Living In A Participatory Universe

What It Means To Live In A Participatory Universe


Living In A Participatory Universe. What It Means To Live In A Participatory Universe. Graphic as a tribute to the late John Wheeler, physicist-philosopher and Nobel Prize winner.

We are living in a participatory universe according to the late John Wheeler, physicist-philosopher and Nobel Prize winner.

After a life-time of thinking about our quantum reality, Wheeler's fellow physicist Niels Bohr observed that Man is inside the equation, simply by being there. Man is “entangled” in this “participatory universe”.



    What good is a universe without somebody around to look at it? [Robert Dicke] 



This article is written from a lay person's perspective. I have outlined below a summary review of my understanding of the extent to which science supports the idea of a participatory universe and the reasonable conclusions that we can infer from this.

But, this is not a science article and my overall purpose here is to offer a reflection on what it means to live in a participatory universe.






Early Experiences of Living In A Participatory Universe

I grew up in a family environment where everything was difficult and nothing ever seemed to change. Things were as they were and any request to my parents to do something differently was stonewalled.

Floundering In A Rigid, Fixed, Unyielding Universe

The result of these early experiences was that as I entered early adulthood my view of life and the universe was that it was fixed, unchanging and rigid. Any attempt at doing something different was extremely difficult and inevitably met with resistance.

How To Do Life?

As a result of these early experiences I had a deep interest in the dynamics and mechanics of "what makes organisations tick" together with the individual and personal dynamics of the practicalities of "how to change your life" that affect many of us at some point in our lives.

A Level Of Success And A Functional Working Model

I immersed myself in the study of psychology, self-help and personal development. I practised positive thinking, visualisation, affirmations; I also embraced NLP and other techniques of self-improvement. I worked my way through various religious and spiritual practices. I did a lot of work on myself to deal with the baggage of my past.

As a result of all this I mastered certain skills in life and in business, and I became fairly successful and what I used to describe as a fully functional human being. At that time I felt that with the mastering of these various skills I had at last got a working model of how to do life.






The Realisation That External Change And Internal Change Are Connected


The Realisation That External Change And Internal Change Are Connected In A Participatory Universe


For many years I felt that my quest to understand organisational change and personal change were two quite separate fields and lines of enquiry. I eventually came to the realisation that they are not and that external change in the organisational structures of life and internal change in my experience of life are inter-connected.

As a result of extensive meditation and mindfulness practice I came to realise that in some indiscernible way everything is inter-connected, and that we are all inter-connected. I do not simply mean this as an idea or a concept but it became a felt and experienced reality.


I Took The Red Pill And Went Down The Rabbit Hole

Truth is, I really have been down the rabbit hole with a lot of this over many, many years in my quest to understand the dynamics of all this. It's the result of a personal journey I embarked on some years ago. Think of "The Matrix" for a visual analogy.

Without fully realising what I was getting into, I took and swallowed the red pill.

Curved Balls And Shattered Certainties

I should say at this point that the driver for this quest has been that every time I have thought that I have mastered it and got the hang of it all, life throws me a series of curved balls that shattered the delusions that were my certainties.

I rapidly discovered two things:

If You Take "Life" Seriously It Engages And Starts To Take You Seriously

Firstly, what I didn’t know at the beginning of all this is that when we start to take Life seriously - or The Energy Of Life as I refer to it, it takes us seriously, and that changes everything.

The Rules Of The Game Change

In simple terms it quite literally reverses the rules of the game. All things that used to work no longer work. The old skills become irrelevant. The model has cracked and old certainties fail.

Secondly, I discovered that once we start out on this journey there is no turning back. This is a high wire walk and the only way is forward.







Relating To & Interacting With The Energy Of Life


The Energy Of Life


The key thing I very rapidly experienced was that there was an interaction taking place between my inner dialogue and accompanying energy states and The Energy Of Life.

The interaction was a combination of verbal initiation (or prayer) on my side, and an intuitive reception of response, supported by external changes of circumstances, and my perception and attitude towards them.

This was rarely an immediate cause and effect but rather analogous to a dance, and often a very slow dance at that!

I came to experience this interaction/dance as a relationship which developed and deepened over time and which as with all relationships involved a degree of trial and error, learning and development.

An excellent insight into what happens when you “take the red pill and journey down the rabbit hole" is shared by Steve Pavlina in a series of 3 videos.

This very largely mirrors my own experiences and he articulates this far better than I can. There is a lot of material here and I really do recommend that you give it some quality time. I have created key point summary notes to accompany each video, they are in PDF format and you can view the videos and download the notes here.







How Far Does Science Support The Idea That We Are Living In A Participatory Universe?


The scientific support for a responsive universe

The short answer is: “Quite a long way, but with important caveats!”

As non-scientific lay-people we have to be careful not to infer conclusions that science does not yet support.

For example, and as I understand it, quantum mechanics (at the subatomic level) does state, and now with proof:


Observer Effect - the act of observation of a particle’s path changes the outcome, such that it is not possible to predict the path.

