by Lethargio

Created on: April 23, 2008   Last Updated: April 25, 2008

There is a new fad among the new age type person and the spiritualist today and that is the misuse and misunderstanding of quantum physics to such an extent that they actually think it validates their beliefs of astral travel, the "law" of attraction, or psychic phenomenon. Being the kind of person who cares about people thinking straight i feel i must break a few myths so that we can go our separate ways.

First, we have the observer effect. This is the pillar of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, and people rarely understand the observer effect. This event shows in this interpretation that observing a wave-function causes it to collapse, thus showing that the observer has a direct influence over the wave-function by doing nothing more than looking. How is this misused? well, spiritualists say that since this happens it must mean that our minds have a direct affect on the universe, proving that consciousness is more than a biological function. Unfortunately, they did not carry on watching how quantum physics evolved, and how the former interpretation of the observer having an affect on a wave-function was found to be wrong, and that wave-functions were not affected by an observer, but that wave-functions have only an abstract existence. Since the 1980's the Copenhagen interpretation has fallen out of favor for the many worlds interpretation. So we can see that any spiritualist trying to validate their beliefs by using a out of date or even abandoned principle like the wave-function collapse is just plain ignorance of current scientific thought.

Secondly, we find that the many-worlds interpretation is also used to compliment another new age concept; astral projection. The new age concept is as follows; as there is a multi-verse there will be one universe in which we are immortal and so we can attach our consciousness to a host (or an "astral car" as i call it) and fly merrily around.
This is the most ridiculous of the lot. Firstly, it is impossible that there would be a parallel universe in which we and everything are immortal because what is immortal is infinite, and what is infinite has no beginning or end and so this universe by its own reasoning cannot come into being because the infinite cannot start at any point. Another objection is how could a biologically evolved function of our brains like consciousness whiz across the universe to a parallel universe to get into an astral car?, this would mean that consciousness zooms faster than light, which is absurd and that it also switches between universes, which is worse still. I could have left it at the fact that consciousness isn't a magical gift and that it is simply an evolved tool, but i need to be efficient to rid us of these stupidities.

Thirdly we get the claims that entanglement between atoms means that there can be entanglement between humans which bolsters psychic phenomenon. This is very easy to pull apart because of one very special rule; what happens in the quantum world stays in the quantum world. Yes, atoms are involved in entanglement, but this is at the atomic scale and lower, once an atom joins another atom the probability of entanglement is reduced, so imagine how improbable it is that the trillions upon trillions of atoms in your brains all entangle with another persons. Plus, even if this very unlikely event happened, the atoms that make up your brain and so make up your consciousness are not conscious themselves.

So there you have it. A complete refutation of the claims made by new age and spiritualists who believe that quantum physics validates any of their supernatural beliefs. I hope you have enjoyed reading this article and if you have any queries you can E-mail me.

Learn more about this author, Lethargio.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.