Until a measurement is made of one of the particles, its state is undetermined: it can be regarded as being in both states A and B simultaneously, known as a superposition. If the first particle is in state A, say, then the other must be in state B, and vice versa. Take the principle of quantum entanglement, for example:Įntanglement occurs when two quantum particles interact with each other so that their quantum states become interdependent. Today, quantum physics is giving us new ways to think about the universe that have interesting parallels to what Swedenborg described. During the eighteenth century, when Isaac Newton’s laws of physics were still brand new, this must have been hard to imagine. Swedenborg emphasizes that space in the spiritual world is nothing like ours: he describes angels traveling over huge distances in an instant to reach someone who is thinking about them, communities of angels who are bound together by similarities in their states of love and wisdom, and surroundings that change in response to people’s thoughts and emotions. ( Divine Love and Wisdom §7 see also Heaven and Hell §§154–55) Spiritual concepts are no different when they apply to spatial distances than when they apply to “distances” of what is good and “distances” of what is true, which are agreements and likenesses as to state. It can be lengthened, shortened, changed and altered and since it cannot be defined by measurement, we here cannot grasp it with an earthly concept, but only with a spiritual one. Still, it is not space but an appearance of space. However, since angels and spirits see with their eyes the way we do on earth, and since objects can be seen only in space, there does seem to be space in the spiritual world where angels and spirits are, space like ours on earth. A truly spiritual concept of these realities has nothing in common with space. They have to do solely with state, state being an attribute of love, life, wisdom, desires, and the delights they provide-in general, an attribute of what is good and true. Spiritual concepts have nothing to do with space. To begin to understand it, you have to set aside everything you thought you knew about space and time and develop complex, abstract models of a universe in which the tiniest divisions of matter exist in constantly changing states and where the normal rules of action at a distance don’t apply.
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