26 | Quantum Entanglement, Memory, and Empathy and the Essence of Human Consciousness

Welcome to the Cow Behind the Barn: A podcast exploring humanity, the world, and the divine, as experienced and interpreted by an artist. I’m Kevin Caldwell, a co-finder of the Table Collective.

My wife Susan and I live in California. We have daughters and grandchildren in three different cities ranging from the southern to the northern portions of the state. That means we spend a lot of time on the road together. Susan likes to listen to the podcast as we drive, and each trip usually has us listening to several Episodes. 

Most recently we listened to Episodes 23, 24, and 25 which explore the nature of human consciousness, and the self. At the end of 25 I had said I would explain how I understand human consciousness. Which I will. But something in Episode 23 changed the approach I was planning to take for how I will go about it 

Listening together with Susan gave me the benefit of on-the-spot feedback from a listener. It was like thinking out loud with her about my own thinking.

As I listened, I had a realization. 

In Episode 23 I described an experience I had during meditation, in which I found myself extending compassion to our President. Then I went beyond compassion and began to put myself inside his skin, as it were, and I found myself speaking and responding as if I were him.

Compassion had transformed into empathy.

My realization, in the form of a question, was this, quoting myself:

 Is it possible that empathy might be a more fundamental ingredient of human consciousness than I had considered. And if that is so, then might empathy be a more fundamental ingredient of all consciousness than I had considered, including any big C Consciousness there may be? And as such, might empathy be a core ingredient, if not the core ingredient, in our quantum entanglement with everything else? 

In other words, is empathy a core ingredient of the nature of whatever we might call “ultimate reality”?

For those who have been following this podcast for any length of time, the word entanglement hopefully makes sense. For those who are new, I am speaking of quantum entanglement, the theory in quantum physics that sub=atomic particles influence each other in ways we do not fully understand, and we also impact the behavior of such particles, for example when we observe them. There is a mutual entanglement. 

I began to ask if it is possible that empathy results from entanglement? Or, turning the idea around, may it be possible that empathy is what creates entanglement? Perhaps both? In other words, is quantum entanglement a sub-atomic particle version of empathy? Leading me to ask, is cosmic quantum entanglement a result of some sort of cosmic empathy? Then, if we consciously cultivate empathy, do we somehow deepen that entanglement?

Ok, pause here, Kevin! You are leaning way in front of your skis at this point! 

I agree. I am getting way ahead of myself. So let me back up a bit and reset.

 

Hit the Reset Button

As I mentioned above, at the end of Episode 25, after summarizing different ways that physics, philosophy, and religion all look at human consciousness, I said I would use Episode 26, this Episode, to say what I think.

I had not suspected the way that my experience of compassion and empathy described in Episode 23 had all along been brewing below the surface, subconsciously reframing how I see the nature of consciousness. One way that my approach is being reframed is that so far, I have been trying to stay objective as I describe how physics, philosophy, and religion tell us what consciousness is, as a metaphysical question, objectively answering, “what is it?”  

However, I am seeing that this question is far more than metaphysical, it is meta-personal.

 

Woven By a Thread

The last 25 Episodes have been a journey, which began when I tried to answer the simple, personal question, “where and when did I begin.” 

The fact is that Cosmos (our vast “where”), Chronos (time, our “when”), and Consciousness (“I”), are all woven together. 

But what is it that weaves them together?  Physics answers with quantum entanglement. 

But I am coming to suspect that empathy is another way to name what holds everything together. Or, to switch metaphors, I suspect that empathy might be the glue of the cosmos.

Before going further, I need to explain what I mean by empathy.

 

Empathy

I decided to ask AI to tell me about empathy (by the way that seems like a very pregnant action, to ask AI about empathy!). Here is what I was “told”: 

“Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person, essentially "walking in their shoes". It involves both cognitive understanding of another's perspective and an emotional response to their feelings. True empathy goes beyond simply acknowledging someone's feelings; it involves connecting with them on a deeper level and feeling what they are experiencing.”

 

Two observations from that:

Empathy is more intensive, and more personal I would say, than compassion.

Empathy is connective and inherently collective because empathy connects my self deeply with other selves and collects other selves into my self.

Which is what is behind my question whether empathy might be an experiential expression of entanglement, entanglement in a psychic, not just a cosmic sense. 

Or empathy as a way to understand the psychic dimension of cosmic entanglement.  

I referred to Cosmos and Chronos (time) and Consciousness above, so I will use those three terms to unpack this further. That will require some review from prior Episodes, but I will connect all of that to the current question.

 

Cosmos

The theory of quantum entanglement emerged from the observation that the act of measuring the activity of one subatomic particle instantaneously, faster than the speed of light, influences the state of that particle but also the state of other particles, regardless of the distance between them. 

It is as they are communicating, as if they are linked in such a way that can influence each other.

That is the sub-atomic level, the micro level, of entanglement.

At the macro level, cosmic entanglement suggests that this micro entanglement extends across vast cosmic scales. Cosmic entanglement suggests that particles were originally entangled in the early universe and remain connected even after the massive expansion of the “big bang.” Meaning that entanglement affected and still affects the formation and structure of the entire cosmos. 

