Abstract: This paper deals with the use of the term
"ether" in the writings and recorded utterances of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and
tries to correlate His definition of this term as a medium not only for the
propagation of electromagnetic radiation, but also for the communication of
spiritual impulses to the physical world with modern scientific concepts,
especially those of quantum physics. In
doing so it demonstrates that many statements about the origin and nature of
energy and matter, the creation and evolution of our universe and other
scientific topics that can be found in the Bahá'í Writings, while
they often contradicted the concepts current amongst contemporary scientists at
the time they were made, possibly alluded to and anticipated more accurate
theories that were to emerge many years later.
The ether concept
One of the oldest and most puzzling questions of
physics deals with the nature of light, and it was two of the most outstanding
thinkers of their time who, on account of this question, split scientists into
two parties in the seventeenth century ad: Sir Isaac Newton, famous for his discovery of
the law of gravity and arguably the most influential physicist of all times and
Christiaan Huygens, discoverer of the Saturn moon, and inventor of the pendulum
clock and numerous optical instruments.
"Light consists of particles", Newton had postulated,
whereas Huygens was convinced of having found in his wave theory the correct
explanation for all light phenomena.
Contrary to Newton's particle theory, which needed many different kinds
of light particles—so-called corpuscles—to explain the different colours of the
light spectrum, Huygen's wave theory could easily explain this phenomenon by
differing wave lengths. Nevertheless, it
had a different and definitely no less important weak point:
Experience had shown that waves always need a medium
in which they can spread. Hence it is
the air for example that transmits sound and the water, which transports
ripples. However, what could be the
medium responsible for the propagation of light waves? Since sunlight is
obviously able to travel to the earth through the vacuum of space, it could not
possibly be air. Scientists accepting
Huygen's wave theory therefore simply made use of a substance that had already
been used as a substitute for the unimaginable and frightening nothingness at
the times of the ancient Greeks—the ether.
Ether, which, after the heyday of ancient Greek
philosophy, had only been thought of as a spiritual and immaterial substance,
was thus brought to physical life again after more than two thousand
years. In order to fulfil its task of
transmitting light waves, however, it had to have some extremely unusual
qualities: To transport light even from
the most distant stars and galaxies, it had to uniformly fill the entire
universe. It had to be dense enough to
allow for elastic collisions between its atoms to make possible a forward
movement of light waves, while at the same time refraining from exerting any
braking action on the celestial bodies.
Furthermore, it had to be weightless and transparent and, in many other
ways, entirely different from any other known substance.
In
spite of all these unusual and hardly imaginable qualities demanded of the
ether, the theory of its existence established itself as an essential component
of the mechanical worldview that had been developed by physicist since the time
of Newton. Following the
results of experiments that had clearly demonstrated the wave-like nature of
light, this theory was even regarded as proven by the beginning of the
nineteenth century
When James Clerk
Maxwell, with his famous equations, finally managed to show that not only
optical, but also electric and magnetic effects were wavy in nature and could
thus be described with one single common term as electromagnetic waves, ether
gained, in addition to being the transporter of light, a number of additional
tasks. It was no longer solely the medium
in which visible light spread, but was also responsible for transmitting gamma,
X- and ultraviolet rays, heat or infrared radiation, micro- and radio waves and
thus all types of electric and magnetic powers.
'Abdu'l-Bahá's definition of ether
It seems to have been this theory of the spreading
of electromagnetic radiation through the ether that 'Abdu'l-Bahá had
referred to when using ethereal matter as an example for an "intellectual", i.e.
not physically perceptible, reality:
...ethereal matter, the forces of which are said
in physics to be heat, light, electricity and magnetism, is an intellectual
reality, and is not sensible (Some Answered Questions 84).
In a letter to the Swiss scientist Dr August Forel
He also confirmed the existence of the ether in the following words:
... the existence of the Deity is intangible, yet
conclusive spiritual proofs assert the existence of that unseen Reality. ... For instance, the nature of ether is
unknown, but that it existeth is certain by the effects it produceth, heat,
light and electricity being the waves thereof.
By these waves the existence of ether is thus proven (Tablet to
August Forel 16).
This latter assertion might seem a little odd to a
scientifically well-versed reader because, while the first statement was made
at a time when the ether theory was still widely used and accepted,
the second was written about one and a half decades later,
when the scientific world, due to several new discoveries, had already
discarded the ether hypothesis.
