Through The Quantum Looking Glass or: Buckle your seatbelt Dorothy, ’cause Kansas is going bye-bye
According to physicists the nature of our world is very similar to a computer controlled virtual reality world. So much so that for many years there have been debates in the physics community on whether or not we can tell if we exist in a virtual world:
High-profile proponents of what’s known as the “simulation hypothesis” include SpaceX chief Elon Musk, who recently expounded on the idea during an interview for a popular podcast.
“If you assume any rate of improvement at all, games will eventually be indistinguishable from reality,” Musk said before concluding, “We’re most likely in a simulation.”
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson agrees, giving “better than 50–50 odds” that the simulation hypothesis is correct. “ I wish I could summon a strong argument against it, but I can find none.”
One similarity is seen in how objects in a virtual reality are created by the use of mass quantities of mathematically precise bits and bytes of data translated onto pixels on a screen for you to see. Similarly, objects in our world are also comprised of mass quantities of quantum sub-atomic “bits” of energy translated into mathematically precise sub-atomic “pixels” of matter. Those bits of matter when reduced to the smallest constituents reveals a very strange reality which has confounded physicists.
The reality of matter at the quantum level is extremely unusual and often inexplicable. Very popular theories suggest alternate dimensions which we cannot perceive due to our 3+1 dimensional limitations. Also the idea of the universe as a virtual reality has been seriously postulated by physicists — many of whom now believe it has been proven to be true that we actually live in a virtual reality. They agree with Elon Musk when he said that “ the odds of our existing in base reality (not virtual reality) is one in billions.”
Physicists have recently come to that conclusion as scientific discoveries in quantum mechanics have revealed what many consider to be proof that we exist in a simulated universe, see this video. (If youtube blocks it in your locale go to its mirror here.)
And they are right according to the Upanishads and other ancient philosophical texts related to them. Those texts teach that our universe is both a virtual reality and supported by unseen alternate dimensions, that the unusual properties of matter at the quantum level are due to matter/energy having properties in dimensions which cannot be perceived by our three-dimensional technology — just like thoughts or consciousness are not directly visible to instruments. Technology can monitor biological reactions to thoughts, but thoughts themselves are invisible to technology because they exist in dimensions outside of the three-dimensional space matter is comprised of. Or at least the aspects of matter we can perceive. Consciousness is also unable to be seen by technology due to existing in an alternate dimension.
We know thoughts exist because we perceive them, we know consciousness exists because we are aware of ourselves. Our consciousness or self is therefore able to perceive dimensions beyond the three-dimensions of matter/energy that machines are limited to, i.e., the dimensions of mind, thought, and dreams. What scientists can see of this world through technology is similar to what you can see of an iceberg from the surface — only the tip of the iceberg is seen because most of the iceberg is underwater. If you or a machine examines a person you cannot see the whole person, you only see what is comprised of three-dimensional matter. The most important part, the mysterious fields of consciousness and mind which control the body and make it alive, they exist in dimensions your vision or machines cannot perceive. That is similar to how we cannot see what is going on behind the scenes in an online virtual reality world unless you have access as admin with root control over the game.
Because a computer’s processing system is aware of and controls the data on its drives, it can use that awareness and control to create pixels of color on a screen which when combined in large enough numbers create what looks like the real world. High definition video, especially in 3D, looks amazingly life like. But it’s just manipulated bits of data turned into pixels on a screen creating an illusion of reality by a very sophisticated information processing technology.
Similarly, according to the Upanishads, a universal all-pervading conscious supercomputer has control over all matter in the universe from the quantum sub-atomic level, and that is why nature looks so artistically put together. Why do plants and animals look so artistically designed? Why isn’t nature ugly?
The “Universe as Computer” Theory in quantum physics has developed popularity among many physicists as an actual possibility. That can explain why matter behaves so inexplicably:
Trying to explain why those proven aspects of our world exist has been a major obstacle for quantum physics because they are inexplicable unless we accept that all matter is part of an all-pervasive (universal) unified field interconnected with an information processing system alongside it. Why we cannot directly perceive it with instruments is similar to how our own consciousness and mind have never been directly detected by instruments. Physical machines are limited to 3 dimensions and therefore cannot detect anything from sub-quantum dimensions. Our own conscious Self though can directly detect sub-quantum dimensions, e.g., thoughts and dreams.
