"What we go through in life are lessons. When we master them, we achieve inner harmony and infinite love," says quantum physicist Jan Rak
What led you to quantum physics? Was it purely an interest in scientific knowledge, or did you see a certain attractive "spirituality" in it even then?
I was always attracted to mathematics and physics. Already in primary school, our teacher explained complex numbers to us, which I found very interesting at the time. At the grammar school in Kladno we had very knowledgeable teachers in mathematics and physics, so my interest increased. Then when I went to Matfyz, nuclear physics came back into my sights. I had no idea what quantum physics said about the real world. But I was also very interested in oriental philosophies like Buddhism, yoga, etc. However, I haven't yet looked for or seen any connections between these philosophies and what I studied in school.
In college, one wants to understand the existing system as much as possible rather than question it in any fundamental way. The first serious encounter with the mystical overtones of quantum physics came from reading books such as those by Nobel laureate Roger Penrose. This author often discusses what consciousness is and how it can be incorporated into a physical view of reality. He has hypothesized that significant advances in science will only occur when the concept of consciousness can be captured in physical equations. This got me interested in what quantum physics says about the world around us, what reality is, whether the world is objective as we think it is.
Albert Einstein, for example, was unwilling to the end of his life to accept the claim of quantum physicists that if no one was looking at the moon, it didn't exist at that moment. But I am certain today that this is indeed the case.
Over a decade ago, I picked up the term "quantization" from you, when it was a description of the conscious shaping of reality. Do you still use that term today? And can anything really be changed by this technique?
The term "quantization" is used in the context of influencing reality, i.e. someone "quantizing" their salary, their partner or their parking space, but I don't really identify with that. However, I do feel that the connection between what I experience and what quantum physics has discovered is profound, and that what we pay attention to is subsequently reflected in our reality. However, I don't call it quantum, rather I use terms like "conscious life" or "conscious experience of the present moment".
Anyway, I myself practice some knowledge motivated by quantum physics that is easily implementable in everyday life. I even got a Flying Boulder for it. It was related to the thesis that when you get a letter from the tax office, you have to first calm down before opening it and realize that the answer "doesn't exist" in the envelope yet. That only happens when you open it and consciousness begins to register its contents, which is related to the level of consciousness at the moment you open the envelope. This is, of course, a rather provocative thought for most of us, and I can understand rational people tapping their foreheads. But on the other hand, it works for me in my life. For example, I know when I open an email that has both positive and negative potential that it depends on what state of consciousness I read it in. But I'm certainly not forcing it on anyone.
Consciousness oscillates on a spectrum that has two extremes. At one end is the role of victim, meaning that you experience reality independently of how you perceive it and what you pay attention to, and at the other is the role of creator, where you realize that the source of all life experiences is you. Each of us thus moves in the area defined by these extremes, but each of us has the opportunity to train our minds to strengthen the role of creator.
When one wishes for something and visualizes it regularly, but at the same time doubts it, what has more power in the quantum realm? Doubt or wish?
Doubt is a tremendously powerful mental force that can distort experience and destroy many a dream. A lot of people are interested in questions of prosperity or success in business in this context, but I believe that the most important application of these principles is in matters of health. In a situation where lives are literally on the line, it's beautiful to see how the doubt setting works. For a person who has some physical problems and feels like a victim, usually those diganoses work out exactly as expected. But we know of many cases where people have been able to recover from even the most severe diagnoses. These are so-called spontaneous healings that even the best experts can't explain.
In my opinion, it lies in fully understanding the role of the conscious creator. If one wants to get out of a difficult diagnosis, one must take the path of extreme discipleship, change patterns of thinking and behavior, and not succumb to doubt.
The vast majority of people on the planet want peace, health and all other positive things, yet the world is in the state it is in. So how does it work? If the majority agree on some version of reality that they share among themselves, how is it possible that we are not living "in paradise"? What went wrong?
Notice that a lot of people talk about how we should treat each other like brothers and sisters so that everyone can have a good time, but all you have to do is go out on the street and within seconds you will encounter a setting that has little to do with peace. Or just look at how we treat each other in our own families. It is said that if you want to save the world, you should think about saving your country. If you want to save your country, think about saving your family. If you want to save your family, save yourself first. There is a great inauthentic disconnect between what most of us expect of others and how we ourselves ultimately behave.
I have personal experience, for example, in Kathmandu, where even in the smallest alley between markets, countless people pass, motorbikes are driven between them, and yet there is no conflict. And if there happens to be a small clash, for example, everyone apologises and smiles at each other. I can't imagine people at home being so friendly to each other. After returning from Nepal, it took me a while to get used to it again.
