Experiments have opened science to the possibility of connectedness at a quantum level – they call it quantum entanglement. It seems there is some kind of invisible reality that connects things in a realm beyond our normal perception.
But what is this unknown field or force that will explain the widely accepted quantum phenomenon of connectedness, or action at a distance? There are mathematical and theoretical efforts going into discovering answers. They are looking at things like the quantum field, the quantum vacuum and dark energy. Hypotheses remain the subject of much debate and investigation.
Supernovae
Observations of supernovae, which are stars that die with a huge explosion, have proved that our universe is expanding at an increasing rate. This discovery throws our understanding of momentum and gravity in the universe into disarray. If there were just momentum and gravity acting as we thought, the universe would be expanding at a decreasing rate.
The fact that the rate of expansion is increasing, means gravity is somehow being opposed by more than outward momentum. There is some kind of anti-gravity force in the universe that is forcing the planets, stars and galaxies to accelerate outwards.
Background radiation
Another fascinating recent discovery is background radiation, or energy in all of space. Could these strange forces and background realities relate to connectedness – could they maybe account for the sense of oneness of mystics?
Dark energy
These new observations of the make-up of our universe have lead scientists to the mystical concepts of dark matter and dark energy. Dark matter and dark energy are thought to make up about ninety-five per cent of the energy in the universe. Stars and planets make up only five per cent. They say that dark energy is the energy in the vacuum of space, which causes space itself to stretch, or to grow.
The maths and science are way beyond me, but clearly there’s something profound and radically more surprising at work in the universe than what was thought.
Mystical scientists
Cosmologists and quantum field theorists are the mystical scientists who study the surprising forces at work in our reality. Many sit at the forefront of bridging the gap between physical and spiritual descriptions of our universe. Today, this gap seems to be closing.
So here’s another hypothesis.
The quantum vacuum is love
Mystics describe universal love as the base of connectivity. The wisdom traditions describe love as a universal background energy.
So, maybe quantum vacuum and/or dark energy and/or non-locality are scientific names for the same phenomenon mystics call universal love.
Our world of visible objects in an ocean of unseen energy is like the concept of conscious minds in the collective unconscious. Science sounds like transpersonal psychology, which talks of the ego mask veiling the timeless love of true self.
Put on the mystical scientist’s cap for a while… and let’s consider cosmic evolution:
Ego mask
Imagine that space and time are only temporal excitations of infinite and eternal love. Particles of matter in space and time emerge and either evolve or disappear. There are infinite and eternal universe-loads of matter emerging and either evolving or disappearing.
Matter that ‘survives’ and evolves over millennia in a particular space and time gains mass and eventually becomes conscious. This consciousness is self-conscious because it is of a discrete ensemble of matter in a particular space and time.
Billions of infants in our space and time become billions of self-conscious egos. These self-conscious egos, by virtue of their discreteness, are prone to a sense of isolation.
Ego emerges from the moment of conception. This ego grows in self-consciousness, it starts to feel the fear of being isolated – isolated from its mother and isolated from the home it left. It starts to mould its mask.
Fear emerges quite naturally from the sense of being isolated and being up against billions of other egos, all with their own masks.
The imperfections of self-consciousness such as greed, anger, pride, lust and envy stem from fear. These imperfections infect every part of material life in space and time. They infect nature, politics, economics and religion. They lead to crime, war, famine and destruction of the natural world and every aspect of matter.
All because matter becomes self-conscious ego… and the oneness of true self is veiled.
Love is the source
Imagine further: there are no particles, space or time as we know them in the infinite and eternal energy that underlies them. There is no consciousness of self. No ego. There is only the quantum vacuum or love. A reality that can only be quasi-known, never understood or explained by series-firing neurons in a machine brain because of the veil. It can only be vaguely sensed at the quantum level of reality, where all is connected.
This infinite and eternal is experienced as benevolent and nurturing to our deepest selves. So mystics call it love in their human attempts to know it. It manifests as various archetypes, mythological stories and spiritual deities throughout history and across cultures. But it is one underlying reality… and perhaps it is that which quantum theory seeks to describe.
We can sense this love when we let go of the series-firing mode of thinking. We can sense it when we let our brains be quiet and our minds go. The imperfect world seems perfect because of it. The fear of isolation is relieved by it.
Evidence
Science needs evidence. The scientific method is all about verifiable and repeatable observation. Love as the quantum vacuum can never be observed. But its affects can be experienced. Its affects have been well documented by mystics who have felt it in meditation. The positive effects of meditation have been studied and well documented as well. The microscope for studying love is meditation.
But let’s drop the word love. Maybe it has too many connotations of irrational spirituality and silly romanticism for some. Let’s rather stick to science – let’s talk of the quantum vacuum, entanglement and dark energy.
That suits me fine… after all, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
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