Amit Goswami describes his personal journey and how Quantum physics changed his  life philosophy.  Amit Gosawmi shares his experience of introducing the ideas of Quantum Physics to both the scientific and religious communities and why despite evidence many remain entrenched in old paradigms. Plus, Amit Goswami shares the key difference between human and machine consciousness.  What are the limits of machine consciousness?  What jobs will AI take over? Should we be worried?

Science and Spirituality in Harmony

Quantum Economics: Book Summary

In 1999 Amit Goswami was part of the thirty paradigm scientists that were asked by the Dalai Lama to apply the ideas of new science to social problems. In response to this challenge, Goswami published his latest book, “Quantum Economics, Unleashing the Power of an Economics of Consciousness”, to illustrate how quantum science applies to economics.

Amit Goswami first looked at the basic assumptions of our current economic system and traced it all the way back to its roots with Adam Smith, the father of capitalism from the eighteenth century (p7).  Adam Smith’s model presumes that producers and consumers should pursue their self-interest with gusto, but..

• When dealing with competition, remember ethics.
• Producers shouldn’t forget to fan the creative power of their team to forever create renewed interest in the consumer for what they produce.
• The invisible hands of the free market will distribute the capital to make room for new innovation, will produce the needed economic expansion, will grow capital, and will maintain equilibrium and stability to bring not only your personal good but good of everyone-social good.

Amit shares a quantum view of both the world and economics. His book helps illuminate the underpinning belief system that shape how we see and live in the world and how it is embedded in our economic, political, and educational systems.

Goswami points out that this economic model was created and influenced by the prevailing scientific viewpoint (scientific materialism) of that time. The economy, like all systems, could be understood, explained and controlled by equations, models, and laws. He points to the Federal Reserve which uses a series of macroeconomic models and equations to control the growth of the US economy and the simplistic strategies that focus on only two approaches either demand-side models, which focus on government spending (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics) or supply side, which focus on tax cuts.

According to Goswami, he attributes the dramatic ups and downs in our economy to these overly simplified models. While Goswami sees the power in these models, he suggests that we need to evolve beyond mechanical models and expand our thinking to include a quantum understanding of the world.

What would quantum economics look like? Currently, our model of economics focus on individuals satisfying their basic needs of safety, security and fitting in by buying things, which is illustrated by  Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The quantum model looks at our higher level needs of actualization, meaning, and love. This model recognizes all the nuances and complexities of the human experiences to include ethics, creativity, and the causal power of consciousness in business decisions. Furthermore, this economic model would incorporate our subtle experiences such as intuition, feeling, and thinking and what Plato calls archetypes, such as love, beauty, justice, goodness, abundance, wholeness, and truth.

The book offers many possible quantum-based business ideas for business owners to explore in creating new products and services that go beyond just the material realm. The YouTube interview touches upon these ideas as well. Ultimately, Amit Goswami challenges us to expand into our full potential as humans and embrace the powerful gift of consciousness that we all have but have not even scratched the surface of fulfilling.

“In quantum physics, objects are waves of possibilities for consciousness to choose from before they manifest into actuality when an observer looks (Goswami, 1993:Strapp, 1993).  In the old science, only material objects exist. To allow for our experiences- sensing, feeling, thinking, and intuiting- consciousness is recognized as the ground of being in which there are four worlds of quantum possibilities from which arise these experiences: The physical for sensing, the vital for feeling, the mental for thinking, and the supra-mental (archetypal) for intuiting.  When consciousness chooses actuality from quantum possibilities as we look, the four worlds of our experience manifest: physical that we sense, the vital that we feel, mental that we think, and the supra-mental that we intuit. Out of these manifest worlds, only the physical appears to be external and public and therefore called gross. The other manifest worlds are experienced as internal and private and therefore called subtle.” P 17

“Once we realize that the material world consists of quantum possibilities of consciousness, and that the material experience of sending arises from the collapse of these possibilities, we can easily see how to expand this notion to build a science of all our experiences”p77

Amit Goswami YouTube Interview

How did Quantum Physics Change Amit Goswami’s Life?

Amit shares how Quantum physics offered a more integrated philosophy of life.

