Intentionality: Transforming the World

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

In this and the next few posts I will explore the theme of Intentionality, using the above quote from Baha’u’llah to guide the discussion.  Intentionality is much in vogue in many places as the ability to manifest one’s desires.  I believe there is both scientific and scriptural—from all scriptures—support for this belief.  The Bahá’í Writings actually have a great deal to say about it, but give it an added dimension to those from science or new age thought.

           

The philosophical thought growing from the physics of the last one hundred years has been built upon two startling observations.  First, in the words of one of astrophysics’ most eminent practitioners, Sir James Jeans, “The universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine.”

The second observation, from quantum mechanics, is that the subatomic foundations of the physical world are pure potential, a kind of boiling cosmic broth that, nevertheless, responds in predictable ways to human thought.  Put these two theoretical observations together and one can suggest that all things are imbued with intelligence, since, if the universe is a thought that thought must also embrace and infuse the subatomic particles of that universe.

The idea that the foundation of the physical world is a dance of transient, impermanent forms, a world of pure possibility whose parts are constantly being reorganized, is not new to human thought, only new to modern scientific thought.  The Buddhists called this potential “nothingness”, the Hindu philosophy termed it “maya”, and the mythic traditions of many peoples named it, among other things, Chaos, void, or the primordial ocean.  But science has experimentally rediscovered this plasmatic foundation and rediscovered, too, that it must possess intelligence because it responds to human intelligence.  Nature is a boiling sea of potentials organized by consciousness.

For example, quantum physics says that the sub-atomic particles of physics (it may be better to call them quanta or packets of energy) by themselves exhibit only tendencies to exist.  Oh, the energy definitely exists, but any form that energy may take can not be known until someone defines it.  That someone is called the observer.  Thus quantum theory tells us that the act of observing a particle manifests it, for example, either as a wave or a particle.  The quantum not only responds to the presence of a conscious observer but actually manifests itself as the observer chooses—either as a wave or a particle.  Different observers with different intentions bring about different states of actuality.  For quantum physicists, nothing “exists” until it is observed—at least nothing exists for the observer.

Some quantum physicists go further and say that the quanta of physics are neither things nor just formless potential, but “patterns of potential”, because “particles” exist in several different probability states simultaneously.  They can only say probability states because the traits that define any given quantum are, again, waiting for an observer to make a decision that gives them those observable traits.  But if quanta can manifest as either waves or particles, for example, then they must already possess the qualities of both wave and particle.  That is, they must already BE both wave and particle.  The quantum is both at once, both here and everywhere.  Theoretically, it could be anything, only awaiting an observer’s intention to determine what.  The observer decides what he or she will observe by reducing a multi-faceted potentiality into a single actuality.

When physicists say that at the quantum level all seems to be possibility until an intention is directed toward it, they are saying that the properties we observe in the “external” world are enmeshed in our perceptions.  Physics and the physicist, the laws of nature and the laws of mind, so to speak, unite in any close, intentional observation.  Thus, in quantum mechanics the observer is really a participator.  The mind both observes and creates, because intention is a creative act.  The observer can never be an indifferent observer.  As participator the observer is creating or at least influencing the universe to manifest what he wishes to see.  Other disciplines are coming to the same conclusion, but with respect to larger objects than those of subatomic physics.

That is, moving from subatomic physics to the everyday, or what some call Newtonian physics, pure energy gets composed and ordered by the laws of nature into atoms, molecules, tissues and so on until they reach the level things and objects perceivable to our physical senses.  Even these may be influenced.  For example, in his highly interesting book, The Hidden Messages of Water, author Masaru Emoto says: “I also have the impression that the act of looking at water crystals is an act of creating life.  This is because when we look at crystals, the water changes its appearance moment by moment.  Your gaze has a special energy of its own, and while a gaze of good intentions will give courage, an evil gaze will actually take it away.” (The Hidden Messages in Water: 64)  And The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Thompkins and Christopher Bird is an extended discussion of how plants respond to human intentions.  That animals have a consciousness with which humans communicate can not be doubted. 

I go further than those physicists who say the properties of the universe are enmeshed in our perceptions and say they are enmeshed in our being.  Why?: Because all the qualities of God are both diffused throughout the universe and localized in every human spirit.  Baha’u’llah states: “Likewise, reflect upon the perfection of man's creation, and that all these planes and states are folded up and hidden away within him.  Dost thou reckon thyself only a puny form, when within thee the universe is folded?” (The Seven Valleys: 34) 

Recall that Baha’u’llah also states of Socrates that: “He it is who perceived a unique, a tempered, and a pervasive nature in things, bearing the closest likeness to the human spirit, and he discovered this nature to be distinct from the substance of things in their refined form.” (Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh:146)  I interpret that phrase “bearing the closest likeness” to mean, as I have repeated before, alike in form but not in nature.  The forms of the qualities of God in the universe and the forms of these same qualities in the human reality are alike, so there is homology thus recognition AND manifestation in both places. “Even as He hath revealed: "We will surely show them Our signs in the world and within themselves." Again He saith: "And also in your own selves: will ye not, then, behold the signs of God?" (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah:177) 

More in next post.