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Star Wave: Mind, Consciousness, and Quantum Physics
Relates the discoveries of quantum physics to the workings of the human mind and explores the process of observing shapes and how and what the mind perceives
- GenresScience
342 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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March 20, 2026
IS AN UNDERSTANDING OF QUANTUM PHYSICS ‘NECESSARY FOR CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION’?
Fred Alan Wolf (born 1934) is an American theoretical physicist (and former physics professor at San Diego State University) specializing in quantum physics and the relationship between physics and consciousness. He has helped popularize science on the Discovery Channel, and has produced a number of audio and video presentations.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1984 book, “[This book] is a message of hope. It is my attempt to explain as best as I can the real reason we human beings are here in the first place, as conscious, spiritual creatures. I believe that quantum physics, the most powerful and rigorous science devised to date will provide a basis for the formation of a new psychology---a true humanistic psychology. The tools of quantum physics, invented by the human mind, are turned around to investigate the mind itself. This is, as far as I can determine, the first attempt to bring psychology into the light shed by the discoveries of quantum physics… I hope to demonstrate to the reader: *how the future is more important than the past in deciding the present. *that the future already exists while the past is continually being re-created. *that time, as we presently understand it, is an illusion. *how artificial and human intelligence differ… *how evolution is a consequence of the future and not of the past. *how parallel worlds appear to us as thoughts and psychic experiences. *how the ideas of determinism and causality arose and how and why they are incorrect. *how nature creates repeated patterns that are taken as proofs of causality. *how quantum physics provides a basis for a new religion and an understanding of the human spirit. *why disagreement between people, states, and nations are bound to occur, and how they can be rectified.” (Pg. vii-viii)
He states in the first chapter, “This book deals with a difficult and often controversial subject: the relationship of mind to matter. Inherent in this relationship lies a single mystery whose solution answers all other mind/body or mind/matter questions: How is it that I exist? This engenders a related question: How is it that anything exists? As a result of my years of study and research in physics, particularly quantum physics, I believe there is a new answer. This realization led me to my writing this book.” (Pg. 4)
He suggests, “The illusion that mind and matter are mechanically separate may cause needless human suffering. Grasping for security will never cease as long as we think of the world as only material and fail to realize our own operational thoughts and actions within it. Perhaps the realization that mind and matter cannot be separated---that they are aspects, much like the sides of a single coin, of one and only one greater and yet subtler reality---will enable the 21st century to be born in an atmosphere of peace not yet attainable. To this end I look to the new physics to point the way. Quantum physics has the potential to herald the beginnings of humanistic physics. It, more than any religion, can point to a new and deeper sense of the mind-matter connection. It may even explain the ultimate mystery of life---that it exists.” (Pg. 7)
He continues, “I believe that mathematics and its application to the physical world govern the operations of our psyches. My faith in this belief has led me to write this book. I believe that the laws of modern physics, the laws of quantum mechanics, apply to our psyches as profoundly as they do to the physical world we all inhabit. I believe this more than I believe in any religious or spiritual leader’s dream. Science is the answer, provided we learn how to deal with our fear of the seemingly inaccessible world of abstraction, the world of mathematics and quantum physics. Many believe that God and science are somehow separate, that human feelings and quantum energy states are vastly different things, that the human potential involves a return to leaving our minds at our backsides as we meditate on the beauty of nothingness, that mystical states are complementary to physical states… there is no way that the laws of physics cannot apply to all of the universe and be excluded from the inner worlds of our psyches… Physics can be the way out for those brave enough to even think of our minds as quantum ‘machines.’” (Pg. 9-10)
