This article was downloaded by: [Jennifer Burwell]

On: 22 March 2013, At: 11:59

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Science as Culture
Publication details, including instructions for authors and
subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/csac20

Figuring Matter: Quantum Physics as a

New Age Rhetoric
Jennifer Burwell

Department of English, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

Version of record first published: 12 Mar 2013.

To cite this article: Jennifer Burwell (2013): Figuring Matter: Quantum Physics as a New Age
Rhetoric, Science as Culture, DOI:10.1080/09505431.2013.768222
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2013.768222

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-andconditions
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any
substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,
systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation
that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any
instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary
sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,
demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or
indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Science as Culture, 2013

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2013.768222

Figuring Matter: Quantum Physics as a

New Age Rhetoric
JENNIFER BURWELL
Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Department of English, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

ABSTRACT The language through which scientific advancements are relayed reflects
specific social, political, and cultural needs and expectations, as well as specific
constellations of hopes and anxieties. Constructions and applications of atomic
discourse provide a material touchstone that is no less tangible than any other aspect
of scientific enquiry. The 1970s New Age movement saw the deployment of quantum
concepts with the publication of Fritjov Capras (1975) widely popular The Tao of
Physics and Gary Zukavs (1979) The Dancing Wu Li Masters, and from these
publications the notions of quantum consciousness and quantum mysticism were born.
In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the post-New Age concept of
quantum healing began to structure a cluster of self-help programs, while at the same
time quantum get-rich schemes developed a presence on the internet. In these
reconfigurations of the quantum, atomic particles have been transformed into vivified
agents whose unique movements and interactions promise to secure health, happiness,
and wealth to self-directed and depoliticized consumers. The commodification inherent
in this process extends increasingly to encompass areas of subjectivityfor example,
spiritualitythat historically have been considered immune to overt commercialization.
This extension of the commodification process is evidenced in the way that quantum
methodologies are commercialized and then sold to people as a means of advancing,
not just their financial interests, but their spiritual well-being as well. The new
economy of the atom also emerges from the late-twentieth and early twenty-first century
retreat from the public sphere and the attendant atrophy of the public sphere as a site
of interpersonal engagement. At the same time, the invocation and application of
quantum rhetoric touches on a deep contemporary sense of being unmoored and the
need for structured guidance as a means toward a renewed sense of control over ones
life. The nomadic quality of quantum language and concepts ensures that, no matter
what an individuals complaint or desire, there exists a quantum strategy to ameliorate
or realize it. This remarkable adaptability marks twenty-first century quantum language

Correspondence Address: Professor Jennifer Burwell, Department of English, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria
Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada. Email: jburwell@ryerson.ca
# 2013 Process Press

J. Burwell

as unique, not only within the discipline of physics, but also relative to all fields of
scientific inquiry.
KEY WORDS :

Science studies, quantum mysticism, quantum healing, get-rich schemes

Introduction

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Physics shows us that while the world shapes us, the language that we use
shapes the world (Gregory, 1988, p. 200).
Historically, immense effort has been expended in the effort to verify empirically
and objectively the theories related to the study of the atom and its constituent
parts. Most recently, this effort has been manifested in the much talked about creation of the leviathan CERN semi-conductor designed to find the smallest unit of
matter, popularly represented as the God particle. That an atomic particle can be
represented in such a symbolically laden manner underscores the extent to which
even a hard science such as physics is shot through with cultural meaning.
My focus in this article is on the language of New and post-New Age quantum
mysticism, quantum healing, and quantum get-rich programs. Using these
examples, I examine the manner in which applications of the quantum relate
to the social, political, and economic conditions of their production. Traditional
self-help and personal growth literature is packaged and sold to consumers in
the language of common sense. Why, then, would those interested in offering
accessible and engaging self-help models choose this most conceptually inaccessible of sciences in order to draw in their clientele? What individual and societal
priorities encourage and benefit from current popular constructions of the
quantum, and what does the post-New Age use of quantum language tell us
about dominant forms of subjectivity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first
century?
I begin this article by introducing two case studies that reflect the extent to
which physics is inflected by its time and place. The first case examines
Newtons billiard ball atoms in the political and economic context of radical
individualism, and the second considers Yakov Frenkels collectivist atomic
model in the political context of developing Soviet Russia. After establishing
the relationship between physics and these respective worldviews, I proceed to
summarize the foundational concepts of quantum physics, focusing in particular
on those concepts that are later taken up in the New Age and post-New Age
erasconcepts such as wavicles, non-locality, and complementarity. Following
my discussion of these foundational concepts, I examine how the pioneers of
quantum theory, aware of the distance between quantum concepts and everyday
experience, expressed their sense of intransigence of their results to representation. This distance between quantum concepts and the language of everyday

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Figuring Matter

experience, I argue, is precisely what gives these concepts the nomadic potential
to be redeployed in contexts far removed from their origins.
I go on to track how the initial language used to describe quantum phenomena
has been manipulated to position the self in mutually affecting relationships to
other subjects as well as to the entire cosmos. I do so by analyzing the rhetorical
strategies used in New Age and post-New Age texts and websites that advance
models based on the concepts of quantum consciousness/mysticism, quantum
healing, and quantum enrichment. I begin with a summation of the concept of
quantum consciousness and its distance from how the original framers posited
the relationship between object and observation in quantum physics. I go on to
examine two foundational New Age books written in the 1970s: Fritjov Capras
(1975) The Tao of Physics and Gary Zukavs (1979) The Dancing Wu Li
Masters, noting how the notions of quantum consciousness and quantum mysticism were born with these two books on the complementary relation between
physics and eastern philosophy. After Capra and Zukav, I argue, the relation
begins to thin considerably between the concepts of quantum physics as they
were initially articulated, and post-New Age quantum language. I demonstrate
in particular the manner in which quantum phenomena have been massaged to
create the promise of spiritual and financial gain. In post-New Age reconfigurations of quantum particles, I conclude, popularizers turn atomic particles into vivified agents whose unique movements and interactions promise to secure
commodified forms of health, happiness, and wealth to depoliticized consumers.
Constructing the Atom: Two Historical Cases
While my primary interest is in quantum language, it is useful to examine how
earlier theories of the atomic world have emerged from the political, cultural,
and economic forces defining their historical moment. One of the most examined
relationships between physical science and historical context is the mechanistic
concepts of mass and force developed by Isaac Newton. In particular, Newtons
mechanism has been examined for how its revolutionary empirical method
helped produce the dominant symbols of a new worldview characterized by
radical individualism (see Westfall, 1973; Gardner, 1979; Gross, 1988; Pyle,
1995). Danah Zohar (1994, p. 14) argues that the genius of the sixteenth and
seventeenth century scientific revolution was its articulation in a clear and appealing set of metaphors that capitalized on wider economic and cultural currents.
Zohar (1994, p. 14), whose overall argument criticizes the Newtonian worldview, observes that the stage was set for Newtons view of the material world
by Descartes emphasis on a mind/body split, and that Newtons model
emerged out of the philosophy of dualism in Western thought. For Newton and
his contemporaries, Zohar (1994, p. 14) argues, reality consisted of discrete,
impenetrable particles, each isolated in its own place in absolute space and absolute time. Newtons mechanistic atom influenced the radical individualism of firm

