Switch on Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health (16 page)

not explain. How else do you explain the effect we have on

each other, how someone with a negative attitude impacts

how you feel?

Remember the mirror neurons in the brain that mirror each

other’s emotions, facilitating empathy that I spoke about a

few paragraphs back? These signals that are passed between

us are made up of energy that can be explained—at this time,

anyway—in terms of quantum physics.

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A Glimpse into the Spiritual World

These observations also give us a glimpse of the spiritual

side of the world that is beyond time and space. It could

explain how, after Jesus’s resurrection, he appeared to two

men on the road to Emmaus, then later that evening as soon

as they recognized who he was, he suddenly disappeared

(Luke 24:31).

A few verses further on in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus suddenly

appeared among the disciples, and they thought he was a

ghost (Luke 24:36–46). Later, Philip suddenly disappears

after the Ethiopian’s baptism (Acts 8:28–40). These are all

mysteries that quantum physics hints at solving, as though

God is reeling us in with beautiful and fascinating concepts

to try to explain these mysteries.

Unpredictability Is the Norm

Unpredictability is the norm and therefore requires faith

and “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb.

11:6 NIV). We see this concept in the
Heisenberg uncer-

tainty principle
, which is a radical departure from clas-

sical physics in that it replaces dogmatic certainty with

ambiguity.

For example, humans are seen as observers outside the

system22 who exert an effect that is unpredictable. And it is

not just humans who are unpredictable. The unpredictability

reaches down to the level of electrons and photons of light,

which cannot have a definite momentum or position at the

same time; particles are neither particles nor waves because

they are both. And as for quarks, bosons, and now preons

and strings, they are simply all over the place.

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Quantum Physics Math Predictions

Show Unpredictability

You can try to mathematically predict uncertainty. (Sounds

strange, doesn’t it?) Quantum physics math prediction is all

about mathematically showing this uncertainty, which basi-

cally undergirds free will.23 But you will never be 100 percent

accurate in predicting exactly what another person is think-

ing—even someone you know very well.

This is a God-ordained precept in which it is clear that no

human knows another human’s thoughts except that person

and God. “For what man knows the things of a man except

the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows

the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11).

The weather tomorrow, what your friend is going to say,

what you will be doing at this time a week from today, in fact

all aspects of life in the future—these all follow Heisenberg’s

uncertainty principle. It gives us two options: faith or fear.

I don’t know what you are going to choose, but obviously

I hope it will be faith. Why worry about tomorrow? Your

heavenly Father knows what you need (Matt. 6:25–33).

It’s All about Trusting That God Is Who He Says He Is

Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is a nightmare for classi-

cal physicists and others who try to explain away God and

free will. Einstein, who could never reconcile himself to this

random aspect of nature, famously pronounced, “
Der Alte

wurfelt nicht
,” which is translated, “The old man, that is

God, does not play dice.” Well, God is not playing dice; he

is simply telling us to trust him and stop trying to control

everything, which is a full-blown setback for the notion that

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the future can be accurately forecast. One cannot fathom the

intent of God (Ps. 145:3; Eccles. 3:1; Rom. 11:33).

Einstein simply looked at it from the wrong angle. The

correct angle is found in Scripture: “Trust in the Lord with all

your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your

ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct your paths” (Prov.

3:5–6), and “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it

is the purpose of the Lord that will stand” (Prov. 19:21 ESV).

American physicist Don Lincoln, a ground-breaking re-

searcher of particle physics at Fermi National Accelerator

Laboratory, captures very succinctly and clearly what I believe

God is doing in science:

We can move easily through air but not through a wall. The

sun transmutes one element to another, bathing our planet

in warmth and light. Radio waves have carried man’s voice

to earth from the surface of the moon, whereas gamma rays

can inflict fatal damage on our DNA. On the face of it, these

disparate phenomena have nothing to do with one another,

but physicists have uncovered a handful of principles that

fuse into a theory of sublime simplicity to explain all this

and much more. This theory is called the standard model of

particle physics, and it encapsulates the electromagnetic forces

that make a wall feel solid, the nuclear forces that govern the

sun’s power plant, and the diverse family of light waves that

both make modern communications possible and threaten

our well-being.24

God’s Plans

Quantum physics, and neuroscience for that matter, do not

provide ultimate answers; they are simply stepping-stones in

the development of our understanding of our Almighty God,

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Thinking, God, and the Quantum Physics Brain

another way of admiring God. Just as sound waves across

the air or big metal planes flying in the sky or nuclear power

were inconceivable before the discovery of atomic structure,

so would unveiling a new layer of matter or a new, complex

brain circuit or a biochemical pathway or a better under-

standing of genes reveal phenomena we cannot even begin

to imagine. God pulls us along in exciting suspense in this

enjoyable discovery of his creation. He is trying to show us

that “glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us.

