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The Way of the Explorer
them, as they are each incomplete models. From the time of Descartes’
dualism, through the later philosophy of materialism, consciousness wasn’t
a subject of interest in mainstream science; real interest wasn’t generated
until the final decade of the 20th century. However, when the theory of
quantum mechanics was solidly framed in 1927, it was becoming obvious
that consciousness could no longer be ignored, as it seemed to possess
some of the fundamental pieces to the puzzle that physicists and cosmologists
themselves were trying to fit together. The struggle of individual scientists
adapting their views from that of Newtonian reality to that of
quantum reality was not unlike the difficulty each of us encounters in
adapting our worldview to the rapid changes of the last 100 years or so.
The drama always begins when we realize that something about our world
is different than we previously thought, and cannot be explained with
existing knowledge.
Scientists of the 19th century believed (but were absolutely convinced
they knew) that the tangible substances of nature, such as rocks and trees,
possessed fundamental physical characteristics measurable and completely
described in terms of length, mass, chemical content, and the like. Measures
related to the appearance of things. Energy was not a fundamental
property, but one mathematically derived by describing natural bodies in
motion. The story of quantum mechanics (and to a lesser extent, relativity)
is the story of discovering that matter in motion does not only possess
energy, but rather that matter is energy-solidified energy. In a sense, matter
is the death of free energy, being one of the ways it transforms into
physical reality (just as matter can be transformed back into energy). When
this idea was brought into the picture, our earlier understanding and thought
structures about matter were turned upside down. Atomic matter is not
like tiny ping-pong balls, but is rather a continuous flux of energy combining
and splitting. It only appears on our scale as solid matter.
Recognizing that energy is more fundamental than its appearance as
just an attribute of matter has been an agonizing process that is only now
finding its way into public awareness. The appearance of things always
seems more “real” than the invisible world from which they emerge. Before
we are finished with discovery altogether, we will find that “knowing”
is also not secondary, but results from a fundamental property of
nature. First, however, it is important to understand what “knowing” is.
Since the time of Newton, scientists and mathematicians have not
looked seriously at “mind,” relegating it to the realm of theology. They came
to believe nature was embedded with mathematics and the laws of physics—
absolute rules of order waiting to be discovered. Mind came to be considered
a secondary phenomenon that evolved and eventually allowed humans
to discover the absolutes. In due course, the complexities of the brain could
be understood, and that would solve the riddle of mind. The mystic, on the