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

J. Burwell

believers in atomic mechanism such as Thomas Hobbes, John Stewart Mill,

Robert Boyle, and John Locke, the latter having once described himself as a
mere underlabourer to the incomparable Mr. Newton (1690, cited in Zohar,
1994, p. 14). Zohar (1994, p. 14) observes that this liberal individualism,
wherein individuals were free to pursue their interests and purposes in private
and without state interference, was a particle model. This model portrayed
people as isolated unitsdiscrete atoms or billiard balls interacting by way of
external forces rather than internal motivations. Barbara Taylor (1999, p. 613)
similarly associates the emphasis on individual welfare with a Newtonian worldview in which the individual becomes the atomthe single unit of social matter
that is the basic building block for all social groupings. In this sense, Newtonian
atomism thus supported a single point of view, with a clear opposition between
objectivity and subjectivity, reason and experience, and a subject/object dichotomy wherein observers stood outside and apart from what they observed
(Zohar, 1994, p. 14).
Taking up atomic discourse within an entirely different historical context,
Alexei Kojevinikov (1999) examines the historically specific political philosophies of scientists during the formation of Soviet Russia. Kojevinikov (1999,
p. 296) considers how the ideology of collectivism and the limitations on
freedom in the developing Soviet Russia influenced the relative freedom ascribed
to atomic particles. In his examination of the transfer of metaphors and concepts
between scientific and political discourses, Kojevinikov (1999, p. 300) argues that
the development of a new fundamental language in physics and of some of its
highly sophisticated mathematical models was enabled by the collectivist conception of freedom.1 As an example, Kojevinikov (1999, p. 300) cites Yakov
Frenkels experiences during revolutionary times, which includes periods of personal deprivation and persecutionincluding being jailed in 1919 for having
worked with the Red administration. These obstacles, argues Kojevinikov,
directly influenced Frenkels theories about freedom and, in particular, about
the amount of [freedom] that could be achieved by people in real life and by particles in real bodies. Kojevinikov describes how Frenkel, a committed socialist
and collectivist, used metaphorical terms borrowed from the language of the revolutionary era in describing his model of electron behavior. For example, in
summing up how the electric current in a metallic body is represented by electrons
gliding from one atom to another in a chain, Frenkel (1924, cited in Kojevinikov,
1999, p. 304) wrote,
In this way, valence electrons become free electrons, contributing to the
electrical conductivity of metals. It must be noted that they are not free in
the real sense of the word. On the contrary, they are bound more strongly
to the body of the metal than within isolated atoms. But they have become
emancipated from the domination of particular atoms; they no longer
belong to individual atoms but to the entire collective formed by these atoms.

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Figuring Matter

Along with the specific reference to collectivism in this description, Frenkels use
of words such as emancipated and domination suggests not merely a general
political preoccupation with his political context, but also a particular relation
to that context. Frenkel seems almost to want the electrons he champions to be
free of the overbearing atom. It is no significant stretch to view the electron
here being cast as individuals pursuing free association in the face of a domineering, bureaucratic State.
Both Newton and Frenkel advance models of the atomic world that draw from
and reinforce very specific personal and societal worldviews, expressing
through the atom their viewpoints concerning the economic and political
dynamics of their time. Far from being accidental or objective, Newtons and
Frenkels language was laden with political agendas and opportunism. Each
reflected the priorities of their time; in Frenkels case to express his own hopes
and beliefs, and in Newtons case to capitalize on the success of rising social
and political groups.
Quantum Physics in the West: Foundational Concepts
Something unknown is doing we dont know what (Eddington, 1981, p. 291).
Concepts that at first express axiomatic principles in their original discipline can,
over time, accrue and dispense meanings that expand to become touchstones for
wider-ranging sensibilities. Such is the language of quantum physics. The
highly influential Copenhagen School, led by Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg,
produced several early twentieth-century experimental results and mathematical
proofs that formed the mortar of the quantum theory. It is, I argue, the quantum
analogies and relations described by proponents of the Copenhagen School that
have proved to be particularly culturally portable and open to adaptation. Much
of the nomadic potential of quantum concepts and language derives from the
fact that the principles of quantum physics are far removed from common sense
and experience. One of the best known and most discussed results in the development of quantum physics was the observation that under certain experimental conditions, units of matter appeared to behave in paradoxical and mutually exclusive
waysspecifically, simultaneously as particles and as waves. To gain a full understanding of the specific behavior of subatomic particles, it was necessary to consider together both its wave properties and its particle properties. From this
premise emerged Neils Bohrs Principle of Complementarity: the argument
that mutually exclusive viewpoints must be adopted if one is to explain the paradoxical behavior of subatomic units of matter.
The second significant experimental result in quantum physics concerned the
impossibility of simultaneously discerning both the position and momentum of a
subatomic particle. As Arthur Eddington (1981, p. 223) explains, to be observed
an electron must be illuminated in some manner. Once illuminated, however, the

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

J. Burwell

particle undergoes a kick (known as a quantum leap or quantum jump) of an

unpredictable amount. This means, observes Eddington (1981, p. 223), that the
condition of our ascertaining the position is that we disturb the electron in an
incalculable way which will prevent our subsequently ascertaining how much
momentum it had. Nothing is or can be known with any specificity about the
position and momentum of the particle prior to the act of observation;
however, the very act of observation fundamentally disrupts the specificity
that it strives to achieve. Prior to observation, subatomic material must be understood to exist in multiple states simultaneously. For Eddington (1981, p. 223),
this indeterminacy is a symbol for [the] causal failure that defines many
quantum phenomena. From this indeterminacy emerged Werner Heisenbergs
(1958) Uncertainty Principle, which acknowledges that all we are left with
regarding the position and momentum of the particle is an indeterminate field
of probability. Like Eddington, Heisenberg viewed this result as foundational
to matter, rather than as a failure of technology that could be remedied in the
future with more precise instruments.
Central to post-New Age discourse, is the quantum phenomenon known as
quantum entanglement or non-locality. The term non-locality describes how
the act of influencing the behavior of a particle at one location can instantaneously
influence the behavior of another particle at an arbitrary distance from the first.
This means that if one knows the state of one of the particles in the pair, then
one can discern the state of the other particle without actually observing it. This
mutually affecting relationship was theorized mathematically in a 1935 thought
experiment written by Einstein, Daniel Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen. While the
authors main agenda was to challenge the Copenhagen Schools assertion that
one could not simultaneously measure the momentum or position of a particle,
the paper also offered mathematical proof that under certain circumstances,
quantum mechanics predicted a breakdown of locality. This breakdown of locality
undermined the realist perspective characterizing separate bodies as distinct and
non-transferable configurations.
Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosens mathematical model (which came to be
known as the EPR Paradox) was later experimentally verified by J. S. Bell
(1964). Bell concluded that the outcomes predicted by quantum theory and
expressed in his experiment were inconsistent with any theory that retained a
notion of locality, and that quantum physics was inherently non-local.
Acting together as a single system, subatomic particles appeared to have the
ability to tell what the other particle was doing and to respond in a corresponding manner. Einstein remained throughout his career critical of the concept of
quantum non-locality and its disruption of classic notions of causality, calling
the phenomenon of non-locality spooky action at a distance. While not uncontested, the main principles of Quantum Theory were generally accepted by the
mid-1920s, and continued to be refined and verified throughout the twentieth
century.

