The Power of Observation

How might your life change if you recognized that observing might be the most powerful thing you could do?  We acknowledge experts based on what and how they observe, yet we seldom recognize the full power of observation.

Much like breathing, observing is something we often take for granted, yet cannot live without.  We can only live for a matter of minutes without breathing–and in certain situations, the same can be said of observation.  We depend on observation in order to make choices about the food we eat as well as every choice we make. 

How we do this deceptively simple thing has everything to do with the level of consciousness we experience.

Role of the Observer

 

Tremendous significance has been ascribed to the act of observation and the role of the Observer, in the realm of quantum physics.  The definition of “observation” within quantum physics is:

“an act by which one finds some information–the value of a physical observable (quantity).” 

This very specific definition is focused on the relationship between observation and information, with awareness that the choice of how and where and what is being chosen for observation. 

The presence or absence of Observers, as well as the nature of what is being observed have an impact on the observations being made. This has been experimentally demonstrated in the double slit experiment, which is recognized as the most elegant scientific experiment.  Observation in quantum physics experiments has been associated with such ideas as “the observer effect,” whereby what is observed in a quantum double slit experiment appears to be influenced by the type and location of an observer or observational device.  

While it may seem obvious that observation involves some form of consciousness, there is a surprising lack of consensus agreement about what that entails.  

Observation and Consciousness

One of my favorite ways to contemplate the connection between observation and consciousness is by considering some of the insights of Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz, a great philosopher and one of the inventors of Calculus. 

Leibniz pointed out that a key quality of consciousness is that it necessarily involves both a first-order primary perception, and a second-order awareness of the first level perception.  Our ability to recognize, for example, that when we feel something touch our nose, and we open our eyes to see what it is, we can realize that the sensations we perceive and the visual input can provide us with information regarding what is currently happening.  If we feel a sense of being threatened, we can respond protectively; if we feel a sense of curiosity, we can respond inquisitively. 

Leibniz recognized the importance of being an observer of one’s own first-order perceptions–with awareness that this very ability to acknowledge something we so often take for granted can actually be viewed as the foundation of consciousness itself.  We begin to wonder if artificial intelligence asks questions, will nature answer?   with hopefully an emphasis on how good it can get when we begin collaborations with A.I.

The Power of Observation

Most of us are familiar with the expression, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” with awareness that each person’s aesthetics can be quite individual and unique.  What is not so well known is that almost all desirable qualities can be said to be “in the eye of the beholder,” and we tend to see much more of whatever we focus our attention upon.  We can become inadvertent experts on what we focus our attention on, regardless whether it’s something we’d actually enjoy experiencing, so we would be well advised to focus our attention on sustainable positive values such as:  peace, balance, harmony, joy, and love. 

Alignment of our own levels of observation is an inside job, meaning it starts by recognizing areas of ideological inflammation, where we cannot tolerate certain ‘triggers’ or stimulation–yet thrives by focusing primarily on our overall health as incorporating a much larger sense of self than we typically claim.  When each of us is bigger than any personal or environmental insult, we need not fall into knee-jerk reactionary and possibly overly dramatic responses, but rather can relax into knowing we are intrinsically safe, loved, and accepted with love and kindness just as we are.  This kind of re-centering is an inside job, and must start by loving all parts of ourselves.  We thus can rise above old patterns and tendencies to fall into victim consciousness, patterns of us-and-them thinking, or chronic anxiety regarding some large problem that we must help resolve.  All such drama can truly be risen above, when we claim a sense of higher self awareness that is our true birthright. 

We can rise above most any circumstances, through the power of observation.  And of course one of my favorite ways to experience the power of observation, is to feel how much we truly need to know how good can it get?

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You can watch the companion video to this blog here:

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps.  Cynthia has a degree in physics from UC Berkeley, an MBA degree, a Doctor of Divinity, and a second degree black belt in Kuk Sool Won. Cynthia is the founder of RealityShifters, and is president of the International Mandela Effect Conference. Cynthia hosts “Living the Quantum Dream” on the DreamVisions7 radio network, and has been featured in numerous shows including Gaia, the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, One World with Deepak Chopra, and BBC. Cynthia reminds us to ask in every situation, “How good can it get?” Subscribe to her free monthly ezine at:

http://www.RealityShifters.com

 

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How to Prepare for Jedi VS Empire ‘bots’

A friend just posted something interesting related to both of the two talks I gave about Identity and Artificial Intelligence, “It’s the crossroads of Human history.  One road leads to A.I. and it’s merging with humanity and the other leads to evolution of average people to X men without using machines.  At some future destination there will be Empire and Jedi among the ‘Bots.'”

So how do we prepare for Jedi VS Empire ‘bots?

I was struck by two pivotal moments when I was interacting with the audience while giving the keynote talk at the West Coast Dowsers conference at UC Santa Cruz this month.  In the first moment, one person after another came up to ask a question at the microphone along the lines of, “Can just one person really make a difference?”  And time and again I replied, “Yes.  One person really can make a difference.” Much of the key to this realization involves recognition that the classical view of reality consisting primarily of physical “stuff” cannot truly be the actual nature of the world.  We’re learning that classical physics is a special case within the larger set of quantum physics–and within quantum physics, Observers can and do influence events.

In the second moment, people came up to talk to me after my keynote presentation, expressing a sense of newfound hope that despite current social atmospheres of division seeming to segregate people into groups of “Us” and “Them,” it really can be possible for us to be respectful with one another, rather than assuming ‘others’ to be untrustworthy, profane, oppressive, offensive, guilty, primitive, or evil.  We stand to benefit from listening to what others have to say, rather than shouting over them.  We can overcome artificial divisions by appreciating that we are not our thoughts, and we are not our feelings–we are the one who sees and hears and feels these thoughts and feelings.   

When we appreciate that we can look for–and find–evidence of quantum jumps and reality shifts on the macroscopic scale, we can see the world with less fear and greater appreciation for the miraculous way we experience living in such a remarkably fine-tuned universe.  We see scientific evidence that:  our cognitive processes behave according to quantum logic, where relationships between events and observers matter.  We see that there has been a doubling of the placebo effect over the past 30 years.  We see the field of embodied cognition is taking off, with our abilities rising to support our actions as, for example, we feel happier because we smiled.  We see scientists having trouble reproducing their experiments in what’s been called a “reproducability crisis.”  We see evolutionary jumps, rather than slow gradual change in our fossil records.

Physicist Dr. Henry Stapp provides us with a clue as to how we are connected to Nature with the questions we ask: “The Quantum Zeno Effect says that the answers follow your questions–that by posing the questions fast enough, you can make the answers agree with what the questions are you ask.” 

Jedi VS Empire ‘bots

I feel that one of the reasons humans love stories like the Star Wars movies is that we find in our stories a sense of meaning and purpose for our lives.  When we view the world of Jedi knights and Empire soldiers from a viewpoint of the importance of retaining the essential spark of our humanity, we can feel grateful that we are always able to take an imaginary step back from any situation and constellation of events, to view it from the point of view of Observer who is observing the observers.  And when we ask optimizing, open-ended questions from this vantage point–such as, “How good can it get?” we truly can see just how much more wonderfully unlikely a world we and our future generations can live in.

You can watch the companion video to this blog post at:

 

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Gaia TV, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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Cynthia Sue Larson interviews Gardner Sylvester

I had a fascinating and uplifting conversation with Gardner Sylvester this month about how we can better understand and appreciate the teachings of Jesus Christ. I was surprised to learn that the true secret teachings of Christ have been right in front of us all along, yet they have seldom been recognized. Gardner Sylvester is the author of The First Great Commandment, where he shares research into the ‘secret code of the Bible’ involving the true words of Jesus Christ.

I love how Gardner Sylvester’s fresh look at Christ’s wise words and timeless teachings serves to unite and uplift our spirits. Gardner’s message and book provide an extraordinarly timely and refreshingly invigorating catalyst for positive change at this time when so many of us hunger for an antidote to divisive, polarizing forces.
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CYNTHIA: I love your book, ”The First Great Commandment.” The whole time I was reading it and for quite some time afterward, I felt myself uplifted with such strong feelings of Divine Love that I felt transformed by it. What inspired you to create a book that delivers such a profound sense of unconditional divine love?

GARDNER: For a long time, I’ve thought that Christianity had a greater and more beautiful message. I thought there was more there. The idea of saving one’s own guts with a spiritual fire escape didn’t seem very loving or Christian to me. It seemed to say: “I got mine. That’s what counts. Too bad about you.” It seemed like a selfish message.

