Toward a New Relation of Mankind to Science and Spirituality
That quantum theory has opened a fundamental readjustment in our view on nature is till now not really recognized outside of physics. This theory has changed the outdated idea of matter which has influenced all parts of scientific work for more then two millennia. The quantum theory will convert some fundamental concepts that are extensively used in sciences, including philosophy and theology, biology and anthropology.
In contradiction to a widely held preconception quantum theory is neither unrealistic, nor against human experiences and is also not confined to the region of the extreme smallness. Quantum theory is the result of the cognition that at a very high degree of accuracy already in the inanimate nature and also for macroscopic objects something becomes evident that human beings do experience over and over again. This theory is the accurate mathematical formulation of the well-known fact, that a whole is often more than the sum of its parts and that not only facts but also possibilities can be effective.
Since Einstein’s famous E=mc² it is clear that the distinction between matter and motion is not a fundamental one but, it is only useful in very many cases. Quantum theory also relativized the difference of localization and extension. Depending on the circumstances one and the same quantum object can appear as a localized particle or as an extended wave. The difference between force and material shrink also up to the difference between integral and half-integral spin and the related quanta can be converted one into the other.
Most important for an understanding of life, mankind and consciousness is the equivalence of matter and energy with an absolute quantum information that is free of meaning. Because in everyday language information is always identified with meaning for this abstract quantum information a new concept is found: Protyposis. This Greek word means something that will possibly gain a form, a Gestalt, a meaningful information in the usual sense.
Matter and energy become really understandable with the help of the Protyposis as “condensed quantum information”, as something evolving from something that could be called a “spiritual principle”.
Therefore the interaction of human consciousness with material bodies does not happen between two different substances but between two different forms of the Protyposis having the same ontological status. That opens also the possibility for an actual and scientific understanding of consciousness without any need for a dualistic conception of reality. Therefore the quantum theory of the Protyposis affords for the first time a scientific approach not only to the brain but also to the mind. Our thoughts and emotions are not less real than the quarks that are often declared as the building blocks of matter.
For the validity of quantum theory there does not exists any boundary. Therefore the division of reality into separated objects is only an approximation – of course in everyday life a very good and useful one. In mental states an approach to the unity of being can be achieved if one abdicates from any effort to make a decision or a verification. With the Protyposis even spirituality comes into the grasp of science.