He states, “we have come to see that the world that physics has discovered is not rational. The discovery of the irrationality of the world came about with the realization of all physical processes. Anything that involves matter involves the quantum. If it is, it is a quantum process. The basis of quantum physics is the quantum wave function, or I choose to identify it, the ‘qwiff.’ A qwiff is a nonphysical entity, it is a mathematical function. It is a form representing ideals, concepts that could, did, or would exist. It contains possibilities the same way an object contains attributes.” (Pg. 37)
He asserts, “Here, perhaps for the first time in human history, the role of mind in the universe of matter become apparent. Heisenberg’s principle spells it out. To create is the master plan of the universe. Creation exacts a price for its freedom. It says that I must be free of the past correlations and interactions that bind me…. Thus it is that mind and matter cannot be truly separated. Mind is the outcry of determinism. It is the hope of matter. The function of matter is to interact with, and thereby correlate (thus building new structures), the universe---indeed build the universe itself. The function of mind is to tear down those very same structures, to analyze and decode nature’s secrets, to inspect and create or recreate new structures. The universe is to be created. Mind is the creator.” (Pg. 65-66)
He suggests, “‘Entropy’ is a human thought. So is ‘universe,’ 'qwiff,’ ‘quantum physics,’ and every other word that exists in every language that is spoken or written. Thought is an ordering experience for the thinking machines that carry it out… our mind are emulations of the universe’s grand entropy-production plan. Our thoughts are representative of the universe’s thoughts. Thoughts produce order in the thinker.” (Pg. 126)
He argues, “Comforting though it may be, it is a myth that the past decides the present. All classical physical laws are nothing more than plausibility arguments of enormous precision… Events that in and of themselves could not occur, no matter how likely their occurrence, do occur because they are sensed to occur… This sensing is THE reason and purpose of consciousness. Without this sensing or qwiff popping no event would ever make it as an event. It would remain invisible qwiffness, only a pattern of probability in space. But with observation, the role of consciousness, enters, it enters with great power in humans, with less power in animals, with even less power in plants, and---going down the line---with miniscule, nearly unconscious, power in atoms, electrons, protons, quarks. Everything is created by an act of consciousness.” (Pg. 188)
He asserts, "Paramahansa Yogananda has written a remarkable little book about the bliss state of consciousness, called ‘The Science of Religion.’ Yogananda indeed believes that bliss can be learned and sets out to explain how. He points out that bliss can be neither purely self-serving nor purely other-serving… Yogananda states that our lack of bliss, or our suffering, is brought on by the process of identification with the transitory body and the restless mind.” (Pg, 218)
He summarizes, “This book is the result of my thinking about the discoveries of quantum physics and its relationship to observation, the mind, and the recognition that things are not things. A thing is only a thing at a level of description where the results of observation appear to play an insignificant role. A thing is a thing of it occupies space. Even a green dragon with white polka dots that flies and eats purple people is a thing because it occupied a ‘space in my mind.' I have brought out the concepts of qwiffs and qwiff pops to describe the physical and mental worlds as mental alternatives to the rigid mechanical descriptions used in traditional physics. As such these newer concepts introduce a quirky kind of humor into the game of the universe. The game also requires something outside of the physical universe acting capriciously in it---namely, a consciousness that pops the qwiffs.” (Pg. 243)
He concludes, “an understanding of the principles of quantum physics is necessary for conscious evolution. It is not just that the principles apply and therefore a passive understanding of them will explain evolution. This understanding is in itself an evolution of consciousness and makes the principles operational in life. The understanding becomes the experience of transformed and conscious living. The next step for us all will be a recognition that quantum physical principles, particularly the principles of uncertainty and complementarity, apply to our psychic lives just as deeply as they apply to our physical lives. To evolve in a spirit of peace and blessed coexistence, human beings must understand quantum physics and its application to their minds and their consciousness. There may be no other way for this kind of conscious evolution. Through this understanding, which I have only begun to investigate, and which I feel is inevitable, human beings will realize a vast potential for a true spiritual evolution.” (Pg. 325)
This was not my favorite of Dr. Wolf’s books; his invention of new terms [like ‘qwiffs’] is NOT an aid to understanding.