• 0:25  Amit’s peers dissuaded him from venturing into quantum physics. Amit describes his start as a theoretical nuclear physicist. His wake up call came after he was feeling jealous of his peers during a work conference. As he sat near the ocean he thought, “Why do I live this unhappy way? This non-integrated way between my work and home.” His search for integration resulted in searching for a branch of physics that would make him happy.  He discovered Quantum Physics, which is an area he never touched upon during his traditional studies in Theoretical Physics. His peers warned him that quantum philosophy was difficult for many people to accept or understand and to not even bother trying to understand it. Despite these warnings, he was driven to find a new philosophy of life. As he delved into the philosophy he found a model that was big enough to include science and spirituality. His book “Science and Spirituality, A Quantum Integration” was the outcome of his new found insights.

Amit goswami on Science and Spirituality

Scientific materialism sees the world as filled with material objects that acts in a mechanical or machine-like fashion. This belief system views all objects, including humans, as being controlled to follow scientific laws, models, and equations. These beliefs have driven many innovations and discoveries and moved us away from a system that focuses on faith in the unseen and empirically untestable entities. While there are benefits of this model, there are limitations of seeing the world in this way.

One of the biggest downsides is the division of science and spirituality.

“Consciousness is the ground of being, in which matter exists as a wave of possibility. Reality has two domains: first, consciousness and its possibilities. This constitutes the unmanifest (which psychologists call the unconscious and religions esoteric traditions call the transcendent). Second, they manifest (psychologists call this conscious and religions immanent) where there are manifest collapsed objects and a subject- the manifest observer- experiencing them. The event of collapse caused by the “downward causation” of choice by nonlocal consciousness manifests subject-object split awareness”.  pg 76.

Amit goswami youtube:why traditional scientists and religions reject quantum physics?

• 4:19 Traditional Science creates a world of separateness. While traditional physics formed his philosophy of life, Amit shares how it felt meaningless to him. He was looking for a philosophy that could encapsulate all aspects of his life including family and subtle feelings like love. He describes how his old life mirrored his philosophy, which is based on theoretical physics, where people were seen as objects to have dominion over. Ultimately, it created a sense of separateness, which left him feeling very unhappy, insecure and isolated from his family and himself.
• 7:00 Why traditional science provides a limited world view? Amit explains that quantum physics goes beyond the traditional subatomic world and provides a model to explain the macro world.
• 8:08 Why scientists reject the validity of quantum physics? Traditional science explains a world based on space and time. Quantum physics say that there are two domains of reality not just one reality based on space and time. In fact, Goswami points to scientific experiments that repeatedly prove this truth.  Despite this evidence, traditional scientists still reject the findings of these experiments. What the experiments prove is that there is instantaneous communication (referred to nonlocal communication) that can happen. These experiments conflict with traditional science, which states that all communication must be less than or at the speed of light. Goswami objects to these models that ignore the domain of potentiality, where quantum possibilities reside and where speed is infinite and communication instantaneous. Based on these experiments, Goswami concludes that consciousness is the ground of being and all quantum possibilities are possibilities of consciousness.
• 9:27 Experiments that prove that there is a domain of potentiality. Dr. Goswami details an experiment involving two participants that are attached to an EEG machine. Each subject sits within a separate electromagnetic isolated chamber to eliminate the flow of energy between each chamber. Participant 1 has light flashed in his/her eyes, which causes EEG measurements. Participant 2 responds as if the light was flashed in their eyes and registers almost identical EEG measurements as Participant 1, even though they were in separate rooms. Goswami explains that this experiment has been repeated thousands of times and proven by 24 different laboratories. Find out more here: http://www.deanradin.com/FOC2014/Grinberg1994.pdf
• 17:19  Does anyone in the scientific community embrace quantum physics? Because the paradigm of Newtonian physics is so entrenched, Goswami found that only the transpersonal psychology and positive psychology has embraced these ideas. He hypothesizes that the reason the quantum model was accepted is because it establishes the theoretical basis and scientific proof that the unconscious is real.
• 20:08 What do religions think about science and spirituality? Amit Goswami talks about his experience with Christians, Buddhists, and Hindu and the mixed response to quantum physics.

Amit Goswami on Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness

Amit goswami youtube: What is machine consciousness?

• 0:13  What is it the one thing that differentiates us from artificial intelligence?  Amit Goswami explains the difference between our machine nature and our human nature.
• 2:28 Could artificial intelligence (AI) have consciousness?  Amit explains that scientific materialism defines consciousness as an object, something to have or something to be. In quantum physics there is this idea of tangled hierarchy, which means that there are 2 levels making up each other. Amit thinks consciousness and artificial intelligence fall into this model. In the more traditional laboratory setting there is a level by level of hierarchy going either upward or downward that explains a system. A tangled hierarchy is when two levels make each other, sort of a chicken or egg, which comes first scenario. A scientific example is that it takes DNA to make protein, and it takes protein to make DNA which makes it impossible to make the DNA protein combination in a laboratory. So man creates consciousness via machines and vice versa.

