Rhonda Byrne has just released "The Power," a sequel to "The Secret," which was propelled to wild popularity by The Oprah herself. The central message of these books is that you are Meant To Have Everything You Desire.
You get your desirables with the Law of Attraction, which says that visualizing things causes them to happen. Need money? Visualize it! If you have trouble visualizing, you can go to Rhonda Byrne's website and print out a blank check. [See item at bottom of page.] You are instructed to fill in your name and the amount you want to receive in your chosen currency and then to look at the check and believe you have the money. There is even an iPhone app for the technologically savvy.
What exactly is the Law of Attraction? It's not easy to discern, but has something to do with Actualizing Reality by envisioning it. Ms. Byrne and friends justify the Law by mumbling something about quantum physics.
I grew up in the era of pyramid power and alien visitors so Ms. Byrne's ramblings are nothing new, but it stung to read that quantum physics supports her notions. You see, quantum physics is my physics.
In fact, I have spent the past 30 years thinking about the quantum mechanical nature of the universe. This strange vocation has conferred a decent living in academe upon me, and for a brief period as a graduate student, the adoring queries of a small coterie of female philosophy students.
Einstein famously declared that quantum physics is a spooky business. It turns out that the rules describing the very small often defy our classical, large-scale, imagination.
A central feature of the quantum world is the notion that all things are neither particle nor wave, but a sort of wave-particle chimera. Implications of wave-particle duality have been seized by the New Agers for their own purposes.
For example, the wave half of the duopoly makes it impossible to simultaneously measure the position and speed of a particle. To make matters worse, one cannot make definite statements like "A causes B," but only statements like "A causes B with probability P."
This indeterminacy overturned the idea that the universe unwinds its destiny like a cosmic clockwork, which had been in vogue for 300 years. It was also unpalatable to Einstein, who felt that "God does not play dice with the universe."
More recently, it has been commandeered by Ms. Byrne and Deepak Chopra and Sue Morter and other New Agers who use it as a contrivance to cast off the dreary shackles of fatalism.
Quantum physics also tells us that when a measurement is made, the wave aspect of the duopoly dies, leaving only the particle aspect. This phenomenon, called "wavefunction collapse," has found special resonance with the New Agers.
Naively, the measurement process requires a measurer -- someone to actually observe the system. Thus you and I have the power to collapse wavefunctions merely by looking at something.
It is only baby steps to the idea that the act of observing something actually causes it to exist. And if it is the Mind of Man that brings things into existence, can't we create anything with our thoughts? Indeed, is the moon there if no one is looking at it?
This conceit is so common that it has become part of the national psyche: If you want it hard enough, it will happen. Got a big problem? Wish harder! Reality looking a bit ugly? Envision a better one! This is the essence of the Law of Attraction.
But alas, quantum physics says nothing of the sort. Wavefunction collapse is merely a physicist's shorthand for saying that nature has chosen a specific realization of a physical system. The moon really is there when you don't look at it. And wishing for things does not make them happen.
So, you see, the theft of quantum spookiness to "explain" dubious New Age philosophy raises my hackles. Keep your hands off of my theory, Rhonda Byrnes!
Although quantum mechanics is far removed from everyday experience, it pervades us and everything else, underpinning our very existence.
At the level of the mundane, your laser pointer flings wave-particles of light by exploiting a quantum mechanical cooperation between light and matter duopolies. And your fridge magnets faithfully hold children's art and shopping lists because of a similar quantum cooperation between the atoms that make up the magnet.
On a grander scale, it is the wave nature of atomic nuclei that permits the conversion of gravitational energy to light in the sun, which powers our world and all the life on it. And on a level so grand that it approaches the mystical, all the matter in the universe would collapse into a cosmic black hole if it were not for the stability provided by the wave-particle nature of atoms.
If that isn't enough, it is widely believed that the Origin of Everything occurred in a primordial quantum fluctuation called the Big Bang.
Thirty years of thinking about the quantum mechanical nature of the universe has left me with a healthy respect for the mystery that permeates reality. So if you find yourself wondering where your Q-ray bracelet or Reiki therapeutic gem is because your Qi is out of balance, take a look around. It is a majestic, bewildering, inspiring, quantum mechanical world out there.
From Rhonda Byrne's website, www.thesecret.tv
"The Bank of the Universe is open and with the universal check, you can visualize the unlimited abundance that is yours for the asking.
"Print the check, fill in your name and the amount you wish to receive in your chosen currency, then sign and date it. Place the check in a prominent position where you will see it every day! Every time you look at your check, believe and feel that you have the money now!"
First Published: January 9, 2011, 10:00 a.m.
