This site,
MetaphorMachine,
is dedicated to comparing incompatible worlds. We deal
with the way science influences our world view and thus our way of handling
problems and perceiving nature around us. Most of the articles
are in danish, but some of it has been translated into english and can be
found on this page. The new discoveries of quantum
physics along with the ancient wisdom of astrology will be used among others
to set our usual outlook in relief.
Back to Main Page & The Metaphor Machine
The undescribable
Nowadays we tend to meet the statement of "objective truth" with a good
deal of skepticism - who's objective, anyway? But still, we don't have
much to replace it with. "A detached view" is still something desirable
- as if nothing good comes out of attachment. Nevertheless - through the
second half of this millenium (and now that we're reaching the end of it
a broader view might be in order) we have been quite strongly attached
to the fight against some dangerous diseases and the strive for technical
progress in order to make life less toilsome and more fun for a great number
of people. One might say that part of these efforts has paid off, though
we got ourself some new challenges in addition, like the atomic bomb, and
one of the primary tools in getting there has been experimental science,
as it emerged after the Renaissance. Now a retrospect might be useful -
a looking back to the time before the merge of modern science in order
to compare it with ancient world schemes, as it can be found e.g. in astrology
- and to the 'future' by looking at quantum physics - based on the assumption
that we in our effort to reach these goals have lost some valuable perspectives
somewhere along the path. Regarding the scientific approach two aspects
in particular I think is worth mentioning:
-
The notion that objectivity is an ideal we should reach as far as possible
-
The notion that all movement is build on causality, as correlations unfolding
in time and space, and can be described with the aid of exact causal laws
These are two of the main aspects establishing the scientific methods and
thus the way we experiment with the world around us, and they have given
a vast contribution to our understanding of the physical world. The seamy
side of the matter corresponding to these notions would then be:
-
Incapability in dealing with a subjective universe, i.e. a sudden amount
of ignorance regarding the handling of angles and views and how they influence
our perception and the results that we get from our experiments
-
Incapabilities in perceiving and investigating those correlations and regularities
that are non-causal, i.e. which do not unfold in time and space and where
no exact identification of cause and effect can be established.
Where the above notions do not exist in ancient theoretical systems one
could assume that the corresponding limitations do not exist either. Astrology
is such an ancient system, created on other assumptions, including total
subjectivity as one of its premises. Based entirely on symbols the subjective
world view is built-in, so to speak, with no objectivity possible.
As odd as it may seem this view of the world corresponds nicely to the
world view of quantum physics. Here they have found contradictions to these
very two notions - objectivity and causality - and has been forced to move
on to a subjective universe, based on other assumptions and other ideals,
trying to make something useful from their findings without any exact description
of causal laws.
Here lies one of the intriguing aspects of comparing these different world
views, so distant from each other in time. In their outlook astrology and
quantum physics offer numerous points of resemblance.
By choosing symbols as the description tool astrology declares the notion
that a view always are to be established, in other words: reality has to
be interpreted. Why? Because whatever we do we always have an angle to
things, and a demand for objectivity would therefore be just an attempt
to bend reality into something it is not. In other words - creating an
illusion as the tool with which to seek the truth.
In a subjective world where phenomena depends on your point of view, a
unique description of each phenomenon is not possible and therefore symbolic
language might very well be the most fitting terminology, i.e. the nomenclature
that corresponds to the way things in fact are.
The electron can be a particle or it can be a wave, says the qauntum physicist
- it all depends on your point of view. In fact we don't have any clue
what the electron really is. We could name it "Mike" - or we could use
a symbol for its representation in order to declare that something exists.
For this we know: that something exists. Because it leaves its trace in
the world. But what this "something"s actual, objective properties are
- that we cannot know. Because we always examine it from a viewpoint.
Strange things happen when comparing astrology and quantum physics. But
if this ancient system are to correlate with our knowledge today one has
to grasp the meaning not only of the subjective universe but of the acausal
universe as well.
The "acausal" world view
We bring along with us from the days of Newton the notion that there must
always exist some kind of "straight line" stretched between cause and effect,
and this notion makes it difficult, to put it mildly, for a scientific
mind to accept the assumption of any correlation between the planets and
life on Earth, even as a hypothesis. This assumption would not only mean
that there had to be some kind of invisible, non-detectable rays from the
planets to Earth - it would also mean that our behavoiur were being governed
by these planets - much the same way that some genealogists assume that
we're governed by our genes. Why? Because classical physics dictates that
there have to be a cause-and-effect relationship. And since we are not
governing the planets (I had Pluto go into Scorpio by starting my therapy
sessions) - the planets must be governing us.
These notions of rays and governing could be seen as the result - not of
astrology, but of the Newtonian world view which dictates that these correlations
must exist between elements in the physical world.
But what if this notion is just one approach to reality? What if nature
also holds acausal correlations - where the related behaviour of two elements
is not the result of one governing the other but rather they are like reflecting
images - a mark of natures own symbolism?
