Revolving and Circling Around: Metaphors of Spiritual Relations

Do Thou bless, O Lord my God, the Primal Point, through Whom the point of creation hath been made to revolve in both the visible and invisible worlds, Whom Thou hast designated as the One whereunto should return whatsoever must return unto Thee, and as the Revealer of whatsoever may be manifested by Thee.

(Bahá’u’lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh: 299)

The visible and invisible worlds are counterparts, and much of what we know of the invisible is through its visible outer pictures.  The Bab is that manifest Primal Point around Whom revolves the point of creation in both the visible and invisible worlds, what Baha’u’llah names “the contingent and placeless worlds.” (The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 175)  Further, His station in this world as the point, or mid-most heart, of creation revolves around His station of divine Manifestation as the Primal Point from which is generated all created things, since the material comes forth from and revolves around the spiritual.

All things, the Master tells us, are created in pairs.  This has more than one meaning.  One meaning, of course, is like the pair, woman and man, which form a polarity called humanity.  This polarity of equals, these twin centers, has complementary characteristics which form an unity that progress into greater manifest complexity.  That is, pulsations of energy moving in waves of increasing frequency and power between the poles act reciprocally to unfold latent qualities, to transform potentiality into actuality. 

But there is also the metaphorical polarity of unequals, of superior and inferior.  This polarity also forms a double center, but one center is dominant.  In this context, we perceive that the two poles of the Eternal and the contingent, the spiritual and the material, require and mutually illuminate and define each other in consciousness.  These two meanings together (i.e. equals and superior/inferior) are the glorious structure of “active force” and “recipient”, and “these two are the same yet they are different”—twin poles of a single structure, but in that of unequals one pole comes forth from the other.

The Bahá’i Writings often employ the phrases “circle round” or “revolving” to indicate the relation of authority, especially spiritual authority. For example, the Bab, extolling the greatness and primacy of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation to all others, states: “Beg ye of Him the wondrous tokens of His favour that He may graciously reveal for you whatever He willeth and desireth, inasmuch as on that Day all the revelations of divine bounty shall circle around the Seat of His glory and emanate from His presence, could ye but understand it.”(Selections from the Writings of the Bab:164) Baha’u’llah speaking of the Bab states: “Know then that all thou hast heard and witnessed that Daystar of Truth, the Primal Point, ascribe to Himself from the designations of former times is only on account of the weakness of men and the scheme of the world of creation. Otherwise, all names and attributes revolve round His Essence and circle about the threshold of His sanctuary. For He it is Who traineth all names, revealeth all attributes, conferreth life upon all beings, proclaimeth the divine verses, and arrayeth the heavenly signs.”(Gems of Divine Mysteries: 65-66)  Shoghi Effendi puts the same relation in another context, calling: “The principle of the Oneness of Mankind the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve.” (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 42)

Spiritually, the invisible center is always the highest point, as when Baha’u’llah describes the Bab as: “This Point is the focal centre of the circle of Names and marketh the culmination of the manifestations of Letters in the world of creation.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 101)  The center stands as the essence. All things come forth from it into manifestation and all things return to it in the sense of building higher levels of being on the plane of manifestation, the world of existence, whose center is the visible Manifestation of God.  Essence and existence are, again, twin poles with energies flowing between them, and existence emanating from and circling around essence. When considering the images of circling around and revolving, we should be careful not to focus only on the image of the circle, but also on the circling movement.  And since there are dual centers in every polarity, even that between unequals, and the Manifestation and His followers form such a polarity, revolving means not in a perfect circle, but in an ellipse, as the planets revolve in ellipses around the sun. 

Unlike a circle, which has only one center, ellipses have two centering points, which are referred to as foci.  They are resonant, but one focus is stronger.  In celestial mechanics, orbital resonance occurs when two orbiting bodies exert a regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually due to their orbital periods being related by a ratio of two small integers. Orbital resonances greatly enhance the mutual gravitational influence of the bodies.  The relations of physical things revolving around a center provide metaphors of spiritual relations of believing souls to the Manifestation of God.  In the following paragraphs, if you substitute soul for planet and Manifestation for sun you’ll see what I mean.    