That means everything in the cosmos is interconnected, you and I, and every other conscious being, every single thing. 

Here is how I put it way back in Episode 2:

“Places are a combination of things, and things consist of subatomic particles, the qualities of which change when measured and observed, which means that places are changed by the people who live there.

Which means that a place is the sum total of the experiences of all the people who have changed that place by being in it and experiencing and observing it. 

That in turn changes and affects the people living there, which changes how they experience where they are, which again changes the places, which again changes the people…”

That is entanglement relative to our “where.”  Which, for me, raises the question whether this entanglement can be influenced and affected by our intentions. 

Or maybe I can phrase it this way in very non “physics” language:

It seems like quantum entanglement describes how particles seek each other out, influence each other, across vast distances, and in a very real sense, put themselves in each others’ places. If particles were conscious, we would be tempted to call that behavior empathetic.

And, by the way, prior Episodes have suggested that every particle of the cosmos either is conscious, or participates in consciousness in some way.

Hence, empathy may not be an inappropriate term to describe reality at a cosmic level.

That was “where”, now what about when?

 

Chronos

I spent several Episodes exploring what physics, philosophy, and religions say about time, about the past, present, and future. As a result, here is how I see it: 

The present moment is so infinitesimally minute as to be for all intents and purposes non-existent. The moment something happens, it is gone.

The present for all practical purposes is never present. And the future by definition is not here.

Now, perhaps in quantum physics, and philosophy, the present and future are present and real. There are theories which suggest so and we looked at that. But experientially? No.

So, what does that leave? What is “when”? 

When I try to grab hold of a moment I can call “now,” what I hold is completely experienced by memory. Memory is the most pervasive ingredient of consciousness, and therefore, of the “I”. Memory is in this sense, a defining element of who we are.

What we experience even in the present, is whatever our memories have stored. We can say, in other words, that what we are, in terms of consciousness, is what we were.  

And I would add here, that when we remember, we are putting ourselves back into the event, with the people we experienced it with. 

Memory, then, operates a lot like empathy. Meaning that empathy, putting oneself in the place of other selves, and places, and times, is a primary element in how we engage with time. 

How “we” engage. So, the cosmos/where and the chronos/when bring us to the consciousness/I.

However, before I focus on the I, I will digress here and insert something of an artistic way of approaching these things. This time it is not a song or a poem. It is a sort of poetic-prose reflection on what I have been trying to express about the self, my self. It began as a journaling exercise to which I ended up giving a title, “Watercolors and Pronouns.”

 

Watercolors and Pronouns

“Griefs pile up and compound as we age, I believe. Mine began early and for as long as I can recall, re-feel, re-experience, re-mind…

How do I “re-mind” if I was not “minded” to begin with? If I was not mindful, not aware, not attentive?

And now, in the days when the light that is this life begins to set, daylight fading, moon and stars rising into view, can I say yes to re-viewing it all with a compassionate, loving tenderness towards the years, towards the souls whose faces fill the hallways and rooms of all my ages, and towards this self which is made up of all the memories my imagination paints upon the canvas of my years – not canvases plural – because memory is more like painting with watercolor – and the colors of events and faces and voices are always running and blurring on rag paper, where any fresh water restarts it all

I am a watercolor mural…

And my mural blends somehow with the watercolor murals of each conscious being in my present times, whether they or I are conscious of how our colors run together, run with all the colors of every sentient being and non-sentient being in the same moment…all of which has been touched, handled, imagined, designed, constructed, sold, delivered, purchased – and so the colors run and are imprinted with the colors of all conscious beings, all beings…all things….

We live in vastly populated and crowded places…our souls are populated crowded places…

I think of John’s Gospel, with its mention of I and we, and you and they, all wrapped in union, and of the Gita’s “selved-selves.” And I think of the Buddha’s insight that consciousness and experience, mind and matter, are all an interconnected collective flowing stream. 

It seems clear that none of us are simply and merely a “first person singular” as we seem to assume. 

Our “I” is profoundly a “We”, and a “They” all at the same time, for every “They” is in fact a part of the “We” which is me.

Kevin, pay compassionate attention to the frames in my watercolor mural…for it is ours…”

I concluded that reflection with, “pay compassionate attention.” Were I to edit that today, I would have said “empathy.”

Indeed, in a later journaling session, which included reflecting on my “Watercolors and Pronouns” piece, I wrote the following. I did so largely as a “stream of consciousness” flow of writing, so there may be places where it feels like I make some leaps.

 

From my journal:

“Compassionate attention? 

The place of empathy?

What if empathy is the way we experience entanglement…

What if empathy is in fact the primary “knower,” the primary nature of consciousness?

What if divine empathy is the primary mode of the incarnation and redemption in the Christian model…

Singularity in the Jewish view…

Compassion and Mercy in the Quran…

Atman and atman in the Gita…

Absence of individual self in Buddhism…

Essence of the respect for all souled things in animism…

 

Empathy is different than compassion, or even love. The latter two can be exercised or experienced as other, from a. distance, without deeper identification.

