Unique quantum state in photosynthesis

As animal life was humming along creating hemoglobin, natural processes on the vegetable side of the operation created chlorophyll, which sustains plant life along a different route, photosynthesis. We won’t conduct a tour of the chlorophyll molecule except to say that it consists of 137 atoms, whose sole purpose is to encase one atom of magnesium rather than the iron in hemoglobin. This ionized magnesium atom, when it comes into contact with sunlight, allows carbon and water to form a very simple carbohydrate. How photons of light from the sun can create this new product opens up new mysteries, but once the simplest carbohydrate molecule was generated by plant leaves, an evolutionary breakthrough was made. The machinery that manufactures chlorophyll took a separate track from the machinery that manufactures hemoglobin, which is why cows eat grass instead of being grass.

(Note: In photosynthesis, chlorophyll only needs the carbon atom in carbon dioxide, releasing the oxygen atom into the air. You may say, aha, that’s where the free oxygen comes from that isn’t stolen by other atoms. But unfortunately, chlorophyll needs a cell to live inside, and that cell required free oxygen for its construction before chlorophyll could start to operate.)

Now we have a context for asking the right question. The mystery of how life first began comes down to the transition from ‘lifeless’ chemical reactions to ‘living’ ones. Is life simply a sideline of universal chemical behavior throughout creation? Any answer will also have to include why only some atoms and molecules engage in this sideline while the rest continue on their merry way.

Almost all the free energy available for life on our planet comes from photosynthesis. Besides needing their own supply of energy to grow, plants are at the bottom of the food chain for all animal life on land. When sunlight hits cells that contain chlorophyll, the energy in the sunlight is ‘harvested,’ almost instantaneously being passed along for chemical processing into proteins and other organic products. This energy transfer occurs with 100 percent efficiency. No energy is wasted as heat.

Researchers “discovered something quite unique: in photosynthesis sunlight retains its wave-like state long enough to sample the whole range of possible targets while simultaneously ‘choosing’ which one is the most efficient to connect with. By looking down all the possible energy pathways on offer, the light won’t waste energy picking any but the most efficient ones.

The mechanism involves matching the resonance of both the light and the molecules receiving its energy. This is like two tuning forks vibrating exactly alike and known as harmonic resonance.

An entire new theory posits that living things are embedded in a ‘biofield’ that originates at the electromagnetic level or perhaps at an even subtler quantum level, yet to be explored. The breakthrough with photosynthesis was a turning point.

Deepak Chopra and Menas C. Kafatos, You are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters (Harmony Books, 2017), 222-229.

Hemoglobin is a miracle of construction

Hemoglobin sits inside a red blood cell, constituting 96 percent of the cells’ dry weight; its function is to pick up oxygen and transport it through the bloodstream to every cell in the body. Blood gains its red color from the iron in hemoglobin, which turns reddish when it rusts (and for the same reason). When the oxygen atoms reach their destination and are released. The red color fades, which is why blood in your veins is bluish. Venous blood is on the return journey to the lungs, where it will start the process of oxygen transport all over again. The ability of hemoglobin to carry oxygen is seventy times greater than if the oxygen were simply dissolved in the blood. 

As a molecule, hemoglobin is a miracle of construction. The hemoglobin molecule is built from 10,000 atoms, creating a vast space that exist so that exactly four iron atoms can pick up four oxygen atoms for transport.

The task that faced inorganic matter billions of years ago on planet Earth was as follows:

- Oxygen had to be set free into the atmosphere without getting gobbled up by greedy atoms and molecules around it.

- At the same time, some of the oxygen had to be gobbled up to form complex organic chemicals.

- Those organic chemicals had to be structured into proteins, of which hemoglobin is one of the most complex.

- Hemoglobin had to be arranged internally so that it encased four iron atoms, which are absent from hundreds of other proteins, including those that resemble hemoglobin in their working parts.

- The iron atoms couldn’t be inertly encased, like locking diamonds up in a safety deposit box. The iron had to be charged (as a positive ion) so that it could pick up oxygen atoms. But it wasn’t permitted to steal any of the oxygen already being used to build proteins.

Finally, the machinery necessary for constructing all of the above organic chemicals had to remember how to do it the next time and the next and the next, while other nanomachines sitting nearby in the cell had to remember hundreds of different chemical processes without interfering with the machine that makes hemoglobin. Meanwhile, time matters. The nucleus of the cell, DNA has to remember—and put into motion with precise time—the whole enterprise.

Deepak Chopra and Menas C. Kafatos, You are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters (Harmony Books, 2017), 218-221.

Our experiences of the soul

In each state of consciousness the soul looks different. In the physical world the soul is centered around emotions and idealism. It connotes warmth of heart, love, devotion to God. We look to our souls to remind ourselves that we have a divine spark inside, and yet we don’t base our lives on it. The soul flickers in and out.

 

In the subtle world the soul is spirit, denoting holiness, closeness to God, and freedom from the burdens of physical existence. The soul no longer offers mere comfort; it is the bliss that pain was disguising. The soul is constant now; its guidance can be clearly followed without confusion. The primary feeling is magnetic: one is being drawn inexorably toward the divine.

 

In the domain of pure consciousness, merging is complete. One sees that self and soul are one. Since there is no here and there, the soul has no location. It exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time. One no longer seeks the soul’s goodness, holiness, or purity. It simply is. 

 

The divine plan is life itself. It includes all creatures in their proper place. The proper place for humans is, first, in eternity and second, here on earth. Death, like the pause between two breaths, is how you cross from one home to the other.

