Kvantfysiken och den nya myten? : En studie av Fritjof Capras och Danah Zohars böcker om kvantandlighet

• Main Author: Lythell, Joel
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för historia och samtidsstudier 2013
• Subjects: Capra; Zoha; New age; Mythology; Myth; Quantum physics; Quantum mechanics
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-19453

This study is about quantum physics and the role it can play in a religious perspective. I intend to examine how moderna physics may be related and understood as New age and Myths. My material consists of two books in the new age genre: "The Tao of Physics" by Fritjof Capra and "The Quantum Self" by Danah Zohar. My first two question to these books are which 1) religious and 2) scientific content they have. My other questions are too 3) investigate and demonstrate how these books are new age and 4) to exanine how the books can function as myths and adopt mythical features. And last 5) to compare important content and ideas between the books. My methods are a simple hermeneutic close reading with a qualitative inductive analysis grounded in previous research and theory. My method is also inspired by a contextual analysis of ideas and an exploratory study. In the investigation I start by showing what religious and scientific materials the books contain. My conslusion is that these two books thoroughly fulfill many criteria for the New age genre. They should however not be counted as Myths becuse they do not meet the requirenents I have defined in the theory section. Moreover, the books share many similarities, such as many common references and resistance to some ideas from the Western tradition of ideas. But there are also some differences, mainly in how they use quantum physics. Firstly, a difference is that Capra primarily make parallels between quantum physics and Eastern philosophical tradition which Zohar does not. Secondly, Capra uses quantum physics to approach the mesage, that is primarily derived from Buddhism, which is that the reality is dynamic and in the end that the world is a "non-existing thing". Zohar is opposed to this and she would call it an extreme solipsism. She argues that the reality consists of both a particle and wave structure wich she applices at the consciousness.