Recently in Consciousness Category

Quantum mechanics describes the tiny world of the atom and its constituents, and their behavior, with stunning if probabilistic accuracy. But quantum mechanics in many ways threatens our absolute notions of space and time. When studying subatomic particles, the observer appears to alter and determine what is perceived.  The presence and methodology of the experimenter is hopelessly entangled with whatever he is attempting to observe, and what results he gets. 

In 1964, Irish physicist John Bell proposed an experiment that could show if separate particles can influence each other instantaneously over great distances. First it is necessary to create two bits of matter or light that share the same "wave function" using a special kind of crystal (so-called "entangled particles"). Now, since quantum theory tells us that everything in nature has a particle nature and a wave nature, and that the object's behavior exists only as probabilities, no small object actually assumes a particular place or motion until its "wave function" collapses. What accomplishes this collapse? Messing with it in any way. Hitting it with a bit of light in order to "take its picture" would instantly do the job. But it became increasingly clear that any possible way the experimenter could "take a look" at the object would collapse the wave function. As more sophisticated experiments were devised it became obvious that mere knowledge in the experimenter's mind is sufficient to cause the wave function to collapse.

That was freaky, but it got worse. If the wave function of an entangled particle collapses, so will the other's -- even if they are separated by the width of the universe. This means that if one particle is observed to have an "up spin" the act of observation causes the other to instantly go from being a mere probability wave to an actual particle with the opposite spin. They are intimately linked, and in a way that acts as if there's no space between them, and no time influencing their behavior. Experiments from 1997 to 2007 have shown that this is indeed the case, as if tiny objects created together are endowed with a kind of ESP. They truly seem to prove that Einstein's insistence on "locality" -- meaning that nothing can influence anything else at superluminal speeds -- is wrong. Rather, the entities we observe are floating in a field -- a field of mind, biocentrism maintains -- that is not limited by the external spacetime Einstein theorized a century ago.

No one should imagine that when biocentrism points to quantum theory as one major area of support, it is just a single aspect of quantum phenomena. Bell's Theorem of 1964, shown experimentally to be true over and over in the intervening years, does more than merely demolish all vestiges of Einstein's hopes that locality can be maintained.

Before Bell, it was still considered possible (though increasingly iffy) that local realism -- an objective independent universe - could be the truth. Before Bell, many still clung to the millennia-old assumption that physical states exist before they are measured. Before Bell, it was still widely believed that particles have definite attributes and values independent of the act of measuring. And, finally, thanks to Einstein's demonstrations that no "information" can travel faster than light, it was assumed that if observers are sufficiently far apart, a measurement by one has no effect on the measurement by the other.

All of the above are now finished for keeps.

Since Neptune entered Aquarius in the late 1990s following the Uranus/Neptune conjunction of 1992-1995, the boundaries between humans and technology (Uranus/Aquarius) have blurred (Neptune).  When Uranus entered Pisces in 2003, instigating the mutual reception that has been in place since then with Uranus in the sign ruled by Neptune and Neptune in the sign ruled by Uranus, this blurring has increased exponentially.  So really, for the last 15 years we have been wandering into uncharted technological territory.  This period saw the explosion of the internet and the wiring of nearly every human being on the planet into the World Wide Web.

This hard-wiring of technology into our brains comes easier for those of us who are already rather electric in nature, with Uranus strong in our charts.  For others it's a more difficult process. 

Children will learn by downloading information directly into their brains within 30 years, the head of Britain's top private schools organisation has predicted.

Chris Parry, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said "Matrix-style" technology would render traditional lessons obsolete.

He told the Times Educational Supplement: "It's a very short route from wireless technology to actually getting the electrical connections in your brain to absorb that knowledge."

Mr Parry, a former Rear Admiral, spent three years determining the future strategic context for the military in a senior role at the Ministry of Defence.