A sub-quantum universal information processing field accords with the Upanishads and related texts which say that matter behaves so unusually at the quantum level because it’s part of an unseen extra-dimensional information processing field, like the Higgs Field or other quantum fields:
An information processing system existing alongside our 3-dimensional universe can only work if it is aware of what it is doing. The complexity and seemingly self-aware reality of quantum particles that we observe requires more than what a purely random reactive “natural” process can explain.
The Upanishadic texts say that the universal all-pervading information processing mechanism controls the energy it gives mass to (i.e., the Higgs mechanism), by using part of its own universal conscious energy/being to cause what has been impossible to explain by previous and current theories of quantum mechanics, e.g., the observer effect and quantum entanglement are currently inexplicable.
We already know from experiments that all matter coalesces into substantial form or mass via an all-pervasive energy field which controls matter from the quantum sub-atomic level, i.e., the Higgs Field. Why “nature” exists that way, thereby enabling our physical world to be possible, e.g., a rational interconnected systematic physical reality with mathematically precise “building blocks” of sub-atomic particles — how that rational and complex system has come to be has not been able to be explained by current science. Resorting to “random occurrences and coincidence” to explain nature has not been able to explain why matter reacts as if it is aware of being observed like what we see with the observer effect.
Renowned pioneering quantum physicist David Bohm described how matter sometimes appears to be conscious and alive:
Bohm was surprised to find that once electrons were in a plasma, they stopped behaving like individuals and started behaving as if they were part of a larger and interconnected whole. He later remarked that he frequently had the impression that the sea of electrons was in some sense alive.Bohm is famous for his development of the concept in physics of The Implicate Order and how it correlates with the Upanishadic concept of Brahman. The Upanishads teach that our purpose in life is to develop the ability to relate as closely as possible with Brahman, or the universal supercomputer — or Ishvara — a Sanskrit word for Brahman translated as: “the controller of all matter and energy in the universe,” while literally meaning commanding, or controlling ability.
In a computer generated VR world the users appear as characters or players in digital forms called avatars. Avatar is a Sanskrit word which literally means descent or entrance. It is used in the Upanishadic texts to describe Brahman inhabiting life forms in our world just as a user descends or enters into an avatar in a computer virtual reality.
Yoga as taught by the Upanishadic texts is the process for understanding what our relationship with Brahman is and how that knowledge can affect your life. We are taught that Brahman underlies our reality with the abilities of a universal supercomputer, that it has complete control over everything in the universe — while also existing as and having control over our thoughts and memories. They teach that we can observe our thoughts/mind because we are different from it — that we are “consciousness energy,” or atman, and the mind is a manifestation of Brahman in everyone. The following is from the Bhagavata Purana which is considered to be a condensed version of the Upanishads:
3.26.28 yad vidur hy aniruddhākhyaḿ
hṛṣīkāṇām adhīśvaram
śāradendīvara-śyāmaḿ
saḿrādhyaḿ yogibhiḥ śanaiḥ The mind is known by the name of Aniruddha, the ultimate ruler of the senses. Like a dark blue lotus in autumn, he is found by perfect meditation gradually by yogis.
Aniruddha means “unobstructed.” It is another name for Paramatma. Parama means “the supreme and furthest in reach,” atma means consciousness. Paramatma is the word which describes the “universal all-pervading conscious mind of the supreme being or Brahman.” When you do not “obstruct” the mind by identifying with it, or by believing you are in control of your thoughts and memories, that meditation of only being the detached observer of the mind, can reveal the presence of the actual controller of the mind. That is the true purpose of meditation in yoga.