For our solar system the supreme center, the sun, is the superior, while the planets, each being their own center, orbit around it as the other foci.  We say that the planet circles around the sun, but actually, as we all know, the orbit is something of a squashed circle.  It is an ellipse, with the smaller focus both pivoting around itself and revolving around the pivot of the dominant center. An elliptical orbit of any size causes the distance of the planet from the sun to vary continuously. Thus, for every planet there will be one time when it is closest to the sun and another time when it is farthest from the sun. The planet orbits the sun iteratively but chaotically, i.e. no orbit traverses exactly the same path as any other orbit.

Kepler showed that the velocity of a planet, in the course of its orbit, would both speed up and slow down.  This is another metaphor of our relation with the Manifestation, the Sun of Reality, around which circle the souls of the believers.  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states the relation perfectly: “Know thou that the distinguished Individual of every age is endowed according to the perfections of His age. That Individual who in past ages was set above His fellows was gifted according to the virtues of His time. But in this age of splendours, this era of God, the pre-eminent Personage, the luminous Orb, the chosen Individual will shine out with such perfections and such power as ultimately to dazzle the minds of every community and group. And since such a Personage is superior to all others in spiritual perfections and heavenly attainments, and is indeed the focal centre of divine blessings and the pivot of the circle of light, He will encompass all others, and there is no doubt whatsoever that He will shine out with such power as to gather every soul into His sheltering shade.

When ye consider this matter with care, it will become apparent that this is according to a universal law, which one can find at work in all things: the whole attracteth the part, and in the circle, the centre is the pivot of the compasses. Ponder thou upon the Spirit: because He was the focal centre of spiritual power, the wellspring of divine bounties….” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha: 62

The Manifestation of God is the central spiritual Orb of the universe around which all things, especially human souls, orbit.  This spiritual focus is countered in Itself by a smaller point of creation, the human soul of the Manifestation, like a planet orbiting its sun.  As the leading quote states, the Báb is the Primal Point, through Whom the point of creation hath been made to revolve.

Similarly, the Guardian explains: “For, just as in the realm of the spirit, the reality of the Báb has been hailed by the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation as "The Point round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve," so, on this visible plane, His sacred remains constitute the heart and center of what may be regarded as nine concentric circles, paralleling thereby, and adding further emphasis to the central position accorded by the Founder of our Faith to One "from Whom God hath caused to proceed the knowledge of all that was and shall be," "the Primal Point from which have been generated all created things." (Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith: 95)

The double-pivot of spirit and matter, of Revelation and creation, each with its own center, enables movement and consciousness.  Of course each center is also circling around itself, spinning on its own axis, as this is the source of its radiant influence. As T.S. Eliot wrote in Burnt Norton:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is.

The center point of creation is, first, the body of the Manifestation, and then the center of His Covenant.  For human souls and life the center of creation is the Sun of Reality, the power holding all together in harmonious interaction.

The Master explicates, comparing the relation of the Covenant with creation to the human spirit and the human body: “All these interactions therefore are connected with that all-embracing power which is their pivot, their centre, their source and their motive power.

For instance, as we have observed, co-operation among the constituent parts of the human body is clearly established, and these parts and members render services unto all the component parts of the body. For instance, the hand, the foot, the eye, the ear, the mind, the imagination all help the various parts and members of the human body, but all these interactions are linked by an unseen, all-embracing power, that causeth these interactions to be produced with perfect regularity. This is the inner faculty of man, that is his spirit and his mind, both of which are invisible.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel: 22-23) 

Religion, Divine Love, and the Infinite Depth of Nature

Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator. Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes, and in this diversity there are signs for men of discernment. Nature is God's Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world. It is a dispensation of Providence ordained by the Ordainer, the All-Wise. Were anyone to affirm that it is the Will of God as manifested in the world of being, no one should question this assertion.  It is endowed with a power whose reality men of learning fail to grasp. Indeed a man of insight can perceive naught therein save the effulgent splendour of Our Name, the Creator. Say: This is an existence which knoweth no decay, and Nature itself is lost in bewilderment before its revelations, its compelling evidences and its effulgent glory which have encompassed the universe.

