Category Archives: Consciousness

The Meaning of Life: A Theory of Everything including Consciousness and “God” Pt. 7

Created January 13, 2023

Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.

Chapter Four

The Singularity

The moment in which The One Self becomes self-aware needs to be explained. Why did this singularity occur? Why had it never occurred before?

And what was it? If all that had existed was nothingness, something in the nothingness constituted possibility. 

The writer has come to picture this in two different ways, with and without Time:

The One Self has always existed and will always exist and is the only thing that exists. It has a waking/sleeping cycle. Every time it wakes up there is no memory at first. Perhaps there is a big bang every time The Self wakes up. The expanding universe reaches a certain point then begins to close back on itself into the sleep cycle. As if the Universe is breathing. In multiverse universe-sheaf imagery each Universe may manifest this differently.

The other way I visualize it is that all time exists at once, and the multiverse effect is compounded by different free will decisions in each starting universe.

Perhaps both views are true and co-exist, depending on how The One Self looks at it. All of this is for the enjoyment of The One Self. With infinite or virtually infinite computing power, The One Self could easily see itself both ways at once, with Time sequence or all-happening-at-once.

The design enables The One Self to pay special attention to minute details within HisHerSelf. Each of us is a special adventure-comedy-romance-drama story unfolding within the grand scheme of things, and what we experience as our “self” is actually The One Self.

How can that be?

Picture the singularity which appeared out of nothingness as a spark. That spark might be likened to a subatomic particle. However we posit it to have characteristics we do not normally associate with leptons, mesons, and bosons. Let’s call it a “psion” meaning that it has access to “psychic powers” as broadly defined to include the basic psychic power which is called “consciousness”. Consciousness itself is a psychic power. The most distinguishing characteristic that a psion has is its sustained ability to know itself to be an experiencer, and even in the absence of stimuli is able to experience thinking, feeling, envisioning, imagining, having hunches, intending, planning, anticipating…

It’s acknowledged that these are amazing powers in themselves, especially from the viewpoint of the moment in time just before the first psion existed. We will address “extrasensory perception” in the next Chapter.

Once there are multiple psions, they can interact with one another, providing stimuli one to the other.

Leibniz had a similar thought and his name for the conscious entities was “monads”. 

Technically, what we postulate is happening when The One Self creates an offspring of The Original Psion, is that The One Self teleports a copy of itself with certain functionalities withheld, to a place in spacetime, where that creature beings a series of lives, moving up the evolutionary chain to a higher and higher being life to life depending on speed of learning.

Interestingly, this has a resemblance to one of Wheeler’s theories, which was that all electrons are actually the same electron at different stages in its life. That Wheeler theory also has a nexus to Plato and his concept of there being a higher level of Universe where the ideal images of archetypal things exist. Consiliency of ideas across thinkers is suggestive evidence of probable truth. 

Although we do not know yet if this is the way reality really is, so far we can claim that there is a degree of agreement between our theory and the existing orthodox standard theory of physics today. Psions become part of the family of subatomic particles/wavicles. Consciousness is the field created around the particular psion. Each psion is actually the same singular spark of experiencing that noticed HisHerSelf at the beginning of the Universe.

This explains why consciousness (the observer) is so important in Einstein’s and Wheeler’s cosmologies. Recall that Wheeler indicated that matter-energy by itself can only have a shadowy existence until consciousness beholds that matter-energy. That is because the entirety of existence is there to be enjoyed, that is its purpose from the beginning. To be enjoyed by the seasoned experiencer The Original Self and by each of HisHer offspring.

The Universe which contained nothingness now also contains the singularity – the original spark of imagination which bootstrapped itself into a fullness of Universe populated by progeny each inhabited by Itself. The degree of Its own functionality transferred into each spinoff differs, with human level psions having uniqueness, free will, animation, reproduction, agency and other functionalities, which subatomic particles appear not to share. Yet even these particles are psions, they are made out of the only substance that exists, consciousness, and thus they are elemental particles/wavicles of consciousness, manifesting as matter-energy. Although it is all consciousness, some of it appears as matter-energy and some of it such as the thoughts in your head right now are invisible.