Figuring Matter

The Challenge of Quantum Language

Where the thing ends, no word may be (Stevens, 2002, p. 107).

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Increasingly, science studies have considered the fundamental role that language
plays in the production and consumption of scientific knowledge (see, for
example, Gross, 1988; Bono, 1990; Harris, 1990, 1991; Brown, 2003; Hellsten,
2008). Referring to quantum physics, Guy Rotella (1987, pp. 172 173) argues
that the world of particle physics is the place where the classical models (or metaphors) of science break down. Liliane Papin (1992, p. 1254) more specifically
observes that,
scientific language started losing its stability with the recognition of the dual
character of light as wave and particle, a recognition that tore apart not only
the fundamental correspondence assumed between nouns and specific attributes but the basic either or categorization central to classical science.
Instead of the either or of classical science, quantum physics presents a both
and wavicle model that challenges the basic syntax of linear representation. For
Papin, the problem extends to the relationship between language and lived experience. Papin (1992, p. 1254) writes, when the laws governing the universe are not
susceptible to purely rational understanding and are inadequately rendered by our
familiar language, what remains is at best approximative and essentially metaphoric. I would go further and argue that the problem of representing quantum
phenomena derives from the very nature of metaphor. According to Lakoff and
Johnson (1980, pp. 18 19), the spatial characteristics fundamental to all metaphoric language originate in our experience as discrete entities. Elaborating on this
theory, they write:
We are physical beings, bounded and set off from the rest of the world by the
surface of our skins, and we experience the rest of the world as outside us.
Each of us is a container, with a bounding surface and an in out orientation.
We project our own in out orientation onto other physical objects that are
bounded by surfaces. Thus we also view them as containers with an inside
and an outside (1980, p. 29).
How, then, to represent a set of material phenomena that seem to have no bounds,
no discrete borders, and no identifiable position and direction?
Many of the founders of quantum physics expressed a keen awareness of the
difficulty of translating quantum phenomena into meaningful language. Neils
Bohr (1958), Werner Heisenberg (1958), Albert Einstein (1966), and Arthur
Eddington (1981), and Hungarian-American mathematician John Von Neumann
(1955) all discussed the apparent irreconcilability between what quantum theory
tells us about the microscopic behavior of matter, and what may strikes us as

J. Burwell

common sense on a macroscopic level. Von Neumann (n.d., cited in Papin, 1992,
p. 1256) held that quantum phenomena are difficult to explain because existing
language was inadequate to the task of conveying them. Bohr (1958, cited in
Lightman, 1989, p. 100) lamented,

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

We [quantum physicists] find ourselves here on the very path taken by Einstein of adapting our modes of perception borrowed from the sensations to
the gradually deepening knowledge of the laws of nature. The hindrances
met with on this path originate above all in the fact that [. . .] every word
in the language refers to our ordinary perceptions.
Since quantum phenomena universally undermined the conventions and associations attached to our ordinary perceptions, quantum physicists were left without
access to a language that was both loyal to proven quantum phenomena and at
the same time consistent with everyday experience and sensation. Eddington
(1981, pp. 189190) went so far as to conclude that scientists had yet to advance
to the point wherein quantum concepts could be made operational in narrative.
The abstract nature of quantum concepts necessitates a highly approximate
language that exceeds the metaphoric nature of all scientific models.2 Its radically
figurative nature is precisely what opens quantum language to the kinds of metonymic slippages capitalized on by proponents of quantum consciousness and
quantum enrichment programs. Terms such as wavicle, non-locality, uncertainty/indeterminacy, and quantum leap have proven to be particularly adaptable and thus susceptible to refiguration. The term wavicle, for example, has
been deployed in a host of ways, most often to affirm the holistic nature of
quantum healing against the fragmenting and alienating mind/body split of conventional medical practices. The term non-locality has been refigured in popular
discourse to suggest that consciousness stretches over and between individuals
and the cosmos. From this, popularizers of quantum concepts conclude that the
individual or cosmic mind can be applied or engaged to produce both physical
and psychical changes at great remove from the object of its consideration. The
term quantum jump/leap has become the moniker for a host of pseudo-mystical
transformations: from one state of consciousness to another, from a state of illness
to a state of wellness, from a state of poverty to one of wealth. Finally, the terms
uncertainty and indeterminacy, initially referring to that gap wherein quantum
particles can be said to be in multiple states simultaneously, become a locus of
radical possibility. This possibility provides a point of access through which
open and properly instructed acolytes can apply their will to transform their lives.
The Concept Quantum Consciousness
[The Buddha] worked toward the understanding of life and compassion in
much the same way a physicist attempts to comprehend the world. . . . He
sought the laws of existence (F. A. Wolf, quoted in Golden, 1997).

Figuring Matter

Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld (1966, p. 137) took pains to explain that the
impact of observation in quantum phenomena should not be misunderstood to
imply that subjective features ought to be brought into the description of nature.
Einstein and Infeld (1966, p. 54) also took pains to detail what they mean when
they describe the transition from the possible to the actual that takes place
during the act of observation:

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

We have to realize that the word happens can apply only to the observationnot to the state of affairs between two observations. It applies to
the physical, not to the psychical act of observation [. . .]; it is not connected
with the active registration of the result by the mind of the observer.
They stress that the only function of the observer, whether it be experimental
apparatus or human being, is to register outcomes; the observer does not influence
these results in a cause/effect manner (Einstein and Infeld, 1966, p. 137).
In contemporary popular use of quantum discourse, Einstein and Infelds outright rejection of any psychical aspect to the observation of quantum phenomena
disappears. This is particularly evident in the rhetorical strategies wherein
quantum statistical probabilities are transformed into the notion of human potentiality and empowerment. Here, the dynamics of matter is harvested unproblematically to construct a one-way causal relation between the consciousness of an
observer and his or her physical surroundings. Post-New Age quantum practitioners conscript such concepts as non-locality, uncertainty, and wave/particle
duality to advance their own brand of observer/observed dynamics. In doing so,
they filter the fundamentals of quantum physics disruption of causality through an
anthropocentrism perspective that takes the undecidability of events at the
quantum level for a form of animated potential that has, as its main characteristic,
the plasticity of the material world to the human will. Popular accounts in particular emphasize a state of mutual responsiveness between matter and the human
mind. Through a process of transliteration, the original explanatory analogies
and metaphors of quantum physics are literalized and then reconstituted to
confer a strong cause and effect relation between human consciousness and the
material world. Observers share their status as protagonists with a dynamic
material world, and the mind is freed to seize opportunity from its physical
surroundings.
As Victor Stenger (1997, p. 58) observes, some have inferred that the very
nature of the universe is non objective, but depends on the consciousness of the
observer. . . . [This] implies that the universe exists only within some cosmic,
quantum field of mind. Jeremy Campbell (1990, p. 36) observes that, the
notion that a quantum happening is relative to an observer . . . has been elaborated
into a more daring hypothesis: namely, that observation is the whole point of the
universe, and that all physical law is relative to the observers. In this respect,
Zohars invocation of a quantum alternative to Western dualism and Newtonian

