Physics of the Soul: The Quantum Book of Living, Dying, Reincarnation, and Immortality Book

Metaphysics of soul

Consciousness and the laws of physics are highly intertwined to define physical reality. This relationship is murky since consciousness does not appear in any equations, although it is invoked in the interpretation of quantum phenomenon. Consciousness is not treated as a physical entity, like space and time (both of which can be measured in physical terms), and it does not have a physical existence like matter (or energy), but it is associated with living mater such as a human being. Purely from physical (and mathematical) considerations, very few have provided satisfactory explanations for consciousness and laws of physics, except for physicists like David Bohm and Roger Penrose. From neurobiological considerations efforts have been made to correlate these two concepts by Carl Jung, Karl Pribram, Stanislov Groff, Gerald Edelman, and many others. From metaphysical point of view, many from the school of Vedanta (Hindu philosophical tradition), school of Buddhist philosophy, early Greek philosophers and modern-day thinkers have dwelled in this subject, but a perfect harmony between physics and consciousness is not yet achieved. One of the problems is of course the implied dualism in the interaction of nonmaterial entities like consciousness or soul with physical body. Do we mean soul and body are two different things? How do we account for consciousness in the physics of an atom or a molecule? Is consciousness a fundamental force or a medium? How is it related to the other four fundamental forces of nature? There are many questions which require answers. In this book, the author considers soul, reincarnation, and transmigration in his explanation of physical reality. He is somewhat bold in suggesting the reader to consider data from; paranormal research, extrasensory perception (ESP), telepathy, near-death experience (NDE), and UFO encounters to gain knowledge about soul and consciousness. Certainly this approach may interest many mystics, spiritualists and new age groups, but very few physicists take these suggestions seriously.

The quantum physical basis for consciousness described by the author is mainly theoretical with little experimental support. This is summarized as follows: Reality pervades as undivided consciousness, as quantum wave function with probabilities for various possible states. Hence, consciousness is non-local; it is spread out across space and time. The act of observation leads to the collapse of this wave function into a self-reference that splits consciousness into apparent subject-object experience, which the author calls tangled hierarchy. The quantum measurement occurs in all living cells not just species with brain, but in the latter, thought, memory, mind, learning, etc., play a significant role in the subject-object relationship, and consciousness exists at various levels of complexities; the brain, organs, tissues, and cells. In addition, it is proposed that all individuals have subtle bodies besides the physical body. They are connected with our particular life processes. These are; a mental body (connected with our individualized ways of mentation); and a supramental body (that contains the learned themes of movement of the mind); and the vital body (bodies made of substances that are ethereal in nature). These subtle bodies neither interact with the phys¬ical body nor with each other, but they run parallel with the physical body. The subtle bodies are also quantum possibilities within consciousness. The subtle bod¬ies are also non-local (less localizable) and do not directly interact with the physical bodies, but consciousness recognizes parallel simul¬taneous states of the physical and subtle body for its experience. The consciousness synchronistically collapse similar states for non-locally separated brains that are suitably correlated. And the collapse of a unique state of experience into actuality is one of recognition and choice (quantum characteristics), not one of exchange of energy, so it is surmised that problems of dualistic interaction do not exist (classical characteristics). Consciousness mediates the interactions between subtle bodies or subtle body and a physical body, maintaining parallelism. But the bodies do not interact themselves directly thus avoiding dualism. Telepathy is a good example to support quantum non-locality of thought and mind.

Soul like consciousness is a quantum phenomenon. It survives death of the physical body, transmigrates and reincarnates in another body to form a continuum. Physical body represents quantum like possibilities that manifests as localized structure, but soul also represents quantum like possibilities (transcendent potentia) that has non-local correlation (can not be localized, could be anywhere in spacetime). Hence transmigration and reincarnation occurs through non-local quantum like phenomenon. The author invokes some parallel to the Tibetan book of the dead where various states of life and death called bardos form a continuum through life and death.

The author proposes that the memory of the vital and mental bodies is entirely quantum in nature (quantum memory) that occurs through conditioning of the possibility structure due to repeated experiences and it results from the basic dynamics of quantum mechanics. Thus, our individual mental and vital bodies are functional bodies, not structural like the physical body. Soul is the quantum monad, an individualized unit: The individualization of mind and vital body occur through quantum memory. This is the sole survivor of death of the material body, which carries the attributes from one life to another. It mediates reincarnation through transmigration.

The main problem with this theory is that quantum entanglement is known to occur between different quantum states (such as two spin states of an electron or a photon). How quantum entanglement or non-local interactions occur for subtle bodies whose physical states are unknown? Secondly, non-local interaction for larger bodies are very slow as described by quantum decoherence phenomenon. Is it possible that soul (consciousness) is a medium like ether (as invoked in Newtonian physics). Or is it a fundamental force linked to other four natural forces by unknown forces not yet discovered? The nature of dark matter and dark energy are still unknown. In light of these observations, I am uncertain if the author is on the right track.