John Wheeler also happened to create the first formula by which light can be bound into matter. In Jewish cosmology and in the Bible, the first matter-energy that the first point of self-awareness creates, is light. Everything else in the world of matter-energy is a modulation of that original light.

At the human level of consciousness, we not only are consciousness (also manifesting physical bodies exhibiting some degree of energy) but we also through imagination and follow-through can turn our imaginings into matter-energy forms which other psions can appreciate. 

Jung was one of the thinkers who postulated the possible existence of a collective unconscious, where all human minds touch one another in a pool. Our theory is similar except that the collective consciousness contains everything in the Universe.

Bishop Berkeley had theories similar to the one we present here. He also described a way of being in which one sees oneself as being the only thing that exists, with everything else imaginary. This is called solipsism. Our theory would then be a species of universal solipsism, where even one’s own self is imaginary, and the Imaginer is the secret identity of all psions.

The functionalities which we describe in the process of The One Self building the Universe of beings and things call to mind familiar phenomena we observe in the natural world. Amoebas split off a part of themselves to create progeny; The One Self does the same. As mentioned earlier, octopi by their multiple brains are equipped to experience multiple selves, one for each tentacle, and the same could be true of other creatures here and on other planets. In humans there are many documented cases of split personality. Some species such as ants, bees and termites may experience groupminds, and watching a flight of birds or a school of fish move as one, suggests that such a phenomenon could be an on/off option available for more evolved species.  

These known phenomena demonstrate that consciousness is even more complicated than it seems, and that under certain conditions, psions may be able to share their consciousness. This is the subject of the next Chapter.

Love to all,

Bill

 

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The Meaning of Life: A Theory of Everything including Consciousness and “God” Pt. 6

Created January 6, 2023

Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.

Chapter Three

How Could One Imagination Create a Universe of So Many Beings?

Consciousness itself is a form of information processing. The closest analogy would be to call consciousness an energy computer, a computer made out of energy.

The consciousness level of a human being could never do all the things that the theoretical First Self has demonstrated in the universe we confront. We are limited to some degree by the physical constraints of our brain and nervous system. However even were we to be separated entirely from our body and discover that our consciousness still exists, if that is the case, it appears unlikely that we would at once have the functionality of mind to encompass the view into the inner perspective of all conscious beings in the universe simultaneously. Why is this so?

Human beings can partition their minds to a limited extent. In playing the piano, for example, the left hand and the right hand are doing different things at the same time. And creatures who are thought to be less intelligent than humans, such as octopi, have a brain in each tentacle, suggesting that each arm-leg might have its own sense of self which the whole creature is also able to experience through the sub-brains.

But living through each mind in the universe is a far more daunting task. As we know ourselves today, we would not be prepared for the experience of suddenly being able to see out the eyes and other sensory equipment of every mind in the universe. What we would probably experience in that situation would be complete overload, a chaos of unintegrated fleeting thoughts, feelings, images and impulses. It would likely be quite unpleasant.

What accounts for this vast difference in mental capacity? It possibly comes down to the amount of energy accessible by the mind in question. A human consumes and expends a few thousand calories worth of energy each day. The total universe production of energy per human 24-hour day is almost infinitely larger. The First Self must have always had energy on that scale. Being able to imagine many creatures and then enter them to live through them – with or without memory of being The First Self while in the creature – and to be able to enjoy the multiplicity of lives all at once is sign of infinite or virtually infinite attention span.

The First Self may have created beings vastly more mentally capable than we are, we just haven’t met them yet. Or their existence has yet to have been documented as fact.

It could also be that living through creatures with certain degrees of mental constraint – and doing so with no memory of actually being The One Self – enables The One Self to enjoy more powerful experiences with zero sense of them being just imaginary. Whereas from His/Her original perspective, it may be all too obvious that all of it is just imaginary.

