Deepak Chopra, author of the American bestseller, Quantum Healing, uses the analogy of wave-particle duality in quantum physics to enunciate a theoretical basis of mind-body medicine. Light can behave like a wave A, or a particle B. In Newtonian physics, they are totally different, since waves are nonmaterial and particles concrete.

In order for a light wave to become a photon, or light particle, it has to pass through a unknown realm not covered by Newton's laws, but governed by quantum mechanics. This basic quantum event governs the transformation of abstract thought into the concrete neuropeptide, as Chopra presents it.

In the diagram, A is a mental event, or thought; all the other letters are physical events that follow A. For example, if you feel afraid (A), then the other letters stand for signals to your adrenal glands, the production of adrenalin, the pounding of your heart, heightened blood pressure, and so on. All of which can be connected in a logical chain of cause and effect, except for the space after A. This the point where the transformation from thought to matter occurs.

What exactly happens in the so-called ? Zone is a mystery, both in physics and medicine. Miraculous cures seem to be examples of dipping into the ? zone, because the cooperation of matter and mind takes an inexplicable quantum leap in such cases.