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    I Ching & the quantum wave function

    Nothing is random. We know this now. What we call random is more the mark of a system that we cannot statistically account for and thereby appears to us random given the lack of understanding of how it gets from a certain action to a certain outcome. Cryptographers try to find ways around it, science battles with it, and mystics and diviners use it.

    In my reading of it, the double slit experiment tends to suggest our actions are imbued with the intention behind them. I'm seeing support for the idea that matter arises from consciousness, not the other way around. An electron shot straight through one of two slits in a metal sheet took the path through the slit it was pointed at — when observed. When not observed, it behaved impossibly — an interference pattern built up one electron at a time, which is only possible if electrons went through both slits.

    It's called the observer effect. Though I don't doubt that the act of observing it is what affects the outcome, I think there's more to it. Observing something comes with the expectation of what that thing will do. For expectations so engrained as to form what we all agree is reality, that expectation is accompanied by the intention that it will happen. There are many esoteric schools that equate perception (expectation / observation) with will (intention), but that's not a matter for the present discussion.

    If I'm reading the words between the lines properly here, this suggests our expectation of what happens and the extent to which that seeps into our intention (depending upon the unquestionableness of that expectation), affects the behaviour of outcomes in the physical world. Intention interacting with outcome in a situation where the outcome seems unquestionable.

    The quantum wave function, waves of probability existing around us, each holding the potential of every decision we can make in a given moment and every outcome for each decision, is the probability amplitude at play here. Actions in the context of certainty create expected outcomes. Actions in the context of systems sufficiently complex are not subject to the same certainty of expected outcomes. In such actions, our consciousness does not interfere with the actual outcome by way of an expectation as to what will happen because it defers to the apparent randomness of the action. This makes way for our intention to make an impression.

    Well, what about where the action is throwing three coins (a seemingly random action), and the intention is a question — what then? Couple that with the context in which the coin tosses are applied to a comprehensive and well rounded system of archetypal symbols that describe every species of happenstance we encounter in our lives — and you get an answer to your question, offered up by the interplay of intention, our stochastic, probabilistic universe, and a cipher system sufficiently complex and comprehensive enough to decode it.

    Put another way because that's a pretty nuts idea as I reread — Three coins. A comprehensive, well-rounded symbolic cipher that apportions archetypes to a combination of tosses. A throw of the coins imbued with the intention of our question. Zero conscious interference given acceptance that the action is random. When coupled with the idea of the interplay of intention and outcome — perhaps it's a mechanism by which a response to a question may be induced from the ever present universal consciousness.

    In such a way, the I Ching appears as a manual kickstart to an all pervading quantum computer that answers our queries by the intersection of a system sufficiently well rounded enough, and an action (tossing coins) unpredictable enough that our conscious expectation can't interfere, and insights can be derived by the symbolism that is thereby manifested. The book we translate the I Ching from is three thousand years old, but even then it was ancient.

    I'm not claiming to have cracked the science behind divination or anything — just highlighting how it is that systems such as the I Ching, or even tarot, coffee cup or tea leaf reading, are emerging as perhaps an incidental, residual, anomalous effect of our stochastic, probabilistic universe.

    Use the I Ching regularly. Sit with the results in the knowledge that you have an actual response from forces beyond your comprehension. myJING brings the I Ching, Six Lines, and BaZi together, to offer up a comprehensive lattice / scaffold to the universe that any one system can't provide on its own, and on which it may impress the answer to your question with the precision and illumination that speaks clearly to your intuition, and from which you can derive penetrating insight.

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      Bibliography

      Chinese — primary sources

      • 《周易》Zhouyithe core text (Western Zhou, c. 1000–750 BCE). The hexagrams, judgments and line statements that every later edition builds on. Public domain.
      More Chinese translations
      • 王弼 Wang Bi (226–249 CE), Zhouyi zhu 《周易注》the foundational yi-li (meaning-and-principle) commentary, displacing the Han image-and-number tradition and shaping every subsequent reading. Public domain.
      • 朱熹 Zhu Xi (1130–1200), Zhouyi benyi 《周易本義》Song-dynasty Neo-Confucian synthesis, restoring focus on the divinatory layer alongside Wang Bi's philosophical reading. Public domain.