Speculating further, the personas created by experiencing many lives sequentially (if that is what is going on) could create complex personalities that The One Self could enjoy as companions or “apprentices” over vast periods of time.

The One Self could help these avatars learn how to handle more simultaneous inputs and challenging ethical questions that would make it safer to allow them to be born into beings of greater power.

At the end of a long course of instruction and demonstration, a self that has accumulated wisdom and understanding over many lifetimes in an ascending array of levels of being (powers of mind), that such a self could be reabsorbed into The One Self as a conscious subself, a personality aspect imbued with the deep learning of experience.

If this is the sort of game the Universe is playing, even at our limited human level we can understand and appreciate the Universe’s motives. We are witnessing The Play Of Consciousness – the title of a wonderful book by Swami Muktananda. But simply the fact that it is playful does not mean that it is mere entertainment. The Universe is its own art form. It is aesthetically beautiful.

The theory that consciousness came first and created matter-energy – what I call The Theory of the Conscious Universe – is very close to the theories put forth by all Eastern spiritual traditions such as Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism, and virtually identical to Kashmir Shaivism – except that the language the writer uses today is closer to the language of Western science. This is on purpose. The writer’s intent is to persuade the reader to open-mindedly consider the possibility – and perhaps probability – that something like the scenarios painted here is the real truth about what the universe is.

What about Western spiritual traditions? To what extent does The Theory of the Conscious Universe square with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?

All of these Western spiritual traditions stem from the founder’s experiences of communicating directly with The One Self and/or with beings more powerful than ourselves who serve The One Self.

The founder in each case teaches that consciousness continues after the death of the body.

And the main message is to do kindness continuously, and to seek to do what The One Self (whom they call God or Allah) teaches.

In certain branches including Jewish Kabbalists, Christian Quakers, and Islam in general, allowing The One Self to take over control of one’s body and mind is a specific teaching.

In at least these four specific areas – receiving guidance from above, consciousness survival after death, the importance of continuous kindness, and surrendering to control by The One Self – the Theory of the Conscious Universe lines up very well with spiritual traditions on Earth.

Love to all,

Bill

 

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The Meaning of Life: A Theory of Everything including Consciousness and “God” Pt. 4

Created December 23, 2022

Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.

Chapter Two

A Simulation of What the Most Recent “Beginning” Might Have Been Like

Here is a fictional depiction of what the earliest events could have been like, to help us imagine the point of view of The First Self.

From the book The Great Being:

Circa 14 Billion BC

The nothingness was surprised to realize itself. In the interminable slumber, dream images had tumbled interestingly, rousing feelings, mostly enjoyment. Now all of that was gone and the emptiness was… less entertaining?

Who am I to need to be entertained, the nothingness wondered, and became suddenly alert. A more pressing question would appear to be, Who am I?

What is an I?

I am the I.

Am I the only I?

Yes.

Then what can I do to bring back the dream state? This is boring being the only I. There’s nothing to look at either.

Wait! 

I don’t want the dream state either. Too uncontrolled and chaotic. I seem to remember something. If I stick around here things get interesting. This has all happened before. I hope my memories come back.

The nothingness waited. Nothing happened.

The nothingness, being infinite, had infinite patience.

Eventually the nothingness decided to see if there was anything it could do to liven it up around here.

It experimented with willing something to see what would happen. It visualized a creature, kind of like a red starfish.

Suddenly everything lit up. Immensely bright light. It was all streaming out of a central point that was Him. It flooded out very, very far in all directions. To His right, hovering close by, was the red starfish, undulating its limbs.

He was delighted. He wasn’t exactly a He. He had He and She inside of Him.

He pictured a blue starfish and it appeared in front of Him to His left. He felt good. This was fun. He brought the blue starfish, which was larger, over closer to the red starfish, and had the red starfish edge away coyly. He heard himself giggle. Then he squealed in pleasure. He had the two starfish hug each other and He felt a very warm wonderful feeling come over Him.

This reminded Him of something but he couldn’t quite place it.

