New Atomic Paradigm and the Basis State Problem [Werner Heisenberg, "Philosophical Problems of Quantum Physics", p. 97] ...Leucippus and Democritus of Abdera effected the transition to materialism. The polarity of being and non-being was made worldly and became a contrast of Full and Empty. Pure Being contracted to a point, but it could repeat itself any number of times; it became indivisible and indestructible and hence it was called 'atom'. The world was reduced to atoms and the empty space between them. [Peter Mutnick] Henry Stapp has surmised that Heisenberg is referring only to an historical opinion here, rather than a real paradigm for all of atomic physics. I will agree that the actual quantum paradigm is a bit more complex than this, so I will outline here exactly what it is, as I see it. The Fundamental Processes are these: 1. The letter of the law pertains to the phenomenological/nomological process of Becoming, which includes Duration, Enduring, and Function. The Probability Function obeying the Schrodinger Equation is an expression of the physical threshold of this phenomenological/nomological process of Becoming. The Kantian faculties of Relativity, Sensibility, and Understanding, as well as the Kabbalistic supernal triad of Understanding, Wisdom, and Crown (involving Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Uhr), are superimposed or implemented on the underlying process of Becoming. The entire process of Becoming generates the Whiteheadian notion of an Enduring Object. 2. The ontological/nomological process begins with the contraction of the process of Becoming to a point, thus defining the elementary Being, or Etre pour-soi-en-soi (Being for-itself-in-itself). Etre pour-soi has to do with the acceleration part of a particle and en-soi has to do with the underlying "Bohm point", which is a transcendental synthesis of the acceleration part, the velocity part, and the position part of the particle. According to Sartre, the goal of the Etre pour-soi-en-soi is to become an Ens Causa Sui. This has to do with the causal aspect of Bohm's ontological theory. Specifically, it has to do with the velocity part of the particle in relation to the position part of the particle in configuration space and in real physical space. 3. Finally, the phenomenological/nomological process of Becoming is ontologized, along with the ontological/nomological process, in the bare ontological system of worlds. In the first place this means that the process of Becoming is regarded as originating in Nothingness and terminating in Being. Moreover, Being is regarded as cause and Nothingness as effect, thus effecting the Ens Causa Sui character of Being, which synthesizes the ontological/nomological process with the phenomenological/nomological process. L'Etre et le Neant (Being and Nothingness) expresses the ontologizing of the process of Becoming. The project of existence can be easily accomplished, contrary to Sartre's longwinded opinion, once one has "made straight the paths of the Lord" by overcoming all intellectual perversity and obfuscation (having its etiology in capitalism and its flip side of godless communism, in allied opposition to the true path of Christ Communism). 4. The points and instants, as the 2^Aleph_0 constituting elements of space and time, are all contractions of Etre *and* Neant, which are the end-point parameters of the process of Becoming. Space cannot be just Non-being or Nothingness, because space exists! Rather, the really existing elements of space and time have Etre as their cause and Neant as their effect. Hence they appear as manifestations of Nothingness, but they are supported in their real existence by Being! 5. Points are defined by Whitehead as having no spatial extension but unlimited temporal extension, while instants are defined as having no temporal extension but unlimited spatial extension. Points are essentially the trajectories of Bohm points, while instants are essentially Wheeler superspatials. Whitehead speaks of a relativistic event-particle, although the definition of an event, given the definition of points and instants, seems unresolved. An event would seem to be defined as having no extension in time and space but unlimited extension in space and time. Whatever that may mean, it would seem to be a locally induced measurement event with global influence. The points and instants are physical, while the events are mental. 6. Associated with each particle, as a contraction of the process of Becoming, is its atomic region, as a subjective counterpart. The event-particle is more or less identifiable with the atomic region and the particle as a contraction. In the sense of an event-particle, the particle is not physical, but mutually configured by the physical observed and the meta-physical observer, across the oroboric abyss between the two. The particle in this sense has some sort of extension, but it is also wrapped up oroborically and hence contracted. This wrapped up and contracted particle plays a role in the algebra of points, instants, event-particles, atomic regions, and particles as contractions of the process of Becoming. 7. Nonetheless it is true that the particle as a contraction of the process of Becoming can be regarded as contracting to a point (and not a point-instant). Quantum theory seems to prefer space over time, even as Noumenal reality seems to select out space and time as preferred basis states, in the sense of Bohm and Bell. The atomic region of the particle as a contraction is the preferred basis state. 8. At this point, however, we must realize that the underlying process of Becoming fades into oblivion as the framework of perception associated with pure Being emerges. The framework of perception, aka the framework of complementarity, can be defined in terms like Sein, Dasein, and Gestalt as the connecting or communicating element between Sein and Dasein. Sein is to Dasein as Etre-Neant is to Etre pour-soi-en-soi, except the former pair is rotated one world with respect to the latter pair in the metaphysical space of the ontological system of worlds. Thus, Sein and Dasein are in the 7th and 2nd worlds, while Etre-Neant and Etre pour-soi-en-soi are in the 6th and 1st worlds. The former pair is hence the subjective polarity, while the latter pair is the objective polarity. Sein is the true Being of the Mind of the Observer. 