How Mental Intentions Translate into Bodily Actions
by Henry P. Stapp
This is not a casual read, but it is quite understandable and well worth the effort. The author, Dr. Stapp, has worked closely with some of the pioneers of quantum physics including Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli. In this book, as well as his other writings, he explains how the findings of quantum physics demonstrate that we are not deterministic beings.
For centuries, the success of Darwinian theory and classical physics has led many to believe that our universe and everything in it, including ourselves, has evolved through purely mechanical means. We are all just collections of atoms interacting with one another, they say. Like any physics experiment, if you knew all of the starting conditions, and applied all of the physical rules, you could predict the outcome. There is no free will, they claim. What you believe to be free will is just your vanity, an illusion.
Observations of the quantum nature of matter radically changed this static picture of our world. Matter behaves both like particles and like waves. The exact speed and position of a particle cannot be obtained at exactly the same time. The act of observation affects the outcome of an experiment.
What does this mean? For the past 100 years or so, different theories have been put forward. Stapp provides a very convincing argument, backed up by experiment, that “standard” quantum theory (also known as Relativistic Quantum Field Theory) shows that the way our minds interact with matter is fundamentally different from the way matter interacts with other matter. Mind is not constructed out of matter, nor can it be reduced to matter. “Instead,” says Stapp about quantum theory “it explains, in mathematical terms, how a person’s immaterial conscious mind interacts with that person’s material brain.”
Those unversed or uninterested in science may find nothing radical here. Intuitively it makes sense. What’s the big deal? Those who have used science to buttress their beliefs in materialism—that there is no God—may be outraged to consider that scientific theory points to something beyond our material world. But for someone who believes in an essential harmony between science and religion, this book can serve as a keystone in the arch of constructive dialog.