Quantum physics -- Great explanations

I recall these words from that wonderful book, The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.
Through their experiments, quantum physicists have discovered that, just as ancient spiritual teachings have said from time immemorial--and present-day wise men still tell us: You are not what you think you are. Everybody sees the world through the idea he has of himself. As you think yourself to be, so you think the world to be. If you imagine yourself as separate from the world, the world will appear separate from you, and you will experience desire and fear. ...By forgetting who you are and imagining yourself a mortal creature you create so much trouble for yourself that you have to wake up, like from a bad dream. To be a living being is not the ultimate state; there is something beyond, much more wonderful, which is neither being nor non-being, neither living nor not-living. It is a state of pure awareness, beyond the limitations of space and time. Once the illusion that the body-mind is oneself is abandoned, death loses its terror; it becomes a part of living. --from I AM THAT: Discourses with Nisargadatta Maharaj

FASCINATING, TRUE, and INEXPLICABLE TO THE MIND--EXCERPTS from Quantum Physics findings.
David Bohm's theory of the 'Implicate Order' in quantum physics was developed in the 1980s in order to explain the strange behavior of sub-atomic particles. The central underlying theme of Bohm's theory is that there is a unifying reality which underlies physical reality called the 'implicate order'. This 'order' unifies the totality of existence so that nothing is separate from anything else

"Physicists have now proven through Einstein's Theory of Relativity and the study of quantum physics that everything we see is an illusion.

Einstein, in looking at a macroscopic perspective of the Universe, said in his Theory of Relativity that there are more than three dimensions. Human beings can only visualize in three dimensions. We can only see three dimensions so we have assumed that that is all there is."

"Quantum physics has now proven that everything we see is an illusion, that the physical world is an illusion.

Everything is made up of interacting energy. Energy interacts on a subatomic level to form energy fields which physicists call subatomic particles. These subatomic energy fields interact to form atomic energy fields, atoms, which interact to form molecules. Everything in the physical world is made up of interacting atomic and molecular energy fields.

There is no such thing as separation in the physical world.

Energy is interacting to form a gigantic, dynamic pattern of rhythmically repeating energy interactions. In other words, a dance of energy. We are all part of a gigantic dance of energy.

This Universe is one gigantic pattern of dancing energy patterns.

Separation is an illusion. There is energy traveling at thousands of miles per second in your body right at this moment. There is energy interacting between, passing between, you and the chair you are sitting on, you and the air around you, you and any other beings in the room.

We are not separate.

Physicists have scientifically proven that separation in the physical world is an illusion. . . . We are all part of one gigantic, dynamic dance of energy.

Oneness is the Truth, the scientifically proven Truth, on this physical plane. . . . . The mystical Truth that we are all ONE in God has been known through the ages."

Quote from Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls

From: http://www.integralscience.org/materialism/materialism.html (Read this entire link to get the full picture).

Even large objects of our ordinary experience do not have objectively existing properties unless and until they are observed. This is very startling. Or it should be very startling! As Niels Bohr once said,

Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.¹⁰

The physical reason the quantum nature of most objects is not noticeable is because of a phenomenon called decoherence. When one wave passes through two slits, the resulting two waves are coherently related to each other, resulting in the interference pattern. When millions and millions of particles are gathered together, though, there are so many of these waves interfering in so many ways that they appear on the macroscopic scale to average out, or decohere. This is analogous to how the curvature of the earth appears to disappear in a small area of land. The decoherence effect is the reason we can normally neglect the quantum nature of macroscopic objects, and treat them as if they had objective existence. Similarly, we can normally neglect the curvature of the earth, and treat it as if it were really flat.

It is important to remember that this decoherence effect does not change the underlying quantum reality. The quantum coherence is really still there—it is just hidden in the microscopic details and not noticeable on the macroscopic scale. Thus, because of this decoherence effect, the macroscopic world usually appears in a manner that is consistent with the materialistic idea of objectively existing matter. Despite appearances, however, objects never depart from their true quantum nature, they never actually become the objectively existing objects that they appear to be, any more than the earth actually becomes flat even though it might appear that way. The apparent observation of an electron's actual position, in other words, results from our ignorance of its quantum coherence. When the quantum coherence is ignored, the electron appears as if it had an actual position. In reality, however, the electron does not have any actual position, just as the earth does not have any actual flatness when we ignore its curvature. We can only imagine that the position actually exists by ignoring the quantum coherence.

Thus, according to quantum physics, the attributes of physical objects are only imagined by us to have definite or actual existence. Or, as Sengtsan might say, they are empty of such existence. Just as the earth always is round, but appears with greater or lesser degrees of curvature, these objects always exist in a state of quantum coherence, appearing with greater or lesser degrees of decoherence. The electron in our double-slit experiment, for example, is very coherent when it remains unobserved. Thus, it does not have a definite position at one slit or the other. But when the electron's position is measured at one of the slits, its coherence becomes so difficult to detect that we can imagine the electron to have a definite position. Thus, in one sense, it appears as though we can precisely measure a position of the electron. Yet, in another sense, such a position never really can be shown to have definite existence.

This testimony of modern physics has striking resemblance to the testimony of the mystics. Consider, for example, the words of the Buddha:

I teach the non-existence of things because they carry no signs of inherent self-nature. It is true that in one sense they are seen and discriminated by the senses as individualized objects; but in another sense, because of the absence of any characteristic marks of self-nature, they are not seen but are only imagined. In one sense they are graspable, but in another sense, they are not graspable.¹¹

Remarkably, both physics and mysticism teach us that the appearance of an objectively existing world independent of observation is an illusion. Moreover, they both say that even the observed world does not exist objectively with anything like the definiteness that we imagine. And this illusion of definite objective existence, they tell us, arises from our ignorance of the true nature of phenomena. Far from being incompatible with the testimony of the mystics, therefore, modern science seems to make many of the same claims as the great mystical traditions about the nature of phenomena.

...While their claims converge, the type of experience used by physicists and mystics to validate claims are significantly different. Whereas physics is fundamentally extrospective, mysticism is radically introspective—to the point of transcending the subject-object distinction altogether. The mystic's non-dualistic Knowledge or Gnosis far transcends any knowledge derived from physics. Gnosis does not, and cannot, be demonstrated or proved using physics. Nevertheless, an understanding of the compatibility between modern physics and mysticism can provide the valuable service of helping to dispel the illusion of materialism, and reveal the Gnosis that is already our true nature. For, just as we falsely imagine the electron to have an actual position by ignoring its true nature, so we falsely imagine that we have actual ignorance by ignoring our true nature. So, by recognizing that our own ignorance is itself falsely imagined to be real, our true nature is clearly revealed.