A clear conception of the Possible to the Actual

A CLEAR CONCEPTION OF 'POSSIBLE' TO 'ACTUAL':
From the Phenomenology of Heisenberg to the Ontology of Whitehead

Note: All quotes from Henry Stapp can be found in "The Core Argument" (Dec 14, 2000), at his web site: http://www-physics.lbl.gov/~stapp/stappfiles.html. In each case, I present his quote before the part of my discussion that is relevant to it.

[Peter Mutnick]
The possible is the infinite potential of consciousness without an object. The real is consciousness with an object. The actual is the matrix of self and other, which is the residue of consciousness with an object, for the phenomenal object of consciousness must necessarily refer to a real intermediate object which can be conceived as both actual and other in relation to self. The passage from possible to actual is then a beam of light from the unconditioned consciousness into the threefold flame of conditioned existence whereby the self as love empowers other and holds wise dominion over it. It is a fact that we experience reality as other and as power, but we forget that it is we who have empowered it. The process of self-actualization is the remembrance of this fact and the reclaiming of the power that we have allowed to become alienated from us in the form of an other that is not one with self in the actual.

That the actual and the other are infused by the unconditioned consciousness and the self, respectively, means that the limits of the actual and the other are burst asunder. It is this fact that enables the phenomenological consciousness or cogito to grasp the entire world as a totality. That is precisely the meaning of cosmic consciousness, and it is the real meaning of the Encompassing (das Umgreifende), discussed by Karl Jaspers. It is only this kind of cogito that confers certain knowledge that I AM, or ego sum.

It is probably correct, however, to introduce a past and present distinction into Descartes' famous dictum. Hence: cogitavi ergo sum. This takes into account the complementarity between thought and being. One must distance oneself from thought in order to be, and the only way one can distance oneself from thought in a pre-space environment is by putting thought in the past. This is the origin of time.

[Tito Vecchi]
Cogitavi is just the past of cogito. You are assuming that being depends on a past action.

[Mutnick]
No. I am assuming that being depends on achieving 'distance' from action and thought, that being is complementary to thought, word, and deed. I am also suggesting that this is the fundamental form of complementarity.

[Vecchi]
One may rather say: I remember therefore I am. In Latin you would say: memini ergo sum. Interestingly memini is a past form, without a corresponding present.

[Mutnick]
I would rather see memini in relation to percipi, as part of the psychic apparatus of the actual observer of last resort, who is the abstract "ego" of von Neumann. If percipi is persona, then memini is shadow, the shadow of the past. This would indicate that memory is stored in the quantum systems leading to the actual observer of last resort. It was in the news the other day that researchers had established that the same neurons were involved in perception and the retrieval of the perception as an image in memory.

Self and other mediated by the actual are atma and manas mediated by buddhi. Atma, buddhi, manas, and prana constitute LIFE or the LIFE FIELD. So, the actual is a field that is a residue of consciousness with an object. The creation of the residue is the responsibility of another field, namely the UNIFIED FIELD of Heisenberg. The transition from the possible to the actual, which is the act of achieving consciousness of an object, is the function of yet another field, namely the GHOST FIELD of Pauli. The FIELD is a door, and the same door that is the entrance into consciousness with an object for the GHOST FIELD is the exit from consciousness with an object for the UNIFIED FIELD. So, the UNIFIED FIELD is a field of generation by consciousness, namely consciousness with an object. Even consciousness with an object, however, is in this case phenomenologically reduced consciousness, or cosmic consciousness. Only as consciousness becomes defined does the actual become defined in relation to it. This is the meaning of the actual being a residue of consciousness with an object.

Now we may reexamine Heisenberg's notions of:

1. the physical act of observation,
2. the psychical act of observation, and
3. the act of registration of the result by the mind of the observer.

Heisenberg, 'Physics and Philosophy', pages 54-55:
"Therefore, the transition from the 'possible' to the 'actual' takes place during the act of observation. If we want to describe what happens in an atomic event, we have to realize that the word 'happens' can apply only to the observation, not to the state of affairs between two observations. It applies to the physical, not the psychical act of observation, and we may say that the transition from the 'possible' to the 'actual' takes place as soon as the interaction of the object with the measuring device, and thereby the rest of the world, has come into play; it is not connected with the act of registration of the result by the mind of the observer. The discontinuous change in the probability function, however, takes place with the act of registration, because it is the discontinuous change of our knowledge in the instant of registration that has its image in the discontinuous change of the probability function."

