Q&A: Physics and Consciousness
Physics and Consciousness
Question
Hello, Rabbi. A question that I personally think has no substance at all, but the friend who told me this is a pretty smart person (I’ve known him for years, and I want to assume there may be something to this claim, since he has more than once proven claims that seemed strange). He argued that the laws of nature that operate on us operate only because our consciousness is used to them, and that if you took babies to a deserted island and raised them without our consciousness’s limitations regarding nature (I don’t know exactly how), then their consciousness would dictate the laws of nature that seem normal to them. For example, they could jump higher, pass through walls, etc., because they would not have the limitations of our cognition.
To me it seems that the laws of nature are completely objective and not dependent on our consciousness at all, and just as a cat has not studied physics and is still subject to the laws of nature, so too would those babies be.
What does our Rabbi say?
Answer
At first glance, nonsense. Obviously there would be no deviation from the laws of nature even without awareness. Of course, it is possible that a person might achieve better results in a different psychological and conscious state. But that has nothing whatsoever to do with the laws of nature.