 

Empathy is the essence of union, interconnection … entanglement.”

  

Empathy is the core, the soul o look b f our entangled connection with everything and everyone and in a very real sense, with all times. Walt Whitman was right, "I contain multitudes.” So do you.

This is my way of describing how I understand consciousness, the I of “where and when did I begin.” Empathy is the primary thread in the interwoven tapestry of our entangled, remembering, selves. 

And I suspect that empathy is the fabric holding all things together in the tapestry of the cosmos.

And thus, I suspect empathy will be at the very core of whatever we might say is the nature of the divine. 

I am ahead of myself again!

So, back to the question I assigned myself for this Episode when I ended the last one.

 

What About That Divide?

Throughout Episodes 23, 24, and 25 I was working with two primary ways of understanding human consciousness, and I lined up various approaches from physics, philosophy, and the religions in terms of how they answered this question:  

Do we have consciousness or are we consciousness? Is there a self that is conscious, or is consciousness the self? That is really just one of the either/or questions we have surfaced.

My conclusion? “Yes.”

I’ll explain. First, to be fully transparent, I do land on the side of the divide that holds that there is an “I” that is deeper than consciousness and awareness and the experiences we have which we normally assume are what makes us “us.” That is a mysterious “I”, and in fact I would say I don’t think I can define or articulate it.

However, at the same time I am aware that at the experiential level, when I see things as they are, what I experience as my “self” is something very close to the Buddha’s description: a flow of ideas and memories and thoughts and feelings that pass like clouds across the sky.

However I hasten to add, there is a sky! Which is what? 

It is that inexplicable, mysterious, elusive unicorn, the self.

 

Next Question?

Is there more to the sky, something above the blue I see? Is there more to my “self”? By which I mean more than the self that I have already described as entangled with the cosmos, and so entangled with you? Something more than the past my memory connects me with, which is also entangled with everything? Is there something more than my own empathy?

If it is fair to ask whether there is a large S Self in addition to a small s self, as we have done several times in the podcast, it seems fair to ask whether in addition to my small e empathy, there might be a large E Empathy. That is my next question, and yes, that means we are getting to the divine!

 

But First

I will conclude by going back to the fact that this topic is not just about metaphysics. It is personal, meta-personal. Which means there is also something very practical about my growing conclusion.

Here is something from way back in the first Episode:

“In 1962, in a children's book, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. A character in the books says,

"...whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way. Why, when a housefly flaps his wings, a breeze goes round the world." 

Each person’s inner journey matters to the universe, not just actions but intentions, thoughts, wishes. Each person’s cultivation of a false self, of estrangement and pride and half-truths and outright hatred adds to the winds of devastation and destructive force that grows and drives the waves that become the psychic tsunamis that wreak havoc upon humanity, and the world.  

But, conversely, each person’s journey of progressive cultivation of their true fully alive self sets loose a breeze that, no matter how tiny it may begin, will swell into waves that grow into psychic tsunamis that bring life in all its fullness to humanity, and to the world.

To put it another way, I am convinced that the cultivation of our spiritual and creative and relational human essence will enable us to be more alive and aware and awake as human beings, and thus become if I can say this, “better humans”…and better humans will mean better humanity and a better humanity will mean, well wow, it would mean a LOT for every other animal, plant and species and  type of “thing” we can imagine.”

That was Episode 1, and now in Episode 26 I see new textures to what I said then. Now I see the way that empathy is the very essence of the ability to effect and affect people and places and things and situations. I have a new way to articulate the interconnection of all things, and thus, a new way of imagining and enacting ways to “energize” the butterfly effects of goodness, and wholeness.

As such, I can’t think of a better way to end this than to include, for maybe the third or fourth time in the podcast, my song, “Butterfly Wing.”

 

Butterfly Wing

They say that all it takes is the wing of just one butterfly

To change the course of time, in a broken life

A million miles away, a million miles away, a million miles away, oooh, a million miles away

 

They say that all it takes is one gentle whispered word

And even though it not be heard, it can still do its work,  

A million miles away, a million miles away, a million miles away, oooh, a million miles away

 

Shadows fall around like acid rain 

Soak into our souls, leave bitter stains

Pouring out from inside hearts long shattered

Can my tiny soul do anything that will matter

From a million miles away, a million miles away, a million miles away, oooh, a million miles away

 

They say that all it takes is the wing of just one butterfly

To change the course of time, in a broken life

And they say that all it takes is a gentle and whispered word

Even though it not be heard it can still do its work

A million miles away, a million miles away, a million miles away, oooh, 

A million miles away, a million miles away, a million miles away, oooh, 

A million miles away

 

And they say that all it takes is the wing of just one butterfly…

 

Flapping Our Wings

I will close with another brief section from that very first Episode:

“I am flapping my wings as an act of faith, an act of hope that somehow, somewhere, sometime, someone will feel a breeze that is light and balmy and warm, like the movement of soft sun on skin, the sound of rain on leaves, fresh air, life, hope.”

I hope you join me. Because we are connected. Because it matters. Because it makes a difference.

Until next time…