“The Ring” experience
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A Physics corroborated Transpersonal Psychology explanation hypothesis
A High School Facebook Group alumnus recently issued a most remarkable Post that struck me as a classic experience straight from the annals of Transpersonal Psychology, which seeks to describe anomalous phenomena not currently explained by Psychology. As a similar situation existed in Physics at the turn of the previous century, where physicists Einstein & Planck studies of anomalies in physics (for example planet Mercury's orbit & black-body radiation respectively) led to the development of Relativity & Quantum Physics, I thought that, since a good part of Transpersonal Psychology arose from conversations Western Psychology co-founder Carl Jung had with Physicists Einstein & Pauli, it would be an interesting exercise to attempt to explain the alumnus' experience from a Transpersonal Psychology perspective backed by what we currently know of the Physics of Reality. To begin with a paraphrase of the alumnus experience, he was walking down a street in Paris in the '70's when out of the blue he got a sudden urgent need to get a haircut, spotted a "Coiffeurie" across the street, walked over, got in the chair & as the barber started clipping, notice the barber's flashy ring which, upon examination, had carved on it both the name of the alumnus' school & his initials! The alumnus remembered having given the ring to a French girlfriend in the 60's, the girl apparently having later given the ring to a subsequent French boyfriend, who in turn later sold it to the barber.
A Transpersonal Psychology interpretation
Understanding & explaining such experiences are very much germane to the pursuit & goals of Transpersonal Psychology, & strongly remind of the dinner discussions between Western psychology co-founder Carl Jung and physics relativity/quantum theories founder & quantum co-founder Albert Einstein & Wolfgang Pauli, where Jung was seeking physics evidence for his concepts of synchronicity & collective unconsciousness, while correspondingly similar concepts were emerging in physics of quantum entanglement and non-locality, all the more recently buttressed by increasing verification of quantum phenomena manifesting in our everyday material world classical realm of Newtonian objects, for example quantum tunneling, superposition & entanglement at work respectively in semiconductors, plant photosynthesis & bird migration.
Relevant Physics Contextual Backgrounder
In the particle-wave duality nature of reality disclosed by double slit experiments, reality is revealed to be a field of energy & all apparent matter an excitation state/vibration projection of that energy, essentially stable standing waveforms within the energy field, somewhat like whirlpools in the ocean. When the view of matter is magnified via Transmission Electron Microscope to see atoms & their particles, it shows there’s no “there” there, no piece of hard material grit, only energy waves vibrating as various shapes (typically spheres, bulbs & donuts), compounded as a series of nested modulating spherical waves (like Russian dolls), whose structure is clearly visible in Quantum Microscope images of atom electron shell orbitals. The whole structure is a stable standing waveform making an “atom”, creating the appearance of a “material object”, the totality of which vibratory structure being described as a Wave Function.
The energy vibration generation of the material forms of Nature is readily demonstrable in the physics of Cymatics, starting with the generation of Chladni Figures, matter organized into planar geometric patterns via standing waves induced in surfaces moved into vibration such as drum membranes (animation & app) & transducer-driven plates (you may recall in Villa physics class manually generating the figures by bowing with a hacksaw-strung violin bowstring the edge of horizontal metal plates whose surface was sprinkled with Lycopodium powder, the bowing setting the plates into vibration & moving the powder into nodal rest zone geometric patterns). Cymaticist Hans Jenny evolved the tech to a point where solids form, & beyond that to solids that change shape, move in cyclical ways & even exhibit internal circulatory processes, as described in his book “Cymatics”; Jenny's companion documentary further demonstrates how cymatics can generate essentially any natural form such as those pictured in Ernst Haeckel's book Art Forms in Nature.
