THE SUPERFLUID VACUUM

As we have seen, the ancient intuitive descriptions suggest that the modes of transcendental light and sound exist as correlated components of a single, unified wave field that may be compared to a metaphysical fluid field.

We know that a classical fluid is incapable of supporting transverse waves of any kind and can support only longitudinal waves—like sound waves. At first glance, this would appear to contradict the notion that the fluid field of consciousness can support both modes of transcendental light (corresponding to transverse waves) and modes of transcendental sound (corresponding to longitudinal waves).

Nevertheless, there is a way around this dilemma. According to the ancients, the modes of transcendental sound and light are both quantum waves, which can be modeled as harmonic waves and represented by harmonic ratios. In the fifth century BCE, this notion was outlined originally in the harmonic theory of Pythagoras. Due to the harmonic ratios inherent within the field, the term logos is often translated as “ratio.” The implication is that the fluid of pure consciousness must correspond to a quantum fluid rather than a classical one.

Quantum fluids were first discovered in the twentieth century, with one of the most common being a superfluid such as superfluid helium. This is created when ordinary fluid helium, which behaves like a classical fluid, undergoes a phase transition at very low kinetic temperatures. Unlike a classical fluid, a superfluid displays the property of quantum wholeness, meaning that it behaves as a single, nonlocally correlated quantum whole, rather than as a collection of individual fluid particles subject to random, independent motions. In this sense, a superfluid can be compared to the field of pure consciousness, which the ancients believed behaves as a single quantum whole, or a single conscious Being whose will simultaneously and nonlocally governs the behavior of all its parts.

Like an ordinary classical fluid, a superfluid is capable of supporting longitudinal sound waves. Unlike a classical fluid, however, superfluid sound waves also have transverse components resembling closely electromagnetic waves in the vacuum of empty space. The theoretical prediction of such transverse components was made in the 1950s, but the empirical verification of the prediction did not come until 1999, when the transverse components of superfluid sound in helium II were first detected in a laboratory experiment.⁵ The researchers reasoned that because the transverse components must involve displacements of the fluid transverse to the direction of wave propagation, the components should define a polarization direction similar to that of electromagnetic waves.

The transverse components of superfluid sound were detected by rotating the polarization of the waves in the presence of a magnetic field. The researchers suggested that this is the acoustic analogue of the magneto-optic Faraday effect, whereby the polarization direction of an electromagnetic wave is rotated by a magnetic field applied along the propagation direction.

Therefore, we can argue that if the fluid of consciousness is capable of supporting both longitudinal sound waves and transverse light waves, as implied by ancient descriptions, then its behavior must resemble that of a quantum fluid such as superfluid helium. The ancient notion that these two types of waves are not separate from each other is consistent with the fact that the transverse and longitudinal waves in superfluid helium are complementary components of the same wave phenomenon. In other words, the ancient theory suggests that the field of pure consciousness behaves like a superfluid vacuum or a superfluid wave field.

The upshot is that the ancient intuitive descriptions of the field are consistent with both quantum theory and the theory of quantum fluids. Although these descriptions are couched in philosophic and spiritual terms, they appear to have a sound scientific basis—at least, if we accept the premise that the universe is rooted in an underlying subjective reality, an all-pervading field of consciousness.

Now that we have discussed the philosophy of enlightenment, we can ask how a person becomes enlightened. What are the mechanics involved?