Quanta in Distress: How New Age Gurus Kidnapped Quantum Physics - Paperback

by Sadri Hassani (Author)

Back Jacket

This book deconstructs and debunks the lucrative and widespread marriage of quantum physics with pop-spirituality while tracing this pernicious strain of pseudoscience to its source: the founders of quantum mechanics themselves. The association of mystical ideas with modern physics in the self-improvement industry is not new. The "spookiness" of quantum properties like uncertainty and entanglement has proven fertile ground for new-age mystics and alternative medicine advocates who saw a way to put a scientific veneer on their claims. In the early days, the founders of quantum physics accused it of implying an observer-created reality. Later, Taoists and Wu Li dancers were quantized. Then ancient Indian medicine, Ayurveda, morphed into "quantum healing." Little wonder The Oprah Winfrey Show told its viewers: think about losing weight, making more money, and falling in love, and you'll become thin, wealthy, and happily married ... all based on quantum physics. Criticism of the pseudoscientific misappropriation of quantum physics has been widespread but inadequate; thus far, the scientific community has failed to account for its own role in the fusion of pop-spirituality and quantum physics. As well as thoroughly exploring and debunking quantum mysticism, this book traces the development of quantum mysticism and pulls no punches in exposing the unwitting role of quantum theory's founders in propagating quantum mysticism.

Author Biography

Sadri Hassani is Professor Emeritus of physics at Illinois State University and Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his PhD in theoretical physics from Princeton University and is currently on the editorial board of Springer-Nature's Graduate Texts in Physics series. His first publication, Mathematical Physics, a graduate-level textbook now in its third edition, has become an authoritative text on the subject. His current area of interest is using physics as a venue for the dissemination of critical thinking. He lives with his wife in Champaign, IL.