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In Worldview How Quantum Mysticism Convene with Quantum Mechanics

To understand mystical worldviews, one must first get an understanding of the relationship between mystical and mysticism and the implications of the use of such terms. The modern prominent false reputation of the term mystical is clearly defined by Rachel Elior, “The term ‘mystical’ is frequently applied in a derogatory way to anything that does not accord with common sense or is not respected for cultural, social, religious, or other reasons”. Merriam-Webster defines mystical as “having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence." Associated to mystical is mysticism, which is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience … through prayer and meditation rather than through reason and the senses intelligence." Mystical experiences are at the core of the world’s primary religions, both Abrahamic and Indian. This equates to a combined population of over four billion people that profoundly believe in mysticism. The largest of the major religions is Abrahamic which include Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, followed by Indian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

Abrahamic Religions

Christianity

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam interpret mystical experience by the same principles that unite them in the Abrahamic traditions, one with God. Mysticism is practiced by more than two billion followers of Christianity and according to Belgian Jesuit Joseph Maréchal, “Christian mysticism includes three broadly defined stages: (1) the gradual integration of the ego under the mastery of the idea of a personal God and according to a program of prayer and asceticism, (2) a transcendent revelation of God to the soul experienced as ecstatic contact or union, frequently with a suspension of the faculties, and (3) a kind of readjustment of the soul’s faculties by which it regains contact with creatures “under the immediate and perceptible influence of God present and acting in the soul” (Looper,2017, p.2). Marechal’s third stage perhaps is what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance,” quantum entanglement studied under quantum mechanics, the entanglements of subatomic particles in the universe. Quantum entanglement can be easily explained as a change in a subatomic particle on this side of the galaxy that will instantaneously make a difference in an entangled particle on the other side. The notion of entangled particles is nothing new, the apostle Paul points out in Romans 5:15: “but the gift is not like the trespass, for if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many”. Apostle Paul further writing reference quantum entanglement in Catholicism when he asserted in Romans 8 that “God designed humanity this way from the beginning...we are entangled with people we do not know from places we have never been, at times we have not existed, in the deep past and in the unknown future” (Looper,2017, p.2).

Judaism

The adherents of Judaism use the Kabbalah as the mystical interpretation of the Bible. The Kabbalah covers a whole variety of mystical activities and tries to pierce into the essence of God (Telushkin,2018, p.2). This doctrine is expressed in symbols and metaphor and is interpreted and transmitted by mystics who are skilled with spiritual eminence. These symbols and metaphors represent imaginative entities and invisible voices and intricately convey a reality that is invisible or beyond rational comprehension. The highest authority in Judaism is God and via the Torah he gave guidance on how man should live. The Torah is the Old Testament given to Moses by God in which it reveals his teaching and guidance for (Elior,2007, p.2). As a perspective of parallels between the Torah, quantum mechanics and electrodynamics, author Gedaliah Shaffer wrote in Mysticism and Modern Physics, Torah & modern physics believe in complete unity of the universe, “The reciprocal transformation of matter and energy is a major theme of both modern physics and Jewish Mysticism. These thought-provoking parallels give us a holistic picture of ourselves as Jews participating in the greater universe” (Shaffer,2013, p.2).

Islam

Prophets much like Jewish mystics, were on the forefront of Islam revelation. According to John Renard author of The Seven Doors to Islam : Spirituality and the Religious Life of Muslims, there is “a history of revelatory communication embodied in a succession of prophets” that God used to “delivered sacred books through them” (Renard,1996). The first of the prophets was Adam followed by self-revelation verses he gave to Moses the Torah. The prophet David’s scripture the Qur'an and the Gospel was delivered by Jesus. The prophet Muhammad is credited for starting Islam after having a divine mystical experience. Muslims believe God saturates the “universe with divine signs” to communicate with all, not just through prophets. Dr. A. M. Hamza from University of New Brunswick, writes in his paper A Reflection on Modern Science: The Perspective of a Muslim Physicist that “the whole universe is in a human being.” A human being has that which comes from the Earth and that which does not”. His paper focuses on quantum mechanics and provides a “personal thought on how to position modern science in general, and physics in particular in the Islamic context” and how modern science “hopes to explain a reality that transcends the physical world” (Hamza,2012 p.14)

Indian religions

Hinduism

Sanātana Dharma, Hinduism is considered the most difficult to understand and the oldest religion in the world. Hinduism has many denominations which adds to the complexity of understanding and interpreting mystical experiences, but one thing is clear Hindu teachers have always taught that there is only one Spiritual Reality. The spiritual intuition that leads one to the “Divine reality” and “union with the Divine” which is the last goal of all practitioners of Hinduism (Braybrooke , c2). Scholar K. Gopalakrishna captured Hindu mysticism experiences as an “attitude of mind which involves a direct immediate, intuitive apprehension of God. It signifies the highest attitude of which man is capable, viz., a beatific contemplation of God and its dissemination in society and world. It is a fruition of man’s highest aspiration as an integral personality satisfying the eternal values of life like truth, goodness, beauty and love”. Furthermore, Dr. Kashyap Vasavada, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, Purdue University, stated in his paper, Concepts of Reality In Hinduism and Buddhism from The Perspective of a Physicist that “Quantum physics teaches us that it is a mistake to accept the world as we perceive it to be real. Instead, the appearances arise from something that is beyond our ability to intuit, much like the nature of Brahman” (Vasavada, 2016).

