charlatans internet is awash with self-proclaimed experts who have gathered armies of uninformed citizens, ready by the hundreds of thousands to sign petitions to force their antiscientific demands on the food and agriculture industries. Pseudoscience has been rapidly growing in the past few decades. Dietary supplements and homeopathic preparations advertised by various mediaconstitute a multibillion-dollar industry. And theis awash with self-proclaimed experts who have gathered armies of uninformed citizens, ready by the hundreds of thousands to sign petitions to force their antiscientific demands on the food and agriculture industries.

Explore, a journal devoted to the pseudoscience of alternative and integrative medicine. In 2014 it published “Manifesto for a post-materialist science,” which elevates parapsychology and near-death experience to the rank of quantum theory (QT). 1 et al. , Explore 10, 272 (2014); 37(3), 32 (2013). 1. M. Beauregard, Explore, 272 (2014); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2014.06.008 E. Mielczarek, B. Engler, Skeptical Inquirer(3), 32 (2013). Huffington Post glorified the authors of that manifesto as mavericks on a par with Nicholaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Albert Einstein. 2 2. D. Pruett, “Toward a post-materialistic science,” The Blog, Religion, Huffington Post (1 October 2014); S. Hassani, Skeptical Inquirer 39(5), 38 (2015). Major universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, house centers of integrative health, which offer courses in acupuncture, Reiki, qigong, and Vedic medicine and are funded by the National Institutes of Health. Elsevier, a reputable scientific publisher, now offers, a journal devoted to the pseudoscience of alternative and integrative medicine. In 2014 it published “Manifesto for a post-materialist science,” which elevates parapsychology and near-death experience to the rank of quantum theory (QT).And the influentialglorified the authors of that manifesto as mavericks on a par with Nicholaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Albert Einstein.

Among the factors contributing to the rapid growth of pseudoscience are various misrepresentations of modern physics and especially of QT. Some prominent physicists of the past century have presented philosophical outlooks that, as mystical and antiscientific as they may be, have become wrongfully associated with modern physics. And the public’s scant knowledge about the underlying principles of science, combined with the compelling power of science exhibited in smartphones, GPS, and confirmation of the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, turns those philosophical misrepresentations into a forceful engine for promoting such nonsense as quantum healing, quantum touch therapy, and other “quantum” commodities sold in the crowded information marketplace.

I offer two important examples of misrepresentations of modern physics: the double-slit experiment and E = mc2.

Conscious photons? Section: Choose Top of page Conscious photons? << Spirit = mc2 Implications for science ... REFERENCES CITING ARTICLES The entire nonrelativistic QT is based on two fundamental assumptions about ψ, the solution of the Schrödinger equation. The first is that the square of the absolute value of ψ is the probability of the state of a system. The second assumption is the superposition principle: If there are several paths available to the system, the total ψ is the appropriately weighted sum of the ψs for each path. Physics Today, The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Shambhala, 2010) or Gary Zukav’s The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics (William Morrow, 1979)—and you are likely to find a sympathetic quote by Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, or J. Robert Oppenheimer. Those two assumptions have been the source of much confusion and abuse since the inception of QT. Unfortunately, the fire of abuse was ignited by some of the very people who created the theory. (See the article by Mara Beller, September 1998, page 29 .) That early origin encouraged future generations of abusers to fan the fire in the 1960s and 1970s. Turn to any page of a book purporting to establish a parallel between Eastern mysticism and modern physics—for example, Fritjof Capra’s(Shambhala, 2010) or Gary Zukav’s(William Morrow, 1979)—and you are likely to find a sympathetic quote by Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, or J. Robert Oppenheimer. 3 3. S. Hassani, From Atoms to Galaxies: A Conceptual Physics Approach to Scientific Awareness, CRC Press/Taylor & Francis , 2010), p. 328. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Zukav imagines doing the experiment twice, first with one of the slits closed, and second with both slits open. He wonders, One source of mystical delight is the familiar double-slit experiment in optics.In, Zukav imagines doing the experiment twice, first with one of the slits closed, and second with both slits open. He wonders, How did the photon in the first experiment know that the second slit was not open? … When we fired our photon and it went through the first slit, how did it “know” that it could go to an area that must be dark if the other slit were open? … There is no definitive answer to this question. Some physicists … speculate that photons may be conscious! (page 62) Zukav’s repeated use of the word “know” already hints at an intelligent photon! Despite Zukav’s claim, there is a definitive answer to his question. The difference between the two scenarios arises not because the photon has some mystical knowledge but because ψ is a superposition of all possible paths—one path if only one slit is open and two paths if both are open. Squaring the absolute value of the ψ for one path leads to a probability distribution that is different from that of two paths; the latter leads to the appearance of light and dark bands. Any attempt to explain the behavior of the photon—or any other quantum object, which obeys the fundamental probability rules—leads to the kind of nonsensical question Zukav asks, as the following more familiar example shows. If you toss 10 coins, the probability of getting 6 heads (60% of the total) is about 0.205. If you toss 10 000 coins, the probability of getting 60% heads is 0.00…029 (89 zeros)! Now regard the 10 000 coins as 1000 groups of 10 coins. Each group, in isolation, has a 20.5% chance of getting 60% heads, but the presence of other groups renders getting 60% heads practically impossible! As Zukav would state, How does each group “know” whether the other groups are present? Perhaps the coins are conscious!