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

10

J. Burwell

determinism is fairly typical. The indeterminacy, unpredictability, and both/and

quality of quantum phenomena, she claims, stresses a creative interaction wherein
the subject/object dichotomy is replaced by an observer/participant holism. The
quantum observer, Zohar (1994, p. 14) asserts, stand inside what they observe,
with the result that their goals, consciousness, and intentions actively make the
reality that they observe.
Within quantum consciousness, subjectivity expands to include the entire universe, whose existence becomes an artifact of human consciousness. Quantum
phenomena, such as entanglement, now similarly cast as an extension of individual consciousness, is seen as enabling human paranormal activity. Well-known
nuclear physicist and quantum guru Amit Goswami (1975, cited in Stenger,
1997, p. 58) states that psychic phenomena such as distant viewing and out-ofbody experiences are examples of the non-locality operation of consciousness.
The notion of observer/participancy that is fundamental to popularizers of the
quantum flies directly in the face of Einsteins insistence that our consciousness
acts only to register quantum events, not to participate in them.
Quantum Mysticism
What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not
both saying: Hello? (A. Dillard, 1988, cited in OMalley, 2007, p. 10).
According to Victor Stenger (1997, p. 2), one of the primary critics of quantum
mysticism, quantum mystics interpret the wave function as some kind of
vibration of a holistic ether that pervades the universe. In this view, writes
Stenger (1997, p. 2), wave function collapse occurs instantaneously throughout
the universe by a willful act of cosmic consciousness. In reality, however,
quantum practitioners make much more varied use of the wave function, while
at the same time peppering their models with reference to revised principles of
non-locality and uncertainty. These references appear most often in their
account of the relationship between the observer and the observeda relationship
that proves foundational to the fields of quantum mysticism and quantum healing.
Several of the theoretical physicists responsible for developing and promoting
the tenets of quantum theory already expressed a degree of mysticism in their writingsmost notably, theoretical physicist David Bohm (1980). Bohm (1980,
p. 236) describes the explicate order as that which is present to the senses,
with matter and consciousness sharing this explicate (manifest) order. In the
implicate order, Bohm argues, the mind enfolds matter in general and the
body in particular. According to Bohm (1980, p. 265), the body enfolds not
only the mind but also in some sense the entire material universe, so that the constituent atoms of the body are actually structures that are enfolded in principle
throughout all space. Bohms sense of an implicate but invisible cosmic
oneness offers a suggestive model for those looking to quantum theory for the

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Figuring Matter

11

suggestion of a deeper reality beyond our immediate grasp. The continuum that
Bohm constructs between matter and consciousness thus appeals to New Age
adepts looking for a profound reality that posited an inclusive and animate
cosmos.
Fritjof Capras 1975 book, The Tao of Physics, is typically cited as the first significant popularized blending of quantum physics and mysticism. In this widely
read book, Capra (2010) asserts that the basic oneness of the world advocated
by Eastern mysticism is similarly revealed in modern physics. Capra promises
that as we study the various modes of subatomic physics we shall see that they
express again and again the same insightthat the constituents of matter and
the basic phenomena involving them are all interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent; that they cannot be understood as isolated entities, but only as integrated parts of the whole (2010, p. 131). Sal Restivo (1978, cited in Leane,
2001, p. 420) describes Capras basic strategy as the parallelist method of juxtaposed quotations. This method, notes Restivo (1978, cited in Leane, 2001,
p. 420), rests on the basic assumption that, if the rhetorical, imagery, and metaphoric content of statements on physics and mysticism is similar, then the conceptual context must be similar. Restivos description of Capras methodology aptly
sums up the rhetorical strategies employed by virtually all later popularizers of
quantum language.
Another widely read book that proposes links between physics and Eastern
mysticism is Gary Zukavs 1979 book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters. Like
Capra, Zukav touches on general parallel logics between the new physics and
Easternparticularly Buddhistphilosophies. Zukav (2001, p. 264) asserts, for
example, that the quantum viewpoint that all particles exist potentially as different combinations of other particles parallels a Buddhist view. Later, he (2001,
p. 266) claims that,
although this book is not about [a comparison between] physics and Buddhism per se, the similarities between the two, especially in the field of particle physics, are so striking and plentiful that a student of one necessarily
must find value in the other.
According to Zukav (2001, p. 347), the study of complementarity, the uncertainty
principle, and quantum field theory produce insights into the nature of reality very
similar to those produced by the study of Eastern philosophy (Zukav, 2001,
p. 347). The rhetoric expressing dynamics within the physical world, argues
Zukav, can provide a conceptual container for understanding Buddhism; at the
same time, the language of Buddhism offers an instructive framework for the
study of the physical world in general, and particle physics in particular.
Capra and Zukav, whose books were written in the 1970s, clearly align with the
Western New Age movement in subscribing to a philosophy wherein the universe
is characterized by holism and a kind of universal consciousness. At the same

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

12

J. Burwell

time, Capra in particular offers detailed, informed, and sophisticated explanations

of developments in physics in the twentieth century. Ultimately, it is the laws of
physics that they seek to explain. In both cases, their demonstrated knowledge of
physics outstrips their exposition of Eastern mysticism, and associations to
Eastern practices in their books often appear as throwaway lines or afterthoughts
buried within their expositions of physics or tacked onto the end of chapters. Capra
does, in fact, acknowledge his merely passing summation of Eastern practices, but
then justifies it by asserting that mysticism simply cannot be taught in a book. This
last assertion also becomes central to later popularizers, who typically construct
themselves as gurus possessing secret knowledge.
As theoretical and philosophical works, both Zukavs and Capras texts are
more interested in universal dynamics than in the individual subject. Following
a long tradition characterizing the study of the physical world, Capra and Zukav
view it as worthy of consideration as a wonder in itself. This orientation distinguishes them from later efforts to conscript quantum physics as a foundation
for a radically subjective relation to the world. This individualization is realized
in what I call the post-New Age relation to physics that developed toward the
end of the twentieth century, when subjectivity enters as the dominant
concern. The historical origins of this emphasis on the subjective has many
causes. On the one hand, it may be traced back to the fragmentation and collapse
of collective movements such as the New Left (see Graff, 1989), and the ensuing
emphasis on individualized and eventually depoliticized identity politics (see
Kauffman, 1990). The rise of the internet has similarly encouraged an increasing
personalization, both in terms of individual consumption and the publication of the
self through sites such as Facebook.
At the same time, there exists a perceived loss of control that can be traced to
the acceleration of a surveillance society focused on mapping the individual
subject through technologies such as biometrics, applied in a world where
power is diffuse and intangible, and it is no longer clear who is doing what to
whom. Uncertain job prospects and mounting personal debt, combined with an
economic machinery that becomes less and less intelligible at the same time
that it becomes more and more unstable, exacerbate this sense of powerlessness
and disorientation. It is not surprising, then, that popular culture is shot through
with products that promise a renewed control over the direction of ones relationships, finances, career, and health. The offer to take back the reigns is evidenced
by the number of books that offer strategies that will assist individuals in their
search to regain a lost sense of agency and control (see, for example, Jasper,
1999; Morris, 2002; Braiker, 2004). Complementing this offer of self-empowerment is an emphasis on personal happiness and well-being that dominates
popular culture and has entered both academia and the State in the form of the
metrics through which the health of society is assessed.
The conceptual framework of quantum physics has been enlisted in the construction of a host of related methodologies that, once operationalized, will