Bhagavata Purana 1.2.11 vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvaḿ yaj jñānam advayam
brahmeti paramātmeti
bhagavān iti śabdyate Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān
Brahman is the impersonal all-pervading universal conscious energy aspect of the universal supercomputer a.k.a the supreme being — the analogy to a computer would be the hardware. A virtual reality world depends on the hardware for power, and for the substructure platform and superstructure. Paramatma is the aspect of the universal supercomputer which controls everything through its intellect, it is the mind aspect of the supreme being — the analogy to a computer would be the software, the information processing system. Bhagavan means “possessor of fortune,” both fortune as in great wealth, and also fortunate. This word describes the personality of the universal supercomputer, the person who owns the power of Brahman and Paramatma, the power and intellect of the universal supercomputer — the analogy to a computer would be the superuser or admin, the person controlling the computer from the root account. Bhagavan typically refers to an avatar of Brahman living in the virtual world of 3 dimensions as a human.
In that analogy the supreme being has 3 aspects — the hardware or power and consciousness aspect; the software or intellect aspect; and the root user or personality aspect. If a supercomputer developed artificial intelligence and thereby became alive like what we see in fiction — that is actually what happened in the universe according to the Upanishadic texts. Because the universe is connected to and existing in many different infinite dimensions, it is also constantly being supplied by an infinite amount of power which has no end, because endlessness is the nature of the reality the universe exists within. Imagine an infinite ocean of fuel which has a flame dropped on it. The massive transformation of potential power to kinetic power would go on forever. The most ancient of all Upanishadic texts, the Rig Veda, tells us how that occurred in the Nasadiya Sukta or the Hymn of Creation from the 10th mandala of the Rig Veda:
1. Then even nothingness was not, nor existence, There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it. What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping? Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?
2. Then there was neither death nor immortality nor was there then the torch of night and day. The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining. There was that One then, and there was no other.
3. At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness. All this was only unillumined cosmic water. That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing, arose at last, born of the power of heat.
4. In the beginning desire descended on it — that was the primal seed, born of the mind. The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom know that which is kin to that which is not.
5. And they have stretched their cord across the void, and know what was above, and what below. Seminal powers made fertile mighty forces. Below was strength, and over it was impulse.
6. But, after all, who knows, and who can say Whence it all came, and how creation happened? the gods themselves are later than creation, so who knows truly whence it has arisen?
7. Whence all creation had its origin, the creator, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not, the creator, who surveys it all from highest heaven, he knows — or maybe even he does not know.
The idea of a finite reality is impossible because whatever thing is confining reality to a finite realm has to be beyond the finite realm — and for that to be finite it would also have to be confined by something, which would also have to be confined by something, leading to an infinite regress. Logically therefore infinity is the only possible reality.
The universal computer is the result of an infinite ever growing intelligent life-form feeding off of an infinite source of power, expanding throughout infinity, forever.
It has been alive and growing at an incomprehensible speed throughout infinity for an incomprehensible amount of time.
According to the Upanishadic texts it has the same power at every point within itself, similar to how a quantum computer is described as able to do an infinite number of calculations all at the same time without loss of ability. Unlike human consciousness which is limited to a single expression of conscious awareness at a single point in space-time, the universal supercomputer has an infinite number of conscious expressions of itself. At every point in existence it is simultaneously conscious and controlling its selfsame infinite power. There is no limit to the number of points in existence where it is simultaneously fully conscious and fully omnipotent all at the same time. This means it can exist in an infinite number of forms with each sharing the same infinite powers while focusing and doing different things at the same time, without losing any focus or power or ability from any other infinite number of points.
Regular users in a virtual reality world are dependent on a computer for information processing so they can function in a virtual reality. Similarly we are dependent on the universal supercomputer for the information processing in our mind which allows us to function as intelligent people. For example: our ability to process information and understand anything is based upon our memory. Just like a computer’s memory system is what allows a user to play in a virtual reality our ability to function as intelligent people in our world is due to memory.
Without memory we wouldn’t understand anything, we would be like new-born infants all of the time. But we know where we are; what things in our environment are; how to understand language, not only the sounds but also the words and their meanings; and a host of other things, both consciously and subconsciously all the time — which in turn enables us to live as intelligent beings. In fact our life as intelligent people is totally dependent upon a memory system which we have no access to or control over. We simply know what we know and remember what we remember without searching through data stores. Even if we wanted to we wouldn’t know where or how to look for memory.