9. Gestalt in the fifth or phenomenal world is defined as Structured Form, while in the second or emotional world it is the adjunct to Dasein. Gestalt and Dasein are unified by the Geometry-Of-Divinity, or GOD of Spinoza, which is Substance-Attribute-Intellect Being Aware of the Bliss of the Atman, or SAI BABA, who is an actual God incarnate, or Gottmensch, now living in India. Being Aware of the Bliss of the Atman is in the first place the mental world foundation for the Ground and Figure of the Gestalt framework. However this aspect of the framework of perception also fades into oblivion as the dynamical State Vector description, as the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law, emerges from its Ground State. This is the State Vector description of Etre pour-soi-en-soi as a mode of Universal Substance. 10. Finally we are in a position to make the transition from the bare ontological system of worlds to the bare phenomenological system of worlds. This transition is effected by the transformation of State Vector - Substance into Potential - Actual Event, as I - IT, I - THOU, and THOUGHT. The latter entities all exist in the phenomenological system of worlds, which is itself rotated one world in absolute metaphysical space with respect to the ontological system of worlds. COGITO ERGO SUM defines the upper reaches of the phenomenological system of worlds, while EGO SUM is projected into the lower worlds as EGO EXISTO. 11. The full character of the implicate order is realized in the bare phenomenological system of worlds, since it is rather obvious that all THOUGHT, although an essential process in nature, must ultimately exist in the Mind of the Observer. That means that it must be possible to enfold it into the quantum implicate order that is in correspondence to the classical order of the Observer. This is the solution to the Quantum-Mind problem, or the so-called Hard Problem, since it means that the world as it exists in our Mind is just the enfolded aspect of the world that exists in nature. The fact that the human mind can be illusioned does not detract from this argument, since it is stated explicitly in the Srimad Bhagavatam, or Vedanta, that God's Mind cannot be illusioned in that way (dhamna svena sada nirasta kuhakam satyam param dhimahi). Many facts about the Neural Correlates of Consciousness and Consciousness Itself could be discussed here, but in the interest of brevity will not be. 12. However, it should be mentioned that Etre and Neant are also related to Body and World in the Body-World Schema. The State of the World and the Mode of the Body constitute a ket and bra vector description of phenomenal Nature, as it actually appears to us. 13. The above discussion started out in 1. with the phenomenological/nomological process of Becoming. Apart from this process of Becoming, the phenomenological/nomological system of worlds is the realm of the unified field, in the sense of Heisenberg and Duerr or alternatively Ginzburg and Landau or Skyrmie. By comparison, the ontological/nomological system of worlds in 2. is the realm of the particle as Bohm has revealed it to exist, in decomposed parts corresponding to the decomposed parts of the wave function. 14. Hence, the amplitude, R, corresponds to the acceleration part of the particle, while the phase, S, corresponds to the velocity part of the particle, according to the guidance conditions for acceleration and velocity, respectively. Metaphysically, these parts of the particle are dissimilar and exist in different worlds within the metaphysical scheme. The solution to the binding problem for particles results in the indeterminacy of position in the outer physical sense, but the hidden or occult determinacy of the unified particle existing in the secret place of the Most High God. 15. The unified field is in the first place the field of organism and environment, where organism means the observer. Organism stands apart from environment, and field is the bond or unsevered connection between the separated organism and its environment. Field is introjected by organism and becomes the Bohm-like guidance or informing field *for the organism* in its inner construction of all reality. The efficacy of this process is due to the complex interpenetration of systems of worlds, such that the inner mental world of the phenomenological/nomological system of worlds is precisely the physical world of the bare ontological system of worlds, which is the context for quantum measurement theory. The same elements of reality have different functions in different systems of worlds. 16. Without taking the genuinely existing elements of reality into consideration or their metaphysical organization into various interpenetrating systems of worlds, it will be quite impossible to ever arrive at an understanding of "the matrix" of our real existence. The real S-matrix is a Spirit-matrix that is the Thought-like Quantum reality juxtaposed to the Extension-like Classical reality. That S-matrix also plays a role in the total matrix of vertical THOUGHT that is an element of our accumulated experiential knowledge strung upon the horizontal THOUGHT of events in nature, as beads are strung on a thread. 17. To really penetrate the Mind-Matter barrier and understand absolute existence, unfettered by the inescapably illusory character of relative existence, such an approach as I am outlining here must be adopted. There are no shortcuts and no easy answers. What seems certain has been proven to be uncertain, and true certainty resides in what has hitherto *seemed* uncertain and indefinite, namely the metaphysical and occult path to the genuine non-dual conception of the reality in which we exist. This approach can bear the fruits of definite knowledge of cross sections, etc., but those who pursue the fruits alone can find only the bitter fruits of the knowledge of good and evil, or dualistic knowledge that leads nowhere but to more confusion and disillusion in the always tainted human creation. 