There is One principle (consciousness) pervading the entire Universe. It occupies all space and is fundamentally the same in essence at every point of its presence. All thoughts and things are within itself.

There is only one consciousness in the Universe, and when it thinks, those thoughts become objective things to it. This consciousness is present within every individual (omnipresent), thus every individual is a manifestation of that Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent Consciousness.

Since there is only one Consciousness in the Universe that has the ability to think, that must mean that my mind is identical to the Universal Consciousness. I AM an individualization of the Universal/Cosmic Mind.

I AM GOD!
And so are you.

So don't sulk around in disharmony and hatred.
Go out there and create conditions of harmony by applying dynamic force (thought) to the static energy (mind).
Be conscious of what you are creating.

The world within is the fountain of Universal Conscious Energy. The world without represent different streams which the conscious energy can be directed. The world without is the effect of the world within.


"So you children of the world,
Listen to what I say
If you want a better place to live in
Spread the words today
Show the world that love is still alive
You must be brave
Or you children of today are
Children of the grave, yeah!"

harry, if you followed suit on the ignore function, then this conflict would be a non-issue.

harry, if you followed suit on the ignore function, then this conflict would be a non-issue.

I don't like the idea of ignoring people. It just seems like an ignorant and stupid thing to do.

It's not something I routinely engage in either, but since you insist on hanging around in a thread that you admittedly don't like and find to be shitty, it might help you Get over it a little quicker. Worked for the OP, might work for you too!

:)

It's not something I routinely engage in either, but since you insist on hanging around in a thread that you admittedly don't like and find to be shitty, it might help you Get over it a little quicker. Worked for the OP, might work for you too!

:)

Well I don't have a problem. I just called it a lousy thread. I'm unsubscribing from this thread now, but I'm not going to add him to my ignore list.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee158/Vanhalla/Jimi_Hendrix_27_9.jpg


Machine Gun (http://youtube.com/watch?v=TV74PsUo1dc)

I love this....

start a thread saying, "we're all one! love love love etc"

then when someone flames go

"GTFO FAG LAMER" etc

Sometimes you have to shit down the well in order to motivate the person to climb out of it.

Consciousness. I AM an individualization of the Universal/Cosmic Mind.

I AM GOD!
And so are you.



Good start, however the "I AM" statement sounds like .... a drop of water declaring 'I AM THE OCEAN"!

Cheers:)

Sometimes you have to shit down the well in order to motivate the person to climb out of it.

No man you can't. He is doing God's work. He is God after all amirite?

Retarded

No man you can't. He is doing God's work. He is God after all amirite?

Retarded

That statement doesn't even make sense, it seems like your just trying to unncessarily rile things up like he was.

Make it clearer if you want a serious response.

2 questions:

A) In this context, what is your definition of consciousness and how does it 'interact' with everything throughout the universe, from a cat to a black hole?

B) What support do you have for this theory of one, all-pervasive consciousness?

This guy explains it a lot better then I ever could.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7799171063626430789&q=peter+russell&total=455&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Isn't moral perfection part of the criteria for God?

That statement doesn't even make sense, it seems like your just trying to unncessarily rile things up like he was.

Make it clearer if you want a serious response.

It makes perfect sense.

Why do you need to motivate him to do anyting?
He is God your are God his motivations are yours.
His actions are yours.
They're all God's.
Any motivation he has you have surely? If you are one and the same.
As God is perfect and he is God his motivation is perfect. He is doing God's work. Shitting on him is bad.

Or are you, in reality, different?

Maybe not God. Maybe just a human. One human not many with different motivations opinions. Hence how this discussion is even possible. If we were all one we would have no need to communicate.

It makes perfect sense.

Why do you need to motivate him to do anyting?
He is God your are God his motivations are yours.
His actions are yours.
They're all God's.
Any motivation he has you have surely? If you are one and the same.
As God is perfect and he is God his motivation is perfect. He is doing God's work. Shitting on him is bad.

I treat people as I would treat myself, I believe self discipline is important. If I need to metaphorically "shit" on myself, then I will do it for what I interpret as the greater good.

We all see reality through goggles of our own creation, we all interpret reality in different ways. Because we have different interpretations, does that mean the essence is not the same? No, it doesn't. That underlying essence is consciousness.
Is it perfect? Are we perfect? I believe the essence of what we are is what you would call "perfect", but the material that underlying consciousness has spawned is never "perfect" because it is always evolving. Maybe you could call the process as a whole, "perfect". Does that make just one point in that entire process "perfect"? Maybe it does.


Or are you, in reality, different?

