Below is a quote from Paul Davies talking about the existence of a physical world.
"Our immediate experiences always refer to our mental world, a world of sensory impressions. We usually think of this as being a reasonably faithful map or model of a really exisiting physical world "out there" and distinguish between dream images and physical images.yet a map or model is just an a analogy, in this case it is one we are prepared to accept. An even greater leap of faith is required when we conclude that there exist other minds besides our own. Our experience of other human beings derives from interactions with their bodies: we cannot perceive their minds directly. Certainly other people behave as if they share our own mental experiences, but we can never know that.The conclusion that other minds exist is based entirely on analogy with our own behaviour and experiences".
Paul Davies " The Mind of God"1992 (bold italics are mine)
This passage explains exactly what was going through my mind in my last blog talking about the fact that there is no proof at all that the physical world exists, not that other people exist, nor even that that my individual self exists as the person known as Bert, the only solid thing is my consciousness. That exists, but that could be me, or everyone, or the entire physical universe, according to what can be proved!
Thursday, 9 August 2007
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
back again
Apologies for all the spellings in the last post. I will correct them but not now as I want to concentrate on getting something new down. Its been weeks since my last post. A number of reasons for this. Firstly, lost the glimpse or insight for a bit, felt very much trapped in the mundane again for a while and really couldn't get in touch with any of this stuff even when meditating, which I am still doing for 20 minutes every day. Secondly, I borrowed a couple of books off a friend with similar interests. The first one was Hofstadter's "Goedel, Escher and Bach, an Eternal Golden braid". Its fascinating, inspired, and actually the concepts he outlines are really quite beautiful, graceful and elegant.
but, I am afraid the mathematics and particularily the algebra, and the mathematical terminology, just lost me and I didn't get as much out of it as I was hoping.
Havent finished it anyway.
Now I'm reading Paul Davies " The Mind of God". 15 years old so probably out of date but brilliant. Clear, concise, excellent non-mathematical examples to illustrate mathematical concepts. But a bit scary actually. All this stuff about the universe being a giant computer, or a computer simulation, and us being like characters in the Sims. Thats as far as I've got anyway. And listened to Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris" on the radio last week. The production was too focused on the love story angle, a peripheral storyline in the original. But nevertheless a fantastic and revealing look at creation, simulated life, a "child god" throwing all his toys out of the pram, not malicious but totally undisciplined and unselfconsious. Blindly creating and destroying, just for the fun of it!
Its all a bit frightening.
I have a feeling somehwere inside that these postulates are wrong. That there is more to it and we are not as random and senseless or cold and meaningless as the 2 models outlined here seem to suggest.
But I cant explain now.
One thing before I forget.
Is it possible that nobody exists. Not any other person, nor me! Nor any animal or creature of material object. That it is all a dance, a dream.
I am still worried by the thought that there is only me! I know it sounds ludicrous, egocentric etc.
But what if the holocaust, the iraqi prisoner's torture, all those horrible things, are my creation?
I dont think I really mean me, bert, I mean me the consciousness beyond my individual identity, but if that is all there is then that is Bert, really. isn't it, or wohoever is the one thinking, writing, speaking, blogging.
A lot of clues seem to be hinting at this or something close which I cant quite grasp. Solaris, these photographs, Phillip K Dick .
I'll come back to this.
I know this all sounds a bit paranoid schizophrenic, but those are just labels really. I want to let my thoughts run relatively free here to see what they come up with, so am trying not to censor myself too much.
but, I am afraid the mathematics and particularily the algebra, and the mathematical terminology, just lost me and I didn't get as much out of it as I was hoping.
Havent finished it anyway.