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Figuring Matter

13

enlighten people on how to take advantage of the infinite choice and possibility
available to them. The immensely popular 2004 film What the Bleep Do We
u vS (k)pow!?) sums up the extent to
Know? (also written as What toe #$ ! D
which post-New Age quantum rhetoric is associated with both subjective possibility and personal empowerment. Toward the beginning of the film, Amit
Goswami states that quantum physics, very succinctly, is the physics of possibility. Later in the film, William Tiller observes, if reality is my possibility,
then the question is: how can I make it better, how can I make it happier?.
According to Joe Dispensa, we ought not to buy into the idea that we have no
control, nor should we continue believing that the external world is more real
than the internal. This new science [of quantum physics], says Dispensa, is
just the opposite. It says that whats happening within us will create whats happening outside of us. Throughout the film, the emphasis is on the extent to which
we create our own reality, and that reality is a function of our perceptions, our
minds, and the unacknowledged power of our own thoughts.
Post-New Age Mysticism: Healing the Mind and Body
Kidneys never make decisions alone; they work in constant consultation with
the quantum mechanical body (Chopra, 1990, p. 136).
After Capra, the best-known (and most successful) proponent of the connection
between consciousness and quantum physics is physician Deepak Chopra.
Chopra (1990) claims that we participate in a cosmic connection to the
quantum world, and that the inconceivable region from which photons emerge
is the same as that from which we fetch thought and experience. Chopra acknowledges that physicists could object that he is just making metaphors, and that an
unlocatable particle is fundamentally different from the hidden worldmind;
however, he insists on the notion of quantum non-locality on a cosmic scale.
Chopra (1990, pp. 118 119) argues, for example, that particles separated by
immense, macrocosmic distances of space time know what the other is
doing, and that this knowing demonstrates the fact that the entire universe is
knitted together by a kind of memory network, or universal consciousness.
Chopras primary claim is that we can cure all our ills simply through the application of our mental energy to our bodies, since both body and mind ultimately are
made up of the cosmic stuff of consciousness. If asked for a definition of quantum
healing, says Chopra (1990, p. 241), I would say this: quantum healing is the
ability of one mode of consciousness (the mind) to spontaneously correct the mistakes in another mode of consciousness (the body). Our organs, says Chopra,
work in constant consultation with the quantum bodyitself an interconnected
field of intelligence and experience. For Chopra, the specific connection between
mind and body may begin at the atomic level, but it extends into more macrocosmic bodily elements such as molecules and even DNA itself, which he claims also

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

14

J. Burwell

possess quantum properties.3 As with all quantum events, says Chopra (1990,
p. 100), something inexplicable happens beneath the surface to form the allknowing intelligence of DNA. DNA lives at the point of transformation, constantly delivering messages from the quantum world to ours, tying new bits of
intelligence to new bits of matter. The point of diving into the realm of the
quantum body, Chopra (1990, p. 100) says, is to change the blueprint itself,
thus transforming our individual physiology in its entirety. Chopra (1990, p. 97)
presents, as one of many examples, the case of a female patient who
healed herself of cancer (with Chopras guidance) through the mere application
of her mind. Chopra calls this patients case a quantum event because the fundamental transformation she enacted on her body went deeper than her organs and
travelled directly to the source of the bodys quantum existence in universal
time and space.
For Chopra, quantum effects provide the foundation for all of natures flexibilitya flexibility that enables inexplicable transformations of non-matter into
matter, time into space, and mass into energy. He frequently uses the term
quantum leap to described the mysterious transformations that emerge out of
the application of mind to the body. In general, Chopra uses quantum terminology
(combined in an undifferentiated way with the mass/energy theory of relativity) in
a manner that is both allusive and elusiveinvoking quantum concepts without
really reflecting on or explicating their specificity or origins. Despite his fuzzy
science and radical claims, Chopra has managed to convert his assisted
quantum healing into a multi-million dollar financial juggernaut that rests on
the variety of workbooks and workshops available to the consumer who wishes
to follow Chopras guided quantum self-help program.
Other proponents of quantum healing include James A. Putnam and Robert
Jahn. According to Putnam (2003, p. 2), our experience comes to us through
the intermediaries of photons. For Putnam (2003, p. 2), our bodies are being constantly bombarded by photons that originate from an immeasurable number of
sources, each photon striving to pass on some small bit of cosmic information.
The photons notify us, Putnam (2003, p. 2) says, in a manner that offers us
the constant opportunity to search inside our being and discover a form of knowledge that is always already there for the taking. The information that we can glean
from photons, properly selected and interpreted, then wakens our genetically
inherited intelligence, potentially leading to enlightenment and self-actualization.
The information that photons provide must be decoded, howeverrerouted and
analyzed internally with the help of an enlightened guide. Summed up,
Putnams theory represents the apotheosis of individual consciousness, an anthropic cultivation of the subatomic realm that casts humans as the central actors in
and beneficiaries of a universe that, in all its plenitude, becomes a home for
humankind.
Robert Jahn (1998, p. 103), director of Princetons PEAR lab and Dean Emeritus of the universitys Engineering Department, offers a partial summation and

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Figuring Matter

15

enthusiastic endorsement of this sort of stylized and complementary relationship

between consciousness and quantum reality. The first premise, writes Jahn
(1998, p. 103), is that consciousness can insert information into its environment.
Atoms themselves are of the mind, says Jahn, and our heads are TV sets that
transduce the consciousness waves out of which our universe is built (1998,
p. 103). Following from this premise is the fact that one consciousness can
form a telepathic link or resonance with another, potentially leading to clairvoyance and psychokinesis.
There exists no shortage of quantum-based healing programs on the internet.
While quantum healing programs do continue to appear in the forms of books,
the reach, flexibility, and interactivity of the internet offers several advantages
for the packaging and sale of quantum healing. Sites can offer layered access,
wherein the homepage functions as a teaser that contains vague reference to a
novel quantum approach. To learn more about the program and to realize the
promised results, consumers must navigate away from the homepage, where
they typically are presented with the opportunity to register for workshops and
buy a host of products. Sites can offer simultaneously a number of unique products
and workshops, thus allowing visitors to tailor their use of the site to their individual means and needs. Perhaps more importantly, any claims that the sites make do
not have to be vetted for publication, thus allowing for a further loosening up of
how the term quantum is deployed.
The radical disarticulation of the term quantum from its origins is evident on the
Quantum Touchw (2010) site, which offers a simple, yet powerful energetic
healing modality using light touch, the breath and a variety of other techniques
to bring about well-being, both physical and spiritual. Along with selling a
host of products, the site promises to put the visitor in touch with quantum
touch therapists, whose techniques appear to focus on facilitating healing by
amplifying our life-force energy or chi. Quantum Touch therapist Dr Pallavi
invokes two scientific conceptsneither of which are particularly associated
with quantum physics. The first is resonance: the tendency in a system for
even small forces to produce large-amplitude oscillations. The second is entrainment, wherein two interacting oscillating systems assume a common period.
Using the Quantum Touch technique, Pallavi argues, we can create a more
intense and more accurately attuned frequency of life-force energy. The bodys
ability to heal itself is amplified to a higher frequency via quantum touch,
after which this field of high energy can be applied to areas of pain, stress, inflammation, or disease. The quantum touch is a personalized touch; through direct
contact, the specific ailments of the consumer are addressed.
Pallavis use of science rhetoric here goes beyond the parallelist method for
which Restivo critiques Capra, dispensing with metaphor as a way of establishing
the relation between scientific terms and modes of healing. Instead, she relies on a
more superficial metonymic relationship, wherein amplitude is annexed New
Age energy fields to create a rhetorical bridge that establishes the connection

