Taiji and Quantum Cosmology

The Human Body in a Universal Context

by Beverley Kane, MD

Tai ji began as a martial art in medieval China to improve the fitness, agility, and discipline of horse-mounted warriors. It was derived, in part, from the practice of qigong, born of observations of animals by the wu shamans thousands of years earlier. By the 20th century, tai ji was increasingly taught as a moving meditation to improve health. However, tai ji is more than a structured psychosomatic activity. It is also part of a physical and metaphysical cosmology based on Daoism and other ancient wisdom (1). It places living organisms in the context of the quantum universe. For tai ji, the relevant characteristics of this universe, as distinct from that of the materialistic, deterministic world of Newtonian physics are:

1. Bidirectional time. Time, space, and matter are artifacts of the 3-dimensional brain. Spacetime is everything, everywhere, all at once.1, 2, 3
2. Probability, not determinism. All events and objects exist as probabilities until consciousness or free will makes an observation or forms an intention or an action.2, 4
3. Quantum entanglement. The connection between two particles once in contact, then separated, show faster-than-light communication. If/when QE can be demonstrated in macrosystems, it might explain phenomena such as telepathy, extrasensory perception, retrocausality and somatic pre-sentience5 and the power of love to comfort and heal.
4. Consciousness in all things. In Daoism, and in quantum theory as proposed by physicist and Vedic scholar Amit Goswami, consciousness arose from the emptiness, nothingness, and oneness of the wu ji. It is immaterial, universal, collective, and primary, and not an epiphenomenon of the neurophysiological brain. Goswami, the Vedas, Seth, and other traditions maintain that consciousness creates the material world.2, 3

In quantum theory, the material world is an illusion.2, 4 All its components, down to the smallest subatomic unit, exist as both waves and particles in a wave of probabilities that become experienced reality by an act consciousness.

Our biological connection to this universe has been imagined by many mystical traditions as the energy shared by all things in all spaces. In these world views, our body’s ch’i (qi), also known as ki, prana, and kundalini, connect us to the Ineffable Infinite known as God, Spirit, and All That Is. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, energy circulates in a network of channels called meridians, of which we are generally not aware, and concentrates in a series of centers that can be consciously sensed. When first learning energy cultivation, the most important of these centers is the lower dan tien found in a front-to-back spherical area of the abdomen below the navel. The lower dan tien is the center of one’s power of self-determination. It is the seat and source of one’s agency, integrity, morality, and truth. Although our beliefs and perspectives will change as we become older and wiser, the sensations in the dan tien—one’s “gut feelings”— of rightness, courage, and sacredness remain consistent.

The essence of our tai ji training will be the awakening of cosmic consciousness in connection with the Infinite through cultivating the flow of ch’i and reiki (6). These practices are the key to living healthfully and harmoniously in a safe, benevolent, and loving You-niverse.