WHERE DID EVERYTHING COME FROM?
My
Answer, or Still Crazy After All These
Years!
I am so Blessed! The most important person in my life has
always supported my craziness! In 1996, when we attended our first “Toward a
Science of Consciousness” seminar in Tucson Arizona, where I presented my
derivation of the “non-quantum receptor”, as we entered the lecture hall for
the opening session, Jacqui remarked: “We’re in a room filled with over three
hundred people that are crazy just like you!”
In an informal talk given by Paramahansa Yogananda,
the founder of Self-Realization Fellowship in the US and Yogoda Sat-Sanga
Society of India, he told the story of encountering a famous Hollywood actor
once while travelling in the US. The actor was openly critical, almost
offended, by Yogananda’s appearance, including his dark skin, his ochre-colored
robe, long hair and turban. Yogananda replied to the effect: “We are all crazy
in some way, and I know about your craziness, but you don’t know about mine!”
Of, course, it turned out that none of the
three-hundred and some-odd scientists and philosophers in that room on the
University of Arizona Campus that day in 1996 were crazy exactly like me. A few were similar, but most were afflicted with a
slightly different kind of craziness. But, I’ve been blessed to have at least
three friends in this life, my college roommate, now Dr. David Stewart, my
wife, Jacqui, and my research partner, Dr. Vernon Neppe, whose craziness was
and is enough like mine to help me believe that there is some value to my
craziness.
As we walked out of one of the Tucson II sessions, a few days later,
I happened to be walking next to a well-known physicist whose ideas had impressed
me. I turned toward him and asked:
“Have you started meditating yet?”
He looked
at me quizzically, and answered: “No. Why should I?”
Before I could respond, he
disappeared into the crowd.
I firmly believe that any serious thinker, scientist,
philosopher or ordinary person, should learn to meditate. It could mitigate
their inflated sense of self-worth some. Most scientists like to think that the
thoughts they think, the ideas they put forth are theirs alone. I don’t think
that is quite true. Many of the ideas that have proved valuable in my career as
a scientist and engineer, came to me after periods of deep meditation. In my
opinion, this reveals the fact that theories about the nature of reality, like
quantum theory and the theory of relativity, or any idea, while ostensibly produced
by one or a few, belong to no one. The truth about the nature of reality is
available to everyone, and accessible by anyone who is willing to contemplate
deeply enough.
Rene Descartes, revered by many as the father of
modern science, famously said: “I think therefore I am!” Of course, what he actually said was: “je pense, donc je suis!” when he published this thought in his native language, French,
as the primary axiom of his “Discourse on
the Method”. Later he published the thought in Latin, the formal scientific
language of his day, as “Cogito ergo sum!” in his scholarly work, “Principles of Philosophy.” Reading
Descatrtes’ statement, most of us think, yes, that’s right! I am thinking, and
that implies that I exist. But, as we all have done, from time immemorial, with
this declaration, Descartes did not really start at the beginning, he started
well into the middle of the story! His seminal statement assumes that we know
What thinking is, and what being is. Do we? Really? Many, many books have
been written about thinking and being, but do we really know what they are?
Apparently not. We are writing, and we are still in the middle of the story. How
do we start at the beginning?
You may be beginning to suspect that I am crazy enough
to think that I can figure this out! So, how do we start at the beginning?
What, when, where, or who is/was the
beginning, the origin of all things? To see how we have tackled the question: “How did all this Begin?” in the past, let’s
look at some answers from some of the Homo sapiens cultures of the Earth.
From the Middle East
“In the beginning YHVH created the heavens and
the earth. Now the
earth was formless and empty, darkness
was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of YHVH was hovering over the waters. And YHVH said, ‘Let there be light,’
and there was light.” Then YHVH took dust of the earth and shaped
it into the form of a man, and breathed life into that form, and it came to
life.
From India
In the beginning there was absolutely
nothing, Brahma thought, "Let me
have a self", and Brahma created
the mind. As Brahma moved about in
worship, water was generated. Froth formed on the water, and the froth
eventually solidified to become earth. Then Brahma
created life, plants, animals and human beings.
