Quantum Tunneling, Miracles, and the Laws We Live By

https://youtu.be/-IfmgyXs7z8?si=r00FScDVH_efGFUP

I recommend watching this YouTube video to familiarize yourself with the concept of Quantum Tunneling.

Chapter 1: What we can all agree on is that Quantum Mechanics is weird.

Quantum mechanics has a habit of humbling even the most confident minds. Among its most mind-bending phenomena is quantum tunneling—a process where particles break through barriers they seemingly shouldn’t be able to cross. As presented in the PBS Space Time video “Is Quantum Tunneling Faster than Light?”, this phenomenon doesn’t just stretch our understanding of physics; it also cracks open the door to philosophical, spiritual, and even mystical interpretations of reality. So let’s walk through that door—not to abandon science, but to deepen the conversation.

Chapter 2: The Quantum Tunneler: The Particle That Shouldn’t Pass Through

Imagine you’re rolling a ball up a hill. If the ball doesn’t have enough energy to reach the top, it rolls back down. Classical physics would say that’s the end of the story. But in the quantum world, something stranger happens. If you fire a particle at a barrier, there’s a non-zero chance it will appear on the other side of that barrier, even if it lacks the energy to climb over it. This is quantum tunneling. PBS Space Time goes further: What does it mean to say the particle “tunneled”? Was it still a particle while doing so? How long did it take? Did it somehow break the cosmic speed limit—the speed of light? Now here’s where it gets weird: Scientists debate whether a tunneling particle takes any time at all to move through the barrier. In some interpretations, it appears to traverse the gap instantaneously. If true, this raises profound questions about what time and space actually are. Is the particle obeying different rules? Or is our rulebook just incomplete?

Chapter 3: Laws of the World, and Laws Beyond

Enter A Course in Miracles, which offers a radical idea: There are two sets of laws. One is the law of space and time—what you might call the “ego’s laws.” This is the law of mass, of energy, of cause and effect operating in one direction, of limits and decay. These are the laws most college physics students (and scientists) assume to be the foundation of reality. But ACIM proposes a second set of laws: the laws of God. These are laws of timelessness, of wholeness, of love. They don’t function within the constraints of space and time but transcend them. Miracles, in this framework, are not violations of natural law—they are expressions of a higher law operating in a different dimension of understanding. They appear to violate physical law only because we are misinterpreting what physical law actually is. This is where quantum tunneling becomes more than just a technical curiosity. It becomes a metaphor—and possibly even a demonstration—of how particles (or consciousness itself) can move in ways that seem impossible from within our limited framework.

Chapter 4: Miracles and Measurement: Collapsing Illusions

If we take Donald Hoffman’s Interface Theory of Consciousness seriously, then everything we perceive is not “reality” but a user interface designed by evolution. In that case, particles are not little billiard balls following precise paths through time and space. Instead, they’re icons—symbols of something deeper, unseen, and profoundly more flexible. Now re-watch the PBS video with that lens. The particle doesn’t “really” move from one side of the barrier to the other—it doesn’t need to, because space and time themselves may be part of the interface, not the operating system. This aligns with ACIM’s teaching that “what the Holy Spirit enables you to do is clearly beyond” the laws of this world. When a miracle occurs—when something “impossible” happens—it’s not a breakdown in the system. It’s a glimpse of the deeper system peeking through the veil.

Chapter 5: As Above, So Below: The Hermetic Bridge

Hermetic philosophy gives us another lens to view this through. The principle of Correspondence—“As above, so below”—invites us to see the macrocosm reflected in the microcosm. If particles can pass through barriers in mysterious ways, might the same be true for human minds, hearts, or even souls? The principle of Vibration tells us that everything is in motion, and what seems “solid” is only stable at a certain frequency. If tunneling occurs at an energetic level invisible to our instruments but real nonetheless, perhaps miracles occur through vibrational shifts in consciousness that move us from fear to love—another kind of “tunneling” through what seemed impenetrable. And the principle of Mentalism—that all is mind—harmonizes with Hoffman’s view and ACIM’s metaphysics. It proposes that reality is fundamentally mental or spiritual in nature, not material. So quantum tunneling, again, becomes a metaphor for the mind’s capacity to leap beyond its perceived limits.

Chapter 6: Is It Faster Than Light, or Beyond Time Entirely?

PBS Space Time asks: Is tunneling faster than light? The real answer might be: it doesn’t even make sense to ask that question if the particle isn’t moving through space in the way we imagine. It may be collapsing wave functions—changing probability clouds in a moment that doesn’t happen within time but beside it, or above it. From the ACIM point of view, the same is true of miracles. They don’t “take time.” They collapse it. They move us closer to truth by skipping the in-between steps we thought were necessary. They are the reorganization of perception according to a higher law—a law that doesn’t recognize delay, effort, or entropy.