Maybe not God. Maybe just a human. One human not many with different motivations opinions. Hence how this discussion is even possible. If we were all one we would have no need to communicate.
The essence is the same, the interpretations come in many forms.

Watch the video, he explains it much better than I can.

This is a pretty lousy thread.

To the extent that it attracted one worthless comment, quoted above, yes, it is.

However, if more people knew about what OP speaks of, and practiced it, there would be no more war, poverty, or any of the other social ills we as a species have inflicted upon ourselves.

Good start, however the "I AM" statement sounds like .... a drop of water declaring 'I AM THE OCEAN"!

Cheers:)
Props, kudos, and a tip of the Greyfox fedora to redzed--comment number nine and the FIRST one that was on-topic.

Isn't moral perfection part of the criteria for God?

Depends on which spiritual or religious path you take?

Society based models infer what you are talking about... Morality, Submission to Laws, Earthly society reflection of kingdom of Heaven, God is a Punisher and Rewarder, seeks salvation by faith.

However, the mind based model infer something different from what you are suggesting: Insight, Curiosity, Mindfulness, Salvation by Illumination and Enlightenment. You may think that this is eastern way of thinking but in fact it is not, Western Esotericism holds this view as well and yet still maintains belief in a God.

However, you listen to a mainstream priest or other western mainstream religious clergy they will say the inner tradition is not of God but Devils work... or something to that nature: The Gnostic's are accused of being Spiritual elitists but what they rather are; are people of the inner tradition of the western way of religious worship.

Depends on which spiritual or religious path you take?

If there's "one consciousness" though, and "all thoughts and things are within itself", wouldn't everybody follow a uniform set of morals? Anyway, it sounds too much like the law of attraction stuff to me, which I don't like. Why does everybody think and behave differently if we're all the product of this "one consciousness"?

If there's "one consciousness" though, and "all thoughts and things are within itself", wouldn't everybody follow a uniform set of morals?
No

Why does everybody think and behave differently if we're all the product of this "one consciousness"?

That question has already been answered numerous times. (can you read?)


The essence is the same, the interpretations come in many forms.

No


That question has already been answered numerous times. (can you read?)

You also said that "All thoughts and things are within itself." This implies that all physical beings are the product of this. Did it design humans?

Isn't moral perfection part of the criteria for God?

given what is "god" based off the various belief systems, no. "God" could be a force of energy...

You also said that "All thoughts and things are within itself." This implies that all physical beings are the product of this. Did it design humans?

There is too much prejudice towards words like "product" and "design". I refuse to answer that question because:
1. I'm not ready to present it.
2. Your not ready to hear it.

There is too much prejudice towards words like "product" and "design". I refuse to answer that question because:
1. I'm not ready to present it.
2. Your not ready to hear it.

Allow me translate....
1. I don't have enough bullshit to back this up.
2. You obviously already see through my flimsy bullshit to begin with.

------

Let me present you with this:

How can your concepts add anything useful to the current social paradigm? How do your concepts benefit society as a whole? I would expect the answers to these questions would involve the introduction of new USEFUL concepts, OR a better way of conveying old concepts.

If you can't answer either of these questions to satisfaction, then my next question is. Why are you wasting your time?

I AM an individualization of the Universal/Cosmic Mind.

No, you aren't. If anything, all that would mean is that YOU don't exist. In other words, there is no self.

The whole planet is a single living organism, like an elephant, and we are like flies living on that elephant. We explore the surface, we look beneath the surface, and we begin to understand our home quite well. Until one day we leave the surface and fly away 50 feet, looking back on our home, we begin to wonder, could this elephant actually be a living organism?

Now when you look at the system of our planet, you will see that all living organisms on the planet together function as one huge self regulating system.
Gaia.
The days and nights are like the heart beat.
The seasons are the breath.
The tropical rainforest are the lungs.
And the oceans are the circulatory system.

So you see, it’s not that I’m American and you’re Chinese, or I’m white and you’re black, these are all imaginary boundaries that divide us when in fact we are all planetary citizens. We Are All One.

What are we doing here, what is our function?

Big bang
Condensed, electrons and protons
Combine to form first simple atoms
Collected together to form more complex atoms, and more complex atoms, and more complex atoms
Molecules are then formed
Stringing themselves together to form DNA
They then group themselves to form the first living organisms, bacteria, algy.
In time they grouped together to form multicellular organisms sponges and the first plants.