(Tablets of Baha'u'llah:142)

I have proposed that creation appears as three main contexts of reality.  The primary and wholly spiritual level is the interacting, all-pervasive attributes of God; secondly, is the divinely revealed thought-forms of creation called cosmos; finally, there is the manifest appearance of these attributes and thought forms in material form, (i.e. the physical universe) which on our planet, at least, is called Nature.  Nature is the sensible revelation.  Baha’u’llah refers to all three contexts in the above quote, and this leads, with the help of some explanatory quotes from ‘Abdu’l-Baha, to some insights about the infinitely deep reality of Nature.   

Of this intricately interconnected universe, ‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “For every part of the universe is connected with every other part by ties that are very powerful and admit of no imbalance, nor any slackening whatever.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 157) But the physical universe is also intimately connected with the mental cosmos and the divine qualities, so that “the parts of this infinite universe have their members and elements connected with one another, and influence one another spiritually and materially.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 245)

Expatiating further on the powerful and balanced ties binding all things in the universe together, the Master says “Now concerning nature, it is but the essential properties and the necessary relations inherent in the realities of things. And though these infinite realities are diverse in their character yet they are in the utmost harmony and closely connected together. As one's vision is broadened and the matter observed carefully, it will be made certain that every reality is but an essential requisite of other realities. Thus to connect and harmonize these diverse and infinite realities an all-unifying Power is necessary, that every part of existent being may in perfect order discharge its own function.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel: 20-21)

What is the connecting and all-unifying power? “Will is that active force which controlleth these relationships and these incidents.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 198)

It is His innate knowledge of these essential properties and necessary relations that enables the Manifestation of God, the embodiment of the vibrating Primal Will, to reveal religion, which, in this context, is both the natural law and laws for humanity to complete Nature by bringing humanity into proper relation with it.  “The supreme Manifestations of God,” says ‘Abdu’l-Baha, “are aware of the reality of the mysteries of beings. Therefore, They establish laws which are suitable and adapted to the state of the world of man, for religion is the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things. The Manifestation—that is, the Holy Lawgiver—unless He is aware of the realities of beings, will not comprehend the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things, and He will certainly not be able to establish a religion conformable to the facts and suited to the conditions.” (Some Answered Questions: 158)  Here is stated the evolving, progressive connection between nature and revealed religion.  It is an evolving connection, because, as the Master stated: “Briefly, the world of existence is progressive. It is subject to development and growth.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 3)  Baha’u’llah states that: “The breeze of the bounty of the King of creation hath caused even the physical earth to be changed, were ye to ponder in your hearts the mysteries of divine Revelation.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 47)

That essential relationship between the divine religion and nature is: while nature is the foundational “essential properties and the necessary relations inherent in the realities of things”, religion is the architectural “essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things.”  Religion as the unfolding law of God is the means of the evolution of the physical world, and it is both the necessary and inherent relations, and the essential properties and connections which proceed from the realities of things, (i.e. the knowledge of God or religia), which science, i.e. Scientia, discovers through the power of understanding, “for science is the discoverer of realities.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 138) Through reason and scientific advances humanity is able to “educate” nature into bringing forth what it cannot bring forth by itself.  “In brief, man through the possession of this ideal endowment of scientific investigation is the most noble product of creation, the governor of nature.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 30)

The essential connections that proceed from the realities of things are, then, developed into physical forms of greater complexity and beauty by divine Will, by progressive revelation.  But all comes forth from divine Love.  That is, the evolving manifestations and configurations of the universe brought forth by Revelation are embodiments of qualities latent in the divine love of God.  Divine love is the archetypal substance, the metaphysical prima materia: “Love is the cause of God's revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 27)