By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or

imagine” (Eph. 3:20 GW).

Let me point out the obvious: God created everything, and

that includes science and physics, and he has revealed the

laws of this material world we live in over the ages to help us

understand him. I am not being a materialist; far from it. I

believe God is taking us through the material world into the

spiritual world to get to know him more deeply. Why, after

all, did he put our soul and spirit in a physical body and place

us in a physical world?

Quantum physics is creeping into every field, causing con-

fusion among scientists, dealing a deathblow to the Newto-

nian dream, all because it points directly back to God, “the

old man,” who has ultimate control. I love it when his plans

come together.

1. There is the sensory world of our five senses; there is

the world of electromagnetism and the atom; and then

there is the deeper quantum world.

2. This quantum world challenges physicists’ perception

of linear time, orderly space, and fixed realities; and it

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turns on its head the Cartesian Newtonian world that

sees humans as machines with exchangeable parts.

3. Quantum physics, which is different from classical phys-

ics, is a way of explaining how the things that make

up atoms work and making sense of how the smallest

things in nature work.

4. Quantum means
energy
, so quantum physics also tells

us how electromagnetic waves—like light waves—

work.

5. Quantum mechanics is the mathematical framework

used to describe this energy and how it works.

6. Quantum physics basically says

• your consciousness affects the behaviors of subatomic

particles;

• particles move backward and forward in time and

appear in all possible places at once; and

• the universe is connected with faster-than-light trans-

fers of information.

7. Five main ideas are presented in quantum theory:

• Energy is not a continuous stream but comes in small,

discrete units.

• The basic units behave both like particles and like

waves.

• The movement of these particles is random.

• It is physically impossible to know both the position

and the momentum of a particle at the same time.

• The atomic world is nothing like the world we live in.

8. Quantum theory converts science’s conception of hu-

mans from being mere cogs in a gigantic, mechanical

machine to being freethinking agents whose conscious,

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Thinking, God, and the Quantum Physics Brain

free choices affect the physical world. This is called the

observer effect
.

9. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory

says that the particle is what you measure it to be. This

means our perceptions determine the outcome; we per-

ceive the world through the thoughts (memories) we

have built into our brains.

10. The Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE) is the repeated effort

that causes learning to take place.

11. The
law of entanglement
in quantum physics states that

relationship is the defining characteristic of everything

in space and time. Because of the pervasive nature of

the entanglement of atomic particles, relationship is

independent of distance and requires no physical link.

Everything and everyone is linked, and we all affect each

other.

12. Thought signals seem to move faster than the speed of

light and in ways that classical physics cannot explain.

This means our mind controls matter and is therefore

a creative force.

13. Humans are seen as observers outside the system who

exert an effect that is
unpredictable.
And it is not just

humans who are unpredictable. The unpredictability

reaches down to the level of electrons and photons of

light, which cannot have a definite momentum or po-

sition at the same time; particles are neither particles

nor waves because they are both. And as for quarks,

bosons, and now preons and strings—they are simply

all over the place.

14. The random and unpredictable nature of quantum

physics is called the
Heisenberg uncertainty principle
.

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This principle is a way God shows us that we do not

control the future. He does.

15. Quantum physics math prediction is all about math-

ematically showing this uncertainty, which basically

undergirds free will.

16. I believe God is taking us through the material world

into the spiritual world to get to know him more deeply,

and the quantum concept is part of this journey.

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8

The Science of Thought

Main Scripture: Therefore put away all filthiness and

rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the

implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

James 1:21 ESV

Linked Science Concept: What you wire into your

brain through thinking is stored in your non conscious

mind. The nonconscious mind is where 99.9 percent

of our mind activity is. It is the root level that stores

the thoughts with the emotions and perceptions,

and it impacts the conscious mind and what we say

and do. Everything is first a thought. The Geodesic

Information Processing Theory is a scientific way

of understanding this.

The brain is not an input-output machine. You are not

an input-output machine. You are not a computer

mirroring the outside world. Your brain is designed

to respond to your mind. You are intrinsically and brilliantly

designed in the sense that your brain carries out the will

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of the spirit and the soul. Internal activity in your mind is

where everything begins, “for as he thinks in his heart, so is

he” (Prov. 23:7).

The Power of Your Thought Life

In my research, I spent many years trying to understand sci-

ence in terms of the truths of Scripture. I researched, devel-