This post is one in a series where I try to explain my view on consciousness. For me the words ‘Spirit’, ‘Soul’ are just synonyms for ‘Consciousness’, in my posts I have on purpose used all of these words as I wan’t the readers to get a feel for the topic regardless of their preposition.
These ideas are the core of my metaphysics.
Everything is Ideas
Consciousness creates realities; the Consciousness is the cause, and a reality is the effect. The Idea is the Consciousness’s tool to create reality.
The Primary Subjective Hyperreality
As I have mentioned in previous posts, the Consciousness does not exists until self-realization or self awareness. Before self-realization nothing exists; no time, no space, no mass, no empty void, just nothing.
When a Consciousness becomes self aware it has an emotion that it exists; this is what I call the ‘I AM’-emotion. This is the first emotion of the Consciousness and is gained through a sudden introspection.
After the Consciousness has realized its own existence it has its first idea; time. This comes as realization since it realized that ‘before’ it did not realize it existed, but ‘now’ it does. So, therefore the Consciousness’s idea of before and after create time itself. When the Consciousness realizes that it has created the very time it exists in it has what I call the ‘I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN’-emotion, which is its second emotion.
The Consciousness’s third emotion is the ‘I WILL ALWAYS BE’-emotion; this is result of Consciousness’s realization that it created the hyperreality it resides by the means of its own ideas and therefore will always exist as long as its hyperreality does, which is forever.
These three emotions plus the idea of time is what I call the Primary Subjective Hyperreality; ‘Primary’ since it is the first and most basic hyperreality a Consciousness can experience, and ‘Subjective’ since it (so far) only applies to the Consciousness at hand. This Primary Subjective Hyperreality is Solipsism at its most true form.
More introspection create more complex realities
Intrigued by itself the Consciousness explores its own hyperreality, adding to its complexity with more ideas that creates more complex forms of reality. The Consciousness is always in motion, exploring its reality in all its forms. The more it explores its reality the more its ideas create. An example may be that the Consciousness observes that it now knows more than it did before; enter mathematics.
Illusions
The Consciousness realized that all but it’s three basic emotions may be illusions, thus the primary goal of the Consciousness is to separate what is facts from illusions. As an example, the idea of there being other Consciousness’s may enter, but the Consciousness knows that the idea of another Consciousness may create one, which would cause it to be an illusion and not something real. But in fact, it may conclude that both statements are true; that it is equally true if it creates a Consciousness by its own ideas as if the second Consciousness had created itself or had been created by another Consciousness.
Merging of hyperrealities
Before merging of one Consciousness hyperreality with another Consciousness hyperreality a common concept of space and time must exists. The idea and creating of a space may occur when the Consciousness explores the ideas of other Consciousness’s not being ‘here’ but ‘somewhere but here’.
Two or more Consciousness hyperrealities can only merge if they share the same ideas of space and time. Also, they need to locate each other in what is their perception of space and time before they can start to perceive each other. Only after they realize each others presence can they begin to merge or communicate.
It is important to understand that the two to be merged hyperrealities may be vastly different in its ideas of reality. Most concepts of their realities may differ and they may therefore not understand each other or be able to perceive each others hyperreality.
If I was to make an example (please mind that this is a very abstract example to explain my ideas) of this then imagine that the Consciousness had lived inland all its life and had no other concepts than dirt and dust etc. Then one day the first Consciousness travelled far and came to a sea; the sea is here the abstract example of the second Consciousness’s perceived hyperreality. Since the first Consciousness had no concept of what a ‘sea’ was it would sit down and ponder what this weird and beautiful thing could be. After studies, the first Consciousness create new ideas of the waves in the sea being like blue sand dunes, which were concepts it already knew from before abstracted to its own reality. The second Consciousness may also be studying the hyperreality of the first Consciousness and tries to figure it out. If that second Consciousness tries to make contact with the first, thus breaching into the first Consciousness hyperreality, it may not be clear to the first Consciousness at first; as the second Consciousness comes out from the sea the first Consciousness may think to itself -“That’s a strange wave”, as its concepts are lacking to understand what it sees. Just imagine if you yourself would experience something that you had no concept of understanding, where you had no symbols to relate to; then everyone would have its own subjective experience and some would explain the experience as a ghost, some a troll or even having met the devil himself, other again would see a light in the sky, etc., all so to explain the experience to themselves using symbols they can relate to.