Ontologically, "the physical act of observation" has to do with the action of the physical on the etheric, the essence of von Neumann's I on von Neumann's II, while "the psychical act of observation" has to do with the action of the etheric on the physical. The physical act is characterized by [potential - actual event], while the psychical act is characterized by [state vector - substance]. Together, the physical act and the psychical act constitute "the *interaction* of the object with the measuring device".

To explain how the physical act of observation can be both physical and etheric, one must realize that the physical act of observation is in the causal world of the phenomenological system of worlds, while the action of the physical on the etheric by way of the emotional potential and the mental actual event takes place in the ontological system of worlds. The ontological system of worlds is comprised by the following worlds: physical, emotional, mental, etheric, phenomenal, causal, and archetypal or meta-physical. The causal world contains an ideal representation of the four lower worlds, since it is in a sense the cause of them.

The phenomenological system of worlds is very similar to the ontological system of worlds except that it is more or less rotated in metaphysical space. It employs the same elements of reality but in somewhat different capacities. Each system of worlds is in a sense just a Gestalt of the structured aggregate of the elements of reality. In the phenomenological system of worlds, the representation of the four lower worlds within the causal world does not have an ideal character but rather a psychical character, and there is another representation, as above so below, with a physical character.

"The act of registration of the result by the mind of the observer" is ontologically the establishment of a mental faculty in nature capable of greater determination than the [state vector - substance] determination. That mental faculty has to do with the capacity for conceiving of the *body-world* as a *schema*. This constitutes the true principle of *action*. The intentional act of consciousness is then ontologically the *affection* resulting from that action, but it is more than that because it belongs to consciousness. It is the intentional act or *noesis* stemming from the fact of a *noema* held in the mental faculty, but only insofar as it can be identified as an intentional act *of consciousness*. It must reflect back on the mind that emanated the *body-world schema* in the first place. This constitutes the enfoldment of the quantum explicate order.

The way that it does this is through the concepts of *time* and *place*: action is to affection as time is to place, but time supersedes action as an active principle and causes both action and affection to be localized in a place. This *place* then becomes the nexus of all the Aristotelian categories, including potential, actual, state, substance, body-world schema|noema, action, affection, time, and place. It is this nexus that carries over into the phenomenological perspective. It is what is retained in the phenomenological reduction. It is noumenal content reduced to phenomenal content and then to the phenomenological content of Heisenberg's selection process. So, the intentional act of consciousness corresponds to the enfoldment of the quantum explicate order in this way. The enfoldment is therefore the material correlate of consciousness.

There is a hierarchy of concepts associated with the body-world schema, which constitutes the unfoldment of the quantum explicate order, as the phenomenal base and phenomenal reality of the observer reaches down into the quantum noumenal reality of the observed:
1. body
2. body-world
3. body-world schema
4. body-world schema|noema
5. body-world schema|noema|dianoia-noesis
6. body-world schema|noema|dianoia-noesis|noumenon
...phenomenal|-----mental-----|---emotional---|physical

The intentional act of consciousness should be regarded as the fourth element of Heisenberg's selection process:
1. the physical act of observation,
2. the psychical act of observation,
3. the act of registration of the result by the mind of the observer, and
4. the intentional act of consciousness;
and the four elements of the selection process correspond to the following groups of enfolded categories:
1. potential - actual event,
2. state vector - substance,
3. body-world schema|noema, and
4. action - affection - time - place.

"The transition from the 'possible' to the 'actual' takes place [only with the intentional act of consciousness], and we may say that the transition from the 'possible' to the 'actual' takes place as soon as the interaction of the object with the measuring device, and thereby the rest of the world, has come into play". "The interaction of the object with the measuring device" is signified by #1 and #2, while "the rest of the world" is signified by #3, which signifies ontologically the *body-world schema*. The intentional act or *noesis* reaches down into the noumenal world as well, which is altered by the noeses ontologically and entirely constituted by them phenomenologically.