Already in the years 1881 and 1887, the two American
physicists Albert Abraham Michelson and Edward William Morley had discovered
that a ray of light pointed in the direction of the earth's movement around the
sun is not, as initially expected, slowed down by the ether but, relative to
the earth's surface, moves exactly as fast as one pointed in any other
direction. These experiments, which, instead of proving
the existence of ether as had been intended, clearly challenged the theory of
its existence, went down in the history of physics as the Michelson-Morley experiments. In spite of their results, which were
devastating for the ether hypothesis, however, it needed a figure like Albert
Einstein and his famous theories of relativity to finally banish this
hypothesis from the models of physics and the minds of scientists the world
over. These theories formulated in 1905 (special theory of relativity) and 1915
(general theory of relativity) did, even though they were not taken very
seriously by a majority of the scientific world for the first few years,
finally achieve general acceptance after 1919, when some of their predictions
were experimentally verified.
Why is it, one might therefore wonder, that
'Abdu'l-Bahá repeatedly used such an outdated and disproved theory even
at a time when it had already been discarded?
Considering the context in which these statements
were made, one will find that in most cases He used the ether as an example to
demonstrate that there are things which are not sensible to human beings but
still evidently exist (another example of such an "intellectual reality" would
be "the Deity" i.e. God) to refute empirical world views
held by some of His contemporaries. If
such an example is used to deal with a question that is essentially different
in nature (for example the question of the existence of God) this does not necessarily
mean, one might now argue, a confirmation of the whole concept associated with
this example. One can use the phrase,
"the sun is rising", for example, without necessarily affirming the incorrect
Ptolemaic system that assumes the sun revolves around the earth. As an answer to the question why
'Abdu'l-Bahá used this specific example to support His argument, one
could thus state that He might have chosen it because it was easily understood
by His addressees rather than because He wanted to make a scientific statement
about physics.
Nevertheless, since a scientist like Forel in the
year 1921 was most probably aware of the incorrectness of the ether hypothesis,
and considering the fact that 'Abdu'l-Bahá could have easily chosen a
different example (e.g. radioactivity) to prove His point of the existence of
non-sensible realities without exposing Himself to the criticism of being
scientifically incorrect, this argument is not necessarily completely
convincing.
In order to therefore find a different and hopefully
more satisfying explanation for the usage of the ether concept in the writings
and utterances of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, we should first take a closer look at
the person who was primarily responsible for the abolishment of the hypothesis
of its existence, Albert Einstein.
In his theories, the four-dimensional space-time
continuum performs the tasks previously expected of ether by being the
propagator of all types of electromagnetic radiation, which, as Einstein also
proved, does not consist solely of waves or only of particles, but actually has
a twin-nature combining these two characteristics. Hence, he had simply transferred the
postulated qualities of ether to empty space, or rather the vacuum, in which
electromagnetic fields are formed that can then, in a way not yet explainable,
exert an influence on matter.
Physical space and ether are just two different
expressions for one and the same thing; fields are physical states of
space. (Trans. from: Einstein 143)
It seems like the only option we have is to
simply accept the fact that space does have the ability to transmit
electromagnetic waves, without puzzling our heads too much about the
details. We can even continue to use the
word "ether", but from now on we only want to understand by it a certain
quality of space. (156)
According to Einstein, it is thus quite correct to
use the term "ether" to describe the ability of space to transmit
electromagnetic radiation. What Einstein
rejected in the ether hypothesis was solely the idea of the physical existence
of the ether, or rather of its atomic structure. This, however, had also been the way in which
'Abdu'l-Bahá had always used this terminology. For Him the ether had never been a physical
but always an "intellectual", i.e. an immaterial, reality. Nevertheless, He did not seem to confirm
Einstein's concept of empty space, which, as the latter also had to admit, was
not able to offer a satisfactory explanation for the propagation of
electromagnetic radiation, as for 'Abdu'l-Bahá "a void is impossible and
inconceivable" and the celestial bodies "fall within subtle, fluid, clear,
liquid, undulating and vibrating bodies"
It took a few decades before quantum physicists were
able to find an explanation for the spreading of electromagnetic waves in the
vacuum, which also, without any such intentions of course, confirmed
'Abdu'l-Bahá's rejection of the idea of an absolute void. What these scientists found out is that due
to quantum fluctuations, even in a seemingly matter free vacuum, a constant
formation of all kinds of elementary particles occurs, which, after they have
been generated, immediately disappear again.
