Mystical systems
Quantum Mysticism
Direct answer
Quantum Mysticism: Quantum mysticism is the body of writing that draws on quantum physics to support spiritual, paranormal or healing claims, usually by treating consciousness as what makes quantum events definite.
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At a glance
- Also called
- quantum woo, quantum spirituality, the tao of physics, what the bleep do we know
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Observer Effect, Quantum Consciousness, Advaita Vedanta, Taoism
Quantum mysticism is the body of writing that draws on quantum physics to support spiritual, paranormal or healing claims, usually by treating consciousness as what makes quantum events definite.
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What is quantum mysticism?
The term covers a range. At one end are the reflections of physicists themselves: Schrödinger on Vedanta, Bohr on the yin and yang, Pauli in correspondence with Jung. They found likenesses between the new physics and old philosophies and said so, without claiming that one proved the other. At the other end are books, films and courses which say that quantum theory shows mind creating reality, thoughts attracting events or healing at a distance.
The second kind rests on a few steps that physics does not license: reading observation as conscious attention, carrying effects seen in isolated atoms up to brains and lives, and using words such as energy, field and frequency outside their defined meanings. The physics is real and the spiritual traditions are real; the bridge between them is analogy.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Physics and the mystics.
What sets Quantum Mysticism apart
It can be recognised by its pattern of inference more than by its topics. A technical term is first given its everyday sense, so that observer becomes a watching mind and energy becomes vitality; a result from isolated particles is then applied to people; and the gap is closed with the word quantum itself, used as an adjective of depth. The founders' own writings differ on exactly this point. They compared and marvelled, and Bohr's motto, that opposites are complementary, was offered as a parallel and never as a derivation.
- Founders who wrote on it: Schrödinger on Vedanta; Pauli with Jung; Bohr on yin and yang
- Bohr's motto: contraria sunt complementa, on his coat of arms, 1947
- Popular landmark: Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, 1975
- Second landmark: Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, 1979
- History of the moment: David Kaiser, How the Hippies Saved Physics, 2011
- Film: What the Bleep Do We Know, 2004
Often mistaken for something else: Interpretation of quantum mechanics is the technical debate over what the mathematics means; quantum mysticism takes one disputed answer from that debate and builds spiritual conclusions on it.
The story behind Quantum Mysticism
Schrödinger wrote on the unity of mind in the 1920s and again in What Is Life? (1944), and Bohr put the yin and yang symbol on his coat of arms in 1947. The popular wave began with Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics (1975) and Gary Zukav's The Dancing Wu Li Masters (1979). The historian David Kaiser described the Berkeley circle of physicists behind that moment in How the Hippies Saved Physics (2011). The film What the Bleep Do We Know (2004) took the theme to cinemas.
Why Quantum Mysticism matters
Quantum Mysticism names the mixing of two things this art keeps apart: what is measured, and what is only a likeness.
How to read Quantum Mysticism
Critics apply the label to unsupported claims; historians give it a neutral sense for the long conversation between physicists and mystical thought.
Quantum Mysticism in practice: an example
A course promising to shift a reader's quantum field by intention is using the words of physics for something no physicist has measured.
Where readings of Quantum Mysticism go wrong
The word quantum on a product or a therapy is no evidence that it works, and none replaces medical care.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- quantum mysticism meaning, quantum woo, quantum spirituality, the tao of physics, what the bleep do we know
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is quantum mysticism?
It is the attempt to link quantum physics with mystical or spiritual ideas, ranging from the philosophical reflections of physicists to popular claims that quantum theory shows consciousness shaping reality.
Did the founders of quantum physics believe in mysticism?
Several were deeply interested. Schrödinger admired Vedanta and Pauli worked with Jung. They treated these as philosophical kinships and did not say physics had confirmed any spiritual teaching.
Does quantum physics prove that thoughts create reality?
No. Measurement in physics means interaction with an apparatus, and quantum effects in warm, large systems wash out almost at once. No experiment shows a thought altering a physical outcome.