This process of progressive complexification and organization continued leading to the first fish.
First creatures with skulls and spinal chords
And inside was the delicate nervous system which is now protected by bone.
Nervous system develops further and further and further
Gills become lungs
Fins into arms and legs
But what of the inside?
The most complex nervous system is found in dolphins and whales.
They have more complex brains then ourselves.
Man, the second most complex has the unique ability to study the world around us and understand it.
Our complex brain is what underlies our science and technology and the whole of human cultures.
Now at this critical stage of complexity, we look back into the universe.
Evolution of matter and stars, life and simple organisms
We look at a stone or a leaf or out into the heavens, we are the universes way of exploring itself.

The same can be said about inner reflections, when we explore our own minds and discover deeper levels within ourselves, we are the universe, beginning to investigate its inner dimensions.
Where is all this taking us?
What is next?
In the long term we will see various physical changes, our brain growing larger, but there are other evolutional developments happening a lot more quickly. One of the dominate trends of evolution has been a progressive linking of smaller units into larger units. This suggest that the next stage might involve human beings themselves, linking together in someway.

This process has already begun.
It’s called civilization.
Groups of people come together and form a community, they work together, help each other, and understand one another. Yadda yadda yadda, so on and so forth.

This tendency of people coming together in larger units is also happening at a much higher level.
The Union of the states in the USA, the USSR, this is the natural drift of evolution.
And its end result would seem to be the whole of humanity beginning to function as one single community.

As well as this linking at a physical level, we are also beginning to link together at a deeper level.
The internet, we can exchange information with each other, wherever we may be.
We share our thinking, we are beginning to connect mentally, We are beginning to link mind to mind. As we begin to understand each other an even deeper level of linking is occurring. A linking of soul to soul. We are beginning to appreciate our central unity and oneness.
So the next stage of evolution could be humanity beginning to link together physically and mentally, beginning to work and function on many different levels as an integrated system.

Now, there is an interesting parallel between the integration of humanity and the integration of earlier stages of evolution.

Life from matter.

We find that the simplest bacteria contain several billion atoms. When you bring together approximately 10,000,000,000 atoms, the complexity necessary has been reached to become a living system.

The evolution of intelligent consciousness takes several billion nerve cells linked together in the brain to produce the reflective consciousness characteristic of humanity.

If this is a general principle of evolution, the next stage, the linking of humanity into an integrated system would involve the working together of a similar number of minds.

The human population has already reached this level!

Think of humanity as one huge global brain, a brain in which we are the cells, linked together by our growing information networks.
Society is similar to the human brain.
All of the cells are linking together.

And that is the good news.

The bad news is that our rapid development is threatening the welfare of our planet.
It seems like we’re a planetary cancer.
If you take a photograph of a city in the air and look at the way the city spreads out in the environment, it’s very similar to the way cancer spreads out in the body.

When you look at what causes cancerous tendency in the individual, and what causes a similar tendency in society, we find very similar principles.

A cell in the body becomes cancerous because a gene in a cell becomes disturbed, and that cell becomes selfish. It no longer supports the system as a whole, but instead goes off and does its own thing, at the expense of the body. It becomes a cancer.

Human beings in a community are an organization of minds, and the parallel to our genes is to be found at the center of our consciousness, that deep inner awareness/wisdom of being much more than we normally experience, a part of something much greater. When we loose touch with this inner wisdom, we too become like selfish cells, out of touch with the needs of society as a whole, living at the expense of each other.

The philosopher Allen Watts referred to this selfish, isolated way of existence as the skin encapsulated ego. What’s inside the skin is me, what’s outside the skin is not me.

Biologically speaking this is true, we are each separate biological individuals. But it is not the whole truth, we are much more than that. We are creatures with an inner life, with an existence that stretches beyond our biological entity. The reason we have become stuck in this limited way of seeing ourselves, is because our real self, the deepest sense of I, is really hard to grasp. Trying to describe that deeper sense of self is very much like trying to describe a hole in a piece of wood. It’s a round hole, it’s a wooden hole and it’s red.
Hang on, the hole isn’t wood, the hole isn’t red!
The hole is black!
No its not, that’s the background.
*dumbfounded* What’s the hole? How do you describe the hole it’s self without describing its surroundings?

Similarly it is very hard to grasp and define our own inner sense of self. Instead we tend to describe ourselves in terms of what surrounds us. Our many possessions, the roles we play, our beliefs (scientific and religious).

This limited sense of identity may not in it’s self seem very dangerous, but it does have some far reaching consequences. It turns out that many of the ways we mistreat and abuse the environment, stem from our seeing the world as separate form ourselves. We may take fairly good care of what is inside the skin, but we don’t care nearly so well of what is outside the skin.

