The great and irreconcilable chasm between our experience of reality and Reality itself can be described by the verb ‘manifest, i.e., to appear. Conscious being is a manifest phenomenon. As a phenomenon it is the continual manifestation of being in the NOW moment of time, or space-time as it has come to be known since relativity theory.
Reality with a capital R, that is, Reality as source is something quite different. This source Reality is that phenomenon which connects all that we see, and can’t see, all that we know, and can’t know. Reality is a ‘nonmanifest’ phenomenon. Reality is indivisible, a unity. It needs neither the NOW with its flowing time, nor space, as we conscious beings experience these things, in order to exist.
This, in a nutshell is why manifestation, for conscious being, is the unscalable wall between these two realities. Biology’s bio-sensory process creates both the conscious observer as well as all that is observed and experienced by them. The manifest ‘now’ moment with its antecedent flowing time is a creation of our bio-sensory process. It is a bio-sensory interpretation. It is an experience of a world of cause and effect. This bio-sensory product is consciousness’ only source for its experience of reality. To think, to believe, to judge, to feel, to desire, to reason, to remember, to observe, and to measure. These and the rest are manifest phenomena of a bio-sensory process. All are children of the ‘now’ moment.
The source Reality of this universe, whatever it may be, is something beyond biology’s interpreted experience. It is not constrained by, nor does it need to comport with, these bio-sensory attributes. Herein lies the crux of the measurement problem in Quantum mechanics. All physical measurements can only take place in the three dimensions of space and one of time: Space-time. So, what is happening when we ‘observe’ an ‘outcome’, be it in an experiment or at a picnic? Quantum mechanics tells us that it is the observation or measurement that ‘collapses’ the wave-function within which the particle was smeared out, wave like, when we weren’t looking at it. Until we observe it, the particle cannot be definitely located. Niels Bohr questioned this incomprehensible idea by asking “To be, to be…what does it mean, to be?” This was in relation to particles in the famous ‘double-slit’ experiment. Feynman himself said that this experiment “contains the only mystery in quantum mechanics.” The experiment basically shows that what we’re measuring only acts like a wave or a particle depending on the moment when we observe it, thus leading to different experimental outcomes based on observation alone. Bohr’s quote asks us “what does it mean to ‘be’ if beings very existence is dependent on observation?”
Enter the newer theory in town, quantum field theory. One of the things this theory proposes is that the universe is composed of continuous quantum fields that extend to every corner of the universe. We cannot ‘see’ them, but they are not ‘nothing’. Indeed, these fields are alive with “virtual” particles that spring into and out of existence too fast for nature to see. Nature does not see them because their existence is infinitesimally short lived. But when enough energy collects in a discrete part of the field, then a larger ’wave’ will form there. When that energy makes a wave ‘big enough’, it becomes a ‘real’ particle.
These fields exist for every type of particle, and every type of force carrier particle. These fields are separate from, but in direct communication with, their associated partners, like the electron and its force partner, the photon. These fields can then account for all particle transformations and decays. Particles, in this theory, are nothing more than quantized excitations in these fields. It is here where the appearance of ‘actual’ particles as well as the transfer of force between those particles occurs. Most importantly this theory gives us an explanation for reality’s non-local nature, its “spooky action at a distance” to quote Einstein. Using Bells theorem to test the EPR experiment, it was shown that non-locality seems to indeed be a part of how the universe functions. This made quantum mechanics and relativity irreconcilable. With Quantum Field theory these causality violations within relativity are cured.
So, what’s the catch? This theorem, like all theorems, needs to be understood from the point of view of an observer. Ineluctably, such observation is anthropomorphized onto what the observer believes is Reality itself. The idea that virtual particles can exist because they exist for too short a time for nature to ‘see’, or ‘know about’, is ludicrous on its face. Observation and knowing are not attributes of Reality. The universe does not ‘observe’ anything, nor does it need to in order to be. It is likewise ludicrous to imagine that the universe needs to ‘know’ anything in order to be or to function. Knowing is an attribute of biology and consciousness alone. The theorem also fails to address Feynman’s understanding of the mystery of the quantum. How does looking at the particle in the double slit experiment change its essential nature between acting like a bullet like object or a wave like phenomenon?
These questions lay at the very root of the measurement problem and are not addressed by the theorem. In fact, they are perpetuated by it. I hear and read from physicists who tell us that time really is an illusion. Yet they continue trying to ‘prove’ this truth, somehow, from this perceptual interpretation of a now moment, created by biology. If time really is an illusion, then Reality is a ‘nonmanifest’ phenomenon. There is no place for a conscious observer to make a measurement from in such a case. That’s about as close as I can get to describe something that consciousness has zero detectors or tools to experience, let alone describe. Consciousness, as a bio-sensory process, is in the Reality ‘interpretation’ business. As we know, an interpretation of a thing is not the same as the thing itself.
Reality ÷ bio-sensory process + interpretation = Experience of reality (not Reality)
Why does this matter? Well, this helps us to understand more clearly the state of the human world with its politics, religion, ethics, sciences, cultures, and more, as we see them imploding all around us. Until humanity can understand that there is a difference between that which we experience as reality, and Reality itself, we will remain slaves to our delusions and the fears upon which they feed.
