Foreword

Currently, not only psychologists and philosophers are interested in the problem of consciousness, but also physicists, who conducted a number of experiments in the field of quantum physics (teleportation of quantum states, “erasing” of the past in the experiments with quantum eraser, and others) that have revealed a strange dependence of physical reality on the presence of an observer in it. Moreover, several attempts have been made to create the quantum theory that includes the observer’s consciousness since this is the key factor in the mysterious phenomenon of wave function collapse, which according to Niels Bohr gave rise to “external reality”. The work on quantum computers revived the interest in old unsolved problems in physics as well as debates of both physicists and philosophers.

Among the difficulties associated with the discussion of this interdisciplinary problem is the difference between the paradigms for considering physical and psychological realities. This book, written by a physicist and psychologists, attempts to resolve the problem of agreeing on these paradigms using a systems approach. Two types of reality representations are analyzed, namely, in terms of the classical object-based spacetime model in the system of consciousness and a spectral model in Hilbert’s space, characteristic of quantum mechanics, in the system of the unconscious.

It is demonstrated that the psychosemantic approach makes it possible to derive relativistic laws of energy and momentum conservation in a semantic form beyond the physical paradigm and to expand the concept of the classical observer’s reference frame to the system of observation that includes individual characteristics of the subject’s “perception channel”, which makes it possible to leave the boundaries of spacetime representation for the quantum region (beyond the boundaries of consciousness).

The authors discuss the possibility to construct both quantum and psychological theories of the unconscious in a new paradigm. It is important to note that the first attempt to use this approach dates back to Carl Jung, a known psychologist, and Wolfgang Pauli, a physicist, and a Nobel Prize winner.

The book is addressed to a wide range of readers interested in the modern problems in physics and psychology as well as the students and postgraduates who specialized in these areas.

Rapid development of technologies over the last century has completely changed the face of our civilization. Just recently, it was most difficult to imagine the experiments in quantum physics, such as the teleportation of quantum states even with a velocity exceeding the speed of light or “erasing” of the past in the experiments with a quantum eraser. Here, it is high time to recall Niels Bohr and his statement that “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.” The impression emerges that our concepts of reality and the very reality are separated by an abyss and this abyss widens with the advance in science. Truly crazy theories, unverifiable in experiments, appear in physics; perhaps, Bohr was right to say that “Your theory is crazy, but it’s not crazy enough to be true.” Most likely, a fundamentally different approach is necessary to finally gain an understanding of physics. It is appropriate to ask the question how our concepts of reality are actually formed if they are so far from the reality itself?

This monograph, prepared in collaboration with a physicist and psychologist, attempts to answer this question. Unlike other studies, the focus here is not on the criticism of the existing situation with the interpretation of the experiments in quantum physics but rather on the search for a way out. Using the methods of psychosemantics, the worldview of an individual is successively analyzed, which suggests an unexpected conclusion that man actually exists in the model of reality that is constructed by his unconscious. This model is object-based in its content and the objects are arranged in spacetime, emerging to be mental constructs, as was noted by Henri Poincare. An object-based space of qualities is constructed and used to deduce the laws of conservation of energy and momentum in a relativistic form even without the use of the hypothesis of the existence of physical spacetime.

Certainly, several assertions of the authors are rather bold, first and foremost, because it is yet unclear which of our long-held beliefs we are ready to abandon in order to accept reality. However, this attempt has the right to exist even by the mere fact that we have currently no other solutions. Presumably, only doubting common sense will allow us to find the truth.

This book is recommended to a wide range of experts, students, and postgraduates in both natural and social sciences and to all who are interested in the current problems in science.