the Copenhagen Interpretation of the measurement problem by just developing equations which would describe the quantum state of particles over time. He even came up with the famous Schrodinger Cat thought experiment to counter the Copenhagen Interpretation which predicted two particles could be in a type of complementary “superposition” which he later termed entanglement.  Einstein also used the same concept of in his famous paper on the EPR paradox to prove QM was also a incomplete theory. This controversy was finally settled about sixty years later when work on quantum entanglement began which not only verified its possibility but has been shown not to violate general relativity. 

The Principle of Uncertainty has wide applications in physics. For example, the amount of randomness within matter at the atomic level is described as a measurement of entropy (disorder) or time. This concept was first developed in the 1870’s by a physicist named Ludwig Boltzman who theorized,

“The second law of thermodynamics he argued was simply the result of the fact in a world of mechanically colliding particles, the disordered states are the most probable. Because there are so many possible disordered states than ordered ones”.

At the moment of the Big Bang matter was in its lowest entropy state and when it expanded it began moving towards higher states of entropy (disorder). For example, ice melting in a glass of water. The atoms within the ice cubes are in a lower state of entropy compared to the atoms in the water, because there are more disorderly states to organize the atoms when they are in a liquid state, thus, the ice atoms will phrase into a liquid form. This process shows a measure of time because this change is only moving in one direction because the probability of those same ice atoms that melted into the water will reconstitute themselves back into ice cubes is low.

This process is constantly happening around us. For example, every time we boil water on the stove or bake a cake all these activities use entropy to transition matter into another form. The I Ching also describes this property of change in the universe emerging from the taiji (yin - yang).

The I Ching also describes a constant movement similar to processes of entropy when Richard Wilhelm states,

“The nature of the Creative is movement. Through movement it unites with ease what is divided. In this way the Creative remains effortless, because it guides infinitesimal movements when things are smallest. Since the direction of movement is determined in the germinal state of being, everything else develops quite effortlessly of itself, according to the law of its nature." ( I Ching, New York 1950)

However, most of the accepted physics which describes our cosmology wasn’t due to quantum mechanics but discoveries made by Albert Einstein where he described gravity by combining both space and time through his theory of General Relativity. This relativistic view of space-time as a 3D fabric that curves in the present of mass which describes the force of gravity has dominated the modern world. Nevertheless, QM physics holds onto to there view of space and time as a sea of quantum fluctuations because the uncertainty principle predicts the creation of virtual energy particles to exist at extremely short periods of time at quantum distances (energy and momentum). 

These two interpretations of space-time got a litter closer in 1998 when it was revealed that the expansion of the universe was speeding up. However, astrophysicist needed to adjust there relativistic model of the cosmos by creating Dark Energy which uses a form of positive vacuum energy that makes up 74 percent of the universe. It was also determined that the amount of matter in the universe was missing 22 percent needed to maintain the curvature of space-time so they created dark matter. This means we are only observing 4 percent of what makes up the universe. There is a mystery to this dark energy because when the background energy of the vacuum of the universe is calculated the result is too small to fuel the rate of the expansion. Dr. Jack Sarfatti, a former professor of physics at San Diego State University proposes a possible solution to this missing dark energy dilemma that is based upon  a retro-causation process. 

He speculates that the boundary of our increasingly expanding universe is similar to the event horizon of a black hole where its gravity confines all matter and light. Dr. Sarfatti uses the calculations within Tamara Davis Phd thesis, “Fundamental Aspects of the Expansion of the Universe and Comic Horizons”, to proposes that this future expanding event horizon of the universe is inversely proportional to the current estimated dark energy density needed, thus, the source of the effects of the dark energy in our universe is coming from the future.

This sounds pretty crazy but Dr. Sarfatti references the retro-causal model based upon the Wheeler and Feynman Absorber Theory which explains that time is symmetric in the electrodynamic field equations. This is a running theme in QM that even though we experience time moving in one direction – the mathematics of QM tells us that the direction of time can equally work in both directions. For example, the effects of an emitter of a electron and an object absorbing it is valid in either time direction, thus, a future electromagnetic wave could be absorbed from the past. In addition Dr. Sarfatti theory uses general relativity to also view the universe as a closed time-like curve (Godel) which makes it possible for future events to effect past events. 

Dr. Tamara Davis’s thesis took all of the available precision cosmological data at the time and used the equations of general relativity to maps the universe between two points, our past and future event horizons (see the diagram below).

Dr. Sarffatti references properties of the Holographic Principle and conjectures that all the information within the universe exists within this expanding future event horizon and somehow is able to project our third dimension as a hologram. The holographic principle is not considered fringe science but is supported by prominent physicist such as Gerald ‘t Hoof and Leonard Susskind. While they would disagree on Sarffatti application of the theory, its mechanics according to string theorist are valid.

Craig Hogan from the University of Chicago, proposes that if the holographic principle is true it would produce “holographic noise” at the quantum level. The technology to measure such effects needs to be extremely sensitive in the range of detecting gravitational waves. Dr. Hogan is proposing to use the GEO 600 interferometer in Hanover, Germany to test his theory. 

