Nature is discontinuity, and Chopra suggests that our consciousness lies somewhere in that gap.

Question: What is the connection between quantum mechanics and healing?

Deepak Chopra:    According to our current understanding of the universe, the physical universe is actually made up of energy and information.  Wherever there are objects, there are fields of energy and also information.  And if you go to the very fundamental levels of activity in nature, you’ll find that nature is a discontinuity.  Which means even though our perceptual experience of the universe is continuous, in fact it’s going on and off at the speed of light.  We know what’s in the “on” of the universe.  It’s energy and information.  We use it in our technology when we use cell phones, or surf the information highway on the Internet, or send each other e-mail. 

But the deeper question is what’s in the “off”?  What’s between the two “ons” in the discontinuity? 

And many people in the world of quantum physics are realizing, or thinking, or hypothesizing that that discontinuity is consciousness itself; that consciousness is not a byproduct of evolution as has been suggested.  Or for that matter, an expression of our brains, although it expresses itself through our brains.  But consciousness is the common ground of existence that ultimately differentiates into space, time, energy, information and matter.  And the same consciousness is responsible for our thoughts, for our emotions and feelings, for our behaviors, for our personal relationships, for our social interactions, for the environments that we find ourselves in, and for our biology.  In other words, consciousness is the common ground that differentiates into everything that we call reality, including the observer and the objects of our observation.  And this is a much deeper understanding of consciousness that is coming about as a result of some insights from the world of quantum physics. 

Not everyone agrees on this theory.  In fact, a number of scientists are still tied to the old paradigm, which is that matter is the essential reality, and that consciousness is the anti-phenomenon. 

But it turns out that even to explain simple things; How do you perceive color?  How do you imagine?  How do you see pictures in consciousness and hear sounds in consciousness?  You have to recognize that this cannot be explained by any reductionist model.  When you experience a sound, or a color, or a taste, or a smell, the activity in your brain is just a quart of charges that goes on and off.  How does that quart of charges going on and off become physical reality, and where does that happen? 

If you understand this model of quantum physics, then it becomes apparent that we’re not in the physical world.  The physical world is in us.  We create the physical world when we perceive it, when we observe it.  And also we create this experience in our imagination.  And when I say “we,” I don’t mean the physical body or the brain, but a deeper domain of consciousness which conceives, governs, constructs and actually becomes everything that we call physical reality. 

This is a model that is being explored by some academic scientists working in the field of neuroscience, and also in the field of quantum physics.  But it is also a model that was explored by the great sages and seers, some of which were the authors of the Bhagavad Gita itself.

Recorded on: Aug 17, 2007

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