“The third quantum principle of manifestation is called tangled hierarchy. As said previously, in the event of collapse, consciousness, undivided from its possibilities, appears to become divided into a subject and objects. If you think about it, in every event of quantum measurement, the observer’s brain is involved. Initially, it must also consist of possibility; only with collapse does it become actualized, but we never see it. Instead, we identify with it. The brain has somehow captured consciousness enough for consciousness to identify with it. It’s a self-identity, identity with a particular brain. But how is the brain made so that it could enable consciousness to identify with it?  The answer is: tangled hierarchy. Tangled hierarchy means circular two-way causality instead of the one way causal relationship” p95

• 4:19  Why artificial intelligence can never replicate humans? It’s impossible for a machine to have consciousness because a machine cannot be in a state of being, which is a uniquely human ability. Human beings are in a state of being because God can do the impossible.
• 5:25  How can AI exhibit free will? AI will have free will to choose among conditioned alternatives, which humans refer to as freedom.  Do we really view this as the ultimate expression of human freedom?  Even though a computer simulates a good part of what humans do and has the ability to replicate our “ego self” and our personal beliefs, AI can never fully express human values such as freedom. While computers have algorithms, Amit questions whether they can ever truly create. For example, can a computer create something without the inputs from a human.
• 10:17  How are humans different than AI? Humans live in the realm of potentiality (intuition and creativity), which is a realm that AI does not live in. It is because we are alive and living beings that we have access to 2 realities, whereas AI cannot because they don’t have life energy running through them.
• 11:13 Why almost all jobs done by humans will be replaced by computers? If we don’t wake up and expand the economy to more human-oriented ideas (vital energy, subtle energy, and spiritual values), we will have nothing to “do”.
• 11:50 What will humans do if all mechanical jobs are taken over by robots?  The new products and services we create will be oriented towards our humanness. For example, putting the essence of love in technology.
• 14:13  Why we should look forward to having robots take over our jobs? The upside of our free time is having time to explore meaning, values, and spirituality.
• 15:38 Why scientific materialism sets up to see the AI revolution as a doomsday event? If we see ourselves as machine-like (a core premise of scientific materialism), then robotics provide a threat and help create a doomsday event. However, if we see it as an opportunity to explore our self-actualization, then it can be an event we look forward too.

Dr. Amit Goswami – Author, Professor, and Pioneer of Science within Consciousness.

Theoretical Quantum Physicist Dr. Amit Goswami is a retired full professor from the University of Oregon’s Department of Physics where he served from 1968 to 1997. He is a pioneer of the new paradigm of science called “science within consciousness,” an idea he explicated in his seminal book, The Self-Aware Universe, where he also solved the quantum measurement problem elucidating the famous observer effect.

Goswami has written several other popular books based on his research on quantum physics and consciousness. In The Visionary Window, he demonstrates how science and spirituality can be integrated.  In Physics of the Soul, Goswami develops a theory of survival after death and reincarnation. In The Quantum Doctor, Goswami seeks to integrate both conventional and alternative medicine. In Creative Evolution, Goswami presents a resolution between Darwinism and the intelligent design of life. In God is Not Dead, Goswami demonstrates that not only are science and religion compatible but that quantum physics proves the existence of God. In Quantum Creativity: Think Quantum, Be Creative, Goswami explains all facets of creativity—its definition, the quantum thinking it entails, and what is required to be creative. Most interestingly, Goswami says, “Every human being has creative potential, and grasping the quantum process—do-be-do-be-do—will help everyone to explore his or her creative potential.”

In his most recent book, Quantum Economics: Unleashing the Power of an Economics of Consciousness(May 2015) Goswami focuses on critical issues for a new paradigm in economics and business for the twenty-first century, touching upon the stability and sustainability of the economy and leadership, as well as creativity and ethics in business. 

In his private life, Goswami is a practitioner of spirituality and transformation. He calls himself a quantum activist. He appeared in the film “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” and its sequel “Down the Rabbit Hole” as well as the documentaries “Dalai Lama Renaissance” and the award winning “The Quantum Activist.”