[Acting Like Godot]

You see, what really troubles you is the cause-&-effect idea. You cannot understand how a person thinking thoughts in one place could possibly cause something to happen in another place.

In physics, this is called the principle of locality. It can be stated as follows - "distant objects cannot have direct influence on one another: an object is influenced directly only by its immediate surroundings."

The thing is - the principle of locality has already been rejected by quantum physicists. After carefully studying the behaviour of subatomic particles (which all matter is ultimately built on), quantum physicists have concluded that either

(a) the principle of locality is true AND multiple universes exist; OR
(b) the principle of locality is not true.

So you either have to accept that:

(1) there could be multiple universes (and in each different universe, a different person gets to win first prize in the lottery);

OR you have to accept that:

(2) there is only one universe that keeps blinking in and out of existence, AND the principle of nonlocality applies (eg a person sitting faraway from the lottery spinning machine can nevertheless affect the lottery spinning macine with his thoughts).

In either scenario, LOA can hold true. It's fairly obvious that LOA would hold true in (2) - but let me explain how it would hold true in (1).

Suppose 200 people think thoughts about winning the first prize in the lottery prize but only one person can win. Ah, but that would be on a per-universe basis. According to Hugh Everett (a theoretical physicist, not a spiritual quack) what would happen is that the universe would divide into 200 universes, and in each universe, a different person would win first prize.

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Let me explain why Nobel Prize winning physicist David Bohm thinks that the principle of locality is untrue.

We already know that our friendly sub-atomic particle (let's call it a wave-particle) can exist as a wave or as a particle, but that until it is observed, it is neither. When we observe it, we can ask the question:

(1) "where is it?" (and once you do that, you fix its position and therefore it becomes a particle)

OR we can ask the question:

(2) "what its its momentum" (and once you do that, you've decided that momentum is the critical factor - therefore it becomes a wave).

But you cannot ask both questions, because it cannot be a wave or a particle at the same time.

Now imagine that we have TWO identical wave-particles A & B that are shot off in opposite directions. What happens if we ask about the location of A and ask about the momentum of B? Bear in mind that the particles are identical, so whatever calculation for one will hold true for the other.

Then, knowing the location of A simultaneously tells us the location of B, and collapses B into a particle.
that they fly off in opposite directions. After 3 seconds, we decide to observe A.

And this has been confirmed both mathematically AND experimentally. This is known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experiment.

In other words, there is some nonlocal connection between A and B. These two particles are far apart - in fact, they are travelling at tremendous speed further and further away from each other - yet when you do something to A, the very nature of B changes as well.

So what happens to A can drastically affect B, even though they are far, far apart and travelling at around the speed of light - away from each other. It's as if the particles are communicating with each other - "Hey, A, are you a wave or a particle now? You're a particle? Okay, I'll turn into a particle too!"

So what we have is practically two sub-atomic particles talking to each other, and they aren't even in the same place.

So now you understand why a man sitting in a room thinking thoughts to himself could possibly affect a lottery spinning machine in the next building.

Don't forget, the man is made of sub-atomic particles. He's blinking in and out of existence and travelling at the speed of light. It doesn't really take him very long for his subatomic particles to get to the next building.

And don't forget - the spinning machine doesn't exist unless it's observed. That's Bohm again. Nothing is real unless it's observed. Observation implies consciousness. If the man turns his consciousness onto the machine in the next building - what happens next?