As the late Gregory Bateson said, if this, meaning this me verses the world attitude, if this is your estimate of your relationship to nature. And you have advanced technology, your likelihood of survival will be that of a snowball in hell. You will die. Either from the toxic byproducts of your own hate, or simply of over population and over grazing.
He went on to say, and if I am right, the whole of our thinking, of what we are and what other people are, has got to be restructured. The most important task today is to learn to think in a new way.

Peter Russell would go a step further and say, we need to learn to be in a new way, to experience, to be conscious in a new way. We need to take a shift from the skin encapsulated model of the self, to what some have referred to as leaky margins. The boundaries are still there, but they are much less solid. In addition, we now experience a greater oneness with the world outside. Such a shift in consciousness could play an important part in the next stage of our evolution.

If we go back and look at the previous stages of our evolution, we can see that each stage became a platform for the next. Energy led to matter, matter led to life, and now life has lead to consciousness. Thus the spear head of evolution is now the human mind. We have moved beyond biological evolution, into mental evolution. It is not changes in our bodies that will now determine the future, so much as changes in our thinking. Changes in our perception. Changes in our attitudes. The evolutionary phase which we have now entered is the evolution of human consciousness. Inner development is now the key.
Evolution has become internalized!

And these changes are happening much faster than we might at first suspect. Inner evolution may become very wide spread in our society.
The major focus for centuries was agriculture, most people were employed on the land. That continued until the 1900’s until a new curve took over, industry. Industrial work became the dominate use of human time, we entered the industrial age. The industrial age continued until 1975, when a new curve took over, information processing. We are now very much in the information age. We entered the information age much faster than anyone anticipated.

What will follow the information age?
The exploration of the vast resources of the Mind.
We will see a major shift in values as more and more people discover a deeper sense of unity and purpose. Letting go of their selfish petty ways, beginning to function more in tune with humanity and the planet as a whole.

This idea is not new, in all ages, all around the world, we find people talking of that same fundamental wisdom, that same basic understanding of mind and consciousness. When ever a particular teacher died, his message was forced to be spread by word of mouth, or be written down. As his ideas begin to spread around the world they inevitably became distorted and absorbed by the culture of the time, with the result that very little now remains of the original wisdom.

But today we are in very different circumstances.
Hundreds of thousands of people are beginning to discover the potential of the human soul.
Books, tapes, television, computer networks, and the whole information revolution, has given us the means to share these discoveries with each other, without the information suffering the distortion and misunderstanding that was inevitable in the past.

So now, as the wisdom begins to spread out across the planet, there is instead, a positive feedback. The wisdom reinforces itself. Rather than dissolving the wisdom builds upon itself.

Such an inner awakening could be the crucial ingredient in the linking of humanity into an integrated society. A society which we’ll all link spiritually through an awareness of our inner unity, an awareness that we’re all part of something greater and at the same time gaining a greater awareness of our individual potentials and uniqueness. A synthesis of greater individuality along with greater community. Such a new development, if widespread, could be very valuable in helping humanity deal with the problems now facing it. We are clearly in a time of crisis, but most of us think of crisis as bad. Maybe we have something to learn from the Chinese on this. Their word for crisis means two things.
Danger, beware
Opportunity, an opportunity for something new to emergeIf we only see crisis as danger, as a threat to our accustomed ways, then we may spend all our energy resisting it. We need also to look at the opportunities inherent in the crisis. From an evolutionary perspective, crisis is a sign that something has gone wrong.
Crisis gives us a challenge, the challenge to adapt, they are the challenge to let go of the old ways of thinking and move on, to a new way of seeing.

Thus humanities current crisis may not be at its root an economic crisis, or an environmental crisis. It may well be a crisis of consciousness, a crisis on how we see ourselves and the world around.

Many of us have probably experienced at one time or another those moments when we feel at one with the world, a sense of inner peace with no need to prove who we are. The question is, can we allow these precious moments to happen more often in our lives and in the lives of other people?

In short, can we choose to explore and develop our greatest resource of all, our own minds, our inner selves?


"A sleep of prisoners"

The human heart can go the lengths of God.

Dark and cold we may be, but this

Is no winter now. The frozen misery

Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;

The thunder is the thunder of the floes,

The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.

Thank God our time is now when wrong

Comes up to face us till we take

The longest stride of soul men ever took.

Affairs are now soul size.

The enterprise

Is exploration into God.

Where are you making for? It takes

So many thousand years to wake,

But will you wake for pity's sake!


by Christopher Fry





http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6983074709191796496&q=&hl=en

There is too much prejudice towards words like "product" and "design". I refuse to answer that question because:
1. I'm not ready to present it.
2. Your not ready to hear it.

