Quantum computer works best switched off

I wish I understood quantum theory a bit better so I could better understand this article: Quantum computer works best switched off. I want to read this as supporting spiritual or psychic awareness, but I don't know enough to quite follow the dots.

The article discusses what they call: "Even for the crazy world of quantum mechanics, this one is twisted. A quantum computer program has produced an answer without actually running."

Okay, so my first problem is I don't quite understand what a quantum computer is. The article discusses sending photons through some mirrors, and somehow that causes some database queries. My reading is obviously a little behind.

Where I connect this with psychic awareness is a little circuitous, so hang on.

It's fairly well understood among the spiritually aware that you can talk with reality. Spiritual traditions for millenia have talked about life in everything, and the universal consciousness of which we all are a part.

How does that fit with quantum physics? Simply because it's apparent to me that whatever it is the spiritually aware are doing, it is operating within the universe and hence could be understood by physicists if they'd only quit giggling. For example it's been shown that remote healing has an effect, and healing practices in general have a physical effect.

I'm a participant in an ongoing study being conducted by a researcher at the Univ of Arizona into energy healers and energy healing. The study contains a whole battery of tests conducted over a week-long period. One of the tests shows a clear connection between performing energy healing on a plant leaf (without even touching the leaf), and a physical response by that plant leaf.

Specialists in working with crystals claim they talk with the crystals. Shamans claim they take journies through the universe. Psychics say they can see long distances, see the future, see the past, etc. There's a branch of psychic awareness which picks up historical information about objects or places, supposedly from some left over resonance still present in the object.

What I'm getting at is an idea I've seen in some quantum physics books. That the material world is a computation device that provides us a sensory experience. What if our consciousness were able to directly interact with the computation that goes to creating the material world?

Just some rambling thoughts, I'm afraid, without real conclusion ...