“…the evolution of life now appears no longer as a process of the adaptation of species to their environment, but as the adaptation of minds to increasingly complex forms that exist in the cosmic potentiality. The cosmic connection means that the human mind is a mystical mind”. (Ponte & Schäfer, 2013, Carl Gustav Jung, “Quantum Physics and the Spiritual Mind: A Mystical Vision of the Twenty-First Century”, Behavioral Sciences.)
One might well ask what forgetfulness, quantum physics and mysticism have to do with one another. Well, in my opinion, they are all parts of the same thing – our Mind. Our Western world has become a materialistic, concrete, scientific construct. Empirical evidence, data, categorisation, labelling – if you cannot count it, touch it, proof it, it does not exist. There is Western biomedical science, and then there is the rest of us. The “airy-fairy” ones…
In recent years quantum physics has shown that there is a non-material world beyond that which manifests in the material world that we see, touch, measure and try to manipulate. There are cosmic forms and forces that impact our being-in-the-world. These are like thought bubbles hovering above and beyond our consciousness, forming part of our whole being. Holistic being…we are formed and breathed through this Wave, like a massive ocean that contains us.
I am by no means an expert on quantum physics, and all that I actually comprehend is that there is a space of no matter that is the energy wave that creates matter.
Some call this Godmind, others the Cosmic Energy. I would like to call this the Mystic Mind. Jung’s work with these universal or cosmic archetypes, therefore, proposes “spirituality” – “A view of the world that accepts the numinous at the foundation of the cosmic order.” (p. 603). There is indeed a part of what we experience that cannot be seen, non-material forms. These forms in the quantum world, even though they cannot be seen, are real in the sense that they “appear in our mind and act in it” (p. 603). Just like the waves that exist beyond material forms of atoms and molecules, our thought waves exist and are connected, manifesting as our beingin-the-world. I am sure that for many people this idea seems like the “para-normal”. It is everything but – it is what should be considered the most normal thing on earth. Why not – quantum physics has proven this?
To make things even more complicated – and simple at the same time – Ponte and Schäfer (2013) talk about “probability fields” – these waves are considered to be probability waves in that they consist of “dimensionless numbers, ratios of numbers” and in their interaction or interference, the material world manifests and molecules interact. So – whatever we see manifest in nature can be understood in terms of numbers. If we look at the Fibonacci numbers we see this manifest in nature over and over again. The way a seashell is formed, the way sun owers seeds are arranged – the perfect “golden ratio”. So – there is this quantum world where according to Jung the archetypal forms are stored, much like we store data on the “cloud” these days, and we access this data to use in our everyday world. “The universe is conscious and our thinking is the thinking of the cosmic mind, which nds consciousness in us!” (p. 605). We are connected to this quantum wave of potentiality that is coherent in its wholeness – our consciousness is invested in this universal cosmic mind and manifests itself in our thinking and doing, or beingin-the-world.
Our inherent nature as we journey through life is to become whole, to reconnect, searching to become conscious of our Oneness. This journey leads us – with the help of our brain development as we age – closer to this spiritual realisation. It is in this state of mind that we connect with the Cosmic Consciousness, that which breathes us to Life. And herein lies my question about living with forgetfulness. In moving away from the material, concrete, and solidness of this world that we have created, people are considered to be demented. We constantly try to draw them back into our concrete world. Could it be possible that this state of detachment is for some part of a further journey into wholeness? (This is indeed how it is seen in some Majority World cultures, like the Canadian Inuit people.) The Portuguese language uses the poignant word “saudade” to describe this deep longing to find that which soothes the Soul. It is a melancholy of being that sits within us, drawing us inward more and more to find this Divine Connection which will make us Whole. If we are indeed here to become Whole again, we are attracted to this Divine Connection, which needs us as much as we need It.