For each particle formed in this manner, also the corresponding
antiparticle
appears, and after a fraction of a second these particles destroy each other
again. The formation and destruction of
these particles thus always occurs in pairs.
These so-called virtual particles appear to borrow the energy needed for
their creation from nothingness, solely to release it immediately again in
their act of mutual destruction. In this
manner, the overall energy level of the vacuum is maintained, despite this
constant uptake and release of energy.
Thus, in accordance with the above words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the
vacuum is anything but a void. It is in
fact filled with tiny particles, which, like in a ghostly dance, are constantly
formed everywhere and immediately disappear again.
If a particle of matter is now added to this "living
vacuum" or the latter is exposed to a force field, the result will be an
increased formation of certain kinds of virtual particles in the immediate vicinity
of this source of disturbance. Around a
magnet, for example, an increased formation of virtual light particles,
so-called photons, occurs. These virtual
photons can then interact with other particles and in this way create and
transmit the magnetic force of the magnet.
Quantum physicists nowadays hope to be able to
explain in the near future all types of force fields with the help of these
virtual particles. At the present stage they have been able to
explain three of the four existing fundamental forces of physics in this
way. According to these field theories
(or more correctly "unified field theories"), the carriers of electromagnetic
forces are, as already mentioned, virtual photons. The strong nuclear force, which binds quarks
together, is transmitted by gluons and the carriers of the weak nuclear force,
which plays a role in the atomic disintegration of radioactive elements, are W
and Z bosons. So-called gravitons are
thought to transmit the force of gravity, but no one has so far been able to
prove their existence. The movement of a
photon in a vacuum, or in other words the spreading of an electromagnetic wave
in space, according to these theories, can be described as "the reaction of the
vacuum to its [i.e. the photon's] presence, which is transported from place to
place" (Trans. from: Treumann 254).
In this way the vacuum, with all its qualities and
effects, after years and decades of research, has proven to be exactly what
'Abdu'l-Bahá had referred to when using the term "ether". In the words
of a modern-day physicist this is described as follows:
Ether ... does not seem absent to us: It can, on the contrary, be understood as the
vacuum itself with all its reactions.
The ability of empty space to create virtual
particles, which are the transmitters of the signals, exactly corresponds with
the qualities of ether.
Physics got into the habit of not using the
disapproved of and defamed term 'ether' for this distance effect in vacuum; it
has put in its place the term 'field' (254 f).
In this vacuum or field, matter and energy are
interchangeable and basically the same.
An area of high field strength manifests itself in a matter particle,
which, in its turn, has an effect on the surrounding space or as
'Abdu'l-Bahá explains it: "... the substance and primary matter of contingent beings is ethereal
power".
Nevertheless, the creation of force fields is,
according to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, only one aspect of the twofold nature of
ether. In a commentary on a passage in
Bahá'u'lláh's Lawh-i-Hikmat, which states that "the world of
existence came into being through the heat
(al-harárat) generated from the interaction between the active force and
that which is its recipient." (Tablets
of Bahá'u'lláh 140 f.) 'Abdu'l-Bahá
explains thus: "... ethereal substance is
itself both the active force and the recipient:
in other words, it is the sign of the Primal Will in the phenomenal world
... The ethereal substance is, therefore, the cause since light, heat
and electricity appear from it. It is
also the effect, for as vibrations take place in it, they become visible. For instance, light is a vibration occurring
in the ethereal substance."
Following this explanation, the term ether in
'Abdu'l-Bahá's usage therefore refers to a manifestation ("sign") of the
creative word of God (the "Primal Will") in the world of matter, i.e. the
expression of God's will in the "phenomenal world". It could thus also be described as a medium
between the spiritual realm and our material universe. It acts as an active agent because force
fields are created in it that give form and shape to matter. Additionally, ether is at the same time the
recipient of these forces, because this matter, as explained above, is in turn
nothing but an expression of strong fields of "ethereal power" or energy.
In another passage, 'Abdu'l-Bahá further
elaborates on this twofold nature of ether that is omnipresent in nature, this
time using the terms "Fashioner" and "Fashioned", which appear to be identical
in meaning to the "active force and that which is its recipient":
Similarly
they have said that the potentialities (qábiliyyát)
and the recipients of the potentialities (maqbúlát) came into
being and were created simultaneously.