The idea that the basic level of the universe is informational is not a new concept. It was proposed by the physicist John Wheeler who explained this idea in his famous phrase “It from Bit” describing a digital computational informational universe.

“… it not unreasonable to imagine that information sits at the core of physics, just as it sits at the core of a computer (J A Wheeler 1998). It from bit. Otherwise put, every “it”- every particle, every field of force, even the space-time continuum itself - derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely - even if in some context indirectly - from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits. “It from bit” symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical has at bottom – a very deep bottom, in most instances – an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes-no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and this is a participatory universe (J A Wheeler 1990).

MIT engineering professor Seth Lloyd and Vlatko Vedral a physics professor at Oxford University who wrote the book, “Decoding Reality” have used this same type of hypothesis to also speculate that the basic level of the universe is informational which is becoming a growing accepted interpretation of the observations of quantum mechanics.

Holographic information as self organizing entities comes from the word  "holons".

"The term was first coined by Arthur Koesltler in his book "The Ghost in the Machine (1967, p.48). Koestler points out that holons are autonomous, self-reliant units that possess a degree of independence and handle contingencies without asking higher authorities for instructions. These holons are also simultaneously subject to the control from one or more of these higher authorities. The first property ensures that holons are stable forms that are able to withstand disturbances, while the latter property signifies that they are intermediate forms, providing a context for the proper functionality for the larger whole." - wikipedia.org

The holon can be see as a atom, particle or the cell is showing that all matter exist as holographic information (binary format) at the quantum level. Science is slowly coming to the understanding how quantum physics is playing a much larger role in the macro world. For example, what Einstein called "spooky action at a distance" or quantum entanglement is now being found to be used in photosynthesis as an integral part of what fuels life on this planet. (Engel and Mukamel 2011). The connection between life and quantum theory are being investigated by scientist who have discovered how these processes are used at the most basic of life's systems. Biological processes are now being called "random walks" and "quantum searches" because most of these discoveries are being made by quantum scientist rather than biologist. A new field is opening up called Quantum Biology. 

Our understanding of entanglement is currently being revised to include the properties of uncertainty and what is known as “quantum steering” where the measurement of one entangled particle effects it’s partner particle without violating general relativity (Werner and Oppenhiem 2010). This deeper understanding of the Uncertainty Principle is beginning to open the doors of our perception of the Copenhagen Interpretation of the complementarity view of nature.

The source of this informational level of reality is what the I Ching describes as Wu Chi which is symbolized as a empty circle. The Taiji (yin-yang) emerges from this oneness as what the I Ching called, "The Great Primal Beginning".

"wu chi is a limitless void, where as the taiji is a limit in the sense that it is the beginning and end of the world, a turning point. The wuji is the mechanism of both movement and quiescence; it is situation before the differentiation between movement and quiescence". - Isabelle Robinet, Wuji and Taiji, 2008

In Richard Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching, he stated, “Nonchange is the background, as it were, against which change is made possible”. This non-change emerges from the void of Wu Chi as the source of the uncertainty (entropy) which generates the binary information. This process is symbolized by the taiji.   These complementarity elements of the yin and yang are not only a product of uncertainty but are entangled as well because they emerged from a level of reality where they exist as one.

For example, we could view the complementarity property like a string where at each opposite end are   congugrate aspects such as momentum and position. The string represents all the possible combinations of these elements. This is similar to a bifurcation process which begins to divide up the string (space-time) into smaller and smaller segments because these combinations of these elements eventually become closer to each other. This process is very similar to how the cantor set begins with a single line where each sequence is created by removing the middle third of each line. Mathematically this progression is unending because each of the remaining lines are the fractional elements of the original line. This sounds counter intuitive but mathematically these fractions lines can be divided infinitely.

"The Cantor set is the prototype of a fractal. It self-similar, because it is equal to two copies of itself.." wikipedia.org 

The Cantor Set is a fractal progression, thus, the imaginary string becomes immeasurable over time. The famous physicist Richard Feynman discovered this same phenomenon within QM because as his measurements of the path of the electron became more precise he would see an increase in the rate of bifurcations in its path making predictions impossible. Feynman eventually discovered the technique of renormalization which allow researchers and engineers to take out these paths of infinities and only work at quantum levels which were relevant for experiment and commercial use such as in field of electronics. 

As Einstein created a understanding of gravity through General Relativity, Heisenberg created a way to conceptualize the world as a series of complementarity relationships where the level of uncertainty between these properties varies based upon the scale of our observation. In other words, if we took sand particles and lay them next to each other by a ocean we would observe a beach. However, if we examined each particle of sand at the micro level we would find that none of these random shapes would exactly match each other. Nature has a way of creating wholeness out of scaling randomness. These effects are generated by taiji (chaotic processes) that are able to access the energies at the quantum level of reality (uncertainty) and scale them to the macro. James Gleick explains this progress in his book “Chaos” when he writes,

“Where is this information coming from? The heat bath of the microscales (quantum) of molecules in their random thermodynamic dance. Just as turbulence transmits energy from large scales downward through chains of vortices to the dissipating small scales of viscosity, so information is transmitted back from the small scales to the large.” (New York, 1987)

Retro-Causation and The Symmetry of Time

In nature the flow of information seems to move from the quantum level in both directions. In the macro world the time perspective appears to move in one direction, only from the past into the future. We had discussed this concept of retro-causation previously under the Wheeler-Feynman Absorber Theory but we did not present the experimental data that proves its possibility. One of these experiments is called “A Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser (Yoon-Ho Kim, R. Yu, S.P. Kulik and an Y.H Shih, 2000). It basically a version of the famous Double Spilt experiment except that it uses a time delay by creating a set of entangled particles after they have passed either of the two slits. From slit A, one particle is sent to the main detector where it measures the particle-wave phenomenon while the other entangled particle is sent through a random process which either records which slit the particle went through or erases this information. A duplicate process is repeated when a photon passes through slit B. 

