The Reality of Possibility with Ruth E. Kastner

Ruth Kastner, PhD, is a philosopher exploring the foundations of physics. She is on the faculty of the physics department at the State University of New York at Albany. She is also a research associate at the University of Maryland. She is author of The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: The Reality of Possibility and also Understanding Our Unseen World: Solving Quantum Riddles.

Here she describes Plato’s famous cave allegory, and suggests that it is relevant to our understanding of quantum mechanics. Specifically, she suggests that the higher dimensional mathematical formalisms, although not empirically observable, point toward very real levels of existence. To buttress her argument, she also describes the nineteenth century parable of Flatland. In quantum theory, there are the probability clouds described by the Shrödinger psi equation. At another, more subtle, but still ontologically real level, are virtual particles.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is a past vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology; and is the recipient of the Pathfinder Award from that Association for his contributions to the field of human consciousness. He is also past-president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people are encouraged to cultivate and apply their inner, intuitive abilities.

(Recorded on August 23, 2016)