In a previously published paper, I presented arguments for construing the nonlocal reality as a mindlike nuocontinuum. Nonlocal reality as nuocontinuum would account for the forces and symmetries of the physical cosmos, and also form the basis for understanding consciousness and deeply unconscious psychological experience. Here, I will propose further ideas about the "fine structure" of nonlocal reality, in the hope of clarifying the concept of nuocontinuum and unifying the idea with several other converging proposals: implicate order (Bohm), idealistic science (Goswami), morphic resonance (Sheldrake), the orchestrated objective reduction theory of consciousness (Hameroff and Penrose), the collective unconscious (Jung), and nonlocal influences on healing (Dossey).
Introduction
The Nuon
The Nuocontinuum
Comparing Nonlocal Theories
Notes
References
Acknowledgements
Related paper: Reality, Healing,
Consciousness
Achieving a "unified field theory" which harmonizes current knowledge of the physical world with the full spectrum of personal psychological experience would profoundly alter our understandings of healing process. Many people worldwide are working toward such an integration of theory with life and healing practice.
In a previous paper, [1] I presented arguments for construing the nonlocal reality as a mindlike nuocontinuum. Nonlocal reality as nuocontinuum would account for the forces and symmetries of the physical cosmos, and also form the basis for understanding consciousness and deeply unconscious psychological experience. Here, I will propose further ideas about the "fine structure" of nonlocal reality, in the hope of clarifying the concept of nuocontinuum and unifying the idea with several other converging proposals.
In that earlier paper, the initial condition of the spacetime universe was envisioned as a superpoint at which dimensions, symmetries, and forces were in unity. That point was a nuon which retained its nonlocal character even in the face of the explosive creation of particle/waves in an expanding "local" spacetime cosmos. Yet, since the nuon carries the symmetries (for example, the conservation of energy) and other abstract dimensions which must influence every quantum object in spacetime, the initial superpoint must somehow be construed to expand as spacetime expands.
According to the complementarity principle, "the elemental thing" may be defined as either particle or wave, depending on the method of observation. Thinking about the nature of the nonlocal realm is easier if "particles" are thought of as waves, or "energy knots." For convenience, I will use Nick Herbert's generic term quon [2, page 64] for any particle/wave subject to the field of forces within spacetime, and nuon to designate any (speculative) object of thought beyond the limits of direct physical measurement.
An object with nonlocal properties would, by definition, be smaller than the Planck length, a "natural unit" [3, p.292] defined by the speed limit of light. Though small indeed, about 10^-33 cm, that leaves plenty of room for a whole spectrum of nuonic effects. After all, Zeno's paradox reminds us that for any value, an infinitude of halvings is required as we attempt to approach zero.
There are complex interference patterns when sets of waves interact, resulting in new wave patterns. Further, these interactions also occur among the harmonic frequencies above and below the fundamental frequencies ("prime tones"). In the scale of harmonic wavelengths between the prime tones for any two quons, and the Planck length, there would be a very complex interference pattern, which expressed the relationship ("correlation") between the quons. Any such "subtle" patterns whose wavelengths are above the Planck length would be "local" in character, since they would be representable (at least in thought) in terms of spacetime coordinates.
At harmonic wavelengths below the Planck length, the spacetime representation of these interference waveforms (the "nodes" formed by contact between two "parent" waves) becomes diffuse and indefinable in spacetime. That is, they take on a nonlocal nature, even though they express relationships among objects and clusters of objects within spacetime. The term nuon may be used to refer to such "nodes of knowing" whereby the photon (or other object/cluster) may correlatively know her sister.
In nuocontinuum theory, the nonlocal realm is construed as a superposition of all the nuons of the cosmos. That is, it is a holonomic representation of all the relationships among the "things" which exist within the spacetime realm.
Since the nuocontinuum is nonlocal, we would not consider it a field in which there is communication by signals. Rather, nuonic actions must be considered as correlative, in that the state of the system as a whole is represented simultaneously and instantaneously throughout the cosmos. We may think of such correlations as "empathetic," for nuons would have a natural unity with, or affinity for, each other. In such a worldview, "nuons have nuons." Cosmos itself has (or rather, is) a nuon, for a nuon is not an object which can stand apart from the rest of cosmos. Cosmos must itself be construed as subject.
The Aspect experiments, [2, p.226-227; 4, p.139-150] done in confirmation of Bell's Theorem, showed simultaneous changes of state in pairs of correlated photons, too far removed from each other to be influenced by a local signal. In the nuocontinuum theory, that would be accounted for not by the "physical" characteristics of the quon, but by its nuonic nonlocal component.
