Destiny is defined as the predetermined future. There are events that are bound to happen. The Earth turns and the sun rises. But the new physics shows us that at the fundamental level, the destiny is defined in terms of probabilities. The likelihood that the sun will rise is effectively a certainty, but in this kind of world it is not an absolute certainty. And the destiny is not fixed. It changes with every observation one makes. The extraordinary news is that one is influencing which way the destiny changes a bit, all the time.
THE PHYSICS
‘Quantum Bayesianism‘, now know as ‘QBism’, is the new interpretation of quantum theory put forward by a group of physicists led by Christopher Fuchs. As they make clear, the world one lives in is personal. Each person lives in a world that is ‘determinate’, meaning physically real and actually so, only where personally experienced and observed.
This means that the world of each person is defined solely by the record of the observations they have made. This is where the term ‘Bayesian’ comes in as a central point. Bayesian probability is the probability of what is likely to happen in the world, based on what has been observed in the past and the implications of this information. So the destiny, the probabilities of what is likely to happen in the future, is defined by the record of observations. Which is your memory.
So the destiny of your world is defined solely by your record of observations. And it changes with each observation made. A new event is determinate and real in the world. And it is now part of history, the record of observations.
Crucially, when this process is biased or modified, this alters which version of the observed event becomes real. And this changes the Bayesian probabilities of the future. And in this type of world that alters which version of the future one is likely to experience. In other words, if an observation is altered, the destiny is altered. That is interacting with the destiny.
It is important to emphasis that this is not a physical phenomenon. In objective physical reality such a thing is literally impossible. Observations cannot have that kind of significance. (That is the essence of the famous ‘measurement problem’.) But in the world QBism describes, the world of each conscious individual, this strange phenomenon is inevitable.
It is tempting not to take any of this seriously because QBism remains in contention. There is evidence galore that this is the correct interpretation of the experimental physics, but there is no ‘ontology’. There is no explanation of how this comes to be, in physical reality. This is the new discovery. The world QBism describes is the effect of the superposition of many worlds, a ‘superworld’. This is my discovery. This is described at Avant Garde Science. It means that the world each individual is in works exactly as described in QBism. And that means interactive destiny.
Taking Charge
We are not used to the idea of altering our observations. What you see is what you see. But when ‘confirmation bias’ is operating, the observations we are making have been modified so as to be in accord with our expectations. Because this is an entirely unconscious process we have no awareness of it, but in the QBism type of world this is significant in a manner we could hardly have imagined.
Confirmation bias means that the unconscious modifies the observation so it is more in accord with expectations. So this means that by expecting the best, or the worst, one is steering toward optimistic or pessimistic versions of the future. In reality. Positive thinking is a fundamental and essential life skill.
This is certainly seems very strange but this is exactly what we should be expecting. This is a ‘scientific revolution. This ushers in is a whole new worldview, an entirely different definition to physical reality to what we have previously assumed. The good news is that we can take charge of this phenomenon. Firstly, we can be sure to take note of our expectations in this light, and then adapt them if that seems wise. Secondly, we can also generate expectations deliberately, with visualisation.
In what follows three subjects will be addressed. Firstly, why this exists and how it works, the basis of the new worldview. Then what it means for us personally, and what it means for us as a global culture of humanity.
The How
QBism is not taken seriously because there is no ‘ontology’, the explanation of how it all exists. The whole thing is considered to be just an ‘epistemology’, the explanation of how we know things about what exists. But because it fits the facts of experimental physics, it seems clear that this knowing is nonetheless relevant to what actually exists. As the authors state, this:
… removes the paradoxes, conundra, and pseudo-problems that have plagued quantum foundations for the past nine decades. (Fuchs et al., 2013, 1)
The discovery I am claiming is the demonstration of the ontology of this type of world. And this shows that the knowing defines what exists for each one of us. We live in QBism type worlds.
The QBism world is an ’emergent phenomenon’, a kind of special effect that arises in the universe of all possible ordinary worlds. As explained at Avant Garde Science, this different kind of world is created by the superposition many of these worlds. The relative world is the result of the superposition of all the versions of an ordinary physical world in which this individual exists. I call it a ‘superworld’.
THE SUPERWORLD
This superworld operates exactly as QBism describes. It is determinate solely where observed, and here the logic is self-explanatory. The superworld contains every possible variation of the world that this individual has observed. So, firstly, obviously, all these worlds are identical with respect to what this individual has observed. But, contrariwise, these worlds include every possible variation of everything else. In other words, with respect to anything that has not been observed, this superposition of worlds includes every possible variation of what is real. With respect to anything that has not been observed, this superworld is indeterminate. This is the world of QBism.
In the QBism world, the primary definition of physical reality is the record of observations made. The record of observations, a field of information, defines the reality of this superworld. Naturally, therefore, in this kind of reality, the process of observation has a significance unimaginable in ordinary physical reality.
THE PERSONAL WORLD
The first extraordinary implication is that this kind of world is personal and unique. Because each person makes different observations, each person has a different definition of physical reality. As Fuchs states:
This means that reality differs from one agent to another. This is not as strange as it may sound. What is real for an agent rests entirely on what that agent experiences, and different agents have different experiences. (2013, p. 3)
In other words, we live in personal parallel physical realities.
