Journal of the Society for Psychical RestApproved For Release
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Notes
chology.
In addition,
there
is much philosophical
discussion on
its
possible
participation in the constitution and operation of consciousness. However, this
Note
deals
with
a
completely
non-technical
aspect of the
relationship and
consequently
an
understanding
of quantum
theory
is
quite
unnecessary,
providing the conclusions drawn from quantum experiments are accepted. Some
of these conclusions might seem to a layman evenI more preposterous than the
claims of parapsychology appear to a physicist, J&ut there
is no escaping their
veracity. Quantum physics
is one of the most firmly established branches of
science and its validity has been confirmed by th/work done on it, which ranges
from sub-atomic experinWts to many types of/ndustrial application.
The main types of paranormal mental
activity are telepathy and PK and
included
in
the former are p^tenomena such/ as
crisis apparitions which are
probably visual 3-dimensional n^anifestations of it. The materialist maintains
there is no indisputable evidenceV suggest/hat there can be any communica-
tion,
apart from
the
established
Rhysica/ means,
between two
individuals
separated by hundreds of miles. (Of apurae, even Sir Isaac Newton in his day,
would have agreed
it was utterly impossible for somebody in Europe to hold a
conversation with
a person
in
the NeV World!).
Little attention
is paid
to
anecdotal accounts or the results of nop^epeatable experiments. There
is no
answer to questions asking how a sign^ eVianating from an agent in Brighton
knows how to locate a recipient in Birmingham, and yet disregard every other
possible recipient. Distance between Agent \nd percipient does not appear to
affect the signal’s effectiveness, therel# suggesting that telepathy must break one
of the fundamental laws of science— the inversetsquare law. Again, nothing has
ever been discovered in the brain i^iich could Be related to telepathy, and one
cannot have an informatory radiatfon without sdbie means of transmitting
it.
The scientific attitude is rather surprising in viewt of the fact that there exist in
the physical world virtual duplicates of these ‘impossible’ criteria. If an atomic
particle explodes into two fragments, A and B, whiefnare allowed to travel apart
for a great distance, then an akt\on, such as a measurement of one particle,
immediately produces
a
reaction
in
the second
particle,
irrespective of
its
distance away. (A detailed exafrnple of a particular form ^interference with the
first particle A, and the reaction of the second B, is describe^! by Davies,
1 but only
the principle involved
is relevant here.) There therefore \xisls
in physics the
equivalent of the basis of telepathy. The
first particle A ^corresponds to the
telepathic agent, and is ab\4 to locate and communicate witlvoarticle B without
regard to the inverse squajfe law and without affecting any other particles in its
sphere of influence. In addition, the disturbance created in particle A induces a
configuration in B which! is dependent on the type of influence exerted on A,
thereby
suggesting
the/ transmission
of an
informatory
signal.
All
this
is
indisputable, yet it rais/s exactly the same questions which
it is claimed render
telepathy an impossibil/ty. By what means does the first particle A communicate
with B? How does
it know where
to find
it and avoid extraneous particles?
Particle A can be influenced in various ways and B always makes the appropriate
response, which suggests an informatory signal from A to B. The parallel with
telepathy
is obvious.
One of the most extraordinary characteristics of the quantum factor is that the
act of conscious observation can affect the properties of the observed particles,
Approved For Release 2000/08/15
: CIA-I
being able, for example, to convert what is referred to as a ‘ghost’ electron into a
concrete reality. It is sometimes claimed that this is confirmation of PK on the
grounds
that
if consciousness
can
affect physical
matters
in
one
set
of
circumstances, then
it can operate
in PK ^experiments, although
it does not
necessarily follow that the behaviour of a/ingle atom will be duplicated in the
case of the imm&iisely larger molecular i/rouping of a dice.
More importantly^hqwever, is the implication of this situation for dualism and
accordingly for parapsycfiblqgy. Neo-Cartesian dualism presumes there
is an
interaction between a possiblyffsm^physical consciousness and a material brain.
This hypothesis has been unacc^p^He to many scientists for several reasons: it
is impossible to conceive the nature olSa non-physical entity, it is impossible to
comprehend how anything so insubstanthd could modify a physical system, it is
impossible to suggest the source of the nec^sary energy and how it is utilised,
and so on.
In
short, th/whole situation
is n<terly impossible, yet quantum
experiments show it does take place.
The quantum factoi/does not suggest that the mincK^not physical, nor does it
indicate how the mind might interact with the brain, oh<yen if it does so, but
what it clearly proves is that it could, and thus makes it impossible for responsible
scientists to dismis^dualism and parapsychology out ofhand on the grounds that
mental influence on a physical body at a distance cannot exist in nature.
Ashford, Kindlestown Hill
.
Delgany, Co.
Wicklow, IRELAND
REFERENCE
1.
Davies, P. (1983). God and the New Physics. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
EXPERIMENTS WITH GOD. ESSAY REVIEW OF CORNELIS W-
RIETDIJK’S EXPERIMENTEN MET GOD *
byjoop M. Houtkooper
There may be as many as a few dozen SPR members that know the Dutch
language, but this review is intended to be of interest, not only for them, but also
for the general reader of the JSPR.