Regarding the very existence of matter, Einstein’s colleague & original sponsor, quantum physics founder Max Planck stated “There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together...We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter...I regard consciousness as fundamental" (-- The Observer (25 January 1931) & Das Wesen der Materie [The Nature of Matter], a 1944 speech in Florence, Italy). Einstein himself added “Physical objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially extended (as fields). In this way the concept ‘empty space’ loses its meaning...The field thus becomes an irreducible element of physical description” (-- Albert Einstein, Metaphysics of Relativity, 1950), which is often seen paraphrased as “Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”
In this environment, as "objects" (wave functions) interact they "hookup" by undergoing quantum entanglement, wherein changes to one are instantaneously reflected in correlated changes to the other. Also, complex waveforms are built up of simple harmonic waveforms & can be factored into such via Fourier Transform (you may recall in Villa math class adding 2 same-frequency sign waves together on graph paper - the frequency stays the same but the amplitude (volume) greatly increases). Additionally, via the phenomena of resonance, vibrating systems, particularly at harmonic frequencies, can drive other spatially separated systems to resonate with greater amplitude at resonant frequencies. Likewise, in a non-local entanglement environment object separation distances can be any value for instantaneous correlated action, as described by Bell's Theorem & confirmed by physicist Alain Aspect; further, the energy field is acutely sensitive to even minute vibration - consider that we continue to receive transmissions from NASA-JPL’s 1977 “Grand Tour of the Solar System” mission Voyager I spacecraft, at more than 2½ times the distance to Pluto, over 6 billion miles out in interstellar space & broadcasting from a 24 watt radio.
"The Wave" experience Transpersonal Psychology Physics hypothesis
Taking into account the forgoing, a Physics-backed Transpersonal Psychology hypothesis tackling the Ring experience might break down the experience as follows: Among the group of wave functions that exist for the ring, the alumnus, the girl, barber & barbershop, multiple quantum entanglements exist: alumnus-ring, girl-ring, barber-ring, alumnus-girl, girl-barber; further, resonance between wave function harmonics resonant frequencies over the ring’s multiple entanglements make for a particularly strong ring signal. As the alumnus approaches the barbershop, at some point these signals compound & "spike", resembling a metal detector going off passing over a buried stash of gold coins, energizing the network of wave functions, entanglements and resonances. Particularly strong are the oscillations of the wave function of the ring, coming from within the wave functions of the barber & barbershop, perhaps even capturing the barber, wearing the ring, giving a haircut. Further, with the ring wave emanating from within the barber wave, the latter may act as a kind of package/container/"carrier wave" while, alternately, the ring wave, upon encountering the barber/shop wave, may be in a way "casting a shadow" of the coiffure presence into the mix. As these emanations reach the alumnus, his wave function interacts with them and their information content, encompassing representations of barber, shop and ring. The nervous system and brain in particular transform the incoming electromagnetic signals into something more familiar such as sensations/impressions, further triggering associated conceptualizations thereof as corresponding feelings and thoughts, & where information is diffuse, coming up with a pattern-matching “best guess” scenario - as the barber/shop wave impinges, impressions of same occur, which might be the factor responsible for the sudden arising out of the blue of the "urgent need to get a haircut". Then, once in the barber chair, entanglement, both already long established between ring & alumnus/girl/barber, & increasingly seen as operant in bird migration, like a homing signal directs the alumnus' gaze to the barber’s ring hand.
The Swiss Connection
Switzerland contributed strongly to the forgoing: Carl Jung was born in Kesswil, Switzerland & resided in a home he built on Lake Zurich; Cymaticist Hans Jenny was born in Basel; the 3 Noble Prize physicists Einstein, Planck & Pauli all had Swiss citizenship, with both Einstein & Pauli teaching at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), with Switzerland sheltering Einstein as a refugee fleeing Nazi anti-Semitism & thus enabling Einstein's "miracle year" in Bern at the Swiss patent office spent developing, in spare time at home in his nearby apartment, his papers on Mass–energy equivalence, Brownian motion (molecule existence proof), Photoelectric effect (co-launching quantum mechanics with Planck) & Special relativity (the Bern clock & his analysis of a patent for an invention normalizing country-wide Swiss train schedules inspiring his theory's insight).