A ‘Crackpot’ Solution to the Dark Matter Problem?
Two articles about dark matter have appeared on Medium recently, although there have been various earlier ones. The latest one was by Ethan Siegel, who offers readers five ‘truths’ about it, and an earlier one was by Grant Piper. So-called dark matter remains something of a hot topic in cosmology because of its profoundly mysterious nature.
I’m calling my ideas about dark matter ‘crackpot’, because that was a term used recently by Ethan Siegel in a separate article to describe those who have doubts about Big Bang theory, and propose alternative scenarios. Since I am potentially one such crackpot, I assume that he would say the same about what I’m going to write here. I’ve been encouraged to pursue such weird ideas, however, by recent communications with John Brodix Merryman Jr., who also identifies himself as a crackpot on the Big Bang issue. He advises scientists to “not let the imagination get too far carried away, as the consequent reality check can be painful”. He thinks that “the field of cosmology, as well as physics, will eventually open its eyes to the reality of alternate possibilities, then likely do its best to ignore the last hundred years”. He also thinks that “trying to engage anyone in the field is an exercise in futility”, and that “it is more a matter of gently pushing at the cracks and getting those on the outside thinking”. (See Appendix below.)
Medium seems as good a place as any to try to engage those on the outside of the mainstream, so this is an appropriate point to bring in my crackpot theory about dark matter, which is nevertheless based on the views of many important scientists.
A figure frequently mentioned for the amount of dark matter in the universe is 90%. Piper says, however, that according to CERN the figure is even higher at 95%, and that we have deduced and are sure of its existence because of its effect upon the material universe and “ some extremely complicated mathematics and theories”, even though “it does not interact with any sort of electromagnetic force making it nearly impossible for us as humans to detect it”. It is “largely invisible to us”. (I am not sure why he doesn’t just say ‘invisible’.)
That’s not the only way of looking at the issue, however. There is a consensus among quantum physicists that the material universe is generated into existence from a hidden deeper level of reality. Some examples are:
- David Bohm, who calls these the explicate and implicate orders.
- Henry Stapp, who once said: “Everything we know about nature is in accord with the idea that the fundamental processes of nature lie outside space-time but generate events that can be located in space-time”¹.
- Fred Alan Wolf, who said something very similar here: “We only know that there is something other than space-time, but we don’t know what it is. Because Beyond Space-Time is non physical, unmeasurable”².
Max Planck took the idea one stage further:“There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together… We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter”³. He is therefore saying that the source of the material universe is mental in nature. The quote from Fred Alan Wolf continues: “But what is beyond space-time is within everything. Can it connect with us and influence us within space-time? Is it pure consciousness?” He also suspects that the matrix of all matter, thus the source of the physical universe, is mind or consciousness.
In his article Grant Piper speculates that the dark matter universe may just be a hidden part of the same material universe that we inhabit; he takes the ‘matter’ in ‘dark matter’ literally. He invites us to “imagine a universe that is primarily inhabited by dark matter beings… They could be all around us or concentrated in some part of the universe that we can’t see very well. They would be completely invisible to us”. (He is talking about the possibility of alien beings.) “There could be a whole dark universe out there, extracting a pull that we can detect through observation and math, on our universe but one that cannot interact with us”.
I believe that he is mistaken in his conclusion, although he is thinking along the right lines. This “whole dark universe” is not a hidden part of the material universe that we inhabit. If, as Max Planck said, a hidden mind can hold the atom together, then there is no reason to believe that mind or minds cannot affect the material universe on a larger scale, in ways which defy the expectations of cosmologists, if they rely solely on the laws of physics. The effects that cosmologists attribute to dark matter may actually be due to a mind or minds outside space-time. The better explanation for dark matter would therefore be something along the lines of psychokinesis, the ability of mind to affect and control matter. This mind is, of course, hidden and invisible to us, just like so-called dark matter.
My crackpot theory is therefore that there is no such ‘thing’ as dark matter; the anomalies observed which lead us to infer its existence are of a mental nature, which explains why physicists cannot detect it. Now, I don’t think that such an idea is crackpot at all. It’s compatible with the thinking of leading quantum physicists; I’m guessing that it may be pretty close to the truth. What does anyone else think?
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APPENDIX
I asked a friend of mine to look at Siegel’s article. He is a Cambridge Professor of Physics, and this is his response: “I’ve seen the article; he is just reciting the standard current ideas. The problem with the so called dark matter is that it needs to have some properties which no known matter has, i.e. collisionless-ness. But, as you know, I consider things like this not really physics; there is too much speculation without a possibility for experimental testing. But it is good for grant applications, PhD studentships, academic careers etc.”
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I hope you have enjoyed this article. I have written in the past about other topics, including spirituality, metaphysics, psychology, science, Christianity, politics and astrology. All these articles are on Medium, but the simplest way to see a guide to them is to visit my website (click here and here).
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Footnotes:
- ‘Are Superluminal Connections Necessary?’, Il Nuovo Cimento, 40B 1977, 191
- Space-Time and Beyond, Bantam Books, 1975, p 56.
- Lecture given in Florence, 1944. https://beliefinstitute.com/quote/max-planck-mind-matrix