18. The notion that quantum field theory is fundamentally about a constructivist view of reality does not deny the existence of Mind-Independent Reality, but rather establishes in all humility our true constitutional position with respect to that Mind-Independent Reality. Those foolish organisms who think they know it directly, unfettered by their own process of knowing, truly know nothing at all! That is why we must understand the real structure of our experience and we cannot understand nature apart from that phenomenological structure. That admonition is the very essence of the Spirit of Copenhagen. Is there anyone in this increasingly mixed-up world who would care to enter into that Spirit once again? 19. Now it will be very illuminating to examine, in the context of the above discussion, the approach of John von Neumann in "Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics". His approach is based on the principle of the psycho-physical parallelism, which he defines as the notion that the "extra-physical" elements of the observational process can be regarded, for the purposes of science, as physical or in one-to-one correspondence with physical elements. The exact method of performing this psycho-physical reduction is crucial to the central technical problem of all quantum ontologies, namely the basis state problem, for if we can understand how we have reduced the experiential to the physical, then we can understand how to recover the experiential from the physical. 20. In the first instance, it is just the mental and emotional worlds that are projected onto the mental and emotional sub-worlds of the physical world. The sub-worlds of the physical world rise vertically upon the noumenon at the base of the physical world. It is evident that mental, emotional, and physical constitute a representation of von Neumann's three hypostases, III (the actual observer), II (the measuring instrument), and I (the system actually observed). Once we have reduced these to the physical, then we can adjust the boundary between what is governed by the Schrodinger Equation (what is under it) and what is not governed by it (what is over it). Ultimately, in the von Neumann chain, III is emptied of all materiality, leaving only the abstract "ego" or *ego sum*, which must always remain outside the quantum mechanical calculation, according to von Neumann. The three physically reduced hypostases can be regarded mentally as the three modes of material nature, sattva, rajas, and tamas. 21. The mental, emotional, and physical worlds are actually the noumenal half of total ontological reality. The meta-physical, causal, and phenomenal worlds are the higher octave that pertain to the phenomenal reality of the actual experience of the actual observer, who in the truest sense is in the seventh or meta-physical classical world. The etheric world is the fourth and intermediate world between the phenomenal worlds and the noumenal worlds. 22. So, in order to complete von Neumann's program, we must now inquire as to how the phenomenal worlds are reduced by the principle of the psycho-physical parallelism. In fact, it turns out that they are not reduced to the physical, but rather to the emotional. In the most literal meaning of "psycho-physical parallelism", which von Neumann attributes in his book to Bohr, it refers to the fact that the mental and physical worlds, which are essentially orthogonal, are brought into parallel correspondence in the emotional world that mediates between them. 23. Now, it turns out that to achieve this parallelism, the physical must first be sublimated, before the mental can be assimilated. The only way to do this is to regard the physical element as the persona of a psyche, possessing in addition a shadow and an anima or soul, as well as a self. The self of this physical element, it turns out, is none other than the Etre pour-soi-en-soi, which we have been discussing. Etre = Atma = Self. 24. The Etre pour-autrui (Being for others) now becomes the essential connection of the physical element raised to selfhood to its other, after its other has been first reduced to the physical and then reflected back upon the mental. Neither the Etre pour-soi-en-soi nor the Etre pour-autrui interfere with the definition of either the physically reduced III, II, and I or the mental reflection of the physically reduced III, II, and I. 25. Moreover, the self of the physical element is really made in the image and likeness of its other, in the sense of the mental III. In other words, at this fundamental level, there is alot of cross determination or mutual coming into determinate Being on the part of I and III. It is in the midst of this psycho-physical or mental-material matrix that the higher phenomenal worlds are reduced to the emotional world, thus effecting the true psycho-physical parallelism. Thus, the definition of the observed as an observable in the terms of the observer should be accompanied by a definition of the observer in the terms of the observed, or, in other words, a quantum definition of the observer. This should be there in the mathematical foundation of the theory, if it has been formulated correctly. 26. The self-definition of the physical element, in the image and likeness of its other, finds its expression in the context of a new set of von Neumann hypostatic divisions, I, II, and III, which extend from the first or physical world across the oroboric abyss to the seventh or meta-physical classical world of the detached observer. In other words, what we have is a set of eigenvectors in search of an operator. But the point is that the basis states seem to arise from the self-definition of the physical element, from its character as a process of Becoming contracted to a point, defined as an Etre pour-soi-en-soi. 27. The point-like character of the particle cannot be externally observed, since to an external or mental observer the particle appears as an Etre pour-autrui, but this does not interfere with the emergent observation by the detached observer across oroboric abyss of the Etre pour-soi-en-soi. Moreover, the emergence of the *a posteriori* experiential elements are exactly synchronous with the reduction of the *a priori* experiential elements to the emotional world. This suggests that the basis states that emerge from the noumenal description are in the above sense generated by the diagonalization of a reduced density matrix, once this has been properly defined in phenomenal terms that are well distinguished from the noumenal description. |