It would be impermissible to think of the imprinting of nuons as though they were storage locations within the nuocontinuum, or of tuning into signals, for both metaphors would be mechanistic and spatial. The information of the nuocontinuum is stored in the patterns of all the individual quons in the physical cosmos, not nonlocally. However, it would be permissible to think that any physical act (for example, doing an experiment) adds to the total information in the cosmos and becomes the holistic "birthright" of all quons, and influences all in an appropriate physical circumstance. Because of nonlocality, any changes in arrangements of particles would always be correlated throughout the whole.
The nuocontinuum, then, is construed as an infinitely broad connecting principle, which integrates all physical and psychic states of the cosmos across time. As a particular organization of quons traces its "lifeline" of physical existence, it will also make a "trail" of correlations which will intensify its "image" within the holonomic nonlocal reality. Yet, the nuocontinuum also contains within itself potentialities for all possible physical and psychic states. All pasts and all futures nonlocally exist together. The particular future which is brought to pass through operations of the physical world will organically cohere with the state of the whole.
The idea of a nuocontinuum broadly overlaps, and very nearly superimposes, with several important theories of nonlocal reality currently under discussion. However, the nuocontinuum concept has the potential to shed further light on those theories, and to bring them further toward unification with each other.
The idea that the nuocontinuum is a "hologram" in which each nuon is a relational expression of the whole is consistent with Bohm's description of a holonomically enfolded (implicate) order. [5] Further, it complements the Bohm and Hiley ontologic interpretation of quantum theory. [6] In contrast to the "standard" epistemological model (in which the state of a system is "real" only when the wave function is collapsed by measurement or other conscious observation), they hold that the particle has an objective reality, whose probabilistic behavior derives from a "pilot wave" which guides it in one or another channel of possibilities, and accounts for interference patterns observed in double-slit experiments.
Bohm and Hiley also consider that an elementary particle "has a complex and subtle inner structure." Such subtle structure might easily be accomodated within the scale between the particle's size and the Planck length, which is of the same order of magnitude as that between our own size and the particle's. [6, p 37-38]
The Bohm and Hiley equations demonstrate nonlocal influences which would be consistent with the description of the nuocontinuum. Since the quantum potential contains the same term in both numerator and demoninator, "it does not necessarily fall off with distance." In one-body systems, the particle's behavior "can depend strongly on distant features of the environment." In a multi-body system, "the behavior of each particle may depend nonlocally on the configuration of all the others, no matter how far away they may be." [6, p. 57]
[Note added in comment: See Note C]
The idea of a nuocontinuum is entirely consistent with physicist Amit Goswami's model [7; 8] of nonlocal reality as a transcendent/immanent unitary consciousness, but there seems to be more to account for than mere awareness. Nonlocal reality has a dynamic, expressed in the result of its "computing" through the processes of local physical reality. (Note that in this computer metaphor, it is not the nonlocal reality, but the physical spacetime reality which is the "hardware" whose state is changed and in which information is stored.)
For example, consider that a synchronicity [9] often involves some sudden, dramatic, and otherwise unexplained physical phenomenon. The event is noncausal in ordinary spacetime terms, but even so the appearance is that something "mental" (i.e. nonphysical) "made it happen." Thus, nonlocal reality must have some quality of "mind" or meaning beyond mere awareness, and that quality can better be expressed by the term nuocontinuum.
This distinction having been made, the nuocontinuum and the unitary consciousness models can be superimposed. Goswami's terms "idealistic science" and "science within consciousness" would be equivalent to speaking of science practiced within awareness of the nuocontinuum.
Biologist Rupert Sheldrake has advanced a theory of the formation of organisms (and inorganic forms) under the influence of morphogenetic (or morphic) fields. Though he does not explicitly name a fundamental nonlocal reality, nevertheless he writes, "Morphic resonance involves a kind of action at a distance in both space and time. The hypothesis assumes that this influence does not decline with distance in space or in time." [10, p.109] Thus the reality implicit in the theory is that of field, which he defines as "non-material regions of influence." [10, p.97] Further, "Morphogenetic fields are 'probability structures'...." And, the process "is analogous to composite photography...." [10, p.109] In a personal communication with the author (September 1996), Sheldrake writes that he thinks in terms of local morphic fields connected by nonlocal morphic resonance.
It seems that the effects he describes could be clarified by the concept of the nuocontinuum, even as we remain in general agreement with the overall thrust of his arguments. If there is a holonomic nuocontinuum connecting every quon (and all the nested formations of quons), it is not necessary to postulate multiple "fields." The physical reality of cosmos is itself the storage medium of multiple forms, and all the rest of developing cosmos always has access to it through the nonlocal holonomic "coupling" of the nuocontinuum itself.
