Quantum Psychology
Quantum Psychology sees consciousness as quantum, nonlocal, entangled, multidimensional and holographic. It offers a scientific basis to understand your unusual experiences in expanded consciousness.
How Quantum Physics Relates to Psychology and Consciousness
Quantum Psychology sees consciousness as quantum, that is, nonlocal, entangled, multidimensional and holographic. What does this, in short, really mean?
"Nonlocal" refers to consciousness as a field beyond the limits of space and time.
"Entangled" means that whatever happens to one part simultaneously affects the others.
"Multidimensional" consciousness acknowledges that there are many interconnected layers, some within spacetime and others beyond spacetime.
"Holographic" - according to its defining characteristic for many physicists - refers to how within each part resides the information for the Whole.
"Quantum" refers to these kinds of properties which defy classical physics.
Quantum physics is considered the most successful theory in history. It has been completely unintuitive to scientists - including in the field of psychology - who see the world according to the old Newtonian paradigm of a "local" material physical reality.
In the old view, reality consists of independent physical things. All things are separate from one another, and scientists can make independent observations. All actions take time and space to travel. They can't happen simultaneously.
According to this classical scientific view:
- There is no other reality than this material one.
- There is no afterlife; consciousness is produced by the brain, and once the body dies, we die.
- There can be no angels, no spiritual beings or other-dimensional beings.
- There can exist no "heavenly" realm.
- Intuition, telepathy, after-death communications with loved ones, seeing a vision of the future, premonitions, NDEs, and any other out-of-body or psychic (i.e. psi) experience is "impossible" and therefore is hallucination or delusion.
Except, quantum physics has found that:
- There is an "observer effect" creating a "measurement problem". Consciousness seems to affect the outcome of experiments. There is no independent observer afterall.
- There are "nonlocal" effects, those that are "spookly-action-at-a-distance". These are effects which defy rules of space and time because they take no time and no space to "travel". Things can happen simultaneously.
- Tiny subatomic particles (which we were classically thought to be made of) can be "entangled" with one another, such that whatever happens to one is immediately reacted to by the other. Particles aren't inherently separate things. Instead, it seems there is an interconnectedness, a collective system with more "quantum" rules.
And subsequent scientific research based on quantum findings has found:
- Telepathy and mind-to-mind communication is real. Our minds can influence and are influenced by others' intentions. Both in awake and dream states. We are interconnected with others.
- Precognition is real. We can receive information from the future, and/or, consciousness can affect the past (e.g. retrocausation). We are interconnected in ways that defy regular spacetime rules.
- Mind-matter effects are real. We can affect material objects.
- Out-of-body, near-death, past life, after-death communications, share-death happenings, and such experiences have much supporting evidence.
In short, there is no death of our self essence. Consciousness may really be the fundamental reality.
We do know that reality is multidimensional and interconnected even beyond space and time. And, while we do have free will, everyone can have effects on everyone and everything else in certain situations. We are one interconnected body, whether humanity, planet, and even cosmos. When we hurt one another or harm our planet, we hurt ourselves. It is inescapable.
Now that you've glimpsed the new worldview, what do you want to do about it? How do you want to integrate this into your life?
(For more on this quantum revolution, scroll down.)
If you would like to take the next step, reach out and schedule a 30-minute free initial call, where we can discuss your goals for our coaching sessions together. That way I can give you a more specific sense of how I can help you, and if our working together is right for you.
Validation for Those with Extra-Ordinary Experiences
Let's address how quantum physics relates to psychology and consciousness, its states and studies. And why quantum psychology is the leading-edge path of the future.
To do that, first we have to understand where mainstream psychology has its belief systems.
Rooted in the pre-quantum ideas of physics, traditional psychology still can't explain consciousness. Its researchers instead continue to focus on which parts of the brain "light up" during which conscious activities. This in itself is helpful science, and we can do much with these findings. The brain seems to be like an old fashioned call switchboard, where we can see which "calls" are where.
However, one of the rules of research is "not to confuse correlation with causation". And yet that is what psychology does when it assumes that correlations of certain parts of the brain cause specific states of consciousness.
Here's the problem. There is a whole body of scientific research that traditional psychology ignores.
Why ignore a whole body of research? It conflicts with their belief system in this one physical/material reality.
Still not on board with the quantum revolution that took place in physics in the early 1900s, these researchers still focus on the "material" and on "local" forces or energies, like electrical signaling in the brain^ which takes time and space to travel. They are "materialists" in their belief system, meaning they believe in matter, in what they can see, and they tend to disregard that which they can't see, and therefore measure and explain, like consciousness itself, as we humans experience it.
And even though they still can't explain how, they are stuck in their belief that consciousness is a "bottom-up, epiphenomenon" of the brain-body...that somehow consciousness evolves from "inert unconscious" brain matter.
Why is this a problem? It doesn't explain the vast breadth of human experiences in consciousness.
If you've had, for example, a spiritually-transformative, near-death or out-of-body experience, then you've likely had an experience of consciousness that would be considered" impossible" to be real. Your experience is dismissed as delusion or hallucination, since "there exists no consciousness beyond the body". (Again, they believe that consciousness is an effect or byproduct of the material body.)
This despite decades of scientific evidence to the contrary. Indeed, consciousness has been medically documented and verified has having taken place, even when technology showed the brain to be nonfunctioning, the heart stopped, and the patient declared dead. Case after case. Decade after decade. There are many books out there on this subject, especially in the near-death experience literature, even authored by witnessing physicians. Check out https://iands.org for much more.
In fact, there are many varieties of experiences of consciousness that defy the materialist psychology belief. I'll leave that for another blog.