Quantum Entanglement - the physical phenomenon that occurs when a pair or group of particles in effect “join forces” and “act in the same way as one”.

Quantum Superposition when a group of particles (of any size) “join forces” even when not joined together or are physically separated.

Tests have shown that this can occur at all scales of size i.e. beyond the quantum/subatomic level as a single physical system (or object) – but only as long as the entangled particle(s) are not interacting with their environment e.g. being observed.

Non Locality - that nothing is independently separate and at some level everything is connected.

Quantum Decoherence - occurs when a quantum superposition interacts with its environment - for example as a result of observation – and collapses into a single fixed state and thus renders it subject to the “normal” rules of classical physics.

Thus for example a chair in its quantum state only becomes a chair as we see it because we see it.

Therefore the physical world only comes into fixed being through the act of observation via human senses and supporting technology based observation.

Former Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell explains how we live in a universe of Matter + Energy + Awareness








What Conclusions Can We Draw About Living In A Participatory Universe?

The inescapable conclusion is that the world and the universe (within which we see it positioned) is the result of mind.

This does not suggest individual human mind (in the sense of I see whatever I choose to see) but a collective transpersonal mind – perhaps better described as a cosmic consciousness.

Put simply: there is something out there holding it all together, and I call it "The Energy Of Life ”

But we have to be clear that the science does not prove that the law of attraction works nor does it prove that your thoughts have any direct level of control over what happens to you, how it happens or  why it happens. *

But this does not rule out the enormous scope for personal exploration.

The question is no longer whether quantum theory is correct, but what it means.

* Just to be clear, the one thing you can control is how you choose to respond to these events - and that is the overall theme of this site.






How To Live In A Participatory Universe


Consciousness Is Now The God In Our Machine

For a wider discussion and deeper analysis of what this may mean, and how to engage with this consciousness, please see Deux Ex Machina.


The Hero's Journey

If you want to skip the bigger picture and dive straight into some suggestions for the practice of living in a participatory universe, please read on:

[1] The starting position of greatest integrity is the one that recognises that the true nature of reality can not be proved.

[2] We will never know the truth - so if you can accept this, then approach your journey as a noetic explorer in an experimental frame of mind and do as I have done:


Be humble and ask the energy of life:



    Please help me and show me what I can become?









Next Article:

4 Keys To Working With The Energy Of Life

Return from "Living In A Participatory Universe" to: What Is Spirituality?

Or to: Walking The Talk

Contact me







English Chinese (Traditional) Russian French German Italian Spanish Vietnamese



LATEST ARTICLES

  1. Like A Prayer - Life Is A Mystery

    It Isn't The Process Of Prayer That’s The Problem, It’s The Way It’s Framed. Regardless of what we feel about Madonna or her song the topic of prayer often arouses strong reactions. Usually, it is som…

    Read More

  2. How Things Really Are - The Inbuilt Design Flaws

    Chaos, Disorder And Decay Is The Natural Order Of Things. Nobody has the perfect life. We all struggle and strive to attain health, wealth and personal happiness. Yet these three big areas: our health…

    Read More

  3. Intuition Or Anxiety - Are There Angels Or Devils Crawling Here?

    How To Tell The Difference Between Intuition and Anxiety. How do you know whether the voice of your intuition is real or just the product of your inner anxiety? Several months ago I was having a drink…

    Read More

  4. What Is Truth - How To Tell A Partial Truth From The Whole Truth?

    How the truth and nothing but the truth is often not the whole truth. My great aunty Flo broke her arm and died. It is true that she broke her arm in 1923. It is also true that she died in 1949. But t…

    Read More

  5. Duality And Life Beyond Your Thinking Mind

    Duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuses on the limitations of time, foreground and background, duality and "stuckness". The first aspect of duality and life beyond your thinking mind focuse…

    Read More

  6. The Conscious Mind Is Limited - Be Aware And Be Prepared

    Being aware is the first stage of being prepared. The conscious mind is limited in so many ways. There are some who would argue that there is no such thing as conscious thought and that it is represen…

    Read More

  7. Your Inner Map Of Reality - Here's Why You Think The Way You Do

    The big picture of how your inner map of reality creates your feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. Your inner map of reality is based on the filters of your own ethnic, national, social, family and rel…

    Read More

  8. The Failure Of Cancel Culture - Suppression Not Engagement

    Why we need to wear our beliefs lightly and develop negative capability. Throughout history people have campaigned to fight beliefs, ideologies, and injustices that they perceived to be oppressive, di…

    Read More

  9. 4 Big Reasons Why We Get Stuck In Our Attempts At Personal Change

    Most People Spend Their Entire Life Imprisoned Within The Confines Of Their Own Thoughts. This first of the 4 big reasons why we get stuck is, in my view, the most important. The "self-help industry…

    Read More

  10. How Do I Change And Why Is It So Hard?

    We Would Rather Die Than Change, And We Usually Do In my experience, the vast majority of people who say they want to change don’t change. Most people reading this won’t change because they don’t real…

