The Akashic Field Part II: Unexplained mysteries

(This is part II of a review of Ervin Laszlo's book, Science and the Akashic Field- see part I below)

At the core of Laszlo's book is the idea that the Universe is guided by an "informational" field, or, as he calls it: the "A-field". This name is taken from the Sanskrit word for "ether", Akashic. He describes the field as something akin to the Gravitational Field in that one cannot see it, feel it, or directly observe it- but one can infer that it exists from the way things may interact with it. This informational field, may inform all things in the Universe- from the smallest entities like quanta to massively large cosmological things like stars, planets, solar systems, and the actual universe itself.

What kinds of things can one infer an informational field from? Here Laszlo lists many different puzzles that do not make any sense when looked at from the conventional scientific point of view.

A. Cosmic mysteries:

1) The staggeringly fine-tuning of the universe: if the "Big Bang" had produced just one billionth more or less matter than it did, space-time would have been curved even in the absence of matter (it is flat in the absence of matter).

2) The missing "mass" of the universe: even when scientists use dark matter to account for a huge chunk of the mass in the universe that they cannot see, there is still a massive amount "missing".

3) The accelerating cosmos: the cosmos should be slowing down.

4) Coherence of cosmic ratios: the mass of elementary particles, the number of particles, and the forces that exist between them are all mysteriously adjusted to favor certain ratios that appear over and over.

5) the "horizon" problem: the cosmos is evolving exactly the same in every direction from the Earth, but that kind of coherence doesn't make any sense- nothing could travel that fast to make sure it stayed coherent.

6) fine-tuning of universal constants: the universe seems very finely tuned for the extremely improbable conditions for which life can emerge and evolve.

Conclusion from cosmic mysteries: something is connecting everything in the Universe, and thus the universe may not have risen in the context of random fluctuations.

B. Puzzles of Quantum Physics:

1) Quanta (the most infinitesimal unit of any entity) do not exist in just one state. Until interacted with they display the counterintuitive behavior of being in multiple states at the same time.

2) Once a quanta is interacted with, it "becomes" one state- but there appears to be no way of telling beforehand which state it will become- it seems to choose its state from some other way than the act of the interaction.

3) You cannot measure both speed and energy of a quanta at the same time- when one is measured, the other becomes "blurred".

4) Quanta that are linked somehow remain linked: even when taken far apart, when one is observed, the other takes on a complimentary state based on its linked partner.

5) In one system, all the quanta are linked in such a way that not only will all take on a state based on another quanta- if one is individually measured the others will take on a complimentary state- even if the experiment is not carried out.

Conclusion from activity at the quanta level: Newtonian physics works on Earth- but ran into trouble once we split the atom. Then Einstein came up with Relativity- which is very hard to understand as it does not mirror what we see in everyday life. Now that concept is having trouble since quantum mechanics has come along. Something even more counterintuitive is needed to explain the phenomena we are now experiencing. What can connect quanta and make them behave the way they do? No matter how far apart- even light years away- quanta are somehow correlated. How does that happen?

C. Puzzles with Biology

1) organisms are extremely coherent: experiments in quantum biology have shown connections between organs in the body and in particles within organs.

2) organisms are coherent with their environment: without an internal fine-tuning to the external, organisms would have not been able to adapt to changing environments and would have been eliminated by natural selection.

3) The Darwinian concept of the separation of the genome from its environment is not correct- it has been proven so by statistics and experimentation: offspring can adapt in such a way that the same environment would have killed the parent. Statistics proves that chance mutations and natural selection could never have resulted in life in such a "short" period as it did on Earth.

Conclusion from Quantum biology: we are not only internally coherent, we also are coherent and correlated with the outside world. Not only that, but something guided the evolution of life- chance and destruction of the weak couldn't have done it.

D. Puzzles with Conscience research:

1) The measured effects of "non-local" events: groups praying for hospitalized individuals were able to have a statistically significant impact on those hospitalized when compared to those who were not prayed for.

2) Cultures developing similar artifacts and other cultural connections and correlations although they were never in contact.

Conclusion: not only are we coherent within ourselves and the outside world, but we are coherent with each other.

Conclusion from all this: things on the micro, macro, and even "ordinary" (from the human perspective) scales are surprisingly coherent and correlated. What makes this coherency and correlation happen?

A possible solution is an informational field that we cannot detect, but that "informs" everything in the Universe, guides all evolution, and connects us to everything. What does it mean? This is a question Lazslo will attempt to answer, but one in which we can attempt to answer for ourselves as well. What are the implications of some of these ideas on us as Christians? On our understanding of God and our purpose here? On life and the afterlife?