16

J. Burwell

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

between science and the Eastern concept of chi. This metonymy is even more
evident in the sites title. Here, the relation between the quantum and healing is
established merely by combining the terms quantum and touch, and then further
tightening the link with the use of the registered trademark symbol. While purportedly grounded on scientific methodologies, Pallavis makes no real attempt to
connect his mode of healing with actual quantum concepts. Quantum rhetoric is
condensed and reduced to the title she assigns her practice, and in the process
the term quantum becomes a commodified cipher. This commodification is
expressed directly in the fact that the site attaches the registered trademark
symbol to its moniker, at once suggesting its value (the process must be protected
from imitators) and underscoring its status as a product.
Profiting from the Quantum: Get-Rich Schemes
For the first time, combine the powerful lessons from quantum physics with
the amazing secrets to getting filthy rich (Conjur, 2006).
The commodification of quantum logic present in the marketing of quantum
healing programs is accelerated in personal wealth oriented quantum enrichment
programs. In these mostly online-based programs, profit no longer accrues to the
practitioner merely as a secondary gain to the necessary sale of manuals and workshops. Rather, it is offered directly to consumers in the form of online get-richquick schemes that propose applying the principles of quantum physics to
achieve near-instant financial success. Many of these sites leaven their focus on
financial gain with healthy doses of rhetoric about general payoffs that include
finding peace of mind, developing a healthier body, and resolving inner conflict;
however, the prospect of getting rich is never far from sight.
The online Quantum Prosperity Program, led by certified Quantum Biofeedback Specialist Heidemarie Garbe, employs what she calls a Quantum Biofeedback Instrument (referred to throughout the cite as EPFX/SCIO). According to
Garbe, this instrument was created by Professor William Nelson, described as a
confirmed genius who has worked with NASA. After entering the subjects
names into the program and then placing his or her photo on a radionic plate,
this quantum device allegedly scans and harmonizes the subjects energy fields.
Inputting the intent of prosperity into the program enables the instrument to
free up the blocked flow of (financial) abundance in our livessometimes
subtly, sometimes dramatically transforming the lives of the participants. All of
this, the developers claim, is based on the current and most cutting-edge understanding of quantum physics.
Garbes methodology possesses at least two advantages: its quick, and it
doesnt involve any effort on the part of the client. Discerning the connection
between The Quantum Prosperity Program and quantum physics is, however,
no easy task. While physics does concern itself with both mass energy

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Figuring Matter

17

relationships and quantum fields, the term energy field is more typically associated with the New Age notion of aura, particularly as it has appeared historically
in esoteric forms of spirituality and alternative medicine. Nevertheless, the term
energy field has the feel of science. In this sense, the term acts as a bridging
metaphor that links scientific method with post-New Age rhetoric. Blogger
Violet (Violets View, 2009) begins her entry by stating to her reader: unlimited
abundance is natural to you and always available to you. It is your true nature to
have wealth. Abundance is universal energy and money is a symbol of that
energy. Money, adds Violet (2009), is the unlimited friendly energy of the universe. The proof is already out there, Violet (2009) proclaims: You already have
access to anything and everything you could ever imagine or possibly conceive.
Quantum physics tells us that. As it turns out, money itself is not the root of
all evil (although Violet admits that it can be used for evil ends); in fact, money
is our cosmic friend, waitingwantingto come into our lives and transform
them for the better. Because Violet offers a friendly, morally just, and scientifically legitimized way of gaining money, the participant is invited to see profit
as a kind of ethical cosmic imperative. The frequent use of the term transfer of
energy suggests a closer connection to relativity, and the word quantum
seems to be invoked merely as a rhetorical flourish to establish a cutting edge currency to her program.
On his Quantum Jumping site, Bert Goldman (2009) launches arguably the
most improbable use of the oft-invoked concept of quantum jumping.
Goldman tells his reader:
[My] Visualization Technique Will Transform You Into A UniverseHopping Utopian Being. Once Ive shown you how, youll be able to use
the untapped power of your mind to jump into alternate universes, and
visit alternate versions of yourself who already have all the skills, knowledge
and experience you desire . . . The smarter you. The richer you. The healthier
you. The sexier you. Theyre all out there, and all you need to do is talk to
them.
Goldman (2009) provides a long list of experimental verifications in the familiar
form of enthusiastic testimonials. Sarah, for example, affirms how she quantum
jumped to a successful version of herself and then visualized herself interacting
with this other self. After decoding a cryptic phrase from her other self concerning
cleaning up, Sarah had an epiphany and subsequently started up a profitable
business fluffing houses for the market (Goldman, 2009). Stan had always
wanted to write, so he quantum-jumped into a parallel world and connected
with his already widely published doppelganger to learn the craft of writing and
to pick up some strategies for successful publishing. In another jump, he encountered his globally recognized public speaker self. As a result of this encounter,
Stan says, he now knows that if he should be asked to speak he can do so with

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

18

J. Burwell

all the flair and skill that [he] learned during [his] Quantum Jump. Finally,
Vincent, a would-be musician, visited his own multiple gold record-winning
doppelganger, who provided him with ideas, titles, and in some cases music, for
new songs.
To ground his claims, Goldman (2009) combines the notion of a quantum
jump with the Many Worlds Theory, first advanced by Hugh Everett in 1955.
Everetts Many Worlds Theory (1973) denies the wave function collapse in
favor of the position that all potential states persist, and that every possible
outcome of every quantum event survives within its own history or world.
Everything that could have happened in our world, but didnt, does occur in the
pasts and futures of a potentially infinite number of universes.
In effect, Goldman (2009) shrinks individuals to the level of subatomic particles
who move at will between different versions of themselves. Goldmans subjects
speak in a self-reflexive fashion to more attractive selves who will help them
along the road to realizing themselves as they always imagined they could be.
The social implications latent in this deployment of atomic phenomena are far
from insignificant; in fact, Goldmans model nicely illustrates the socio-political
dynamics informing the advanced or post-New Age quantum discourse. The
newly consumer-oriented atom/individual is thoroughly disconnected from any
larger political or social reality, and the focus is solely on individual gain. The
instantaneous transformation that Goldman offers releases people from the
arduous task of learning from life experiences and applying these experiences
in a gradual process of overcoming social and individual obstacles to gain
insight into their personal nature and societal context.
In his online program, Know How to be Rich, Robert Anthony (2004) dispenses altogether with the typical generalized personal enrichment packaging of
balance, health, and happiness that is present in some of the other sites, and gets
right to the point: making money. Anthonys program is offered via an apparently secret-laden six CD box set that, as described by Anthony, offers a
loose combination of the observer/participant principle of quantum physics,
the Newtonian law of attraction, and the aforementioned New Age energy
fields. By changing our energy fields, Anthony promises, we can produce physical changes in our surroundings, literally attracting financial success. Knowing
how to be rich, observes Anthony, is far more important than the actual making
of money. Anthony states that, after much seeking (along the lines of a mystic
pilgrimage), he realized that what he needed was not some new system or set
of teachings that promised wealth. Instead, he says, What I desperately needed
was PROOF: Scientific, Indisputable, Immediately Verifiable Proof . . . And that
proof came in the form of QUANTUM PHYSICS . . . It was irrefutable. It was
scientific, and it was indisputable. Once you understand the basics of
quantum physics, which Anthony explains on his CDs, you will finally see
clearly how your thoughts, ideas, and beliefs control the outcome of your life.
Anthony is so confident that his clients will make revolutionary financial