For example it has been stated that all things are composed of two
elements: the 'Fashioner' (gábil)
and the 'Fashioned' (magbúl). By
'Fashioned' is meant substance (mádda) and primary matter
(huyúlá) and by 'Fashioner' is meant the form and shape which
confines and limits the primary matter from its state of indefiniteness and
freedom to the courtyard of limitation and definite form. For example, letters and words are composed
of two things: The first is the
substance which is ink and pencil-lead and is the 'Fashioned' while the second
is the forms and features of the letters and words which are the
'Fashioner'. Now this specific substance
and this specific form were created simultaneously although the general
substance was created before the specific form.
It is clear that, before the existence of this specific form and shape,
the ink had an external existence which had no specific form or shape and had
the ability and potential to assume the shape of any letter or word and was not
restricted or specified to a particular shape or form. Similarly, the general shape and form had an
existence before substance specified them since before being specified by
substance (which is ink or pencil-lead) the general shape and form of letters and
words had a mental existence in the mind of the writer. Moreover, general form and general substance
were also created simultaneously. For it
is not possible for a thing to have an external existence and not to be formed
into a shape because substance and primal matter in order to exist need shape
and form; while shape and form in order to appear need substance.
In the same way in
which the letters in the above example given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá pre-exist
in a non-material form in the mind of the writer, also every being in this
physical world therefore has a spiritual counterpart in the Logos, or Primal
Will of God that is gradually imprinted upon matter to give it its desired form
and shape. It appears to be these
archetypes or blueprints that 'Abdu'l-Bahá refers to when He speaks for
example of the eternal existence of man.
He is therefore not necessarily saying in these cases that human beings
have always physically lived and existed on earth, but that God had always
planned to create them and therefore an eternal archetype of human beings had
always been (pre-) existent in the Logos.
Whereas it is
the writer who, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's example, brings the letters from a
potential and archetypal existence to material reality, it is the love of God
or the Holy Spirit which imprints the archetypes that exist for all created
things upon matter and thus, through evolutionary processes, "creates" all
contingent beings:
...while
God does not create, the first principle of God, Love, is the creative
principle. Love is an outpour[ing] from
God, and is pure spirit. It is one
aspect of the Logos, the Holy Spirit. It
is the immediate cause of the laws which govern nature, the endless verities of
nature which science has uncovered. In
brief, it is Divine Law and a Manifestation of God. This Manifestation of God is active,
creative, spiritual. It reflects the
positive aspect of God.
There
is another Manifestation of God which is characterized by passivity,
quiescence, inactivity. In itself it is
without creative power. It reflects the
negative aspect of God. This
Manifestation is matter.
Matter,
reflecting the negative aspect of God, is self-existent, eternal, and fills all
space. Spirit, flowing out from God,
permeates all matter. This spirit, Love,
reflecting the positive and active aspect of God, impresses its nature upon the
atoms and elements. By its power they
are attracted to each other under certain ordered relations, and thus, uniting
and continuing to unite, give birth to worlds and systems of worlds. The same laws working under developed
conditions bring into existence living beings.
Spirit is the life of the form, and the form is shaped by the
spirit. The evolution of life and form
proceeds hand in hand. The powers of
spirit are evolved by the experiences of the form, and the plasticity of the
matter of the form is developed by the activity of the spirit. Working up through the mineral and vegetable
kingdoms, sense-perception is reached in the animal, and the perfection of form
is attained in man (Bahá'í Scriptures 301).
The
forms or bodies of component parts, infinite in variety, which in the course of
evolution spirit builds as the vehicles of its expression, are, because of the
instability of matter, subject to dissolution.
As they disappear, others are built following the same patterns,
carrying on the characteristics of each.
When in the course of evolution the stage of thought and reason
has been reached, the human mind acts as a mirror reflecting the glory of God
(302).
The
importance of ether in creation and evolution
The previous
quotation thus states that evolution is not an arbitrary process, but the
gradual expression of spirit in matter.
The vehicles for this creative principle or spirit appear to be the
fundamental forces know to physicists, which are, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá
explains, manifestations of the love of God, i.e. the Holy Spirit.
It is interesting to note in this context that
Bahá'u'lláh, when referring to the act of creation, talked about
a single mathematical structure (a line) that was turned into a fourfold one (a
cross) by God: "Know
then, that God, praised and glorified be He, took a line, split it lengthwise
into two, rotated the one about the other, and so made from them the universe." This account of creation might relate to the
one force described by the unifying field theory, that was the only one at the
time when our universe had just been "born" (and was still extremely hot), and
which then, after the cosmos had cooled down a little, manifested itself in the
four fundamental forces that we know today.