Regarding the mental level of creation that I have called cosmos, ‘Abdu’l-Baha concisely states that “nature, also, in its essence is an intellectual reality and is not sensible.” (Some Answered Questions: 83)  What does He mean by the terms “sensible reality” and “intellectual reality”?  “Things which are sensible are those which are perceived by the five exterior senses; thus those outward existences which the eyes see are called sensible. Intellectual things are those which have no outward existence but are conceptions of the mind.” (Some Answered Questions: 263)  Nature, then, in its material appearances is a sensible reality, but in its intellectual essence it is a conception of the mind.  And it is first a conception in the universal Mind of the Manifestation of God.  It is a divine thought-form periodically reconfigured by divine Revelation.  Its mental reality lies in the cosmos of thought.  Its spiritual reality is the embodiment of the name or quality of God, the Creator.  Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator. (Remember that for the world of being “essence” is not some nebulous thing or vaporous quality, but the formal cause of something, the divine imprint which gives a thing its form i.e. its thought-form, and that form is reflected on the mirror of Nature where: Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes.  It is a metaphysical mirror, an intellectual reality.)

What more can we say about intellectual realities?

The Master, in an explanation of a statement from Baha’u’llah, says: “We come to the explanation of the words of Bahá'u'lláh when He says: "O king! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing." This is the state of manifestation: it is not sensible; it is an intellectual reality, exempt and freed from time, from past, present and future; it is an explanation, a simile, a metaphor and is not to be accepted literally; it is not a state that can be comprehended by man.”  (Some Answered Questions: 85)  The intellectual not material reality of Nature is an existence which knoweth no decay, and is lost in bewilderment before its revelations—i.e. the revelations of God’s name the Creator flowing from the divine Will.

Intellectual realities are exempt from time and, of course, space.  Language figurations—metaphors, similes, analogies—built up from sensible realities within time and space are necessary to communicate intellectual realities. Intellectual states can only be expressed through analogous sensible figures, their outer signs.

But being able to express a thing, capture it in a metaphor, does not mean that we comprehend the full reality of anything.  In one of His prayers written for us Baha’u’llah avers: “I am bewildered when I contemplate the tokens of Thy handiwork, and the evidences of Thy might, and find myself completely unable to unravel the mystery of the least of Thy signs, how much more to apprehend Thine own Self.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 303)

Nature in its infinitely deep fullness is all three realities.  It, simultaneously, appears as an infinite number of manifest physical realities that compose and disintegrate; it is, too, an intellectual essence or form, exempt from time and space, of cosmos; and, finally, it is the embodiment of God’s Name and attribute, the Creator, creating new configurations from the love of God that is the “vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.”.  All three conditions and their relations are controlled and developed by divine Will.

Might and Power is All Creation

Knowledge is all that is knowable; and might and power, all creation.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 185)

Last post examined quantum mechanics as an example of “Knowledge is all that is knowable”. That is, for any epistemological context, such as language, number, religion or science, knowledge is only that which is knowable within it.  Knowledge that may exist outside of a context is not available to those within it.  It is not knowledge because it is not knowable.

We saw that the knowledge of quantum mechanics brilliantly describes the workings of the subatomic world, but it cannot satisfactorily answer questions about what actually happens when the indeterminacy of the wavefunction collapses into an actuality.  Quantum mechanics says that the observer creates the reality that he or she finds.    Exactly what is the nature of that change is up for debate, and leads to numerous questions.  For example: What does it mean to give something reality by observation?  There is no agreed upon answer for this question.  Perhaps this is because the answer is not knowable within the limits of quantum theory. 

But changing the condition of anything has never been the result of knowledge or thought alone.  It is necessary, but not sufficient. The Master emphasized: “Realizing that wealth is desirable is not becoming wealthy. The admission that scientific attainment is praiseworthy does not confer scientific knowledge. Acknowledgment of the excellence of honor does not make a man honorable. Knowledge of human conditions and the needed remedy for them is not the cause of their betterment. To admit that health is good does not constitute health.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 157)  Other qualities were necessary for change or creation.  What other qualities?

‘Abdu’l-Baha said: “The attainment of any object is conditioned upon knowledge, volition and action. Unless these three conditions are forthcoming, there is no execution or accomplishment.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 157)  This, to me, is a restatement of Baha’u’llah’s leading quote above, “Knowledge is all that is knowable, and might and power all creation.” Why?

Let’s examine Baha'u'llah's and the Master’s statements.