The 'possible' itself refers to the infinite potential of consciousness without an object, while the 'actual' is the residue of consciousness with an object. The intentional act of consciousness with an object is the transition from the 'possible' to the 'actual'. The 'possible' itself is not transformed by this transition, so in that sense there is no reduction, and yet the transition is real in a constitutive sense. It is a transition from the infinite to the finite by way of the real. It is also a transition from the infinitely structured, or the unstructured, to the finitely structured by way of Derrida's *differance*. Subjective experience, pertaining to consciousness with an object, is an expression of *differance*, not of the unstructured consciousness without an object. It is the infinitely structured, or the unstructured, that is deconstructed, bringing forth the actual world of finite structure. True deconstruction is thus a negation of a negation, and not a simple negation. It is a creative act.

The secondary connection between the categories and the phenomenological elements of the selection process is this: the actual has the structure of self and other, but the categories are a proxy for self, so that the actual is itself a quantum process, whereby self is actualized as other. Self is, like the infinite potential of consciousness without an object, not transformable, but yet the actual allows for its actualization in the other. Thus, *differance* is not enough; one must also discern the *trace* of the internal reflection of the infinite potential, which is *cogitavi ergo sum*. This trace occurs not in the actual per se, but in the other, as though the double reflection of 'possible' into 'actual' and 'self' into 'other' sets free the possible from the limitations of the actual. It is this freedom that is the essence of the selection process. The double reflection indicates that we are dealing with something like a Hilbert space of Hilbert spaces, since the 'actual' itself, with respect to consciousness, contains a new quantum potentiality to be actualized in the 'other'. This is an indication of how matter is created from consciousness.

The *trace* of the internal reflection in the 'other' may also be conceived as the action of Popper's World 2 on its World 3 material template. Or, alternatively, one may regard the efficacy of *cogitavi ergo sum* in the other as the potency of sympathetic magic. Sympathetic magic rules throughout the quantum paradigm, as the means of coordinating elements on one metaphysical level with those on another, which are not necessarily in the same system of worlds. The whole omniverse is in a very real sense just one big mind governed by an acausal connecting principle, called by Jung and Pauli *synchronicity*. Of course, what seem like acausal connections to us, from our limited standpoint, may ultimately have deep underlying causes from the standpoint of omniscience. This is the real meaning of *cogito ergo sum*, where the time distinction is eliminated and absolute certainty achieved.

Henry Stapp: "Each point on the tray represents the 'entire' CLASSICAL state of that system: it specifies the location AND the velocity of each particle in the system. In classical physical theory the physical system would be repesented by a single point moving around on the cookie-dough tray [configuration space]. In quantum mechanics the system is represented by a CHUNK of cookie dough! The chunk moves about on the tray and, in general, spreads out."

OM CHRIST, OM BUDDHA, OM KRISHNA, OM ZOROASTER, OM BABAJI. These are the quantum transformations of Whiteheadian points, defined as having no extension in space but unlimited extension in time, i.e. as Bohm trajectories in configuration space.

Henry Stapp: "The key property is this: occasionally a cookie cutter is applied to the dough to separate it into two parts: 1) the part inside the cookie cutter, and 2) the part outside the cookie cutter. Then the cookie-dough immediately 'collapses' either to the part 'inside' the cookie cutter or the part 'outside' the cookie cutter. This collapse is 'statistically' determined: the propensities to collapse to inside or outside are proportional to amounts of dough [probability density integrated over area in configuration space] inside and outside the cookie cutter. Three key questions: What determines: 1) the SHAPE of the cookie cutter, 2) the location WHERE it is applied, and 3) the time/instant WHEN it is applied?"

AUM SIVA SWAMINE NAMAHA, AUM GANA SWAMINE NAMAHA, AUM SARVA SWAMINE NAMAHA, AUM PARA BRAHMANE NAMAHA. These are the quantum transformations of Whiteheadian instants, defined as having no extension in time but unlimited extension in space, i.e. as the space-like surfaces upon which reductions must occur.

Henry Stapp: "Thus the dynamics consist of a sequence of deterministic dynamical evolutions (via the Schrodinger equation), punctuated by a sequence of statistically determined collapses."