Is quantum physics one of the most important areas that we should focus on to move society as a whole forward?
I don't think I would put it that way. What can move each of us is self-development and awareness of how what we experience is created. For a lot of rational thinking people, quantum physics can help them to understand that the world is not necessarily objective and independent of how we think about it and what we pay attention to. Quantum physics, whether we like it or not, simply emphasizes the question of how consciousness works. But studying it alone will not save the world. It merely points to the amazing interconnection between the sciences and a mystical view of reality. I often talk about the interconnection between spirituality and rational science, which can be seen when we realize that all technological advances and scientific knowledge are the result of there being a kind of intelligence in human society that creates new possibilities and insights from that data and information.
On the other hand, life is the result of the self-organization of matter, like when a sperm and an egg come together. There simply has to be something "higher", an intelligence that influences the organization of those cells so that at the end of the process, one of the most complex structures of matter in the universe is formed - the brain. Based on this, you can reason that whatever you perceive, whether it is alive or not, is the result of the action of this intelligence.
Today, we even have the opportunity to observe something similar on a daily basis because we have created machines that are endowed with artificial, non-living intelligence. But it is not able, and will not yet be able, to become conscious of itself and to separate itself from the whole, which is the principle of life's existence. I see all this knowledge and technological progress as pointing to a unified source of this intelligence.
Now, quantum computers have advanced incredibly. Is it possible that through them artificial intelligence can connect to this unified field of consciousness that we are connected to?
I recently read a study on quantum computers. From what I understand, there does not yet seem to be any major revolution in this field any time soon. I'm not an expert, but that's how it struck me.
There has also been a lot of discussion lately about whether artificial intelligence can be conscious. But I personally find the answers to these questions simpler than is often presented. This is because artificial intelligence runs on deterministic machines - meaning that if we give it the same input twice in a row, the output will always be the same. And if this were not the case, the entire computing technology would become unreliable and unusable in practice. Determinism, in short, is the basis for making computing systems work at all.
As I've said before, that capacity for self-awareness is essential and distinguishes non-living AI from the consciousness of living beings. But it is also the ability to perceive sensory information. If you give a computer an RGB value (255, 0, 0), it will display pure red on the monitor. But that colour is only really perceived by a conscious observer - for example, a human or some animals that have the appropriate sensory equipment. The computer itself sees no red. For the perception of colour is not just about numbers - it is a subjective experience that can only be experienced by a conscious being who is also self-aware. Without this self-awareness, there can be no real "seeing" of color - only the transmission and processing of data.
I believe that one day there will come a time as revolutionary as today when we will be able to create self-aware AI. At that point, a kind of mystical cycle will close in which a "divine" intelligence will create beings gifted with the ability to create other intelligent life - life that will, in time, be able to do the same.
Is there any new information in quantum physics at the moment that moves the whole inquiry forward again?
I believe that the real development of our understanding of the universe cannot come from quantum physics or anything else. From my point of view, it should be a maximum synthesis of all the knowledge available to each of us. We have the advantage as a Western civilization in that we have developed our mental capacity for rational thought tremendously, and we have made great strides in mathematics and physics in particular. Only we often tend to overlook what this knowledge tells us about ourselves. That's why I'm not personally identified with the aggressive separation of the ontological perception of reality from the rational one.
I believe that humanity is currently undergoing a significant transformation associated with IT technologies that are liberating us enormously. The advances in AI are so dramatic that many occupations can be easily replaced. Is this good or bad? Some may see it as losing ground, but on the other hand it gives us the opportunity to not have to engage in activities that we no longer, as in the past, necessarily have to do as humans to get anywhere. The time saved can be spent on our own inner development. But that requires stepping out of our comfort zone and realizing that we can find the truth not out there in black holes or quantum computers, but within ourselves.
If one were to create reality based on one single sentence, which would it be? What should he strive for internally?
Becoming "master of one's destiny" can only be done by conscious being. A person who is aware in every moment that what he experiences is the result of his own decisions, what he pays attention to and how he tends his "inner garden", a person who experiences inner peace, equanimity and does not expect anything from others, radiates balance and harmony around him. But he can only do this if he truly has these aspects within him. In this way he becomes independent of whatever is happening "outside". It is also important to realize that everything that each of us goes through is just a kind of lesson that we have to go through in order to be able to move towards inner harmony and infinite love.