Further, that form stored in cosmic experience would be an idealized blend of all similar forms, as indeed occurs in composite photography. When multiple observers rate blended faces for beauty, the score gets progressively higher when more faces are included in the blend. [Note A] Through the nuocontinuum, morphogenesis has access to the "most beautiful" composite expression of experience, but under local influences the form will not be copied exactly. But with each new physical variation, the composite of cosmic experience with that form is slightly altered, so that further evolution of that organism is "pulled" in a slightly different direction by the holistic composite. That is, it conforms to an holistically idealized version of itself. Organisms in relatively stable niches experience less alteration from the composite over time, so would have less "pull" toward change. "Darwinism" itself must involve a blend of both nonlocal and local actions.
Sheldrake also argues in favor of laws of nature as having the nature of habits, rather than being immutable preexisting characteristics of the universe. In the nuocontinuum concept, all current experience is nuonically coupled ("unified") with all previous experience. The physical laws can be understood to be the influence of that unified experience bringing any object and combination of objects into a similar pattern of behavior. And that, of course, is an acceptable definition of habit. Still, the mind- consciousness character of the "superpoint" nuon would require that the "habits of nature" be congruent with the emergence of self- reflective consciousness for the cosmos, in accordance with the anthropic principle. [3; 10, p.9-10]
Currently one of the most active fields of inquiry is the new science of consciousness, but the field is very far from any hint of consensus. One of its most interesting new theories, however, would require the concept of something like the nuocontinuum, and it describes a possible link between the local and nonlocal aspects of mental experience.
Physician Stuart Hameroff and physicist Roger Penrose [11] propose that microtubules (cytoskeletal structures present in nucleated cells but especially well organized in neurons) are the physical site which interfaces with a nonlocal reality to produce consciousness, through a process they name orchestrated objective reduction. Within the microtubules, subunit proteins called tubulins can register quantum-superposed states, remain coherent, and recruit additional units "until a mass-time- energy threshold (related to quantum gravity) is reached." [11, p.36] The quantum probability wave function is thus collapsed ("reduced") . They side with those who view reduction as a "real" (rather than merely theoretical) physical process. Hence, reduction is objective, and awareness arises through time-dependent concerted (orchestrated) action of blocks of microtubules.
Thus is the physical neuropsychic apparatus coupled with a level of reality they describe as consistent with the idea of panpsychism; with Goswami's theory of the primacy of consciousness ("monistic idealism"); and with the descriptions of consciousness as "occasions of experience" (Whitehead) and "moments of experience" in meditation (Buddhist texts). Further, it is a realm of "non-computable" effects.
They write, "Our viewpoint is to regard experiential phenomena as also inseparable from the physical universe, and in fact to be deeply connected with the very laws which govern the physical universe." [11, p.37] The nuocontinuum theory would add that the realm is also nonlocal, holistic, and holonomic in character.
Such a schema would allow us to understand the collective unconscious (Jung) as both local and nonlocal in nature. Symbol- formation would lie in physical mechanisms, be based on memory of experience, and could perhaps involve a certain degree of physical instinctual information (perhaps encoded in "junk DNA," as I have speculated elsewhere [12] ). However, "states of mind" and archetypal patterns [Note B] would be coupled through the nonlocal nuocontinuum, which could well play a correlative and "empathetic" role in triggering mood and symbol in others, as (for example) in a clairvoyant dream or in group hysteria or other collective phenomena.
If the nuocontinuum, by this or similar mechanism, can function as an agent of correlation between individual and collective mental effects, in its dynamics lies the possibility for a better understanding of unconscious patient-healer interactions. Perhaps someday we might even develop a meteorology of the mind in which we read more readily the progression of psychic storms across the plains of the human unconscious, in time to do collective diagnostic work.
Now we are in a position to exploit the link between the author's philosophical and surgical interests. A link is probably unexpected, but after all, surgery is the field of special interest and expertise in wound healing and the treatment of hemodynamic shock. The term wound usually implies some sort of traumatic disruption, even if it is the controlled trauma of a surgical operation. However, in an organic sense, any strain away from the idealized balance of the whole system (especially shock) is a "wound" of sorts, which must be brought back into a dynamic equilibrium.
The efforts of the physician or other therapist are directed toward restoration of that equilibrium. The healer is the helper. The patient is the healer, for autonomic feedback loops of all types must do the fine tuning. Cannon, who gave us the term homeostasis for this constantly equilibrating condition of health, described it as "the wisdom of the body," [13 ] thereby giving us the core concept of the healing process.