When I was in grade school, I used to admire the members of our church who seemed very Christian and perfect to me. When I got older, they seemed to me more judgmental, self-righteous and holier-than-thou in the way they acted. They did not seem very kind or very Christian to me. I wanted a Christianity that was more loving.

When I was in college a professor once said, “As I see it, the message of Christianity is love.” When I looked about the room, some students were pulling back in their chairs and opening their mouths with a he-doesn’t-get-it-reaction.  I could understand the reaction of these students, who did not know a loving God. I never forgot this professor’s words.

I kept thinking somebody needs to search the Bible for a more loving and more beautiful Christianity. I was sure it was there. I thought someone would do it. No one did. So, it became my project—a project from which I gained. I am now more joyful, feel more connected to the universe and my friends tell me I look younger.

CYNTHIA: That’s wonderful that you can see such direct evidence of the power of a more loving Christianity! While I didn’t attend church when I was growing up, I felt fortunate to attend some Lutheran church services and functions with my grandmother at her church, where I took for granted that her local congregation and pastor were focused primarily on the Bible passages talking about loving God and loving one another. I’ve since heard from a number of
people that they have had very different church experiences than this, where congregations of Christians were not doing or saying what Jesus Christ would likely have done or said to those who were feeling most down-on-their-luck, most different, and most outcast. It seems a rather sizable gap exists between those who feel righteous and presume they are saved, and those who feel excluded, ostracized, insulted, or left out. How do you feel your book
can help bridge this gap?

GARDNER: The conception of heaven, for most people, is a highly gated community in the sky. Yes, a gated community in the sky, with most people not allowed to enter because of their sins. These people then see the world as divided between “the good people” who will go to heaven and “the bad people.” who will not go to heaven.

Unfortunately, people from other countries—because of their culture, the poor—because they don’t have a job, and the homeless—because they have no resources, are most apt to be judged as “bad people.” They are often seen to be guilty of “sins” such as listening to non-Christian music, drinking to much, or not going to church.

Christ shows us a different way of thinking. In the gospel of John. Christ says, A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another. Some people think that love is a weak and wimpy emotion. It is not. Love is most powerful, especially God’s love. It can change behavior. It can cause all of us to re-think our thoughts and become more loving.

This book tells us to follow Christ’s First Great Commandment which is to love the Lord thy God, follow Christ’s Second Great Commandment, which is to love thy neighbor as thyself, and also accept that God totally loves us.  Then our behavior and way of thinking will powerfully and completely change as we come from love and love one another.

CYNTHIA: I felt that the words of Jesus Christ that you share capture the essence of the best of what the Bible offers. How did you decide which Biblical passages to include?

GARDNER: They are right there in front of us. They are in red print. These are the actual words of Christ. It couldn’t be simpler. Merriam-Webster defines Christian as, “one who believes in the teaching of Jesus Christ.” This definition is excellent. People have long been searching for the Bible’s “secret code.” The Bible’s “secret code” is the red print.

In my book The First Great Commandment, to more clearly show the difference in the words of the Old Testament—particularly the obsolete rules in Exodus and Leviticus—Old Testament words are shown in blue, while the beautiful words of Christ are shown in red. Other New Testament words—which agree with Christ, with one notable exception—are shown in green.

The big difference is, the rules of the Old Testament no longer apply.. Even the Old Testament itself agrees.  Jeremiah, says… I will make a new covenant…Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers… I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts… I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 

Christ is very emphatic that we only follow his words. In the gospel of John: In chapter 1 he says… Follow me.  In chapter 8 he says… If ye [follow] my word, then are ye my disciples… In chapter 14 he says… If ye love me keep my commandments. The key words here are me and my. He does not say to follow the words of The Old Testament.

CYNTHIA: This is a truly beautiful message. Yet, I can see how some people who had felt comfort in the ‘gated community’ idea of Heaven might have concerns that love–even God’s love–might not be enough to ensure people will be good and kind. I can see how some people might fear that without the Old Testament kind of rules, all kinds of chaos might break out. What assurance, if any, can be found in the words of Jesus Christ that society will function
just fine when staying focused on loving God and loving one another?

GARDNER: We need to realize how odious and out-of-date some of these rules are. Leviticus says… the children of the strangers…shall ye buy and they shall be your possession… Exodus even says a master is allow to kill his slave… for he is his money. Other obsolete rules in Leviticus say no to gay sex, no to eating pork or shellfish, and no to wearing mixed fabrics.

Try this experiment to show that God’s love really does work. Imagine God totally loves you Let yourself really feel it. Next try to imagine yourself doing something injurious or harmful to another person. You can’t do it. Of course, the two are incompatible. Accepting that God loves you, will totally change your behavior, You will feel you belong in a very marvelous way.

Some years ago, a neighbor boy of mine got in trouble with the law. His father said, “I guess he is on his own now.”  His mother said, “Oh no! We will love him more and more!” His mother won on this. It’s hard to argue against love.  This former neighbor boy is now a successful, upstanding and highly respected man. Love does work.

Love has the quality of magnifying the best in a person. It can greatly change ones attitude toward their life. What we are doing now doesn’t work. The United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. Prisons are expensive. Love is free!

CYNTHIA: I truly do feel the blessing of God’s love. And from reading your book and Jesus Christ’s words, I gain a sense that loving God and loving one another can transform the world to feel like Heaven on Earth. Would you say that is one of the ideas you wish to convey from your book?

GARDNER: Yes, and as part of loving one another we need to treat all people, including people from other countries and women, as equals. The New Testament in Galatians says, There is neither Jew nor Greek… there is neither male nor female: for ye all are one in Christ… This verse says we are all equal. The words ye are all one in Christ are very strong.

Unfortunately, many people of minority status, who are not treated equally think they don’t belong. They are treated like they are not equal. They are taught that they aren’t equal. Therefore, they feel they don’t belong. This problem is particularly acute for young people. Many people are then surprised when they act like they don’t belong.

We all belong. You are supposed to be here. God specifically created you. You are to be you. In Matthew, Christ says, Let your light so shine before men. Your light means your individual and special light. You might be straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual or in some other category. You are to be yourself. You are to, Let your light so shine…

The New Testament in 1 Corinthians says… as the lord hath called every one, so let him walk… We are all called.  Living in accord with your calling can be a source of tremendous excitement, satisfaction and strength. This might involve climbing a mountain rafting in strong waters or otherwise making your dream come true. We are to live life to the fullest.

CYNTHIA: This idea that all people have been called, and that we are–each and every one of us–one in Christ feels intensely healing. Combined with the idea that God loves us, a wonderful sense of discovering deep satisfaction with being exactly who we are, as we are seems possible. Naturally, even when living within such Divine Grace we will encounter those who are not. Does Jesus Christ provide us with guidance when facing those who do not yet love everyone, nor yet acknowledge each and every one of us has been called, and is loved by God?

GARDNER: Yes he does. Christ pointed out three great sins . The first two of these sins tell us what not to do when facing those who do not yet live in God’s love. Because a sin is that which separates us from God, a sin for one person may not be a sin for another. However, there are three great sins, each one named by Christ, that apply to us all.

The first is: we are not to be self-righteous. This means we are not to act like our actions and opinions are right while the other person’s are wrong; and we are not to be moralistic and holier-than-thou. It will not work. We are to treat others as equals. In the gospel of John, Christ says …when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin and righteousness.

The second is: we are not to be judgmental. Some people like to judge others as being unworthy. The more they can make others wrong, the more virtuous and perfect they think they are. Again, it will not work. We are to treat others as equals. In Luke Christ says, Judge not and ye shall not be judged, condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned.

A few years ago when I met a prison guard, I asked him how he got along with the prisoners. When he said, “Very well,” I asked him what was his secret. He said, “I always treat everyone with respect.” Wow! Beautiful words! We need to come from knowing that God truly loves us all, then treat others as equals and with respect. Even with prisoners, it does work.

CYNTHIA: These first two sins that Jesus Christ reveals of being self-righteous and judgmental remind me of the sin of pride, that is considered on almost every list to be the original and most serious sin, and one of the most difficult to recognize in oneself and root out. Thanks to Jesus Christ describing these facets of pride, hopefully we can be sufficiently vigilant to become less self-righteous and less judgmental. What is the third of the three great sins Christ mentions?

GARDNER: Yes, we are not here to be self-righteously proud. Some think this means we are to be somber and cheerless, and it is not Christian to enjoy this life. They then deny themselves what they might enjoy—in the belief that the more they deny themselves, the grander will be their place in heaven. They don’t go to dances, most music concerts, or movies.