Chapter 7: You Are the Tunneling Particle

Here’s the invitation, then. What if you are like that quantum particle? What if the walls you think you can’t pass—emotional, intellectual, spiritual, even physical—aren’t real barriers at all? What if this whole problem is as told by the myth of Sisyphus? And what if the myth of Sisyphus describes a man who is burdened by his limiting belief system about what is possible? What if you’re simply interpreting the world through a lens that assumes separation, delay, difficulty, and limitation because you’ve been trained to trust and accept the “ego’s laws”?

ACIM says, “You are not a body. You are free.” [CE: W- 199-220] Hermeticism says, “All is mind.” Quantum mechanics says, “The particle may already be on the other side.” What would it mean to live as if that were true? This essay isn’t about rejecting physics—it’s about widening the frame. Quantum tunneling, when seen from the perspective of Interface Theory, Hermeticism, and A Course in Miracles, becomes a living parable: a particle moving through a wall becomes a symbol of mind transcending fear, of love transcending time, of Spirit expressing through the cracks in our simulation. You don’t have to accept ACIM or Hermeticism to feel the pull of this idea. You just have to wonder: what if we’ve misunderstood what limits us? What if the deepest laws of the universe are not about restriction, but about liberation? What if the “miraculous” is not rare, but natural—if only we knew what nature truly was?

Chapter 8: Perception and Belief: Are We All Guilty or Are We All Innocent?

Let’s go deeper into the question that quietly underlies every conversation about quantum mechanics, miracles, and perception: Are we all guilty, or are we all innocent? This binary question isn’t just philosophical. It’s perceptual. What you believe about this will shape how you see the world. It will determine the kinds of “laws” you think apply to you. And just like quantum particles appear to behave differently when observed, your own life—your possibilities, limitations, and even your suffering—will mirror your belief. Let’s look first through the lens of universal guilt. Then we’ll switch and look through the lens of universal innocence. Same world. Very different interface. Let’s carry on now as if this were a choose your own adventure book. You have to accept that either guilt is a universal, foundational truth or that innocence is.

Chapter 9: The World as a Reflection of Guilt

When you start with the belief that we are all guilty, your interface to the world is tuned for punishment. Guilt, especially unconscious guilt, demands correction. And if you don’t believe that forgiveness is possible, that correction must come as punishment—either from others, from a god-like authority, or from life itself. This is not just a psychological condition—it becomes a perceptual one. It sets the parameters of the world you see. ACIM states it plainly: “Projection makes perception.” [CE: T-13.V.3.5]If guilt is projected outward, the world becomes the screen upon which fear, separation, and punishment are painted. It’s not metaphorical. It’s perceptual physics.

The mind, like a quantum field, collapses possibilities into form based on the belief it holds. Now, revisit quantum tunneling under this framework. A particle that “cheats” the rules by slipping through a barrier can be deeply disturbing if you live in a reality that punishes transgressions. The idea that a particle could break the law of classical physics—and not suffer for it—triggers the ego’s enforcement system. In a guilt-based framework, such quantum behavior is often dismissed or domesticated. We look for ways to preserve the causality chain, to limit the scope of the miracle. “It must be probabilistic noise,” we say. Or “We’ll find the deterministic rule eventually.” Why? Because the ego’s world is a courtroom, and guilt must be followed by consequence. Hermeticism’s principle of Cause and Effect also gets interpreted in this way: “You did something wrong, and now you’ll pay.” Even karma, as popularly understood, becomes a cosmic punishment mechanism in the hands of a guilty interpreter.

In this mindset, forgiveness seems naïve. Miracles seem impossible or unfair. The very idea of a particle tunneling “for free” becomes offensive to the mind that believes in just deserts. Donald Hoffman’s Interface Theory suggests that we don’t see reality—we see a useful interface. But in a guilt-based paradigm, the interface becomes a prison. The icons we see are there to keep us in line, not liberate us. Space-time becomes a maze, and we are the rats being shocked for wandering too far. And since our perceptions shape what we believe is “possible,” we never even try to do what might be “miraculous.” We don’t believe we deserve it. Our possibilities shrink. Our hearts constrict. Our minds get stuck on the side of the barrier, never imagining they could tunnel through.

There’s a kind of “emotional wavefunction” in play here. Every moment has multiple emotional outcomes. Love or fear. Trust or attack. A mind that believes in guilt is like a quantum observer who always chooses the collapsed state of punishment, lack, and defense. The other possibilities—peace, joy, innocence—are never selected. The system remains in a loop of guilt and reaction. This isn’t to say these perceptions are “wrong.” They’re accurate reflections of the chosen framework. Like a particle in a probability cloud, every moment holds multiple outcomes. But your belief will collapse the wave in one direction or the other.