The heat that prevailed in this early period of time
is also mentioned in many of the statements on creation found in the
Bahá'í Writings. This
early heat was a result of the extremely high quantities of electromagnetic radiation
that existed at this time and which influenced sub-atomic particles to move
around enormously fast. It was thus in
the truest sense a result of "the interaction
between the active force (i.e. the fundamental forces of physics as an
expression of the Love of God) and that which is its recipient (i.e. matter)"
and the cause of motion in the early universe:
...
the cause of motion [harakah] hath ever been heat, and the cause of heat is the
Word of God.
When the early
universe later cooled down and further expanded, this heat gradually
decreased. This made it possible for
sub-atomic particles, that had only existed individually before, to create the
first hydrogen and helium atoms, which then, billions of years later, formed
clouds of gas that, due to the force of gravity, gradually become denser and
denser, thus reaching the state of fluids and finally becoming solid
matter. It might have been this
development Bahá'u'lláh had, many years before scientists
formulated such a theory, alluded to in the following terms:
Know
that the first tokens that emanated from the pre-existent Cause in the worlds
of creation are the four elements: fire,
air, water and earth... Then the natures
(ustuqusát) of the four appeared:
heat, moisture, cold and dryness—those same qualities that you both
know. When the elements interacted and
joined with one another, two pillars became evident for each one: for fire, heat and dryness, and likewise for
the remaining three in accordance with these rules, as ye are aware.
The four
classical Greek elements of fire, air, water and earth mentioned here might
thus correspond to the four physical states of matter radiant (or plasma),
gaseous, liquid and solid
which, as we can see, are given by Bahá'u'lláh in the correct
order of their appearance in our universe.
The two natures
in those elements (temperature and moisture) could have a number of different
meanings: Temperature (together with density,
pressure and some other factors) distinguishes the physical state matter is
in. If solid matter is gradually heated
up, it first melts to become a liquid, then evaporates to form a gas and in the
end is transformed into a radiant plasma in which no complete atoms, but only
ions and free electrons, can exist.
Therefore, temperature is definitely a "pillar", that is a
distinguishing factor for the physical state of matter.
Moisture, on the
other hand, is extremely important for biological processes and is therefore a
"pillar" for all organic matter.
Similar accounts
about the evolution of our universe, which are ostensibly in conformity with
modern scientific theories,
are also given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá who states that
there
is no doubt that in the beginning the origin was one: the origin of all numbers is one and not
two. Then it is evident that in the
beginning matter was one, and that one matter appeared in different aspects in
each element. Thus various forms were
produced, and these various aspects as they were produced became permanent, and
each element was specialized. But this
permanence was not definite, and did not attain realization and perfect
existence until after a very long time.
Then these elements became composed, and organized and combined in
infinite forms; or rather from the composition and combination of these
elements innumerable beings appeared (Some Answered Questions 181).
And furthermore:
Then
it is clear that original matter, which is in the embryonic state, and the
mingled and composed elements which were its earliest forms, gradually grew and
developed during many ages and cycles, passing from one shape and form to
another, until they appeared in this perfection, this system, this organization
and this establishment, through the supreme wisdom of God (183).
The
Heisenberg uncertainty principle and its implications for the interaction
between mind and matter
'Abdu'l-Bahá's
mention of the "original matter" here brings us back to our initial topic, the
ether, which, according to His words, is both its originator and its shaper.
The idea that
this ether could in any way be a medium through which spirit can exert an
influence on matter contradicted scientific theories at the time it was
formulated, because in the deterministic worldview of contemporary physicists
the movement and development of all things, from the largest celestial bodies
down to single atoms and even subatomic particles, was completely and fully
determined by the laws of physics (i.e. Newton's laws of mechanics). These laws seemed to dominate nature so
completely and inescapably, that the idea of any kind of spirit that can
influence matter or in other words anything like a free will, which might have
enabled human beings to escape from the all encompassing law of cause and
effect, would have been absurd.
This worldview
was, however, soon to experience its almost complete extinction.
According to
quantum mechanics, it is, as physicists found out in the 1920s, not only
electromagnetic radiation that has a dual nature consisting of both particles
and waves, but this dualism is in fact a quality that can be found everywhere
in nature. Every single particle, every
atom, molecule, complex atomic structure and biological organism and also every
virtual particle and force field has such a twofold nature.