From the West
Reality was at first
endless space in which existed only Manito,
the Creator. This reality had no time, no shape, and no life, except in the
mind of Manito. Eventually the
infinite creator created the finite, Kitchi
Manito, as the agent to establish the nine universes. The finite
manifestation Manito gathered together matter to make the solid worlds and gathered
together the waters and placed them on these worlds to make land and sea. Then Kitchi Manito gathered together air to
make winds and breezes on these worlds. And the fourth act of creation was the
creation of life.
From the Far East
There was something featureless yet complete,
born before heaven and earth; Silent—amorphous—it stood alone and unchanging.
We may regard it as the mother of heaven and earth. Not knowing its name, call
it “the Way.” The Way gave birth to unity, Unity gave birth to duality, Duality gave
birth to trinity, Trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures. The myriad
creatures bear yin on their back and
embrace yang in their bosoms. They
neutralize these vapors and thereby achieve harmony.
The
Big Bang, a Scientific Answer
The current scientific answer is generally
known as “the Big Bang Theory”. It was generated after the discovery by
astronomer Edwin Hubble, of evidence that distant stars, once assumed fixed in
space, appear to be hurtling away from us, implying that the universe is
expanding in every direction. Applying Einstein’s theory of general relativity
and imagining running the expansion backwards, cosmologists arrive at the
conclusion that the universe exploded into existence from nothing, or nearly nothing, and evolved into the
vast complex expanding universe we have now. Along the way, life and
consciousness blossomed forth according to natural laws, not all of which we
know or fully understand.
These “answers” were all generated during the
past five to ten thousand years on this planet. They were spoken and written by
human beings for communication to human beings. Notice that, even though they
come from widely separated places on the Earth, and from different kinds of
thinkers, they have some very similar elements: First there was nothing but an
infinite nothing or mind or spirit, called by various names, all meaning in
some way, the Creator. Then the Creator divided the infinity up into its
various parts including our first ancestor(s), and Ba-da, Ba-da, Boom: Here we
are today!
Even the Big-Bang scientific answer has some similar
components. In it, there was virtually nothing, but then something caused it to
explode into everything we have today. No one know what cause this to happen. The
main difference between the scientific answer and the traditional answers is
that no creator is assumed to be necessary. But, while that seems to be a
reasonable assumption, is far from a provable fact.
Are there other versions? Oh, yeah! Plenty. From Zachariah Stichin, to
Erich von Dӓniken, to that wild-haired guy on the Ancient Aliens TV series,
there are those who believe life originated elsewhere in the universe. There
seems to be more and more evidence that there may be sentient beings from somewhere
in the universe who are far more advanced than we are. Is that possible? Of
course. We’ve seen before that thinking of ourselves as the end-all, be-all
center of the universe is usually a blind form of self-centered ego-delusion.
My Answer
Believe
it or not, the Calculus of Dimensional Distinctions (CoDD) mentioned so often
in my posts and publications, plays a major part in my answer. To explain how
this can be, I will start by quoting three short paragraphs from the beginning
of the wonderful little book “Laws of
Form”, by British Logician George Spencer Brown:
“The
theme of this book is that a universe comes into being when a space is severed
or taken apart. The skin of a living organism cuts off an outside from an
inside. So does the circumference of a circle in a plane. By tracing the way we
represent such a severance, we can begin to construct, with an accuracy and
coverage that appear almost uncanny, the basic forms underlying linguistic,
mathematical, physical, and biological science, and can begin to see how the
familiar laws of our own experience follow inexorably from the original act of
severance. The act itself is already remembered, if unconsciously, as our first
attempt to distinguish different things in a world where, in the first place,
the boundaries can be drawn anywhere we please. At this stage, the universe can
not be distinguished from how we act upon it, and the world may seem like
shifting sand beneath our feet.