Now I'm reading Paul Davies " The Mind of God". 15 years old so probably out of date but brilliant. Clear, concise, excellent non-mathematical examples to illustrate mathematical concepts. But a bit scary actually. All this stuff about the universe being a giant computer, or a computer simulation, and us being like characters in the Sims. Thats as far as I've got anyway. And listened to Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris" on the radio last week. The production was too focused on the love story angle, a peripheral storyline in the original. But nevertheless a fantastic and revealing look at creation, simulated life, a "child god" throwing all his toys out of the pram, not malicious but totally undisciplined and unselfconsious. Blindly creating and destroying, just for the fun of it!
Its all a bit frightening.
I have a feeling somehwere inside that these postulates are wrong. That there is more to it and we are not as random and senseless or cold and meaningless as the 2 models outlined here seem to suggest.
But I cant explain now.
One thing before I forget.
Is it possible that nobody exists. Not any other person, nor me! Nor any animal or creature of material object. That it is all a dance, a dream.
I am still worried by the thought that there is only me! I know it sounds ludicrous, egocentric etc.
But what if the holocaust, the iraqi prisoner's torture, all those horrible things, are my creation?
I dont think I really mean me, bert, I mean me the consciousness beyond my individual identity, but if that is all there is then that is Bert, really. isn't it, or wohoever is the one thinking, writing, speaking, blogging.
A lot of clues seem to be hinting at this or something close which I cant quite grasp. Solaris, these photographs, Phillip K Dick .
I'll come back to this.
I know this all sounds a bit paranoid schizophrenic, but those are just labels really. I want to let my thoughts run relatively free here to see what they come up with, so am trying not to censor myself too much.
Sunday, 15 July 2007
body and soul
Ive decided to order a couple of books on all this to bring me a bit more up to date in my investigations. I've narrowed it down to 5 and my 3 favourites at the moment are Dean Radin's "The Conscious Universe", which seems to follow on from Randall's "Parapsychology and the Nature of Life" which was really insightful. Secondly maybe Paul Davies "The Mind of God" and thirdly, mainly because it sounds so entertaining and he sounds so charismatic and fascinating, Richard Feynman's "Surely You're Joking!".
As most of my knowledge is based on a combination of intuition and very old books I've picked up serendipitously in second hand bookshops it seems a good idea to brush up on current developments. Also I would like a bit of basic knowledge of popular science, at the moment I am re ally ignorant.
When I was looking through the book lists today on Amazon, I noticed how often sort of "quackery" type books come up alongside anything connecting science and philosophy. Its really irritating. I don't mean to dismiss other people's beliefs but I'm sorry, I think most of us are not spontaneously all knowing and we do need to work things out, through intellectual study and/or exercises like yoga and meditation, and it just seems sort of lazy and stupid to accept some ready made explanation of everything, whether its scientific, religious, or cult-ish.
After yesterday I kept finding myself up against this confusion about the self and the separation of the self from the body. I don't think it is separate. its more that the body is like an expression on the face of the true self. Oh dear! Whenever I try to think about this I get more far out and more bewildered. What I think I mean is that the body is a collection of atoms which, with my rudimentary and probably erroneous scientific knowledge, I think means it is fundamentally a pattern of waves and particles, immaterial at a microsscopic level and not grounded in space-time or any concrete Newtonian sort of reality. So, why shouldn't the true self, call it the "Overself", be one with the body. I think it is one, body, emotions, intellect etc are all one, but everything that can be named is like a sort of movie being projected onto a bare blank wall, and that blank wall is the unnameable and is the underlying truth of being.
Anyway, that's what I was thinking when I started writing this, but already it seems obvious that this is a particular and limited view.
God, no wonder scientists struggel with this even with all their expert knowledge and intellectual prowess! No wnder most people ignoer it altogether or if they do try to engae eit hthese question sin their lives do so from teh standpoint of faith - I believe what i beleive because i do!
As most of my knowledge is based on a combination of intuition and very old books I've picked up serendipitously in second hand bookshops it seems a good idea to brush up on current developments. Also I would like a bit of basic knowledge of popular science, at the moment I am re ally ignorant.
When I was looking through the book lists today on Amazon, I noticed how often sort of "quackery" type books come up alongside anything connecting science and philosophy. Its really irritating. I don't mean to dismiss other people's beliefs but I'm sorry, I think most of us are not spontaneously all knowing and we do need to work things out, through intellectual study and/or exercises like yoga and meditation, and it just seems sort of lazy and stupid to accept some ready made explanation of everything, whether its scientific, religious, or cult-ish.
After yesterday I kept finding myself up against this confusion about the self and the separation of the self from the body. I don't think it is separate. its more that the body is like an expression on the face of the true self. Oh dear! Whenever I try to think about this I get more far out and more bewildered. What I think I mean is that the body is a collection of atoms which, with my rudimentary and probably erroneous scientific knowledge, I think means it is fundamentally a pattern of waves and particles, immaterial at a microsscopic level and not grounded in space-time or any concrete Newtonian sort of reality. So, why shouldn't the true self, call it the "Overself", be one with the body. I think it is one, body, emotions, intellect etc are all one, but everything that can be named is like a sort of movie being projected onto a bare blank wall, and that blank wall is the unnameable and is the underlying truth of being.
Anyway, that's what I was thinking when I started writing this, but already it seems obvious that this is a particular and limited view.
God, no wonder scientists struggel with this even with all their expert knowledge and intellectual prowess! No wnder most people ignoer it altogether or if they do try to engae eit hthese question sin their lives do so from teh standpoint of faith - I believe what i beleive because i do!
Saturday, 14 July 2007
dreaming
So one thing that has been bothering me is this.
The self is NOT:-
The body
The emotions
The intellect
The thoughts
Sensations
Memories
Desires
None of it.
And the idea that the self is a separate entity encased in skin is illusory.
That’s only how it seems, because our perception of the reality “outside” ourselves is based on the senses, and our perception of the reality “inside our heads” is based on emotion and the intellect and thoughts. None of these are real and objective. All are subjective. And behind/under all of these is pure consciousness, which cannot be expained or described or even comprehended but only known! Like God, I know, awful, I hate sounding religious, and I loathe churches and dogma. But thats how it seems to be. And pure consciousness is an empty space, a blank screen with no projection, a silence waiting to be filled, a void.
But as none of this is actually the self, then the self is neither “outside” as perceived by the senses nor “inside” as perceived by the brain – thoughts, emotions, and the intellect.
So, according to all the seers and mystics and great thinkers and religious leaders, the self is actually – nothing.
I can actually accept that although I can’t pretend to grasp it conceptually, it’s sort of beyond intellectual understanding, at least for my limited intellect.
So the self is nothing.
But what is “outside” the self?
Is that also nothing? Are the material world and all its creatures “maya” and illusion? Are other people real? Is History real? Is war and famine real?
Is it all like some dream of a great living entity that seeks to bring into being every conceivable experience from hellish suffering to heavenly ecstasy, with every shade in between?
Sometimes I’ve sort of grasped it to some extent but then, when I really feel the dissolving of the boundaries between self and outside the self, I get really bogged down in this point: surely other people are real, its not just me, like that saying about a man who wakes up after dreaming he was a butterfly who dreamt he was a man.
Is it that the individual "I" is an illusion? Or is the idea of everyone/everything else an illusion? Is there only "the ONE"? Or, are we all individuals ( as Monty Python said), each of us a "nothing self", wildly projecting our emotions, sensations and thoughts, blindly groping for meaning, comfort, sensation?
Is there just the sort of timeless all seeing nothing of pure consciousness, beyond my own senses and mind experiences? Solipsism claims that the table is only there when an observer is observing it. Leave the table alone and unobserved in the room and it ceases to exist.
But doesn’t this sort of train of thought seem insanely egocentric and dangerous too?
There have been times when I thought, maybe all this horrible stuff about the Jews and the Nazis for example, with its ties to my personal past, was just a horrible nightmare fantasy of mine, or rather, of a being who is experimenting with every conceivable possibility and not excluding anything, no matter how extreme.
Dreaming.
This all sounds bonkers but anyway.
The self is NOT:-
The body
The emotions
The intellect
The thoughts
Sensations
Memories
Desires
None of it.
And the idea that the self is a separate entity encased in skin is illusory.
That’s only how it seems, because our perception of the reality “outside” ourselves is based on the senses, and our perception of the reality “inside our heads” is based on emotion and the intellect and thoughts. None of these are real and objective. All are subjective. And behind/under all of these is pure consciousness, which cannot be expained or described or even comprehended but only known! Like God, I know, awful, I hate sounding religious, and I loathe churches and dogma. But thats how it seems to be. And pure consciousness is an empty space, a blank screen with no projection, a silence waiting to be filled, a void.
But as none of this is actually the self, then the self is neither “outside” as perceived by the senses nor “inside” as perceived by the brain – thoughts, emotions, and the intellect.
So, according to all the seers and mystics and great thinkers and religious leaders, the self is actually – nothing.
I can actually accept that although I can’t pretend to grasp it conceptually, it’s sort of beyond intellectual understanding, at least for my limited intellect.
So the self is nothing.
But what is “outside” the self?
Is that also nothing? Are the material world and all its creatures “maya” and illusion? Are other people real? Is History real? Is war and famine real?
Is it all like some dream of a great living entity that seeks to bring into being every conceivable experience from hellish suffering to heavenly ecstasy, with every shade in between?
Sometimes I’ve sort of grasped it to some extent but then, when I really feel the dissolving of the boundaries between self and outside the self, I get really bogged down in this point: surely other people are real, its not just me, like that saying about a man who wakes up after dreaming he was a butterfly who dreamt he was a man.
Is it that the individual "I" is an illusion? Or is the idea of everyone/everything else an illusion? Is there only "the ONE"? Or, are we all individuals ( as Monty Python said), each of us a "nothing self", wildly projecting our emotions, sensations and thoughts, blindly groping for meaning, comfort, sensation?
Is there just the sort of timeless all seeing nothing of pure consciousness, beyond my own senses and mind experiences? Solipsism claims that the table is only there when an observer is observing it. Leave the table alone and unobserved in the room and it ceases to exist.
But doesn’t this sort of train of thought seem insanely egocentric and dangerous too?
There have been times when I thought, maybe all this horrible stuff about the Jews and the Nazis for example, with its ties to my personal past, was just a horrible nightmare fantasy of mine, or rather, of a being who is experimenting with every conceivable possibility and not excluding anything, no matter how extreme.
Dreaming.
This all sounds bonkers but anyway.
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
meditate on that
I've been doing meditation, or rather trying to do it, for a couple of weeks now, 20 minutes once a day. Hard enough to pin myself down to those few minutes, and then when I do it I spend the whole time trying to stop myself thinking, noticing sounds (a bird singing, footsteps), sensations ( an itch, my foot going to sleep), sights (even with my eyes closed - points of light or colours). Incredible how many thoughts can pass through the mind in a fraction of a second.
Nevertheless, in between all these distractions I've had some glimpses of a still centre within and of something beyond and apart from all the noise and mayhem. The best moments are when I can relax into it and sort of listen to the stillness, like using my whole person as an ear! And not straining to be still, just letting it happen. Its a bit like singing or dancing. If you're trying its no good. You have to learn some basic technique, and practise, but what makes it graceful and soaring is when it becomes an effortless and unselfconscious act. And its like allowing yourself to be empty and being filled by the song, or the dance or whatever.
My powers of concentration are poor. I've been trying to do that technique where you focus on the breathing and count every exhalation from 1 to 10. I've never got beyond 4 without thoughts interfering and having to start from number 1 again. Usually I get to 1 or 2 if I'm lucky. Still it seems to be having a really noticeable effect on me already.
I feel very energised, almost speedy, and light, less hungry than usual and a bit fierce actually, argumentative, intense.
It mightn't all be the meditation, but some of it at least can be traced to that. My state of mind, being so focussed on sort of pushing through the veils, reminds me of previous times when I was smoking a lot of dope ( I havent smoked now for 20 years), doing acid, (ditto) and oddly, being in love. That sort of intense yearning for soemthing .
I'll come back to this.
Nevertheless, in between all these distractions I've had some glimpses of a still centre within and of something beyond and apart from all the noise and mayhem. The best moments are when I can relax into it and sort of listen to the stillness, like using my whole person as an ear! And not straining to be still, just letting it happen. Its a bit like singing or dancing. If you're trying its no good. You have to learn some basic technique, and practise, but what makes it graceful and soaring is when it becomes an effortless and unselfconscious act. And its like allowing yourself to be empty and being filled by the song, or the dance or whatever.
My powers of concentration are poor. I've been trying to do that technique where you focus on the breathing and count every exhalation from 1 to 10. I've never got beyond 4 without thoughts interfering and having to start from number 1 again. Usually I get to 1 or 2 if I'm lucky. Still it seems to be having a really noticeable effect on me already.
I feel very energised, almost speedy, and light, less hungry than usual and a bit fierce actually, argumentative, intense.
It mightn't all be the meditation, but some of it at least can be traced to that. My state of mind, being so focussed on sort of pushing through the veils, reminds me of previous times when I was smoking a lot of dope ( I havent smoked now for 20 years), doing acid, (ditto) and oddly, being in love. That sort of intense yearning for soemthing .
I'll come back to this.
ways of seeing
So far I've found a number of different ways of getting in touch with whatever it is that lies behind everyday experience. Firstly, intellectual investigation - reading, philosophy, scientific study of nature, life, the universe, including study of the paranormal, but these days if you look hard enough at anything in physics or biology it seems to lead to the same dawning recognition. And at certain moments that recognition goes beyond the cerebral and touches something intuitive and greater than the self.
Secondly, physical/mental excercises such as yoga and meditation, to still the mind and body and concentrate the breathing, which allow the hidden something underneath to make itself felt.
Thirdly, drugs - hallucinogenics, especially organic ones like psilocybin mushrooms, which could almost have been put on earth with the express purpose of aiding and guiding seekers after "truth".
What about creative action - dancing, singing, playing music, painting and so on. Maybe losing oneself totally in the act of creation becomes a sort of devotional act and brings you "out of yourself". (I dont think of it as self realisation because it seems beyond the individual self ).
Then there's sex - orgasm is known as the "little death" and people talk of the loss of self and the unity with the partner, the breaking down of ego boundaries, at the moment of orgasm.
Death is probably another way! Bit extreme for me at this stage though.
Secondly, physical/mental excercises such as yoga and meditation, to still the mind and body and concentrate the breathing, which allow the hidden something underneath to make itself felt.
Thirdly, drugs - hallucinogenics, especially organic ones like psilocybin mushrooms, which could almost have been put on earth with the express purpose of aiding and guiding seekers after "truth".
What about creative action - dancing, singing, playing music, painting and so on. Maybe losing oneself totally in the act of creation becomes a sort of devotional act and brings you "out of yourself". (I dont think of it as self realisation because it seems beyond the individual self ).
Then there's sex - orgasm is known as the "little death" and people talk of the loss of self and the unity with the partner, the breaking down of ego boundaries, at the moment of orgasm.
Death is probably another way! Bit extreme for me at this stage though.
Sunday, 8 July 2007
ESP and all that
Last night I was reading a book from the 1970's about the study of Parapsychology, probably pretty outdated by now, but nevertheless it really suprised me when it described these experiments into telepathy, clairvoyance and telekinesis that took place between the 1930s and the end of the '70s. I had no idea such incontrovertible evidence existed, even then, of the widespread occurence of these phenomena. When the research began, there was this enormous opposition from the scientific community towards even conducting these experiments. The researchers were slandered and persecuted, some to the point of suicide, all in an attempt to discredit their evidence.
Why? Well, fear of the new and fear of change and anything that could rock the status quo. Basically the old orthodoxy, which was religion and the church and fought fiercely against the new science, for example Darwin's Theory of Evolution, has been replaced by the new orthodoxy of science, and the same old "head in the sand" attitudes have grown up around science, working actively against its claimed objectitiy and detachment.
Where once (and again, actually, if you look at the growth of religious fundamentalism in the US, for example), science was hounded for daring to suggest that there might be other explanations for the nature of the universe, now it is science which refuses even to look into paranormal phenomena and a sort of conspiracy of silence seems to have built up around the whole issue. Its a kind of taboo to mention it in polite society, people think you're bonkers and look at you strangely. Why! When this is all longstanding proven fact?
I just can't understand how those who claim to be rigorously objective and realistic in their appraisal of the universe can justify such claims whilst ignoring truths that actively contradict their world-view.
For example, some of the experiments carried out in the UK found out that not only could subjects transmit mental messages across spaces as large as 250 miles with no loss of (and sometimes even an improvement in) accuracy, but that just as frequently as messages were accurately received after being transmitted, they were received before they had even been selected!
This obvioulsy means that both time and space can be transcended by the mind, and offers clear evidence that our perception of reality, as firmly grounded in physical space and linear time, is not reality, or at least not the whole story.
Am I mad or isnt that incredible? Why hasn't such knowledge shaken the foundations of our beliefs to their core? Is it that its too much for us to contemplate so we just shut it out? Is it a conspiracy by those in power to keep us ignorant?
And now physics is now showing up masses of the same evidence, time and space being sort of invented or perceived realities not objective facts.
Excuse my lack of real knowledge about any of this. It s the ideas that fascinate me, but I dont have any grounding in science. Am going to try and find some easy layman's texts to get a bit more knowledgable.
Why? Well, fear of the new and fear of change and anything that could rock the status quo. Basically the old orthodoxy, which was religion and the church and fought fiercely against the new science, for example Darwin's Theory of Evolution, has been replaced by the new orthodoxy of science, and the same old "head in the sand" attitudes have grown up around science, working actively against its claimed objectitiy and detachment.
Where once (and again, actually, if you look at the growth of religious fundamentalism in the US, for example), science was hounded for daring to suggest that there might be other explanations for the nature of the universe, now it is science which refuses even to look into paranormal phenomena and a sort of conspiracy of silence seems to have built up around the whole issue. Its a kind of taboo to mention it in polite society, people think you're bonkers and look at you strangely. Why! When this is all longstanding proven fact?
I just can't understand how those who claim to be rigorously objective and realistic in their appraisal of the universe can justify such claims whilst ignoring truths that actively contradict their world-view.
For example, some of the experiments carried out in the UK found out that not only could subjects transmit mental messages across spaces as large as 250 miles with no loss of (and sometimes even an improvement in) accuracy, but that just as frequently as messages were accurately received after being transmitted, they were received before they had even been selected!
This obvioulsy means that both time and space can be transcended by the mind, and offers clear evidence that our perception of reality, as firmly grounded in physical space and linear time, is not reality, or at least not the whole story.
Am I mad or isnt that incredible? Why hasn't such knowledge shaken the foundations of our beliefs to their core? Is it that its too much for us to contemplate so we just shut it out? Is it a conspiracy by those in power to keep us ignorant?
And now physics is now showing up masses of the same evidence, time and space being sort of invented or perceived realities not objective facts.
Excuse my lack of real knowledge about any of this. It s the ideas that fascinate me, but I dont have any grounding in science. Am going to try and find some easy layman's texts to get a bit more knowledgable.
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