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Quantum physics is the new reality that we now live in. However, since the reality which is defined by classical physics is embedded in our minds, we do not recognize that fact. In classical physics, everything can be measured and felt. Meanwhile, quantum physics challenges that notion since there is no objective reality, no distinction between the past, present and the future. Since reality is actually consciousness, we really experience it as we live it.
What is this new quantum reality? In “Quantum Physics for Poets,” Leon Lederman, Nobel Laureate, says, “If you are not shocked by quantum physics, you haven’t understood it.” In fact, it stopped Albert Einstein stopped dead in his tracks, since in his words, quantum physics became “too spooky to pursue.” Instead, Einstein, in 1935, forced “a dramatic collision of logic between the quantum world of possibilities and the classical world of real objects with real properties, and to determine, once and for all, which was right!” (Note 1) However the quantum world of randomness overwhelmed the orderly one of classical physics.
To understand how “spooky” quantum physics is, first classical physics needs to be explained. Lederman writes, “the canonized laws of Galileo and Newton … encompassed the beauty and rational stability of classical physics, including the golden age of the orderly laws of motion, the universal law of gravitation that governed apples and asteroids, the wonderful symmetries that underlie the theories of electricity and magnetism, and the crowning insight that light is a wave composed of electric and magnetic fields.” (Note 2)
However, starting in 1900, physicists began to notice strange and peculiar occurrences. These eerie happenings have grown over time. For example, think about blackbody radiation (Note 3) that toasts ordinary bread in a toaster or the red glow given off by the coals of a campfire. Why is this glow red? The properties of light emitted by the wires of the toaster and by the coals shattered the rules of classical physics.
One of the things realized by quantum physics is that the world of possibilities is the new reality. Lederman write “Observation and measurement is the ultimate defining activity; the act of measurement itself forces a system to choose one of its various possibilities. (Emphasis by Lederman) In other words, reality is not merely disguised by the fuzziness of an uncertain measurement – rather, it is wrong to even think about reality as yielding certainty in the conventional Galilean sense when one arrives at the atomic level of nature.”
Lederman continues, “In quantum physics, there appears to be an eerie connection between the physical state of a system and the conscious awareness of it by some observing being. But it’s really the act of measurement by any other system that resets, or ‘collapses,’ the quantum state into one of its myriad possibilities… These are not particles and not waves – they are both and neither – they are something new. They are quantum states.” (Emphasis by Lederman) (Note 4)
One of the founders of quantum theory, (Ernst) Pascual Jordan wrote “Observations not only disturb what is to measured, they produce it.” The act of observing quantum particles seems to create another reality. Before observation, the object (in-waiting) is a probability of all possible locations and properties. This can make for a bizarre world, where time bends back on itself and the living can speak to the dead.
Another part of reality is that quantum physics changes is space and time. The two are now considered an entity as “spacetime.” Under classical physics, time was absolute (which is false according to quantum physics). Time is not altered between any two systems. Therefore, one clock could be used for all the observers through the entire universe.
However, the Special Theory Relativity, as defined by Einstein, shows that time slows down for moving objects. It explains that the speed of light is a constant for all observers: it never changes. Therefore, time is never absolute, the speed of light is.
Since scientists believe that there is nothing outside of space and time, the two dimensions are connected. Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity described space and time as “inseparable, interwoven entities.” “Spacetime” as coined by Hermann Minkowski in 1908, is “shorthand for Einstein’s model of an integral four-dimensional space and time continuum.” (Note 5)
Since then, experiments have pointed to the existence of seven additional dimensions. These multiple dimensions which exist beyond spacetime are hidden. The metaverse (Note 6) now incorporates the four-dimensional spacetime universe and the seven dimensions that have been discovered.
Oddly enough with my brain injury, I perceive reality as defined by quantum physics. Time is infinite, with no beginning or end. My reality is spooky with the multiple strands of time and space existing at once. For me, multiple universes exist in which I chose to live in a particular one each day. And, sometimes, I do not understand what universe I find myself in.
Since “observing effects those around us” is an inseparable part of reality, our assumptions need to change to match this new reality. We are not separate from reality, for we shape it with others. When we observe the stars, they observe us. We dance together with the Gods, Nature Spirits and the Cosmos itself.
Notes:
Note 1. Leon Lederman, “Quantum Physics for Poets,” p. 192. Exclamation point is by Lederman.
Note 2. Ibid. p. 83.
Note 3. Blackbody radiation is the “electronic magnetic radiation emitted by an object that absorbs all incidental radiation and reflects none.” It is also known as “thermal radiation.”
Note 4. Leon Lederman, “Quantum Physics for Poets,” p. 22.
Note 5. Shelli Renee Joye, “The Metaverse of Consciousness.” P. 6.
Note 6. In quantum physics, the metaverse “includes at least seven unique dimensions beyond the four of time and space.” This differs from what software engineers and gamers refer to as the metaverse. Their metaverse is that a user can experience with the help of an avatar, the virtual reality of another world.
Works Used:
Burns, Anthony, “Ultimum Mysterium.” Sixth Books: Alresford (UK). 2016.
Carreira, Jeff, “The Spiritual Implications of Quantum Physics.” Emergence Education: Philadelphia. 2023.
Joy, Shelli Renee, “The Metaverse of Consciousness.” Inner Tradition: Rochester (VT). 2025.
Lederman, Leon, “Quantum Physics for Poets.” Prometheus Books: Lanham (MD). 2011.
Pratt, Carl, “Quantum Physics for Beginners.” Quantum Quill. 2024.