Erm I think the "thing" did design humans, indirectly as it did design the Universe correct? It included those variables, etc.

sorry if I'm phrasing it wrong.

Let me present you with this:

How can your concepts add anything useful to the current social paradigm? How do your concepts benefit society as a whole? I would expect the answers to these questions would involve the introduction of new USEFUL concepts, OR a better way of conveying old concepts.


I think he's saying that all humans are part of one organization, all living on Earth (at least part of his message) and that humans should stop fighting each other, they will harm themselves (Especially given WMDs and shit) to unite.

And the whole "make your reality, improve and be nice, etc"

I think he's saying that all humans are part of one organization, all living on Earth (at least part of his message) and that humans should stop fighting each other, they will harm themselves (Especially given WMDs and shit) to unite.

And the whole "make your reality, improve and be nice, etc"

What Van posted is the Global Brain ideology. Most of it is Emergentism, with a bit of Organicism thrown in. This all comes from a transcript of a video about it, based on a book about it by Peter Russell.

http://www.peterrussell.com/GB/GBtext.php

And it is clear we are all part of one organization, all living on Earth and that for our own best interest we should stop fighting ourselves and destroying our planet. Yes, people should improve their reality, improve and be nice etc.

Why does doing any of this require believing in a ghost, mystic force, primal energy, deity, spiritual realms, magic, demons, angels, etc.?

That was my question. Show me how living in harmony will come from a belief that everyone has to believe in, for it to work, (golden rule Jesus type shit) but that has absolutely no evidence to get everyone to believe it.

Global Mind ideology does not require spritual connotations for its effects and use to be realized.

If you can imagine a universe without the existence of an underlying energy and still appreciate the global organism concept, then I say congratulations and I respect your decision.

But in my mind an underlying energy/force (consciousness) must be, fore all would not if it was not. Is anything really real? Physicality is not real, according to quantum physics, maybe this is all a dream? I’ve on numerous occasions fully believed that my experience whilst dreaming was as real as my experience whilst awake. But no matter how false my experience may be in reality, the fact remains that I still experience.

What is the “I” that always experiences?

Isn't moral perfection part of the criteria for God?

Morality is a human invention. At the highest level, there is no such thing as good or evil--all is One.

Good and bad are merely labels we place on things to denote whether or not we approve of them, and this labelling says far more about the labeller than what is labelled.

Making such judgements is a sure way to hinder one's spiritual development.

What Van posted is the Global Brain ideology. Most of it is Emergentism, with a bit of Organicism thrown in. This all comes from a transcript of a video about it, based on a book about it by Peter Russell.

http://www.peterrussell.com/GB/GBtext.php


yeah, I knew it was the Gaia Theory + some stuff. Thanks for a link


And it is clear we are all part of one organization, all living on Earth and that for our own best interest we should stop fighting ourselves and destroying our planet. Yes, people should improve their reality, improve and be nice etc.

Why does doing any of this require believing in a ghost, mystic force, primal energy, deity, spiritual realms, magic, demons, angels, etc.?

That was my question. Show me how living in harmony will come from a belief that everyone has to believe in, for it to work, (golden rule Jesus type shit) but that has absolutely no evidence to get everyone to believe it.

Global Mind ideology does not require spritual connotations for its effects and use to be realized.

To be honestly, I do not know. Religious Pluralism can help that, I do not think that they have to believe in the same thing.

Physicality is not real, according to quantum physics,

Excuse me, but what the fuck does that even mean?

Something like this (http://www.enspirepress.com/hypnosis_information_articles/quantum_exploration/quantum_exploration.html).

However diverse and incredulous the theories appear, certain consistencies appear throughout the quantum world. The reason for such seemingly un-scientific explanations are due to the strangeness of these quantum consistencies. Photons and electrons are observed to behave as both particles and waves, creating speculation about what were thought of to be solid, definite objects. The use of probabilities, rather than discrete, causal events, has given quantum theory exceptional precision; thus adding to the impression that definite objects simply do not, cannot, exist- the world as we perceive it literally is an illusion

If you want some of the mind tearing science behind how what appears to be physical matter is in actuality, waves.
Go here. (http://www.glafreniere.com/matter.htm)

Morality is a human invention. At the highest level, there is no such thing as good or evil--all is One.

Good and bad are merely labels we place on things to denote whether or not we approve of them, and this labelling says far more about the labeller than what is labelled.

Making such judgements is a sure way to hinder one's spiritual development.

I know about all that, but every religion has its own moral standards, based around the founder's perception of God's expectations. I guess this is a bit different, but that doesn't make this any less ludicrous. It's frustrating when people take a concept they don't understand very well (in this case 'energy') and begin to apply their limited understanding of it in this way.