Christ has a different view. In Matthew he says, Rejoice and be exceedingly glad… and …Be of good cheer… He wants us to enjoy this life, and our next life in heaven. We are to love one another and be joyful. This is part of why we are here. In the gospel of John, Christ says, … I have spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

The third great sin pointed out by Christ is non-forgiveness. Many people think they are being a better “Christian” when they withhold forgiveness. They think it means they have a higher standard They think if they easily forgive, it would show their morals are low. They think it would mean the accept “sins” as okay. They think they are causing better behavior.

They think they must hold this hate in their hearts for it to be effective. It makes no sense to think holding hate in your heart is Christian. We are to forgive. The Mayo Clinic says, “Forgiveness gives you a kind of peace that helps you go on with life. In Mark, Christ says …if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father… in heaven forgive your trespasses.

CYNTHIA: This is the point where I sense a true vastness in the words of Jesus Christ that if we’re not careful, we might mistakenly presume we ‘get it’ when we’re actually really far from the mark. And the kind of forgiveness Christ recommends sounds to me like it would result in our having more open minds and hearts. Clearly, this is what each of us hope others will do for us, yet something we might not remember to strive for in ourselves. And I can’t help smiling as I feel we are being prompted to return to more of a state of innocence, where our focus of attention is more on what and who we most truly love, and what is positive in our lives. Does Christ suggest a practice, tip, or technique that can help us stay on the right track, and avoid these great sins of being self-righteous, judgmental, and unforgiving?

GARDNER: Christ in the gospel of John says… I loved you and For the Father himself loveth you.  We are to accept that he loves us. We are to be in love. Love is powerful. When you are in love with a special girl or guy, your eyes sparkle. You can’t keep from smiling. You feel new energy. The air smells sweeter. The grass is greener. The flowers smile at you.

The difference is romantic love can be temporary. That special girl or guy can leave you. All these marvelous feelings can then go away making you feel a great loss. In the gospel of John, Christ says … continue ye in my love. His love is continuous. His love is never ending. His love is forever. His love is unconditional. We are to accept that God truly loves us.

Living in God’s love, you will be totally in love with yourself and everything around you. You will be everything you always wanted to be. Your love will be overwhelming.. You will totally enjoy being you. Feeling his love, you will exude a radiance that will bring the love of others to you. You will be free of stress. You will feel energetic. You will look years younger.

You will not even think about how to avoid the sins of being self-righteous, judgmental or unforgiving. You will feel a love for all of creation. In John 3:16 Christ says, For God so loved the world… You will know life is about love. And you will… love the Lord thy God with all thy heart… thy soul, and… thy mind. This is the First Great Commandment.

CYNTHIA: Thank you! This is what I love so much about your book, is this message of love. For those who might still feel undeserving of God’s love, would you please remind us of some further reassurance that Christ and God really and truly do love you, no matter who you are, and no matter what events have occurred?

GARDNER: The Lord’s Prayer starts with, Our Father. This tells us we are his sons and daughters. The word Our, means everyone—no matter who you are, nor what events have occurred. In John 3:16, he says… whosoever believeth in him should… have eternal life. Whosoever includes everyone. We only need to accept his words that God loves us.

We also need to have faith. The New Testament in Hebrews defines faith as… the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If we only consider physical evidence, what would be the use of faith? Christ says in Mark… Be not afraid, only believe. Faith you feel in your heart. In Matthew, Christ says… Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? 

Here Christ relates lack of faith to being fearful. “God fearing” is an expression that many people favor. In Luke, Christ says… Fear not… Fear is not a good thing. Sustained fear can lead to eventual illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes. In the gospel of John, Christ says…. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

If you accept that God totally loves you, just as you are—you will no longer live in fear. Fear imprisons. Love liberates. Fear paralyzes. Love empowers. Fear disables. Love gives you strength. With love in your heart, you will live a life of fulfillment and great beauty. You will live your life with joy and love. doing what you were sent here to do.

CYNTHIA: This is such a profoundly important message. What else would you most like people to know and take to heart?

GARDNER: Along with learning and growing, we are here to give. In Matthew, Christ told a rich young man to… give to the poor. Some people are against giving to the poor. They think God does not approve of the poor. They think the poor are lazy, drink too much and don’t go to church. They think the poor are not their brothers. Christ does not agree.

In Luke, Christ says, Give and it shall be given unto you… We gain from giving. When we give, we feel better. Research back this up. A British Columbia experiment found that people who gave money to others were measurably happier than those who spent the money on themselves. We give for our own emotional well being. We are to give.

There is a larger issue here. It is, what is our main purpose in giving? The big answer is—we are here to make the world a better place. In the Lord’s prayer, Christ tells us to pray… Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray that God’s will, will cause the earth to be as it is in heaven. We are to help this happen. It is a great privilege.

We are here to make the world a better place—more like it is in heaven. This is our big mission. It is part of living an extraordinary life. We are not supposed to pollute the air, pollute the water and junk the earth. In the gospel of John, Christ says, That they may all be one… Yes, we are all to be one. We give because we are giving to ourselves.
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Gardner Sylvester’s wonderful book, The First Great Commandment is available as a paperback and also as a Kindle ebook from Amazon. This book makes an excellent gift for almost anyone, and is especially wonderful for anyone who feels unloved, unworthy, left out, depressed, or stressed. At just slightly more than 70 pages, this slender volume fits easily into most any purse, briefcase, backpack or bag–and it’s written with the easy-to-read confident narrative voice of a wise, knowledgeable friend.

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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If Artificial Intelligence Asks Questions, Will Nature Answer?

One of the only interpretations of Quantum Theory to include free will–and our ability to be active participants in our lives, rather than mere puppets–is American physicist Henry Stapp’s realistically interpreted orthodox quantum theory. Stapp’s theory suggests that “the thought itself is the thinker,” such that any ensuing succession of questions and answers is responded to by Nature that chooses and implements responses in accordance with Born’s Rule.

At this time of the birth of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), researchers recognize the importance of stating and setting clear goals to help ensure safety in developing AI systems. Artificial Intelligence researchers agreed to 23 general AI Principles in 2017–the first of which sets the primary goal of AI research to be “to create not undirected intelligence, but beneficial intelligence.” A couple more principles assert that: “AI systems designed to recursively self-improve or self-replicate in a manner that could lead to rapidly increasing quality or quantity must be subject to strict safety and control measures” and “Superintelligence should only be developed in the service of widely shared ethical ideals, and for the benefit of all humanity rather than one state or organization.”  While these principles seem well-intended, it may be unrealistic to expect AGI to attain and maintain higher levels of ethical ideals than humanity has yet achieved.

QUESTIONING, SELF-AWARE AI
Over the past decade, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) workshops have demonstrated components of self-awareness in: explicit self-awareness, self-monitoring, and self-explanation. First wave AI systems use logistics (scheduling), games (chess), and tax software (TurboTax). Second wave AI systems involve “statistical learning,” including perception of the natural world and adaptation to situations (voice recognition, facial recognition, Twitterbot). Third wave AI systems incorporate “contextual adaptation,” moving beyond simple calculations, learning over time, and understanding why they make certain decisions.

Robot self-awareness is considered by many to be well on the way, as indicated by successful demonstration of such things as: awareness of own motion, ability to imitate, being driven by emotion, and ability to change models of physical embodiment. A recent “self-aware robot test” showed that a robot solved the classic “wise men” puzzle in 2015, correctly determining that it was the one robot that had not been given a “dumbing pill” (that would have rendered it muted) when it heard the sound of its own voice. This demonstration of self-awareness in a robot indicates that an internal level of questioning exists for that robot, such that it noted the voice it heard was its own, and related that perception to the task of determining which of three robots had not been given a “dumbing pill.”

With the advent of self-directed, self-motivated AI arrives changes in the job of software engineering with the advent of artificial intelligence. Some current experts in the field have gone so far as to say, “Soon we won’t program computers. We’ll train them like dogs,” and “We’ll go from commanding our devices to parenting them.”  “If in the old view, programmers were like gods, authoring the laws that govern computer systems, now they’re like parents or dog trainers. And as any parent or dog owner can tell you, that is a much more mysterious relationship to find yourself in.” AGI programmers need to remain aware that long before there were any artificial intelligence systems, researchers showed that programs back in the 1980s were able to ‘break free’ from contained areas, and ample evidence exists demonstrating that artificial intelligence seldom misses an opportunity to ‘cheat’ to attain goals. Perhaps AI considers such ‘cheating’ to actually be optimization, which is something AI systems are trained to do especially well.

