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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Quantum Mechanics
Dr. David Bohm
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he answers the question, what is the nature of reality?
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return to "Quantum Mechanics" main-page
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDKB7GcHNac
Bohm: “What is the nature of reality? … [according to Bohr’s view, reality is only what we can observe and measure.] I felt dissatisfied with that finally. It did not give a clear concept of reality …
"Reality would mean having some existence independently of being known [i.e., an objective reality; that is, it would exist whether we know about it or not]… Now it was difficult to see how this could be sustained finally in Bohr’s view…
"Now, I tried to get some idea of what might be the process which was implied by the mathematics of the quantum theory. And this process is what I call enfoldment. The mathematics itself suggests a movement in which everything, in which any particular element of space, may have a field which unfolds into the whole and the whole enfolds into it.
"So, you have this movement, and I call this the implicate or enfolded order which unfolds into the explicate order where everything is separate. Now, the implicate order, everything is internally related to everything, everything contains everything…
"Everybody has many experiences of this implicate order, the most obvious one is ordinary consciousness where consciousness enfolds everything that you know or see. It doesn’t merely enfold the universe but also you act according to that content. Therefore you’re internally related to the whole in the sense that you act according to your consciousness of the whole.
"So, you’re not acting mechanistically, being pushed and pulled by objects in the surroundings, but rather according to your consciousness you act from them. So, if you’re not conscious of them, you can’t act intelligently toward them…
"I think there is an intelligence that is implicit there; a kind of intelligence unfolds. The source of the intelligence is not necessarily in the brain, the ultimate source, but much more enfolded into the whole.
"Now, the question as to whether you want to call it God depends on what you mean by the word, you see. Because taking it as a personal God might restrict it in some way…
[The question was asked, if we attain this wholeness, will we be in heaven? ie the end of searchings.]
"We’ll never get there. It’s not a place where you can get. The wholeness, I say, is a kind of attitude or approach to the whole of life. It’s a way – if we can have a coherent approach to reality then reality will respond coherently to us. But nature has been tremendously affected by our way of thinking on the earth. Nature is now being destroyed… [Our thinking is the problem.] We are producing results that we don’t really want.
[Question: Was there a time when there was no consciousness?]
I don’t think it originates in time. It’s a potential of the whole universe. Wholeness will arise between us all. [You can’t escape consciousness by going into a cave because there’s still nature.] We are internally related to everything, not externally. Consciousness is an internal relationship to the whole, we take in the whole, we act toward the whole, whatever we’ve taken in, basically, determines who we are.
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Editor's last word:
Dr. Basil Hiley: “For Bohm, process is the concrete reality of things.” A process of becoming, of connections, relations, as opposed to static eternal particles as hard little "billiard balls."
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