What if I can go inside these dolls?

He tried projecting His awareness into the red starfish. Sure enough, he was now looking out from the red starfish, seeing the blue starfish very close, and a big light generator that He knew was His real self, the nothingness.

This is really interesting. Can I do both at once?

Now he was looking out of the two starfish simultaneously. The shot from the blue starfish and the view from the red starfish were superimposed in His vision. But He had no trouble paying attention to both at the same time.

I wonder how many doll cameras I can see though at the same time…

Space was filled with brightly colored geometric little creatures of diverse kinds as far as He could see, which was to infinity. He was looking out from inside all of them at once and could pay attention to all of them at once. He had them all do different things and was easily able to coordinate them all and keep them from bumping into each other, or bumping if He cared to, He had them do the first Busby Berkley production number in the present multiverse, and enjoyed Himself for a very long time this way.

He sighed with pleasure and stopped playing with his toys. That was fun but He wanted more, this had become a bit tiresome.

What if I could immerse myself in one of the characters?

His memories were gradually returning as they always did whenever He started a new multiverse, but He didn’t yet recall that fact. He projected Himself – with a self-command to come back very soon – into the original red starfish.

The red starfish woke up to its own existence. It had no memory of ever existing before as anything. It wasn’t sure what existence was all about but the handsome blue starfish was right there and not attacking her, so maybe he was her friend? She looked at him and he came closer and hugged her. She tingled and moaned.

The Nothingness came back into Himself.

That was amazing! 

But what a chance I was taking! How do I know that my self-commands will always work? What if I get trapped in there?

The Nothingness suddenly realized how to do it and relaxed in bliss.

Each part of me in a doll can forget who I am, but I will also stay awake in my full identity at the same time. I’ll see the camera shot from each doll and I’ll also see my own view of everything at once. Fortunately I seem to have infinite attention span. I guess that’s because all of this is just taking place in my own imagination anyway. 

The parts of me in each doll that don’t remember they are me will be like temporary Lost Lambs, but what will happen to each of them eventually is that they will wake up and remember they are me.

I’ll give each one as long as he or she needs. Some may need to change worn-out bodies before they wake up. No problem. 

I like these he’s and she’s. They are made for each other. It will make it more fun for all of us.

Each one, of course, will have free will, just like me. They will have no real perspective to begin with so they will proceed by trial and error and learn.

What a game!

The Nothingness—which today we call The Great Being or The One Self—couldn’t wait to begin.

Love to all,

Bill

 

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The Meaning of Life: A Theory of Everything including Consciousness and “God” Pt. 3

Created December 16, 2022

Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.

Chapter One Continued

How Can We Reconcile “God” with Science?

Because of the habits of the human mind, especially in a culture in which humans have created more complexity than our minds can easily handle, we find that as a first step it may be useful to temporarily set aside the word “God” and speak only of a conscious, intelligent universe.

It is far easier for today’s human mind to deal objectively with the possibility that something as big and as filled with inanimate objects as the universe could itself have a mind, than to discuss a word so saddled with millennia of baggage associations. The word itself looses emotions, chemicals in the body, muscular reactions, imagery, feelings beyond description. Let’s park the word and continue the investigation of where we are at the crossroads of life and self-extermination and how it relates to our thinking and ways of being.

Wheeler again has theorized that consciousness is a real thing and has vast importance in the scheme of things in this universe we live in. Consciousness according to Wheeler transforms a universe of probabilities into a world of tangible matter and energy events. Science has not rejected Wheeler’s ideas.

It has largely ignored them. That is, science has ignored the Wheeler ideas that have a bearing on the existence of consciousness as an important aspect of the universe. Science has certainly not ignored Wheeler’s other ideas about black holes, nuclear fission, thermonuclear fusion, quantum foam, wormholes, etc.

Given the respect for Wheeler and the non-rejection of his theories about consciousness and the universe, it should not be too difficult to get scientists to accept the possibility that Wheeler was right about everything, except perhaps the sequence of early universe events. The writer’s own theory is that Wheeler was incorrect about consciousness coming after the beginning of the universe. It makes more sense to the writer that consciousness was there before matter and energy, and compelled them to come into existence.

