The Divine Matrix

by Gregg Braden

  Specifically, the scientists had split a single photon into two separate particles, creating “twins” with identical properties. Then, using equipment developed for the experiment, they fired both particles away from one another in opposite directions. The twins were placed in a specially designed chamber with two fiber-optic pathways, just like the ones that transmit phone calls, extending away from the chamber in opposite directions for a distance of seven miles. By the time each twin reached its target, 14 miles separated one from the other. At the end of the pathway, the twins were forced to “choose” between two random routes that were identical in every respect.

  What makes this experiment so interesting is that when the twin particles reached the place where they had to follow one course or the other, they both made precisely the same choices and traveled the same path each time. Without fail, the results were identical every time the experiment was conducted.

  Even though conventional wisdom states that the twins are separate and have no communication with one another, they act as if they’re still connected! Physicists call this mysterious connection “quantum entanglement.” The project leader, Nicholas Gisin, explains, “What is fascinating is that entangled photons form one and the same object. Even when the twin photons are separated geographically, if one of them is modified, the other photon automatically undergoes the same change.”21

  Historically, there’s been absolutely nothing in traditional physics that would account for what the experiments showed. Yet we see it time and again in experiments such as Gisin’s. Dr. Raymond Chiao of the University of California at Berkeley further describes the results of the Geneva experiments as “one of the deep mysteries of quantum mechanics. These connections are a fact of nature proven by experiments, but to try to explain them philosophically is very difficult.”22

  The reason why these investigations are important to us is that conventional wisdom would have us believe that there’s no way for the photons to communicate with one another—their choices are independent and not related. Our belief has been that when physical objects in this world are separate, they are really separate in every sense of the word. But the photons are showing us something very different.

  Commenting on this kind of phenomenon long before the 1997 experiment actually took place, Albert Einstein called the possibility of such results occurring “spooky action at a distance.” Today scientists believe that these unconventional results are properties that occur only in the quantum realm and acknowledge them as “quantum weirdness.”

  The connection between the photons was so complete that it appeared to be instantaneous. Once it was recognized on the very small scale of photons, the same phenomenon was subsequently found to exist in other places in nature, even in galaxies separated by light-years of distance. “In principle, it should make no difference whether the correlation between twin particles occurs when they are separated by a few meters or by the entire universe,” says Gisin. Why? What connects two particles of light or two galaxies to such a degree that a change in the first happens simultaneously in the second? What are we being shown about the way the world works that we may have missed in earlier experiments from the past?

  To answer this kind of question, we first have to understand where the Divine Matrix comes from. And to do that, we have to take a step back—way back—to the time that Western scientists believe is the beginning of everything … or at least of the universe as we know it.

  THE ORIGIN OF THE MATRIX

  Mainstream scientists today believe that our universe began between 13 and 20 billion years ago with a massive explosion unlike anything that had ever existed before or has existed since. Although there are conflicting theories about the precise timing and whether there were single or multiple explosions, there appears to be a general agreement that our universe began with a massive release of energy a long time ago. In 1951, astronomer Fred Hoyle coined a term for that unfathomable explosion that is still used today: He named it the “big bang.”

  Researchers have calculated that just fractions of a second before the big bang occurred, our entire universe was much, much smaller than it is today. Computer models suggest that it was so small, in fact, that it was tightly compressed into one tiny ball. With all the “empty” space removed from what we see as the universe today, that ball is believed to have been about the size of a single green pea!

  While it may have been tiny, it certainly wasn’t cool, however. The models suggest that the temperature within that compact space was an unimaginable 18 billion million million million degrees Fahrenheit—many times hotter than the present temperature of the sun. Within a fraction of a second following the big bang, the simulations show that the temperatures may have cooled to a balmy 18 billion degrees or so, and the birth of our new universe was well under way.

  As the big bang’s explosive force ripped into the emptiness of the existing void, it carried with it more than just the heat and light that we’d expect. It also burst forth as a pattern of energy that became the blueprint for all that is now and all that can ever be. It’s this pattern that’s the subject of ancient myth, timeless lore, and mystical wisdom. With names that range from the Buddhist Sutra’s “net” of Indra, to the Hopi tradition’s “web” of Spider Grandmother, the echo of that pattern remains today.

  It is this net or web of energy that continues to expand throughout the cosmos as the quantum essence of all things, including us and our surroundings. This is the energy that connects our lives as the Divine Matrix. It is this essence as well that acts as a many-dimensional mirror, reflecting what we create in our emotions and beliefs back to us as our world. (See Part III.)