INDETERMINATE
The key point is that in each reality the physical world is determinate only where it is observed. Everything else is indeterminate, meaning in a state of physical uncertainty. It is this feature of QBism that solves the central mystery of quantum theory at a stroke. The ‘measurement problem’ is the paradox of why observations should be so bizarrely significant. Observation causes the quantum state of the observed to change – the ‘collapse dynamics’ operates. In the personal world the physical reality is defined by the observations made. Naturally, therefore, in this kind of world, the physical reality changes when a new observation is made. Conundra are resolved.
WHAT IT MEANS
So for each individual, the world is defined by the observations he or she makes. Which means that if an observation is altered, this alters which version of the real world this individual arrives in. This becomes of very real interest when we realise that we are doing this all the time, unknowingly. This happens when there is confirmation bias.
Confirmation bias results in an observation being modified before being experienced and recorded. It is the making of the observation which is the key process here.
In the science of physics the making of an observation has a very specific definition. As described by Hugh Everett in his famous many-worlds theory, the making of an observation means that the experience of something happening in the world gets recorded in memory. This is a well understood phenomenon. This is the process whereby the neural system of the brain takes all the sensory data from eyes ears and so on and turns all this into a representation of this world at this moment. This is how the events of the world in that moment are given a representation in the sensorium of the observing individual. In other words, a visual and auditory picture of the world is created in the mind. The observation is made as the result is recorded in memory.
Along the way, however, a funny thing can happen to the observation. It gets edited. Cognitive dissonance simply means we do not like it when things do not turn out as we expect. So the unconscious, ever helpful, tends to modify the result of this process so that it agrees with expectations rather than contradicting them. This the well-known phenomenon of confirmation bias. It is all-pervasive. This is the main reason a dozen different people will usually have a dozen different reports of dramatic situations.
Obviously, in an ordinary world, confirmation bias just means we are all fooling ourselves, generating a rose-tinted version of reality that will doubtless lead to disappointment later on, if we find out what is actually the case. But in the personal world defined by QBism there is a strange and radical effect. The biased observation becomes part of the definition of the real world. So instead of just deluding ourselves, we are unconsciously causing a jump into a slightly different version of reality, one in which the edited and biased observation defines what is actually so. In effect a ‘strange attractor’ is created.
It seems very bizarre, but again this is not a physical phenomenon, meaning an effect that happens in the physical world. That is quite impossible. It is the transition to a different version of the world. As Saibal Mitra explains in technical detail, the alteration of an observation causes one to exist in a different, parallel version of reality, a different ‘sector of the multiverse’. It means that the old adage “Be careful what you wish for” is seriously important. If you are expecting the worst, you may well be nudging your reality to bring about exactly what you don’t want. On the other hand, if you expect the best you should be biasing reality toward what you want to experience.
Just to emphasise, it is not that anything happening in your mind in any way biases or alters what is likely to happen in the ordinary physical world. That is of course completely impossible. What happens is that you bias which path you are likely to take through the infinite possibilities of the future in the quantum universe.
THE TECHNOLOGY
The way to take control of this process is remarkably simple. Naturally, the first step is to be aware of one’s expectations. Then the question is, whether these are really in one’s best interests. Hopefully, if not, we can talk ourselves into a more optimistic viewpoint. And when we want to we can alter our expectations deliberately with affirmations and visualisations.
Creative visualisation means using the imagination to picture events. Once the visualisation has been formulated, repeatedly bringing this imagery to mind produces increasing expectation. This is a well-known phenomenon. Looking forward to a holiday or a special event we think about what it will be like, and thus build up an expectation of how it will be.
It has long been held that visualisations of this nature can actually make it more likely for the events to be experienced. Naturally, there are lots of times when just get on and make something happen. But the idea is that visualisations make the events more likely to be experienced outside of ordinary causality. This is the idea behind the ‘law of attraction’. In the relative world this is exactly what happens. The alteration of observations makes it more likely for the events to be experienced. Technically, the expectations create ‘strange attractors’, tendencies in the relative world for the path of the future to gravitate toward versions of the future in which the events are encountered.
Again, of course, it is not that we are altering reality itself. It is just that we are taking different paths into the future. There are a number of techniques to make this process highly effective. The classic handbook is Creative Visualisation by Shakti Gawain.
THE BIG PICTURE
The other major implication is that karma effectively operates. As you are constantly observing the events you bring about, these too become expectations. So these too create strange attractors for those kinds of events. So the probability of experiencing such events is constantly increased. Your world becomes more like this, and of course that means that these kinds of events may well happen to you.
Altogether this means that the world is not something separate in the way we think. We are intimately involved, each one of us with our personal worlds. When we really understand this we find ourselves treading the same path as the quest of the great spiritual traditions. The world is no longer other.
This fulfils the great requirement of our age. As Thomas Friedman writes:
The fact is, for our survival as a species, our very notion of “community” has to expand to the boundaries of the planet (2016, 352)
The atomisation and separatism that is rife in the modern world is tearing our cultures apart, just at the time when we need to cooperate and pull together. When we discover are deep connection with the world, these difficulties begin to melt away. If we can bring about a new age of empowerment with these ideas, our human race will not only survive but live long and prosper. Societies of this nature do not destroy the ecosystem they live in, or have wars about it. Instead a new age of creative intelligence is born.