Err Vanhalla... none of that shows how "Physicality is not real".

1. Wave-Particle duality is called duality (as in two) for a reason. Things can exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties. Though I see that one of the articles claims that there is no dualism, just wave properties, he is definitely not anywhere close to supported by the scientific community. If we're going to describe reality, it's reasonable to use that which has more evidence: wave-particle duality.

That being said, even an understanding of reality using solely waves doesn't mean Physicality is not real:

2. You need to define "physicality". If you're talking about Physicalism, then yet again this doesn't show it it's not real. Physicalism maintains that reality is physical (i.e. ultimately part of that which is described by Physics) and not supernatural.

It's materialism with a new name, one used in order to account for the fact that things that are technically not matter exist in Physics.

What I meant was that solid matter doesn't exist, that appearance is generated in the mind. When we speak of the physical world, we really mean our impression of reality, and all those interpretations are created in the mind. So matter is actually a creation of consciousness.

The main message is that consciousness is the medium which experience manifests. Consciousness is the fabric of reality/the essence of everything.

What I meant was that solid matter doesn't exist, that appearance is generated in the mind. When we speak of the physical world, we really mean our impression of reality, and all those interpretations are created in the mind. So matter is actually a creation of consciousness.

The main message is that consciousness is the medium which experience manifests. Consciousness is the fabric of reality/the essence of everything.

Have you got any evidence to support that?

What I meant was that solid matter doesn't exist, that appearance is generated in the mind. When we speak of the physical world, we really mean our impression of reality, and all those interpretations are created in the mind. So matter is actually a creation of consciousness.



Except:

1. That wave-only view isn't accepted by the scientific community. The ramblings of some guy on the internet aren't really proof of anything. The fact that he is essentially dismissing most of modern Science (i.e. many parts of relativity, many parts of quantum mechanics, essentially the whole standard model...) doesn't inspire much confidence in his claims.

It makes much more sense to say that he is mistaken, that it does to say that essentially all of modern Science is mistaken.

2. Even in a completely "solid" reality, our impression of reality is still "created in our brains". We perceive only a small section of the electromagnetic spectrum, our sense of touch doesn't have absolute precision, we have blind spots in our eyes where our brain tries to fill in the information.

Have you got any evidence to support that?
You can't measure consciousness.

Have you got any evidence to support that?

oddly enough I read an article like that.

as the damn site is gay and won't allow direct linking..


http://www.exitmundi.nl/Dreamsendkop.gif

Could someone or something switch us off? Could it possibly be true that our world is just a computer program, or a hologram, or a dream? Although it's about the weirdest thing you could think of, there are some tantalizing clues this might indeed be the case. The stuff we call 'reality' simply isn’t very real after all.

Welcome to the outskirts of reality. Welcome to the place where theoretical physics and philosophy meet, and where religion and science loose their meaning. Better fasten your mental seatbelts. What we’re about to tell you is just too weird. Too mind-boggling. And quite disturbing, really.

Here we go: the place we call reality may not be real at all. It may look real, and feel real, and smell real. But if you know where to look, and you look real close, you can see the cracks. Just like a Hollywood actor that suddenly realizes he's not surrounded by real buildings -- but by props made of cardboard paper.

If that sounds like lame science fiction; I agree. Indeed, we’ve all seen The Matrix. But could such a thing be conceivable? Could it be true? Are we really here? Or are we, as one reader of Exit Mundi suggested, only a computer simulation, run by an alien race?

Perhaps the simulation is getting boring, and the guy running the program is about to switch it off. We’d see some kind of huge ‘game over’-sign, and that would be it. One moment, we’re here. And the next – we aren’t.

If you’re easily disturbed, or prone to paranoia, better stop reading now. You may not like the answers to questions like these. What you are about to read may change the way you see things -- forever.


Why is the Universe Fine-Tuned?


First, there’s a very, VERY peculiar thing about the place we live in – something so weird and profound it sends shivers down your spine. For in fact, the Universe seems to be ‘fine-tuned’ to make life possible!

It has to do with the stuff most people find boring in school: the laws of physics. Ultimately, all of these laws are founded upon the ‘physical constants’. Such as the force of gravity, the ‘strong force’ that glues atomic nuclei together and the electromagnetic force, the driving hand behind stuff like lightning and computers. But why do these fundamental ‘presets’ have the values they have? Why aren’t they a little bigger, or smaller?

The British cosmologist Fred Hoyle was the first to realise this is no coincidence. A very peculiar thing about the fundamental constants is that they appear to have exactly the right values. If they were slightly smaller or bigger, atoms, stars, planets and people simply wouldn’t exist!