However, the
wave function that is associated with a particle is fundamentally different to
any other known types of waves (e.g. sound waves). It is a function that displays the
information we can acquire about a certain particle by describing the
probability of this particle having certain qualities such as velocity,
position or spin. It can therefore tell
us, for example, that the probability of one particular particle being found at
a certain position x is five times higher than the probability of it being at
position y. In a similar way it can also
tell us something about the probability of the particle having a certain
velocity. It cannot, however, give us
any exact and unambiguous information about any of these qualities. If this uncertainty is not precise enough for
us, we can of course make a measurement to find out the exact position of the
particle for example, but in doing so, we inevitably cause the wave function of
this particle to collapse (because there is no probability of the particle
being anywhere else any longer), and the result of this collapse will be that
it will henceforth not be possible anymore to find out what the exact velocity
of that particle was at the time its position was measured. If on the other hand we want to measure the
exact velocity of the particle, we will unavoidably loose the possibility of
attaining any exact data about its current position.
One might now
want to argue that this difficulty in obtaining accurate data can only be due
to a lack of more precise methods of measurement. Such an opinion was in fact held by many
physicists, including Albert Einstein, in the early years of quantum physics,
but it soon proved to be incorrect. Many
different experiments that have since been carried out clearly and
unambiguously demonstrated that this indeterminist randomness is in fact an
intrinsic part of nature. Regardless of
how strange that might sound, a particle cannot simultaneously have both an
exact position and an exact velocity (Gell-Mann 139). The more precisely the one is determined, the
fuzzier the other one becomes.
Quantum
physicists nowadays believe that a particle in fact does not have any exact and
determined features, but rather exists in a hybrid state of many different,
more or less probable qualities as long as no measurement is made. Some even go so far as to suggest that a wave
function can only collapse if it is a conscious mind that observes or measures
a quantum phenomenon and that therefore even the macroscopic apparatus used to
make the measurement goes into some sort of quantum limbo until a human being
actually looks at it. Whatever
interpretation might turn out to be more accurate, it is clear that by making
the decision to determine a particles position for example we take away the
possibility of the particle having had a definite velocity at the time the
measurement was made. We will still be able to make a statement about its most
probable velocity, but there will no longer be a way of determining if this
guess is correct. It is this principle,
called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle after its discoverer Werner
Heisenberg that Paul Davis, professor of theoretical physics, is referring to
when saying:
The fact that you can decide to create either
an atom-at-a-place or an atom-with-a-speed confirms that, whatever its nature,
your mind does, in a sense, reach into the physical world (Davis 141).
By demonstrating the possibility of the existence of
a mind over matter phenomenon in quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty
principle has thus, after centuries of deterministic thinking, made it scientifically
justifiable again to speculate about ways in which spirit might be able to
influence matter on a quite fundamental level.
It should be noted, however, that such phenomena have only very recently
come under the scrutiny of reputable researchers and that the existing
hypotheses about these matters are thus still of a rather speculative
nature. The ideas and hypotheses
summarized in the following sections are therefore not necessarily
representative of the current thinking of a majority of scientists.
God and quantum physics
We have seen above that the
writings and utterances of the Central Figures of the Faith describe material
forms (e.g. the physical bodies of living organisms) as something that "in the course of evolution spirit builds as the vehicles of its
expression" (Bahá'í Scriptures 302) and that these forms
are said to pre-exist in the divine plan or the Logos before they are realised
through an evolutionary process in the material world Having furthermore found out that 'Abdu'l-Bahá's
ether, which can be related to modern concepts of force fields, appears to be
the medium through which spirit is stated to influence and shape matter, we can
now go on to examine how quantum physics, and especially the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle described above, might be able to help us understand on
what level such an interaction between spirit and matter might take place.
On a microscopic (i.e. atomic or sub-atomic) level
the uncertainty principle is of vital importance, as it allows, for example,
for virtual particles to be created from nothingness without any obvious cause
and makes it possible for others to have qualities that no one would have
expected them to have. According to this
principle, a single particle can even go through two slits in a barrier at the
same time or simultaneously be at two totally different places as long as no
measurement is made that forces it to adopt one of the two (or more)
possibilities.
On a macroscopic level this uncertainty becomes less
and less important, the greater the quantity of particles that are
involved. This is due to the fact that
the probability of a large group of atoms collectively behaving in a way that
is already very improbable for any single one of them is extremely low. Nevertheless, quantum physics states, for
example, that it is not absolutely impossible for an object of visible size to
be found at a totally different place the next time someone looks at it,
without anyone or anything having moved this object to its new position. This is also the reason why quantum
physicists cannot deny the possibility of the existence of a God that can cause
things to happen that were not foreseeable and might even appear miraculous to
us. The way in which such divine
interference in the material world might take place is described thus by the
physicist and mathematician Euan Squires.
