A Journey Through Parallel Universes, Shamanism, and the Alchemy of Mind and Matter
Fred Alan Wolf reflects on his career, blending quantum physics with spirituality, shamanism, and time travel, offering insights into consciousness, parallel universes, and the unity of science and ancient wisdom.
Fred Alan Wolf is one of the few figures in the world of theoretical physics to have bridged the gap between science and spirituality with such elegance. A physicist, author, and lecturer, Wolf has spent decades unravelling the complexities of quantum mechanics while exploring the profound connections between science, consciousness, and ancient wisdom. In this exclusive interview for Reader’s House Magazine, Wolf reflects on his extraordinary career, from his early fascination with atomic explosions to his groundbreaking explorations of parallel universes, shamanism, and the alchemy of mind and matter.
Wolf’s journey began with a childhood awe for the atomic bomb, a moment that ignited his lifelong quest to understand the mysteries of the universe. Over the years, he has fearlessly ventured into uncharted territories, blending modern physics with ancient philosophies and spiritual practices. His work challenges conventional boundaries, inviting readers to reconsider the nature of reality, time, and consciousness.
In this candid conversation, Wolf shares insights from his seminal books, including Taking the Quantum Leap, The Yoga of Time Travel, and Parallel Universes. He discusses the evolving relationship between quantum mechanics and human consciousness, the surprising truths uncovered during his research into shamanism, and the profound implications of parallel universe theories. Along the way, he offers invaluable advice for authors striving to make complex scientific concepts accessible to a general audience.
Prepare to embark on a journey through the mind of a visionary thinker who continues to push the limits of science and imagination, even as he celebrates his 90th year. Fred Alan Wolf’s reflections are not just a testament to his remarkable career but also an invitation to explore the infinite possibilities that lie at the intersection of science and spirituality.
How did your early fascination with the atomic explosion influence your career path in theoretical physics?
Fred Alan Wolf: I became fascinated with the world of physics one afternoon when, as a 10 year old child at a local matinee, the newsreel revealed the awesome power and might of the world’s first atomic explosion. This fascination continued today as I live through my 90th birthday. I was awed and I wanted to know how they did that.
In your book Taking the Quantum Leap, you explore the relationship between quantum mechanics and human consciousness. How do you see this relationship evolving in the future?
Fred Alan Wolf: Science today is not normally interested in nonmaterial, apparently mysterious, things such as consciousness and physical reality. At least most scientists do not seem to be concerned with them. I understand why scientists fail to involve themselves with these mysteries. Such things are exceedingly difficult to deal with, and sometimes result in the investigator giving up previously held shibboleths, particularly those questioning the foundations of science. History has taught us that we painfully clutch ideas of right and wrong, life and death, good and evil, in order to maintain order in our lives. Yet the result of our clutching often leads to emotionally-polarized minds and unfeeling hearts. But this wasn’t always the case. Ancient scientist-philosophers did concern themselves with these questions.
What inspired you to connect ancient Hindu meditative techniques with quantum physics in The Yoga of Time Travel?
Fred Alan Wolf: What makes this book different from all my other books, you might already have gleaned from the title, is the bringing in of the mind and a means for achieving time travel through use of a mind Yoga—a technique for training the mind to carry out the processes seemingly beyond time.
Why bring in Yoga? Many ancient Yogic hymns tell us that time is the progenitor of the cosmos as well as the past, present, and future. Well it turns out that practitioners have know about time travel since ancient times and many still practice it. Here we shall see how a secret is contained with this ancient wisdom—that it is possible through technique to cheat time—to, in other words, travel through time and even reach the shores of timelessness. I aim to provide a map of these shores, to indicate what it may look like to the traveler based on my knowledge of spiritual beliefs, experiences, modern physics, and also do I need to add, my abilities to make these concepts easy to grasp for the lay reader.
During your research on shamanism for The Eagle’s Quest, what was the most surprising scientific truth you discovered?
Fred Alan Wolf: I didn’t really expect to get involved with the shamanic world as much as I did. I found, however, that I really had no choice. I discovered as I probed, that there was no way for me to determine the relationship between the shamanic world and the world of modern science without involvement. Indeed it seemed that I had to go through a number of processes that required my participation with shamans. Because of that, I can’t really say that I was just an objective observer, “recording the facts, ma’am.” I became a participant and that sometimes gave me great difficulty including physical discomfort, illness, and even fear that I would not recover from the venture. I now see that I had journeyed to another reality, a primal world, another way of “seeing.” I became a shaman-initiate without really knowing it.
How do you approach the concept of “new alchemy” in Mind into Matter, and how does it bridge the gap between science and spirituality?
Fred Alan Wolf: The main idea of thenew alchemy, the chord that binds together all of the ideas presented there, lies in the concept of unity: the great inseparability of all things. Taken literally, the very notions of heaven being separate from earth, mind separate from body, free will separate from determinism, life separate from death, and in fact all duality, all opposites, wherein we pose an inside and outside, a boundary line, a nation, an island, a membrane, a distinction—all and more, are not primary facts.
We might think of these ancients as misguided. Perhaps they were, in that they didn’t know modern science. But in regard to the essential life/death principle they were, scientifically speaking, right on the money. An inner abstract imaginal world had to have a causative effect on the outer material world and vice versa. As above, so below. As within, so without. The sovereign states of the imaginal and the real are deeply connected as we have so aptly discovered in quantum physics.
In Parallel Universes, you discuss theories about other worlds. Do you believe parallel universes could ever be proven, and what implications would that have for our understanding of reality?
Fred Alan Wolf: Within the twentieth century, ideas of Einstein and the revolution of scientific thinking brought forward by the theories of relativity, much of pre-modern thinking was changed. Some of the gaps were closed. Space was not as infinite as we had previously thought. It didn’t necessarily extend on forever, infinite in all directions. Neither was time as inscrutable as thought earlier. Instead time and space joined together and the two together became a new concept called spacetime. Events were not eternally now. A pair of spatially separated simultaneous events for one observer, became past and future events for another observer simply passing by through space and in time relative to the first
Quantum physics or quantum mechanics, which is the same thing, is a strange business. It deals with the behavior of matter and energy, particularly with how matter and energy interact on a very tiny scale–the scale of atoms, molecules, and particles that exist inside these small objects.
The major problem of bringing together quantum physics and relativity is still with us today. We don’t know how to do it. We do know that whatever theory that manages it will be quite bizarre for those who still wish a clockwork universe. In this book we will explore one the most bizarre and promising theories to come from the minds and imaginations of today’s physicists; that there must be other universes beside our own.
Parallel universes theory was invented by physicists in the hectic period of the 1950’s and 1960’s. It appeared as a new way to make concrete and rational some of the bizarre findings of quantum physics and general relativity. These findings aren’t comprehensible without a new vision of reality. Instead they appear as problems. Nothing in our previous thinking about the physical world will make these problems go away.
In other words, the existence of parallel universes resolves some old and not too easily solvable paradoxes. However, as you will see soon enough, it introduces a very new and apparently paradoxical way of thinking. In essence, parallel universe theory posits the existence of worlds within our technologically-extended senses, that must connect or relate with our own.
What advice would you give to other authors who aim to make complex scientific concepts accessible to a general audience?
Fred Alan Wolf: It helps if you have a little bit of show business within you. Always think about how a dramatic appeal helps an audience read your words. Introduce difficult ideas with the understanding that your readers are perplexed by what you write about. The old adage applies: KISS—keep it simple, stupid.