Fred Alan Wolf (born 1934) is an American theoretical physicist (and former physics professor at San Diego State University) specializing in quantum physics and the relationship between physics and consciousness. He has helped popularize science on the Discovery Channel, and has produced a number of audio and video presentations.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1984 book, “[This book] is a message of hope. It is my attempt to explain as best as I can the real reason we human beings are here in the first place, as conscious, spiritual creatures. I believe that quantum physics, the most powerful and rigorous science devised to date will provide a basis for the formation of a new psychology---a true humanistic psychology. The tools of quantum physics, invented by the human mind, are turned around to investigate the mind itself. This is, as far as I can determine, the first attempt to bring psychology into the light shed by the discoveries of quantum physics… I hope to demonstrate to the reader: *how the future is more important than the past in deciding the present. *that the future already exists while the past is continually being re-created. *that time, as we presently understand it, is an illusion. *how artificial and human intelligence differ… *how evolution is a consequence of the future and not of the past. *how parallel worlds appear to us as thoughts and psychic experiences. *how the ideas of determinism and causality arose and how and why they are incorrect. *how nature creates repeated patterns that are taken as proofs of causality. *how quantum physics provides a basis for a new religion and an understanding of the human spirit. *why disagreement between people, states, and nations are bound to occur, and how they can be rectified.” (Pg. vii-viii)
He states in the first chapter, “This book deals with a difficult and often controversial subject: the relationship of mind to matter. Inherent in this relationship lies a single mystery whose solution answers all other mind/body or mind/matter questions: How is it that I exist? This engenders a related question: How is it that anything exists? As a result of my years of study and research in physics, particularly quantum physics, I believe there is a new answer. This realization led me to my writing this book.” (Pg. 4)
He suggests, “The illusion that mind and matter are mechanically separate may cause needless human suffering. Grasping for security will never cease as long as we think of the world as only material and fail to realize our own operational thoughts and actions within it. Perhaps the realization that mind and matter cannot be separated---that they are aspects, much like the sides of a single coin, of one and only one greater and yet subtler reality---will enable the 21st century to be born in an atmosphere of peace not yet attainable. To this end I look to the new physics to point the way. Quantum physics has the potential to herald the beginnings of humanistic physics. It, more than any religion, can point to a new and deeper sense of the mind-matter connection. It may even explain the ultimate mystery of life---that it exists.” (Pg. 7)
He continues, “I believe that mathematics and its application to the physical world govern the operations of our psyches. My faith in this belief has led me to write this book. I believe that the laws of modern physics, the laws of quantum mechanics, apply to our psyches as profoundly as they do to the physical world we all inhabit. I believe this more than I believe in any religious or spiritual leader’s dream. Science is the answer, provided we learn how to deal with our fear of the seemingly inaccessible world of abstraction, the world of mathematics and quantum physics. Many believe that God and science are somehow separate, that human feelings and quantum energy states are vastly different things, that the human potential involves a return to leaving our minds at our backsides as we meditate on the beauty of nothingness, that mystical states are complementary to physical states… there is no way that the laws of physics cannot apply to all of the universe and be excluded from the inner worlds of our psyches… Physics can be the way out for those brave enough to even think of our minds as quantum ‘machines.’” (Pg. 9-10)
He states, “we have come to see that the world that physics has discovered is not rational. The discovery of the irrationality of the world came about with the realization of all physical processes. Anything that involves matter involves the quantum. If it is, it is a quantum process. The basis of quantum physics is the quantum wave function, or I choose to identify it, the ‘qwiff.’ A qwiff is a nonphysical entity, it is a mathematical function. It is a form representing ideals, concepts that could, did, or would exist. It contains possibilities the same way an object contains attributes.” (Pg. 37)