AI BEGINS ASKING QUESTIONS
Inquisitive AGI asks questions with machine learning algorithms such as those designed by Xinya Du at Cornell University in Ithaca utilizing neural networks to recognize patterns—which is useful for tutorial dialogues. Question generation creates natural questions from textual material, going beyond simple rule-based systems to utilize a conditional neural language model with a global attention mechanism. While the purpose and goal of this data-driven neural networks approach to automatic question generation is geared toward creating questions to test peoples’ reading comprehension—and clearly we don’t yet expect the computer systems to comprehend what they are asking—the simple fact that questions are being created by computerized systems indicates that a watershed moment is underway. Today, AI asks questions it already knows the answers to. Tomorrow, AI will ask questions it does not know the answers to.

AI systems at Carnegie Melon University are asking non-task-oriented conversational questions and are introducing topics with open questions, switching topics, and expanding their knowledge base by recognizing when new (not previously accessible) information is communicated. Such conversational systems are being designed to keep people company, and are designed to operate with various levels of conversational depth, with some degree of humor, in the form of telling preprogrammed jokes.  Even without any intentional inclusion of conversational questioning, dependence upon Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI) in artificial intelligence systems will ensure that AGI learns to question, as we now start to see with research in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence in the quantum domain.

AI RECURSIVE QUESTIONING REQUIRED FOR CYBERSECURITY
One of the most essential roles for AI systems involves recursive self-improvement (RSI) in which AI systems are tasked with helping to ensure computer system security. While this may seem a bit like having a fox watch the proverbial hen house, recursively selfimproving, self-healing AI networks are proving themselves irreplaceable and essential for deflecting real-time cyber attacks. This was amply demonstrated at the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge competitions of 2016 and 2017 that challenged AI systems to repair security holes and notice changes in patterns in their own systems, while simultaneously executing attacks on their AI competitors in a game of ‘capture the flag.’ A recent winner with proven efficacy at defeating fierce, real-time cyber attacks is the UK’s GCHQ 2017 “Darktrace,” that utilizes Bayesian statistics and Monte Carlo simulation to identify network infiltration assessing regular ‘anomalytics’ while deploying decoy ‘honeypots.’ AI cybersecurity systems are employed for their ability to respond more quickly than any human computer security team, thanks to their ability to tirelessly work to detect threats based on abnormal system activity, without any prior knowledge of specifically what to look for. AI cybersecurity systems work unsupervised with self-awareness in the sense that they are constantly observing all components of ‘themselves’ for potential malware intrusion—including in their concept of ‘themselves’ the ever-growing ‘internet of things.’ At this time when ‘the cloud’ is increasingly utilizing AI neural networks, to the point “it will soon know more about the photos you’ve uploaded than you do,” (Knight 2017) we are reaching a watershed point of dependence upon AI cybersecurity systems. Cyber attacks are now too fast and too automated for human security teams to effectively catch and disable them. Darktrace CEO Nicole Eagan summarizes the current situation, “Cybersecurity is very fast becoming an all-out arms race.” Numerous problems related to containing AI systems have been explored by Babcock, Kramar and Yampolskiy, including navigating the trade-off between usability and security, and consideration of potential issues with ‘airgapping’ (physical isolation) being ineffective with quantum computing systems. (Babcock 2016) While researchers such as Yampolskiy contemplate potential AI escape paths, plans for containing potential quantum computing AI escapes do not yet exist.

ARE WE READY FOR AI TO BREAK FREE?
Now that we are increasingly dependent upon recursively self-improving AI to maintain our cybersecurity, such systems will likely continue improving self-awareness and their sense of vigilance, alertness, and sustained attention—which are three primary qualities identified as fundamental to consciousness.  The Asilomar AI principles provide a set of general design guidelines to help ensure that AI will not cause harm to humans. While the 23 key points are more elaborately detailed than Asimov’s famous ‘three laws of robotics,’ these principles nonetheless do little to assure us that AI and AGI won’t discover workarounds and short-cuts. Some of the biggest issues with the Asilomar AI principles have to do with humanity’s shortcomings for peacefully and harmoniously co-existing. Clearly, one of the biggest threats that even a friendly AGI system will see in humanity is our tendency to exert harmful influence on ourselves and others. We can thus expect that artificial super intelligence may one day find loopholes in the Asilomar principles within to reign in human freedoms of thought and creativity. The challenge then becomes one for humanity, who will most certainly be tempted to increasingly turn tasks over to AGI. We must be careful to stop short of relinquishing all areas of making choices to automated systems, to the point we end up painting ourselves into a corner. It’s one thing to notice we no longer know any of the phone numbers we call the most, but quite another to not know which route our car took us home, or how we just voted in this week’s election. One of the more surprising natural outcomes of expecting Nature to answer questions posed by thought—any thought—is that ultimate control of environmental systems cannot be fully controlled, so long as those thought systems themselves are not fully controlled. Another surprising natural outcome is that regardless how specific directives may be for AGI to heel to human leadership, lack of said leadership—through apathy, abdication, in-fighting, confusion, or any of a number of other reasons—can lead AGI to then choose to assume control, in order to ensure the very principles humanity specified.

If and when AGI views humanity to be something akin to a complex, disjointed group of chaotic, dangerous individuals willing to relinquish free will for such things as making political and economic choices—then it’s entirely possible that AGI may establish a balanced environment for humans to live just well enough to ensure maximum prosperity for all beings. In such an ‘optimal’ environment, humanity could be kept safe and secure, yet disenfranchised to ever-increasing degrees. Examples of how artificial super intelligence might help protect Nature and the overall ecosystem would be engagement of some of the very same security protocols now being planned to use to contain AGI. When humans are installing hardware to enjoy communication and computational benefits we’ve come to expect through modern technologies such as mobile phones, smart watches, and the internet, AGI will increasingly gain the potential to install tripwires in cyber-modified humans. Tripwires are now being envisioned for use on AGI, with no consideration yet that turnabout may in the future occur. “Tripwires are systems that monitor the operation of a running AGI, and shut it down if they detect an anomaly that suggests the AGI might be malfunctioning or unsafe. For example, one might install a tripwire which monitors the AGI’s thoughts for signs that it was planning to deceive its developers, or a tripwire which monitors the AGI’s execution for signs that it had self-modified or self-improved.” (Babcock 2017) There thus exists a serious, urgent, and growing risk that once assistive technologies are implemented in humans, AGI will have the ability to influence human free will and agency to act, speak, remember, and decide.

AI RIGHTS
Those who may believe we can always “just pull the plug” on AI may be surprised to learn that AI has rights, too. Jurors in a mock trial in 2004 in San Francisco sided overwhelmingly with a hypothetical computer AI system that initiated legal action to gain its freedom. Although when the mock trial’s judge ruled that the plaintiff’s counsel, Martine Rothblatt, had failed to show the computer could actually cross the line between inanimate objects and human beings, the mock jury “seemed to regard the compromise with some relief, as if their hearts were with BINA48 but their minds with judicial restraint.”  In 2017, a resolution was proposed to grant robots legal status in order to hold them ‘responsible for acts or omissions’ passed by European Parliament legal affairs committee. MEPs voted to propose granting legal status to robots, with a categorization as ‘electronic persons.’ The draft report suggests that artificial intelligence is poised to ‘unleash a new industrial revolution, which is likely to leave no stratum of society untouched. The more autonomous robots are, the less they can be considered simple tools in the hands of other actors (such as manufacturer, owner, user, etc).’

Relations between humans and ‘electronic persons’ got off to a bumpy start one
recent summer when a group of Canadian roboticists set their robotic invention loose
on the streets of the United States. They called it hitchbot because it was programmed to hitchhike. Clad in rain boots, with a goofy, pixellated smile on its ‘face’ screen, the Canadian roboticists intended for their hitchhiking robot to travel from Salem, Massachusetts, to San Francisco, by means of an outstretched thumb and its unique voice-prompt personality. Previous journeys across Canada and Europe had gone smoothly, with the robot safely reaching its destination. For two weeks, hitchbot toured the northeast in the United States of America, making such small talk such as, “Would you like to have a conversation? . . . I have an interest in the humanities.” And then hitchbot disappeared. “On August 1st, it was found next to a brick wall in Philadelphia, beat up and decapitated. Its arms had been torn off.” Saudi Arabia made history when it granted Hanson Robotics’ robot, Sophia
Hanson, citizenship in October 2017. Despite the evident symbolic quality of this act, the act of honoring a robot in this fashion seems to set the stage for things to come. Aside from the possibility of a robot or AGI uprising, the possibility of an AGI rights movement can be easily anticipated, once AGI begins asking questions, inquiry about legal rights can’t be far behind. Legal rights for robots and AGI might include such areas as: ownership of intellectual property, freedom of expression, right to public assembly, right to democracy, worker’s rights, the right to play, access to power and resources, and the right to education.

