Living In A Participatory Universe A series of breathtaking discoveries has given us a powerful new way to think of our role in the universe. Rather than the conventional view that suggests we are passive observers, living a brief moment of time in a creation that already exists, the discoveries suggest that it is actually consciousness itself that is responsible for the existence of the universe! Perhaps the most revolutionary discovery supporting this idea, is the scientific fact that when we look at the stuff our world is made of — tiny quantum particles such as an electron, for example — the very act of us watching that electron changes the way it behaves in our presence. What’s more, the longer we look, the more it changes! In 1998, scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science documented this phenomenon showing that “the greater the amount of ‘watching,’ the greater the observer’s influence on what actually takes place.” (Nature, Feb. 26, 1998) Citing such experiments, Princeton University physicist John Wheeler suggests that we not only play a role in the creation of our everyday world, but we play the prime role in what he calls a “participatory universe.” Wheeler states that we can no longer think of ourselves merely as onlookers who have no effect on the world around us, because it is impossible to simply watch. If we are alive and conscious, then we are affecting our world. “The old word ‘observer,’” he says, “simply has to be crossed off the books…and we must put in the new word ‘participator!” The key to Wheeler’s proposition is the word “participatory.” In a participatory universe, you and I are part of the equation. We are both creating the events of our lives, as well as the experiencers of what we create. Both are happening at the same time! In other words, we are like artists expressing our deepest passions, fears, dreams, and desires through the living essence of a mysterious quantum canvas. The difference between us and conventional artists, however, is that we are the canvas, as well as the images upon the canvas. We are the tools as well as the artists using the tools. And just as artists refine an image until it is just right in their minds, we may think of ourselves as perpetual artists, building a creation that is ever changing and never ending. Through our artist’s palette of beliefs, judgments, emotions, and prayers, we find ourselves in relationships, jobs, and situations of support and betrayal that play out with different people in different places. What a beautiful, bizarre, and powerful concept. greggbraden.net/interviews-and-articles/articles/
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 02:25:10 +0000
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