I hear about it often on this board, and was wondering about its relation to metaphysics.


I often hear New Age gurus use quantum theory to explain their beliefs. It's like a drinking game. When reading an article on metaphysics written by a New Ager, take one shot for usage of the word "subconcious", two shots for usage of the word "quantum", and the whole bottle when they combine Native American and Hindu religious doctrine.

I apologize in advance if I mess any of this up and will edit or remove any or all of my post if someone else can shed better light on this.



Read the Holographic Universe for one fairly "traditional" take on quantum mechanics, and it does veer off some into what could be questionable territory, with Jung and psychology, etc. That book IS kinda dated, and I am sure there are more contemporary and less mystical but still readable volumes on the subject.



According to the above text however, and a few online sites I've read (including Wikipedia because after all, if you can't trust a funny sounding website edited by the mass of internet users at large, who CAN you trust?), the gist I get is that the basics of quantum mechanics include "quantum entanglement", where an influence or even just perception, acting on one particle, can cause a simultaneous change not only in the former but also in one or more otherwise apparently causally unconnected particles.



From there, "quantum enfoldment" involves the idea that a thing's existence or "beingness" is a thing of perception, not necessarily spatially tied to physical reality as we know it - this then indicates the possibility of a particle or object, which exists in one location, being "enfolded" back into the "quantum mesh" (where it no longer has physical reality or substance but is instead an impulse or even thought), and can then be manifested potentially anywhere (and maybe any time) else, instantly, because it is in a state of abstract potentiality, rather than physicality.



The general idea in quantum mechanics of "reality as we see it" comes from the observation that a photon normally behaves as a particle, but when observed, it behaves as a wave - meaning that a seemingly acausal connection between someone watching a thing, actually changes the very nature of the reality of that thing itself, with no other direct physical contact or effort. Some ideas suggest percipient-based reality may occur all the time based on our own perception of things; to paraphrase "Holographic", essentially, the universe in its entirety exists, unformed, in all its potential, "behind your back", until you think of it, look at it or otherwise apprehend it, which brings it into cohesive being with which we are familiar.



A simplistic video version of the "Double Slit Experiment" (particle/wave) can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_tNzeouHC4

Here are the three examples:

Basically, Quantum Mechanics is a branch of Physics that deals with the very small, such as particles and atoms etc. Quantum Mechanics is the other side of the Physics coin to Relativity, which deals with the very large, such as planets and stars etc. The reason I think Quantum Mechanics gets mixed in with metaphysics is because it allows for more fantastic ideas to exist, ideas such as Time travel and Alternate Realities/Universes.