Fractals, which are geometric patterns that are repeated at ever-smaller scales, are abundant in nature. A head of broccoli is a great example of a fractal. If you tear a piece of the broccoli off, it still looks like the whole. And if you tear another piece off, it, too, looks like the whole. A fern leaf has the same fractal nature. Can you think of other examples of fractals in nature?
Not surprisingly, many quantum properties are present in all living and natural systems. The system possesses properties that the parts do not, and properties of the parts can only be understood in the context of the system. The heart is a great example!
If you take a heart in isolation, you see an organ that pumps blood. When you take the heart in context with the rest of the body, you find that the heart communicates with the brain and nervous system, and is affected by your breathing and whether you are standing up or lying down. Many systems in your body are reflected in the pattern of your heartbeat. Can you feel your heart speed up when you inhale and slow down when you exhale?
In the human body, our cells seem to “just know” what to do, although they don’t have a brain. This “just knowing” is called cognition and may be a result of entanglement. Thus, when one part of the cell does something, the other parts know and act accordingly. Can you think of something you do that automatically affects someone else?
We can change the patterns in our lives by changing our beliefs, feelings and thought processes. Some people call this “reframing.” Can you find something bothersome that you can reframe into something good?
A short detour into the topic of quantum particles: they seem to move in random ways. However experiments show that the random movements create predictable wave-like patterns. Life may seem random sometimes, though when viewed from the 30,000-foot level, patterns are revealed. So rather than focusing on the outcome of events, we should be looking at the patterns in our lives. Take a look around, what patterns do you see?
When quantum particles were studied, it was discovered that we could know where they were OR how fast they were going, but not both at the same time. This is known as the Uncertainty Principle. It means that we can’t know everything in the universe. So much for the know-it-alls!
Einstein discovered that light is a particle. However, when we shine light through a prism, the light waves are separated into rainbow colors. Each color is a frequency of the light wave. So light and other quantum particles are both a particle and a wave!
Einstein could not accept this particle/wave duality of quantum particles so he devised a thought experiment to disprove it. This led to the discovery of “entanglement” which says you can’t talk about some particles without reference to another particle. When you touch one particle it immediately affects the other entangled particle. So what you do affects more than you know! What do you do that affects others?
In the old paradigm, the universe acts like a big clock. If we want to understand the clock we have to take it apart and look at the pieces. In the new paradigm we look at the whole clock and how it works and only then can we understand the pieces. So practice seeing the whole to understand the pieces!