One should try reading some of Mitchell’s papers, published on his website. They are quite interesting for the thundering barrage of quasi-scientific jargon. Here is a typical example:
I will use the word “perception” in its most generic sense to denote a basic subjective experience at all levels of complex matter. Thus the non-local quantum correlation between entangled quantum particles is considered the root cause of the phenomenon experienced as perception in more complex matter, but the non-local quantum hologram is the non-local carrier of information for molecular and larger scale matter. Thus, perception is not an object but rather the label for a nonlinear process involving an object, a percipient and information. - Nature’s Mind: the Quantum Hologram - Edgar Mitchell, Sc.D.
We can see how few readily definable terms there are in this supposed explanation (which is just in the introduction to the whole ponderous article). What does “levels of complex matter” mean. When does matter become complex? He says “perception is not an object,” but who has ever claimed that perception is an “object”? Notice also the favorite phrase of the new agers and deconstructionists: “a nonlinear process.” We can see the typical pointless demonization of Newtonian science as “linear,” and by extension virtually all Enlightenment philosophy, pointless because Newtonian science was never exactly “linear” and science has moved on quite a bit since the 1600s and 1700s.
As an intellectual exercise, one can take the favored terms of these sorts of “scientific” investigations and apply them to just about anything one likes. Take these: nonlinear, non-local, hologram, quantum, entangled, and information. Here is one entitled “Cooking as Anticipatory Information Theory: The Quantum Holographic Spaghetti Effect.” [Large parts of this are direct quotations with minor substitutions of Mitchell’s writing.] A host of observed, but very basic human phenomena, including cooking itself, have eluded rigorous scientific description by all disciplines of science. This is true, not because of insufficient evidence for a particular dish’s existence, but rather for lack of a theoretical construct which could fit within the prevailing paradigms of science. For millennia philosophers have pondered the nature of mind, cooking and mind/cuisine interactions but without sufficient knowledge and technical capability to propose properly testable theories. The basis of subjective cooking is rooted in the quantum attribute of nature called non-locality. I will use the word “cooking” in its most generic sense to denote a basic subjective experience at all levels of complex culinary phenomena. Thus the non-local quantum correlation between entangled noodle particles is considered the root cause of the phenomenon experienced as taste in more complex non-local gustatory perceptions, but the non-local quantum hologram is the non-local carrier of information for molecular and larger scale gustatory percpeptions. Thus, spaghetti bolognese is not an object but rather the label for a nonlinear process involving an object, a chef and information.
You may proceed at will with your exercise in quasi-scientific new age nonsense.
) and were active for many years. Neither of them ever heard anything, not even a little rumor, about alien conspiracies.
