Of unpredictability, probability and other abilites

My friend once told me a wise line: Worry about the stuff you can control. I was in a state where I tried to surf my way through life, trying to push situations so that their outcome would be beneficial for me. I tried too hard sometimes, bringing myself to experience powerlessness and confusion. His words struck me. Not only because it was a revelation I´d known of before and not followed it, but because he was right there saying it with such ease and he was 19. He still remains one of the most down to earth people in my life.

I immediately stopped what I was doing. It was surprising how easily I just let go of the situation and let Life take its course. For that is precisely what that is. Life.  When I remember it now, I recall the situation surrounded with friction. In that instant I realized I was trying to squeeze a camel through needle´s ear. I knew I was pushing it, but I needed to hear it too. So, it got me thinking then, how much of our life we have control over. We humans, we are control freaks. We have those dreams, wishes, ambitions and visions of how our life should turn out like. We act upon those and lots of times we struggle, experiencing loss of faith in ourselves and that, by itself, is already a turn downwards on to the path of self doubt. I was there and I found huge relief in realization there is not a single Thing I can control. It all succumbs to the law of unpredictability.

 I love unpredictability; as an artist and as a person leading its life. It is fundamental law of Life, Universe, Nature. It undergoes everything. It manifests itself in every aspect of human behavior, thought, mind, action…it is what brings the element of surprise to our World; the element of uniqueness. Unpredictability tells us one cannot take something else for granted, or someone else for that matter. One cannot assume, predict or expect anything with certainty. Unpredictability fills the voids that happen between two actions, it causes the diversity and colorfulness of our Lives. It is the reason we know we have to try and do to keep things running, but never knowing, if it works out! It is the cause that brick by brick, action by reaction builds up the yellow magic road that eventually leads us to the End station of the wonderland of Oz. It is what makes our Life´s timeline, our story.

The thing with unpredictability is how tightly it is interwoven into very structure of nature. Not only humans and our actions influencing on each other (Brownian movement), or any life being, but the dead, seemingly still and halt part of it too. The basic character of particles is the uncertainty, non locality and they float on the wave of probability. There have been many experiments made in the area of quantum physics, the ones that proved the wave-like nature of Photons, or any particles for that matter. They behave quite different when measured or when not. When measured they “choose” to appear and behave like a billiard ball, that sets out to follow one trajectory and follow the logic sequence of action and reaction. But when set free unmeasured, they can posses many states at the same time in a superposition. That does not mean they are everywhere at the same time, they just have a certain probability to be there or someplace else where. And that is a fact. Remember the Organic Chemistry and orbital of electrons? That is that! However, once the particle “decides” to be there, its probability wave function collapses.

Johnjoe McFadden in his book Quantum Evolution describes the cellular action as such. When thinking of it, deep down on the molecule level atoms are just atoms in constant interaction with each other. They know nothing of the grand organism behind that. So there is a proton that by choosing to attach itself to another molecule (creating ATP) makes a cell alive. We are that. Just the sum of right choices within each cell in our body. And that is amazing. The quantum reality is probable, but real at the same time. And we are part of it. So thinking about it, Life is like that, too.

We say we have potential. We say we have talent. We have ambition, wishes and goals. We have needs and wanting and desires. Those are facts. That is our Superposition. But it is not quite real. Their possibility, their probability is real. But they have not yet happened. There is just a higher possibility of someone with a talent to sing to become a next big star, but that does not make it happen. Look at Jennifer Lopez. So when it comes to Life our decisions to explore our talents make the whole desired outcome possible to achieve. And the decisions are all there is to our freedom and control. Control over our life´s potential pursuit, not the outcomes. We can predict saying:  ”Yes, he will make it, he is so talented and ambitious, he has to!” Who will be then disappointed? Who will be then envious and who will take pleasure in someone else´s failure? We cannot control each other. You cannot make someone else to fall in love with you. We can only tell what we desire; the rest is up to them.  But the need to take over and control brings us in a state where we face despair and powerlessness. How come? It is the building up the visions that make us disappointed. Life is not disappointing; life has no plot against you. The only enemy one faces is himself. The key to happiness is already here.

I know I had said it before and I will always use this sentence, because it grasps the reality of Life to its very core: Life happens. To realize that, not only to say it, but to truly feel that, see that, live that is a hard thing to do. Because, when one admits one has no power over it, one gives in what was never ours to start with. By admitting one has no control, one loses the sense of induced freedom, where in fact one gains it. But we are not talking destiny here, far from it. We talk freedom, the true kind. Not the power to decide what will happen, but the ability to decide how to react to things that happen.

The way I see it, if you have a wish, act on it. Decision is everything, luck is nothing. Floating on the wave of probability in touch with intuition, there is no stopping us, but knowing when to stop.

So there´s that.