The Quantum View of Realization

In this provocative teaching from a 2017 all-school retreat, A. H. Almaas (pen name for Hameed Ali) challenges conventional spiritual frameworks, particularly the nondual view that sees the world as an illusion of separateness. Drawing on quantum theory, he invites us into a more mysterious, expansive, and inclusive understanding of reality, one where freedom lies not just in experience, but in how we hold our view of existence itself. Scroll down to view video and summary of highlights.

Summary 

In this illuminating teaching, A. H. Almaas presents a radical rethinking of the nature of realization, one that transcends traditional frameworks from the perspectives of duality and nonduality. Using metaphors and principles from quantum theory, he proposes a view of reality that is not just broader, but fundamentally more mysterious and indeterminate than either polarity allows. 

Almaas begins by examining the non-dual perspective, a dominant view in many spiritual traditions, which asserts that the world of form and separation is an illusion—a mistaken perception generated by the egoic mind. In this view, realization involves inner work within a spiritual practice to identify and dissolve ego obscurations that keep us from experiencing a deeper oneness of existence. While acknowledging the transformative beauty of nonduality, Almaas invites us to consider that the nonduality teaching is just one perspective among many, that there are many facets of realization. 

Through the lens of quantum theory, he introduces a "view of totality", in which multiple perspectives – e.g., dual, nondual, psychological, scientific – can all be true in different ways. Just as quantum physics challenges classical certainty, this quantum view of realization disrupts the idea that there is one ultimate or superior spiritual perspective. Instead, reality is revealed to be a dynamic, multivalent field in which presence can manifest as oneness, separation, unity, or something entirely beyond conceptualization. 

At the heart of this view is a deeper kind of freedom: not merely the freedom from ego or suffering, but the freedom from having a view at all. This is the capacity to experience and embody multiple truths without being bound by any single spiritual ideology. In Almaas’s words, realization is not about escaping the world or replacing one illusion with another, but about inhabiting a reality where love, light, and awareness can take many forms, including our ordinary lives. 

He reminds us that the belief in separateness diminishes the immensity of human potential and the radiance of existence. In contrast, the quantum view affirms that the ordinary world is real, not as the only reality, but as one expression among many. By relinquishing the compulsion to identify with one fixed spiritual view, we open to the unfolding mystery of being itself. 

This teaching points to a living, breathing freedom not confined by doctrine, not limited to nonduality, but rooted in the vastness of what is.