Can Quantum Physics Bridge Science and Spirituality?

Albert Einstein teaching in the spirit realm

It's often stated that quantum physics may be the key to bridging science and spirituality. Could quantum physics provide the answers on how a heaven or higher dimension could be possible? I'm not a scientist so I'm not going to try to explain it in my own words. I don't even think most scientists fully understand quantum physics, but let me share quotes from the books I read and perhaps you can see how someday science may prove higher dimensions and an afterlife exist.

To start, the definition for quantum physics on google is as follows, "Quantum physics is the scientific theory that explains the fundamental behavior of matter and energy at the atomic and subatomic scales, where classical physics breaks down."

Mona Sobhani is a neuroscientist that researched psychic abilities like remote viewing and mediumship from the perspective of a scientist. She wrote the book, Proof of Spiritual Phenomena. In her book she says the following, "There are multiple assumptions that we use in the construction of the scientific materialist concept of reality that appear to be broken by the evidence from psi (parapsychology) research. The assumptions are about realism (the assumption that there is an external reality with physical properties that exists independently of observation), locality (objects are completely separate), and causality (time moves forward like an arrow—the past affects the future). However, experiments from the field of quantum physics have already brought these assumptions into question and upended the traditional view of what we consider the physical world."

Sobhani describes the quantum observer effect and the double-slit experiment very succinctly:

"Take, for example, the quantum observer effect, or the quantum measurement problem, one of the most mind-bending findings of quantum physics. The basic finding is that an observer of the experiment can change the outcome of the experiment simply by observing or measuring it. It can be a difficult concept to wrap your mind around if you’ve never heard of it before. This is how it works: Quantum physicists use the famous double-slit experimental protocol (Davisson and Germer 1927) in which they send particles of light (or any other elementary particle) to a barrier that has two slits and then measure the pattern or behavior of light on the other side. When we think about reality, we think matter is solid and is made of particles, and that those particles exist no matter what. That’s realism. If that were true, then the light would behave as particles, go through one or the other of the two slits, and be measured as particles on the other side, independently of whether the particles are being observed or measured. But what actually happens is that the light only behaves as particles (and you can thus tell which slit the particle went through) if the experiment is measured by a detector or observed by the experimenter. If they do not observe the experiment and it is not measured, then the light behaves like waves of probability, and you get an “interference pattern.” That’s what I meant earlier by “collapse of the wave function.” It’s like an array of possibilities exists (also called waves of probabilities) before an observation is made. Once an observer interacts with the light by observing it, the probabilities collapse into a particle. The act of observing changes physical matter."

Sobhani explains the second phenomenon in quantum physics called entanglement:

"The second strange finding from quantum physics is called entanglement. The basic idea behind this principle is that two particles are entangled in some way such that when they’re separated, even by a great distance up to one hundred kilometers, the particles’ states mirror each other instantaneously. So if you shook one particle, the other would also shake at the same exact moment. This breaks the locality assumption—which assumes that all objects are separate—and is known as nonlocality. Nonlocality is a property of both time and space. Based on these findings, it has been suggested that, in principle, any objects that have interacted are forever entangled and that there exists quantum interconnectedness of the whole Universe."

Sobhani goes on to say, "These are classic findings from quantum physics, but new findings are emerging every single day that question the standard model of physics. In 2021 the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory discovered that a tiny subatomic particle called a muon did not behave as predicted in an experiment, suggesting that it was sensitive to something that we could not yet measure with standard physics."

In his book, The Physics of God, Joseph Selbie brings up the important fact that the physical senses only pickup a small percentage of the universe. He says the following:

"Our senses appear to tell us unequivocally that we live in a solid and enduring reality of matter. Those senses, however, are extremely limited. Our eyes detect only visible light—a very tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that also includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma waves, none of which we can perceive through our sense of sight. If our sense of sight were not limited to seeing only a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum, if we could “see” the rest of the spectrum, we would perceive a world entirely made up of light. Imagine there being thousands of “colors,” not just the seven colors of the visible light spectrum, in a completely luminous reality.

