to Washington, D.C., in an approximate line-of-sight distance of 200 miles would require at least .001 seconds.19 Entangled particles “know” about each other without having to communicate at all. Albert Einstein spoke of a “spooky action at a distance”,20 because every particle is immediately aware about what is happening to its counterpart. The intriguing question is: Is it two or not two?
Fig. 9: Simultaneous decision made in two different cities
There’s only one conclusion: Entangled particles aren’t two individual objects, but one whole. This whole has the remarkable ability to be simultaneously present at different places at the same time, that is, it transcends space. But one car simultaneously travelling in different places (New York and Washington, D.C.) contradicts our concept of reality. So our idea of structuring the world according to objects is deceptive because we suppose that an object should always be at its “correct” place at a specific time. What we think we see as two individual objects are not always two.
Entangled particles don’t always stay entangled. Performing a measurement voids the entanglement—the whole becomes particles. But the whole never consists of particles, so it is misleading to speak of “entangled particles”. Even the term “entanglement” doesn’t get anywhere because it doesn’t lead us to any new insight. It’s only hiding what doesn’t fit into our usual conception of the world. What I really think is: Entanglement is a phenomenon that forces us to make a paradigm shift. When we interpret the world no longer as objects, then all of the confusion about “entanglement” goes away and the answer falls in our lap.
Alfred North Whitehead will soon invite us to interpret our world as events. We would no longer have to bring up our example of the remarkable car that is travelling in two places—New York and Washington, D.C.—at the same time, but only the event of turning left. We’re really not saying anything against such an event occurring simultaneously in New York and Washington, D.C. It can also rain or snow simultaneously in both places. The same event can happen everywhere at once in the cosmos without our having to bring up the idea of “entanglement” to understand it. But this world view has a price. As soon as we interpret reality according to events, something will be missing that many people absolutely can’t do without: individuality. It doesn’t matter who is doing what in a world of events. What matters is what’s happening—the events themselves.
You could now argue that entanglement is just a phenomenon of the quantum world. But there is increasing evidence that what we see in the macroscopic world can also be entangled. Entanglement among atoms is already a fact,21 and empathy among human beings is a phenomenon that comes very close to entanglement. There are people who are so closely in sync with each other that they know about each other without communicating at all. They have a “common consciousness”. Even trees in the forest seem to “know” how each other is doing.22
A possible explanation for these observations gives us today’s standard model of astrophysics: The cosmos started about 14 billion years ago from a big bang and from one point.23 At that time everything was very close to each other which means that there was a very strong interaction. It is precisely this situation that also triggers entanglement. It is our biggest mistake to consider material objects—that are no longer close to each other today—as individuals. They still are one whole, but we easily overlook this fact when focusing on the objects and disregarding the “stuff” in between these objects. All objects are embedded in something that Buddhists call “emptiness”. This applies to atoms, trees and also to us human beings. It’s the disregard of emptiness that causes the illusion of the self as an individual!
Shankara’s Rope
So everything in the cosmos can only be understood as one thing—not as a plurality, not two. Inseparable unity is also the fundamental thought of Advaita Vedanta, a far-eastern philosophy of life. It is based on the Vedas, the oldest writings of India. For centuries, they were handed down by the great masters to the next generation. The teachings reached their peak in the 9th century A.D. under Adi Shankara who is still known today as one of the greatest philosophers and religious teachers of India.
“Shankara” comes from Sanskrit which is the liturgical language of Hinduism and Buddhism. It consists of sham (English: good) and kara (English: to cause), so “Shankara” is someone who causes good. The concept advaita (pronounced: “a-dvaita”) is Sanskrit also. The root word dvaita (English: duality, “two-ness”) means that something can be dissected into parts. Adding the syllable “a” to the word dvaita means that it is not correct to speak of parts. Reality is one big picture—and that’s why it has no parts.
Shankara himself loved to speak of a parable24 that he valued very highly: Someone enters a dark little shack and can’t see clearly because of the darkness. He suddenly thinks he sees a snake in front of him. Could it be a deadly snake with poisonous venom? He is petrified with fear of losing his life. But the “snake” wasn’t moving. After some time he realizes his mistake. There was no snake in front of him, just a rope coiled around itself (see figure 10).
The rope symbolizes reality, the snake an illusion. Shankara uses this metaphor to show why we experience a “dual world” although there is only one whole. Because of our uncertainty we constantly whitewash reality with illusions. Whoever confuses the rope with a poisonous snake will suffer fear and torment. But whoever sees the coiled rope for what it really is, is enlightened. According to Adi Shankara, we can overcome our lack of knowledge through meditation and thereby reach unification with Brahman, the divine soul of the world: “May this one sentence proclaim the essence of a thousand books; only Brahman is real, the world is appearance, the self is nothing but Brahman.”25
Fig. 10: Shankara’s rope
Shankara’s rope parable reminds us of Plato’s cave parable which I have already presented. Cave or shack—it really doesn’t matter—these stories show how we don’t have a good grip on reality because our senses continually lead us astray. It is astounding that two great philosophers, Shankara and Plato, who were from opposing cultures and different times arrive at a conclusion that is very similar to today’s reasoning in quantum physics: Reality is one big picture which is precisely why subject and object—observer and observed—can never truly be separated.
It is important to know that “not two” and “one” are not the same. The idea “not two” is even deeper than “one”. “Not two” means that it is absolutely indivisible. If something is “one” we can still think of it as consisting of parts. According to Shankara, reality is not only one, but also not two: one and never-two. I must not strive for understanding the rest of the world because the rest really doesn’t exist. The world is not outside of me, nor am I a part of it. There is only “the world with me”.
Darwin’s Finches
Hardly any scientist questioned our role in the world more fundamentally than the British naturalist Charles Darwin. After aborting his medical studies, he first became a theologian. The works of the British natural philosopher William Paley deeply influenced Darwin’s scientific thought which was often demonstrated in his later publications.
It was a great stroke of fate for science when Darwin was invited to take part in a circumnavigation of the globe at the age of 22. In December
