KARL JASPERS FORUM FOR TARGET ARTICLES
TA6 (The Source of Consciousness, by C Nunn)

Commentary 6
QUANTUM MECHANICS AND CONSCIOUSNESS
by Henry Swift
17 March 1998


ABSTRACT:
The new Science Within Consciousness from Amit Goswami
introduces consciousness into physics via quantum
mechanics, thereby spiritualizing science so it can inform us in the life sciences as well as the inert physical world. It adopts the perennial philosophy that consciousness is the primary reality, not materiality.

<1>
With reference to target article no. 6 in the Karl Jaspers Forum, and commentary thereon, I wish to introduce into the discussion concepts generated by Prof Amit Goswami, theoretical physicist at the Univ. of Oregon. He starts with the Perennial Philosophy, wherein Consciousness is taken to be the Ground of all Being the primary reality. This consciousness is not our personal sample of consciousness but the expanded, transcendental/immanent consciousness of the mystics of the ages.

<2>
He introduces Consciousness into Quantum mechanics (QM)
by taking it to be the agent that chooses which of the
manifold possibilities specified by the mathematics of
quantum mechanics that shall be manifested into space-time as the result of an observation by a sentient being having awareness of the result of the collapse of this uncertainty into a certainty. This event is called "waveform collapse" by the physicist (an area of non-consensual, interpretative crisis
among physicists for nearly 70 years), and is a new
interpretation first proposed by John von Neumann in 1955. Goswami has developed the details of this assumption and successfully applied the resulting theory, which he calls "Science Within Consciousness" (SWC), to the explanation of many anomalous phenomena. Some of these developments have been published in professional journals.

<3>
Examples of these areas are such as, parapsychological
phenomena, unifying science with religion, East/West
healing systems, Rupert Sheldrake's morphic resonance,
life/death and reincarnation. Thus the new SWC provides
guidance to us not only in the relationships among physical phenomena, but also in the life sciences and spirituality. Descriptions of this new SWC can be obtained from Goswami's 1993 book The Self Aware Universe, or How Consciousness Creates the Material World.

<4>
I edit and publish a semi-annual bulletin for SWC. These, plus other unpublished essays and references are available on the Web at hswift@swcp/com/swc. In addition, I have recently written a summary paper for the coming, late April conference in Lisbon on Science and the Primacy of Consciousness. This conference is sponsored by the Portugese Society for Transpersonal Psychology. I will e-mail a copy of this to requestors, but suggest first looking over our SWC Home page site for those interested.

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I am a retired PhD physicist who has studied the application of Gowami's new concepts, as well as eastern religions, particularly Advaita Vedanta philosophy which agrees entirely with these ideas.

Henry Swift, Albuquerque NM, USA
<hswift@swcp.com or @unisono.net.mx>