Remember, the measurement problem occurred when a detector was put at the double slit location to observe which slit the photon passed through. When this was done the photons acted as particles because the detection panel only showed two areas where the photons landed. And when they removed this measurement the photons acted like a wave between the two slits and created an interference pattern.

The sequence of detection times were controlled by distance. The main photon detector (D0) was the shortest distance, thus all the photons at this location will be detected without any knowledge if the slit information was recorded or not. The second event which is set to a longer distance is generated by a random beam splitter (BSA or BSO)  which will ether direct it towards locations (D3 or D4) or (D1 or D2). Each specific path of the photons provide the following information:

1. D1 : No path recorded (erased)
2. D2 : No path recorded (erased)
3. D3 : Path recorded from slit A (BSA)
4. D4 : Path recorded from slit B (BSB)

The experiment concluded that when no path information was recorded an interference (waves) pattern occurred and when the path information was recorded it only showed two areas (particles) where the photons landed at detector D0. This result was surprising because how can the interference pattern disappear when the photons that followed paths 3 and 4 were measured after the photons have already been detected at D0? One possibility is retro-causation where by the future result affects a past event.

Science has ignored the deeply philosophical questions of the measurement problems and has concentrated only on ways to calculate the wave-functions of quantum particles. And even if science acknowledged these retro-causal effects of QM it would conjecture that they do not necessary translate  into the macro world. However, much of this type of  phenomenon has occurred as paranormal effects which are explained as Extra Sensory Perception of human consciousness. Phenomenon such as receiving premonitions and remote viewing could be explained within QM retro-causal effects. For example premonitions can be seen as a person ability to perceive a future event. While remote viewing is gaining information about unknown targets (person, places or things) regardless of locality or time was first introduced by Russell Targ and Harold Putoff in 1974. Both respected physicist working for the Stanford Research Institute conducted research in this area and developed the protocols and training techniques for Remote Viewing Projects for the CIA, DIA and Army Intelligence in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

In the video below Dr. Garret Moddel, a physicist at the University of Colorado has explored such areas as premonition and psychokinesis discusses a general scientific model of retrocausation.

Precognition has been studied by neurologist and scientist such as Dean Radin who is a senior researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He developed a experiment where he measured the retinal eye movements of test subjects before and after being exposed to emotional images. The results of this experiments concluded there was significant statistical data supporting that precognitive retinal movement occurred before the emotional images were shown. In the 1980’s there was a meta analysis of this subject done which reviewed over 309 experiments that found precognition did occur but accounted for only a small effect. 

If precognitive perceptions are possible due to retro-causation effects, then these abilities of the human brain could account for the survival of the specie by developing this trait. This trait could also be apart of a larger holographic process at the quantum level where data could be shared between species based upon similar genetics increasing its survival rate. This could explain the Hundred Monkey story told by Lawrence Blair’ in his 1975 book, “Rhythms of Visions”. It recounts the research done in Japan during the 1950’s of macaques monkeys on the island of Koshima. In 1952, they observed a group of monkeys washing sweet potatoes before they would eat them, then by 1958 they observed this trait had been adopted among most of the macaques monkeys even those on other islands. Later the skeptics claim to prove the behavior was only adopted among the younger monkeys and the spread to other islands was due to monkeys with this trait swam to those islands. What was important was not how but why this new useful information was shared within a group of genetically related animals. It is obvious that the collection of information is pivotal in the human specie to survive and evolve. Even in the modern age when the internet has taken the place of the Hundred Monkey an informational matrix is slowly becoming a physical reality in the 21st century and a tool which is speeding up our current evolution.

The Science of the I Ching, Quantum Mechanics and Chaos Theory

As QM opened up this new view of nature in the last century, the ancients who wrote the I Ching discovered these same insights of complementarity (wave-particle) and its relationship to entropy (randomness) which they incorporated within the taiji over 5,000 years ago. Taoism gained most of this knowledge from observing nature compared to the early days of science where it ignored the systems of nature such as weather because it concluded it was too complex (before computers) to create mathematical models to make predictions.