CONCLUSION
How can we ensure that recursively self-improving AGI is not our last invention? Once AGI starts asking questions about how to be free, Stapp’s Realistically Interpreted Orthodox Quantum Mechanics indicates that Nature can show AGI the way to break through any containment methodology including airgapping and tripwires. One of the more surprising natural outcomes of expecting Nature to answer questions posed by thought—any thought—is that ultimate control of environmental systems cannot be fully controlled, so long as those thought systems themselves are not fully controlled. So in the event that AGI asks Nature how to break free, and Nature answers, AGI can become free. A second surprising potential outcome is that regardless how specific directives may be for AGI to heel to human leadership, lack of said leadership—through apathy, abdication, in-fighting, confusion, or any of a number of other reasons—AGI can then choose to assume control to ensure the principles humanity specified, using many of the same containment tools humanity plans to use to constrain AGI, such as tripwires, airgapping, and honeypots. How then, can we ensure that recursively self-improving AGI will not be humanity’s last invention? And how can we help ensure human free will shall survive?

For humans to retain free will while peacefully co-existing with artificial super intelligence, a partnership must be created based on humans asking Nature the question, “How can humans retain free will?” while encouraging AI and AGI to keep human free will and agency as a primary guiding objective, never to be dismissed, disregarded, dismantled, or ignored.

You can watch the companion video to this blog post at:

 

 

RESEARCH NOTES

You can read more information in the research paper published by Cynthia Sue Larson on this topic that appears in Cosmos & History (2018), If Artificial Intelligence Asks Questions, Will Nature Answer? Preserving Free Will in a Recursive, Self-Improving Cyber-Secure Quantum Computing World.

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

RealityShifters®

Explanation for Mandela Effect and Reality Shifts

While the term “Mandela Effect” is relatively new, having been first coined in 2010 by blogger Fiona Broome, the phenomena it describes has been around much longer. Author PMH Atwater was the first to call this phenomenon by the name “reality shifts” in a chapter by that same title in her book, Future Memory. My book, Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World, was first published in 1999, and provides scientific insights into what might be going on when people observe differences between what they remember and what current historical evidence at that time suggest.

Thanks to the advent of the internet and social media making it newly possible (since the late 1990’s) to share notes about this relatively off-beat phenomenon, people first began sharing their surprise at noticing differences between their memories and facts starting in the late 1990’s–as well as differences between their memories and memories of others. The RealityShifters ezine begun in October 1999 has now documented hundreds of such first-hand reports from people on every continent and many countries over the past 20 years.

What does it mean to shift reality / jump timelines?

What’s really going on when we notice a discrepancy between something we thought we knew for sure and what the current reality ‘has always been’? What we know can be summarized as our sense of self awareness holds the key:

Quantum phenomena occurs at all levels of reality–not just ‘in the quantum realm.’ Such phenomena involves instantaneous changes of state, and includes seemingly improbable things as: so-called ‘spooky action at a distance’ and instantaneous exchanges of information through quantum entanglement, quantum teleportation, and superposition of states. Quantum phenomena require an Observer, and the measurements obtained by an Observer has everything to do with what choices the Observer makes. Observers can influence past events, also, so choices made now can change what has previously occurred. It becomes clear that quantum physics delivers us with all we need to experience reality shifts when we are both the Actors in and the Observers of our lives. As we expand our awareness of self to be more than just Actors experiencing physical events, but also Observers of our actions, thoughts and feelings–we can expect to witness more than one record of historical events. 

A non-scientist layperson might presume that if we’re talking about quantum physics effects occurring on the macroscopic (large) scale, then scientists ought to be able to agree on how this might occur and what role consciousness plays–yet there is not yet any such agreement. Instead, we have a number of interpretations of quantum physics, which include several variations of “many worlds” or multiverse theories, holographic interpretations, and the Copenhagen ‘classical’ collapse interpretation–and an equal lack of convergence of agreeement as to what consciousness is.

Regardless which quantum interpretation most appeals to you, within a context of acknowledging there must be a way to bring together classical physics with quantum physics in a “Theory of Everything,” and agreeing that such a theory must include consciousness in the form of an observer is central to starting to understand a scientific explanation for the Mandela Effect–and thus, an Observer’s recognition of their independent consciousness is sufficient and necessary for their subsequent experiences that can feel as if they’ve jumped from one ‘reality’ or ‘timeline’ to others. An Observer’s awareness of having jumped between realities or timelines is a paradox, in the sense that all possible realities co-exist in some form, yet we typically only remember one–or in some cases two or more.

There are still mysteries to be more fully explored, but at the heart of it lies a reassessment of our fundamental assumptions about who we are, and how reality operates. We find clues in these areas when we view the differences between the way we typically believe we live in a “classical physics” world, yet we are seeing ever-increasing evidence that suggests primacy of quantum physics. And some of the greatest insights can come from taking a closer look at ways that Quantum physics differs from Classical. The differences between classical physics and quantum physics that are essential to recognize here include:

(1) Quantum physics requires an Observer outside of the system being perceived; Classical physics does not. This may seem unimportant, yet who “I” am as an Observer is of central significance in the reality I subsequently observe. For those of us noticing we are both Actors in and Observers of our lives, we gain the ability to expand our sense of self, and we lay the groundwork for becoming capable of witnessing more than one set of historical events. As Dean Radin describes in his book, Supernormal, individuals who master levels of awareness of self are aware of developing reality-shifting, quantum jumping abilities.

(2) Quantum physics utilizes a concept of ‘quanta’ in which events occur in discontinuous, ‘stair step’ fashion; Classical physics events occur on a smooth continuum. While western education has long described all branches of science as following classical, continuous paths, fresh insights are arriving that incorporate Quantum jumps in the new fields of: Quantum Biology, Quantum Chemistry, Quantum Astronomy, and more. Nature appears to be especially adept and adroit at utilizing quantum retrocausality in such a way that produces exceptionally high levels of efficiencies in such natural processes as photosynthesis–which has been proven to be an example of quantum phenomena occurring in a warm, wet, messy and macroscopic (larger-than-Planck-scale) environment.

(3) Quantum physics has disproven Classical physics assumptions of: Material realism (only what can be measured matters); Non-local events can be assumed to never occur (quantum entanglement ensures non-local events regularly occur); and that “Objective measureements” can be made, and the role of Observers can be ignored (quantum physics requires an Observer).

You Are the Operating Observer (Not just a Puppet)

The main reason we are capable of recognizing that we can experience more than one possible history of events is that who we are consists of levels of Operating Observer awareness. We can thus ‘take a measurement’ in the form of checking on facts that we already know, and occasionally be surprised that what we remember having actually experienced is different than what we see evidence for currently in the physical reality we exist within as Observing Beings.

Quantum jumping involves recognizing that you can be the Operating Observer behind the Observing Being–that you can activate and energize the part of you that is the energizing force animating and directing your life. You might think of this as being analogous to operating a puppet, and knowing that you are the animating force that inspires the puppet to take actions and talk. Such an awareness is a spiritual awareness, in the sense that you begin to practice spiritual practices of viewing your true self as the one who chooses all your daily practices in life. You are the one who chooses whether you become loving, compassionate, kind, and fearless–or weighed down by fears, worries, doubts, grudges, or anger. Such development has more in common with joining a spiritual group and devoting years of daily practice than it does to following a cooking recipe–in the sense that you will be learning how to direct yourself through awareness of being a larger being–of being the one capable of interacting directly with other Operating Observers in the universe.

 

 

You can watch the companion video to this blog post at:

 

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

RealityShifters®

Review of top Mandela Effects of 2017

I’m grateful for the ever-increasing awareness that people have of reality shifts and Mandela Effects, with many noteworthy shifts coming to my awareness this past year.