If it dawns for the Consciousness’s that they have met another Consciousness their ideas will work as a bridge that form a new merged hyperreality, this is achieved through study of the other Consciousness hyperreality. This new merged hyperreality may be vastly more complex as they feed of each others ideas and create new ideas which in turn creates more reality asf. An indefinably number of hyperrealities can be merged in this fashion.
Rules in the hyperrealities are added by mutual agreement between Consciousness’s. How else can you play a game than without mutually agreed upon rules?
Universe
I postulate that our own universe is a reality created by these Consciousness’s, which are Us; all Conscious Beings, and here We explore Our own common reality. There may very well be other universes too, that have been merged, are, or will be merged with Ours, or even Universes that We can not perceive.
All that I know is that I am, I am, I am.
Albert Einstein once said “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one”. Within his simple quote lies great metaphysical truth and mysteries; how do you know anything is real?
Recent films like The Matrix and philosophical books like Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation explores the idea that everything may be a dream or simulation of some sort or another. Mind you, the idea is not new within religion and philosophy; it has spawned ideas like Solipsism.
“I AM, I AM, I AM”
So, if everything can be an illusion, can we know anything for certain at all? My conclusion is YES! Self-aware beings know that they exists. Self-awareness is the sensation of knowing that You Are, sometimes accompanied by a sensation that You have always existed, and will always exist. Students within the Mystery School traditions may exclaim “I AM, I AM, I AM” to acknowledge that they have been Enlightened to this fact. The first “I AM” is the realization that You Are, the second that You Have Always Existed, and the third that You Will Always Exist.
So, what the heck is “Self-Awareness”
I broke these theories to a friend of mine once, and he could not grasp it since he (according to himself) has no sensation of self-awareness. I thought long and hard to find a simple way of explaining what self-awareness is to someone that is not, the challenge was dazzling since it is sort of like explaining what colours are to someone that has been blind since birth.
I finally think that I found a simple way of explaining what self-awareness is to people that don’t acknowledge that they are self-aware themselves.
The Dream Proof
Most people dream when they sleep, some more vividly than others. Sometimes when one sleep one realizes that the dream is not “real”, which often causes the person to wake up. This sensation of you feeling less real in a dream and the dream not being the true reality is exactly what self-awareness is; a profound emotion that You Exist and that You are real. An emotion that may be hard to explain with conventional logic. When you feel less real in a dream your conscious mind may say “Hey! This is not reality!” and You Awaken from The Dream.
My definition of the spirit
Spirit or soul mean different things to different people and religions. To me the spirit is defined by the following axioms:
-Belongs to the hyperreality
-Expresses itself in reality through biological lifeforms
-Trancends the biological lifeform
-Source of the consciousness
These axioms give some surprising results:
-Memory retained after the biological lifeform is dead and is only expressed though the brain
-The brain is just a “film projector” for the spirit which is the base of conscious thought, rather than the brain being the base of consciousness
-A sense of identity can exist after death of the biological lifeform
Know Thyself
The first rule of happiness is to Know Thyself, the second rule of happiness is to Know Thyself.
To learn who you are will teach you what makes you happy, and what does not. If you do not know who you are, then you may end up chasing what other people perceive as happiness. This can become a chase after material symbols of happiness, and not true happiness in a spiritual sense.
A hundred years ago people in the west may have thought of happiness as owning their own home and having a full stomach every day, today the majority of people in the west have all these material pleasures and much more, but are we truly more happy than before?
Only through introspection can you get to know your true persona, your inner self, your spiritual template.
A person that does not know himself may not even know why he is unhappy, he may have a good material life and have a high social standard. For all intents and purposes he should be a very happy person, but still he is plaqued with depression or a sad emotional state, everything may seem pointless without the person understanding why he is unhappy. The cause may be that he has fulfilled his material requirements for happiness, but not his spiritual needs. Unfortunately, western medicine often only treat the body and not the spirit in these cases, when visiting a doctor or psycologist he may only get drugs that treat the symptom and not the root of his problem. Others may just expand their quest for even more material symbols of happiness, in a never-ending loop of getting something better-than-before, something newer, or something with a higher social status.
It is easy to forget that we are flesh and spirit, and thus get caught up in the symbols of material happiness, forgetting that man is spirit foremost. Does not the spirit last forever, and the flesh only for a blink of an eye? Therefore, I claim that man should search for spiritual happiness first, and material happiness secondly.