We can start by asking what, if any, is the difference between might and power?  While these terms are often used interchangeably, and, generally, with no real loss of meaning, a distinction between them can be made, which helps explain why Baha’u’llah uses both words.

The word “might’ is a cognate of “may”, as in: “May I…?   Thus, while “might” is often associated with vigor and energy—e.g. a mighty force—when it is used as a synonym for power, it is also, when considered alone, limited to possibility and constrained by contingency—“he might be able to do it”.  Might is the inner capacity or ability to accomplish something, but it is not the actual doing.  Seen in this way it is connected with the inner quality of will and volition. 

Power is actual strength, the direct application of energy and force to some object or toward some goal.  So power is more directly associated with action.  One difference between might and power, then, is that one can have a strong will (i.e. might) but inadequate strength (i.e. power) to realize one’s will. 

But will has a special place.  Will is not just a capacity for volition and intentions, but, in relation to creating reality, is the first capacity, the one that gets everything else going, the link between knowledge and action.  Provisionally, we can call will intentional or directed thought. What is the relation of knowledge to will?  I will look at the divine knowledge and divine will to get a framework for discussion, and as a model for the relation of human knowledge to the human will to be discussed in later posts.

The Bab put the relation of divine knowledge and will perfectly.  “All that is known owes its renown to the splendour of Thy Name, the Most Manifest, and every object is deeply stirred by the vibrating influence emanating from Thine invincible Will.” (Selections from the Writings of the Bab: 195)

If we examine the imagery of this quote we see that the first image about knowledge (splendor, Most Manifest) is a visual metaphor, the second, on will, (vibrating influence, deeply stirred) is a kind of auditory one, for sound issues from interiors and penetrates to interiors and stirs people to action, as Walter Ong showed in his book, The Presence of the Word.  But the analogy with sound, while suggestive, does not capture the nature of the will’s influence, for to say the will is like sound implies that it moves at times through the physical world.  The vibrating influence of the will is more subtle than sound. Its inner vibrations are not physical but metaphysical.  Its pulses, originating from the deepest interior, the mid-most heart, move soundlessly within objects to stir them.  The vibrating influence of the divine Will is the Word calling creation into being.

 Baha’u’llah says about the Word of God: “Know thou, moreover, that the Word of God—exalted be His glory—is higher and far superior to that which the senses can perceive, for it is sanctified from any property or substance. It transcendeth the limitations of known elements and is exalted above all the essential and recognized substances. It became manifest without any syllable or sound and is none but the Command of God which pervadeth all created things. It hath never been withheld from the world of being.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 140)

I said that will links knowledge and action.   Given this discussion, it is clear that that link is not like a link of a chain or mediating object.  It is an “influence” upon those inner and inherent relations connecting all things.  When those relations are vibrated, they instantly stir (i.e. sound or give voice) together, creating the song of God.  The divine will pervades all creation, acting everywhere simultaneously.  The manifestations of the Most Manifest are not products of the will acting on anything but themselves, changing, reorganizing and reconfiguring them.  They are manifestations of His Will.  Similarly, the influence of the will does not act externally to drive action, but is within the action itself, as a singer does not sing about her emotion, but sings her emotion.

The divine will is not within any one object but within them all.  Its influence does not move laterally between objects to stir them, but metaphorically “upward and outward” from a single spiritual center, the heart of the Manifestation of God, to a circumference which is material creation.  The invincible divine Will generates within Itself a vibrating influence that stirs all objects to life and action within its field of influence, which is all creation, much as the source of an electrical impulse creates an electric field and it is this field, not the source directly, that exerts an influence on surrounding objects and on other forces. Yet the field cannot be separated from its source.   That vibrating connection is built into the universe itself.  It can never be broken, or the universe would cease to exist, the power binding all things together withdrawn.  But it can be ignored or denied, even revolted against, by human beings who possess free will. 