Spirit = mc2 Section: Choose Top of page Conscious photons? Spirit = mc2 << Implications for science ... REFERENCES CITING ARTICLES The number-one word borrowed from physics and abused in the woo literature is “energy.” Positive and negative, healing, karmic, and qi are just a few examples of “energies” adrift in the sea of mysticism. There would seem to be a good reason for that: Energy is nonmaterial, and the most famous equation in physics, E = mc2, equates it to mass, which is material. So the equivalence of the nonmaterial spirit or soul with matter, which is at the heart of mysticism, is only one small step away. property of matter. For example, kinetic energy is the energy associated with the velocity of an object. Asking whether kinetic energy is material is as absurd as asking whether velocity is material. Velocity is a property of matter in motion. A red apple is material. Does it make sense to say that redness is nonmaterial? This confusion of matter with one of its properties—energy—is both a common trap into which even trained physicists can fall 4 81, 211 (2013). 4. A. Hobson, Am. J. Phys., 211 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4789885 But is energy really nonmaterial? Energy is aof matter. For example, kinetic energy is the energy associated with the velocity of an object. Asking whether kinetic energy isis as absurd as asking whether velocity isVelocity is aof matter in motion. A red apple isDoes it make sense to say that redness is nonmaterial? This confusion of matter with one of its properties—energy—is both a common trap into which even trainedcan falland a dangerously effective tool that quack scientists use to promote their woo. E = mc2 is applied to matter–antimatter annihilation, in which matter transforms completely into “pure energy.” However, the “E” on the left is the property of some material particles—which, by the way, can be massless, like photons. A photon that strikes an electron and changes its state is as material as an incident electron that does the same thing. Indeed, Eugene Wigner proved that a material particle is described by its mass and spin, each of which could be zero. 5 5. E. Wigner, Ann. Math. 40, 149 (1939). The most tantalizing example is whenis applied to matter–antimatter annihilation, in which matter transforms completely into “pure energy.” However, the “” on the left is theof someparticles—which, by the way, can be massless, likethat strikes an electron and changes its state is asas an incident electron that does the same thing. Indeed, Eugene Wigner proved that aparticle is described by its mass and spin, each of which could be zero.And that fact is on as firm a foundation as special relativity. The “E” of E = mc2 is always the energy of two or more particles that can either produce the mass on the right by binding themselves together or be produced by the mass as it decays. There is no instance in nature in which mass transforms into energy (or vice versa) without some material particles carrying that energy. There is no connection between soul–matter equivalence of mysticism and energy–mass equivalence of modern physics.