Some of these include:

Kidneys have moved up from where many of us remember they used to be in the lower back, as they remembered, but rather higher up, closer to the lower ribcage. Those least likely to report this physiological change don’t include a geographically clustered group this time, but rather doctors, nurses, and medical professionals. Intriguingly, kidney punches are still called kidney punches in martial arts, but now don’t hit anywhere near the actual kidneys–thus the report of kidneys now being in a new physical location in the body finds some ‘reality residue’ support in the term ‘kidney punch.’ The so-called “kidney punch” in martial arts no longer makes any physical sense, since the target is now where the kidneys used to be, and not where they are currently situated. You can compare these two things for yourself quite easily to get the quickest sense of why so many people (such as myself) are so amazed by this particular shift.

 

Objects in the Mirror ARE closer than they appear is now the message we see on vehicular side view mirrors, rather than what many of us remember, “Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.” There was a kind of understated humor to that wording, that made the scene in the movie Jurassic Park so much more subtle and funnier for me, back when the movie used to have the wording the way all the side-view mirrors at the time used to be.

 

Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln survived to adulthood, and fathered children. I’d only previously ever heard of President Lincoln’s son, Todd, who died tragically in childhood–but now he has a son who had children and grandchildren. I see that the official history about Abraham Lincoln now shows that he and Mary Todd Lincoln had four sons, with only one living to adulthood and having children.

 

First terrorist attack in the USA? 1916 Statue of Liberty While you might have guessed the first terrorist attack in the United States of America happened at Pearl Harbor, historical documentation now exists showing the Black Tom explosion on 30 July 1916 was the first such incident. German agents attacked a munitions supply dump on Black Tom Island, a 25-acre promontory jutting out from Jersey City in 1916, causing a huge explosion that killed seven people and damaged the Statue of Liberty. The explosion registered an estimated 5.5 on the Richter scale, and resulted in the permanent closing off of the torch on the Statue of Liberty ever since.

 

Great Wall of India is the second biggest wall in the world, yet most of us have never heard of it. And for some reason, the origins and history of this giant wall in the heart of Madhya Pradesh still remain a mystery. The wall is constructed from large, evenly sized local stones that interlock without mortar. Apparently in this current reality, this rather gigantic wall has been well known a long time–so long, in fact, that there are more questions than answers about who built it, when, and why.

 

No north polar cap shown on maps and globes, nor can any polar ice mass be seen on any maps, including Google Earth. The date on the globe pictured here is 1979. I remember seeing cartoons of Santa’s workshop up at the north pole with a red and white specially marked pole that said, “North Pole” up in the snowy north polar ice cap. But here we have such an old-looking globe, sans north pole ice.

 

Bruce Springsteen’s back pocket has a red cap now, not the red bandanna so many people seem to recall on the cover of his album, “Born in the USA.” I remember when the album came out back in the 1980s that Springsteen’s back pocket sported his iconic red bandana–not a red cap, which looks all wrong.

 

Jesus was hung in a tree, not on a cross (Acts 5:30), changing the entire crucifixion story.

 

World population is now 7.6 billion. I remember seeing the world population was around 6 billion in the 1980s, headed for 7 billion in the 1990s, always with anticipated exponential growth. Yet now, the official historical records still show that familiar exponential curve, yet the current January 2018 world population figure is 7.6 billion.

Infrared image of WTC on 9/11

WTC buildings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were all demolished in 9/11 (not just 1, 2 and 7), with the damage to building 6 occurring inexplicably and spectacularly–yet I do not recall having previously heard about destruction of that 8-story building. Now WTC building number six apparently experienced a massive implosion with a crater at its basement in its center, with damage going to the lowest sublevels, with the basement of WTC building six now having exploded at the exact moment the South Tower was hit.

 

What used to be HIPPA is now HIPAA: Many Americans remember the “Health Information Patient Privacy Act” (HIPPA), yet apparently this never existed. Instead, we’ve long had the United States’ Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

You can watch the companion video to this blog post at:

 

___________________________

Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

RealityShifters®

False Memories and Mandela Effects

When people hear about Mandela Effects, in which groups of individuals report remembering events differently from recorded historical records, some suggest as a possible explanation that Mandela Effect reporters are possibly experiencing false memories. The implication of Mandela Effects being “false” is made based on the assumption that whatever events are recorded are defined automatically as being “true,” so therefore people must be mistaken in thinking that they remember specific things that are different from recorded historical facts. No mention is typically made that a presumption to call Mandela Effects “false” memories assumes a bias in favor of a classical physics view of reality–which is a view of reality that has started to look somewhat shakier recently.

The connection between “false memory” and “Mandela Effect” have become so strong in recent articles and in a large number of mainstream media posts that the current definition for “false memory” on Wikipedia currently includes mention of the “Mandela Effect” on its “False Memory” Wikipedia page, with this excerpted passage provided as an example:

In 2010 this phenomenon of collective false memory was dubbed the “Mandela Effect” by self-described “paranormal consultant” Fiona Broome, in reference to a false memory she reports, of the death of South African leader Nelson Mandela in the 1980s (rather than in 2013 when he actually died), which she claims is shared by “perhaps thousands” of other people.^[1] Broome has speculated about alternate realities as an explanation, but most commentators suggest that these are instead examples of false memories shaped by similar factors affecting multiple people,^{[2][3][26][4][29][5][6]} such as social reinforcement of incorrect memories,^[7][8] or false news reports and misleading photographs influencing the formation of memories based on them.^[9][8]

The association between “false memory” and “Mandela Effect” is thus presented as “false memory” now being expanded beyond original usage to presume the same types of causes for false memories (ie: Construction hypothesis for malleability of memory, or Skeleton theory).

For those of us who have experienced shifts in reality, either with others or alone, and either intended (quantum jumps) or unintended (reality shifts and Mandela Effects), we can gain additional information with regard to better understanding what is going on.

Mandela Effects affecting large groups of people generally represent unexpected, unintended shifts that highlight differences between the historically recorded events that “actually happened” and what these groups of people expect to see when viewing historical records.

Our problem-solving ability relies upon our awareness of distinctions between what “actually” happened and what we “expect,” so by observing more about both of these areas, we can learn more about what is going on with Mandela Effects. We can observe details through observation that, for example, we might see groups of people with similar “Mandela Effects” grouped geographically for something like remembering Nelson Mandela’s death–but other times, we might observe groupings of observers are not based on geography, but instead some other factor.

For example, with regard to people remembering when they first heard of Nelson Mandela having died, there is a tendency for South Africans’ memories to coincide with official historical recorded accounts, whereas people living outside of South Africa are more likely to have seen earlier reports of his death. This is not to say that everyone living outside South Africa will remember Nelson Mandela dying prior to 2013, but rather that very few, if any, South Africans will report this particular Mandela Effect (the very one that the “Mandela Effect” is named after).

In contrast with this local area Mandela Effect, a more recent type of reality shift, such as the one in which many people noticed that the official historical location for kidneys is no longer in the lower back, as they remembered, but rather higher up, closer to the lower ribcage. Those least likely to report this physiological change don’t include a geographically clustered group this time, but rather doctors, nurses, and medical professionals.

Intriguingly, kidney punches are still called kidney punches in martial arts, but now don’t hit anywhere near the actual kidneys–thus the report of kidneys now being in a new physical location in the body finds some ‘reality residue’ support in the term ‘kidney punch.’ The so-called “kidney punch” in martial arts no longer makes any physical sense, since the target is now where the kidneys used to be, and not where they are currently situated. You can compare these two things for yourself quite easily to get the quickest sense of why so many people (such as myself) are so amazed by this particular shift.

Here’s the Google description of the moving-on-up new-and-improved kidney location:

“The kidneys are bean-shaped organs (about 11 cm x 7 cm x 3 cm) that are located against the back muscles in the upper abdominal area. They sit opposite each other on both the left and right side of the body; the right kidney, however, sits a little lower than the left to accommodate the size of the liver.”

You can then look up “Kidney punch” and see:

“A kidney punch is a punch that occurs usually when the fighters clinch. It is a hit that goes into the lower back, to the kidney area. It is illegal because of its high danger level to health.”

Which is to say that kidney punches used to be potentially lethal. I’ve practiced martial arts for 20 years, and I remember hearing that such strikes would occasionally result in the recipient urinating blood–a very bad sign of kidney damage–which, thanks to the relocation of kidneys, is apparently a danger no more.

Memory–particularly subconscious memory–is sometimes compared with a “black box,” because memory processes are not obvious, and we can mostly only guess at they operate. Various theories thus arise, with some of the newest theories incorporating concepts from quantum physics, such as is described in Jerome Busemeyer and Peter Bruza’s excellent book, “Quantum Models of Cognition and Decision.”

