Reply #16: Just to be careful, those are not scientific results...

[caraher]

Almost every claim that "quantum mechanics tell us that..." followed by a statement about consciousness goes well beyond what the science tells us.

Science does frequently inspire lines of thought in other areas, but rarely do those emerge as logical consequences of the science. Instead, metaphorical resonances with pre-existing belief systems are taken as scientific warrant for those beliefs. We see this among non-scientists and scientists alike; consider that the elegance of Newtonian physics and its power to account for things like the motions of planets were once taken as further proof of a Creator who designed the universe...

Newer developments in physics have stronger resonances with the concepts of Eastern religious traditions, and I'm happy to see minds opened to new possibilities. But do this knowing that you're working with scientific metaphors and not "facts."

In saying this I don't deny that quantum theory has shattered many preconceptions about the rules the universe plays by. Thinking in terms of a "universal consciousness" does have a certain appeal and does address some of the mysteries of the quantum world, but that sort of thing is in the realm of interpretation of quantum mechanics - fascinating possibilities, but not anything that experiment can reveal.

Or put another way... if you want to believe in a universal consciousness, you do so, with equal degrees of justification, whether or not quantum theory comes along. Quantum theory neither proves nor disproves that sort of thing...

Quantum nonlocality is strange enough on its own... whether one takes the idea of a "universal consciousness" as an explanation of the odd features of quantum physics or as no better than replacing one mystery with another is largely a matter of taste.