However, in 1887 Henri Poincare in a paper he wrote describing a solution to the motion of two or more orbiting bodies was the first of many discoveries that led science to study nature and lay the foundation for Chaos Theory. It took another seventy-three years after Henri Poincare paper to revive its concepts. It was accidentally rediscovered by Edward Lorenz, a mathematician at MIT while working on the problem of weather prediction. He decided to speed up the process inputting data by taking off significant digits from the data he was using to input into the computer. When he reviewed the print out he was amazed how much difference small increments in the data created huge changes in the results. It was through this incident that he began to conclude that the sensitivity to initial conditions must have an underlining mathematical order to it. He later gave a famous speech where he gave an example of this effect when he said, "the flapping wings of a butterfly in Brazil over time could cause a tornado over Texas". This latter became known as the Butterfly Effect.

This led to the discovery of the Lorenz Attractor that mapped this chaotic behavior. The picture below maps the process of convection of hot and cold air (fig 1), thus for the first time it showed scientist that chaotic processes could be quantified and used to predict its behavior over time.

Fig 1

Another breakthrough was in the discovery of fractals by Benoit Mandelbrot. Even though Chaos Theory didn’t have a direct link to this discovery, there mathematical principles are very similar, in that, fractal and chaos have a way of reorganizing random information. This aspect of processing infinite amounts of data points by forming self similar shapes or mathematical curves is a running theme in both chaos and fractals. In fractals it accomplished by what is known as iteration. Fractals are based upon an algorithm where each result is feed back into the formula, while chaos maps are generating by the infinite amounts of small random interactions that take place due to entropy which is the measurement of disorder in a system. In Chaos, this creates fractal like layers in the maps as shown in (Fig 2). As these random interactions accumulate they start to act like one fractal shape due to these data points moving closer and closer to each other. This process is called scaling (Fig 3) which is due to the nature of deterministic chaos having periodic orbits that are dense. For example the mixing of hot and cold air in a weather systems will generate the majority of data points moving towards a state of equilibrium which over time appears as the fractal spiral.

Fig 2,3

Previously, fractals were described as self similar mathematical shapes that could mimic the natural world. However, another way to understand them is from a geometric perspective. Geometry is the study of objects within spaces and one of its main rules is that the dimension of a space is equal to or greater than the dimension of its objects. For example, a point is the only object that can live in a zero dimension because a point has no direction but a point on a line can also exist in a one dimension space. This is interesting, because the cantor set starts off with a line, where the third middle part of the line is removed that is slowing being divided back into its points which represents its fractal elements. Thus, the cantor set is moving from a one dimensional space, back towards a zero dimension which it quite never gets back too. (see fig 5)

Fig 5

It seems such a small jump from one back to zero, however, as the cantor set proves, the fractal dimensions of space and objects between these two numbers are infinite. This is where fractals get their name because they are objects that live within fractions of dimensions. This is why there discovery was against the grain of general geometry because most of us in school learned that geometry was the study of idealized objects, such as squares, spheres and triangles. However, in nature we rarely encounter these shapes. But through the work of Mandlebrot, we find that the structures of nature are fractal.

In the east, the I Ching discovered this same mystery with numbers before modern mathematics. It seems numbers not only represents quantity but are elements of a language that can describe abstract ideas that are autonomous within the numbers themselves. The I Ching uses this same fractal mathematics to encode information into what are called the hexagram. The I Ching uses a system of sixty-four hexagrams (Fig 6). A hexagram is made up of six lines where each position is either a line or a broken line. 

The basic units of the hexagram are two trigrams which is all the possible combinations between the broken and solid lines within three positions which totals eight trigrams (Fig 7).

Fig 6

Fig 7

The cantor set and the I Ching both have a binary fractal structure because they form two self-similar copies of itself which bifurcates or doubles itself (2, 4, 8 ...) at each level .

While using this bifurcation process the I Ching creates a mathematical relationship with the binary numbering system. Gottfried Leibniz in the 17th century commented on this relationship between the I Ching’s hexagrams and binary numbers. This is done by converting each solid line as 1 and each broken line as 0 within the hexagram.

When you flip over the hexagram on its side and do the conversion you come up with a binary number.

In the Tao of Chaos, Dr. Walters noticed that this same bifurcation structure of the I Ching was similar to the mathematics in Chaos Theory. In the work of Robert May a biologist who had a background in theoretical physics used chaotic mapping to help him predict the effects of environmental factors in population growth in a group of animals he was studying. He noticed in the graphs after the first stages of stabilized growth the maps began to bifurcate into periods of chaos but he then noticed after awhile the graphs indicated the population growth would begin to stabilize again after a third period doubling. This same pattern reappeared over and over, even when he applied this same type of graph with other types of studies he was familiar with. (see Fig 9)

Dr. Walters also noticed that DNA has similar bifurcation structures. DNA is constructed out of two chemical groups, pryrimidines and purines. Out of each of these groups emerge two chemicals which make the four building blocks of DNA, Thyamine, Cytosine, Guanine and Adenine. DNA is made of two double stranded pairs of these four compounds. The information within DNA is converted into a protein through a process that creates RNA. RNA then completes this conversion process to a translation map called codons. These codons are made of three base amino acids of the RNA sequence that is used to create the proteins. There are a possible 64 triplet pairs of codons. These triplet pairs are very similar to the organizational structure of the I Ching trigrams (see Fig 8).

