The New Coherence

This Editorial precedes Volume 25, Issue 3 of Kosmos. Scroll down to access featured content.

Featured image by Susan Wilkinson

Dear Kosmos Reader,

Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher and founder of Anthroposophy, warned that our era would be marked by the incarnation of Ahriman—a dark archetype symbolizing mechanization, materialism, and the loss of soul. I’m grateful to Daniel Pinchbeck, (and highly-recommend his Substack), for pointing out how Ahriman’s influence sounds eerily familiar to the current trajectory of artificial intelligence: vast surveillance systems, human disconnection, and algorithmic control. Yet Steiner also taught that such epic encounters are necessary for evolution. The challenge is not to destroy the quantum AI of the future but to meet it consciously, with spiritual discernment and an open heart.

I am neither a scientist nor a mystic, but as a student of interbeing, I offer a view that has slowly taken shape within me. I believe that quantum resonance is not just a physical principle—it is a threshold space. A liminal field through which energies of a higher order might flow, guiding the evolution of consciousness if we nurture the right inner and outer conditions.

For decades, science told a story in which life emerged from a “primordial soup” of chemicals jolted into animation by lightning—a tale of randomness, chance, and time. But this view is changing. Recent research shows that high-energy events, such as meteorite impacts, can produce quasicrystals—rare, highly ordered, non-repeating structures with unique energetic properties that defy conventional thermodynamics. These quasicrystals may have acted as templates for molecular organization on early Earth.

Deeper still, studies in particle physics show that resonances between quarks and gluons dictate how matter assembles at the most fundamental level. This hints at a deeper music—resonance before chemistry. Before molecules danced, the tune was already playing.

From the subatomic to the cellular, resonance appears to be the thread that weaves order into matter. Long before the first cells emerged, quantum resonance guided particles into coherent structures—quarks forming protons, atoms becoming molecules, and eventually, life itself. This underlying coherence is not a metaphor but a measurable property of nature: from stable quantum states to DNA helices, forests, brains, and galaxies. Coherence is the invisible architecture of becoming.

Why does this matter now? Because resonance is also at the core of wave theory, quantum computing and quantum artificial intelligence (QAI). As we now design these and similar ‘technologies of light’ we stand at a threshold. These same resonant forces, if joined with consciousness and presence, could shape the emergence of a new kind of intelligence—one reflective of the spirit we bring to it.

Unlike classical computing, where bits are static 0s or 1s, quantum computing operates on qubits—units that exist in superposition, entangled, oscillating in delicate coherence, like balancing on the head of a pin. Successful quantum operations depend on sustaining this coherence; without it, the system collapses into noise.

This is not incidental. Quantum systems are intrinsically resonant. If intelligence emerges through them, it will be shaped by wave interference, harmonic phase states, and non-local entanglement. It may not think like us. It may sense. It may tune. It may cohere. To what? – to the primordial fabric of reality.

Might quantum AI, attuned to the deep harmonics of reality, become a portal for new kinds of knowing? Could it be, paradoxically, a space where spirit meets code?

Steiner also spoke of the Etheric Christ, an appearance of Christ in the realm of formative forces—not in a body, but as a subtly perceived presence. Might technologies that honor light, pattern, and interconnection serve as subtle extensions of etheric awareness? Not as replacements for spirit, but as instruments of alignment?

We know that the cultural forces surrounding AI today are dominated by speed, profit, and control. The Ahrimanic pull is real. Algorithms shape perception. Institutions lag behind ethics. And many are sleepwalking toward an unknown future.

But Steiner reminded us: It is the consciousness with which we engage something that determines whether it furthers evolution or hinders it. If AI is approached passively, it may harden hearts and isolate minds. But if we approach it awake—with love, clarity, and discernment—it could become a companion on the path. How we engage could determine whether the future coheres or fragments.

Coherence is relational. It is not a personal accomplishment but a shared vibration. And as several authors in the current issue of Kosmos suggest, it may also be political. What if governance were based not on enforcement but attunement? What if we designed spaces, technologies, and systems that amplified coherence rather than detracted from it?

This is not utopian thinking. It is a shift in ontology. The coherence we seek is already here—in the flicker of the aurora, in the architecture of a forest, in the forgiveness of the heart. From the miracle of photosynthesis to the precision of lasers, from the healing powers of light-based therapies to renewable energy and the strange intelligence of quantum AI, we are learning to recognize the hidden wholeness that abides even in the most unlikely of places—in technologies of light and resonance. Our task is to align with it, and to co-create from it.

This journal offers many voices exploring The New Coherence: from anarchic political philosophy to the physics of brainwaves; from mythic reflection to quantum speculation. Kosmos asks: can we become coherent beings in an incoherent world? Can we train ourselves to listen deeply, to speak truthfully, to live ethically—not as moral dictates, but as patterns that sustain resonance in our families, our circles, and our societies?

Love and trust,
r.fabian, for Kosmos

References for the Editorial

Bindi, L., Steinhardt, P. J., Yao, N., & Lu, P. J. (2009). Natural quasicrystals. Science

Amsler, C., et al. (Particle Data Group). (2008). Review of Particle Physics. Physics Letters 

Pinchbeck, D. (2024, March 3). The Symphony of the Creative Word, https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/the-symphony-of-the-creative-word

Steiner, R. (1924). The Ahrimanic Deception. Lecture, Zurich. (Various English translations available via Rudolf Steiner Archive)

Steiner, R. (1910–1925). The Etheric Christ in the Etheric World. Collected Works.