NON-DUALITY
Debroglie Hypothesis for Matter Waves
Matter Waves for Macroscopic Objects
Must be in motion Heisenberg uncertainty
Otherwise infinite wavelength and not a wave.
Object would have to move 10^-30 m/s to have any noticeable wavelength.
Would need a wavelength ~ 10^-34 Meters (1 kg going 10 m/s)
λ = h/p
Proton 1^-15 meter
Quark 1/1000 proton 1^-18 meter
Baseball .1 Kg, travelling the speed of your toenail growth (1mm/month)
[need super slow motion to get longer wavelength]
STILL the debroglie wave for this super slow baseball is about on par with the diameter of a quark (10^-18).
No interference on macro scale, because wavelength too small for superpositions.
But things are STILL quantum, swirling energy at atomic level, but decoherence locks the wavefunction in and around material bodies and they do not spread. But an observer still needed to collapse this wavefunction into actuality , even if all the possibilities are on top of each other and ALMOST the same within a quarks length.
According to de Broglie’s hypothesis, massless photons as well as massive particles must satisfy one common set of relations that connect the energy E with the frequency f, and the linear momentum p with the wavelength λ . We have discussed these relations for photons in the context of Compton’s effect. We are recalling them now in a more general context. Any particle that has energy and momentum is a de Broglie wave of frequency f and wavelength λ:
E=hf
λ = h/p
Here, E and p are, respectively, the relativistic energy and the momentum of a particle. De Broglie’s relations are usually expressed in terms of the wave vector, and the wave frequency, as we usually do for waves:
E=hbar*omega
p(vector)= hbar*k
Matter Waves for Macroscopic Objects
Must be in motion Heisenberg uncertainty
Otherwise infinite wavelength and not a wave.
Object would have to move 10^-30 m/s to have any noticeable wavelength.
Would need a wavelength ~ 10^-34 Meters (1 kg going 10 m/s)
λ = h/p
Proton 1^-15 meter
Quark 1/1000 proton 1^-18 meter
Baseball .1 Kg, travelling the speed of your toenail growth (1mm/month)
[need super slow motion to get longer wavelength]
STILL the debroglie wave for this super slow baseball is about on par with the diameter of a quark (10^-18).
No interference on macro scale, because wavelength too small for superpositions.
But things are STILL quantum, swirling energy at atomic level, but decoherence locks the wavefunction in and around material bodies and they do not spread. But an observer still needed to collapse this wavefunction into actuality , even if all the possibilities are on top of each other and ALMOST the same within a quarks length.
According to de Broglie’s hypothesis, massless photons as well as massive particles must satisfy one common set of relations that connect the energy E with the frequency f, and the linear momentum p with the wavelength λ . We have discussed these relations for photons in the context of Compton’s effect. We are recalling them now in a more general context. Any particle that has energy and momentum is a de Broglie wave of frequency f and wavelength λ:
E=hf
λ = h/p
Here, E and p are, respectively, the relativistic energy and the momentum of a particle. De Broglie’s relations are usually expressed in terms of the wave vector, and the wave frequency, as we usually do for waves:
E=hbar*omega
p(vector)= hbar*k
Spreading Wavepackets - Spread Slow for More Massive Objects
We can summarize the results as:
The spreading of the wave-function is inversely proportional to the frequency (the phase change rate in time) of the particle, Higher mass particles spread slower.
The spreading of the wave-function is proportional to the square of the momentum spread. The smaller the initial volume in which the initial wave-function was contained the faster it spreads and keeps spreading.
We can summarize the results as:
The spreading of the wave-function is inversely proportional to the frequency (the phase change rate in time) of the particle, Higher mass particles spread slower.
The spreading of the wave-function is proportional to the square of the momentum spread. The smaller the initial volume in which the initial wave-function was contained the faster it spreads and keeps spreading.
Camouflage of Quantum Mechanics in Macro World (Large, Massive and Complex Objects)
The macro world of massive objects acts as a camouflage that hides their quantum and nondual nature. Like all waves, quantum possibility waves also spread. When an electron is released at rest in a room, its wave of possibility spreads so fast that in a few moments it fills the room in possibility (think Heisenberg uncertainty, momentum MUST BE HUGE when electron at rest). It is possible to detect the electron in various places in the room with varying probabilities.
But in quantum mathematics massive objects expand very sluggishly as a wave of possibility, yet expand THEY DO, make no mistake about it! To see through the camouflage, you must not get sidetracked trying to see any runaway movement of the micro components of a macro body, which are bound to their center of mass. They do their quantum waving while standing in place. Really in the time it takes to blink your eyes, the center of a macro object's mass is able to move by one million-trillionth of a centimeter or so. This is far far beyond our perception, but physicists with laser instruments can actually measure such quantum movements.
Because of this fixity and sluggishness, we can all "collapse" large objects in virtually the same place. In this way our consensus reality is born and with it the idea of physical reality out there, in public, outside of us, though in reality it is still very quantum and nondual.