The quantum transformations of the points are phenomenological, while the quantum transformations of the instants are ontological. Both sequences express the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God, in Man and in Nature, respectively. So, the conclusion seems to be that, contrary to Henry's view, the unitary evolution is about unconditioned subjective experience, while the reductions condition the primary subjective experience and reduce it to conditioned subjective experience in relation to the noumenon in nature.

The inner reduction, which is governed by Heisenberg's selection process and by *cogitavi ergo sum*, is identical to the phenomenological reduction, but the ontological reduction, which has nothing to do with the *inner* workings of consciousness (but only the appearance world), is governed by *esse est percipi*. These phenomenal elements correspond to the noumenal elements of the quantum system in the following way:
1. to be
2. is
3. to be perceived
correspond to:
1. state vector
2. actual event
3. state vector reduction.

One may also make the following correlations:
1. GHOST FIELD
2. UNIFIED FIELD
3. LIFE FIELD
correspond to:
1. body-world schema|noema
2. potential - actual event
3. state vector - substance - wave function.

Thus the interacting quantum fields in this case execute by their very nature the processes of quantum measurement, setting up the basis states and then drawing the response from nature. For clarification, our earlier mention of the fields was in the phenomenological context, while this correlation is in the ontological context. The fields play a dual role in this regard, like consciousness itself. The cosmic consciousness, in the phenomenological context, becomes the stream of consciousness, in the ontological context. The fields here are phenomenal elements, which correspond to noumenal elements, within the ontological system of worlds.

But the fields may also be regarded as noumenal elements. In that case we call them das GESPENSTERFELD, das URFELD, and das LEBENSFELD. It turns out that the GESPENSTERFELD is the physical field, since the GHOST FIELD represents the coherent part of the UNIFIED FIELD and the eigenstates of the UNIFIED FIELD are the fields of individual particles, which are physical. The UNIFIED FIELD, as an underlying field of consciousness, is not physical, and it would seem to act on something like a Hilbert space of Hilbert spaces. The URFELD represents a field of all bound states, including large ones, and hence it is appropriate to the description of the measuring device in the transcendental sense that connects oroborically the observed and the observer. So, the roles of the two fields are reversed in the phenomenal and noumenal cases, respectively. This means that the interaction of the fields constitutes a mutual observation or a communication. The LEBENSFELD is the field related to Husserl's LEBENSWELT and IN-DER-WELT-SEIN. It is not strictly speaking noumenal or physical but the passage from the noumenal or physical, which is considered as a superjective process, to the final concrescence, which is a consummate synthesis of feelings in the emotional world.

The LEBENSFELD expresses some features of the Whiteheadian process, but the ontological statement of Heisenberg actually requires a closer look at that process. Heisenberg's reference to "the interaction of the object with the measuring device, and thereby the rest of the world" requires a definition of 'object' and hence 'subject', which can only come from process theory. The quantum noumenal object is not in fact a single object, but the many Objects the present Subject has employed as mediators in its prehensions of the many past Superjects. During the superjective process, the Subject is joined by the superjective process made physical to its many Objects, which are thereby progressively unified, eventually into a single Object in the LEBENSWELT of the Concrescence, presided over by the completed Superject. The atomic dipolar Actual Entity as Subject is the quantum observer and the emerging Superject is the measuring device. With the completion of the superjective process, the many Objects are merged into the one Object in relation to the quantum world of the Concrescence. This is "the rest of the world" in Heisenberg's statement. This is not quite yet, however, the Actual World of the Concrescence.

The Object is not the Known, but rather the Knower. At the quantum level, the process of observation is self-observation. The Subject and the Superject are the Knowing and the Knowledge, respectively. The whole Concrescence must become first an Unknown and then a Known to an Actual Observer, in the seventh or meta-physical world. This occurs through the considerations of Past, Present, and Future, insofar as they constitute the end of one process and the beginning of the next. Once the Concrescence is conceived as a Present, which is a phenomenal object to the Actual Observer, it can become even more intimate by becoming a Presence to the I AM of the Actual Observer. This is the actual meaning of the time dimension in relation to Depth, Breadth, and Height. Presence is the fourth dimension. The Present is correlated with the Unknown, which is the lower portion of the phenomenal representation to the Actual Observer, while the Known is the upper portion of the same phenomenal representation. So, in actual observation, the Actual Observer is one with Unknown aspect of what is perceived as the Known. This realization is called *samadhi* by Patanjali.