Chapter 10: The World as a Reflection of Innocence

Now imagine a radical shift: you start with the belief that we are all innocent. Innocence, in this context, isn’t naïveté. It’s a recognition that, at the level of the mind—not the body—we are still as God created us: whole, loved, eternal. From the ACIM perspective, guilt is an illusion, maintained by projection. Forgiveness is the correction—not of sin, but of the illusion that anything truly wrong could occur in the eternal. When this becomes your perceptual foundation, the interface transforms. The icons rearrange. The same quantum tunneling experiment suddenly becomes a demonstration, not a violation. The particle’s freedom becomes your own. From this vantage, the tunneling particle is like a soul returning to its Source. The barrier represents guilt, fear, and separation. And yet the wavefunction of the particle—its deeper nature—never accepted the barrier as real. It passed through, not by force, but by nature.

That’s how miracles work in ACIM. They’re not magic. They’re natural consequences of choosing to align with the Holy Spirit’s perception—a perception grounded in innocence and unity. The miracle doesn’t force the laws of physics to break. It reveals that the “laws” we thought were unbreakable were just part of the interface. The deeper law—the law of Love—was always operating underneath.

The Hermetic principle of Vibration tells us that everything is in motion, and higher vibrational states correspond to higher truths. Guilt is a low-frequency distortion. Innocence is a high-frequency alignment. From the high vibrational frequency of innocence, everything looks different. The principle of Correspondence (“As above, so below”) no longer links us to pain, but to beauty. We see love in the mirror of the world. We become the tunneling wave that moves freely—not because we have enough force, but because we’ve stopped believing in the wall.

The principle of Polarity also flips. Instead of trying to escape evil, we begin to see how all opposites are reconciled in a higher unity. Pain and healing are not enemies—they’re gradients on the way back to Love. In Hoffman’s model, the interface becomes a teaching tool. Every icon becomes a pointer—not to fear or control, but to freedom. The “barriers” in the interface are not limitations. They are learning devices, opportunities to recognize the deeper truth: nothing real can be threatened. You are not in a prison. You are in a classroom. Now when a moment arises—filled with possible emotional outcomes—you collapse the wave in a new direction. You choose peace over defense. Joy over justification. You forgive instead of attack. This shift changes everything. The world you see starts to reflect that choice. Not always instantly, not always obviously. But you begin to “tunnel” through old patterns. You bypass the barrier. You experience freedom where fear used to live. In the world of innocence, even physics becomes a parable. You don’t need to argue that miracles are compatible with quantum mechanics. You see that quantum mechanics is a kind of miracle—a clue, an echo, a reminder that reality is more flexible, more loving, and more fluid than we imagined.

Chapter 11: Choosing Which Laws You Live Under

To the mind trained by science, the idea that “perception follows belief” might seem soft. But the quantum world already hints at this. Observation influences outcome. Superposition collapses under measurement. Tunneling defies linear expectation. So why not consider: what if your belief in guilt makes the world appear as a prison? And what if your belief in innocence makes it appear as a playground? You don’t have to abandon science to explore this. You just have to let science become a portal, not a prison. The tunneling particle is already showing you how.

ACIM says, “Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong.” [CE: T-4.VI.17.5] What has “gone wrong” is usually our belief. Not in math, but in ourselves. Not in physics, but in love. If the world looks cold, violent, chaotic—it might not be because that’s the nature of reality. It might be because we’ve chosen to live by a belief system grounded in guilt, punishment, and fear. But the same world, viewed through the lens of innocence, becomes different. In the quantum field of the heart, all possibilities are still alive. We are not collapsed particles. We are waves of light, tunneling through illusions, heading home.

The quantum wave—the wavefunction that seems to hover in possibility before anything is “real”—has always been a rich metaphor. In quantum physics, it represents the probabilities of outcomes before a particle “collapses” into measurable form. In our lives, it’s the space before decision, before judgment, before reaction. What if that wave is not neutral? What if, as A Course in Miracles teaches, the wave is inherently benevolent? What if every unfolding possibility that seems to confront us—even the ones we fear—is in fact an offering of healing?

ACIM says: “All things are lessons God would have me learn.” [CE: W-193] This is not a lesson in guilt or punishment. It is a lesson in healing, which implies that even when the wave collapses into something uncomfortable or challenging, it was never sent to attack. It was only ever a call to return to love. Even more strikingly, ACIM affirms: “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.” [CE: W-170] This implies a universe without vengeance—a universe without cruelty hiding behind natural law. The wave that seems to carry risk or sorrow is, in truth, innocent of all ill intent. The perception of danger is projected from guilt. The condemnation you perceive in the gaze of a passerby dissolves into neutrality.