“Although
all forms, and thus all universes, are possible, and any particular form is
mutable, it becomes evident that the laws relating such forms are the same in
any universe. It is this sameness, the idea that we can find a reality which is
independent of how the universe actually appears, that lends such fascination
to the study of mathematics. That mathematics, in common with other art forms,
can lead us beyond ordinary existence, and can show us something of the
structure in which all creation hangs together, is no new idea. But
mathematical texts generally begin the story somewhere in the middle, leaving
the reader to pick up the thread as best he can. Here the story is traced from
the beginning.
“Unlike
some superficial forms of expertise, mathematics is a way of saying less and
less about more and more. A mathematical text is not an end in itself, but a
key to a world beyond the compass of ordinary description.”
I
wholeheartedly share and agree with professor Brown’s view of mathematics. In
my opinion, mathematical description reflects the logical structure of reality.
In his book, which I highly recommend as a good introduction to the CoDD, Professor
Brown presents the logic leading from the conscious drawing of a distinction to
laws governing the forms that make up the universe we experience. While I may
depart from what I see as his sterile path of logic, into aspects of reality
Professor Brown probably did not anticipate, I believe that his starting point
is truly the beginning of the story, and it is my starting point as well, but
the CoDD completes the story by finalizing the logical loop of triadic,
spherical reasoning and reconnecting the consciousness of the individual with
the Consciousness of the Cosmos.
The
beginning of reality, as we experience it, is the distinction of self from
other, and all description, all thinking (getting back to Descartes’ Method) is
always expressed in terms of distinctions. This is why the distinction I have
called the quantum equivalence unit, the basic unit of the CoDD which I took so
much care to define based on the smallest mass of the elementary particles that
make up reality, the electron, is used in the CoDD as the basic unit of
observation, measurement and description.
Following
this line of reasoning, I come to the conclusion that consciousness has always
existed in some form and is the matrix or source of the physical universe, not
the other way around. The basic triad: consciousness, distinction, and object, has
always existed and will always exist in some form. The creation stories, even
the current scientific one, are all about how the essence of reality changes
over time, not about an absolute creation from nothing. The CoDD applied to
quantized physical reality and infinitely continuous consciousness, shows me
that matter, energy, space, and time are illusions created by a primary form of
consciousness, and the attainment of oneness with Cosmic Consciousness Itself,
is the goal, the purpose and meaning of all creation and all individual
sentient beings.
To
complete this post, I will quote some sayings of some of my spiritual guides:
“It
is the Infinite, the Ocean of Power, that lies behind all phenomenal
manifestations. Our eagerness for worldly activity kills in us the sense of
spiritual awe. Because modern science tells us how to utilize the powers of
nature, we fail to comprehend the Great Life in back of all names and forms.
Familiarity with Nature has bred contempt for her ultimate secrets; our
relation with her is one of practical business. We tease her, so to speak, to
discover the ways in which she may be forced to serve our purposes; we make use
of her energies, whose Source yet remains unknown. In science our relation with
Nature is like that between an arrogant man and his servant; or in a
philosophical sense, Nature is like a captive in the witness box. We
cross-examine her, challenge her, and minutely weigh her evidence in human
scales that cannot measure her hidden values.
“On
the other hand, when the self is in communion with a higher power, Nature
automatically obeys, without stress or strain the will of man. This effortless
command over Nature is called ‘miraculous’ by the uncomprehending materialist.”
--Lahiri Maysaya
“God
is Love; His plan for creation can be rooted only in Love. Does not that simple
thought, rather than erudite reasonings offer solace to the human heart? Every
saint who has penetrated to the core of Reality has testified that a divine
universal plan exists and that it is beautiful and full of joy.” --Paramahansa
Yogananda
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my
burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30) “I have come that they may have life, and
have it to the full.” (John 10:10). –Jesus
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give
you the desires of your heart” (Psalms 37:4)
“Names are unimportant; a rose by any
other name is still a rose”. – William Shakespeare
“What is the difference if I wear a visible or an invisible wave
on my ocean of Spirit?” --Babaji
The bottom
line
Matter and energy, time and space, are
temporary illusory distinctions. Reality is Eternal and Self-sufficient. Like
waves on the surface of the Sea of Existence, we exist as part of the Ocean of Reality
and unto it we shall return --fully aware of who we are and where we came from!
