S: SCHRODINGER'S CAT

Erwin Schrodinger created his cat experiment metaphor in 1935 to illustrate the ridiculousness of what quantum mechanics was beginning to say about reality. Though his intention was to highlight a paradox, some would say he accidentally translated the elite-speak of the laboratory into a picture of the central pivot of the quantum revolution! Non-scientists who survived their high school physics courses by applying nice, neat formulas to mass in motion and believing that the world ran on such predictable principles were confronted via this feline (and the Copenhagen interpretation of it) by another version of reality. This version included vast whimsy and wildness. Subsequent discussion of Schrodinger’s cat would lead to an altered worldview—a picture that would forever make the observer a part of the system and suggest that life unrolls in a way that is far more interactive than we have ever imagined.

Schrodinger envisioned a cat sealed in a box with a toxic gas that had a 50:50 chance of being released. (Our heightened animal awareness sensibilities cringe these days, but no cats were harmed—this is a “thought experiment”—a new class of science necessitated by the strangeness of the invisible world.) There were only two possible outcomes for the cat: alive or dead. And here ends the similarity to our everyday experience. The shocking part comes next: No matter the amount of time between the release (or non-release) of the toxic gas, the cat does not “commit” to a state until the door is opened by the observer. Until we “check” to see if “live” or “dead” is the outcome, neither is. Before the box is opened, the cat remains in a state that is the sum of all possible outcomes, EVEN THOUGH the switch of causation has already been thrown! Though there is still controversy and heated discussion about the thought experiment, at least one group of physicists would begin to say that, on a quantum level, it is not the choice to throw the switch that matters—IT IS THE CHOICE TO CHECK IN—TO OPEN THE DOOR—to OBSERVE! This is science that reinvented science! (And they have been reinventing the reinvention ever since.)

I could have easily told you the same story using another “S” word: SUPERPOSITION. That is the word that was used to describe the state of the cat between the release or non-release of the gas and the opening of the door: Even if the researcher goes on a vacation and comes back weeks later before checking in on the cat, the cat will not “choose” a live or dead state until the researcher returns to open the box. The feline will instead exist in a “superposition of all possible states”. Restatements of this idea that read like a self-help book would subsequently emerge from physics labs: “Reality exists unmanifest.” “We live in an observer-determined universe.” And my favorite by John Wheeler, “Reality is determined by the questions we put to it.”

When first I discovered what the laboratory legend of the cat, my glorious naiveté and the natural absence of walls of separation in my idealist mind immediately took me to the words of Jesus. Jesus, while walking in the midst of a world that thought cats died immediately when killed, declared a different reality when He said, “With God all things are possible.” Let me restate that: Jesus walked among a worldview that was all causation, all the time, so much so that one of the questions his own disciples would throw at him would be, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (How’s that for a toxic gas analogy?) And in response to that speculation about what was inside that man’s box, Jesus declared a superposition of states that no one had considered: His answer was, “Neither! This is nothing but a vehicle for the glory of God.” And…then he opened the box (and healed the man)!

Jesus put different questions to reality, questions that asked for outcomes that were deemed impossible by the causation-bound natural mind that had too long dealt with massive and slow matter. Jesus talked about mountains moving, fig trees withering, and all kinds of possibilities that previously existed “unmanifest”. He looked at a few loaves and fishes and saw the infinite fractals of possibility inside them, thereby “observing” the provision to feed thousands. And, most of all, he looked at people and saw potential: potential to see, potential to walk, potential to be whole, both inside and out. He observed the universe with different vision than we have been taught to in our classical physics classrooms.

One of the amazing things about Schrodinger’s Cat (besides the generation of a lot of great pop culture science humor) is that it almost gives the appearance that we can alter the past. That is not what it is saying—it is really connecting the event in the past to the moment of observation. But if this universe is so very interactive, it must be true, on a personal level, that how and when you choose to view the toxic events of the past will determine your present experience. I don’t need to spend time trying to revive dead cats, really. I perhaps need to learn to open the right boxes, or dare to open boxes I have avoided and deal with the contents! (Go watch “Saving Mr. Banks”.)

God created this universe to be far more interactive than we ever dreamed. We hear the word “God” in general and assume for Him deterministic control. But, to really be God, He would need to be far more in control than the classical way of direct cause-and-effect! A God who could only rule the word when folks tow the line would be a weak God indeed! This God is far more flexible in His absolute power than that. God created a reality with infinite possibility to accommodate the human will. He is an interactive genius, granting a scary amount of choice (the one interface between the quantum and classical worlds) to the observers He created and launched out into this cosmic soup. God retains authority while making room for variation, knowing that our personal choices of “alive” or “dead” are uniquely our own. God’s superposition of states for His people redefines itself continually, yielding fresh new crops of possibilities for us every time we open a box. Whether we play the role of the observer or the cat in the box, God is the generator of the system that breathes along.

I’ll close my meditation today with a Schrodinger-related quote from a t-shirt which was this year’s birthday present from a great friend: “Alive? Dead? Open the box already!” Jesus said, “All things are possible….to him who believes.” What if our believing faculties were exposed to a whole range of possibilities before we made our fevered efforts at faith? What if our inner eyes were, as Paul suggested to the Ephesians, “flooded with light”? What if we were possessed with an intense, authentic optimism before we attempted that activity we call prayer? Open the box already—living is a Spirit-endeavor and there is so much more available beyond the limits of your natural eyes.