Mel Schwartz - The Possibility Principle: How Quantum Physics Can Improve the Way You Think, Live, and Love

For my partner, Leslie; my sons, Alex and Jesse; and for my departed parents, Ruth and Sidney, with love and gratitude.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I awakened one weekend morning some twenty years ago feeling quite anxious. Having recently divorced, I was missing my kids, who were with their mom that weekend, and I thought getting out of the house might help. I headed out for a bike ride, but as I pedaled around the gently rolling hills of my hometown, my angst only continued to heighten. I realized I was experiencing the start of an anxiety attacksomething that had never happened to me before.

Still feeling shaken when I arrived home, I walked into my office and absently pulled a book off the shelf: The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture, written by theoretical quantum physicist Fritjof Capra, which I had bought some time before but never gotten around to reading. Now I opened it and began to read about a major worldview shift, catalyzed by quantum physics (also known as quantum mechanics), which was just beginning to herald a deep impact on many aspects of our society. Capra described how this quantum sense of reality departed radically from our beliefs rooted in the once-groundbreaking work of the seventeenth-century thinkers Isaac Newton and Ren Descartes. I felt myself becoming enthralled as I read of a wondrous universeone that was inseparably whole and thoroughly interpenetratingin which all notions of separation faded away. Moreover, this new reality indicated that the universe existed in a state of uncertaintya state of pure potentiality.

As I continued to read, I was astonished to notice that my anxiety and despair had been supplanted by a sense of serenity and connectedness. Although nothing at all had changed in my outer world, my inner world was undergoing a profound shift. I was becoming a participant in this magical wholeness that I was reading about. I no longer felt alone, but sensed that I was an integral part of this universe. I felt calm and connected. Capras vision had opened me to the immense potential to be derived from connectedness.

As I continued reading over the following days, my fears retreated, and I began to embrace my future with confidence that I could summon these new potentials into being. Finishing Capras book, I set to reading more about quantum physics, focusing on the theory and its implications (as the mathematical and technical aspects were well beyond my comprehension). I had immersed myself not only in understanding the science behind this quantum vision but also, more importantly, how it might affect us on personal levels. As my understanding of reality altered to align with these discoveries, my beliefs changed too. I reflected on how my misinformed beliefs, rooted in fear and the idea that change was onerous, had constrained my life. This insight ultimately touched virtually every aspect of how I think and live.

The new life that emerged was untethered by many of my old limitations. Rather than feeling unmoored, I marveled at my transformative experience, reflecting that if this worked so well for me, why not for others?

I began to integrate these insights into my work as a psychotherapist and marriage counselor and was further buoyed by the success experienced by so many of my clients. Over time, I developed an accessible approach that applied the quantum worldview to personal growth, showing people how to live more resiliently and fearlessly and how to think, feel, relate, and communicate differently based on this worldview.

At the same time, I began to teach this approach through a series of lectures and workshops to both therapists and the general public. This experience of working with so many people and witnessing their gains deepened my conviction about this approach toward personal transformation. This process helped me distill my new thinking into some basic principles to assist people in their lives.

How exactly do the quantum worldview and its core principles bring about personal transformation? It boils down to one word: possibility. Ive called this book The Possibility Principle because its purpose is to open the window of possibilities in all areas of our lives. I believe that we can shed the old beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors that have constrained us by welcoming life-enhancing principles that we can cull from quantum physics. Doing so enables our proactive participation in orchestrating our life experiences.

This book shares the myriad benefits we can enjoy by integrating the messages of quantum physics into our everyday existence. Examples drawn from my daily practice will show you how you too can achieve these breakthroughs. (I have altered the names and identities of all clients discussed in this book to preserve confidentiality.)

When we embrace the possibilities the quantum worldview offers us, we invite defining momentsmoments when we dare to venture into new terrain, transcending our struggles and actualizing new realities. For example, reading Capras The Turning Point was a defining moment for me. Defining moments are far more than simple insights. Regrettably, most of our insightsour aha momentsfade over time because, mired in the comfort of the familiar, we dont treat them with the respect they deserve. A defining moment is a singular burst of insight in which we choose to embark in a new direction. All that is required to break new ground is our willful intention to do so. At the core of the Possibility Principle is this truth: possibility begets more and more possibility.

Many books and teachings about personal growth address our thinking and perhaps our beliefs. Yet they leave out something critically important: an appreciation of how our operating worldview informs our beliefs, our thinking, and our lives. Ill demonstrate how our operating worldview creates the landscape we live in and, as a result, is the basis of our experience. Because Im not a scientist, my descriptions of quantum physics are easy to understand and intended as metaphorical, not literal. That said, quantum physics resists the imposition of stark definitions even by experts in the field.

By helping my clients work through a vast array of challenges, I have developed practices that can help us overcome our obstacles and summon new possibilities into our lives. Many of our operating beliefs, when we look deeply into them, make little sense and do much harm. Throughout this book, I introduce exercisesprompts for self-inquirythat will help you reformulate your worldview and apply quantum principles to your thinking and beliefs. Mastering your thinking and beliefs will lay the foundation for authentic self-esteem, help you overcome chronic, cumbersome issues, and improve your ability to communicate. All of these shifts in turn can open you to new possibilities in your relationships with others, as well as your relationship with yourself.

I begin the book by describing the transformation in scientific understanding that has taken place over the past three centuries, how it has shifted from the mechanistic model of the universe conceived by thinkers such as Newton and Descartes to the revolutionary insights of quantum physics developed in the last ninety years. I go on to show how our unconscious addiction to the old worldview damages our ability to live sensibly, let alone to achieve our greatest potential. Each of the next three chapters explores a key principle in quantum physics that we can utilize in personal ways to our great benefit. In , I present many examples to demonstrate how to make use of basic quantum concepts to reconstruct how we think about ourselves, how we interact with people and our environment, and how we communicate with each other.