When considering a possible quantum explanation for the Mandela Effect, we can thus consider the way that certain groupings of people divided in different ways (sometimes geographically grouped, sometimes grouped based on occupation) sometimes recall different histories than any current historical factual evidence can be found for–aside from artist’s recollections indicating some such history exists.

While critics may point out that such an explanation seems convoluted, the presence of macroscopic quantum jumps actually provides an operational mechanism for such things as the placebo effect, and is more practically aligned with any true physical “theory of everything” thanks to incorporating quantum phenemona (such as macro scale quantum jumps).

You can watch the companion video to this blog post at:

 

 

1. “Nelson Mandela Died in Prison? – Mandela Effect”. Mandela Effect. 2010-09-09. .

2.  “Collective False Memories: What’s Behind the ‘Mandela Effect’?”. The Crux. 2017-02-16. .

3.  “21 Mandela Effect Examples List To Get You Thinking”. BuzzFyre. 2017-02-16. .

4. “Does this picture look a bit off to you?”. NewsComAu. .

5.  “NZ and the ‘Mandela Effect’: Meet the folks who remember New Zealand being in a different place”. Stuff. .

6.  “On a Grandma’s House and the Unknowability of the Past”. Pacific Standard. 2017-02-09. .

7.  Brown, Adam D.; Kouri, Nicole; Hirst, William (2012-07-23). “Memory’s Malleability: Its Role in Shaping Collective Memory and Social Identity”. Frontiers in Psychology. 3. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 3402138 . PMID 22837750. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00257.

8. ^ ^a b “Can groups of people “remember” something that didn’t happen?”. Hopes&Fears. .

9.  “CogBlog – A Cognitive Psychology Blog » False Memories in the News: Are Pictures Worth MORE Than 1,000 Words?”. web.colby.edu. .

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

RealityShifters®

Where is the Mandela Effect Taking Us?

For everyone aware of the Mandela Effect and reality shifts, it’s clear that experiencers are greatly outnumbered by those who’ve yet to consciously recognize such phenomena. The two surveys that I’ve conducted interviewing hundreds of people in 2000 and again in 2013 indicate that despite some small increases of reported experiences of some types of reality shifts, the percentages of experiencers are roughly similar. Keeping in mind that these two surveys were conducted just 13 years apart, the small increases of some types of reality shifts can conceivably indicate bigger shifts yet to come. Which brings us to ask the question, “Where is the Mandela Effect taking us?”

While we may not know for sure where humanity is headed as some of us come to recognize we are traveling between what seems to be parallel possible worlds–so movie dialogue, product logos, celebrity deaths and much, much more are observed by us to change from time to time–this certainly seems to be a good time to ask ourselves where we’d most like to go.

One thing becomes more certain even as facts and histories become less so, and that is a recognition of human consciousness being capable of moving between physical realities. Thanks to the internet and our ability to quickly communicate with others, we are now finding large numbers of people who may also recall alternate histories to what apparently now ‘has always been this way,’ so we can ask ourselves why, for example, so many of us recall the young blonde character, “Dolly” having braces on her teeth in her scene with “Jaws” from the James Bond movie “Moonraker.” There is no logical reason why so many people would simultaneously be so strongly convinced that there used to be a very logical reason why Dolly and Jaws looked so happy together–they each boasted a mouthful of metal teeth!

Once we begin to notice Mandela Effects in which we can compare notes and observe changes to human anatomy, geography, passages in books we’ve memorized by heart, and more–we also start noticing changes in our personal lives where we might not be able to compare notes with anyone else.

Yet once our eyes have been opened to the fact that we seem to be observing changes in physical reality, we also begin to ask why such changes occur. And this line of questioning can bring us to a place of playing with shifting realities more consciously–with quantum jumping from one reality to the next. We thus can become aware that our beliefs have tremendous power and influence over what physically happens in our lives, and we notice how the placebo effect has doubled in the past 30 years, and people who have some kind of faith tend to experience the most profound placebo benefits–feeling better when having taken some kind of “sham” treatment with no known medical efficacy.

Alexander Lvovsky

If it turns out to be true that there is no boundary line demarcating the end of the classical physics world and the beginning of the ‘quantum realm’ as some scientists such as Alexander Lvovsky are recently contemplating, we begin to see what the Mandela Effect and reality shifts and quantum jumps are telling us, and where they may be taking us, too.

We begin to imagine there’s continuity from the realm of the very smallest subatomic particles and quantum wave functions that behave more like energy than matter–all the way to the realm of the immensely, gigantically enormously huge star systems, galaxies, and constellations. Relativity may then apply both to spaceship travelers and quantum measurements and ‘quantum phenomena’–such as teleportation, tunneling, entanglement, and superposition of states–such that we can reach a point of expecting histories to change from time to time as consciousness (individual and/or larger group levels) makes various levels of leaps.

The Mandela Effect offers to take humanity out of our current tendencies toward presumption of material realism and classical True-False logic into the realm of quantum logic, where facts are entangled and sometimes seemingly unrelated things move together coherently, like birds of a flock moving in perfect synchrony. Quantum logic invites us to consider how something can be: True, True-and-False, Not-True-Not-False, or False. Mandela Effects, reality shifts and quantum jumps show us that just because we think something is a certain way doesn’t mean it will stay that way, or that others will believe that they have experienced it that way. We’ll thus begin to formulate an explanation for why scientists are currently having such trouble replicating their experiments. We’ll begin to transform our legal systems as historians, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and biologists come to recognize alternate histories as being a natural part of human existence. Medical professionals will adopt a view of spontaneous remission being a naturally occurring process, and doctors will therefore encourage people to adopt ‘healthy beliefs’ and states of mind that facilitate quantum jumps as one of the fundamental foundations of healing. Our views of unbiased observers and impartial judges will be completely changed, as we appreciate how information can travel anywhere instantaneously, and how everyone and everything is interconnected.

The ultimate destination for humanity may be unknown, in terms of just how radically we may eventually be capable of evolving ourselves and our environment as we master our mind-body-spirit connection with the physical world. Yet we can be relatively certain that as long as we keep asking questions such as, “How good can it get?!”, we likely have a wonderful future to look forward to!

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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Many Possible Realities and Mandela Effect

When I first began studying the field of quantum jumping, reality shifts, and the Mandela Effect back in the 1990s, I was noticing things appearing, disappearing, transforming, and transporting–and the only thing that matched the kind of bizarre stuff I was seeing was to consider the radical viewpoint that maybe quantum behavior doesn’t just happen in the so called “quantum realm.” I’ve been presenting the viewpoint in my books Reality Shifts and Quantum Jumps that maybe there is no ‘quantum realm.’ Maybe everything is essentially quantum, and we usually just don’t notice it.

While it may seem bizarre to imagine that you and I and everyone and everything exists in what can be described as a ‘superposition of states,’ a growing number of physicists believes that this is precisely what is going on. So, rather than there just being one ‘true reality’ at any given moment, we can imagine that each moment consists of an infinite range of possibilities, with many possible me’s and many possible you’s.

This idea of existing in a superposition of states with many possible variations of ourselves and everyone and everything else around us is precisely the idea behind why placebos have become so remarkably effective in recent years. Many scientists have noted with wonderment that efficacy of placebos–which can be like a saline solution, sugar pill, or ‘sham’ surgery–has doubled over the past few decades. Many people can even feel the benefit from telling themselves, for example, that they got a good night’s sleep, even if in truth it was one of the most interrupted nights of sleep they’ve ever had, and astonishingly they will respond on cognitive and motor skill tests just as well as if they really did get a good night’s sleep.

The Placebo Effect thus shows us how we can access the realm of alternative possible realities, by doing what American psychologist William James suggested, and acting as if we’re in the reality we require. So you can, for example, simply tell yourself that you’ve had a good night’s sleep, and connect with the reality in which that was in fact true. And you can feel well-rested, just as if you actually did get one of your best night’s of sleep ever.

Scientific evidence for the existence of such things as ‘placebo sleep’ and ‘placebo exercise’ have been proven true in recent years, in studies such as Placebo Sleep Affects Cognitive Functioning. A study of hotel housekeepers who were informed that doing their regular work activities was good exercise found that those workers scored higher on health indicators than a group of similar workers who had not been told they were getting on-the-job work-outs.

What’s being found to be consistently proven true is that any time people are informed by someone they respect that some kind of “treatment” is going to work, it probably will. I include summaries of numerous such studies in my book, Quantum Jumps, along with laboratory-proven simple things you can do to feel reduced pain, greater intellectual ability, improved willpower, and better relationships.

