“The state of a field has nothing to do with reality.
It describes all the possibilities that you could possibly measure of something,
but with their probabilities.
So, it only can tell you what is possible to know about reality.”
Said Federico Faggin…
In simple terms:
- A field (in quantum physics) does not describe what is
- It describes what could become
- Reality appears only when a possibility is actualized
Reality is not the map.
Reality is the lived event.
Gestalt Starts Exactly Here
Gestalt psychology was built on the same insight—long before quantum language existed.
Core Gestalt distinction:
Potential ≠ Experience
In Gestalt terms:
- The field contains possibilities
- Experience is what emerges in contact
- Meaning appears only when something becomes figure
In Gestalt, reality does not exist as an objective given.
It exists as lived, contacted, and experienced.
Field ≠ Figure (Quantum & Gestalt Speak the Same Language)
Quantum language:
- The field contains probabilities
- Measurement collapses possibility into actuality
Gestalt language:
- The field contains potential figures
- Awareness brings one figure into the foreground
Both say the same thing:
Reality is not what is “out there.”
Reality is what becomes present in awareness.
✦ Gestalt-aligned insight:
A field without contact is not reality—it is potential.
Why “Knowing About Reality” Is Not Reality
The quote makes a crucial distinction:
The field tells us what is possible to know about reality—not reality itself.
Gestalt therapy makes the same correction, every day, in practice:
- Talking about an emotion is not the emotion
- Explaining a pattern is not experiencing it
- Interpreting meaning is not contact with meaning
Gestalt would say:
Insight without experience is unfinished Gestalt.
Awareness Is the “Collapse” Moment
In quantum physics:
- Reality appears when a possibility collapses into an actual event
In Gestalt:
- Experience appears when awareness organizes the field
Awareness is not passive observation.
It is an act of participation.
✦ New perspective:
Gestalt awareness functions like quantum collapse:
- Many potentials
- One lived moment
The Danger of Confusing Models with Reality
Both quantum theory and Gestalt warn us:
- A model is not the lived world
- A probability is not an experience
- A description is not presence
Gestalt therapy actively works against this confusion.
That’s why Gestalt focuses on:
- What are you aware of right now?
- Where do you feel this in your body?
- What is emerging in this moment?
Not:
- What should be happening
- What theory explains this
- What pattern you think you have
Reality Is Co-Created, Not Observed
The quote implies something radical:
Reality is not pre-given.
It emerges through interaction.
This is deeply Gestalt:
Contact creates reality.
- No contact → no figure
- No awareness → no experience
- No participation → no meaning
We don’t find reality.
We meet it.
A Gestalt Reframing of the Quote
Here is the same quote, translated into Gestalt language:
“The field does not contain reality.
It contains possibilities.
Reality appears only when awareness organizes the field
into a lived figure of experience.”
Final Integration
Quantum physics tells us:
- The field is possibility
- Reality is event
Gestalt psychology tells us:
- The field is potential
- Reality is experience
Together they say:
Reality is not what exists independently of us.
Reality is what happens when we are present.
And that may be the most Gestalt—and most quantum—truth of all.
Kika's world 