New age spirituality, quantum mysticism and self-psychology: changing ourselves from the inside out

Abstract

I propose that Heinz Kohut's notions of the selfobject and transmuting internalization can be applied specifically to spiritual elements emerging out of a distinct interpretation of quantum physics. I focus particularly on the film What the Bleep Do We Know!? and argue that the philosophy espoused by the film and several of the scientists portrayed—which I interchangeably call “quantum mysticism,” “quantum psychology” and “quantum philosophy”—presents a worldview, which may aid in bringing about important goals outlined by Kohutian self-psychology, namely the need to update earlier internalizations by consciously bringing them in contact with an individual's changing experience of reality