 

Chopra, Deepak. Life After Death (p. 126-127, 157). Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

Afterlife is a "special kind of tomorrow"

Near-death experiences tell us that the stage of “crossing over”—the temporary realm preceding the full experience of the afterlife—still feels personal. People report seeing their deceased friends and relations, for example. The dying person continues to see the room in which his body lies, and memories and associations keep tying him back to physical existence. The possibility of taking a creative leap has yet to be realized. As long as you continue to feel like the person you were, you can’t experience the unknown.

 

When you are in a physical body your perspective makes physicality real. When you are dreaming at night, the dream state is real. When you are “crossing over,” both waking and dreaming are unreal, and the field of consciousness is real. What causes this change of reality? Vedanta holds that consciousness is convinced by its own creations. Therefore, nothing we can see, hear, and touch, whether in waking, dreaming, or beyond both, is ultimately real. They represent shifting perspectives.

 

To be completely free means waking up from all dreamlike states and reclaiming who you are: the maker of reality. One cannot say that all dying people will achieve this kind of absolute freedom. They may glimpse it only for a fleeting second; they may sense the possibility of breaking away from one dream and yet be seduced into the next one that comes to mind.

 

Consciousness is tied by thousands of threads to old memories, habits, preferences, and relationships. Whenever someone really presses the issue of what happens after we die, my response comes in the form of a question: “Who are you?” You have to know where you are right now, in order to know where you will be tomorrow, and the afterlife is just a special kind of tomorrow.

 Chopra, Deepak. Life After Death (p. 84, 87, 98). Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

Heaven is an experience in consciousness

When Jesus tells his disciples that they should be in the world but not of it, his teaching seems unlivable. My physical body anchors me here every moment. But the soul manages to be in this world while remaining firmly outside time and space. Jesus is giving us a clue about the kingdom of heaven within.

 

Many times, Jesus sounds like a rishi in the tradition of Vedanta. Certainly, that’s true about being in the world but not of it. In simple terms, he is telling his closest followers followers to stop thinking of themselves as physical creatures. Jesus becomes more explicit if we look outside the four Gospels to the fragmentary Gospel of Thomas, which was written very early, perhaps within a century after the Crucifixion, but was later excluded from the official canon.

 

Jesus said: “If those who lead you say to you: See, the kingdom is in heaven, then the birds of the sky will go before you; if they say to you: It is in the sea, then the fish will go before you. But the kingdom is within you, and it is outside of you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will know that you are the sons of the living Father.” This passage shows how profound the roots of religion are, and how compatible the great traditions of wisdom would be if dogma didn’t stand in the way. What Jesus says here supports the view that heaven is everywhere, but it goes further by saying that heaven is an inward experience—an experience in consciousness. 

 

Jesus sees the soul everywhere and thus he can see that the essence of people lies outside time and space. Like the rishis, Jesus was comfortable living with eternity. Why, then, aren’t we? Eternity can’t be grasped by the mind in our ordinary waking state. Our waking state is dominated by time while eternity is not. There must be a link. Vedanta says that there is a continuum, in fact. Every quality in yourself is actually a soul quality.

Chopra, Deepak. Life After Death (p. 63-64). Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

Heaven is an inward experience and our home

The notion of heaven keeps things human, and that’s one reason it has survived so long. The image of returning home after we die, resting from our labors, and receiving our just reward offers powerful reassurance. (It’s difficult not to come to tears listening to the old gospel hymn with its gentle, rocking refrain: “Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, Come home…Come home.”) 

In an age of doubt, however, the shakiest assumptions about heaven are the two it can’t do without:

1. We go somewhere when we die.

2. The place we go to is the same heaven or hell for everyone.

In Christ’s conception heaven is present: It’s an inward experience that can be felt by the righteous. Heaven is also future: It’s returning home to be with God that the righteous await on Judgment Day. Heaven is personal: It is to be found “within you.” At the same time, heaven is universal: It is an eternal abode beyond birth and death, a place outside Creation.

This teaching was revolutionary because Jesus built a bridge to the soul, exhorting every person to find his (or her) way across.

What you choose today will ripple throughout a thousand tomorrows.

 

Chopra, Deepak. Life After Death (p. 55, 57, 61). Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

Crossing Over – How the Afterlife Dawns

1. The physical body stops functioning. The dying person may not be aware of this but eventually knows that it has occurred. 

 

2. The physical world vanishes. This can happen by degrees; there can be a sense of floating upward or of looking down on familiar places as they recede.

 

3. The dying person feels lighter, suddenly freed of limitation. 

 

4. The mind and sometimes the senses continue to operate. Gradually, however, what is perceived becomes nonphysical. 

 

5. A presence grows that is felt to be divine. This presence can be clothed in a light or in the body of angels or gods. It can communicate to the dying person.

 

6. Personality and memory begin to fade, but the sense of “I” remains.

 

7. This “I” has an overwhelming sense of moving on to another phase of existence.

 

This sevenfold awakening isn’t the same as going to heaven. Researchers often call this the “inter-life” phase, a transition between the mental state of being alive and the mental state of realizing that one has passed on.

 

Westerners argue over whether the afterlife could be as real as the physical world; Easterners declare that both are mental projections. Westerners limit the human life cycle to a short span between birth and death; Easterners see an eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

 

Chopra, Deepak. Life After Death (p. 40-41). Harmony/Rodale, 2006. Kindle Edition.