Douglass A White
Douglass A. White | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Douglass Alan White 1941 |
| Died | March 21, 2021 Taiwan |
| Residence | United States; Taiwan |
| Nationality | USA |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Known for | Observer Physics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Linguistics, Egyptology, physics of consciousness |
| Institutions | Maharishi International University |
Douglass Alan White (1941 – March 21, 2021) was an American scholar, linguist, and independent researcher best known for developing Observer Physics, a framework that placed the conscious observer at the center of physical theory. Trained at Harvard University in linguistics and Asian languages, he ranged widely across the ancient texts of Egypt, China, and India before turning to questions in the foundations of physics and consciousness.
Biography
White earned both a B.A. and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in the field of Oriental languages and civilizations, with a focus on linguistics and Asian languages, and spent a period studying at National Taiwan University. He went on to teach literature and Asian languages at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, for many years. In his later life he lived in Taiwan, where his research and publishing were carried on through DeltaPoint Educational Technologies and the Sacred Scarab Institute. He died in Taiwan on March 21, 2021, at the age of 79.
Work
White is best known for Observer Physics, which he described as a new paradigm intended to unify the Newtonian, relativistic, and quantum descriptions of nature by treating the conscious observer as fundamental. He summarized the approach through what he called Palmer's Principle, "It depends on how you look at it," and argued that the observer participates in constituting the physical universe. Under this heading he wrote a series of essays and technical papers on topics such as Dirac currents, particle masses, neutrino oscillation, and galaxy rotation curves, distributing them largely as free downloads for personal and educational use.
Alongside his work in physics, White pursued a lifelong interest in the antiquities of Egypt, China, and India. In Egyptology he produced an English translation of the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts with extensive commentary, and he studied the Egyptian game of Senet, which he connected to the history of the Tarot in a series of books and a hand-designed Ancient Egyptian Tarot deck. His writings also drew on Sanskrit and Chinese sources and on themes of meditation, attention, and numerology.
He was the author of numerous books and essays, including How to Create Your Own Universe, The Flow of Attention, Meditation, and Success, Exercises for Playing with Your Universe, a multi-volume edition of The Pyramid Texts, and The Senet Tarot of Ancient Egypt.