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Interview: Part 1 of 2
Dr. Fred Alan Wolf,Ph.D.
Quantum Physicist
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by Rhonda Crowder |
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From his intriguing theories of a Parallel Universe, and Time Shifts, to his spiritual quest in search of...well, everything, Dr. Fred Alan Wolf is undoubtedly one of the most gifted minds of our times. What was our own discovery? In addition to his fascinating insights, we found a soul filled with warmth and a most delightful sense of humor. So, just how did Dr. Wolf come to bring scientific thought and spiritual quest together? Read on and learn more about the man and his amazing mind!
The Meta Arts: What process led you away from working away from the strictly scientific model and into researching the more spiritual and philosophical matters?
Dr. Wolf: Well, you know, it is interesting that you ask it that way. I kind of thought the processes, techniques, things that I learned from studying science actually lead me deeper into the things that you would suggest are things that are being led away from.
So, I would say that as a scientist- somebody interested in how things work and why they do what they do, and how things behave- as I began studying what we understand about that, from a scientific view, it became clear to me that there are some real mysteries here. Things that could not be explained away, that we had to assume , had to be explained one way or another and had to carry on with our scientific inquiry into how nature works.
So, I would say once those mysteries became clear to me, I was led more naturally into thinking there is a higher intelligence, or a higher sense of presence, purpose or being in the Universe. It can't just be a mechanical Universe.
The Meta Arts: That makes you a little bit different , not everyone in the scientific field does go along that route.
Dr. Wolf: Well, there may be several factions, reasons for that. Most of what scientists do, is to follow along the pathway that other scientists have started. Once you follow along the pathway of another's thinking, you often do not pick up the gauntlet of where their thoughts were when they started that pathway off in the first place.
So you are following ,and don't have to question any more. It is almost like being in the military. The General says "Go that way", and a lieutenant says, " I will go that way because that is I am to do it." That is how scientists are generally learned. The professor in their class says, "This is how we do it. Don't ask about how or why, just this is the way we do the calculation."
So must people learn that way, and if they are not very creative, which most scientists unfortunately are not. They are taught so well not to be that way about science, with so many rules governing their creativity, it leads to walking in a lockstep. in one direction...closing their mind to their own, real interest and things that inspired them to get into science to begin with.
I think at heart, scientists are mystics and really want to know how things work and are very interested in the mysteries of the Universe. I don't think it is the goal to become a skeptics, but a part of scientific thinking is to question things which are still left up in air. Unfortunately, what many scientists do, is question other people's ideas of what's up in the air, but never question their own assumptions.
The Meta Arts: What do you think made you wrapped differently that made you start that questioning process?
Dr. Wolf: I don't really know if I can say what that was, other than that I have always been a curious person, and someone who always wanted to understand how things work. I guess, you might say there was an interest in the mystery of the world , that I think, captivated me. I have always been in magic, or mystery, or that maybe that aspect of our nature.
The Meta Arts: I read an interview that you did where you said you were very interested in magic tricks as a child.
Dr. Wolf: Yes, I was. I liked when things don't go according to plan.
( laughter )
Dr. Wolf: As a kid, I would go into the Oriental Theatre, which at that time, would run a move and then have a stage show. One stage show had Harry Blackstone, the magician. I'm 68 years old, so I can go back a while. Back then, in Chicago, stage show and film were done side by side. It was a wonderful kind of entertainment.
When I started to grow up and mature, and began reaching pre-puberty, I developed a severe speaking disability. I began to stammer so badly that my mother thought there was something wrong with me. So, I took up magic as a kind of way trying to open up, to try to speak better. So magic was a natural thing to get into.
The Meta Arts: If we have a belief that there is a grand plan to it all, and that there are no coincidences, in terms of the experiences that we have, then it may be there was a purpose to having that stammer to guide you into the path you would eventually follow.
Dr. Wolf: Well, that could very well be. When I look at it with hindsight, it makes sense to me.
The Meta Arts: Hindsight is an exact science?
Dr. Wolf: Yes, in fact, one of the principles in my work is that GOD works by going backwards in time and adjusts things, rather than allowing the free hand to move forward in time. And if it is hindsight, it is better than foresight.
The Meta Arts: Do you remember what your first "AHA!" moment was?
Dr. Wolf: Hmmm... my first "AHA! Moment"... probably my first orgasm.
(Hysterical laughter from us all)
The Meta Arts: That was sure a "AHA!" It surprised the hell out of me.
(More Hysterical laughter)
The Meta Arts: When you began to get that you needed to look into the more spiritual and philosophical areas, were you comfortable telling your peers about it? Or was that something that you preferred to keep in solitude?