The macro physical world because of this apparent fixity follows Newtonian or Classical physics very accurately in most situations at large sizes and slow speeds. Newtonian physics or common sense "sensory" physics, concludes there is a real, solid, and objective world "out there". This illusion comes from the aforementioned fact that large and massive quantum objects (all objects are quantum) are sluggish to expand which creates the impression that there is a world out there.
But there is STILL no such world until you look! Einstein was wrong, the Moon does NOT exist out there until a conscious observer SEES IT!
The macro world of massive objects acts as a camouflage that hides their quantum and nondual nature. Like all waves, quantum possibility waves also spread. When an electron is released at rest in a room, its wave of possibility spreads so fast that in a few moments it fills the room in possibility (think Heisenberg uncertainty, momentum MUST BE HUGE when electron at rest). It is possible to detect the electron in various places in the room with varying probabilities.
But in quantum mathematics massive objects expand very sluggishly as a wave of possibility, yet expand THEY DO, make no mistake about it! To see through the camouflage, you must not get sidetracked trying to see any runaway movement of the micro components of a macro body, which are bound to their center of mass. They do their quantum waving while standing in place. Really in the time it takes to blink your eyes, the center of a macro object's mass is able to move by one million-trillionth of a centimeter or so. This is far far beyond our perception, but physicists with laser instruments can actually measure such quantum movements.
Because of this fixity and sluggishness, we can all "collapse" large objects in virtually the same place. In this way our consensus reality is born and with it the idea of physical reality out there, in public, outside of us, though in reality it is still very quantum and nondual.
The macro physical world because of this apparent fixity follows Newtonian or Classical physics very accurately in most situations at large sizes and slow speeds. Newtonian physics or common sense "sensory" physics, concludes there is a real, solid, and objective world "out there". This illusion comes from the aforementioned fact that large and massive quantum objects (all objects are quantum) are sluggish to expand which creates the impression that there is a world out there.
But there is STILL no such world until you look! Einstein was wrong, the Moon does NOT exist out there until a conscious observer SEES IT!
Uncertainty Principle Revisited
As we eluded, if you make large conglomerates of microscopic quantum objects, they tend to take on the appearance of grossness, solidity and objectivity. And while the micro components of these large objects obey the uncertainty principle, they have grossness because the cloud of ignorance that the uncertainty principle imposes on their motion is very small, so small that it can be ignored in most situations.
Thus macrobodies can be closely attrributed with both position and velocity, and therefore classical deterministic trajectories. We can observe them as others are observing them, and form a consensus about them.
The idea that the behavior of macrobodies is given approximately by determinstic Newtonian physics is called the correspondance principle. The larger, more massive and more complex a quantum object is, the more it behaves determinstically so much so that at our scale (size of humans), the possibility waves as we mentioned spread LESS than a million trillionth of a centimeter. This leads to a VERY convincing illusion of a separate and objective world "out there". But even so, many nondual teachers with authentic nondual vision, mention that the world loses it's solidity and the subject object duality no longer remains. That is, they VERIFY by experience that even on the larger scales, the Universe is quantum and nondual!
As we eluded, if you make large conglomerates of microscopic quantum objects, they tend to take on the appearance of grossness, solidity and objectivity. And while the micro components of these large objects obey the uncertainty principle, they have grossness because the cloud of ignorance that the uncertainty principle imposes on their motion is very small, so small that it can be ignored in most situations.
Thus macrobodies can be closely attrributed with both position and velocity, and therefore classical deterministic trajectories. We can observe them as others are observing them, and form a consensus about them.
The idea that the behavior of macrobodies is given approximately by determinstic Newtonian physics is called the correspondance principle. The larger, more massive and more complex a quantum object is, the more it behaves determinstically so much so that at our scale (size of humans), the possibility waves as we mentioned spread LESS than a million trillionth of a centimeter. This leads to a VERY convincing illusion of a separate and objective world "out there". But even so, many nondual teachers with authentic nondual vision, mention that the world loses it's solidity and the subject object duality no longer remains. That is, they VERIFY by experience that even on the larger scales, the Universe is quantum and nondual!
A thought Experiment about our Quantum World
Take the seemingly undeniable logic that your kitchen is always present. You think its contents assume its familiar shapes and colors whether or not you are in it. But consider the colors and shapes of your kitchen are seen because the particles of light from the overhead bulb bounce off the various objects and interact with your brain through a complex set of retinal and neural intermediates. But on its own, light doesn't have any color, or brightness or any visual characteristics at all, it's merely an electromagnetic wave.
You think the kitchen is there in your absence, but the reality is that nothing remotely resembling what you perceive as your kitchen could possibly be there without your consciousness interacting with it.
Quantum physics comes at it from a much hotter angle and arrives at the same conclusion. But really it turns out your oven, fridge, etc are composed of a shivering swarm of energy and the results of quantum physics such as the double slit experiment, tell us, that not a single one of those particles or any of those objects exists in a definite space until you observe them.