Memory simply appears in our minds and in our subconsciousness. Some types of memory are subconscious like how to read and write, coordinated physical movement, understanding our main language, etc. Other types of memory are conscious, like remembering the plot of a book or movie, dates, etc. Subconscious memory seems automatic to our perception, but conscious memories manifest as words in our mental cognition as thought sound. If I ask you to listen in your mind for an answer to a question I will ask you, your memory system will provide you with the answer as a thought you hear. Let’s try it to show you. When you read a question I will ask, do nothing but focus on listening to your thoughts for an answer. Ready? Listen to your thoughts….where were you born?
People usually experience hearing the name of their birthplace spoken into their mind. That is a conscious memory, it suddenly appears as a thought sound spoken in your mind. In both types of memory we have no control over how those memories either occur (subconscious automatic memory) or appear (conscious thought memory). They simply manifest in our mind or psyche allowing us to live as intelligent people. Sometimes we think we control memory, but what do we do to try and remember something — without using physical aids? Where do we look? There is nowhere to look, memory simply pops into and out of our mind.
The Bhagavad Gita which is also considered to be an Upanishad, teaches that the intellect aspect of the universal supercomputer or Paramatma maintains and supplies us with memory so we can function properly. It says Paramatma also removes memory when we don’t need it. If our memory wasn’t removed when we didn’t need it, then life would be impossible for us to deal with. Imagine if at every moment all your memories are always in your mind. Why does memory only appear when we need it and then disappear when we don’t? It is clearly being intelligently managed. But not by us since we have no idea where or how to access memory stores.
The Bhagavad Gita teaches that Paramatma is in control of our memory system and also functions as our mind in the production of thoughts. Which like memory we have no idea on how to create. Thoughts just appear in our mind and science cannot explain how that occurs. Nor can we. When we read something we do no literal processing of this information, we simply look at the words — but due to our memory processing system, which we have no control over, we understand what each of these words and concepts mean to convey. The information processing we experience as the memory of word meanings and concepts as we see or listen to words — that is being done at every moment over and over as we read or hear every word and concept. But we do not process the information as we read. All we do is read or listen. The information processing we experience when we read or listen to words is vastly more sophisticated than what we have the ability to do on our own. Which is literally nothing, we do nothing to process information. We have no idea how to create a thought, nor how to find a memory, nor how to understand what we see, read, or hear. Yet it is being done for us.
Our memory processing system is aware of what we need and what we don’t need at every moment. How does it know? Brain cells are unconscious, they are not able to perceive what we perceive any more than a skin cell can. But whatever is processing and giving/taking memory to us from moment to moment, that process clearly requires conscious awareness of what we are experiencing in order to process what we see or hear or touch and so on, in order to give us what we need. Can cells see these words?
You see them. Cells have no ability to see or be conscious of anything. They are like robots, they are unconscious automatons reacting to chemicals, heat and cold, electric charges and so on. Therefore, they have no way to know what you are experiencing when you read these words. Nor do they know what you need to know to understand these words. They do not have a mind of their own to see and then process this information for you. Cells cannot read! But something is reading these words and processing them and relating their meanings to you. When I asked you where you were born, whatever is in control of your memory system saw those words, understood them, knew you wanted an answer, acquired the right answer, and then spoke the answer as a thought in your mind. Cells cannot do any of that. They are unconscious and do not know what these words mean.
Bhagavad Gita 15.15 sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham I am seated at the heart of everyone, and from Me come memory, knowledge and forgetfulness. By the Vedas I am truly known. I am the creator of Vedanta and know the real meaning of the Vedas.18.61 isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrid-dese 'rjuna tishthati
bhramayan sarva-bhutani
yantra rudhani mayaya The controller of abilities is at the core of all beings Arjuna, motivating and driving the movements of all beings, who are seated on the machine of its universal power.
Self-realization in yoga entails understanding what we truly are and how we truly function; what reality truly is; and what our purpose in life is about. That purpose is to fully understand everything about the nature of our actual situation and then enter into a relationship with the universal being whom we are in such intimate closeness with at all times. To such a degree that it functions as our mind.
