A Quantum hour between Alive and Dead

Prashant Penumatsa
Aug 7
5 min read

Updated: Aug 10

Jay like most of us, he was trying to understand who he really was and where he fit in the world.

His cat, Luna, had been part of his life since he was nine. A gentle, comforting companion through many ups and downs.

But lately, something had changed. Jay didn’t know when it started or why.

All he knew was that Luna — once his source of peace — now made him feel restless and started hating it the most.

The sound of her paws, her silent gaze, her refusal to leave despite his distance.

He tried to push her away. He shooed her. Ignored her. Even locked her out at night.

But she always returned — purring softly at his door, as if nothing had changed.

And then, one night, a quiet, disturbing thought crossed his mind:

“I have to end this.”

Let’s understand the fundamentals of quantum theory — with a Vedic touch — through one hour in the lives of Jay and Luna.

The Box: Observer effect between Self and World

Jay placed Luna inside a sealed box.

Beside her, he left a bowl of cat food mixed with slow-acting poison.

The box was to stay closed for exactly one hour.

During that hour, Luna’s fate was unknown.

She could be dead.
She could be alive.
She could be 1% alive, 99% dead.
Or somewhere in between.

All possibilities existed together — in a single moment.

A blur of outcomes. Infinite versions of her — all equally real.

The truth remained undecided.

Until someone opened the box. Until someone observed. Until the wave of possibility collapsed into just one reality.

And Jay waited — not just to know her fate, but to face his own.

Probability, Not Certainty: The Illusion of Maya

“Yat dṛśyam, tat na asti” – What is seen is not the real seer.

Jay believed Luna was either alive or dead.

But reality isn’t always that simple.

Until the box was opened, he lived in a state of unknowing — caught between fear and hope, guilt and denial.

In that moment, he was trapped in Maya — the illusion of certainty, of fixed outcomes.

And aren’t we all?

Until we face the truth for ourselves, reality remains undefined. What we believe may not be what is. We live in our own projections, our own stories — our own Maya.

Jay’s box was not just a wooden container. It was a symbol of all the boxes we carry in our lives. The ones we don’t open. The truths we avoid.

But when we are finally ready to look —The illusion breaks. Maya lifts.

And what remains… is truth.

Superposition: The Nature of Possibility

“Sarvam khalvidam "brahma"" — every possibility coexists within the same underlying reality (Brahman), until perception crystallizes one form.

Superposition means all possibilities exist at once — until one is observed.

This is not just about atoms or experiments.

This is about life.

Jay — like all of us — lives in superposition.

We imagine outcomes.

We fear.

We hope.

We dream.

But until something actually happens, everything remains possible.

Our world isn’t fixed. It shifts with how we see it. Our mind paints the world — not as it is, but as we observe it to be.

“Maya is the power that brings out the appearance of multiplicity in the One.”

The One Reality looks broken into many — only because the observer sees it that way.

Just like Jay's cat, who is both alive and dead until the box is opened —This world is both real and unreal, until the Atman, the true Self, sees beyond Maya.

👣 Entanglement: Connected Fates, Shared Consequences

Step into Jay's shoes, Jay placed Luna in the box.

And for that hour, she wasn’t alive. She wasn’t dead. She simply existed — in possibility.

So did Jay.

Because observation doesn’t just define the cat’s fate — it defines his own.

What he chooses to face becomes real.What he avoids remains hidden, waiting in silence.

But the truth is — whether he observes it or not, the outcome is. Everything is interconnected. One shift affects the other. Just as in entanglement, the fate of one is tied to the other — inseparable, beyond logic or distance.

🐾 Wavefunction Collapse: Consciousness as the Inner Observer

Now, imagine you are the cat — a conscious being...

From the inside of the box, there is no paradox. You are not both alive and dead.

You only experience one outcome — either:

You continue to live as usual, or
You lose consciousness the moment the poison enters your system.

There is no confusion, no duality.

From your perspective, as the cat, you are the observer of your own reality.

You do not experience superposition — because superposition exists only when there is no observation.

This is where quantum theory and consciousness meet.

In quantum mechanics, a system remains in superposition — a state of many possible outcomes — until it is observed. The act of observation collapses the wave function into a single, definite state.

For the cat, that observation happens from within.

So while the external world sees uncertainty, a blurred state of life and death — the cat, like any conscious being, experiences only the collapsed, present moment.

The paradox is not in the box. The paradox is in the mind of the one who waits outside.

The Real Observer

This isn’t just Jay’s story.

It’s yours too.

The world you live in — your joy, your fear, your pain — exists because you observe it.

And behind that observer is Consciousness — the silent, timeless witness.

Reality exists because the observer is present. And liberation — moksha — begins when the observer realizes: “I am not separate from what I see and experince. I am That.”

You are not outside the universe, watching it happen.

You are the universe — observing itself.

And when that truth is realized — Maya dissolves, superposition ends, and only truth remains.

Whole.

Unchanging.

Eternal.