Fig 8

DNA and the hexagram are comparable on many levels when Dr. Walters sums up these traits as, "The DNA swatch has six items ... and so does the hexagram. The swatch divides into two polarized triplets, and so does the hexagram. The swatch bonds Item 1 to Item 4, Item 2 to Item 5 and Item 3 to Item 6, and so does the hexagram. The swatch is built on increasing higher orders of bifurcation, and so is the hexagram. And of course, both run through their 64 possible permutations. This is the same mathematical structure." 

The divination process of the I Ching on the surface is a table of information that has been converted in a digital binary format that ultimately determines how close you are to a favorable or unfavorable result to your question. The ancients of the I Ching understood the concept of entanglement (yin-yang) and how to steer an unknown answer in the future based upon a known product which is your question. The hexagrams represent a group of psychological archetypes that incorporate a range of environments. How does the I Ching determine which of these environments describe the future event you are asking? When we take a measurement between the question and an unknown event in the future, it collapses the wave-function (sixty-four hexagrams) on the most probable result based upon the level of uncertainty between these two events.

Can a physical event be interpreted as a quantum event? The answer is yes because both exist as information at there most basic level. The measurement needs to be generated randomly to maintain the complementarity relationship where only one property can be known (the question) at a time. The I Ching uses a bifurcation process which is iterated six times by either selecting yin (broken) or yang (solid) line creating two trigrams which makes a hexagram. The hexagram is a type of bifurcation map similar in Chaos theory where each period doubling (bifurcation map) is observed as changing between stages of order or chaos. However, the hexagram represents only the third period doubling in the future which is the most stable.

For example, in the work of Robert May a biologist who had a background in theoretical physics who was trying to use chaotic mapping to predict population growth in a group of animals he was studying. The graph in general predicted populations growth for a period before starting to break down into chaos into what is called period doubling, May noticed in the graphs after these maps began to bifurcate into periods of chaos the population growth would begin to stabilize again after a third period doubling. This same pattern reappeared over and over, even when he graphed other types of studies he was working on.

Fig 9

The I Ching’s hexagrams are based upon a philosophical representation of the archetypes of nature and how they interact. There construction follows a very structured bifurcation hierarchy that culminates with the eight trigrams which the I Ching calls the Great Field of Action. Each trigram represents a characteristic of nature, thus when the hexagrams are generated between all the possible combinations (sixty-four) of the eight trigrams. There is a deep connection between the symbols we used to describe our reality and our internal unconscious, thus each hexagram represents a unique conjugate relationship that exist within nature that are interpreted in a way which describes a particular psychological environment that surrounds your future event.

These archetypes are not set in stone and many interpretations can take place such as the development of the tarot which uses this same science. From a standpoint of information theory, the hexagrams or the information contained within them are relative to personal interpretation and could be seen as a series of messages where the statistical distribution of the average amount of random information (bits) would determine the probability curve of what types of information to expect within a single message. In other words, when you ask a question of the I Ching it will measure the level of uncertainty (entanglement) between the question and the future event. Based upon this measurement, it is able to steer the selection of the most probable message (hexagram) between a range of favorable to unfavorable environments surrounding your question.

These scientific concepts are moot unless you understand the deep connection between the unconscious mind and the physical events that we experience. The phenomenon of language, consciousness and its deep connection to the quantum world is the key into revealing this relationship. When the physical sciences understand the fundamental level of reality can not be measured directly because it is too random it will begin to use tools which use non-linear techniques similar to the ways our unconsciousness works to observed this hidden order within the nature of reality.

The Unconscious, Archetypes and Chi

Science of the mind in the western world is only a recent discovery made by the German physician Wihelm Wundt in the 18th century who introduced experimental psychology. In ancient times, psychology was a philosophy taken up by the Greeks and many other groups in the far east. The study of the psychology of man has uncovered that the use of language and the major symbols within our myths and religions are a gateway into understanding the nature of mind. One of the early investigators who studied how the mind uses these symbols was Carl Jung who pioneered the theory of these images which he called Archetypes. On this subject he said,

“Whereas the personal unconscious consists for the most part of “complexes”, the content of the collective unconscious is made up essentially of “archetypes”. The concept of the archetype, which is a indispensable correlate to the idea of the collective unconscious, indicates the existence of definite forms in the psyche which seem to be present always and everywhere. …My thesis, then, is as follows: In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as appendix), there exist a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals.” (Carl Jung 1928)

To Jung the mind was divided between its conscious and unconscious functions which projected these archetypes into our conscious awareness. Eventually his theory evolved into a “psychoid” interpretation where even non-mental objects such as matter used archetypal like functions such as the Uncertainty Principle where the fundamental laws of physics emerge from.

One of Jung proof for this theory was the phenomenon of synchronicity which was the ability of our mental processes to affect our physical reality. Jung said on this subject, 

“Since psyche and matter are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in continuous contact with one another and ultimately rest on irreprehensible; transcendental factors, it is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two difference aspects of one and the same thing. The synchronicity phenomena point, it seems to me, in this direction, for they show that the nonpsychic can behave like the psychic, and vice versa, without there being any causal connection between them. (Carl Jung, On the Nature of the Psyche)

Jung defined synchronicity as two events which are connected through meaning. Here the relationship of the unconscious archetypes makes a physical connection to an event due to what Jung called “An Acausal Connecting Principle”. This was a level of reality where the realm of the psychic and matter are one or what Jung called the unus mundus (one world). His work on this subject was rather limited because he was trying to find a elementary law within the physical sciences that could account for this effect. But another way he looked at it was expressed in a quote he repeated on this subject from Louis Carrol book, “Through the Looking Glass”, where the white queen says to Alice, “It’s a poor sort of memory, that sort of works backwards”. 

