“We are now so near the verge of the chasm that divides physical from spiritual science…”
— Henry Steel Olcott, 1880
By Greg Guma
Scientists were grappling with new theories of space-time possibilities; fundamental energies, self-organizing bio-gravitational fields, the relationship of consciousness to gravity. And the most revolutionary of these: consciousness as the hidden variable in the structure of matter itself.
By early 1975, I was eager to share the impact of these new discoveries, to make the startling possibilities understandable to a broader public. After launching a magazine, Public Occurrence, out of the bookstore run by a group we called the Frayed Page Collective, I explained what I was learning in an essay — along with a unique Vermont connection. Relativity theory and quantum mechanics were returning us to ideas discussed 2,000 years ago by Parmenides,** and later by the Irish philosopher George Berkeley, who introduced “immaterialism," otherwise known as "subjective idealism,” as well as by astronomer James Jeans and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.
The ultimate basis of being “is not sensory material,” I wrote, “but an ideal principle of form. Along with rebuilding the doctrine of harmony, the boundary between the observer and observed has become fuzzy. The theory of relativity ushered in a new understanding of the structure of space and time; quantum theory has revealed that every measurement in the atomic field requires an act of intervention.”
The process of conceiving any experiment is the experience of an observer who is also a participant, whose being is inseparable from the world in which the experiment is happening. Whitehead had explained it, more than a decade before Werner Heisenberg presented the uncertainty principle and turned immutable facts back into possibilities. Each entity begins as a “transcendent universe of other things.”
In 1974, quantum physicist John A. Wheeler refined this theory of unity and interconnection. The man who had given us terms like “black hole,” “wormhole and “quantum foam” had also discovered that the laws of energy conservation are not immutable, that the point-like events of space-time spontaneously break down, that his “mutability principle” transcends the conventional laws of physics, and that “there may be no such thing as the glittering central mechanism of the universe.”
The quantum principle, a conceptual leap in the exact sciences that marked a new, emerging synthesis of science, philosophy and religion, involved Mind in an essential way, as both creator and a function of matter. As Wheeler explained:
“May the universe in some strange sense be ‘brought into being’ by the participation of those who participate?… The vital act is the act of participation. “Participator” is the incontrovertible new concept given by quantum mechanics. It strikes down the term “observer” of classical theory, the man who stands safely behind the thick glass wall, and watches what goes on without taking part. It can’t be done, quantum mechanics says.”
This was a transformative metaphysical idea. Mind — the Participator —formulates the proposition from which matter is derived, it suggested. Energy manifests itself as transient particles, material forms which can’t be isolated from the wholeness of the universe. In other words, individual universe constructions form each other, each connected to all the others in constantly changing patterns. It is a self-organizing process, without beginning or end.
This new approach, incorporating recent scientific discoveries, posited that all possible histories of the universe occur and interfere with each other. Regions of constructive interference, the paths along which we can move with least disturbance, provide the “classical” history of the universe, as we know it in our usual state of consciousness.
In films and popular culture, the basic concept has since become known as the multiverse, a hypothetical collection of potentially diverse observable universes. But as Einstein realized and Wheeler said, the theory is incomplete. It doesn’t explain why any individual particle jumps into the instantaneous world line at a particular space-time coordinate.
As Wheeler put it, “No theory of physics that deals only with physics will ever explain physics.”
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| Wheeler’s illustration of the reflective, metacognitive nature of the universe. |
The determining factor is the volition, or choice, of the Participator. Quantum probability involves a creative sub-layer of ideas in the mind. All conscious systems, regardless of their location, contribute to the total quantum potential. The character of each event is a gestalt property of the wholeness of the universe. The volitional activity can be either active or passive. And sets of subjective states are linked, according to psychical research, with changes in patterns of behavior in the body.
Passive volitional states may even reach outside the body, impressing a coherent pattern on the movement of elementary particles. This is a technical way of describing the concept of astral projection.
Such revelations within the “rational” world of science and western philosophy come as no surprise to students of eastern wisdom, parapsychology, occult phenomena, and so-called “mind control.” Although they disagree about many things, most of those who have sought “altered” states of consciousness understand that humanity’s ability to focus consciousness can illuminate conventional “reality,” what Voltaire called “the lie agreed upon,” reaching into its recesses, and enabling human beings to transform both it and themselves.
Interest in the potential of consciousness began more than 150 years ago in the United States, long before physics began to challenge conventional notions of reality with experimental proof. A new craze swept the country, belief in premonitions, dreams, and messages suggesting a spiritual reality that existed alongside the material world. People were hungry for proof of immortality, and sought it in communication with “the other side.”
Invisible forces, at first labeled either as demons or spirits of the dead, produced noises, knocked over tables, played musical instruments, made people fly through the air, or even materialized. Most people remained skeptical; some became violent or abusive in reaction. But psychic explorers also began to investigate, to witness strange phenomena in controlled environments and interview the mediums apparently linked to them.
One of these investigators, I learned, was Henry Steel Olcott, who visited Vermont in 1874. He spent weeks in Chittenden, a small community near Rutland, on assignment for a New York newspaper to unravel the mystery surrounding spirits allegedly produced by William Eddy, a medium who had been responsible for “manifestations” since his childhood. While there he met a well-traveled occultist, Helena Blavatsky, who introduced him to fresh explanations based on ancient wisdom, but also consistent with recent — and indeed, future — scientific discoveries.
For the next 40 years, I conducted research and wrote factual accounts, as well as a novel based on the Vermont mediums and the meeting of Blavatsky and Olcott. Commenting on what he learned, Olcott once predicted, “We are now so near the verge of the chasm that divides physical from spiritual science, that it will not be long before we will bridge it.”
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