Take the strong force inside atomic nuclei. If the force were just slightly stronger, it would boost up the burning of stars so much, that they would explode only seconds after they were formed. We wouldn’t have a sun – or even a planet. If on the other hand the force were a tad weaker, it would be too weak to hold together elements like the heavy hydrogen isotope deuterium. Stars wouldn’t light up. And we wouldn’t be here either.

Astonishingly, the same goes for all other constants. As the famous British astronomer Martin Rees put it: “Wherever we look, we see examples of fine-tuning. Most of the physical constants and the initial conditions of the Universe examined so far appear to be fine-tuned to some extent.”

That leaves us with a gnawing, unsettling question: Why? Why are all physical contants exactly the way they are? Every cosmologist agrees that this can hardly be a coincidence. So what, or who, set the rules?

Matter: Chunks Of Music?
Next, you should know the stuff our Universe is made of isn’t very real at all. Sure, you can feel the chair underneath you, and see the monitor in front of you. But what we feel and touch and see in everyday life is actually a manifestation of some deeper, completely different kind of underlying reality.

One way to explore what matter is, is to take it apart. First, you’ll find tiny chunks of matter that are called molecules. Then, if you take the molecules apart, you’ll find the atoms the molecules are made of. And then, if you take apart the atoms, you’ll see it’s made of a nucleus, surrounded by a cloud of electrons. And what if you take apart that nucleus? You’ll be in for a big surprise. For inside an atom’s nucleus, reality as we know it actually ceases to exist.

An atom’s nucleus is made of tiny entities we call ‘particles’. But that’s just for lack of a better word. When you say ‘particles’, you think of little balls. But in quantum physics, there’s no such thing as solid `balls’ you can touch or see.

In fact, ‘particles’ like quarks, electrons and photons are so incredibly and utterly different from everything we know of, our language lacks the words to describe them. Particles can be in two places at the same time, and behave both like a wave and a tiny chunk of matter, depending on what you do with them. Particles can pop in and out of existence from nowhere. And ‘grabbing’ them is impossible: it is simply not possible to both know where a particle is and how fast it moves about.

But still, a particle has to be something, right?

That’s why more and more physicists turn to `string theory’. In string theory, matter is ultimately made of extremely small elastic circles, called strings. These strings vibrate. But not like anything we know: the strings vibrate in at least ten dimensions! Our particles are the vibrations of the strings. They are the music the strings make.


The Universe: Bubbles Of What?
Okay, hold that thought: matter is ultimately the manifestation of something else.

Gladly, there are also things that are normal. Take the Universe. Again, it is something we think we know. The Universe is that big black thing with all the lights in it over your head. Perhaps you’ve even heard it’s expanding: first, there was a kind of blast (called the ‘Big Bang’), and from that moment on, the Universe grew bigger and bigger.



But hold it right there. Once more, the real story is far stranger than that. For starters, the Universe has no ‘outside’. To ask what is ‘outside’ the Universe is a meaningless question – it would be like asking what continent lies ‘outside’ our planet. ‘Outside’ the Universe there are no dimensions, and there is no time. The Universe is best seen as an expanding bubble of dimensions in a sea of nothingness – although ‘nothing’ isn’t really a word you can use to describe what is ‘outside’ the Universe.http://www.exitmundi.nl/Dreamsend2.gif
It is extremely difficult to fully comprehend what that means. According to one theory, there are many dimensional bubbles like the one we live in. Our Universe could be the result of two of such bubbles – or ‘planes’ – colliding. And wait, now you’re doing it again: you’re picturing a place with bubbles floating around. But there’s no such thing as a ‘place’. Instead, the other Universes should be wrapped up within our own reality, remember?



An even more bizarre theory has it the place we call the Universe is actually best compared with a hologram. Our Universe could be some kind of optical illusion, the result of several dimensions resonating.

And it goes even further. For in fact, it could actually be possible to create a Universe! Basically, the only thing you’d have to do is squeeze a huge amount of energy together into a very dense, small spot. This would lead to a Big Bang, the theories predict. We wouldn’t see it happening: the Big Bang would create a new dimensional bubble, far beyond reach of our own bubble.

OK, let’s pause for a second. Just think about it. Is it possible that our reality is actually made by some other civilisation, in some other Universe? It would explain why the fundamental constants are fine-tuned…


And You? How Real Is Your Mind?

