the healer makes no translation of the message accessed from nonlocality, which directly stimulates the patient’s cells to reorganize themselves into a healthy pattern.
To paraphrase the distinguished physicist John Archibald Wheeler, we would again say that the description of the mechanism of psychic abilities will be found in the geometry of space-time, and not in the electromagnetic fields. What Wheeler actually said was, “There is nothing in the world except curved empty space. Matter, charge, electromagnetism... are only manifestations of the bending of space. Physics is geometry!”13 When he made this assertion in 1957, what Wheeler had in mind was that, in spite of the successes of quantum theory, the geometrical approach gives a more comprehensive model of space-time. In addition, the physical laws that we experience, such as the laws of gravity and force, derive principally from symmetry laws and from the geometry of the space-time metric. Symmetry laws describe the fact that a given physics experiment conducted at different places or times must give the same result. The law of conservation of energy, which is the foundation of physics, can be derived explicitly from these symmetry laws. Similarly, I think that since psi must be compatible with physics, its explanation will also be derived from the geometry of space-time.
When we say that the eventual description of the physics of psi will come from geometry, what we mean is that psi is often seen as paradoxical because we presently misconstrue the nature of the space-time in which we reside. The “naive realist” picture of our reality says that we are each separate creatures sitting on our own well-circumscribed points in space-time. But for the past thirty years, modern physics has been asserting that this model is not correct.
If this explanation does not seem entirely clear, it is probably because, even though Einstein published these ideas sixty years ago, the smartest physicists in the world still do not agree on all of the implications of these nonlocal connections. In fact, Nobel laureate Brian Josephson wrote of quantum physics experiments:
The existence of such remote influences or connections is suggested more directly by experiments on phenomena such as telepathy (the connection of one mind to another) and psychokinesis (the direct influence of mind on matter), both of which are examples of so-called psi function-ing.... One may imagine that life may exist from the beginning as a cooperative whole, directly interconnected at a distance by Bell-type nonlocal interactions, following which modifications through the course of evolution cause organisms to be interconnected directly with each other.... One can see conceptual similarities between psi skills and ordinary skills, e.g. between perceptual skills of hearing and telepathy on the one hand, and between the forms of control of matter involved in control of the body, and in psychokinesis, on the other.14
SPIRITUAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL TRADITIONS
In addition to the theories of physicists, the writings of poets and philosophers (some of which originated before biblical times) have articulated the idea that physical separations are more illusory than real. Buddhist teachings, following from the earlier Vedic tradition of 500 b.c., propose that human desires, judgments, and attachments, which arise from distinctions such as “here and not here,” “now and not now,” are the cause of all the world’s suffering.
Aldous Huxley describes the many levels of awareness associated with the “perennial philosophy,” a term for the highest common factor present in all the major wisdom traditions and religions of the world.15 The first principle of Huxley’s perennial philosophy is that consciousness is the fundamental building block of the universe; the world is more like a great thought than a great machine. And human beings can access all of the universe through our own consciousness and our nonlocal mind. This philosophy also maintains that we have a dual nature, both local and nonlocal, both material and nonmaterial. Finally, the perennial philosophy teaches that the purpose of life is to become one with the universal, nonlocal, loving consciousness that is available to us. That is, the purpose of life is to become one with God, and then to help others do likewise.
In this worldview, through meditation one experiences increasing unity consciousness as one passes through “the great chain” of physical, biological, mental, spiritual, and etheric levels of awareness. Through meditation, one experiences the insight that one is not a body; one has a body. Even the idea of “one” is eventually given up in favor of the experience of expanded awareness.
The lesson that separation is an illusion has been spelled out by mystics for at least 2,500 years. Hinduism teaches that individual consciousness (Atman) and universal consciousness (Brahman) are one. (As I mentioned in the Acknowledgments, physicist Erwin Schrödinger considered this observation to be the most profound statement in all of metaphysics.)16 In the Sutras of Patanjali, written 100 years after the Buddha lived, the great Hindu teacher taught that a “realized” being achieves a state of loving awareness in which “the Seer is established in his own essential and fundamental nature (self-realization).” The view of life in which we are all connected with God, and in which the “Kingdom of God” is within us, waiting to be realized and experienced, is part of both the Jewish and Christian traditions — especially in the Thomas gospel.17 We learn that the loving source we are seeking is immediately available when we make contact with the great “I Am” within each of us.
In Judaism, the local community of spirit is often referred to as HaShem (the word), while in Christianity it is called the Holy Spirit, or Emmanuel (the immanent or indwelling God of all). This view of a community of spirit probably arose from mystics of every sacred tradition, whose meditations led them to have oceanic, mind-to-mind feelings of oneness. These realizations may be fleeting or lasting, spontaneous or the product of religious practice, but they are an enduring feature of human life.
When I write about “realizations,” I am describing a state in which a practitioner has wisdom of who she or he is, and has embodied that wisdom; it has become integrated into daily life, thoughts, and activities. We often view “awakening” as a first step toward such realization. Awakening can occur in the blink of an eye, frequently through the direct, heart-opening (heart-breaking) transmission of grace from an awakened teacher.
Meditation and working with a spiritual teacher, such as my work with spiritual teacher Gangaji, are two wonderful and proven paths to self-realization. But sublime music, surrendered sexuality, and even certain potentially dangerous drugs such as MDMA (Ecstasy) can stimulate a spiritual awakening together with a transcendent, one-with-God experience of spaciousness.18 The inspiring and life-affirming tantra teacher Margot Anand describes this opportunity from her tradition. She writes: “Skillful lovers become divine instruments in a symphony of delight. Their communion is ecstasy, the highest state of self-knowing [selfrealization] and self-forgetting [spaciousness].” Who would not wish to partake of that?! In my opinion, Margot’s heart-opening and humorous approach to love can help us recover from the terrible damage done to the American psyche by our own fundamentalists, the Puritans.
The Tibetan deity Samanthabhadra is a compassionate bodhisattva (one who postpones his or her own enlightenment to bring others to enlightenment), whose image is frequently depicted in the inspiring Dzogchen, Buddhist texts of self-liberation. These teachings assume that you are already a peaceful, loving, openhearted being who is now willing to experience the fast track to spaciousness and timeless awareness. Samanthabhadra is invariably shown in the loving sexual embrace of his partner, Samanthabhadri. Similarly, in quantum physics the material universe is represented by equations called wave functions, a term invented by Erwin Schrödinger, who taught us that in order to manifest as a material object, any entity must appear together with its complex conjugate. In other words, both its real and imaginary parts must be present. That is why these two loving deities are always shown together; in order for either one to manifest, it is necessary to have them both, like the north and south poles of a magnet. That loving exchange of energy is what Margot encourages us to experience on our path to self-discovery.
I once told anthropologist Margaret Mead