Our ears can detect sounds that vibrate in the 20 to 20,000 Hz range. But sounds can vibrate at frequencies well beyond 20,000 Hz. Some bats can detect sounds as high as 200,000 Hz. Atoms vibrate at frequencies as high as 10,000,000,000,000 Hz. The lower range of sound, known as infrasound, vibrates as slowly as 0.001 Hz. Sources of such low-frequency sounds include earthquakes, volcanoes, and lightning. If our sense of hearing were not limited to our ear's narrow band of detection, we would experience a world bursting with sound—from the powerful pulses of earth movements to the continuous vibration of the atoms.

Our senses of smell, taste, and touch are similarly limited. We can smell only very specific airborne compounds, and we can taste only very specific ingested substances. Our sense of touch tells us little about what we are touching except for basic properties of texture, hardness, and temperature. The fact is that we are mostly insensible to the world around us. It is safe to say that our senses simply cannot detect more than 99.9 percent of the wavelengths, frequencies, and vibrating substances that are actually present. If we could perceive reality fully, the picture we would have in our mind's eye would be almost completely different from the picture our senses allow us to perceive."

Interestingly, many near death experiencers talk about seeing colors they've never seen before and hearing beautiful sounds during their near death experience. They say that the physical reality on Earth is like a dream compared to the higher dimensions and that the higher dimensions (aka heaven or spirit realm) are so real and vibrant.

Selbie also explains that the mathematical equations for general relativity and quantum physics don't match up. This is perplexing for scientists. Specifically, quantum physics uses formulas to predict much more energy in the universe than general relativity predicts. Thus, string theory bridges the two predictions and says that the energy is in higher dimensions and humans just can't measure it yet with our instruments.

Below is what Selbie says in his book:

"Little wonder that physicists are so perplexed and concerned that physics' two central systems—general relativity and quantum physics—have resisted all attempts at mathematical integration. General relativity theory, pioneered by Einstein, among others, has ramified into equations that fill hundreds of volumes. The equations of relativity have their most useful application on large astronomical scales and are successfully used to understand “real world” outcomes from the Big Bang to black holes.

Similarly, quantum theory, pioneered by Max Planck and Neils Bohr, among others, has also ramified into equations that fill hundreds of volumes. The equations of quantum theory have their most useful application on tiny, subatomic scales and are successfully used to explain “real world” outcomes from nuclear reactions to interactions in particle colliders.

String theory seeks to solve the problem of integrating these two systems by developing a deeper math that underlies them both, somewhat analogous to finding a solution to my hypothetical language problem by creating a third language that can be translated into both Chinese and English, thus creating a bridge from one to the other.

One of the many incompatibilities between the equations of general relativity and quantum theory, and one that string theory solves, is the huge discrepancy in calculations to determine how much energy exists in space. The two predictions differ by an order of magnitude of 122! If quantum theory's prediction that vastly more energy exists in the fabric of space than what general relativity can account for is correct—and there really are very few doubters that it is correct—then that energy has to be somewhere.

M-theory, string theory's most accepted version, attempts to reconcile the difference between the two calculations by positing that the higher energy predicted by quantum theory does indeed exist somewhere else: It exists in extra dimensions beyond the four dimensions with which general relativity concerns itself (three dimensions of space and one of time) and beyond our senses' and our finest instruments' ability to detect. In this theory, the three dimensions of our already almost incomprehensibly large physical universe are the smallest dimensions in the cosmos!"

To summarize above, physics and quantum physics are not mathematically in alignment and scientists don't know why. Specifically, the calculations aren't in agreement on how much energy exists in space so the theory and missing link is that there are dimensions that we can't yet measure with our current instruments. We just don't have the scientific instruments and understanding yet to measure this energy.

This is complicated I know but the key takeaway here is that physics and quantum physics don't match up. Essentially, there is a lot that scientists don't know. The future of science is exciting and the best thing humanity can do is realize we don't know it all and we have a lot to learn still. We may never have all the answers, but it's important to continue to ask questions.

For those that are interested in this topic, below are the books I recommend:

• Proof of Spiritual Phenomena by Mona Sobhani

• The Physics of God by Joseph Selbie

• The Science of Channeling by Helané Wahbeh