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Dear Paul,
"We" must be about that same age.
1. I am interested in your comment:
"I think that there is only one knower in the entire reality. So, that means that there is only one self in the entire universe. It means that you and I, Wanda, are the same self. Or, at least, whatever parts of our respective psyches really constitute the self are not separate and distinct, but one and the same and identical. "
While living in a Siddha Yoga Ashram I had the opportunity to ask a Swami what our consciousness was and where it came from. He replied that our individual consciousness is just a small part of the total consciousness of the universe, of God, which leaks thru our physical body.
2. And regarding a medium that can allow for remote human consciousness as in OBE, I have suggested that it resides in Dark Matter in a paper presented at the Quantum Mind 2003 Conference in Tuscan, AZ.
I have had some interesting feedback since then. First from an Indian Professor:
"From: As you are familiar with the Indian Philosophy, you may know that the mentionof the dark matter have been made in many places with the term "Tamas".which is the primordial consciousness.The other thing is that the various mode of consciousness in waking, deep sleepand in dream states are discussed in Advaita school Your paper is interestingwith scientific explanations While in philosophy one has to do wiyh speculativesc. The discussions in philosophical contexts are interesting though.Meera"
So Hindu thought support the idea that dark matter is the medium of primordial consciousness.
3. Regarding the definition of "we" or "self" or "soul". I prefer to concentrate on the idea of the knower as the real "we". But I see several levels involved in an individuals "knower".
i) there is the physical awareness aspect of consciousness presumably based on physical processes like the dipoles of Frolich or the microtubules of Penrose/Hameroff, or even the neurons of Crick. This is solely a waking consciousness or knower
ii) there is next the sleeping consciousness based in the dark matter medium, whether it be in axions or some other dark matter constituent. Most humans are actually not very aware of this knower. But it is on this level that human consciousness can leave the body and survive death. This might be the self or the soul.
iii) and I propose that there is an even higher level of consciousness, a knower or potential knower, based in dark energy.
I come these conjectures based on string theory. Please allow me to copy over a post from the WEDconsciousness forum, one that Wanda also contributes to. But before doing so, I wish to applaud the discussion that you Paul and Wanda have been having on consciousness. And I think that with this forum in its current moderated state, we may finally begin to have serious discussions on God&Science, even though the responses may be slow in coming.
Fondly,
Richard Ruquist
RICHARD wrote: > Chris,>> I am partial to the view of the makeup of our universe that comes from> string theory. But I am unable to determine if this is a monist view> or not. To wit:>> Witten has proposed a 11-d supersymmetric string theory called> M-theory. In Duff's explanation of the consequences of this theory for> our universe, there exists two separate 10-d worlds connected by the> 11th dimension, one world being our 10-d physical world and the other> being the 10-d world of Dark Matter. In each of these 10-d worlds, 6> dimensions are compactified, and the 11th dimension is also compactified.>> Aspects of the dark matter world are entangled with the physical> world. That is, a shadow or reflection of the physical world exists in> the dark matter world.>> Entanglement is explained in string theory as the connection of> particles via the compactified dimemsions. For example, in the EPR> experiments, where two entangled particles are created at a point and> fly off in opposite directions in 3-d space. However, they remain> connected in the compactified 6 dimensions which form a Planck scale> thread from one particle to the other (e.g., like the silver thread in> OBE).>> So the presumption is that there are particles in dark matter that are> entangled with every physical particle. Since in the EPR experiments,> when the entanglement is broken by measurements on one of the> particles, the thread precipatates into 3-d space as axions, I presume> that the entanglement to the dark matter world is with axions in dark> matter. But that is a digression.>> For completeness, my conjecture is that Dark Energy is still another> world, perhaps entangled with dark matter. The simplest form of string> theory is a 26-d theory of only closed strings (only bosons), or pure> energy. Physicists did not like that theory because some of the bosons> were tachyons, particles that are faster than the speed of light,> hence the invention of 10-d theories that also predicted fermions, or> matter.>> So my conjecture is that dark energy is 26-d with 22 compactified> dimension. BTW, Abraham's Book of Creation supports both the idea of a> 10-d world with 6 compactified, and a 26-d world with 22 compactified> dimensions. The cosmology is that the universe started as a 26-d> unified field that first inflated to 10-d with the compactification of> 16 dimensions, in order to create matter from energy; and subsequently> inflated to 4-d spacetime by compactification of 6 dimensions in both> dark matter and the physical world.>> So in theosophical terms we have the physical plane, and the> astral/mental plane of dark matter, then the buddhic plane of dark> energy, and perhaps higher planes that are entirely undetectable. Each> plane subsumes to lower one and the lower is completely entangled with> the next one up via compactified dimensions.>> Now back to the original question. Is this model of the universe a> monist one. If not, it is not exactly dualism either, as there are> many planes of existence.>> It seems to be monist in the sense that each plane contains a medium> of particles or fields. The particles of the physical plane are known.> The particles of the dark matter plane are unknown, but still thought> to be particles and amenable to a physics or metaphysical explanation.> Presumably all planes are amenable to a physics type explanation if we> only had the experiments to base it on. In other words, the universe> is monist because it is just made up of particles and fields- not> anything foreign to out thinking. We just do not known what they are,> although we can guess at some of their properties.>> It seems that the old dualistic model of the phyical world and the> supernatural world has in string physics been replaced by a heirarchy> or worlds. Any comments, anybody?>> Richard Ruquist |