Dr. Wolf: That period, it came very gradually. It was not like I suddenly made a change. I think that the real momentum of that came in the 60's. I don't think I was that much aware of it, up into my undergraduate and graduate study.
By that time, I had married very young. I was 23 and had children very shortly afterward. By the time I was 27, I had gotten my Ph.D and had 2 children. I was beginning to look for a job, and was in the mill of life. I was not really thinking of philosophy and metaphysics. But by the 60's, as we got into the period of the Viet Nam War, the insanity of that period of time and the discovery that our government was lying about most things. There was some disillusion and a lot of us, including myself, felt that we needed to take some sort of action, other than the dictates of our economical needs.
So, I began getting involved in Peace Freedom Party in California. I began meeting people of different cultural backgrounds and I met all the people who were involved in that movement by 1969.
By 1970, there was something spurring me onward and I took a sabbatical leave and traveled around the world. I went to India. I went to several countries, and I began to get a whole different look at ,and feeling for, what the world was made of.
I think at that point, I began seriously thinking about "What is this experience we call being conscious of the world?" I had learned enough Quantum mechanics by that time to understand that the world was not just a mechanical thing.
The Meta Arts: Who were your teachers and mentors at that time?
Dr. Wolf: There were some that go back to the early 60's. When I was working at Hughes Aircraft, in California, I had taken some courses there, and one of the professors who came in to teach was Richard Feynman, the Nobel Laureate. He was one of the most brilliant teachers, as well as Physicists that ever walked on this planet. Very intuitive guy. I loved his style. He was very off-hand, had a very funny sense of humor, but a brilliant way of seeing Physics.
By '67- 68. I had traveled to England to work on some projects and spent some time with David Bohm, who was another Physicist who is noted in the movement of New Age Consciousness. Bohm would often come into my office and talk about his ideas and philosophy, and I realized he had a very metaphysical, almost mystical point of view, but still grounded in the scientific frame work. So, he was some of my influences.
In the same period, in the early 70's, I was very influenced by a meeting with Carlos Suarez, who was a Kabbalist Master. He opened up my mind to another way of looking at the way the world is constructed, the way the world is seen from Kabbalah.
His style of teaching was through the meanings of the letters and trying to understand the sacred writings from the letters- like the Song of Songs, Book of Genesis. That was very significant.
The third person who had a great influence on me was Werner Erhardt, of the EST training program. I got a chance to know him. I met him, in England, way before he knew who he was, what he was. We got along and he was very interested in Physics.
I spent an afternoon explaining Physics to him and some other people. I started at 1 in the afternoon and did not finish until after midnight. He invited work with his trainers in San Francisco. I feel he had a tremendous influence on my thinking because he pointed out to me that the world is what we create it to be, not necessarily what is out there. That, with my understanding of the Quantum Physics, that the observer creates reality, that made a lot of sense.
The Meta Arts: When did you become aware that you would become a translator of important material into terms that the rest of us could understand?
Dr. Wolf: I don't think I ever became aware of that.
The Meta Arts: ( Laughter )
Dr. Wolf: I never really thought of it that way. I'll tell you what is very funny...20 years ago, when I was in my 40's, and I had the kind of recognition that I have right now, I would have been thrilled. I would have said, this is just what I want, my ego was big at that point, I wanted to be out there... and now I don't care.
Now, I see the beginning of people paying attention to what I have been saying, and that is fine, I am very happy to hear it. But, it is not that really important to me any more- to be famous, or to make a lot of money. None of that is really burning in me any more. And now, I am getting all these kinds of offers.
The Meta Arts: It is kind of like, when you look for a relationship, you can't find it, and when you stop looking, you find the right one.
Dr. Wolf: In fact, it has been one of the lessons I have had to learn- I don't invite myself any where, any more.
The Meta Arts: ( Laughter )
Dr. Wolf: I let the world invite me- for speaking engagements, anything I do. I don't solicit business and that seems to have worked for me.
The Meta Arts: But at that point, didn't you begin to realize that what you had to say was having a major impact on people out there?
Dr. Wolf: No, I never thought that, never thought that what I had to say was making a major impact. If it is, that is wonderful. But I am not aware I am making a major one. I do have fans, and get lots email, and they all visit my website to read my stuff, but as far as thinking I am a major mover and shaker, no. I just do my thing.
The Meta Arts: I would characterize you as one. I really believe that because you started out in the mainstream, and then went into another direction, so to speak, I think you brought a lot of people in, who would not have come in, otherwise, with you.
Dr. Wolf: If that is true, that is very nice to hear.
