"The Secret" About "What the Bleep Do They Know" About Quantum Mechanics

I've mentioned before how The Law of Attraction misuses the terminology of quantum physics. Well it's one thing to make that statement; I am now going to begin examining the concept a bit more closely. Many hypnotists must contend with the huge amount of misinformation out there about our field; and the antidote to misinformation is correct information (and plenty of it!).

While there might be a possibility that our neurology makes direct use of quantum effects, this has yet to be scientifically demonstrated. Recently I saw an article positing that photosynthesis makes use of a quantum effect to generate energy efficiently for plants and there could be more things in our lives built upon quantum physics than just particle accelerators. Nevertheless, it does not follow that a system for understanding what happens in the specific context of the subatomic scale (quantum theory) will necessarily play out the same way in another, very different, context. Does quantum theory mean that your mind controls and even creates reality?

Hardly. NLP acknowledges that whatever reality is out there is filtered through our senses and then through our neurology (f1 and f2 transforms). The map is not the territory. Think about this for a minute and you may realize that this does not require that the map creates the reality!

Now, sometimes people might get "results" from employing the law of attraction. As I've said in the past, I contend that this is due to the goal-seeking nature of our neurology. The "as-if frame" is a powerful one; perhaps when you act as if the law of attraction is working in your life, then you'll be more open to the opportunities around you that you hadn't noticed before.  But in no way does quantum theory come into play, essentially allowing your mind to dictate what goes on "out there" in any way other than normal interaction with your environment would allow. To make assumptions that your "quantum mind" is using the "law of attraction" to affect reality is employing an "appeal to quantum mechanics".

Wikipedia says it pretty well:

Quantum quackery (appeal to quantum mechanics) are terms of the " Science wars ", criticizing the fashion trend in postmodernism , popular philosophy and various currents of  pseudoscience to refer to  quantum physics  without any  intellectual rigor or understanding of the field to provide an erudite-sounding explanation of pretty much anything without making any actual claim.

Quantum quackery and  New Age "mystical physics" begin in earnest in the 1970s with Fritjof Capra's "The Tao of Physics". Capra asserts that quantum physics confirms Eastern mystical teachings, a claim taken up in the 1980s by Hindutva pseudoscience.

*edited for grammar and to get to the point

It's akin to the convenient metaphor of "energy flow". In martial arts, oft-used phrases like "centering yourself", "allowing the flow of ki" and "breath power" are essentially descriptors for complex (and many times extremely subtle) physical behaviors. Yet on the surface, they seem to describe the existence of something like The Force. While I don't go as far as to claim that this "force" does not exist, in my experience the majority of its associated phenomena seem to be based in complex, but very concrete, physics and biomechanics. Even so, as my first Aikido teacher said, when you act as if the ki is real, you get demonstrable results whether it's objectively real or not.

The problem with the misuse of quantum theory terminology is that people actually believe that modern physics really concretely relates to how they can make money appear from nowhere.  You know by now that I am not a die-hard materialist and in fact am very spiritual but I like to keep my knowledge domains nice and distinct. Quantum physics is for understanding the domain of the extremely small. Material prosperity is another domain which can (and should where useful) employ metaphors built on quantum physics, but ought to be intellectually honest and not misapply ideas.

For some background in quantum physics: Visit Wikipedia