  How can we be so sure that everything in the universe is really connected? To answer this question, let’s go back to the big bang and the University of Geneva experiment in the previous section. As different as they appear from one another, there’s a subtle similarity: In each, the connection that’s being explored exists between two things that were once physically joined. In the case of the experiment, splitting a single photon into two identical particles created the twins, and this was done to assure that both were alike in every way. The fact that the photons and the particles from the big bang were once physically part of one another is the key to their connectivity. It appears that once something is joined, it is always connected, whether it remains physically linked or not.

  Key 4: Once something is joined, it is always connected, whether it remains physically linked or not.

  This is key in our discussion for one really important and often-overlooked reason. As huge as our universe looks to us today, and notwithstanding the billions of light-years that it takes for the brilliance of the most distant stars to reach our eyes, at one time all the matter in the universe was squeezed into a very small space. In that unimaginable state of compression, everything was physically joined. As the energy of the big bang caused our universe to expand, the matter’s particles became separated by greater and greater amounts of space.

  The experiments suggest that regardless of how much space separates two things, once joined they are always connected. There’s every reason to believe that the entangled state that links particles that are separated today also applies to the stuff of our universe that was connected before the big bang. Technically, everything that was merged within our pea-sized cosmos 13 to 20 billion years ago is still connected! And the energy that does the connecting is what Planck described as the “matrix” of everything.

  Today, modern science has refined our understanding of Planck’s matrix, describing it as a form of energy that’s been everywhere, always present since time began with the big bang. The existence of this field implies three principles that have a direct effect upon the way we live, all that we do, what we believe, and even how we feel about each day of our lives. Admittedly, these ideas directly contradict many well-established beliefs of both science and spirituality. At the same time, though, it is precisely these principles that open the door to a
n empowering and life-affirming way of seeing our world and living our lives:

  1. The first principle suggests that because everything exists within the Divine Matrix, all things are connected. If this is so, then what we do in one part of our lives must have an effect and influence on other parts.

  2. The second principle proposes that the Divine Matrix is holographic—meaning that any portion of the field contains everything in the field. As consciousness itself is believed to be holographic, this signifies that the prayer we make in our living room, for example, already exists with our loved ones and at the place where it’s intended. In other words, there’s no need to send our prayers anywhere, because they already exist everywhere.

  3. The third principle implies that the past, present, and future are intimately joined. The Matrix appears to be the container that holds time, providing for a continuity between the choices of our present and the experiences of our future.

  Regardless of what we call it or how science and religion define it, it’s clear that there’s something out there—a force, a field, a presence—that is the great “net” that links us with one another, our world, and a greater power.

  If we can truly grasp what the three principles tell us about our relationship to each other, the universe, and ourselves, then the events of our lives take on an entirely new meaning. We become participants rather than victims of forces that we can’t see and don’t understand. To be in such a place is where our empowerment really begins.

  CHAPTER TWO

  SHATTERING THE PARADIGM:

  THE EXPERIMENTS THAT

  CHANGE EVERYTHING

  “Everything must be based

  on a simple idea. Once we have

  finally discovered it, [it] will be

  so compelling, so beautiful, that

  we will say to one another, yes, how

  could it have been any different.”

  — John Wheeler (1911– ), physicist

  “There are two ways to

  be fooled. One is to believe

  what isn’t true; the other is to

  refuse to believe what is true.”

  — Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855),

  philosopher

  The first rays of the morning sun cast long shadows from the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) Mountains that towered behind us to the east. I had agreed to meet my friend Joseph (not his real name) there in the valley simply to walk, talk, and enjoy the morning. As we stood on the rim of the vast expanse of land that connects northern New Mexico with southern Colorado, we could see for miles across the fields that separated us from the great gash in the earth, the Rio Grande Gorge, which forms the banks of the Rio Grande. The high-desert sage was especially fragrant that morning, and as we began our walk, Joseph commented on the family of vegetation that covers the land.

  “This entire field,” he began, “as far as our eyes can see, works together as a single plant.” The heat from his breath mixed with the icy morning air, and brief clouds of steam lingered for a few seconds as he formed each word.

  “There are many bushes in this valley,” he continued, “and every plant is joined to the others through a root system that’s beyond our view. Although they’re hidden from our eyes beneath the ground, the roots still exist—the entire field is one family of sage. And as with any family,” he explained, “the experience of one member is shared to some degree by all others.”

  I contemplated what Joseph was saying. What a beautiful metaphor for the way we’re connected to one another and the world around us. We’ve been led to think that we’re separate from one another, our world, and everything that happens in it. In that belief, we feel isolated, alone, and sometimes powerless to change the things that cause our own pain and the suffering of others. The irony is that we also find ourselves inundated with self-help books and workshops that tell us how connected we are; how powerful our consciousness is; and how humankind is really a single, precious family.