    Read More

  11. The Illusion Of A Separate Self - Windows 11 With Self Awareness!

    Beyond the content of your mind you are so much more than you think you are. When we talk of "myself" this is the conventional way of referring to our self image which is in fact the ego's constructio…

    Read More

  12. Finite And Infinite Games - Dazed, Confused & Ultimately Transcendent

    This is not an instruction manual, it is a wake up call! Over this past week I have read Professor James Carse's highly regarded "Finite And Infinite Games - A Vision Of Life As Play And Possibility"

    Read More

  13. The Gap And The Gain - How Your Brain Sabotages Your Happiness

    How Your Lizard Brain Sabotages Your Happiness We are hardwired to measure our progress in any and all areas of life where we have goals and aspirations. We can't not do it. But what we measure and ho…

    Read More

  14. How To Wake Up - 4 Simple Practices To Help You Wake Up Now

    So What Exactly Does It Mean to Wake Up - What Is "Enlightenment"? There is nothing magical, mystical or mysterious about waking up we’re actually having glimpses of enlightenment all the time. Enligh…

    Read More

  15. Situational Communication - Different Strokes For Different Folks

    Situational communication is about taking account of 3 often ignored factors about the other person. You are a situational communicator when you recognise that effective communication is not an event…

    Read More

  16. How To Influence Without Authority - 6 Key Tips

    The secret to how to influence without authority is that you get what you really want by giving other people what they really want. We live in an interconnected world and knowing how to influence with…

    Read More

  17. Change Questions To Change Your Outcomes

    Asking The Right Questions Is Critical For A Successful Change. Every time we initiate a significant change - whether in our personal life or in an organisation - we will most likely over-estimate our…

    Read More

  18. Group Culture - The Invisible Software That Rules Your Life

    Group culture is: "How we do things round here". We like to see ourselves as free agents making our own choices and living authentically but the reality is that The Matrix has many layers and we are u…

    Read More

  19. Why Getting From A to B Is Not Aways A Straight Line

    In circumstances of significant change, the progress from A to B will not be in a straight line. We run our lives largely on auto-pilot. In most circumstances your experience of getting from A to B is…

    Read More

  20. The Art Of Persuasion Planning For Success - Here's How To Do It!

    To be successful in the art of persuasion you must ensure that certain things happen. To be successful in the art of persuasion you must establish a framework of what has to happen to get you to that…

    Read More

  21. The Art Of Persuasion Advanced Communication Skills - Gaining Buyin

    Create The Environment Where They Want To Buyin to Your Proposal In order to build the win-win you have to uncover what it is that the other person really wants or needs, and to do that you have to as…

    Read More

  22. The Art Of Persuasion The One Fundamental Principle - Create A Win-Win

    The art of persuasion is based on the simple idea that you get what you want by enabling the other party to get what they want. Being a nice friendly person with good inter-personal skills may be a go…

    Read More

  23. Communication Persuasion And Change - Key Skills To Survive & Succeed

    It's not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change, the most persuasive, and the best communicators. We are living in an age of unprecedented ch…

    Read More

  24. The Eisenhower Box - What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent

    What Is Important Is Seldom Urgent And What Is Urgent Is Seldom Important. The Eisenhower Box is a time management and decision-making model devised by President Dwight Eisenhower to help him prioriti…

    Read More

  25. Zen Enlightenment [Satori] - The Stink Of Zen

    Lost In Our Delusions About Enlightenment. There is something in human nature - a desire to glamorise, sanctify, objectify and idolise – that elevates people who have offered deep insights to the huma…

    Read More

  26. 5 Zen Mindsets For Mastery - In Any Area Of Your Life

    The Wisdom Of A Person Who Masters In Any Art Is Reflected In Their Every Attitude. The state and quality of your mind has a very large bearing on the quality of your performance in any area of life t…

    Read More

  27. Dealing With The Toxicity Of Online Dating - 6 Key Tips From A Clinical Psychologist

    Toxicity Is The Price Tag Of Accessibility. In the early days of online dating, users were vetted and had to go through a registration process and agree to comply with a code of conduct designed to en…

    Read More

  28. Why Understanding Ergodicity Is Critical To Your Long Term Survival

    How Not To Be Fooled By Randomness. Ergodicity is an ugly word from the world of mathematics. It is an umbrella term for two sets of conditions of probability and outcome. These two conditions form th…

    Read More

  29. Dealing With Imposter Syndrome - Ego Is The Enemy

    How You Frame A Situation Has A Profound Impact On How You Respond To It Emotionally. Imposter syndrome is a psycho-emotional experience of a fear of being found out as incompetent despite ongoing evi…

    Read More

  30. The Challenges Of The Road Less Traveled

    Issues You'll Face When Playing The Long Game. The challenges of the road less traveled is loosely based around the phrase popularised by M.Scott Peck with his book "The Road Less Traveled". This arti…

    Read More



Get new posts by email:









Zen-Tools.Net





Support This Site