At the level of the divine creation, i.e. the Kingdom of the attributes of God in interaction, all else comes from Primal Will.  The Master said: “The first thing which emanated from God is that universal reality, which the ancient philosophers termed the "First Mind," and which the people of Baha call the "First Will." (Some Answered Questions: 203)  Baha’u’llah wrote in the same vein:  “Far greater art Thou than the Great One men are wont to call Thee, for such a title is but one of Thy names all of which were created by a mere indication of Thy will.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 157)

It is the Primal Will not divine Knowledge that expresses the divine intentionality of “Be and it is”.   It is the Divine Will that enables “He doeth whatsoever He willeth” in His creation. It is the Active force in interaction with primal matter, “that which is its recipient”, that generates the heat that brings into being the world of existence, the universe.

While the influence of human will on the quantum world cannot be measured experimentally, or proved conceptually, I feel that explanations proposed by proponents of quantum mechanics of indeterminacy collapsing into actuality by observation are on the right track.

I said that since the wavefunction holds within it mutually contradictory states of actuality it resembles a spiritual symbol, which is a unity of outer and inner signs.  In the wavefunction it is a mathematical union of mutually contradictory states of actuality.  To apply this metaphor to explain the observer’s influence upon what is observed, we might say that the vibrating excitation of the inner sign of God within the human reality (the thought form) makes its corresponding outer sign in the world (a physical reality) vibrate to a new frequency which changes its condition, or, conversely, the outer stimulates the inner into awareness.  But if there is as yet no outer sign corresponding to the inner reality (i.e. no material reality corresponding to the psychological one—no determinate reality precipitating by “observation” out of the indeterminate knowledge of possibility) and that inner is activated by will and decision, i.e. intentionality, that is the creation of new “reality”, the collapsing of the wavefunction into actuality.

It is a question not just of knowledge but also of will.  But it is not the observation that decides, but the volition of the observer.  

A Scientific Prototype of Spiritual Knowing

Knowledge is all that is knowable; and might and power, all creation.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 185)

Last post described spiritual knowing as radical reflexivity, the concept that the perceiver and object form an inner unity within the perceiving subject.  This post will begin to explore what may be a scientific example of this.  

Quantum theory liberates physics from the tyranny of three-dimensions and the finality of the speed of light.  It is, I believe, a first step toward real spiritual knowing and doing, for it is connected with will and volition, key ingredients in human spiritual development and a spiritual cosmology.

Quantum theory tells us that the observation of an object—at least a sub-atomic object—can instantaneously influence not only the object, but also the behavior of another object at a great distance even if no physical force connects them.  It also says that, within the probability of a mathematical wavefunction, an object can be in two places at the same time.  Its actual existence, however, at a particular place only happens upon an observation—creating a kind of virtual history of the object bringing it to that place. All depends, of course, on what is meant by “place” and “observation”.  If one means by “place” a three-dimensional location, then the object does not exist until an observation “places” it there.  But if “place” can mean outside of three dimensions, then the object exists potentially nearly anywhere. 

If, for example, one has a couple of boxes but only one box has an atom, in which box is the atom?  At this stage of this particular shell game quantum mechanics says that the object (i.e. the atom) has no actual existence until it is observed.  There is no actual atom in a particular box.  The atom exists as a wavefunction: i.e. as a mathematical construction of probability. Let’s call it a virtual atom in the wavefunction.  So, where is it?  It is in both boxes simultaneously until “observed” to be in one box.  But it is only observed to be in that box because the observation put it there. Whaaa? 

The wavefunction divided into both boxes is the complete description of the physical situation before the actual observation which finds the object in the place it was looked for.  Now it is important to note that in saying that the wavefunction divided into both boxes is a complete description of the situation before any actual observation, we are saying that the wavefunction combines in itself what are contradictory situations in the actual world.  That is, in the actual world the atom is either in one box or the other, but in the wavefunction world it is in BOTH boxes.  It is like saying light and dark form a unity before they separate, as on the Biblical first day of creation, which actually starts in total darkness.  Then…

“God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1: 3-5)

(Actually God did not create light and then separated light from dark.  The decision to create light WAS the separation.)