Quantum theory offers at least two possible
roles for a 'God' ...
The first role is to make the 'choices' that
are required whenever a measurement is made that selects from a quantum system
one of the possible outcomes. Such a God
would remove the indeterminacy from the world by taking upon himself those
decisions that are not forced by the rules of physics. ... He would be very active in all aspects of
the world, and would be totally omnipotent within the prescribed limits. It is interesting to note that this role
might even permit 'miracles', if we were to regard these as events so highly
unlikely that they would be effectively impossible without very specific, and
unusual, 'divine' choice. For example,
according to quantum theory, there must be a small, but non-zero, probability
that if I run into a wall, then I will pass right through it. The second possible role for a God to play in
quantum theory is more relevant to our principal topic. God might be the conscious observer who is
responsible for the reduction of wavefunctions.
Whether, in addition, he also decides the outcome of his observations,
as in the above paragraph, or whether this is left to chance is not important
here. What is important is the fact that
God must be selective-he must not reduce all wavefunctions automatically
(Squires 66 f).
The elegance of such an interpretation lies in the
fact that it allows God to influence the material world without having to break
the natural laws by which this world is governed. It appears logical that an all-knowing and
omnipotent God as He is portrayed in the Bahá'í Writings would
rather create a universe controlled by laws that allow Him to influence its
development than one whose laws He would have to supersede to allow for such an
act of divine interference.
The relationship
between body and soul
One area where, as the Bahá'í Writings
clearly state, spirit influences matter is in the interaction between the human
body and soul:
As
outer circumstances are communicated to the soul by the eyes, ears, and brain
of a man, so does the soul communicate its desires and purposes through the
brain to the hands and tongue of the physical body, thereby expressing itself (Paris
Talks 86).
The soul, according to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, is
completely immaterial and therefore free from all physical limitations and
independent of time and space. It interacts with the brain through a medium
called "common faculty" (Some Answered
Questions 210). This faculty, which seems to be identical
with or at least related to the human mind, is a partly spiritual
("pre-existent") and partly physical ("contingent") entity that "is connected
with the brain" (242) and controls the functioning of the human body:
The
mind force—whether we call it pre-existent or contingent—doth direct and
co-ordinate all the members of the human body, seeing to it that each part or
member duly performeth its own special function (Selections 48).
The faculties of
the human soul are described by 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the powers of
imagination, thought, comprehension, memory and the common faculty described
above (Some Answered Questions 210).
These powers of the soul are called inner perception (Promulgation
325) in contrast to outer or sense perception, the main faculty of the human
body. Other aspects of this inner
perception are the ability to dream, (Promulgation 416)
self-consciousness (Promulgation 258) and free will. The human soul has therefore "two means of
perception: One; (sense perception) is effected through instrumentality the
other (inner perception), independently" (Promulgation 416).
This description
of the relationship between the human body and soul is remarkably similar to the picture drawn by the physiologist and
Nobel Prize winner Sir John C. Eccles who distinguishes between the outer sense
of perception and the inner senses of thoughts, feelings, memories dreams
imaginings and intentions which he describes as properties of the immaterial
mind (Eccles 184). Largely basing his
argumentation on Margenau's work The Miracle of Existence in which the
latter proposes a description of the mind as "a field in the accepted physical
term" or more precisely a quantum mechanical "probability field" (97), Eccles
suggests that some components of the human brain might act as quantum-based
receptors that can communicate information from the mind to the brain and from
there to the rest of the human body. The
structures he suggests for this role are certain synapses (i.e. interfaces
between individual nerve cells) of the pyramidal cells in the cerebral cortex
of the brain (Eccles 187). The firing of a nerve cell can be induced at
these synapses by the release of neurotransmitters, which travel across the
synapse from one nerve cell to the other, from tiny vesicles that form a
presynaptic vesicular grid at the surface of a synapse. As the vesicles at these synapses are already
in apposition for exocytosis (release of transmitters) and all it takes to
trigger such an event is the displacement of 10-18 g of vesicular
membrane, such an event would be "within the range of quantum mechanics and
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle" (189).
