the Quantum Rainbow Connection

Why are there so many songs about rainbows, and what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions, and rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told, and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me
Paul Williams

We each suffer from a flawed assumption that the world we share with everyone else is a world that has a definable objective reality. This is not only one of the biggest unsolvable paradoxes of quantum physics, but is the assumption that lies at the root of essentially all conflict between humans at every level. Arguments ultimately originate when one person asserts that their version of reality is the correct one. All hell can break loose when another person defends a different version. In fact, there is no singular "true" reality. To quote Bob Livingston, one of the fathers of our understanding of neuro-science, “Our individual experiences are so different from one another that the world consists of a couple of billion people and a couple of billion worlds.” Communication is bound to break down in our inescapable world of plural realities. No point of view is ever defensible, "in reality", no matter how outrageous.

So if we live a plurality of realities, are some versions more true than others? Is the perspective of a person declared sane more legitimate than a person declared to be schizophrenic? It is easy to conclude that each of us interprets a singular objective reality from a subjective point of view. But quantum physics suggests that we may live in a reality where a plurality of versions are merely superimposed upon one another, like transparencies, one upon the other. Each of us focuses upon one to the exclusion of the rest. Perhaps a better way to look at it is that we actually live in a world of pure potentiality, where we each get to choose which potential universe to call real, while ignoring or at least not acknowledging all other potentialities that we choose not to focus on.

Consider the existence of a rainbow. Rainbows consist of a unique interaction between sunlight, raindrops, and our awareness. In and of itself, rainbows do not exist outside of our observation of them. There are no objective rainbows outside of our observing consciousness. If no one is there to witness it, there is no rainbow. The rainbow exists only in the mind of the one who observes it. The rainbow that you see is not the same rainbow that I see. Both Buddhism and modern quantum physics agree that the rainbow is a metaphor for the real world.

Does the potential layer of reality that you choose to observe as real have an objective reality or is it completely the product of your own creative awareness? Rainbows spring into reality when we choose to observe them. Rainbows are not the raindrops or the sunlight any more than they are our own observing consciousness; just as a mountain is not the quantum particles that make it up any more than our symbolic awareness that recognizes it as a mountain. Taking a look at the entirety of the 3D world we live in, the only real ingredient in all things is our own observing consciousness, according to what quantum physics reveals to us about the true nature of the world we live in.

If you and I are standing in a meadow looking at a mountain and a rainbow, it is not accurate to say we see the same rainbow. Your eyes and my eyes see a different rainbow and a different mountain. The position of each is context-dependent. If you move left and I move right, the rainbow and the mountain move in different ways for each of us, as if we each are observing our own private rainbow and mountain. The quantum reality is that there is an infinite superposition of rainbows and mountains existing in a field of potentiality, each one inhabiting a virtual world until the moment it is observed. There is no singular rainbow or mountain, in fact. Expanding the notion further, quantum physics has discovered that there is no singular, invariant real world at all. There is no single objective reality that all observers share. Your reality is different from mine, depending upon your and my unique interaction, observation, and interpretation of the world at large.

As Livingston asserts, there are as many realities as there are observers. With this in mind, perhaps rather than attempting a futile defense of what each of us as individuals and nations perceive as the real world, we should focus on building quantum bridges between our differences and celebrate the diversity of our unique perspectives and world-views.

Now, that would be something to sing about!