He asserts, “Here, perhaps for the first time in human history, the role of mind in the universe of matter become apparent. Heisenberg’s principle spells it out. To create is the master plan of the universe. Creation exacts a price for its freedom. It says that I must be free of the past correlations and interactions that bind me…. Thus it is that mind and matter cannot be truly separated. Mind is the outcry of determinism. It is the hope of matter. The function of matter is to interact with, and thereby correlate (thus building new structures), the universe---indeed build the universe itself. The function of mind is to tear down those very same structures, to analyze and decode nature’s secrets, to inspect and create or recreate new structures. The universe is to be created. Mind is the creator.” (Pg. 65-66)
He suggests, “‘Entropy’ is a human thought. So is ‘universe,’ 'qwiff,’ ‘quantum physics,’ and every other word that exists in every language that is spoken or written. Thought is an ordering experience for the thinking machines that carry it out… our mind are emulations of the universe’s grand entropy-production plan. Our thoughts are representative of the universe’s thoughts. Thoughts produce order in the thinker.” (Pg. 126)
He argues, “Comforting though it may be, it is a myth that the past decides the present. All classical physical laws are nothing more than plausibility arguments of enormous precision… Events that in and of themselves could not occur, no matter how likely their occurrence, do occur because they are sensed to occur… This sensing is THE reason and purpose of consciousness. Without this sensing or qwiff popping no event would ever make it as an event. It would remain invisible qwiffness, only a pattern of probability in space. But with observation, the role of consciousness, enters, it enters with great power in humans, with less power in animals, with even less power in plants, and---going down the line---with miniscule, nearly unconscious, power in atoms, electrons, protons, quarks. Everything is created by an act of consciousness.” (Pg. 188)
He asserts, "Paramahansa Yogananda has written a remarkable little book about the bliss state of consciousness, called ‘The Science of Religion.’ Yogananda indeed believes that bliss can be learned and sets out to explain how. He points out that bliss can be neither purely self-serving nor purely other-serving… Yogananda states that our lack of bliss, or our suffering, is brought on by the process of identification with the transitory body and the restless mind.” (Pg, 218)
He summarizes, “This book is the result of my thinking about the discoveries of quantum physics and its relationship to observation, the mind, and the recognition that things are not things. A thing is only a thing at a level of description where the results of observation appear to play an insignificant role. A thing is a thing of it occupies space. Even a green dragon with white polka dots that flies and eats purple people is a thing because it occupied a ‘space in my mind.' I have brought out the concepts of qwiffs and qwiff pops to describe the physical and mental worlds as mental alternatives to the rigid mechanical descriptions used in traditional physics. As such these newer concepts introduce a quirky kind of humor into the game of the universe. The game also requires something outside of the physical universe acting capriciously in it---namely, a consciousness that pops the qwiffs.” (Pg. 243)
He concludes, “an understanding of the principles of quantum physics is necessary for conscious evolution. It is not just that the principles apply and therefore a passive understanding of them will explain evolution. This understanding is in itself an evolution of consciousness and makes the principles operational in life. The understanding becomes the experience of transformed and conscious living. The next step for us all will be a recognition that quantum physical principles, particularly the principles of uncertainty and complementarity, apply to our psychic lives just as deeply as they apply to our physical lives. To evolve in a spirit of peace and blessed coexistence, human beings must understand quantum physics and its application to their minds and their consciousness. There may be no other way for this kind of conscious evolution. Through this understanding, which I have only begun to investigate, and which I feel is inevitable, human beings will realize a vast potential for a true spiritual evolution.” (Pg. 325)
This was not my favorite of Dr. Wolf’s books; his invention of new terms [like ‘qwiffs’] is NOT an aid to understanding.
June 19, 2008
Some fantastic ideas here. The scientific demonstrations are very detailed.
Read
January 3, 2014I read it over 20 years ago, I liked it. Quif/Quamp?
September 23, 2023
I read the things I want my children to know.
These are the things they know…
in this Life and the next…
in a parallel universe, close to home.
This book is excellent and is now a part of me,
and when you speak to me, you’ll hear it.
The information from this book will seep out, into my speech, into my being, into my life.
Grateful 🧘🏿
These are the things they know…
in this Life and the next…
in a parallel universe, close to home.
This book is excellent and is now a part of me,
and when you speak to me, you’ll hear it.
The information from this book will seep out, into my speech, into my being, into my life.
Grateful 🧘🏿
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January 31, 2016will read within five days
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews