17 The Laws of Illusions I: “Consciousness is not a science nor is it an art.”

“God said:…You may believe you understand consciousness very well, and not understand it at all. You may think you are ignorant of consciousness or even its existence, and yet know it far better than you know anything else.
Consciousness is not a science nor is it an art. What is it then? What is it that has been named by the word consciousness?
Cannot consciousness describe itself? And if it cannot, why not? How can it be known or unknown and not be identified? Must consciousness, this great power We call consciousness, must it be elusive even to itself? Where does it exist? And why can’t it be tallied when all want to explore it? “ HL 3242

There has been a trend since the years 1970- to incorporate cutting-edge science and ancient mystical knowledge. One of the classics of this era has been «The Tao of Physics, An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism» by Fritjof Capra (1975). Since that time, numerous works have been written, the latest popular ones being from Gregg Braden (Fractal Time, The God Code, The Matrix).  This trend is generally called ↑noetic sciences where it is attempted to bridge the gap between the physical world and the metaphysical world. In other terms, noetic scientists try to examine the connection between consciousness, thought process, knowledge, and the physical reality of neurocerebral processes. What is the link between matter and spirit?

  Historically, religious creationism —biblical theory of the creation of the world and of species, that is, the concept of an intelligent design behind the Universe (determinism without randomness)— and the almost exclusiveness of randomness (theory of random behavior of subatomic particles explaining the Big Bang, consciousness or thought process as an epiphenomenon of the brain and the result of neurochemical processes) never had much in common. In fact, they have been, if not enemies, at least indifferent towards each other.

THE ENIGMA OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Broadly speaking, noetic sciences attempt to bridge this gap. But how can this gap be bridged? Where do we put the first pillar of the bridge? If there is to be a bridge, what is the nature of the gap to be bridged? A river, a hole, a black hole? On which side do we start to link? What is the middle point of the meeting between the two shores of the gap? Can we build unity out of heteroclite or opposite components? Furthermore, if it is stated that matter is an illusion, where is the need to build a bridge? There seems to be more questions than answers unless some of the questions are their own answers: “You may believe you understand consciousness very well, and not understand it at all. You may think you are ignorant of consciousness or even its existence, and yet know it far better than you know anything else.”

Is this statement from God only enigmatic or does it express the reality of consciousness?

The core of the problem to bridge the gap is that on the side of metaphysics, we cannot use direct evidence as a proof (yet metaphysics can refer to indirect evidence called “manifestation”)  while the whole scientific method is based on the support of direct evidences obtained by measurement and instruments.

Conventional science states that the world consists only of energy and matter, that complexity is reducible to elementary basic components and that the appearance of the physical universe is the result of random fluctuations of these basic elements.  And all of these statements are supported by evidences through the use of laboratory instruments.

In the conventional scientific perspective, consciousness is seen as an epiphenomenon of the brain’s neurochemical processes. It is an “effect” of the brain. Thought cannot exist without a brain. It is the neurochemical activity of the brain that generates the thought process. This idea of consciousness as an epiphenomenon of the brain is evidenced by the modification of behavior (mental processes, changing of moods) by the use of drugs. The discovery in the brain of specific zones that control speech and other cognitive processes seems to confirm that view.

The problem with the conventional scientific approach is that reduction to reactions between elementary components of matter and energy, quantum fluctuations and randomness that are postulated at the base of the physical processes must have a backbone of laws to support them because the physical universe could not have any coherence if only based on randomness. Not only does the physical universe not seem to be controlled totally by randomness but it also seems to have an “intelligent” order, encouraging life instead of discouraging it.

Metaphysics postulates that thought exists beyond the brain because it is an ontological necessity. But this necessity cannot be demonstrated yet it exists. Existence cannot be proven by the fluctuation of components. Yet it is a necessity because it simply is. Yet it is undemonstrable.

So how can we link what can be evidenced or proven with what cannot be evidenced or proven?

«Consciousness is not a science nor is it an art»

Naturally, creationists, intelligent designer theorists, and scientific reductionists would want the first pillar to be put up into their yard. But if consciousness is neither a science nor an art, nor a religion, what is it and how can it be tackled?

There must be a key, but in order to find that key, we must forget for a while to try to reunite opposites. Opposites exist only in the world of perception. How can unity be the result of the reunion of two opposites? Unity is indivisible, therefore it cannot contain dual elements, it can contain only itself. It is its own origin and its own result. Hence, opposites are not really opposites. They must be in a  complementary relationship.

We have stated in our blog “Object versus Symbol II: About Symmetry” that symmetry in nature is not built on twoness but on Oneness.  This symmetry is based on the sameness or likeness of the parts, while in the seaming dualistic world it is based on twoness, on the unlikeness of the parts. The parts are in holographic relation. What seems to be the reunion of two halves is in reality One or 1 winded up around itself, establishing a relationship with Itself.  There are not two opposites. One term is the content of itself and the other term is the container of itself.  And this must also be the meaning of God’s quote at the beginning of this blog: “Cannot consciousness describe itself? 

A wonderful key is offered in this statement of God: “How can it be known or unknown and not be identified? Must consciousness, this great power We call consciousness, must it be elusive even to itself? Where does it exist? And why can’t it be tallied when all want to explore it?” Consciousness has the power to become unconscious of itself. This means that it can virtually forget or lose its identity but without really losing it. We could almost say that the necessity for consciousness to be perfectly One, self-conscious, indivisible contains the possibility of virtually becoming a random phenomenon, a self unconscious of itself in a seeming random world. Consciousness has the power of imagining different universes and thinking that these universes are real as well as imagining that,  as consciousness, it can become something different from itself by forgetting its original identity but never really losing it. Consciousness, which does not need memory since it simply is in the eternal present, invents itself a memory to get out of the labyrinth it created itself by imagining an outside world and imagining itself in this outside world. Memory is the way to get out of the continuum space-time with a past and future but deprived of real Present.

As we use computers to generate virtual realities, consciousness must use the brain to generate the world we see.

It seems then that the law governing the projection of the physical world is to create a gap between the unity of consciousness and its potentiality to split itself by veiling itself from itself. It is the same process that is going on when we cross the gap between the wake state and the dream state.

We could state that the laws of the physical world, derived from the law of the gap, are the laws governing the generation of illusions if we consider the physical world as a virtual reality.

Randomness in the world exists because consciousness can write and experience different scenarios. Our physical universe with its known physical laws is one scenario written by consciousness to experiment separation. The law that created the possibility of experiencing separation is the law that created filters to apparently divide the unity of consciousness into seeming fragments of consciousness that are the individuals and the objects of our relative world.

The programming of illusion: creation by filtering

In his book “The God Theory, Universes, Zero-Point Fields, and What’s Behind It All, Weiser Books, 2006, p. 28”, Bernard Haisch, astrophysicist, talks about the concept of creation by subtraction. He writes: “In optics, the process of creating something (the projected color slide) involves taking something away… You can’t depict anything using just white light alone. A world in which everything is precisely and perfectly white would effectively be an invisible world… To create that sky blue, you have to take away the violet, indigo, green, yellow, orange, and red…By limiting the infinitely possible, you create the finitely real.” White light is obviously associated with the idea of Oneness and the idea of subtracting with the idea of separation of colors through a prism or a lens.

We know that the limitless creates limited forms (by definition, a form is always limited otherwise it wouldn’t be a form) by the law of filtering which is also the law of slowing down vibrations, separating them, yet maintaining their original unity by tuning them, modulating them and harmonizing their frequencies like the musical notes. Time and space are also the result of this filtering by introducing ‘temporal’ and ‘spatial’ di-stance or de-lay. Yet, what is apparently divided into separate forms or entities is always united because unity is indivisible.

Consciousness created the law of filtering to experience apparent division into minimal constituent parts of matter and energy. And it projected a physical filter to experience a virtual separate identity: the body and particularly the brain. The filter can be represented by the crystal which can decompose light (rainbow).

We could say that the filter is what creates the gap and the gap is the bridge that noetic scientists are looking for.

[To be continued]

Written by Normand Bourque on Mar 07, 2013