Layman's version: What's the theory?
In the interest of the integrity of science, I'd like to first make it plain that many of the ideas on this site are considered new and experimental theory. The ideas in this web site should not be construed to be accepted by the majority of the scientific community. The scientific method should be applied rigorously, and the papers will be earnestly submitted for peer view. I think, but am not attached to the fact, that some of these ideas are original. Keep in mind that most scientists agree that quantum mechanics has not yet been adequately interpreted, and the ideas presented here are, for the most part, in line with some very mainstream interpretations (relational quantum mechanics, and consistent histories).

Werner Heisenberg and other early quantum physicists realized in the 1920’s that microscopic things (like atoms) exist in many possible states at once. When we measure the atom in some way, somehow the measurements themselves determine which one (and only one) of those states the atom will be found in. It goes from being ‘wave-like’ to being ‘particle-like’, from a bunch of possibilities to just one reality.

I suggest we can extend this idea to everyday events in your life in order to explain synchronicity. Any event you haven’t observed is still undetermined. It has many possible outcomes. Only when you actually witness an event (either directly, or by inference, word of mouth, etc.) does it become fixed.

The key is to step back from the idea of time as being rigid. When you run into a friend who tells you, say, about a job opportunity that is perfect for you, you might feel it was predetermined. Imagine, instead, at the moment synchronicity occurs, certain related events you haven’t yet observed also fall into place. Just before that moment, events in your friend’s day are still undetermined. The moment you meet him or her, the steps leading your friend to you fall into place, retroactively. Events you haven’t observed in your friend’s recent past haven’t actually happened until you meet.

The present moment is therefore not a single rigid instant that’s the same for everybody. In the present, the things you choose can affect somebody else’s past.

This reasoning is derived from two basic postulates or premises:

1. Any unobserved event is undetermined. This means that reality is fundamentally subjective; what is determined or not determined at a given space-time coordinate is based on the perspective of the observer.
2. No objective reality exists. Instead, the meeting of shared subjective realities are what we call “measurements”. These are instances where two separate entities must agree on common observables. These are the only events that can be considered definite or concrete, and they are only definite and concrete for the observers involved.

From these ideas follows the notion of Retroactive Event Determination, used here to explain synchronicity (and shown in the Action-Synchronicity diagram).

What this means is that fate follows free will. Events around you, in the past as well as the present, fall into place around your actions. Multiple meaningful futures are available to ‘collapse into being’ based on the actions you take. We have the first move with our free will, but fate always has the second. It makes that second move in accord with the meaning we brought to the first.

We don’t usually apply this logic to humans. In describing atoms, physicist Henry Stapp says it is meaningless to peer “behind the scenes” and find out what is “really happening.” There is only whatever reality can be discovered through the act of observation. According to Heisenberg, “The term “happens” is restricted to the observation”. He is saying what has not been witnessed has not actually happened. This may typically refer only to things like atoms, but it can help us describe synchronicity too.

Please visit the 'Physics' tab for a more detailed scientific explanation.


About the Workshop
The Science Behind the Science of Mind offers a scientific framework for understanding the nature of synchronicity. Its long-term aim is to bring Science of Mind spiritual philosophy together with modern physics in a rigorous and applicable way. Our discussion is often geared toward people who may know Religious Science but not necessarily quantum mechanics. However, no prerequisite knowledge is required.

The basic teaching of this workshop is that fate follows free will. The events that bring a synchronistic occurrence into our path are not determined until the moment of the synchronicity. Based on the choices we make and the actions we take, different past histories will collapse into being in that moment in order to bring that synchronicity across our path.

Using the "Action-Synchronicity Diagram", scientific explanation, guided meditation, and analysis of participants’ personal examples, we come to a clearer sense of:

· how synchronicity works
· how to recognize synchronicity/opportunity when it arises
· how to rely on synchronicity and come to expect it

You can find all the necessary materials and information to understand and use this process right here on the website. At its most basic it is very simple and practical. If you are interested in going deeper into the physics, you will find that here as well. This is a work in process, and I hope you will contribute your ideas to this website as well.







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SUMMARY Paper 1: The Fourier realm photo courtesy of: Pictures from John M. Brayer, http://www.cs.unm.edu/~brayer/vision/fourier.html The Fourier realm, which is used to manipulate digital photographs (above), I consider to be the fundamental source of our physical world. The Fourier realm relates to our physical world in many of the same ways that we describe 'spirit'. It is outside of space and time, omnipresent, yet it can affect space and time. Furthermore, its effects can be felt throughout space and time, in a way which appears 'acausal' or 'non-local'. Wave functions in the Fourier realm represent all of the potential futures of our physical world. Therefore, various potential futures are available to us at any moment. The connections of wave functions in the Fourier realm give rise to synchronistic, acausal connections. Illustrating Fourier space, above: top left: original sample image. bottom left: Fourier transform of original image. bottom right: Fourier transform, edited by the computer (in a very specific localized way). top right: resulting image is blurred, but the effects are non-local. In the picture above, notice that the 'localized' changes (the 'cause') in the bottom-right image create a change in the top-right image of the woman's face. However, the change is not localized to a specific part of the woman's face, but rather a blurring throughout the image. This is similar to the idea that is responsible for non-local behavior with real objects, where a change in the environment can sometimes be felt everywhere at once. (For the record, special relativity is used to show that non-local behavior does not mean faster-than-light communication.)

Paper 2: Delayed-Choice Experiment You may have heard of Wheeler's Delayed-Choice Experiment, where light is found to 'choose' its path, after it has already taken the path. This experiment highlights 'acausality'. In the diagram above, the path of a light wave is portrayed with a 'tree of possible futures'. When the light wave is observed (by the red line observer), one possible future becomes determined, and all other branches disappear. As a result, all events in that chosen branch leading up to the event become retroactively determined. (Retroactive Event Determination) This means the past can be affected by the present (so long as it has been unobserved by you!).

Paper 3: Synchronicity In the diagram above, the 'retroactive event determination effect' is looked at up close. A series of actions on the part of the observer (pink) lead to an 'observation' of somebody else's 'tree of possible futures', resulting in the retroactive collapse of events in their past leading up to the synchronicity. The moment of observation is a synchronicity, defined as the connection of events related by meaning, but not related by physical cause-and-effect. The arrows in the diagram show that certain unobserved events are determined after the synchronicity happens. Of course, this all depends on the hypothesis that there is no objective reality. Otherwise we would have to wonder whose actions were affecting whose past? The simple answer is that everyone's actions are affecting everyone else's past.