Living a Meaningful Life: Advice from a Physicist and Frankl

I was just watching Nassim Haramein being interviewed by Lewis Howes on The School of Greatness podcast, and it crystalized and validated so much of what I understood from the work of Viktor Frankl. Haramein is a Swiss-born physicist who eloquently explained the quantum field of the universe and how we are each uniquely a part of it. It was truly mindblowing. For me, it aligns with Frankl’s theories about our humanness and the responsibility we each have for the unique life we have been given.

Haramein described an order to the universe and a flow that each of us has in us that relates to our place in the universe because the universe is in us. We can see it in action in the natural world, where bees, birds, plants, and animals follow an ordered rhythm and pattern of life. The 50-100 trillion cells in our bodies are continually being renewed, and the matter created is unique to our individual form. The cosmos, sun, stars, and planets also follow an ordered pattern that we don’t fully understand. We constantly interact and adapt and will never be the same as someone else. This contributes to our different perspectives and viewpoints. 

Here is how Haramein summarized the way we can each manifest our destiny and how it corresponds to Frankl’s teachings:

1. LISTEN. Haramein discussed the need to be quiet so we can listen to our emotions and to the voice inside us through meditation (even just 5 minutes). This relates to listening to our excitement, curiosities, gut instincts, intuition, and thoughts. Our body, made up of cells in the image of the universe, knows and is communicating with us. Frankl called for us to listen to our conscience through contemplation. He frequently reminded us of our uniqueness, that not one of us is the same, and each of us deserves dignity.
2. TRUST. Haramein discussed a life force flow that we intuitively feel and for us to trust the direction we are being pulled in. Frankl described meaning as “what is meant” for each of us to do in the specific situations we find ourselves in. This changes from moment to moment and person to person. This trust in what is meant, Frankl would call ultimate meaning. (This life force or ultimate meaning is commonly referred to as God, Universe, Creator, Source, etc.) Free will and our environmental conditioning come into play here as we sometimes doubt what we intuitively feel we need to pursue and may choose not to do anything. 
3. ACT. Haramein discussed moving in the direction of the flow, to follow where our excitement and curiosities tell us to go. We each have a role to play in our universe, just like we do in our communities. There is a feedback loop; we influence our surroundings (people, places, ideas), and our surroundings influence us. Frankl talked about responding to what our conscience is telling us and that we need to realize our values by taking action. This can happen through our creations (deeds, work, etc.), our engagement (interaction with people, nature, etc.), or our attitude (the stand we take in the face of unavoidable circumstances). These actions must be beneficial to others, not just ourselves. 

What happens when we don’t follow our flow or listen to our conscience when it is pointing us toward meaningful pursuits? Haramein noted the resistance we would feel when we weren’t aligned, and things would not go well for us. This is what Frankl called the existential vacuum, the meaninglessness we feel when our search for meaning is frustrated. Our response to this vacuum or void is often aggression (to ourselves or others), addiction (numbing ourselves), and/or depression (our bodies shutting down). He noted that we live in an era of the existential vacuum.

When we think of the mechanistic society we have created through industrialization systems, where human beings are used as inputs for someone else’s external outputs, we can see how this impedes our search for meaning (alignment with the flow) and, ultimately, our ability to realize our full human potential. Most egregious is how we train children from a young age to not listen to themselves or trust what they intuitively sense; how we confine them to programs and spaces that limit their ability to take action on their curiosities, excitement, or gut feelings; and how they learn to follow along and do as they are told rather than understanding their valuable role in contributing their uniqueness to the world. 

We have entered a new era where many are awakening to the reality of the world we now live in and our responsibility to create more collaborative, compassionate, and respectful environments to promote human flourishing. Love and gratitude are powerful forces. Each of us has a valuable contribution to make and a responsibility for the lives we have been given. If we listen to ourselves, trust that what we know is part of something greater than ourselves, and take action based on our intuitive pull, we can change the world.