The truth, waiting quietly underneath, is always safe. What quantum mechanics shows us with equations, ACIM shows us with healing language: possibility is not a threat. The apparent chaos of quantum probability is not chaos at all—it is a gentle invitation to choose again. “God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.” [CE: W-101] That includes every moment, every wave, every form that the world takes. The innocence of the wave lies in its origin. It is not born of judgment, but of love. Every tunneling particle is a parable of grace: an unseen journey across boundaries we imagined were real. ACIM emphasizes: “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.” [CE: I-2.2-4] That is the final instruction. What is real—love, spirit, unity—cannot be harmed. And what can be harmed was never truly real. The “laws” we thought governed us—entropy, limitation, decay—are not the laws of our being. They are rules of the interface. The miracle, ACIM teaches, does not break the laws of God—it reveals them: “Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong.” [CE: T-1.V.1] The wave does not come to trap you. It comes to offer you a miracle. Whether it collapses as a “good” day or a “bad” day, a healing or a wound, a connection or a loss—it is always offering only one thing: the chance to remember who you really are. And who are you? “You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator.” [CE: T-1.23.2.1-3] That means you are not a fixed particle. You are a living wave. Not defined by the laws of guilt, but moving gently in the rhythm of grace.

Chapter 12: Final Invitation: To Tunnel Home

So, are we all guilty or are we all innocent? If you believe in guilt, you will see a world of barriers. Even quantum particles will seem to move only under suspicion. But if you believe in innocence—not naïve, blind innocence, but deep, spiritual innocence—you will begin to see how even the most mysterious laws of physics are doorways. “Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh.” [CE: T-27.X.6.1] That idea was guilt. That laugh—still waiting in the wings—is the beginning of healing. The tunneling wave is still moving. Through every moment. Through every boundary. Through every illusion of separation. It is not here to punish you. It is not here to test you. It is only here to help you tunnel home. “You are still as God created you.” [CE: W-199-220] You are not the barrier. You are the wave. And you are free.

If you’ve made it this far, I can imagine you might be asking, Why is this guy going on about all this guilt and innocence stuff right now? Can’t he see we have bigger fish to fry? What with the order of the world seemingly collapsing around us? Yes. I see it. Climate breakdown, political polarization, economic precarity, institutional mistrust—it’s all in plain view. It feels like the rules are breaking down. The old systems are tunneling into something new—or just dissolving altogether. But here’s the thing: If the foundations we built our world on were false—if they were rooted in guilt, fear, and separation—then maybe their collapse isn’t the end of the world. Maybe it’s the end of a world. And maybe, just maybe, that’s exactly what we need.

ACIM doesn’t ask us to ignore the world. It asks us to reinterpret it. It teaches that we don’t have a behavior problem—we have a perception problem. And behind every problem we think we face is the same root: the belief that we are guilty and separate from one another, from God, and from our true nature. So while it might seem off-topic to talk about guilt and innocence in a world on fire, I’d argue it’s the most relevant topic we could possibly engage. Because what you believe about guilt and innocence will determine how you respond to collapse. If you believe we’re all guilty, you’ll double down on blame. You’ll pick sides, call for vengeance, build more walls—metaphorically or otherwise. You’ll demand sacrifice as the price for peace. You’ll see enemies where there are cries for healing.

But if you begin to entertain the possibility that we are all innocent—not perfect, but fundamentally unbroken—then a different kind of world starts to open up. You’ll forgive faster. You’ll listen longer. You’ll build bridges. You’ll see the spark of something holy in places you used to see only dysfunction. You’ll interpret attack as a call for Love. You’ll become a wave of sanity in a system that seems to be tearing itself apart. And here’s the kicker: That shift, subtle as it is, affects everything. According to ACIM, your mind is not a tiny private chamber. It’s part of a vast quantum field of shared awareness. When you choose innocence, you’re collapsing the wave of the world in a new direction. A miracle isn’t just a personal reset—it’s a systemic correction. So yes, the world looks rough. But if quantum mechanics has taught us anything, it’s this: What looks like randomness on the surface often hides astonishing coherence underneath. What we need most right now isn’t more cleverness or control. It’s clarity. The clarity that comes from remembering: the laws of guilt are not inevitable. The world can be perceived another way. The wave is still moving. And it’s offering us a way through.

The lesson to Sisyphus is pretty clear within this interpretation. Stop struggling with the past, and instead recognize that what God created cannot suffer, cannot be bound, and cannot be trapped. On one condition. Accept yourself as innocent.