QUANTA IN DISTRESS

Physicist Hassani’s treatise critiques the appropriation of quantum physics by pop-spiritual gurus.

Hassani observes that quantum physics has always attracted those with an interest in New Age spirituality, especially since the “rush of gurus” to the West in the 1960s. The injection of Eastern thought into Western philosophy, and the fascination with occultism in the West, had much to do with this rush, as well as the inherent “weirdness of quantum physics.” Many of the founders of quantum physics, like Schrödinger, Bohr, and Heisenberg, encouraged this association by publicly linking their work to various versions of mysticism. But this is a “false marriage,” as the author spiritedly avers, one entirely based upon a rank miscomprehension of physics, a disingenuous sophistry, or both. Much of the alleged similarity between pop spirituality and quantum physics is the result of an astonishingly shallow analogy of the kind one finds in popular books like Deepak Chopra’s Quantum Healing. “They put a mystical statement next to a similar-sounding statement about science—or a quotation by a mystic scientist—and argue that the similarity of those statements implies the parallel between the contents.” The author explains that the stakes of these mischaracterizations are not purely theoretical: An unsuspecting public has been taken in by useless dietary supplements and ineffective alternative medical treatments as a consequence of this ignorance. Hassani impressively charts the principal mistakes made by the spiritual teachers looking for legitimacy via a connection to modern science, an undertaking that requires him to discuss quantum physics in some detail and with great clarity. He’s a touch out of his depth when he attempts to link his thesis more broadly to the history of Western philosophy—it is indefensible to assert that Augustine’s effort to link Christianity with Platonism is the same as what “New Age gurus are doing with Eastern theology and quantum physics.” Still, this is a rigorously researched and well-argued book that should be read by anyone interested in the commandeering of science by pseudoscience.

A meticulous study composed in admirably accessible prose.