Quantum Physics and Spiritual Science: The quest for the foundations of the material world

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. …. All things were made through him, and nothing of all that has come into being was made except through him.” With these mighty words begins the Gospel of St. John. Since the beginnings of Christianity were these words highly revered and were meditated by countless monks, mystics and believers. In our age of rational enlightenment, we tend to look at them as just a nice Christian myth. But is this attitude truly justified? Or do they maybe contain a deep truth, a truth which got lost over time? This question lived in Martin Wigand, when he had the chance to visit Ephesus in Turkey. He describes his experience there: I was sitting on the place where John might have written his gospel, reading it, reflecting on it. I had studied physics. I took it for granted, that our world is made out of dense matter, which we picture as atoms and molecules. They had nothing to do with the “Word”, the “Logos” of St. John. Or…… or could our idea of a dense material world be fundamentally flawed? Quantum Physics seemed to contradict this assumption. I decided to pursue this question. Already as a teenager Quantum Physics had started to fascinate Martin Wigand. He studied physics at the prestigious University of Heidelberg. For three years he worked in a team creating artificial atoms and studying their properties. He was disappointed at how little attention his colleagues paid to the fundamental paradoxes of Quantum Physics. In discussions, they would argue: The greatest thinkers have not been able to resolve these paradoxes. But the mathematics we have works. We can make theoretical predictions and then test them with experiments. That is good physics and we are not going to waste time and energy on these unresolved questions. This answer did not satisfy him. And yet, it provided a clue! The mathematics works! Could we not gain deeper insights by analysing the mathematics used in Quantum Physics? Here he turned to the great philosopher and founder of Spiritual Science (also called Anthroposophy) Rudolf Steiner. Rudolf Steiner gave indications on how different kinds of mathematics relate to different levels of reality. He also made very surprising statements on the nature of the material world, based on his spiritual research. After retirement Martin Wigand found the time to dive deeper into the question of how the paradoxes of Quantum Physics appear in a new light when explored with the help of Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science. And also the beginning of the Gospel of John becomes a powerful statement about the nature and the origin of our material world. This book will demonstrate, that a bridge between modern science and the Gospel of John can be found. In the first part it describes, how modern physics moves beyond space and time. In the second part it analyses our understanding of REALITY. It concludes, that all reality is already interpreted reality, as we try to make sense of the world we perceive with our senses. And the last part uses indications by Rudolf Steiner to develop a completely new perspective on the material world around us. It will be radically different from anything you read in modern textbooks on physics. It will leave you with fundamental questions and a renewed curiosity about the world we live in. Read more