  As I listened to Joseph, I couldn’t help but think of the way in which the great poet Rumi described our condition. “What strange beings we are!” he said. “That sitting in hell at the bottom of the dark, we’re afraid of our own immortality.”1

  Precisely, I thought. Not only are the plants in this field connected, but they possess a power together that’s greater than any of them has alone. Any single shrub in the valley, for example, influences only the small area of earth that surrounds it. Put hundreds of thousands of them together, though, and you have a power to reckon with! Together, they change features such as the pH of the soil in a way that assures their survival. And in doing so, the by-product of their existence—their abundant oxygen—is the very essence of ours. As a unified family, these plants can change their world.

  We may actually have more in common with the sage in that New Mexico valley than you’d think. Just as they have the power individually and collectively to change their world, so do we.

  A growing body of research suggests that we’re more than cosmic latecomers simply passing through a universe that was completed long ago. Experimental evidence is leading to a conclusion that we’re actually creating the universe as we go and adding to what already exists! In other words, we appear to be the very energy that’s forming the cosmos, as well as the beings who experience what we’re creating. That’s because we are consciousness, and consciousness appears to be the same “stuff” from which the universe is made.

  This is the very essence of quantum theory that troubled Einstein so much. Until the end of his life, he held to a belief that the universe exists independently of us. Responding to analogies about our effect on the world and the experiments showing that matter changes when we observe it, he simply stated, “I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it.”2

  While our precise role in creation is still not fully understood, experiments in the quantum realm clearly show that consciousness has a direct effect on the most elementary particles of creation. And we are the source of the consciousness. Perhaps John Wheeler, professor emeritus at Princeton and a colleague of Einstein, may have best summarized our newly understood role.

  Wheeler’s studies have led him to believe that we might live in a world that’s actually created by consciousness itself—a process that he calls a participatory universe. “According to it [the participatory principle],” says Wheeler, “we could not even imagine a universe that did not somewhere and for some stretch of time contain observers because the very building materials of the universe are these acts of observer-participancy.”3 He offers the central point of quantum theory, stating, “No elementary phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is an observed (or registered) phenomenon.”4

  SPACE IS THE MATRIX

  If the “building materials of the universe” are made from observation and participation—our observation and our participation—what’s the stuff that we’re creating? To make anything, there must first be something there for us to create with, some malleable essence that’s the equivalent of Play-Doh for the universe. What are the universe, the planet, and our bodies made of? How does it all fit together? Do we really have control of anything?

  To answer these kinds of questions, we must move beyond the boundaries of our traditional sources of knowledge—science, religion, and spirituality—and marry them into a greater wisdom. This is where the Divine Matrix comes in. It’s not that it plays the small role of a by-product in the universe or is simply a part of creation; the Matrix is creation. It’s both the material that comprises everything as well as the container for all that’s created.

  When I think of the Matrix in this way, I’m reminded of how University of California at Santa Cruz cosmologist Joel Primack described the instant that creation began. Rather than the big bang being an explosion that happened in one place, in the manner we typically expect explosions to happen, he says, “The big bang did not occur somewhere in space; it occupied the whole of space.”5 The big bang was space itself bursting
into a new kind of energy, as that energy! Just as the origin of the universe was space itself manifesting energetically, the Matrix is reality itself—all possibilities, ever moving, as the enduring essence that connects all things.

  THE FORCE BEFORE THE

  BEGINNING

  The ancient collection of writings from India called the Vedas are among the world’s oldest scriptures and are believed by some scholars to date as far back as 7,000 years. In what’s perhaps the best-known text, the Rig Veda, there’s a description of a force that underlies creation from which all things are formed—the force that was there before the “beginning.” This power, named Brahman, is identified as the “unborn … in whom all existing things abide.”6 Further in the text it becomes clear that all things exist because “the One manifests as the many, the formless putting on forms.”7

  In different language, we could think of the Divine Matrix in precisely the same way—as the force before other forces. It’s the container that holds the universe as well as the blueprint for everything that happens in the physical world. Because it’s the substance of the universe, it stands to reason that is has existed since the beginning of creation. If this is the case, then the logical question is: “Why haven’t scientists found evidence of the Matrix before now?”

  This very good question is one that I ask scientists and researchers investigating this field every opportunity I get. Each time I do so, the response is so similar that I can almost predict what’s about to happen. First, there’s the look of disbelief that I could in any way imply that science has somehow missed a discovery as important as the field of energy that connects everything in creation. Next, the discussion turns to equipment and technology. “We simply haven’t had the technology to detect such a subtle field” is the way the answer usually goes.