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Sky Nelson has worked on developing a theory on the physics of synchronicity, or the Science Behind the Science of Mind.

  • Technical audience: The first published paper is here (published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, Summer 2011):
    • Retroactive Event Determination and the Interpretation of Macroscopic Quantum Superposition States in Consistent Histories and Relational Quantum Mechanics View (Popular version, see below)
  • Technical audience: The second published paper is here (in the proceedings for the AAAS Conference in San Diego, June 2011):
    • Retroactive Event Determination and its Relativistic Roots View
  • Popular audience: Click "Videos" tab above, or visit http://www.youtube.com/user/skynelson?feature=mhee
  • Popular audience: Ignite! presentation on Occupy and Synchronicity http://igniteshow.com/videos/why-synchronicity-key-transforming-our-society
  • Popular audience: Lay version of the first published paper above, Cliff Notes MQS states and Retroactive Event Determination View
  • Popular audience: Q&A regarding Retroactive Event Determination: http://www.scribd.com/doc/62030982/Questions-From-a-Reader-edition-1 View
  • Popular audience:More Q&A regarding the Fourier Realm:http://www.scribd.com/doc/65460303/Q-A-From-Reader-Edition-2 View
  • Popular audience: Why Synchronicity is a Key Ingredient in the Coming Transition View
  • Popular audience: Science of Mind Magazine, June 2009, 'When Fate Follows Free Will' View
  • Popular audience: New Thought Magazine featured an article by Sky titled "How I Use Physics to Pray" in the Fall 2009 issue. View
  • Poster presentation from the "Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference 2010" in Tucson Az. View
  • Please tell your stories of synchronicity and respond to others in the Discussion Forum.
  • Visit: Sky Nelson's Music Home Page
  • Sky's BLOG
  • Email list signup
  • Sky is available to speak on the physics of synchronicity, the Science behind the Science of Mind, and his vision for the future. He is experienced at speaking with audiences of spiritual students, scientists, or the general public (see the Video tab or YouTube/skynelson). He is also a professional songwriter and performer, and often combines his positive music with his presentations on synchronicity. For more info, please explore these pages, as well as www.skynelson.com, and contact Sky directly. (theskyband [at] gmail [dot] com)

Layman's version: What's the theory?
The ideas presented here, for the most part, are in line with some very mainstream quantum mechanics interpretations (relational quantum mechanics, and consistent histories). Some pieces however would not be considered mainstream.

Werner Heisenberg and other early quantum physicists realized in the 1920’s that before they are observed, microscopic things (like atoms) cannot be said to exist in a single definite state. When we measure the atom in some way, somehow the measurements themselves determine which one (and only one) of the possible 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 an approach for extending 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.
Action-Synchronicity Diagram
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. What is determined or not determined at a given space-time coordinate is based on the perspective of the observer.
  2. No definite objective overview of 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). Events in a particular history do not take definite form until after the fact, when you make an observation that requires them to fall into place in a certain way.

What this may lead to is the idea 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 may be available to ‘collapse into being’ based on the actions you take. We have the first move with our free will, but it is suggested that fate always has the second. It may make that second move in accord with the meaning we brought to the first.

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. We don’t usually apply this logic to humans. The standard understanding is that this logic refers only to things like atoms, but my approach is an attempt to help us describe synchronicity too.

Interestingly, one of the outstanding problems in quantum theory is trying to understand why the quantum world has this funny behavior and the macroscopic, everyday world does not. The approach I have taken shows that indeed, there is no difference between MICROscopic and MACROscopic. The same laws apply to both, and the result is "Retroactive Event Determination" and synchronicity.

Please download the papers linked above for a more detailed technical explanation.





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Anonymous Retroactive Event Determination (RED) and Open Interpretations Journal 1 May 22 2011, 4:19 PM EDT by Anonymous
 
Thread started: Feb 21 2011, 9:22 PM EST  Watch
This is a simple exercise. Some might consider it an experiment but I prefer to call it an exercise in awareness.
Start a journal of daily activities and events. It can be as detailed or as simple as you want.
After a couple days of keeping this journal. Find an illustrated dictionary.
Randomly open the dictionary a few times. Skim through the pages that you randomly open to and look for a few topics that genuinely interest you. Note these down in your journal. Think about the time/space context of these topics for a moment and reflect upon how everything is in some way or another connected to everything else.
Now comes the interesting part. As you go about documenting your journal of daily activities and events you will begin to notice what you may consider to be coincidences of encountering your topics. But after a few days you may begin to feel that something entirely beyond coincidence is occurring. This may be subtle at first. But gradually you will begin to notice an astonishing amount of connectivity in events, activities, and topics that you 'randomly' chose from the dictionary.
Part of what I feel allows this to take place is what I call Open Interpretation. If we open our mind to multiple interpretations of everyday events and activities we begin to sense the connectedness of time and place and events. For some this may seem like rubbish. For me, it is undeniably real, and as symbolic as the acronym RED. Take time to reflect upon the micro and the macro and all that in between.
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Anonymous If Billiard-Balls Aren't, Then Neither is Anything Else ... Right? 1 Jan 29 2011, 11:55 PM EST by skynelson
 
Thread started: Jan 17 2011, 6:58 PM EST  Watch
"It is generally supposed that distinctly quantum-mechanical effects do not show up on the macroscopic level. However, it is shown here that the uncertainty principle imposes a drastic limit on the predictability of the detailed motion of a collection of colliding hard spheres, or 'billiard balls.' "
[ How Determinate is the "Billiard Ball Universe"?
http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.1973895
(D.J.Raymond, 1967; American Journal of Physics; Feb. 1967; Vol. 35, Issue 2, pp. 102-103) ]
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c7c7c7c7c7c7c7 example of retroactive event:item&person&receiver=synch. 1 Jun 12 2010, 8:28 AM EDT by Anonymous
Thread started: Jul 6 2009, 11:56 AM EDT  Watch
(story in WDH-Wausau,WI) Story is public/Wausau Daily Herald: brief: Mr. Jim Campbell was in possess. of pkt'watch, but unfamiliar inscript. He undertook (thru facebk.,the artic. said), to find family of owner of pkt;watch. Anyone synch-life will love this story!
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