So, in those mathematical terms when an atom could be observed in either of two contradictory situations, or ‘states’, the wavefunction of the total situation is written as the sum of the wavefunctions of those two states separately. It resembles, that is, a symbol, a throwing together of states into mathematical union, making an epistemological unity of different ontological states.  This is because prior to the observation the atom is, as far as we know, simultaneously in states which are mutually exclusive. This is called the “super position state.”  Super position does not mean that the “object” is everywhere, only that it could be anywhere.  It does not have the quality of “position.”  It has as yet no place, no actuality, no reality, in a three-dimensional context.  In the famous Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment, the experimenter can choose to prove either of two contradictory situations—cat is dead or alive.  But until the choice is made and the box peered into, the cat is not either dead or alive but both dead and alive.  Contradictory mutually exclusive states in actuality form a unity of complements in probability.  This is what makes quantum theory a scientific prototype of spiritual knowing, for spirit holds manifest opposites in harmonious, complementary states before manifestation. 

Now all this bumps up against thorny questions of free will and the power of intention.  We will tackle these in depth in the next post. 

For now, we know that in quantum theory contradictions and mutually exclusive states in actuality form a unity in probability.  That unity is of complements, since nature seems to respond to human choice in complementary ways.  That means that either more or less positive knowledge is obtained from any decision or observation.  On one hand, the observation of any property makes a ‘complementary’ quality uncertain.  Once we are certain of one thing, we are uncertain of its complement—both the position and speed of a photon, for example.  But on the other, it is known that once the spin of a photon is known, its entangled “twin” spins oppositely, perhaps to keep some sort of cosmic balance. In a greater context, Baha’u’llah asserts the dual effects of one righteous act: “One righteous act,” He says, “is endowed with a potency that can so elevate the dust as to cause it to pass beyond the heaven of heavens. It can tear every bond asunder, and hath the power to restore the force that hath spent itself and vanished....” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 286)

Complementarity may occur because quantum theory does not describe the world per se, but, rather, what mathematics can say about the world; i.e. what can be perceived and encoded mathematically. Before knowledge, truth and error are the same ( a probability) because the actual truth is unknown.  Verbal language, too, does not actually describe the world itself, but only what verbal structures can say about the world.  Both are purely human constructs, only secondarily referential to the world, but actually and primarily self-referential.  Complementarity arises from dividing the world, and dividing is the inevitable result of using any language.  In creates context, an inside and an outside, where before all was one in its possibility.

Like religions and science itself, languages of all kinds, including number, can absorb their users.  When they do a curious mental reversal occurs.  I mean that one so absorbed tends to conflate the whole world with what his language, his math, his religion or science, tells him about it, because he is not looking for truth but for certainty.  Such a true believer is imprisoned within a context of perception and calls that context alone reality: not just substituting a part for the whole, but going further to call the other parts of the whole unreal, irrelevant or unknowable.  Thus the true difference, world/one part of the world, becomes the false dichotomy, world/not world, where “world” is the former part and “not world” is, in fact, the world.  That is the reversal. 

For quantum mechanics, since the wavefunction is the only thing that its physics describes, it is the only “real” thing—the virtual becomes the actual.  I mean that, in the quantum world the wavefunction gives only the probability of “finding” the object at some actual “place”.  The “object” as a wavefunction “exists” only as a probability anywhere within the wavefunction.  Probability is an actual in that world, the only actual.  But, in the weirdest sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, looking gives the object true actuality.  Here is the key point, from the perspective of quantum perception, observation collapses the probability into a reality, an actual and not just a probable existence.  The observation creates reality, i.e. an objective situation which is then the same for everyone after that.  After the mathematical wavefunction collapses into an actuality, everyone finds the object “there.”  As goofy as this sounds, it is, so far, as close as modern humans have come to understanding and doing “Be and it is.

Quantum mechanics is a brilliant scientific epistemology of possibility, for the wavefunction combines in itself what are contradictory situations in the actual world.  This is a form of spiritual knowing, which always includes opposites, as the Biblical references show.  The problem for me is the explanation and interpretation of what happens with the observation, which for them creates reality.  This strains my credulity and is the kind of contortion that an epistemology without a spiritual dimension must undergo to describe and explain phenomena outside of itself.  Actual “Be and it is” creation requires other qualities.