We no longer live in a classical world. Like a hundred years ago, apples fall
down,
cannonballs
follow
parabolic
trajectories,
and
planets
move
in
a
predictable way
in
the
sky,
but
this
no
longer
reflects
natural
law
in
a
fundamental manner. Though we may not be aware of it, our daily lives are more
and more shaped by the applications of quantum mechanics and the theory of
relativity.
We also live in an age which may be characterized as moral. The limits on
pollution, natural resources are visible on a global scale. Economy develops on a
global scale, and, as some say, the Third World War has just ended, having been
fought by economic means. The most prominent question society has to deal
* BRT Press. Brussels 1989 (In Dutch) 269pp. DO. 41.50.
'P96-00792R000700830001 -9
o fi1
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research
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January 1991]
Notes
fVol. 57, No. 822
with may be: What to do ifwe want humanity to stay on its feet? That is, for those
who have a hang for morality.
‘Experiments with God’
carries as
its motto the well known citation from
Einstein: ‘God doesn’t play dice’
(1),
to which Rietdijk has added ‘with the
world’, thereby indicating a tendency in his thinking.
A few words from the biographical note the book
contains:
Rietdijk
is a
physicist and a mathematician. During and following his long career as a physics
teacher, he has published,
first, books and journal
articles about social and
cultural
philosophy,
and
second,
articles and
conference
contributions on
theoretical physics.
About the first, Rietdijk shows concern about the fate of society in its broadest
sense, often expressing rather libertarian and controversial views. (At the end of
the sixties he wrote that we should, in the interest ofhuman happiness, spend ten
per cent of our GNP on parapsychological research!)
About his, over a dozen, publications in physics: since 1966 he has written on
retro-active effects (in a.o. Philosophy of Science and Foundations of Physics),
and on matter-wave interference. I have heard his publications been described as
‘controversial, but technically sound’.
In ‘Experiments with God’,
Rietdijk
bridges
the gap between
these two
aspects of his writing. He certainly succeeds in being controversial, and we shall
see to what extent he is technically sound.
‘Experiments with God’ consists of three parts, entitled: ‘1.
1 he new physics
,
‘2. Are there laws in human destiny? Parapsychology comes of age’, and ‘3. The
new science and religion’. Each part consists of five chapters, each chapter being
preceded by an abstract.
Part
1 may be compared to Zukav’s well-known ‘The dancing Wu-li masters’.
Rietdijk doesn’t dance however, he sets a brisk pace. So he succeeds in the first
twelve-page
chapter
to
give
a
very
clear
picture
of
the
Bohr-Einstein
controversy, the EPR-paradox, the Bell-inequalities and Aspect’s experiments
validating
the strange
non-local
character of quantum mechanics. To me,
Zukav’s dance suddenly seemed to be a sluggish meandering.
The second chapter of Part
1 gives an expose of relativity theory. Rietdijk gives
a note on the existence of the four-dimensional space-time continuum, implying
that the future already exists. (Very sensibly he adds a remark on the problem of
the free will.) In chapter 3, he gives an account of his proof of the retro-active
effect in quantum mechanics, underpinning the above implication.
In chapter 4, the non-locality ofquantum mechanical systems is viewed from a
new angle, showing the significance of the concept of ‘action-distance’ of events
in
the four-dimensional space-time continuum. The action-distance
ol non-
locally related events
is shown to be zero. Planck’s quantum of action
is the
yardstick of action-distance.
At this stage we have all the elements at hand of the idea how distant events
may physically (!) interact, other than through the known physical forces such as
the
gravitational and
electromagnetic. Moreover, we are introduced
to
the
possibility
that
the
non-local
interactions may
take
the form
of
feed-back
relations and this allows the formation of patterns of events, otherwise separated
in space and time. This formation ofpatterns through non-local interactions
is
termed the ‘super-local co-ordinati^PeFW^^^fff^^SffgPMPS/IS
: CIA
In chanter 5 Rietdijk localizes his ideas with respect to others He tackles on
J
,T.nd
theProponents of Eastern-intuitive and
holistic approaches,
^'fied bv Capra’s ‘The Tao of Physics’
and, on
the other hand,
t
e
^rfHSKisssa
Rietdijk hypothesizes that the retro-active effec
p
y
„
t
Va
?
a
o
bwi t
fundamental randomness is. dett
clTofchanter 5 Rietdijk puts forward the idea that the ‘orchestration’
or“« by physics, may connect with aspects
>f "*«"= -ah,
" MsTay SVTSSSTiSSu SghTand ‘integral; or religions
Go^does not^
^f^deTthe heading
‘the new
physics’.
$£££«
his proorof retro-active effects, ,0 which I will
‘‘‘part'^starts with an accoum o^^rapsyth^o^. In
thCiPrecethng
chapters
it
is not surpnsmg that Wa tor s
tersio'
r
coincidences to
adopted a, a theorettcal
is between the goal
-RDR96-007912R0©a7eO83ffGWSEPf coincidences and he re ers
J
g,
362