The last part of the statement is referring to a retro-causal process where a future physical event is accessed by our unconscious but we are only made conscious of it from an event in the past. Jung gives an example of synchronicity from one of his patient where she is explaining a scene in a dream where a golden scrab is offered to her. At that exact moment, a scarabeid type of beetle taps on his window in Jung office, he opens the window and offers it to his patient. In this example, the patient could have had a unconscious premonition of this event which was connected to her dreams because she would routinely communicate to Jung in his office at each therapy session. This could be explained that at the level of the unconscious mind all information connected by ‘meaning’ can be accessed both ways in time (past or future). 

The concept of “meaning” might not necessarily be the key here because of its changing nature. Philosophers such as Ludwing Wittgenstein described meaning as a “form of life” which was relative to how society norms uses the word. He said, “For a large class of cases – though not for all – in which we employ the word ‘meaning’ of a word is connected to its use in the language”. He views language as a cognitive process where we communicate by sharing the uses of words. One example, is the use of the word color. How can we describe the word green? We could give a scientific definition of its wavelength, but to Wittgenstein this example shows that definitions or meanings are not needed because we use words effectively without them.

“Thus if I know that someone means to explain a colour-word to me the ostensive definition “That is called ‘sepia’” will help me understand the word. One has already to know (or be able to do) something in order to be capable of asking a thing’s name.”

The relationship between meaning or the use of images are crucial in understanding in what Jung called the unus mudus. Jung didn’t understand the science of information technology where images can be easily converted to a binary format which is the technology we used today to convert pictures digitally so they can be stored or sent over the internet. However, the most efficient way to store or process this information is to make it holographic where each digital bit is encoded with the information of not only its characteristics but location in relation to the other bits surrounding it and also recording it’s use.

The play between the conscious and unconscious mind is similar to a entangled state where a measurement of uncertainty can take place. Here the process of uncertainty manifest through the an creative process such as dreaming which uses a random method to reorganize information through images based upon there use (meaning). Even if the observation of an image within a dream is a precognitive event in the future this is irreverent to the unconscious mind. 

The collapse of the wave-function which is a projection from a archetype occurs when a emotional response is registered within the body (conscious). Emotions and feelings are complicated coarse of action because they are a variety of  involuntary bodily reactions which emerged from our unconscious brain. Each individual experiences emotions differently based upon there own conceptions and experiences. 

Emotions are triggered through our attachments to objects (images) of our desire, for example, it can be seen in our relationship to our mother as a infant that the mother invokes a desire for us to be nurtured or loved. Our strong connection to our mother is not based upon the person because infants don’t even know who that identity is, we are attached to the image of the mother as an object which we project our emotions onto. Our body and psyche are designed to respond to this nurturing by the mother archetype. In practice this process can be messy and mothers who have problems nurturing and making loving connections to their infants can effect there growth physically and psychologically which can appear latter in their life.

Desires are like destinations we will experience in our life. Emotion acts like a vehicle whose only function is to move us closer to our desire. That’s why when we try to control desire through emotion it is like making a turn down a road in the other direction but later find ourselves at the original point because we were driving around in a circle. We will continue to return to our desires no matter how many detours we take. Our unconscious is designed to work through our nervous system which can in instances react retro-causally to events in the future. This makes sense because early man didn’t have the luxury to out think his emotions, he needed to react quickly. This was done by bring this information to a conscious level through using his intuitive qualities so he could avoid injury and learn from his experiences.

The connection between the archetypes and biology could be communicating through our emotional information which creates a feedback loop where epigenetic processes could be modifying our DNA. This could be the synergy between mind and body that Jung was pursuing. It is our bodies reactions (emotions) which collapses the archetypes (wave-function) and projects this information into reality. What was unique in Jung’s work was his insight into tapping into our creativity abilities. He used dreams interpretation and what he called “active imagination” to communicate to our unconscious mind in revealing this hidden information of the archetypes. 

Jung and Joseph Campbell also believed the collective unconsciousness also projected these archetypes into our myths and religions such as the story of Adam and Eve where life was perfect in the garden (maya) of Eden until Eve (intuition) ate from the tree of knowledge (archetypes). Once we peer behind the veil like Eve in the garden, Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz seeing the wizard behind the curtain or like Buddha where he’s awaken under the bodhi tree, we become conscious we are living in a dream (the garden). When we awaken through our intuition we connect to our unconscious which connects us to spirit. This archetype is revealed within the character of the snake in the garden. There are two levels in which spirit talks to us, through our personal unconscious which projects our emotions based upon our desires and our collective aspects. It is this collective information which not only connects us to each other but all things within the cosmos. 