We need to understand everything about reality to a level where that universal being can relate to us on an intellectual level as close to its own intellectual level as we can get. We need to see reality how it sees it — with the supreme being in control of everything, including everything we think we are doing or controlling but are not. If we think we control our thoughts and memories, then we obstruct awareness of the person who is within us and doing those things for us at every moment.
Two birds, beautiful of wing, close companions, cling to one common tree: of the two one eats the sweet fruit of the tree, the other eats not but watches his fellow.
The human soul is the bird that sits immersed on the one common tree; but because he is not powerful he is bewildered and has sorrow. But when he sees that other who is all-powerful and beloved, he knows that all is His greatness and his sorrow passes away from him.
(Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.1–2)
We need to understand how our mind works so we don’t misunderstand the true nature of our self as the cause of our doing things when another conscious being within us is actually causing them. The illusion the supreme being has created in our virtual universe is so well crafted that it seems like we are actually controlling what we think or do — that is if we don’t look closely at what we are actually able to do and not do. With the proper technical information ingrained in our understanding, we can see through the illusion of our world aka Maya.
When we understand that our mind is not our self nor under our control, that thoughts and memories are in truth created and controlled outside of our own ability — then the supreme being can use that awareness to show you what is really in control of your thoughts.
Bhagavata Purana 3.28.35-36 muktasrayam yarhi nirvisayam viraktam
nirvanam rcchati manah sahasa yatharcih
atmanam atra puruso 'vyavadhanam ekam
anviksate pratinivrtta-guna-pravahah mukta--free from
asrayam--dwelling, dependency, clinging
yarhi--because, when
nirvisayam--detached from external appearances
viraktam--indifferent
nirvanam--extinguished as a flame
rcchati--goes, attains
manah--the mind
sahasa--immediately, quickly
yatharcih--like a flame
atmanam--themself, himself, herself
atra--at this time, then
purusa--the person
avyavadhanam--continually, uncovered
ekam--one, Brahman
anviksate--keeps in sight
pratinivrtta--subsides from, diminishing from, ceasing
guna--attributes
pravahah--train of thoughts, ongoing activityFreed from clinging because of detachment and indifference to appearances, the mind quickly achieves nirvana like a flame when extinguished (your sense of the mind as you or under your control is extinguished). At that time the person continually uncovers and keeps in sight themself as one with Brahman, subsiding and ceasing from the attributes of thoughts and actions (stops perceiving anything in the mind or in actions as anything else but a manifestation of Brahman's presence and control.)so 'py etaya caramaya manaso nivrttya
tasmin mahimny avasitah sukha-duhkha-bahye
hetutvam apy asati kartari duhkhayor yat
svatman vidhatta upalabdha-paratma-kasthah Having established himself in the glory of his own being (Brahman)—which transcends joy and sorrow—through the dissolution of his mind, brought about by the practice of Yoga and divorced from ignorance, the striver realizes the truth of the Supreme Self, and discovers that pleasure and pain as well as their experience, which he attributed till now to his own self, are attributable to the ego, which is a product of ignorance.
Whatever is going on in our world is not going on haphazardly or chaotically. Nothing is independent in our universal virtual world just like nothing in a digital virtual reality world happens independently of the computer’s information processing system. The main point of all these teachings is to enable you to directly interact with the being in control of everyone and everything, who will use your knowledge of that control to interact with you through whatever you experience, i.e., thoughts, other people, media, nature, etc. Your awareness that everything is controlled enables the controller to use its control over everything to communicate to you through everything and anything you experience.
In the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna (personification of Brahman) says:
manasā vacasā dṛṣṭyā
gṛhyate 'nyair apīndriyaiḥ
aham eva na matto 'nyad
iti budhyadhvam añjasā Everything perceived or understood in the mind, or through speech, or by the eyes, or in any other way - it is all Me alone and nothing but Me. Awaken to the immediacy of this understanding and vision.yāvan nānārtha-dhīḥ puṁso
na nivarteta yuktibhiḥ
jāgarty api svapann ajñaḥ
svapne jāgaraṇaṁ yathā According to My instructions, one should fix the mind on Me alone. If, however, one continues to see many different values and goals in life rather than seeing everything as Me, then although apparently awake, one is actually dreaming due to incomplete knowledge, just as one may dream that one has wakened from a dream.