So, to wrap things up[FONT=Arial]: we live in a place that’s not really a ‘place’, we’re made of stuff that’s not really ‘stuff’ and what we see is only a small part of what’s really there. Matter, time, dimensions, the Universe – it’s all lucid, unreal. And to make things even more bizarre, for some reason, our Universe is exactly preset to make our existence possible. Pretty confusing, don't you think?



Gladly, you can cling to this one security: that you are here. No matter how weird the stuff around you is, you are definitely for real. No need to explain: you just know you are.

second part.



[/FONT]
But do you really?



Let’s do an experiment. Speak out your name over and over and over and over again. After a while, you’ll notice something weird. Your name will begin to sound strange. It’s no longer something that is you – your name is just a word, a random sequence of syllables and sounds that other people utter when they want to catch your attention. If your parents had given you another name, you would listen to another sequence of sounds.



The same happens when you look in the mirror. Stare at your own face long enough, and you’ll suddenly realize it’s just another face. The face in the mirror is, of course, yours. But after a while, it won’t feel like that anymore. The face you see could be anybody's.



Most neuroscientists agree the same applies for your consciousness. The thing you call your ‘self’ is most likely an illusion, created by your brain. Your brain gives you vision, sound, speech, feelings, and thoughts. When you add all these things up, you’ll have some overall feeling of awareness you call your consciousness. But still, your brain is the thing running it. Your feeling of ‘self’ is best compared to a software program running. It looks very real – but it isn’t.



Of course, most people believe there is something like a ‘soul’ or a ‘spirit’ living inside of you. But when it comes down to facts, there just isn’t any evidence for that. Every thought you have, every move you make, every emotion you feel - it’s just brain, brain, brain.



There are actually experiments that prove it. When you disturb your brain in a certain way, your feeling of ‘self’ can get detached from your brain. Suddenly, it will feel as if ‘you’ are not inside your body anymore. You experience what is known as an ‘out of body experience’, or a ‘near death experience’.

But you don’t have to be nearly dead to feel it. The sensation can easily be created in a laboratory, by placing a helmet with rotating magnetic fields on your head. The magnetic field acts like a ‘jam signal’ on your brain. Suddenly, you'll feel like you're floating outside your body. But you aren’t. It’s just your brain going confused.

And you don't really need a helmet to do the trick. Visiting a place where the movement of the Earth's crust generates magnetic fields can give you the experience. Being in a situation where your brain doesn't get enough oxygen sometimes does it. Certain brain operations bring out the experience. Meditation and intensive prayer can generate it.



In fact, exactly this is why some people see ghosts, or Maria, or feel like they are visited by aliens. It is an incredible weird experience to be ‘outside of your brain’. Your brain will try to make sense of it. Immediately, the rational part of your brain will come up with an ‘explanation’ for the experience. You will sense a ‘presence’ near you. If you’re religious, you might see Maria, or Jesus. If you believe in UFOs, your brain might tell you you’re visited by aliens. If you believe in ghosts, you’ll feel the presence of a ghost of a dead person. But in reality, it’s your own feeling of self you’re experiencing.




So... Are We A Game Of Sims?
So there you are. You’re just a walking piece of matter that’s pretending to be someone. But in reality, things like matter, or self, or the Universe, or time, or dimensions are all illusions. Everything we see and everything we feel are, in fact, the manifestations of some underlying reality.



That leaves you with an unsettling question: what exactly is that reality?


http://www.exitmundi.nl/Dreamsend1.gif
The truth is: we don’t know. Could be almost anything, really. A dream, even. Or a simulation. Or a kind of computer game, an advanced kind of Civilization or Sims. There’s no way of knowing if there’s someone or something pushing the buttons. There’s no way of knowing if there isn’t, either.



And then, there’s this other thing most theorists agree on: our reality could suddenly end. Our universe could fold up. The dimensions we live in could be wrapped up. The very fabric of our physical world could be disrupted by some unprecedented, weird physical event. From one second to the other, our reality would no longer be there. Sounds like fun, right?



But then again, why bother? For that’s the deeper consequence of these things. If there is no such thing as a place we call Earth, we needn’t really worry about its end. Would the characters of a Sims-game feel sad or disappointed when you turned off the computer? Or would the people you dream of at night mind if you wake up? You guessed it: they probably wouldn't. What isn’t really there, doesn’t really end.



That being said, there’s only one small problem. You see: you have to be a good philosopher to really feel it that way!


http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm

If there's "one consciousness" though, and "all thoughts and things are within itself", wouldn't everybody follow a uniform set of morals? Anyway, it sounds too much like the law of attraction stuff to me, which I don't like. Why does everybody think and behave differently if we're all the product of this "one consciousness"?

It's what mystics of all religions and traditions have been saying for thousands of years.