This blog post examines the claim that the mind creates reality from a quantum physics perspective.
Introduction
Do you remember ‘The Secret’, a book that was a long-term bestseller at Kyobo Book Centre in Korea during 2007 and 2008? It was a book about a ‘secret’ that supposedly allowed you to obtain everything, whether it was money or beauty. That secret was the ‘Law of Attraction’. It explained this law as a grand and precise natural law upon which the entire universe relies. The core of this law means “like attracts like.” Moreover, it also implies that whatever I think in my mind manifests into reality.
The idea that our mind and body are interconnected, and that the state of our mind can create physical reality, is nothing short of a remarkable claim. To dismiss this as merely the assertion of a self-help book would be to overlook its profoundly important scientific foundation: evidence from quantum physics. The reason ‘The Secret’ transcended being just a hopeful message to become a bestseller was precisely because quantum physics provided powerful scientific backing for its claims. Whether one accepts this secret as truth can profoundly alter their perspective on life and the world around them. However, making such a decision requires careful consideration based on sufficient evidence. Now, let us examine whether this belief is indeed reasonable through the specific testimony of quantum physics.
Testimony from Quantum Physics
The Current State of Quantum Physics
Quantum physics is the study of how particles behave in nature’s microscopic world. Its primary focus is the ‘particle-wave duality’ of matter. If we liken matter to a coin, its front side is the ‘particle’ with a fixed form, while its back side is the ‘wave’ that spreads out through space. The concept that these two seemingly contradictory properties form a single entity was initially counterintuitive and difficult to accept.
In 1925, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger presented a mathematical interpretation of the electron’s particle-wave duality. Schrödinger used the wave equation to describe both particle and wave properties, while German physicist Max Born interpreted the wave function derived from that equation as representing the probability of finding a particle. This brought innovation to physics and became the catalyst for quantum physics becoming a crucial pillar of modern science.
However, this probabilistic interpretation gave rise to the paradox known as ‘Schrödinger’s Cat,’ suggesting a particle might exist or not exist depending on observation. This became one of the elements making quantum physics difficult to understand.
David Bohm’s Quantum Physics
David Bohm, a professor at Princeton University in the United States, delved deeper into this problem. He argued that the imaginary part of the wave function was not merely a mathematical element but held significant physical meaning. Bohm explained the world by dividing it into two realms: the everyday reality, the physical world we can sense, and the non-everyday reality, the world of waves that cannot be directly perceived by our senses.
He saw the wave function as playing a crucial role in connecting these two realms. In particular, Bohr asserted that the vacuum of the universe is not empty space but is filled with active information called the ‘superquantum potential’. This active information is a vast wave field moving with purpose, and he explained that everything in the universe is localized and manifested through the interference phenomena of these waves. This connects to the material reality we perceive, and he saw the human mind as also being part of this information, interacting with the universe.
Bohm’s theory was not mere conjecture; it contributed to explaining phenomena like the ‘Casimir force’ and ‘Lamm shift,’ which had been difficult to explain scientifically. Moreover, his theory supported the claim that the human mind is connected to the universe and that the power of this mind can change reality.
Quantum Physics and The Secret
These discoveries in quantum physics provide the scientific foundation explaining the ‘Law of Attraction’ advocated in The Secret. Our minds, like transmitters, emit waves with specific frequencies, and these waves interact with the surrounding material world. For example, a happy person emits waves corresponding to happiness, and a material environment responsive to those waves is drawn to them.
The placebo effect is also explained by this principle. The reason illness improves even after ingesting a substance with no specific medicinal effect is that the patient’s belief in getting well emits waves with the associated frequency, and cells responsive to those waves resonate.
The Grand Premise of Quantum Physics
However, David Bohm’s quantum theory rests on one grand premise: that the ‘active information’ serving as the source of all derived waves originates from the human mind. Bohm also referred to this active information as ‘transcendent consciousness’. This concept views the origins of matter and mind as one and the same, ultimately connecting to God as an autonomous existence within the universe.
While this assumption remains merely a hypothesis scientifically, it is a theory that best explains various phenomena and is therefore worthy of acceptance. Just as we cannot directly observe the existence of a black hole but know it exists through its effects, the active information posited as ‘God’ also reveals its existence through the diverse phenomena of the universe.
Conclusion
Quantum physics demonstrates that our minds possess the actual power to create our surroundings. This means that the trajectory of our lives can be changed significantly depending on the state of mind we hold. Our health depends not on what medicine we take, but on what state of mind we maintain; success is determined not by ability, but by ‘positive conviction’.
While all this might feel like mere self-help nonsense, if we can practice it based on scientific evidence, we can steer our lives more positively and creatively. The day will come when this power of the mind is recognized as scientific knowledge, and I hope many people will live as creators of their own lives.