A mental activity such as thinking would, according to this model, "do
no more than select for exocytosis a vesicle already in apposition", (190) and
the combination of a larger number of such quantum mechanical events could then
lead to the firing of a nerve thus communicating an immaterial mental impulse
to the brain and nervous system.
Another scientist engaged in research of this kind
is Sir Roger Penrose, one of the worlds leading physicists and
mathematicians. His hypotheses are
similar to those of Eccles in that he also describes a process in which quantum
phenomena might induce the firing of nerve cells, but differ from the former
ones in regards to the physiological configurations proposed to fulfil this
role. The structures, which he suggests
to serve as such quantum-based receptors to the human consciousness, are the
so-called microtubules, tiny tubes filled with vicinal, (i.e. atomically
ordered) water that are part of a neuron's cytoskeleton. In these structures, Penrose states,
quantum-entangled or coherent phenomena (many particles being entangled in such
a way that they behave like one single particle with only one collective
quantum state) might occur that could cause nerve cells to fire as a result of
purely spiritual activities of human consciousness, that is activities of the
human soul:
On the view that I am tentatively putting forward,
consciousness would be some manifestation of this quantum-entangled internal
cytoskeletal state and of its involvement in the interplay between quantum and
classical levels of activity. The
computer-like classically interconnected system of neurons would be continually
influenced by this cytoskeletal activity, as the manifestation of whatever it
is that we refer to as 'free will'. The
role of neurons, in this picture, is perhaps more like a magnifying device in which
the smaller-scale cytoskeletal action is transferred to something which can
influence other organs of the body-such as muscles. Accordingly, the neuron level of description
that provides the currently fashionable picture of the brain and mind is a mere
shadow of the deeper level of cytoskeletal action-and it is this deeper level
where we must seek the physical basis of mind! (Penrose 376)
Both of these models therefore propose an
interaction between immaterial mental activities and the human brain and
nervous system based on the theories of quantum mechanics, especially that of
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. From a Bahá'í perspective, such an approach is
supported by the fact that at least one aspect of this nervous system, the
"sympathetic nerve", is described by 'Abdu'l-Bahá as "neither entirely
physical nor spiritual, but ... between the two [systems]" (Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá Vol. 2
309). Much more solid scientific
research is probably necessary to develop more complete theories and for some
kind of consensus to form among scientists regarding these
phenomena. The fact that preliminary
models such as the two described above have already been formulated by
reputable and world-renowned scientists, however, demonstrates that a
fundamental shift of consciousness in regards to such topics is already
starting to take place within the scientific world.
Conclusion
The above paragraphs have shown that striking
similarities seem to exist between some scientific concepts as described in the
Bahá'í Writings and the theories of modern physics—especially
those of quantum physics—which, for the most part, only emerged long after the
passing of the Central Figures of the Bahá'í Faith.
In these concepts the ether as defined by
'Abdu'l-Bahá appears to play the significant role of a medium for the
expression of spiritual impulses in the physical world and is thus of
importance for the understanding of various Bahá'í ideas such as
those of divine creation, a process of evolution that is at least partially
guided by spiritual impulses, the relationship between the human body and soul,
God's influence on the material world, etc.
By comparing this Bahá'í concept of
ether to the models of quantum mechanics, it can be demonstrated that all these
ideas appear to have counterparts in modern scientific literature and that the
understanding of "the essence of existence" being "a
spiritual reality because invisible forces of the spirit are the origin of
matter and the foundation thereof" (Shoghi Effendi) can therefore not simply be
dismissed as unscientific anymore. Quantum mechanics has in this way made a big
step towards the reconciliation of science and religion, "the two wings upon
which man's intelligence can soar into the heights, with which the human soul
can progress" (Paris Talks 143).
As a final observation it should be noted that
because many of the scientific discoveries and theories referred to in the
Bahá'í Writings were yet unknown to the contemporaries of
Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, They obviously could not
have used the technical terms applied for their description nowadays. Instead,
They had to make use of and sometimes redefine already existing concepts and
terms (e.g. the ether concept or the idea of the four elements of ancient Greek
philosophy) in a way that they would accurately explain what They had in
mind. On a superficial level, this might
give the impression that the Central Figures of the Faith did not actually
formulate any new ideas about physical reality.
When we study Their Writings more closely, however, we come to realise
that this only seems to be the case because Their references to such topics
were purposefully made in such a way that they would neither offend Their
addressees who believed in certain (erroneous) contemporary scientific
concepts, nor make use of a terminology that had not yet been developed by
contemporary scientists.
Works Cited
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