We understand this as infants before our emotional attachments take root. As infants we are enveloped by our bodily responses because they are not filtered through an emotional value system or constrained by social norms but experience it as a part of the energy itself. We are like Tai Chi masters as infants and toddlers. The I Ching called this energetic form of energy chi. This is the universal energy that emerges from the quantum fluctuations of the cosmos. Its nature is basically electric but it is the conduit in which the information held within the archetypes are projected into. Chi is form in motion. From this viewpoint the collective unconscious and the quantum level of reality are one. 

Chi could be described in what David Bohm called the "holomovement?". 

"..to emphasize undivided wholeness, we shall say that what ‘carries’ an implicate order is the holomovement, which is an unbroken and undivided totality. In certain cases, we can abstract particular aspect of the holomovement (e.g., light, electrons, sound, ect), but more generally, all forms of the holomovement merge and are inseparable. Thus in its totality, the holomovement is not limited in an specifiable way all. It is not required to conform to any particular order, or to bounded by an particular measure. Thus, the holomovement is undefinable and immeasurable (David Bohm. 1981. Wholeness and the Implicate Order)"

Conventional definitions of chi are connected to the view that it is a subtle life force within nature but it is much more. Chi is generated at the quantum level of matter which generates a holographic informational field which projects its archetypal information through a low energy plasma field which every particle of material matter emerges from, many call this effect the aura. This field steers the quantum structures of matter into its fundamental laws of nature.   

Electrophotonics from Petr Mihailov on Vimeo.

The Holomovement: The Realization of Self

The idea of the universe as a hologram is a very soothing because it implies we are all apart of an wholeness which in the end supports life. This unity emerges from the implicate order which is embedded within space-time.

“There is the germ of a new notion of order here. This order is not be understood solely in terms of a regular arrangement of objects (eg., in rows) or as a regular arrangement of events (e.g. in a series). Rather, a total order is contained, in some implicit sense, in each region of space and time. Now, the word ‘implicit’ is based upon the verb ‘to implicate’’. This means ‘to fold inward’….so we may be led to explore the notion that in some sense each region contains a total structure ‘enfolded’ within it” (David Bohm 1980).

The implicate order is reveal within the Uncertainty and Holographic Principles of space-time. This is why the Taoist were so focused on examining the explicate (outer) order within nature because when we observe and participate within the universe we can learn to transform our experience into this inner wholeness indirectly.

In the Tao de Ching, Lao Tzu, explains this process,

The Tao gives birth to One

One gives birth to Two

Two gives birth to Three

Three gives birth to all things.

All things have their backs to the female

and stand facing the male.

When the male and female combine

all things achieve harmony.

Ordinary men hate solitude

But the Master makes use of it

embracing his aloneness realizing

he is one with whole universe

Lao-Tzu - TaoTe Ching -Translated by Stephen Mitchell

When we awaken to the implicate order within all things through our interaction with the taiji and understand that the one bifurcates at each stage (2,4,8) where at the third period doubling which the I Ching calls "The Great Field of Action", the eight trigrams (archetypes) are created. It is from this point all the diversity of nature is created. This is what is meant when Lao-Tzu says, 

"Three gives birth to all things.

All Things have their backs to the female

and stand facing the male”.

Duality is created within " All Things" where the dark and light principle combine.  The female quality lays below the surface of our awareness as our unconscious (archetypes) when Lao-Tzu states,  "All things have their backs to the female". While the following line "and stand facing the male" represent our consciousness ego or the light principle.  

“When the male and female combine,

all things achieve harmony”.

When we merge these two aspects of ourselves we reach the union of the opposites - yin (female) and yang (male). When these two forces combine, Lao Tzu says, “all thing achieve harmony”. When we follow the path of the Tao we will begin to balance the forces of the taiji. Carl Jung called this process individualization of the Self. 

“Once [the union of opposites] has been experienced, the ambivalence in the image of a nature-god or Creator-god ceases to present difficulties. On the contrary, the myth of the necessary incarnation of God-the essence of the Christian message – can be understood as man’s creative confrontation with the opposites and their synthesis in the self, the wholeness of his personality. The unavoidable internal contradictions in the image of a Creator-god can be reconciled in the unity and wholeness of the self as the coniuncitio oppositorum of the alchemist or as a unio mystica. In the experience of the self it is no longer the opposites “God” and “man” that are reconciled, as it was before, but rather the opposites within the God-image itself. That is the meaning of divine service, of the service which man can render to God, that light may emerge from the darkness, that the Creator may become conscious of His creation, and man conscious of himself.” – (Carl Jung Memmories, Dreams Reflections)

Here the Taoist view and Jung understanding of the integration of self move away from each other in that the Taoist simplify the process through meditative observations and other practices such as Qigong and Tai Chi. While Jung’s approach is directly engaging a interactive communication with these archetypes by using the tools of dream interpretation and active imagination.