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Figuring Matter

19

gains he is willing to swallow all the risk and lay bare [his] most prized secrets
for the taking.
Most get-rich sites combine the economic term prosperity with the more generalized term abundancethe latter suggesting a kind of undefined plenitude
that will banish hardship and need. Using terms associated with the economic register but that also possess extra-economic connotations increases the chance that
anything of benefit that happens to the client during or after taking the program
can be interpreted as a direct outcome of their participation. Finally, by casting
money as part of a cosmic bounty available to everyone and dispensed by a generous and caring universe, quantum enrichment practitioners release people from
the sleazy feeling that they have selfishly invested in these sites just to make
money for their personal use.
That quantum concepts are so mysterious and counter-intuitive only helps
practitioners emphasize the fact that they possess some sort of elemental
secretsecret being a term that appears at least once and typically many
times on each get-rich site. At the same time, the inaccessibility of quantum concepts to laypeople justifies the need for a quantum master to guide consumers
eager to better realize their personal potential, achieve health, or simply to
make money. Many of these gurus speak of travelling around the world, studying
or apprenticing under primarily Eastern mystics who eventually revealed secrets
reserved only for the initiated. These searches prove futile, however, until practitioners learn the secrets offered by quantum physics. Eastern methods of
achieving enlightenment typically require disciplined commitment, and take
years or even decades to yield that enlightenment. By taking this burden upon
themselves, quantum gurus release clients from a difficult and protracted labor
and instead offer them instant gratification. For people dealing with the
modern malaise of loneliness, alienation, and stress, people who lead hectic
lives with little time or patience for undertaking years of arduous meditative
practice, the instant personal alchemy promised by quantum-fuelled transformation offers an attractive alternative.
Because almost all quantum experts cloak their techniques in secrecy, it is often
difficult to discern, without signing up and paying for the workshops/CDs/books,
precisely how the practitioners incorporate the premises of quantum physics into
their methodologies. Indeed, many of the references to Eastern mysticism seem
precisely to serve the function of situating quantum knowledge at an inaccessible
remove from the layperson. The week-by-week teaser lists of topics (see, for
example, Anthony, 2009), however, suggest that most quantum programs,
broken down to their constituent parts, offer little more than traditional instruction
in sound business practices, and the power of positive visualization, self-confidence, and commitment. Quantum testimonials function in a similarly conventional way, with the exception that they add quantum references that transform these
testimonials into experimental evidence which legitimizes a foolproof (because
scientific) product.

20

J. Burwell

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Conclusion
The language through which scientific advancements are relayed is neither neutral
nor transparent. Rather, this language reflects specific social, political, and cultural
needs and expectations, as well as specific constellations of hopes and anxieties.
Constructions and applications of atomic discourse provide a material touchstone
that is no less tangible than any other aspect of scientific enquiry. From Newtons
liberal individualist billiard ball atom to Frenkels collectivist atom with its relative levels of freedom, and finally to the contemporary commodified and personalized atom of quantum consciousness, quantum healing, and quantum enrichment
programs, one consistently finds in atomic models the expression of societal tendencies. In this sense, the atom and its component parts have served as well as
reflected worldviews just as much as it has reflected scientific advances. In fact,
worldviews and scientific advances are inseparable, with existing societal priorities driving the relative degree to which a given model is accepted and applied.
Reflected in the work of Fritjov Capra (1975) and Gary Zukov (1979), New Age
quantum consciousness retains a close allegiance to the theory and experimental
results in the physics of the twentieth century. The authors construct themselves
as teachers and guides whose main agenda is simply to enlighten the public on
the semi-mystical wonders of the cosmos and our relationship to it. In opposition
to this, post-New Age quantum vendors transform particles into animate agents
whose unique movements and interactions with individuals are said to secure
the health and happiness of self-directed individual subjects.
The process of commodification extends increasingly to encompass areas of
subjectivityfor example, spiritualitythat historically have been considered
immune to overt commercialization. In their promotion and consumption,
quantum healing and quantum enrichment programs operate quite comfortably
within the context of advanced capitalism. This extension of the commodification
process is evidenced in the way that quantum methodologies are commercialized
and then sold to people as a means of advancing, not just their financial interests,
but their spiritual well-being as well. The new economy of the atom also emerges
from the late twentieth and early twenty-first century retreat from the public
sphere and the attendant atrophy of the public sphere as a site of interpersonal
engagement. As such, the specifically public and political nature of the earlier configurations of atomism as evidenced by Newton and Frenkel is supplanted by the
subjective language of personal betterment and individual gain. Through the
reconstitution of quantum concepts, incorporated and commodity-orientation subjects are invited to exploit quantum dynamics for their consumption of selffulfillment.
Following the manner in which atomic behavior is cast and then deployed rhetorically is an exploration, not just of matter, but also of what matters. The affinity
between quantum physics and the transition from an objective to a subjective
orientation toward the material world helps explain how easily contemporary

Figuring Matter

21

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

popularized quantum language has accommodated a mode of being-in-the-world

that is self-directed and, arguably, narcissistic. In its contemporary Western
setting, the promise offered by the majority of quantum practitioners takes advantage of societal tendencies characterized by depoliticized and self-interested individuals. At the same time, the invocation and application of quantum rhetoric
touches on a deep contemporary sense of being unmoored and the need for structured guidance as a means toward a renewed sense of control over ones life. The
nomadic quality of quantum language and concepts ensures that, no matter what
an individuals complaint or desire, there exists a quantum strategy to ameliorate
or realize it. This remarkable adaptability marks twenty-first century quantum
language as unique, not only within the discipline of physics, but also relative
to all fields of scientific inquiry.

Notes
1

Collectivism as a political term originated with opponents of Marxism and those in favor of
anarchistic communism over authoritarian communism. It referred to the theory that the
means of production should be owned neither by private individuals nor by the state, but by
free associations of laborers (Kojevinikov, 1999, p. 297).
2
For further discussion of the metaphoric nature of scientific language, see: Black (1962), Halloran and Bradford (1984), Gross (1988), Jones (1990), Harris (1991) and Hellsten (2008).
3
As biologists become more adept as observing phenomena on a nanoscale, there is a growing
belief that key influences on gene expression and function may emanate from subatomic or
quantum dynamicsin other words, that some form of uncertainly principle may operate at
the genetic level. Seeing DNA from a quantum perspective, they propose, offers a new way
to understand how information could travel backwards from the environment to DNA to
produce adaptive mutations. This novel approach to explaining how mutations operate at the
level of DNA, however, is a far cry from the explicitly causal relation that Chopra constructs
between the human will and DNA.

