Vedanta (Upanishad) and Quantum Physics-2

There is no meaning to the objective existence of an electron at some point is space, for example at one of the two holes, independent of actual observation. The electron seems to spring into existence as a real object only when we observe it.

– The Cosmic Code, by Heinz Pagels (President of New York Academy of Science , 1981)

The holistic view of the quantum world leads us into a very deep philosophical realm.

Consider the Copenhagen interpretation literally, and it tells you that an electron wave collapses to make a point on a detector screen because the entire universe is looking at it.

This is strange enough; cosmologists, even Hawking, worry that it implies that there must actually be something ‘outside the universe’ to look at the universe as a whole and collapse its overall wave function. (ref, A Brief History of Time)

Alternatively, John Wheeler has argued that it is only the presence of conscious observers, in the form of ourselves, that has collapsed the wave function and made the Universe exist.

Even, now a days, quantum experiments are suggesting that Objective Reality may not exist,
http://www.sci-news.com/physics/quantum-objective-reality-07848.html

And, so on, the conceptions are approaching closer to Vedanta, wherein we can see and find similarity & resemblance of the same conceptions in ancient Indian Scriptures of Vedanta

यदिदं सकलं विश्वं नानारूपं प्रतीतमज्ञानात् । तत् सर्वं ब्रह्मैव प्रत्यस्ता शेष भावना दोषम् ।।
यह सम्पूर्ण विश्व जो अज्ञान से नाना प्रकार का प्रतीत हो रहा है, समस्त भावनाओं के दोष से रहित (अर्थात्) निर्विकल्प ब्रह्म ही है ।

आचार्य शङ्कर, विवेक चूड़ामणि 229

असत्कल्पो विकल्पोsयं विश्वमित्येकवस्तुनि…अध्यात्मोपनिषद , मन्त्र 22

बुद्बुदादिविकारान्तस्तरङ्ग: सागरे यथा, तरङ्गस्थं द्रव: सिन्धुर्न वाञ्छति यथा तथा ।
जिस प्रकार सागर में बुलबुले से लेकर तरंग तक कल्पित हैं, उसी प्रकार मेरे द्वारा ब्रह्म से लेकर कीट पर्यन्त प्राणीमात्र कल्पित हैं। – आत्मबोधोपनिषद, मन्त्र 15

नेत्रस्थं जागरितं विद्यात्कण्ठे, ….. जाग्रत अवस्था और उसके नियन्ता विश्व की स्थिति नेत्र के अंदर निहित है । नारद परिब्राजकोपनिषद , उपदेश 5, मंत्र 25

Fritjof Capra, in his book the Tao of Physics, writes that; “These changes, brought about by modern physics, have been widely discussed by physicists and by philosophers over the past decades, but very seldom has it been realized that they all seem to lead in the same direction, towards a view of the world which is very similar to the views held in Eastern mysticism. The concepts of modern physics often show surprising parallels to the ideas expressed in the religious philosophies of the Far East”.

Although these parallels have not, as yet, been discussed extensively, they have been noticed by some of the great physicists of our century when they came in contact with Far Eastern culture during their lecture tours to India, China and Japan.

The following three quotations serve as examples :

The general notions about human understanding . . . which are illustrated by discoveries in atomic physics are not in the nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of, or new. Even in our own culture they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable and central place. What we shall find is an exemplification, an encouragement, and a refinement of old wisdom.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer (Ref. Science and the Common Understanding, pp. 8-9.)

For a parallel to the lesson of atomic theory . . . [we must turn to those kinds of epistemological problems with which already thinkers like the Buddha and Lao Tzu have been confronted, when trying to harmonize our position as spectators and actors in the great drama of existence.

Niels Bohr (Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge, p. 20.)

The great scientific contribution in theoretical physics that has come from Japan since the last war may be an indication of a certain relationship between philosophical ideas in the tradition of the Far East and the philosophical substance of quantum theory.

Werner Heisenberg (Physics and Philosophy, p. 202.)

To be contd…!

Meanwhile you may further read: How Modern Physics found it’s direction from Vedanta Philosophy