Buddhism

Mysticism experiences in religion are not solely centered around gods. A Hindu prince named Siddhartha Gautama also known as Buddha which signifies the "enlightened one” established Buddhism. The practice of Buddhism does not center around the existence of any gods, it is based on teachings called dharma. Buddhism followers believe in reincarnation and the law of Karam, and its teachings are geared toward liberating sentient beings from suffering (Phramaha, 2012). Buddha's enlightenment is at the heart of mystical experiences and central to Buddhism. The formalized scriptural records account of meditations are as follows: “during the first night, the Buddha, seated under the bo tree, remembered the series of his former births; during the second, he acquired the ‘heavenly eye’ which enabled him to view the entire world and the whole cyclical process of rebirth; during the third, he saw how the latter depended upon grasping and ignorance—if living beings were liberated from these, they would escape rebirth; and in the fourth, he attained supreme insight after going through the various stages of meditation (Sanskrit, dhyāna ; Pāli, jhāna ). In all this he gained supreme peace” Encyclopedia.com, 2021). During meditation Buddhist monks empty the mind and enter the Upanishads. The Upanishads, as defined by Britannica dictionary, present a vision of an interconnected universe with a single, unifying principle behind the apparent diversity in the cosmos. One of the pioneers of quantum physics Niels Bohr is quoted, “I go to the Upanishad to ask questions”. 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” (Vasavada, 2016, p.15).

Mystical experiences have been part of both Abrahamic and Indian religions from their inceptions. The connection or understanding of these experiences as it relates to science specifically quantum mechanics have been a subject that has perplexed the greatest minds in physics. The study of quantum mysticism aims to bridge the connection of where science ceases to understand sub-particle entanglement and religion filling that void of understanding. Definitions of mysticism include a bewildering variety, ranging from the biological through the psychological to the theological. The origin of the word and certain of its features strongly suggest the possibility that mysticism is the science of a hidden life (Powell, R. 2002 p.123).

Braybrooke ,M. (2002) What Can We Learn from Hinduism : Recovering the Mystical Chapter 2. The Divine Mystery: ‘Not this, Not that’ https:// www.religion-online.org/book-chapter/chapter-2-the-divine-mystery- not-this-not-that/

Elior, R. (2007). The Jewish Mystical Library and New Visions of Reality. In Jewish Mysticism: The Infinite Expression of Freedom (pp. 1-32). Liverpool University Press.

Encyclopedia.com Mysticism, History of ." Encyclopedia of Philosophy. . Retrieved April 02, 2021 from: https://www.encyclopedia. com/ humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mysticism- history

Gopalakrishna, R. (1968) The Indian Institute of World Culture Basavangudi, Bangalore-4 Transaction No.36 Mysticism In Indian Philosophy https://www.iiwcindia.org/transactions/transaction36.pdf

Hamza. A. M.(2012) A Reflection on Modern Science: The Perspective of a Muslim Physicist University of New Brunswick Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada file:///C:/Users/ventu/Downloads/A-Reflection-on-Modern-Science-Zygon-14.pdf

Merriam-Webster dictionary https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mystical

Oxford Learners Dictionary https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/mysticism?q=mysticism

Phramaha N. S. (2012) THE BUDDHIST CORE VALUES AND PERSPECTIVES FOR PROTECTION CHALLENGES: FAITH AND PROTECTION Deputy Dean, Faculty of Buddhism, Mahachulalongkorn Uniserity, Thailand. https://www.unhcr.org/50be10cb9.pdf

Powell, R. R. W. (2002) Mystical Traditions in the Great World Religions Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department of Politics and Society https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/75753/Mystical% 20Traditions%20in%20the%20Great%20World%20Religions%20by%2 0Ronald%20Rafique%20Wayne%20Powell.pdf;jsessionid=0895C7551 76A7E5B14626783EE415159?sequence=5

Renard, J. (1996). Seven Doors to Islam : Spirituality and the Religious Life of Muslims. University of California Press.

Shaffer, G. (2013).Mysticism and Modern Physics Torah & modern physics believe in complete unity of the universe. https://www.chabad.org /kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380606/jewish/Mysticism-and-Modern-Physics.htm

Telushkin, J. (2018) Kabbalah: An Overview https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kabbalah Vasavada, K. (2016) Concepts of Reality In Hinduism and Buddhism From the Perspective of A Physicist Emeritus Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, Indiana University-Purdue University California State University Cal Poly Pomona https://www.cpp.edu/~ jet/Documents /JET/Jet30/ Vasavada15-26.pdf

Vaughan, D. (2018). What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World? Don https://www.britannica.com/story/what-is-the-most- widely-practiced-religion-in-the-world

University-Purdue University California State University Cal Poly Pomona https://www.cpp.edu/~jet/Documents /JET/Jet30/ Vasavada15-26.pdf