      English

      • James Legge (1815–1897), The Yî King (1882)Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVI. The canonical English scholarly translation; spare, conservative, kept close to the Chinese. Public domain.
      More English translations
      • Richard Wilhelm / Cary F. Baynes, The I Ching or Book of Changes (1950)English rendering of Wilhelm's 1924 German via Baynes; the standard 20th-century Western edition, with a foreword by C.G. Jung.
      • John Blofeld, I Ching: The Book of Change (1965)practitioner-oriented translation aimed at readers using the text for consultation rather than scholarship.
      • R.G.H. Siu, The Portable Dragon: The Western Man's Guide to the I Ching (1968)cross-cultural reading that places the hexagrams alongside Western philosophy, science and literature; influential among mid-century practitioners.
      • Da Liu, I Ching Coin Prediction (1975) / I Ching Numerology (1979)practical handbooks rooted in the Chinese folk-divination tradition; foreground the casting method and the use of the text as oracle.
      • R.L. Wing, The I Ching Workbook (1979)workbook-style guided edition with worksheets for recording consultations; widely used as a first introduction.
      • Carol K. Anthony, A Guide to the I Ching (1980)psychologically-oriented reading focused on inner work and ethical development; pairs each hexagram with a meditative commentary.
      • James DeKorne, The Gnostic Book of Changesgnostic and depth-psychological reading that frames the hexagrams as a map of inner transformation; freely circulated online by the author.
      • Thomas Cleary, The Taoist I Ching (1986) / The Buddhist I Ching (1987)readings of the text through Liu Yiming's Taoist alchemical commentary and Zhixu's Buddhist commentary respectively; valuable for the school-specific framings.
      • Wei Tat Wu, I Ching: Book of Changes (1991)Hong Kong scholar's translation with line-by-line commentary drawn from the classical Chinese commentarial tradition.
      • Stephen Karcher / Rudolf Ritsema, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change (1994)Eranos-project translation foregrounding the core ideograms; idiosyncratic but influential among Western practitioners.
      • Edward L. Shaughnessy, I Ching: The Classic of Changes (1996)translation of the Mawangdui silk manuscript (c. 168 BCE), the oldest substantially complete Yijing text known; complements the received version.
      • Bradford Hatcher, The Book of Changes: Word by Word (2009)modern character-level study edition with extensive concordance. Full text: hermetica.info/Yijing1+2.pdf.
      • myJING, synthesised reading (2026)a synthesised English reading, prepared by the editor of myJING as an original derivative work. All rights reserved.

      German

      • Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930), I Ging: Das Buch der Wandlungen (1924)Wilhelm's German translation, prepared with Lao Naixuan over a decade in Qingdao. The source for the Wilhelm/Baynes English edition and a major influence on European reception. Public domain.

      French

      • Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre (1837–1902), Le Yi: King ou Livre des Changements de la dynastie des Tsheou (1885–1893)two-volume French translation with extensive Chinese commentary, especially Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi. Public domain.

      Japanese

      • 高島嘉右衛門 Takashima Kaemon (1832–1914), 高島易断 Takashima Ekidan (1886)Meiji-era Japanese reading and case-record commentary; scanned by the National Diet Library and surfaced inline on the ja locale of myJING. Public domain.

      Russian

      • Ю.К. Щуцкий Yulian K. Shchutsky (1897–1938), Китайская классическая «Книга перемен» (1937; published posthumously 1960)Soviet sinologist's translation with extensive philological apparatus; the standard Russian-language edition. Public domain.

      Synthesised readings

      myJING, 2026 — Español · Português · Italiano · 日本語 · 한국어.

      Each is a synthesised reading prepared by the editor of myJING as an original derivative work, distilled from the public-domain sources listed above rather than following any single translator. All rights reserved.

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      Questions centred on guidance, self-discovery, and personal direction tend to produce the most meaningful readings. The I Ching is especially insightful when exploring uncertainty, understanding recurring patterns, clarifying a decision, or gaining perspective. Examples: What is the likely outcome if I do X? · What self-limiting belief is holding me back? · Describe the path I'm currently on, and how I can improve it. · How can I best approach X? · What attitude best serves me over the coming week? · What am I not seeing clearly right now? · What guidance do you have for me at this time? · What opportunity am I overlooking?

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