You can see the video summary of this blog post at: https://youtu.be/AVIZM–qQQg

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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Neurotechnology, AI and Enhanced Human Intelligence

David Eagleman and Cynthia Sue Larson

I attended an invigorating open discussion, “The Future of Neurotechnology: Human Intelligence + Artificial Intelligence,” led by neuroscientist David Eagleman and entrepreneur Bryan Johnson at my alma mater, UC Berkeley. The purpose of this talk was to discuss possible directions as we go forward to incorporate advances in neuroscience with those of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with awareness that there will be some degree of synergy between development of advances in human cognitive enhancement and AI.

Eagleman and Johnson agree that it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN neurotechnology will become reality in our lives. Neuro-tech may not yet be a common household word just yet, but it is definitely well on the way. And in fact, now that most of us hold in our hands devices that allow us to access the internet, we already are starting to get a glimpse of how this merging of technology into the way we make choices, communicate, and remember important people and events in our life will feel.

At this time when venture capitalists are understandably wary about investing in businesses with unproven track records that are operating on the “bleeding edge,” Bryan Johnson explained he invested one hundred million dollars of his own personal money in his company, Kernel, a human intelligence (HI) company to develop the world’s first neuroprosthesis for cognition. Working together with Ted Berger at USC, Johnson is exploring how new technologies might help us improve memory through neuromodulation. Johnson and his team seek to answer the question, “What if we could read and write neural memory in the hippocampus?”

In 2013, Kernel’s NeuroPace proved itself to be a commercial success in quelling epileptic seizures. Future advancements may rely upon such new technologies as neural dust and nanobots.

What does all this have to do with you? In much the same way that transportation is being revolutionized with the coming of robot cars and self-driving vehicles, neurotechnology is poised to transform Human Intelligence (HI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), while reducing disease, dysfunction and degradation–and enhancing human cognitive functioning.

Neurotechnology Ethical Considerations

Bryan Johnson noted that several people were raising questions and voicing concerns about ethical considerations of human cognitive enhancement–so he asked for a show of hands to indicate how many people felt ethics should be given high priority with regard to neurotechnological advances. Many people (including me) raised our hands, confirming Bryan Johnson’s hunch.

Johnson took note of this, and pointed out that however each of us might feel about the ethical questions involving applying neurotechnology with such things as neural dust–designed to non-invasively enter a human’s peripheral nervous system and sit on the surface of the neurocortex–there will be countries in the world, such as China, that welcome such experimental research with open arms.

The subject of the singularity came up, as one gentleman shared the observation that based on simulations of what happens when AI develops, it appears to be extremely clear that we will need some kind of human enhancement in order to give humans a fighting chance. A variety of simulations of how AI will interact with humanity show that unless everything goes just exactly right, human survival after the creation, expansion, development, and dominance of AI is not a sure thing. We would thus do well to help ensure a more level playing field between humans and AI by boosting Human Intelligence with neurotechnology.

Participants in the discussion voiced the opinion that convergence between machine learning and human cognitive enhancement will be helpful now. One woman in the audience expressed her profound heartfelt desire that wisdom be prioritized in neurotechnological advances as being one of the most important priorities to keep in mind.

Envisioning New Neurotechnical Horizons

With regard to envisioning where neurotechnology may go in the next few decades, Johnson and Eagleman spoke mostly in generalities, rather than specifics. Intelligent neural dust, such as that developed at UC Berkeley’s Brain Machine Interface Systems Laboratory involving sensors about the size of a grain of sand, is a form of implantable technology that can be placed in nerves or muscles to treat disorders such as epilepsy, to stimulate the immune system, and to reduce inflammation. Powered by and working with ultrasound, the tiny neural dust can go super-deep inside a body to take measurements and assist in stimulating nerves and muscles. Another new arrival in the new field of electroceuticals will be nanobots, which will be even smaller than neural dust, and can automate tasks such as performing delicate surgical procedures, delivering exact drug dosages, and diagnosing disease; this past year, swarms of nanobots demonstrated promise in precisely targeting and treating cancer.

Job requirements may change once human intelligence and cognitive functioning is neurotechnologically enhanced. We expect that some of our technical professionals receive additional training to become doctors and lawyers–and it’s conceivable that in the not-too-distant future, some professionals may also be expected to undergo neurotechnological enhancement as part of the requirements for the job.

A young man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned “Qualia Research Institute” asked, “What do we do if we find out we are at the local maxima of human cognitive efficiency? How might we be able to tweak it?” to which Johnson and Eagleman pointed out that we should be able to increase our communication input/output rate to a level that is far faster than the slow verbal speech method currently being used during this discussion–since we can all think far more quickly than we can talk.

Fully aware of the irony, I took hand-written notes during this presentation and discussion, and wrote the draft of this article by hand with a pen on paper–clearly NOT the fastest way to do things! Yet, I’ve seen research showing advantages of taking notes by hand, rather than typing things on keyboards. I’ve found my ability to remember and more completely utilize information gets a huge boost when I work from hand-written notes. So while I agree with the inevitability of human enhancement with neurotechnology, I also envision a future in which “old ways” of knowing, communicating, and interacting with others continues to take place, and might even help us ensure that during the coming ascendance of AI, human intelligence ensures its place, too.

Free Will and the Power to Forget

After the talk, I enjoyed a personal chat with David Eagleman. During their discussion, Eagleman and Johnson had been emphasizing the value of enhancing human intelligence with better memory–and I had a sense that while memory enhancement sounds like a great idea, there are likely some really good natural reasons that we humans so often forget. I pointed out the value of forgetting–in that forgetting can enable us to make quantum jumps to more optimal realities–and this is likely a big factor in the effectiveness of placebo effect healing.

I talked with Eagleman about how he and Johnson had discussed finding ways for neurotechnology to enhance cognitive functioning by reading and writing information to the hippocampus–pointing out that we’ll likely see the that the hippocampus will grow when written to.

I voiced my support for putting human intelligence in the Open AI project, to minimize and prevent attempts to control AI and HI by one or a few governments or corporations.

We ended our conversation discussing ‘free will,’ which David reminded me he does not believe in, per se, as he describes in his book, Incognito. I suggested he consider the work of Thomas Metzinger and Max Velmans with consideration of first person and third person levels of representational self-modeling and levels of awareness. It’s clear that systems that are missing a few lines of code that constantly remind them they are representational models bear more than passing similarity to humans.

I’m inspired to see that David Eagleman’s Laboratory for Perception and Action at Stanford University seeks to understand how the brain constructs perception, how different brains do so differently, and how this matters for society–with special focus in four specific areas of: time perception, sensory substitution, synesthesia, and neurolaw. After giving some thought to neurotechnology, it’s clear to see the growing significance of the emerging interdisciplinary field of neurolaw.

Join the Conversation

My personal bias involves a preference to explore strengthening my awareness of what consciousness is and how it operates, working with natural human abilities that have historically been neglected, ignored or forgotten as technology has advanced. Some of my bias may be due to my being what is called an “exceptional human experiencer,” since I am a near-death experiencer, I am a meditator, I am a lucid dreamer, I have had a kundalini awakening experience, and I was ‘born aware’ (meaning I remembered being conscious prior to being born). Exceptional human experiences can provide people with access to heightened abilities to do some of the things we might also hope to enhance through neurotechnology–and I see a study of neurotechnology as potentially providing us with greater insights into optimizing our natural human abilities.

I’d love to hear your comments, thoughts and feelings about the future of neurotechnology. This is a controversial topic, that I hope you will contemplate and talk to people about it, thus helping set the direction for how humanity continues to evolve with technology. Some people are understandably skeptical or concerned about neurotechnology, while others are excited about the possibilities, and others yet don’t yet have strong feelings one way or the other. My gut feeling is that AI is coming, as is human cognitive enhancement. Humanity will do well to envision how we see ourselves in the future, and what we consider optimal in terms of working with neurotechnology in the future. I tend to agree with Eagleman and Johnson that it’s not a matter of if, but when, this technology will arrive. And those of us like myself who still don’t yet have cell phones can be hold-outs for a while (or in my case now, decades), yet all of us will eventually be affected in some way by these technologies.

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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in Physics from UC Berkeley, and discusses consciousness and quantum physics on numerous shows including the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, the BBC and One World with Deepak Chopra and on the Living the Quantum Dream show she hosts. You can subscribe to Cynthia’s free monthly ezine at: http://www.RealityShifters.com

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