What if cause itself is just a matter of viewpoint?
It's a fact that the amount of serotonin in the brain can affect your psychological
condition. But then again, it's also a fact that your psychological condition
affects the amount of serotonin in the brain. Which is the cause - and
which the effect? Pick your choice. If instead we are dealing with an interplay
we're not in a position to examine it, because the two elements reside
in different branches of science. Alas, one of the seamy sides.
For now - here is David Bohm's description of the differences between classical
and quantum physics. The full text can be found at
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~biggus/physics/bohm.html
David Bohm
We begin with a brief summary contrasting classical and quantum concepts.
Classical concepts are characterized by three assumptions concerning the
properties of matter:
-
The world can be analyzed into distinct elements.
-
The state of each element can be described in terms of dynamical variables
that are specifiable with arbitrarily high precision.
-
The interrelationship between parts of asystem can be described with the
aid of exact causal laws that define the changes of the above dynamical
variables with time in terms of their initial values. The behavior of the
system as a whole can be regarded as the result of the interaction of all
of its parts.
It is characteristic of the classical domain that within it exist objects,
phenomena, and events that are distinct and well-defined and that exihibit
reliable and reproducible properties with the aid of which they can be
identified and compared. It is this aspect of the world that is most readily
described in terms of our customary scientific language, in which the ideal
is to express every concept in terms of well-defined elements with well-defined
logical relationships between them.
When we come to describe quantum concepts, however, we find that just
because our customary scientific language aims for such precision, it leads
to difficult and unwieldy modes of expression. For as we have seen, the
quantum properties of matter are to be associated with incompletely defined
potentialities, which can be more definitely realized only in interaction
with a classically describable system (a special case of which is a measuring
apparatus). Because even the so-called "intrinsic" properties of a system
(e.g., wave or particle) are brought out only in interactions with other
systems, it is clear that the quantum properties have contradicted assumptions
(1) and (2) of the classical theory, since there exist at the quantum level
neither well-defined elements nor well-defined dynamical variables, which
describe the bahavior of these elements. It is not surprising, then, that
assumption (3) is also not satisfied in the quantum theory, since exact
causal laws would be meaningless in a context in which there were no precisely
defined variables to which they could apply.
Victor Mansfield
Physics and Astronomy Department Colgate University Hamilton, NY
vmansfield@colgate.edu
talks about the correlation between quantum physics and astrology:
"I do not believe that astrological influence works through a physical
mechanism between a planet and person. Such explanations have their roots
in a Newtonian view of a world of independent objects that causally influence
each other.By causal influence, I mean one well-defined thing effecting
another by an exchange of energy or information, such as the sun and moon's
gravitational field causing the tides or, more psychologically, my anxiety
causing my blood pressure to rise. Such causal interactions are a far cry
from the acausality, nonlocality, and participatory nature of the quantum
mechanical view of nature. It's not just that the Cartesian/Newtonian view
is old fashioned and quantum mechanics is both more current and accurate
in every sense of the word. Equally important, since astrology presupposes
a unified view of the world, it is best understood through a quantum view
of the world that has acausal interconnectedness, observer dependence,
and unity at its core.
Although I know of no quantum mechanical explanation for astrological
influence, since the quantum worldview is so much more appropriate (than
the Newtonian) as a starting point for its discussion, I will very briefly
summarize three of its key features. First, quantum mechanics is radically
acausal. Despite its unprecedented accuracy and vast applicability, individual
events do not have well-defined causes. It teaches us that lawfulness in
nature does not require causality-an important lesson for astrology.
Plotinus, the greatest Neoplatonist of the second century, long before
quantum mechanics, proposed an acausal understanding of astrology in his
beautiful tractate entitled "Are the stars causes?" There he argues that
the stars are signifiers, announcers, or symbols, but not causes of our
destiny. Unfortunately, this message is easily lost as the old woodcut
shows. Perhaps the neutrinos are to blame.
Second, objects in quantum mechanics cannot always be localized in finite
regions of space and time. For example, certain correlated systems of particles,
that are carefully studied in the so-called Bell Inequality experiments,
appear to instantaneously communicate between the parts of the correlated
system. In other words, what happens in a region, say at one end of the
lab, instantaneously effects what happens at the other end and vice versa.
Amazingly, the correlation does not diminish with increasing distance,
nor is it a causal connection. There is no energy or information exchange
between the parts. Much more needs to be said about this deeply mysterious
phenomenon than I can say here, but let me characterize it with the following
brief statement. Nonlocality teaches that the relationship between parts
is more fundamental, more real, than the isolated identity of the parts.
From an astrological perspective, we could say that our relationship to
the cosmos is more fundamental, more real than our isolated existence.
Extracts from a plenary
talk presented at the Cycles and Symbols Conference San Francisco,
February 14-16, 1997
Back to Main Page & The Metaphor Machine
|