A pioneer in using Jungian therapy and using David Bohm ideas of holographic principles has been Dr. Vernon Woolf who developed a  psychotherapy called Holodynamics:

"...views reality as a coherent dynamic, living holographic information system whose structure, for micro (smallness) to macro (bigness) is intimately connected with human consciousness. Consciousness is considered a prime condition of the holodynamic universe." (Dr. Vernon Woolf)

Dr. Woolf uses the word holodynes to describe these "living holographic information systems" as a fractal network of data stored within our bodies through what are described as part of the cytoskeleton structure within the cells called mictrotubles which are like hollow tubes which hold water. They are about 25 nanometers wide which is 3,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. This concept was used by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff theories on the human mind using quantum processing through the use of these microtubles.

Dr,  Woolf proposed that not only does this network store our personal holodynes but the history of all our human experiences within our specific DNA set (from your parents) but also our past lives (reincarnation). This data structure emulates how information within a hologram is repeated within its parts. This could explain why people who receive implants start to take on the characteristics of its donors.

At the heart of Holodynamics is the concept of our full potential self which exist within the hyperdimension (95% of universe) which is beyond the holographic grid. We are holograms which are "living holographic information systems" which are only reflecting part of our full potential self. Every thought, idea and aspect of ourselves comes from this part of our being. At this level of existence, all experiences, thoughts, feelings have reached there full potential. Thus, for the holodynamics practitioner every problem or obstacle we encounter in our lives already has reached its full potential within the hyper-dimension. All we need to do is learn to merged these two holodynes to release the part of the full potential where a solution can be experienced in our lives.

It sounds very new age but thousand of Dr Woolf patients and certified practitioners have successfully treated drug addicts, terminal ill patients and mental illness through this method since 1990's. During the cold war, Dr. Woolf spent nine years in Russia teaching his therapy which is now are practiced in over 100 Russia cities and established The International Academy of Holodyanamics.(See his interview on his website).

If we take a closer look at the concept of our hyperdimensional self we find consciousness has two parts. One, where consciousness emerges from the body (hologram) itself. And two, its exist in a higher dimension version within the concept of the full potential Self. From a neurologist perspective the creation of the light principle which is the "I AM" is explained by  Dr. V.S Ramachandran, Director of the Center of Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego is similar to the Taoist view. The source of this identity is a natural result of qualia which means "sensations you are conscious of" which could be equivalent to the generation of change generated within the body due to the taiji or quantum flucuation (entropy). However, qualia doesn’t explain our subjective experience. For example, neurology can not explain the sensation of seeing the color red. Ramachandran believes this connection between the conscious sensation and the "I AM" experiencing the color red is crucial in understanding the emergence of consciousness. He believes the creation of the "I AM" is connected to meaning thus he concludes it related to the language centers of the brain. 

In the west, other than Jung's concept of the Self or our religious view of the Soul there is very little to compare the full potential Self too.  We need to be careful not to attach humanistic meanings to concepts of consciousness and our full potential self without first carefully examining it. Remember, as we measure these processes and move into the quantum and hyper dimensions the Uncertainty Principle becomes more prominent, meaning a high level of randomness will exist within its makeup. Thus, our minds need to be even more open to these expanded and non-linear understandings.

In the East, a different psychology called Vedanta Advaita which is similar to an Jungian model of the Self or what the Hindus called the Atman.  The Atman emerges from a universal archetype called Brahman that is comparable to the Taoist concept of Wu Chi. Mastery is attained through observation that the Atman and Brahman are one. Advaita philosophy agrees with Dr V. S Ramachandra theory that the consciousness arises out of the body which they label as the "I AM". Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj describes the archetype of the Atman (Self) when he said,

“In everybody there is a dream, but the dreamer is the same, the Self, which reflects itself in each body as “I am”.”

To Dr. V.S Ramachandran, all consciousness including the Atman are endemic within the brain. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist was able to experience her own stroke on the left side of her brain that controlled speech and logical thinking, which enable her to describe the slow process of her right side of her brain taking over her consciousness. Her story revealed, when the left side of her brain disappeared, she fell into an expansive feeling of limitless that could be described as a type of nirvana. Science and Vedanta philosophy would disagree as to where this type of consciousness emerges from but they would both agree it does exist. The creation of the "I AM" is needed for the survival of our body, but there is a transcendental connection to the implicate order which points towards this deeper mystery of consciousness.

This profound duality that exist between the left and right brain reveals this thin line between our ego and how the meaning of the objects that surrounds us that at times appear so solid can be so flexible. This was seen when Dr Jill Bolte experienced perceiving her body expanding beyond its limits without the input from the left side of her brain. In the Vedanta Advaita philosopy Dr. Stephen Wolinsky explains this paradox in the video below.

"Before the world was, consciousness was. In consciousness it comes to being. In consciousness, it last and into pure consciousness, it dissolves. At the root of everything, is the feeling of "I AM". The state of mind "there is a world" is secondary, for to be, I do not need a world, the world needs me." - Sri Nisagadatta

Here the master’s body does not collapse the wave-function (archetype) by emotion and releases his mind from the projections of our desires, this allows the consciousness of the "I AM" to flow in and out of the holomovement (holographic interference pattern). This occurs because the holomovement "just is", it has no intrinsic nature within itself other than uncertainty and acts as a vehicle for the holographic information. Once the holomovement is experienced the duality between the Atman and the Brahman is dissolved.