The I AM of the actual observer is essentially the enfoldment of the elements of meta-physical reality that have first unfolded as elements of the astral and physical quantum reality. The quantum implicate order is the Mind of the actual observer. It is the mental sub-world of the seventh or meta-physical world. Certain elements of the astral and physical sub-worlds are projected into the astral and physical worlds. They are then resynthesized as THOUGHT and enfolded back into the Mind or the quantum implicate order. I-IT and I-THOU are the predecessors of THOUGHT, so the enfolded THOUGHT constitutes the I AM of the observer, in the sense that the thought is the thinker. The Mind is constantly discovering its identity in relation to the elements of the semi-classical and classical sub-worlds under it, insofar as they unfold and enfold in the course of the holomovement. In the human being, this occurs in synchronization with the breath.

Henry Stapp: "The chunk of cookie-dough is a cloud of virtual classical systems evolving by an equation that is connected in a simple way to the corresponding classical equation of motion."

The elements that unfold are essentially the subject and object of the classical physical sub-world and a certain matrix of thought, as the sixth skhanda, from the semi-classical astral sub-world. The six skhandas, including thought, are: sensation, feeling, form, consciousness, choice, and thought. These constitute the six lokas or heavens of the astral sub-world. Within the classical object, one finds the Probability Amplitude, which serves as the principal element of the quantum formalism as an algorithm. In its seventh world context it stands in relation to Time-Space-Energy-Momentum, where Time is in the sixth or causal world, Space is in the fourth or etheric world, Energy is in the third or mental world, and Momentum is in the first or physical world. So, from the standpoint of the algorithm there is the complementarity of the higher Time and Space cause and effect and the lower Energy and Momentum cause and effect. However, when the classical object is projected into the physical world, the Probability Amplitude assumes its ontological status, in which the position representation has a preferred status, as in Bohm theory. Within the projected classical Subject are the Space and Time basis states, which are the bra vectors, while within the projected classical Object is the Probability Amplitude, which is the ket vector. Folding the one into the other yields the Wave Function, in its ontological sense as constituting the foundation of the physical world.

Heisenberg's term "probability function" is not exactly the ontological Wave Function, which is just a classical sampling of the quantum reality. The Probability Function of Heisenberg is actually more truly ontological than the Wave Function. It arises at a certain stage of Whiteheadian process, specifically the first stage of physical prehension on the part of the bare Actual Entity of the completed dipolar Subjects of the past. During the second stage of the subjective process, the mental pole of the Actual Entity prehends the Superjects of the past. The Superject of the past is a Potential for an Actual Event in the mental pole of the Actual Entity. Objects arise as mediators between the Concrescences of the past and the present Actual Entity. The physical and mental poles of the Actual Entity then become a physical unified dipolar atomic Subject, by the principle of the psycho-physical parallelism, as von Neumann defines it: that both the physical and mental elements (or the metaphysical elements, in general) can be regarded as physical for the purposes of science. In the physical world, the dipolar Subject is unified with its Objects during the superjective process as the Superject develops and becomes physical by the same principle of the psycho-physical parallelism, as von Neumann defines it. In the final stage, the emergent Superject presides over its objective immortality, which means over the unified Object which it has become in the completed Concrescence.

A
B (Becoming)
C
D (Duration)
E (Enduring) descend in the etheric world.

K ascend in the physical world.
J
I...............(FIRST STAGE OF SUBJECTIVE PROCESS)
H
G
F (Function)

L is the archetypal in the meta-physical world.

M
N
O (Object)
P descend at the root of the causal world.

V ascend in the physical world.
U (Understanding)
T (Cosmic Clock Time)...............(SUPERJECTIVE PROCESS)
S (Sensibility)
R (Relativity)
Q
W (Wisdom) is in the mental world.

Wisdom in the mental world and Understanding in the physical world are synthesized by Knowledge in the emotional world. Knowing, Knowledge, and Knower represent Subject, Superject, and System. The System is the Object qualified as a Symbol. In the human being, these descents and ascents are through systems of chakras in the various metaphysical bodies and the complete holomovement constitutes the technique of kriya yoga. However, the origin of the holomovement has not yet been described.

Peter Joseph Mutnick 1949 - 2000

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