But, note that without consciousness existing beyond the body, there can be no spiritual realms, no angels or spiritual beings, no rational prayer, no faith healing, no intuited or revelatory messages, no contact with deceased loved ones, no God. Tell that to the over 80% of Americans who believe. Tell that to the 80% across all demographics who report after-death communications (ADCs) with loved ones within the first year after death, regardless of belief. (Yes, even atheists!)
Reviews from Physicists and Engineers
I felt an internal validation as I read Valerie Varan’s Living in a Quantum Reality: Using Quantum Physics and Psychology to Embrace Your Higher Consciousness, as I have lectured on the quantum effects that are manifested in the fusion of science and spirituality. I believe her book will be especially helpful to my colleagues in the field of transpersonal psychology who are providing therapy to individuals who are encountering body, mind, and spirit phenomena such as near-death experiences. I recommend Varan’s book to the seekers who are looking for an understanding of how we all interface as actors and observers in this quantum oneness.
— Neil Helm, PhD, former NASA engineer, Nobel Prize nominee, transpersonal psychologist
This is a welcome addition to the growing literature of quantum psychology. I found it interesting and useful and you will too. The author has a lively readable style to boot.
— Amit Goswami, quantum physicist and author of Quantum Creativity and Quantum Economics
Modern science is beginning to learn that the subtle energy field of the body, also known as the "aura," affects our health and well-being in many ways. It carries the patterns of growth and repair that govern the physical body, and it connects us to the higher spiritual planes involving past lives and the deeper reasons we are here in this lifetime. By working with these deep connections it is possible to achieve healing in ways that are impossible using conventional psychology. Valerie Varan, in her pioneering book Living in a Quantum Reality, has taken the important step of showing how these energies can be used in the therapeutic process, and has made a valuable contribution to energy psychology.
— Dr. Claude Swanson, MIT and Princeton University physicist, author of Life Force, the Scientific Basis
If you would like to take the next step, reach out and schedule a 30-minute free initial call, where we can discuss your goals for our coaching sessions together. That way I can give you a more specific sense of how I can help you, and if our working together is right for you.
Reviews from Clinicians and Energy Psychology Pioneers
I have, as a clinical social worker doing independent practice twenty-three years, used energy psychology for seventeen years as a mainstay of my work with clients. However, I have always wanted a more in-depth understanding of the way energy actually operates in the body/mind. What Valerie shares about energy makes this possible. I have been astonished at her curiosity into and the scope of her knowledge of energy, and how we can take more advantage of it in the process of growth and healing.
— John Harder, Licensed Clinical Social Worker
I was recently working on an article about why Energy Psychology is referred to as such and the integral connection between energy, consciousness, and universal consciousness, when along came Valerie Varan's book, Living in a Quantum Reality. Synchronicity? Absolutely! This is a remarkable book that offers an in-depth excursion into Valerie's consulting room, and helps us to get in touch with our energy, consciousness, higher self and more. The book explores varieties of our energy from slower to higher vibration, a profoundly important understanding of who we really are. Read this, and read it again and again. Absorb the wisdom and the practical exercises and suggestions for reaching higher levels of vibration and consciousness. This is a book needed for our time.
— Fred P. Gallo, PhD, DCEP, author of Energy Psychology and president of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology
Living in a Quantum Reality brings 21st Century science to the emotional and spiritual challenges of living in the 21st Century. Starting with an ambitious, if speculative, synthesis of consciousness studies and quantum physics, the book provides wise guidance for all of us grappling with a world that is in terrifying chaos while teeming with unprecedented opportunities.
Valerie, I just watched your presentation. Like your book, your talk is a decade or two ahead of the psychotherapy field! But it is where we have to be headed!...You present this important high-falutin' material in a wonderfully personal manner.
— David Feinstein, PhD, author of The Promise of Energy Psychology and co-author of The Energies of Love: Using Energy Medicine to Keep Your Relationship Thriving
I am just finishing reading Living in a Quantum Reality.
I want to thank you, from my highest self, for your work and dedication in creating this work. It is a fantastic weaving of quantum theory and deep, therapeutic growth and healing. I've also watched the videos you have on your website.
I am an LCSW in private practice for the past 20 years, and my focus has moved toward this kind of spiritual integration for many years. Now that I have read your book (sometimes needing to read a few pages, then set it aside to digest and contemplate), I want to create a study group for clients! And you have already created the exercises!
I truly appreciate your depth and breadth of work and I'm finding I would love to study under you.
— Lydia Byhardt Bollinger, LCSW
Your book is something that inspired my spirituality to tap into the next level of consciousness. Your scientific explanation of energy and vibrations helped me understand how things work. Your personal journey, your vulnerability, and your openness found me. As you have mentioned in the book somewhere at the beginning, it is really hard to find people who we resonate with. So many people are stuck in a dimension where spirituality in general is just another form of distraction from the challenges of life and a comfort mechanism which also helps us to find answers in the “unknown” to help us cope with situations and events. The Quantum world is truly the bridge between the known and the unknown. Your explanation is clear, digestible, and it mirrors your soul.
if you don't (start teaching), you will leave many potential curious souls with questions that are going to take us 10-20-30-40 years to find answers to. If you possess the knowledge, it is your "responsibility" to pass it down to those who are open to receiving it!
— Johnny Szabo, Registered Behavior Therapist
As I am reading Valerie's book, I am struck with the exciting possibilities of what it would be like to vibrate with higher energies on a more regular basis. Finally, I can "see" that dissolving my human boundaries doesn't have to feel scarey because I might be "losing" myself, but rather that I would be GAINING the Universe and the thrilling possibility of what that might mean. It has helped me realize how my fears are holding me back to "becoming" what I am meant to be. The more I read, the more excited I become and the higher I vibrate!! I can honestly say that for the first time I am understanding what it feels like to "let go" and feel the subtle connectedness to all that is!!
— Judy Ford, Licensed Professional Counselor