Gary Zukav - Collected Quotes

"According to quantum field theory, fields alone are real. They are the substance of the universe and not 'matter'. Matter is simply the momentary manifestation of interacting fields which, intangible and insubstantial as they are, are the only real things in the universe." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"Every subatomic interaction consists of the annihilation of the original particles and the creation of new subatomic particles. The subatomic world is a continual dance of creation and annihilation, of mass changing into energy and energy changing into mass. Transient forms sparkle in and out of existence, creating a never-ending, forever newly created reality." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"It is possible that scientists, poets, painters and writers are all members of the same family of people whose gift it is by nature to take those things which we call common-place and to 're-present' them to us - the world - in such ways that our self-imposed limitations are expanded." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"Quantum mechanics also uses statistics, but there is a very big difference between quantum mechanics and Newtonian physics. In quantum mechanics, there is no way to predict individual events This is the startling lesson that experiments in the subatomic realm have taught us. [...] Quantum physics abandons the laws which govern individual events and states directly the statistical laws which govern collections of events. Quantum mechanics can tell us how a group of particles will behave, but the only thing that it can say about an individual particle is how it probably will behave. Probability is one of the major characteristics of quantum mechanics." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"The 'complete description' that quantum theory claims the wave function to be is a description of physical reality (as in physics). No matter what we are feeling, or thinking about, or looking at, the wave function describes as completely as possible where and when we are doing it.
Since the wave function is thought to be a complete description of physical reality and since that which the wave function describes is idea-like as well as matter-like, then physical reality must be both idea-like and matter-like. In other words, the world cannot be as it appears. Incredible as it sounds, this is the conclusion of the orthodox view of quantum mechanics." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"The conceptual framework of quantum mechanics, supported by massive volumes of experimental data, forces contemporary physicists to express themselves in a manner that sounds, even to the uninitiated, like the language of mystics." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"The development of physics in the twentieth century already has transformed the consciousness of those involved with it. The study (of modern physics) produces insights into the nature of reality very similar to those produced by the study of eastern philosophy." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"The new physics tells us that an observer cannot observe without altering what he sees. Observer and observed are interrelated in a real and fundamental sense. The exact nature of this interrelation is not clear, but there is a growing body of evidence that the distinction between the 'in here' and the 'out there' is illusion." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"There is another fundamental difference between the old physics and the new physics. The old phvsics assumes that there is an external world which exists apart from us. It further assumes that we can observe measure and speculate about the external world without changing it. According to the old physics the external world is indifferent to us and to our needs. [...] The new physics, quantum mechanics, tells us clearly that it is not possible to observe reality without changing it. If we observe a certain particle collision experiment, not only do we have no way of proving that the result would have been the same if we had not been watching it, all that we know indicates that it would not have been the same, because the result that we got was affected by the fact that we were looking for it." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"Unfortunately, when most people think of 'physics', they think of chalkboards covered with undecipherable symbols of an unknown mathematics. The fact is that physics is not mathematics. Physics, in essence, is simple wonder at the way things are and a divine (some call it compulsive) interest in how that is so. Mathematics is the tool of physics. Stripped of mathematics, physics becomes pure enchantment." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"What we think of as physical reality is an intermingling of appropriate realities, a fluid massive consciousness in which each of us exists independently of each other and yet coexists interdependently with each other." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)