The Meta Arts: And, correspondingly, I think you brought a lot of people who were very much in the spiritual and esoteric side and showed them a bit about what science is about too.
Dr. Wolf: My general impression over the years, has been there seems to be some barriers that exist, on both sides of the fence.
Those that are scientifically inclined, seem to have a hard time dealing with spiritual experiences of any kind. And those that have spiritual experiences up the wahzoo, have no idea what it is to think about things in a rationalistic, scientific way. They seem also a-logical and not capable of carrying any kind of logical thought out. I have been fortunate, in that I have spiritual- mystical experiences, it is a wonderful gift, I am very thankful that I have been graced that way. I am also very thankful that I have a rational mind and can think logically about the world, as well. I wonder why can't people do both. I don't see any reason why you have to be either one or the other.
The Meta Arts: I think what may happen, is that people tend to develop one side, or the other side, of the brain, a little bit more. And, what they don't understand is that there can be what you have achieved- a really nice balance and the ability to use both of them.
Dr. Wolf: I think it is very important, I am glad you are saying this, because I had never thought about it in that way. But actually, there is an interesting phenomenon that we know about, in terms of Psychology. It is given the name, The Idiot Savant.
In a certain sense, we are all Idiot Savants, because when we develop one thing, at the expense of another, we become Savant at that. We become adept at that, but if we do not bother to develop the other side of us, we become idiots at that. So, there is a certain tendency to develop one-sightedness, and not to be as well rounded, and well balanced.
There are reasons why, to develop well roundedness is difficult for people, because it does lead you into a kind of sitting on the fence position about things. And, you have to sometimes make a decision, knowing fully well, that either direction you take, will not be fully right. And that is what makes hard, and interesting at the same time.
So perhaps... the people who don't know any better, and make a decision and do one thing... they think they are always right and to be hit in the head to be proven wrong. They find they get hit in the head once in a while and say, "Now that was wrong, so I'll go back and do things the way I used to anyway."
The Meta Arts: The "Cosmic 2 by 4" knows no justice.
Dr. Wolf: Yes (chuckle). But the people who are walking, and able to see both sides of the issue, and have to make a decision... for them, there is some braveness. You have to go forward, even though you know it is not the right way.
Continued Next Month
Read Dr. Wolf's - Excerpts: Part 1 of 2
Transforming Matter into Feeling
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Dr. Fred Alan Wolf,
Physicist, Writer,
Lecturer &Author
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Fred Alan Wolf is a physicist, writer, and lecturer who earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at UCLA in 1963. He continues to write, lecture throughout the world, and conduct research on the relationship of quantum physics to consciousness. He is the National Book Award Winning author of Taking the Quantum Leap. He is a member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Scholars.
Dr. Wolf has taught at the University of London, the University of Paris, the Hahn-Meitner Institute for Nuclear Physics in Berlin, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and San Diego State University in the United States.
His work in quantum physics and consciousness is well known through his popular and scientific writing. He is the author of ten books including:
Taking the Quantum Leap,
Parallel Universes,
The Dreaming Universe,
The Eagle's Quest,
The Spiritual Universe, Mind into Matter, and his latest book,
Matter into Feeling.
Dr. Wolf's fascination with the world of physics began one afternoon as a child at a local matinee, when the newsreel revealed the awesome power and might of the world's first atomic explosion. This fascination continued, leading Wolf to study mathematics and physics.
In 1963, he received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from UCLA and began researching the field of high atmospheric particle behavior following a nuclear explosion.
Wolf's inquiring mind has delved into the relationship between human consciousness, psychology, physiology, the mystical, and the spiritual. His investigations have taken him from intimate discussions with physicist David Bohm to the magical and mysterious jungles of Peru, from master classes with Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman to the high deserts of Mexico, from a significant meeting with Werner Heisenberg to the hot coals of a firewalk.
In academia, Dr. Wolf has challenged minds at San Diego State University, the University of Paris, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of London, Birkbeck College, and many other institutions of higher learning. Wolf is best known for his contributions through technical papers and popular books, but he is frequently in demand as a lecturer, keynote speaker, and consultant to industry and the media.
Wolf is well known for his simplification of the new physics and is perhaps best known as the author of Taking the Quantum Leap which, in 1982, was the recipient of the prestigious National Book Award for Science.
Former professor of physics at San Diego State University for twelve years, Dr. Wolf lectures, researches, and teaches worldwide. Dr. Wolf has also appeared as the resident physicist on The Discovery Channel's The Know Zone and on many radio talkshows and television shows across the nation.
Email:
fawolf@ix.netcom.com
website:
pw1.netcom.com/
~wolfmirror/
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