Friday, October 7. 2005
Create Your Day
The title for this article comes from the film, What The Bleep Do We Know!?
, which we saw the other night. It is a strange mix of serious documentary on the science of Quantum Theory, woven around an entertaining story about a photographer who starts to see the world in a new way.The film succeeds in bringing the mysteries of Quantum Physics to the general public, whilst offering an interesting metaphor about life. For years, scientists believed that they had physics sewn up - Newton's Laws seemed to cover all eventualities and everything seemed fine. And then Quantum Physics came along and messed everything up. Newton's Laws turned out to be a very small part of the physics of the world - only correct because they are approximations within a very limited scope of a much larger model of the world. And so scientists started to look at the world in a different way.
A Primer on Quantum Physics
Firstly, a disclaimer - this is a very simplistic explanation of the basics of Quantum Physics, as explained in the film. We don't even pretend to fully understand the details or implications, but they serve to illustrate the point of this article. As the pioneer of Quantum Physics, Niels Bohr, once said: 'Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.'
In Quantum physics, both light and electrons can behave either like a particle (like a billiard ball) or as a wave (like a ripple in water). When they are not being observed (or measured), they tend to act like a wave. As soon as they are observed, they act like particles. This is known as Wave/Particle Duality.
When you start measuring quantum properties, it is impossible to measure them all accurately. For example, if you measure a particle?s position accurately, you cannot then measure its momentum accurately, and vice versa. The act of measuring or observing somehow changes the particle. This is known as Heisenberg?s Uncertainty Principle.
In Quantum Physics, the universe is connected by information, which can appear everywhere and anywhere else, instantaneously. In other words, objects that are apparently totally separate are actually connected instantaneously through space-time. Everything is connected and able to influence. This is known as Bells Theorem.
Weird, eh!
So what the bleep is it all about?
Quantum Physics teaches us some important lessons. Firstly, just when we think we know exactly how the world is, we have often limited ourselves. In hypnotherapy terms, we call this a persons 'model of the world'. Each person's memories, beliefs, values, and decisions develop over time into their unique 'model of the world', and we use our internal model to make sense of the world around us ? a bit like reading a map.
The problem is that we very often forget that our model of the world is just a model, and we start thinking it is reality. Just as Newton's Laws are a rough approximation of Quantum Physics, so we often operate in a thin slice of reality - perhaps one in which we always fail; where we are not good enough; or where all spiders are 20 foot high monsters just lying in wait for us.
Dr. Leonard Orr suggests our brains have two modules, which he calls 'the Thinker' and 'the Prover'. Once the 'Thinker' develops a belief about an aspect of existence, the 'Prover' starts looking for this and adjusting the input from our senses to validate the belief. The maxim is "What the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves".
In essence, we delete, distort and generalise our experience of the world to fit our internal model, rather than changing our model to the way the world really is. This is why a person with a fear of spiders will be able to immediately spot the tiniest money spider in the corner of the room - which everyone else can barely see.
(By the way, if you have small children, they are great at this because they still have a limited number of things that they recognise, and their brains are constantly scanning to find recognisable patterns. Next time they point and go "rrrrraaaah, lion", and you can't see one, take a moment to stop and look again. Chances are, it is there somewhere nearby...)
Secondly, the film speculates that due to the nature of Quantum Physics, we can create our own day. The idea is that because observation and measurement affect particles at the Quantum level, because everything is connected, and because everything is made of these fundamental particles, it is possible to influence the world with our thoughts and intentions.
As Hypnotherapists, we can't really comment on the validity of this thought provoking interpretation from a Quantum Physics standpoint, but the principle holds true when we look at the mental model of 'Thinker' and 'Prover' above. With Hypnotherapy and NLP you can overcome your self-imposed limitations, and train the unconscious part of your mind to start looking for and validating a more helpful model of the world, allowing you to create your day the way you want it.
For an informal chat on ways we can help you create your day, or for a free brochure, please contact us. For more information on Quantum Physics and the phenomena raised in the film, visit the What the Bleep! Website.
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