The Quantum Loom

Cosmological Ruminations: a prequel

Photo: Katsina doll, Zuni. 1930’s. Detroit Institute of Art.

An example of a dancer whose ritual performances are meant to illustrate organically understood cosmological laws. This image was chosen because it dates to the period when Gurdjieff was actively working to re-awaken modern cultures to the essential importance of such understandings.

This essay is a prequel, so to speak, of a series titled Cosmological Ruminations, on the subject of quantum entanglement and shared identity. Said series begins to publish here on January 8.

The series is a long one, and this essay would best be read in sequence, that is, at the end of the set, the latest of which (there may be more) will publish Feb 16, 2025. However, we attended the movements film last night and I’d like to set these thoughts out in front of those subscribers who were there now, while the impressions are still fresh in them.

This “skipping ahead” is a bit difficult but one hopes readers will get the gist of what’s said here anyway.

“Imagine that a net is formed between you, like a network. If a current passes through a point of the network, it will pass everywhere. If there’s a sensation of heat or cold at one point, all the points will feel hot or cold. Imagine that what’s happening in one place is happening everywhere.”

—Gurdjieff’s Paris meetings 1944: Meeting of May 25. A description of exactly how quantum entanglement operates.

Gurdjieff spoke more than a few times regarding the idea that we are all one. His work is permeated by the concept of shared identity, “psychic” connections (which can easily be construed as a de facto indicator of shared identity) and a “network” that forms between those who work.

The Gurdjieff movements are also illustrative of the idea of interpenetrating physical networks and shared identity. Anyone who watches them will, should they have any education in such matters, easily take away an impression of atoms and molecules forming structures and exchanging substances. The manner in which DNA and RNA fold and unfold, come into intimate contact, and exchange molecular information in his complex, carefully orchestrated dances is present in them by way of visual allegory; and in watching, one begins to sense it’s more than just allegory. They may, in fact, be the closest thing on our scale to a direct, visceral understanding of how the microcosmic world beneath us actually works: how DNA and its genetic elements form life.