QUANTUM WHOLENESS

A New Physics Perspective on Healing

by Phillip Jones

Phillip Jones, MA, LMHC, is a licensed psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, and rites of passage facilitator.  He is currently the senior spiritual counselor for Hospice of Hilo on Hawaii’s Big Island, and also gives lectures, leads seminars, and facilitates longer retreats with his wife to sacred sites. 
Phillip’s undergraduate studies in science and engineering led him to the fields of psychology, philosophy and religion to find complementary answers to life’s pressing questions.
Consider first our particle nature, and the understanding that this same life purpose process can apply to a family, ethnic community, nation, etc.  At every level, the special gifts of the person, group, nation can be acknowledged---first by the person/group themselves, and then by other persons/groups with other special talents.

This is the process of finding one’s Dharma, one’s holy life purpose, through which a person can make the greatest and most joyful contribution to the whole. In fact, if everyone knew and followed their Dharma, it follows that everything would automatically, smoothly move in perfect rhythm and harmony since the Whole (God, Divinity, the Universe) is the Author of all Dharmas.  This, then, is a way that the particle aspect of reality may be aligned on all levels.  But, this may be a somewhat incomplete or static alignment, since Nature is always changing.

The wave nature of an individual (family, society, etc) takes over at this point.  Wave is vibration, movement, action, rhythm, and dance.  It acknowledges the changes of life, the movement of the Tao.  How do we align ourselves with this dynamic, ever-changing Movement?   Through vibrational attunement to the Movement.

The process of rhythmic, vibrational attunement to the Movement of Life is achieved through the Healing Arts.  For example, if I chant sacred sound vibrations, I am attuning my mind, body and spirit to the Universe’s vibration.  I am in tune, attuned, aware, open to the spontaneous energetic flow of Life Energy.  My chi, prana, my life energy flows freely through my physical and subtle bodies, keeping me in good health and wholeness, attuned to the Dance of the Whole.  Similarly, through sacred dance, art, music, poetry, I keep myself attuned to the Cosmic Maestro, who conducts His/Her beautiful symphony from infinity to infinity.  The experiential movement and flow which is the hallmark of absorption in the Sacred Arts is the life force which keeps us truly alive and healthy in body, mind and spirit.

Thus, the two existential questions:  Who am I?  What am I to do? Both are answered through the process of finding our unique True Dharma for this lifetime and absorbing ourselves in one or more Sacred Arts in the moment to moment Flow of Life.  This keeps our particle nature satisfied (I am a unique person with a Dharma which is significant to the Whole Circle) and our wave nature satisfied (I am moving with the flow of Energy of the Wave of Life).  And--in a way of life validated at the very core of reality by quantum physics--we stay healthy and whole in a challenging, fast-paced 21st century.

Twentieth century discoveries in the field of quantum physics have led to the startling conclusion that the “building blocks” of nature are not only sub-atomic “particles” but have a wave-nature as well.  Some prominent physicists (e.g., David Bohm) have even suggested that what has been known as the microscopic particle electron is in fact a totality or ensemble which is enfolded throughout the whole of space.

This discovery has profound implications for awareness of nature at the human level as well.  We are both particular beings with a particle nature (e.g., a person 6 feet in height, 165 pounds, standing, at the present moment, in New York City, U.S.A.), as well as connected beings with a wave nature (e.g., my thoughts, prayers, feelings and actions are impacting and affecting everyone else).  The fact that an action I take in America could instantaneously affect my sister in Europe has also been supported scientifically by experiments in France confirming the Principle of Complementarity.
Thus, from one angle of “measurement” we are separated beings.   From another angle of  “measurement” we are unified beings.

In western culture in general, and America in particular, the separated aspect of our being has been emphasized (e.g., in rugged individualism).  In eastern and indigenous cultures, in general, the connected (“oneness”) aspect of our being has been emphasized (e.g., the family, society, or clan is often seen as more important than the individual).  For wholeness/health, both aspects of our being need to be addressed, recognized, accepted and in balance.
Western people have often been afraid to consider the “oneness aspect” of their nature.  Since the time of  Greek civilization, the West has searched for the ultimate individual particle, the “atom,” an indivisible unit which, when stacked together in various ways, builds a particular person or thing, thus confirming that the nature of reality is individuality.   This obsession with particularity or individuality has also obscured the wisdom of earlier cultures which focused on our place as connected beings in a larger universe.

In many of the great civilizations, persons and places were sacralized through connecting or aligning their position with a “higher,” more harmonious system or realm (e.g., “as above, so below”).  The central temple, or palace of the king, was considered---either metaphorically or literally---to be situated directly beneath the pole star, which represented the center of the revolving heavenly realm.  The pole star also represented God, or Divinity--the Prime, Unmoved Mover.
Expanding out from this central temple or palace were four lines in the four cardinal directions--north, south, east and west.  These lines divided the kingdom into four quadrants of sacred space surrounding the sacred central point, the axis mundi or sacred world tree.  Thus, the people of the four quadrants were also living in sacred space, their lives revolving, as it were, around the “pole star” just as surely as the circumpolar stars in the heavens.  Their individual lives were lived--not separated, but rather in a connectedness, or context, to the family, clan, society, and the entire universe.

Those “earlier heavens” were quite different from the mechanistic, clockwork heaven which came to be accepted by Descartes and other Western thinkers in the 17th century.  They were alive, teeming with gods, angels and other higher beings somehow connected to our life on earth.  Not only, then, was the sacred space on earth made meaningful by its metaphorically spatial connection to the upper world, but the lives of earth people were also influenced by their connection to unseen forces, or fields, which emanated from beings existing in subtle realms.

In 20th century western life, we have been disconnected both from our spatial orientation to the stars, as well as from our personal connection to higher beings and to each other.  We feel alone, isolated and afraid (when we slow down long enough to admit it) in a cold, mechanical, empty universe.  Disconnection always leads to imbalance, disharmony, inner conflict, distress, disorder and ultimately to disease.
How, then, can a 21st century individual (couple, family, community, society, nation, planet) find their sacred place in harmonious orientation to the universe? Especially relevant to this reconnection process are the aforementioned discoveries of quantum physics.

The particle aspect of myself needs an individual sense of mission or purpose; but I need to know as well how I as an individual fit into the whole (the “oneness”), and what is my special point or location in the overall sacred arrangement of things?  This reintegration of individuality and oneness is possible through the pursuit of two things:
      1- Discovering and living our special life purpose  (our particle nature)
      2- Consciously living in “sacred earth space,” surrounded by supportive people, supportive healthy technology, and an awareness of the supportive universe  (our connected, “oneness” nature)..