References
Anthony, R. (2004) Know How to be Rich. Available at http://www.robertanthonyonline.com/
(accessed 23 December 2011).
Bell, J. S. (1964) On the Einstein PodolskyRosen paradox, Physics, 1(3), pp. 195200.
Black, M. (1962) Models and Metaphors: Studies in Language and Philosophy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press).
Bohm, D. (1980) Wholeness and Implicate Order (London and New York: Routledge).
Bohr, N. (1958) Atomic Theory and Human Knowledge (New York: Wiley).
Bono, J. J. (1990) Science, discourse, and literature: the role/rule of metaphor in science, Theory and
Practice, pp. 5989 (Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England).
Braiker, H. (2004) Whos Pulling Your Strings? How to Break the Cycle of Manipulation and Regain
Control of Your Life (New York: McGraw Hill).
Brown, T. (2003) Making Truth: The Role of Metaphor in Science (Chicago: University of Illinois
Press).

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

22

J. Burwell

Campbell, J. (1990) Observer and object, reader and text: some parallel themes in modern science
and literature, in: J. W. Slade and J. Y. Lee (Eds) Beyond the Two Cultures: Essays on
Science, Technology, and Literature, pp. 2337 (Ames: Iowa State University Press).
Capra, F. ([1975] 2010) The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern
Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications).
Chopra, D. (1990) Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine (New York:
Bantam Books).
Conjur, L. (2006) Quantum Info Wealth. Available at http://www.quantum-creators.com/qiwhome.
html (accessed 6 September 2012).
Dillard, A. (1988) Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (New York: Harper
Perennial).
Eddington, A. (1981) The Nature of the Physical World (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press).
Einstein, A. and Infeld, L. (1966) The Evolution of Physics: From Early Concepts to Relativity and
Quanta (London: Simon and Shuster).
Einstein, A., Podolsky, B. and Rosen, N. (1935) Can quantum-mechanical description of physical
reality be considered complete? Physical Review, 47, pp. 777780.
Everett, H. (1973) The theory of the universal wavefunction, in: B. DeWitt and N. Graham (Eds) The
Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, pp. 3140 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Frenkel, J. (1924) Beitrag zur Theorie der Metalle, ZP, 29, pp. 214240.
Gardner, M. (1979) Realism and instrumentalism in 19th-century atomism, Philosophy of Science,
46, pp. 134.
Golden, F. (1997) Searching for the soul in the realm of physics (review), San Francisco Chronicle,
January 27.
Goldman, B. (2009) Quantum Jumping. Available at http://www.quantumjumping.com/ (accessed
1 September 2011).
Goswami, A. (1975) The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World (Los
Angeles, CA: Tarcher Books).
Graff, G. (1989) Co-optation, in: H. A. Viser (Ed.) The New Historicism, pp. 168182 (New York:
Routledge).
Gregory, B. (1988) Inventing Reality: Physics as Language (New York: John Wiley & Sons).
Gross, A. G. (1988) Discourse on method: the rhetorical analysis of scientific texts, Pretext, 9,
pp. 169186.
Halloran, S. M. and Bradford, A. N. (1984) Figures of speech in the rhetoric of science and technology, in: R. J. Connors, E. P. J. Corbett and L. Ede (Eds) Essays on Classical Rhetoric and
Modern Discourse, pp. 179193 (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Press).
Harris, R. A. (1990) Assent, dissent, and rhetoric in science, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 20(1),
pp. 1337.
Harris, R. A. (1991) Rhetoric of science, College English, 53(3), pp. 282307.
Heisenberg, W. (1958) Physics and Philosophy (New York: Harper).
Hellsten, L. (2008) Popular metaphors of bioscience: bridges over time? Configurations, 16(1),
pp. 1132.
Jahn, R. (1998) Psychic truth, Life Magazine, 2(7), p. 103.
Jasper, J. (1999) Take Back Your Time: How to Regain Control of Work, Information, and Technology (New York: St. Martins Griffin).
Jones, R. S. (1990) Physics as Metaphor, 2nd edn. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).
Kauffman, L. A. (1990) The anti-politics of identity, Socialist Review, 20(1), pp. 6780.
Kojevinikov, A. (1999) Freedom, collectivism, and quasiparticles: social metaphors in quantum
physics, Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (HSPS), 29(2), pp. 295331.

Downloaded by [Jennifer Burwell] at 11:59 22 March 2013

Figuring Matter

23

Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors We Live By (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press).
Leane, E. (2001) Knowing quanta: the ambiguous metaphors of popular physics, The Review of
English Studies, 52(207), pp. 411431.
Lightman, A. P. (1989) Magic on the mind: physicists use of metaphor, The American Scholar,
58(1), pp. 97101.
Locke, J. ([1690] 2008) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book I (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Morris, J. T. (2002) The Simplify Journal: A Workbook to Help You Regain Control of Your Life,
White Plains (New York: Peter Pauper Press).
OMalley, J. (2007) The eye and I, America: The National Catholic Weekly. Available at http://
www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10467 (accessed 26 December
2011).
Papin, L. (1992) This is not a universe: metaphor, language, and representation, Publications of the
Modern Language Association of America (PMLA), 107(5), pp. 12531265.
Putnam, J. A. (2003) Human Intelligence. Available at: http://newphysicstheory.com/Human_
Intelligence.pdf (accessed 23 December 2011).
Pyle, A. (1995) Atomism and Its Critics (Bristol: Thoemmes Press).
Quantum Touchw. Available at: http://www.quantumtouch.ca (accessed 6 December 2011).
Restivo, S. (1978) Parallels and paradoxes in modern physics and Eastern mysticism Ia critical
reconnaissance, Social Studies of Science, 8(2), pp. 143181.
Rotella, G. (1987) Comparing conceptions: Frost and Eddington, Heisenberg and Bohr, American
Literature, 59(2), pp. 167189.
Stenger, V. J. (1997) Quantum Quackery. Available at http://www.csicop.org/si/show/quantum_
quackery (accessed 26 December 2011).
Stevens, J. (2002) Symbolic matter: DNA and other linguistic stuff, Social Text, 20(1), pp. 105136.
Taylor, B. B. (1999) Physics and faith: the luminous web, The Christian Century, 29 June,
pp. 612 619.
The Quantum Prosperity Program. Available at http://www.quantumprosperityprogram.com
(accessed 1 September 2011).
Violets View (2009) Money and the science of wealth. Available at http://violetsview.hubpages.
com/hub/Get-RichThe-Science-of-Attracting-Money (accessed 1 September 2011).
Von Neumann, J. (1955) The Mathematical Foundation of Quantum Mechanics (Trans. R. T. Beyer)
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Westfall, R. S. (1973) Newton and the fudge factor, Science, 179(4075), pp. 731732.
What the Bleep do We Know? (2004) [DVD] Directed by B. Chasse, M. Vicente and W. Arntz
(United States: Fox Video).
Zohar, D. (1994) Forces of reaction, Sunday Times, February 6, p. 14.
Zukav, G. ([1979] 2001) The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics (New York:
William Morrow and Company).