Rather they exists in a range of probabilities or waves of probability as Max Born once. Outside of that fact there is nothing there just statistical probabilities of particles existing in certain locations. So if they are not being observed, that cannot be thought of as having any real existence, either duration or position in space. It is only in the presence of the observer, that is when you go to the kitchen for a drink of water that the mind actually sets the scaffolding of these particles in place. It is not until the mind lays down the threads somewhere in that haze of probabilities that is described by the uncertainty principle can they be thought of as being either here or there or having actual position or physical reality.
But it is nice that the kitchen sink and everything in the kitchen remains where we left it and not spread out in quantum waviness. Which brings us to the importance of Determinism in the macroworld (though never perfectly so, but through correspondance principle almost perfect).
Take the seemingly undeniable logic that your kitchen is always present. You think its contents assume its familiar shapes and colors whether or not you are in it. But consider the colors and shapes of your kitchen are seen because the particles of light from the overhead bulb bounce off the various objects and interact with your brain through a complex set of retinal and neural intermediates. But on its own, light doesn't have any color, or brightness or any visual characteristics at all, it's merely an electromagnetic wave.
You think the kitchen is there in your absence, but the reality is that nothing remotely resembling what you perceive as your kitchen could possibly be there without your consciousness interacting with it.
Quantum physics comes at it from a much hotter angle and arrives at the same conclusion. But really it turns out your oven, fridge, etc are composed of a shivering swarm of energy and the results of quantum physics such as the double slit experiment, tell us, that not a single one of those particles or any of those objects exists in a definite space until you observe them.
Rather they exists in a range of probabilities or waves of probability as Max Born once. Outside of that fact there is nothing there just statistical probabilities of particles existing in certain locations. So if they are not being observed, that cannot be thought of as having any real existence, either duration or position in space. It is only in the presence of the observer, that is when you go to the kitchen for a drink of water that the mind actually sets the scaffolding of these particles in place. It is not until the mind lays down the threads somewhere in that haze of probabilities that is described by the uncertainty principle can they be thought of as being either here or there or having actual position or physical reality.
But it is nice that the kitchen sink and everything in the kitchen remains where we left it and not spread out in quantum waviness. Which brings us to the importance of Determinism in the macroworld (though never perfectly so, but through correspondance principle almost perfect).
Freedom and Determinism
The Uncertainty principle is one of the most baffling ideas of all of science. The fact that seemingly solid matter at the most fundamental level is nothing but a probability cloud of possibilities is as much of an enigma today as it was back when Heisenberg formulated the principle.
But seen from another angle, freedom is the flip side of uncertainty. For example, my actions might seem random and unpredictable to you, but I know full well what I am doing (most of the time..lol). To give an example, I might go out shopping and make several stops. My itinerary is known to me, but to an outsider it is totally uncertain. If I was determined by you, I would not have freedom. So you can see uncertainty is the flip side of freedom.
But we do not always want uncertainty. Think about machines for example. We want the machines we use to be totally predictable and determined. This determinism at the macroscopic level is free of quantum effects and thankfully so, because if it was not, we could not make anything at all. You want your car to be determined and reliable, you want software programs to do what they are supposed to do, etc. This determinism of machines, computers, and tools we use gives us Freedom to make and create things with them. So you can see Determinism is also the flip side of Freedom.
With this, I want to show how Freedom and Determinism can lead to either a Free Society or one of Tyranny and Communist control.
As paradoxical as it seems, surrendering our free will to God, our Higher Self, or the Divine, gives us the greatest freedom. Why? Because if we are a determined instrument in God's hands, He/She can use us in ways we cannot even dream. Many great works of art, music, writing, science, etc, have come from a divine power working through the artist or scientist. This is the highest freedom, because we become a tool in the hand of God that can be used to create an amazing Divine plan on earth!
The Uncertainty principle is one of the most baffling ideas of all of science. The fact that seemingly solid matter at the most fundamental level is nothing but a probability cloud of possibilities is as much of an enigma today as it was back when Heisenberg formulated the principle.
But seen from another angle, freedom is the flip side of uncertainty. For example, my actions might seem random and unpredictable to you, but I know full well what I am doing (most of the time..lol). To give an example, I might go out shopping and make several stops. My itinerary is known to me, but to an outsider it is totally uncertain. If I was determined by you, I would not have freedom. So you can see uncertainty is the flip side of freedom.
But we do not always want uncertainty. Think about machines for example. We want the machines we use to be totally predictable and determined. This determinism at the macroscopic level is free of quantum effects and thankfully so, because if it was not, we could not make anything at all. You want your car to be determined and reliable, you want software programs to do what they are supposed to do, etc. This determinism of machines, computers, and tools we use gives us Freedom to make and create things with them. So you can see Determinism is also the flip side of Freedom.
With this, I want to show how Freedom and Determinism can lead to either a Free Society or one of Tyranny and Communist control.
As paradoxical as it seems, surrendering our free will to God, our Higher Self, or the Divine, gives us the greatest freedom. Why? Because if we are a determined instrument in God's hands, He/She can use us in ways we cannot even dream. Many great works of art, music, writing, science, etc, have come from a divine power working through the artist or scientist. This is the highest freedom, because we become a tool in the hand of God that can be used to create an amazing Divine plan on earth!