When reality is upside down

I'm sure you remember Alice in Wonderland. Alice goes down the rabbit-hole to discover an entirely different world than her familiar world. A world that is topsy-turvy compared to hers. Animals talk, strange characters engage in strange behaviors and a tea party displays the illogical logic of wonderland. Alice is being treated to experiences of the unknown.

The author, Dodgson who is actually Lewis Carroll, provides us with a fantasy, a fantasy which emerged from his unconscious (hidden psychology). From this fantasy, we can see how human nature is influenced by the unconscious or the hidden psychology.

I often write about this hidden psychology in my columns. Our conscious psychology is what we are aware of each day while our unconscious functions in the background, which means we are unaware of it and its influences. Of course, if we remember dreams, we can also observe the unconscious with its strange characters, talking animals and illogical logic. Dreams are like Alice's Wonderland.

There are other ways, beside dreams and fantasies, to observe the unconscious. Myths, legends, creative expressions, fairy tales and imaginings are windows into the unconscious. If dreams are not enough to confirm our hidden psychology, we can always look to these other expressions. We can also look to a counterpart of our physical reality to help us realize there is much more to nature and human nature than meets the eye.

I'm speaking about quantum physics, the underworld of our familiar physical world. Scientists have discovered several quantum properties that are peculiar and contrary to our logical and causal way of understanding the physical world. At the quantum level, all possibilities that can manifest in our physical world exist as simultaneous potentials. Strangely enough, when a measurement of these infinite quantum possibilities occurs only one possibility manifest in our physical world.

And that's another peculiar twist! Measurement isn't necessarily accomplished by a standard measuring device. For example, scientists discovered that random molecular motion can act as a measuring device, bringing forth a potential from the quantum underworld that manifest in our physical world, such as an electron or some other element. So, the quantum level of reality is, yet again, another illogical logic, made up of an infinite number of hidden potential possibilities contrary to our everyday physical world.

Given that the underworld of physical reality is quantum physics and that the underworld of everyday life is Alice's Wonderland, it isn't a big step to understand that the underworld of consciousness is the hidden psychology or the unconscious. Reality can truly be upside down!