Quantum Information and the Discipline of Field Awareness:

By Alan Briskin

Beneath every group process lie subtle currents that shape what becomes possible

What is quantum information? Let’s start with what it is not.  When physicist David Bohm speaks of quantum information, he is not talking about data. He is not referring to a material property, or something located inside a particle. He is not talking about a static thing or a picture of something. Quantum information is not a linear progression. It does not add to something or store something. It is not reducible to cause and effect. You will find no location for it, nor a way to be separate from it.

So when we peel away all these assumptions, we are left with something far more subtle and nonlocal - a formative influence in which potential patterns become actual. 

In my imagination, I see clouds of mist moving through a forest and a vast root network below exchanging signals and nutrients in ways I cannot fully grasp. Yet the feeling of being in that forest has meaning and impact.

Bohm’s insight is that quantum information behaves like a formative influence—a subtle patterning or implicate order within a field that guides how events unfold into the explicit. From the Latin in (into, within) and formare (to form, to shape, to give form), informare literally means to shape from within or to give form to something. So when we speak of quantum information, we are pointing to something with extraordinary power—a force allied with energy, invisible as it may be, yet capable of shaping our states of mind, emotions, and intentions. 

Our states of mind, emotions, intentions, and bodily sensations act as forms of “information” that shape our presence—and through that presence, the field of a group or moment.

Here is why that is important. In groups, whether a dyad, a team, a political party, or a movement, there are subtle influences shaping behavior that are owned by no one, ultimately controlled by no one. Yet they are active, visceral, influential, and consequential. They give rise to observable behaviors, norms, and attitudes. These influences are not added from outside; they arise from the field itself, an inner directive already implicit within the field.

This is why leaders, change agents, and facilitators must learn to listen for what is already present. Those who wish to make change, transform outer processes, and seek new arrangements must begin to notice what is already in the field without excessive judgment or reactivity. They must begin to notice their own intentions, sense cues emerging from their own body, and track thoughts which may at first appear elusive. This is where the formative information lives—in the quiet recesses and dynamic eddies of the body, mind, and spirit.

For those in coaching or mentoring roles, the task is to respect the information already in the field: in oneself, in the client, in the spaces between. We trust that space is not empty. Our work is to bring forward what wants to emerge and nudge it toward something that is creative, life-affirming, and possible. We can honor the silence between words.

Experientially, this means that subtle meanings, gestures, and intuitions are honored as information that shapes outward expression. What we hold in awareness—our intentions, emotions, and interpretations—informs how a situation unfolds. Information in a relational field is the implicit, patterning potential that guides behavior before anything is explicitly visible. 

The discipline of field awareness invites continual inquiry. Form arises from the formless. Events are not simply caused; they are not mechanical. Bohm invites us to notice how deeper states of body, mind, history, and relationships fold into the present moment. Fields carry patterns and we can learn to discern them - not as objective observers, but as participants whose own interiority is part of the unfolding. 

• What feelings arose while reading this?

• What distinctions or amplifications would you add? 

• How might the cultivation of awareness — the capacity to “tune” to subtle forms of information — support human development and our collective evolution?

We hope our book, Space Is Not Empty: How Hidden Fields Are Shaping Your Life and Our World, helps you live with less fear and more courage—contributing to social fields that are less toxic and more life-giving.