Homeostasis has heretofore been considered to be entirely mechanistic, mediated through a multitude of neurochemical messengers. Psychologist Daniel Weiss Miller, who has emphasized the importance of homeostasis in psychotherapy, [14; 15] has commented (personal communication, July 1996) that we have fallen into the habit of thinking of homeostasis as a static concept, and he offers the term homeodynamics as a possible corrective to that trend.
If we look carefully, homeostasis is not merely a "holding sameness" as a flux equilibrium in the present moment. Any living system is drawn not only toward healing, but toward further growth and development. In some sense, homeostasis is "vectored" toward a goal specific for a level of the living system, and for the whole.
From the perspective of the nuocontinuum, we can see flux equilibrium as conformance to an holistically idealized balance for a dynamic system. Similarly, the quite striking capacity to heal and remold the human form after injury, and especially the regeneration of whole flatworms from halves, [10, p. 76] would be instances of morphogenesis holistically "recalling" its idealized structure. Such effects would then be susceptible to the "healing intentions" of the surgeon/therapist and patient, who give personal attention to a relationship with the nuocontinuum. Such is the nature of the effects of prayer/meditation, documented by Dossey. [16] In the context of the nuocontinuum, the wisdom of the body is the wisdom of the cosmos.
As previously argued, [1] the interactions between matter and psyche presented by quantum theory require that any "theory of everything" must unify both physics and psyche. That must inevitably also require a careful delineation of local and nonlocal realities. But the Aspect experiments establishing a nonlocal reality have left open the question of the nature of that reality.
The concept of nonlocal reality as nuocontinuum is offered as the most economical explanation of the nature of that reality, providing the "X" factor deemed necessary to account for consciousness, [17] consistent with current quantum theory. An infinitely broad connecting principle integrating all present states of cosmos with all past and future states, leaving dynamics to the organicity of cosmos itself, seems to be the simplest possible theory for describing cosmos as we actually experience it.
Though its immediate goal was to provide a framework for harmonizing theories of medical and alternative therapies, it is not acceptable for that unless it is also acceptable in the description of cosmos generally. It is especially promising in that it harmonizes many separate but converging lines of current theoretical inquiry, yet it is also sufficiently open to accomodate whatever refinements future experience might require.
A formulation such as this, though informed by science, stretches the frame of traditional science because it goes beyond the threshold of that which is directly measureable physically. We can, of course, measure physical parameters of health, treatment outcomes, and patient satisfaction, which may indeed be influenced by nonlocal effects. But the nonlocal reality must primarily be measured in psyche through thought experiment, for consistency and congruency with human experience over time. Yet that fact itself affirms the mind-nature of cosmic experience, and reminds us that there is no platform on which to stand to see cosmos as an "objective" observer.
Any nonlocal theory always teters "dangerously" on the brink of poetry, inevitably leaving us enveloped with a sense of mystery. However, the cosmic answer will always be more than the sum of all possible questions, for the thought behind any question expands the nuonic complexity of cosmos itself. Paradoxically, even as our questioning pushes back the goal of our quest, cosmos draws us progressively more deeply into harmonious and creative participatory unity with itself. In that realization, we may find at last healing explanations which will give us, individually and globally, a measure of serenity and confidence as we confront the complexities of health and illness, and the needs of patients and society. Poetic science may not be such a bad thing after all.
A. The report of scoring beauty in composite photographs is based on a November 1996 broadcast of "Discovery magazine" (Discovery channel), and a similar news article elsewhere (reference lost), reporting research by a Harvard neuropsychologist, Nancy Etcoff. Her idea came from a nineteenth century series of blended mug shots: The result was not the sought for "criminal characteristics," but handsome faces. I have been unable to retrieve a Medline reference.
B. Sheldrake has related Jung's archetypal theory to morphic resonance in references 10 and 18. In Sheldrake's theory, archetypes are special "habits of nature." The nuocontinuum theory would explain them as patterns of psychic experience nonlocally integrated throughout human history, which is basically the same concept.
C. Wojciech Zurek of the Los Alamos National Laboratory writes that the environment surrounding a quantum system can "monitor" some of the system's observables. In that view, the "environment" itself can act as the "observer" which "collapses the wave function." The nuocontinuum would be the "coupling mechanism" by which the "environment" carries out its "observation." Each interaction would then be "computed" to its place within the whole. This would be a quantum interpretation which, like Bohm's, is realistic, harmonizing local and nonlocal aspects of reality. [See "Decoherence and the transition from quantum to classical." Physics Today, 1991 (Oct); 44(10): 36-44]
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The author appreciates the critiques of an early draft of this paper by Daniel Weiss Miller and Rupert Sheldrake, and research assistance by Matthew W. Clapp.