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Blogger Hendrik Wintjen writes:

Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger is known for the phrase “The total number of minds in the universe is one. In fact, consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings.”

Did he say that?

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    Likely this isn’t notable enough for this site since it appears to only be a quote from a random blogger. My guess is that it is a made up quote. “Singularity phasing” is word salad, a nonsensical phrasing in physics as far as I’m aware.
    – Jarrod Christman
    Apr 28, 2020 at 10:34
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    @JarrodChristman I think it's meant to be read as "consciousness is a singularity [that is] phasing within all beings". It would make more sense if there was a comma there.
    – F1Krazy
    Apr 28, 2020 at 10:43
  • ascienceofspirit.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/…
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Apr 28, 2020 at 12:04
  • stephenpickering.com/2011/12/29/…
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Apr 28, 2020 at 12:05
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    IIRC Schrödinger was keen on philosophy, and had a strong interest in monistic Hindu traditions. This quote sounds like monism, so doesn't sound too out of place. Assuming the quote (if real) comes from his philosophical/theological writings rather than his physics ones, the terms used might be used in a broader sense than a physicist would expect.
    – Jack B
    Apr 28, 2020 at 13:43

2 Answers 2

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It appears that this quote was fabricated and mis-attributed to Schrödinger in May of 2016. It is impressive how widely this mis-attribution has spread, first across the internet and then to a number of books, but it does not seem to date back any further than that.

If the listed date on this blog post is accurate, it is probably the original source of the fabricated quote: http://ascienceofspirit.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/number-of-minds-in-the-universe-is-one/

The same quote also appeared to have been added on or shortly before May 26 2016 to this list of alleged quotations: https://web.archive.org/web/20160526132013/https://stephenpickering.com/2011/12/29/cosmic-consciousness-quotes-vol-1/

If Schrödinger ever did use these words, it would almost certainly show up in Google Books or even random websites that predate these examples. At best it may be a paraphrase of something he actually said in the lecture "Mind and Matter". but those words do not appear there.

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    He said some similar sounding things (according Wikiquote). Couldn't it just be a recent translation that used a different phrasing? (Genuine question.)
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Apr 28, 2020 at 16:40
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    If that were the case, it should not be hard to find the translation. Which "similar sounding things" specifically do you propose might fit this quote? I don't see any candidates, but if we have one we can look for alternate translations.
    – Brian Z
    Apr 28, 2020 at 19:17
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I believe the first sentence of the quotation is a paraphrasing of a section from his book of essays, What Is Life? : The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell ; with Mind and Matter ; & Autobiographical Sketches. (From the Cambridge University Press 2012 edition translated by Schrodinger's granddaughter, Verena). Schrödinger writes on page 129:

There is obviously only one alternative, namely the unification of minds or consciousnesses. Their multiplicity is only apparent, in truth there is only one mind.

The second sentence does not appear in this particular book and appears to be an addendum by someone else as Brian Z has outlined.

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