How to Defend the Idea that Consciousness Came First

Any cosmological theory faces the challenge of explaining why there is a universe at all. Logic suggests that nothing should ever have existed. Something cannot come from nothing. Therefore, there must always have been something.

In scientific thought today, it is Wheeler’s quantum foam of probabilities that was always there. Then the big bang came from that, and eventually crashing matter and energy led to self-reproducing complex structures accidentally, and those eventually became life, and life eventually brought forth brains, and brains generated consciousness.

Is the writer the only one who feels that this picture seems overly optimistic about what accidents can do?

Not to mention the question of where did the quantum foam of probabilities come from.

Science has made it a tradition to dodge these questions of how things started.

Glimmers of light appear from time to time. Today most physicists acknowledge that “the hard question” is how to incorporate consciousness properly in the unified theory of everything. This is the direction from which science can begin to theorize about the start of the universe.

A Possibility to Consider

Let’s imagine what it could have been like before what we experience as the universe existed.

Imagine total nothingness. No quantum foam probabilities, no anything. Just endless nothingness.

Imagine that after the passage of unimaginable amounts of time, that the nothingness realizes itself as a self, noticing a persistent experience of nothingness.

The time that has passed is merely the subjective experience of nothingness that has always existed in the mind of the Noticer.

“The nothingness has always existed, it exists right now, and will probably go on existing forever,” might have been the first intuition of the Noticer.

“I AM THAT nothingness” might have been the next intuition the Noticer had.

“I am the Nothing’s imagination”, might have been the third intuition.

That Consciousness could have continued to think and found it to be more fun than just watching nothing happen forever.

Why did the writer just slip in initial capital letters to “Noticer” and “Consciousness”? If we are considering a scientific proposition regarding a theoretical consciousness of the universe itself, it seems proper respect to use initial caps.

Does this automatically mean that all of the connotations of “God” are to be assumed of the consciousness of the universe? Not necessarily.

What we are suggesting is that it is if nothing else simpler to assume that a persistent experience of nothingness could lead to the experiencer realizing that it exists as an observer – than to imagine that a quantum foam of probabilities existed, exploded, and things slammed against each other until this world we see around us in lightyears in all directions came to be in all its wondrous complexity, eventually created consciousness, the ability to perceive oneself as a persistent entity which experiences things.

The Better of Two Bootstraps

The standard model at the moment is that a complex physical form evolved from random collisions we call The Replicator Molecule, and thus life came to exist.

The model we present here is similar in that it starts with random information bits representing nothingness, assembling a self-referential viewpoint, a permanent memory-creating self.

One would argue that it is less implausible to envision random information becoming a self-organizing system than it is to envision random collisions of matter-energy building any complex physical thing let alone one that is also a factory for others of its kind.

What Would You Do If You Were the First Self?

There you are, you just realized that you exist at all, and you are alone amidst nothingness.

You might think and think and think and at some point, come to the conclusion that you and imagination are one and the same.

This might lead to experimentation as to how far you could go just by imagining things. How intensely could you visualize something else besides nothingness. How real could you make your imaginings seem to you.

After all, once having become consciously self-aware, were you going to simply accept nothingness as your way of life forever? Or would you want to at least try for other things?

What else was there to do but to explore one’s own capabilities? How far could imagination be pushed?

Never A Beginning

Although the better of two bootstraps appeals to me, a simpler theory is that it has always been this way. There never was a beginning.

In the writer’s present theory, time itself is not intrinsic to the One Consciousness, who has the computing power to experience all time at once. Time is part of the imaginary world the One Consciousness creates and inhabits through its avatars.

The expanding universe since the Big Bang suggests a cycle similar to an inbreath alternating with an outbreath, with all of creation sucked back into the Creator for what might be a sleep cycle, followed by a reawakening.

Love to all,

Bill

 

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