Shining a light (photon) on the Nature of Reality.

Physics (from Ancient Greek: "knowledge of nature") is the natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through space/time. Within physics, a photon is an elementary (subatomic) particle. Photons are currently best explained by quantum mechanics... a fundamental branch of physics which deals with physical phenomena at a nanoscopic level. Like all elementary particles, photons exhibit wave/particle duality… exhibiting properties of both waves and of particles. For example, a single photon may be refracted by a lens or exhibit wave interference with itself, but also act as a particle giving a definite result when its position is measured.

When scientists observe photons, they act like particles… however, when scientists are not looking, these very same photons behave like waves. Slippery little devils! The implication is that on a sub-atomic level, our observance of a phenomenon exerts a fundamental effect on said phenomenon. This implication is so profound as to call into question the very nature of reality.

The study of photons suggest that they only behave (read: exist) as particles, when being watched. When our eyes are not on them… they reveal their essential wave-like nature. Does this imply that we participate in the creation of reality through our observation of it… or that reality exists only when we are observing it?

Modern physicists are beginning to sound and behave more like ancient Zen tricksters, with their paradoxical riddles, than scientists. The following video speaks to the perplexing nature of reality, as it exists on a subatomic level…

It was Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (Aka: The Duchess) who wrote: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It has since been suggested that “Reality is in the Eye of the Beholder." At the end of the day, we retreat to the age-old tekgnostic tenet that… 

Reality is what you can get away with.