Actual Quantum Physics

DavidSon

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Jan 10, 2019
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I started the video and it seems informative. I admit I liked "What the Bleep Do We Know?" which he quickly brushed off as pseudoscience. The movie is a good story either way (following along the main character's neurochemical self discovery). Yeah it featured hypnotists with a partly New Age theme but also included a PhD physicist or two... I'll listen to his analysis later.

One interesting aspect of quantum physics relates to the ongoing study of consciousness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mind

"The quantum mind or quantum consciousness is a group of hypotheses proposing that classical mechanics cannot explain consciousness"

I came across an essay championing the theory that the self/"I-ness"/soul/ exists outside of the physical brain. One primary argument for the soul's non-material being is NDE's reported from individuals after they were clinically dead! A few quotes:

Materialists like Daniel Dennet, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris immediately dismiss the possibility of an immaterial soul or mind that interacts with the brain and the physical body. They argue this on the grounds of classical physics according to which the activity of the soul or any other immaterial entity upon the brain violates the law of conservation of energy. They conclude that matter is the fundamental reality of human beings and of the entire Universe.

What is often ignored today is how Dennet, Dawkins, Sam Harris and the materialists fail to realize that their entire argument for materialism and the denial of the soul is based on an outdated “classical physics” paradigm that was overturned in the 20th century with the advent of quantum physics. The general thinking of many people, however, is still shaped by classical physics and for this reason alone, materialism seems like the most scientific worldview. Thus Henry Stapp comments that the materialist argument against soul-body dualism falls apart in the face of contemporary physics:

“This argument depends on identifying ‘standard physics’ with classical physics. The argument collapses when one goes over to contemporary physics, in which, due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, trajectories of particles are replaced by cloud-like structures, and in which conscious choices can influence physically described activity without violating the conservation laws or any other laws of quantum physics. Contemporary physical theory allows, and its orthodox von Neumann form entails, an interactive dualism that is fully in accord with all the laws of physics.”
The existence of the human soul is a spiritual substance that is neither identical to nor reducible to the physical brain or any other material object!
 

The Agrarian

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Aug 17, 2018
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527
Before anyone dismisses this as dumb hick rambling...

Any time I hear things and read articles with the word "quantum" it always jumps to the theoretical and quickly makes a turn towards Buddhist or New Age thought wrapped up in scientific language. I get the impression that academia uses this field solely to whore-out their departments for grant money then promptly launders it back to the university.
 

arkie guide

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Dec 30, 2021
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With an active PHD in the (logarithms in math of deep space travel). Quantum Physics is but a walk in the park.
 
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