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Christian Kohl

Christian Kohl

After my Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics I got somehow pulled away from science and now work as an International IT Manager.

I practise meditation since 2004 following the approaches of Qigong, Zazen and Vajrayana Buddhism.

Tuesday, 13 March 2012 10:02

How we manifest the universe

I was writing about the the role of consciousness in quantum phsyics lately. Here is what Deepak Chopra has to say about how the conscious observer manifests the universe that he then experiences. It's an interesting mix of Buddhist and Western scientific approaches, I especially like the quote from Eugene Wigner (Nobel laureate in 1963): "It is not possible to formulate the laws of Quantum Mechanics in a fully consistant way without reference to consciousness.
I only hope this does not end up to become some "Chopra meets The Secret"...

In the previous 2 posts of this series we looked at some of the pillars of quantum physics: the measurement problem & quantum entanglement and the way both can be demonstrated in the infamous double slit experiment. There we saw that the way an experiment is carried out seems to determine what we measure - an objective reality is nowhere to be seen, in other words: a conscious observer influences the result of a quantum measurement.

Let's take this one step further: In this post I'd like to demonstrate that on the quantum level even the law of cause and effect seems to break down.

This post was sent into us from Cynthia Choi, enjoy the post!

I’m sitting on my cushion, looking out the sliding glass doors at the valley below. The trees are bare. The land is sighing peacefully, catching its breath before winter. I fervently resolve to meditate on equanimity so that, for the sake of others, I may attain complete enlightenment.


This post is all about a practical demonstration of the measurement problem which has been discussed in a more general way in the previous post, click here to read it.

This central statement is where we left off:
Only when a measurement is carried out, ONE of the variety of possible states of any given quantum system is magically picked out and is then called "reality". This reality depends on how the observer looks, i.e. on the particular way the experiment is carried out. The process of picking out one of many possibility is what we call 'collapse of the wave function'. Nobody knows how the system 'truly' looks like, and when we look we see only one aspect.

The double-slit experiment is a very tangible and certainly the most prominent way to demonstrate how the measurement problem can manifest. It works as follows:

Wednesday, 19 October 2011 15:29

Jon Kabat-Zinn: What meditation Really Is


Jon Kabat-Zinn, a pioneer of scientific research on meditation and founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, defines meditation as “living your life as if it really mattered”.

Check our video section and watch what he says about what meditation really is and the benefits of meditation.


Erric announced in his blog about Robert Lanza's book 'Biocentrism' that I would write a little something about the science in the book.
Here we go, this is the first in a series of three posts about the effect of an observer in quantum physics.



Part 1 - Measurement problem and quantum entanglement



I'd like to focus on 2 of the seven principles of Lanza's theory::

  • What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness. An "external" reality, if it existed, would by definition have to exist in space. But this is meaningless, because space and time are not absolute realities but rather tools of the human and animal mind.

  • The behaviour of subatomic particles, indeed all particles and objects, is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer. Without the presence of a conscious observer, they at best exist in an undetermined state of probability waves (or 'wave functions').

Let's begin by a quote from Richard Conn Henry, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. He pointed out that Lanza's theory is consistent with quantum physics: “What Lanza says in this book is not new. Then why does Robert have to say it at all? It is because we, the physicists, do NOT say it - or if we do say it, we only whisper it, and in private - furiously blushing as we mouth the words. True, yes; politically correct, hell no!”

Monday, 03 October 2011 09:44

What meditation is not



Following up on what Sandra wrote in her last post about the pitfalls of meditation, watch Khandro Rinpoche and Mingyur Rinpoche, two of the most prominient meditation teachers talking about "What meditation is not":

Monday, 27 June 2011 11:09

Video on 'How to meditate'

Check out this cool video album on how to meditate (you need to have the flash player plugin installed in your browser).

Enjoy lots of interesting videos on our 'Sound & Vision' page and the What Meditation Really Is vimeo channel.



Friday, 24 June 2011 21:27

Meditation is really humorous

Two middle-aged women met on the street. "How are you?" asked one of them.

"Fine, thanks," replied the other.

"How's your son doing? Is he still unemployed?"

"Yes. But he's meditating now."

"Meditating? What's that?"

"I don't know," answered the woman with a shrug. "But at least it's better than sitting around and doing nothing!"
Wednesday, 11 May 2011 18:20

Meditation and health care

Health care providers are increasingly suggesting that their patients look to meditation and other integrative techniques to improve their health, according to a report released Monday by Harvard Medical School and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Many medical centers and institutions, in fact, are providing such services themselves.

The ABC News Medical Unit heard from 31 such institutions. They are listed in this article, along with some of their integrative offerings.

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