Throughout history humans have wondered if the world would end.
Myths from around the globe contain the theme of world destruction, but the devastation is often seen as a periodic or cyclical cleansing. Errant humans, and the chaos they’ve created, are wiped off the globe as a precursor to earth’s renewal and a fresh start for humanity. In Norse mythology humanity will be destroyed by war and chaos, symbolized by wolves and a serpent, only to rise again from the sea.
Many religions also point to the end of the world as God’s judgment against humanity. The branch of religion that specifically studies this theocratic annihilation is called eschatology, meaning ‘study of the last.’ In religious prophecies, world destruction usually becomes cosmic in nature and features the involvement of gods, devils, angels and demons. The New Testament begins with the desire for a messiah that will free the Jews from their Roman oppressors, and ends with apocalyptic cosmic annihilation of everything and everyone that opposes the will of God. But again, destruction is usually followed by restoration. For example, Armageddon, God’s final war described in the Bible book of Revelations, is followed by the establishment of a ‘new heavens and a new earth.’
You may also be familiar with predictions concerning a literal end to the earth that have surfaced throughout history. Usually these predictions are so arcane and general in nature, it’s very difficult to say whether or not they apply to a specific time period, and of course it’s obvious that none of them have come true yet. Previously skeptics have laughed off these predictions, but recently the question ‘Will the world end?’ has taken on new meaning.
With the development of nuclear weapons and the upsurge in significant global ecological, economic, population, poverty, hunger 
and political problems, we may well wonder if the literal earth itself can survive. Dire statistics offered by scientists tell us we may be nearing the tipping point for many issues. Just before a tipping point is reached, it looks like business as usual, but suddenly the situation is like a dam that’s burst and restoration becomes impossible. Some may survive, but life as we know it will be over. Isolated populations are rare today, and what effects one nation often quickly sweeps across the globe like tipping dominoes.
Quantum physics and spiritual masters offer a unique slant on this serious issue. But to understand whether or not the world will end, we have to understand exactly what the world is. That may seem like an odd statement, but quantum physics perceives our universe in an entirely new way. Instead of a machine-like universe made of separate parts, research demonstrates that the universe is actually a sea of quantum light energy. Together the visible and invisible portions of the universe are one interconnected, indivisible whole. Like the cells in a body, particles of light energy have no meaning apart from the whole. And quantum energy is also connected by consciousness that permeates everything in existence. Spiritual masters have always recognized this combination of consciousness and energy as the Divine, and many physicists now agree.
It has always been an accepted fact that our world is real, but quantum research tells us otherwise. Consciousness and energy at the quantum level interact to bring matter into existence. Although matter appears solid to us, it is actually an interference pattern that our brain and senses decode and translate into something that appears to be solid. Some researchers contend that the illusion of mass results from the universe’s foundation of quantum light.
What does this information boil down to? The material world is an illusion, a fantastic 3D virtual reality that’s projected from consciousness at the quantum level. It means that you are pure quantum consciousness, not the body your consciousness is projecting. From a human perspective, this can be considered good news and bad. How so? The sum total of energy and ‘matter’ that exists in the universe never fluctuates, but energy can appear as matter and return to energy. This means the interference patterns we perceive as the material universe can ‘deconstruct’ and return to energy.
The good news, which spiritual masters have been trying to share throughout history, is that the real you, your quantum consciousness, can never die. We realize this leaves several questions unanswered. Why are we projecting virtual reality? Why aren’t we aware of our true nature? Would Ultimate Reality destroy our world? And what will happen to us personally if the earth, or even the universe, does transform back to energy?
Throughout human history, spiritual sages have offered answers to these questions. The ancient Upanishads tells us that we gave up the oneness of All That Is for duality and the chance to experience separation and specialness. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad points out:
On this ever-revolving wheel of being
The individual self goes round and round
Through life after life, believing itself
To be a separate creature, until
It sees its identity with the Lord of Love
And attains immortality in the indivisible whole.
In oneness we were unique and had the gifts of creativity and free will, but it was exercised within equality. But the desire for separation and specialness also contained a challenge to the Divine that we could create a system of separation that would rival oneness.
In fact, it’s impossible for the Divine to be anything other than whole, but our experiment in separation could easily be carried out in a dream. In fact, the Shvetashvatara Upanishad goes one to recommend that we “Wake up from this dream of separateness” Since we’re all connected by consciousness, we’ve projected a shared dream that has now turned into a nightmare. The Divine has no need to interfere or destroy our world; we’re doing a fine job on our own. But we do have choices.
We can continue to try to make our challenge succeed, but considering our track record, that idea is not too promising. In fact, it would require a level of cooperation that’s unprecedented in our world, a virtually impossibility in separation. To fully experience the dream of separation and specialness, our true identity was laid aside. Unfortunately, we’ve dreamed so long, we’ve forgotten we can wake up at any time and return to oneness. We can undertake this spiritual awakening now, peacefully, or we can wait to be jolted awake when our experiment fails beyond recovery. Either way, we’ll find ourselves exactly where we belong, loved and accepted as we always have been. As the ancient writers of the Chandogya Upanishad recognized:
Where one realizes the indivisible unity of life, sees nothing else, hears nothing else, knows nothing else, that is the infinite. Where one sees separateness, hears separateness, Knows separateness, that is the finite. The Infinite is beyond death, but the finite cannot escape death.
To Learn More about the synergy of science and spirituality, read The Beginning of Fearlessness: Quantum Prodigal Son
Copyright © Lee and Steven Hager