LOVE OF THE UNIVERSE - THEME OF WEEK 28-2019
«See the Universe as pure consciousness and love as its creative maths» (@mostadjon)
The universe evolves with a precision and complexity that has puzzled humanity at all times. Humans have used myths and observations of the stars' movements, at all times, and today through scientific analysis.
In my personal spiritual process where I seek a deeper understanding of who I am, where I come from and where my journey goes, I have had to form a great narrative of the origin and movement of the Universe. In this text I reflect more deeply on my quote: See the Universe as pure consciousness and love as its creative maths (Instagram @mostadjon).
I post a text every week CET 7 PM, on my blog www.jonmostad.com. The texts are small oases where I reflect on topics related to existential, phenomenological and spiritual themes. I am particularly keen to understand a future for Man in the face of artificial intelligence. The week's text is followed up with quotes and captions on Instagram where you find me as @mostadjon.
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The universe as pure consciousness?
I have left the notion of science that consciousness is created in and by the human brain. Such a story makes no sense to me. Ancient Myths, Eastern Religious Explanations, Theosophical teachings, and Modern Scientific Assumptions, tell of an image in which all matter is connected and part of a complex community of consciousness. In particular, the Hungarian scientist Ervin Laszlo's idea of consciousness is interesting to me. Very briefly, Laszlo explains consciousness in this way:
First understanding: Local consciousness, consciousness occurs in and by the individual human brain
Second understanding: Distributed awareness, awareness takes place in the form of smaller networks of human beliefs similar to networked computers
Third understanding: Cosmic consciousness, The universe itself is a great consciousness that creates itself through interaction with all life
Laszlo's third understanding creates harmony to me. The idea that all matter is movement and connected to each other as a great tissue is an ancient mythical notion that finds its new form in science that dares to seek new insights. Consciousness develops both at a subatomic level and at an atomic level, and at all levels of frequencies from minerals, plants, animals and humans, and at a metaphysical-cosmic level.
Evidence for consciousness in the cosmos
The Norwegian author and editor, Henrik B. Tschudi, states in the book "Consciousness in the Cosmos" (Flux publisher, Oslo, 2016), four perspectives that point to consciousness in the cosmos:
The Order of the Universe: Processes in the Universe appear as results of patterns and relationships that cannot be explained by coincidence and the absence of "information".
Coherence in the Universe: Processes in the Universe seem organized in two main forms that can provide the basis for the notion of a universal underlying dominant "attractor". One main form is "numerical coincidence" between the fundamental parameters of the Universe and the other is "fine-tuned and coherent" physical constants. It is beyond the scope of my text to explain these two terms in more detail. Shortly I can say that the expansion of the Universe would have collapsed if the expansion after The Bing Bang had been a billionth less than it was and if it had been a billionth larger, the Universe would spread so rapidly that it would only manifest thin-flowing cold gases. If the strength of the electromagnetic field relative to the gravitational field had been similarly minimal, stable stars such as the sun and therefore no planets would not have found their shape. Thus, life would not have been developed. These are just two of several coincidences that underlie the Universe in its form.
The Order of Evolution: The universe evolves and changes over time. If we can see that the macrostructures that give the Universe its shape are marked by order, we can say that evolution evolves intelligently and that this intelligence also underlies evolution. If we can identify coherence and order in the evolution of life on Earth, may we say that the same order is the basis of the evolution of the Universe?
Direction in development: Life is the result of processes that require structures that conserve and transform energy, we can talk about processes with high structure. This is in contrast to physical processes in general, which are characterized by searching for instability and disorder, what is called entropy. Therefore, life is seen as an anomaly (an "error") in the Universe. That was how science thought until the 21st century. Today, science knows that life can evolve under conditions other than those that apply to Earth and that such conditions are not so rare. Complex molecules can be formed in active stars and this appears to be integrated into the processes that develop the stars. Life can prove to be embedded in the very evolution of the Universe and not just a coincidence that has arisen on planet Earth.
Life breaks with science's notions of the physical universe and of principles for the development of physico-chemical systems. Life has emerged from high coherence characterized by active compounds that appear sensitive and precise. This form of sensitive interaction tells of a basic form of perception and it is called prehension. We can understand prehension as to "sense" (sense, perceive, grasp). All life forms perceive all other forms of life and for this no sense organ or nervous system is needed. The ability to prehend is an expression of the inherent coherence of the elements included in the physical system. The evolution produces more and more complex coherent compounds within and between systems, even bacteria can display "irritation" when exposed to environmental stimuli.
Life that does not have sensory organs and nervous systems is capable of seizing processes they are part of and this is defined as primary perception. Prehension as it is expressed in primary perception is therefore to be regarded as a first sense - a primordial sense. The more complicated forms of life with sensory organs and nervous system can therefore relate to the processes they are part of, via two main forms: prehension and perception.
I could write more about both prehension and perception, and linked them to the ability of certain people and cultures to "see what does not have form, hear what does not sound and understand what is not thought" (@mostadjon), but I delimit me here. My rationale for inviting you into this philosophical space is to outline how consciousness in the cosmos can evolve and that you are co-creator of cosmic consciousness.
Ancient Myths
How do new thoughts of consciousness and the cosmos relate to ancient myths of the same?
The Chaldean-Egyptian myth world existed for thousands of years before our era. Together with the other great ancient cultures at that time, their knowledge was transformed by Greek and Roman art and philosophy, on which our Western culture and science are largely based. By reading me deeply into ancient myths conveyed through pyramids, hieroglyphs, and obelisks, I see connections and explanations that open up a larger world to me. Ancient Egyptians and the surrounding great cultures of that time, had knowledge of a mathematics and a cosmology that explains the beginning, structure, and development of the Universe.
From the Egyptian monumental edifices erected to mirror the shape and development of the Universe, to the Pythagorean's theoretical interaction with mathematics and music, based on the same insight, I got keys to understanding numbers as a mythical language in line with the hieroglyphs and myths told with pictures . The Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. 570 - c. 495 BC) was initiated into the Egyptian mythology and founded his academy in the Greek colony Kroton, south of Italy, where he continued his insights from his studies with the Egyptian priests.
I have to ask you to wait until I find the place and time to look more closely at Egyptian insights into the world of numbers, based on their architectural and pictorial constructions and on Pythagorean's philosophy of the mystery of numbers. In this text, I point to ancient Egypt and Pythagoras, to give you a thread to hold on to and create the foundation for a final comment.
By comparing what science of our time knows about the cosmos and the new insights that come with, among other things, Ervin Laszlo's thoughts on cosmic consciousness, with ancient knowledge of natural laws that are forgotten for us today, we can glimpse a connection.
The mathematics of love
Mathematics in our time and in our western context has evolved to become a science of structure, order and relationships. Mathematics is made up of logical conclusions based on basic assumptions (axioms). Mathematics uses a distinctive symbol language with an almost universal distribution.
However, mathematics of our time is detached from ancient mythical beliefs about the magic of numbers and their relationships with natural laws that are hidden and forgotten. Pythagorean's important teachings are remembered and used, but the Pythagorean doctrine of the spiritual world of numbers is hardly known. I must leave this perspective in this text and be careful to point out that such a breach exists.
The universe may have been created with the aim that out of entropy (disorder / chaos) life should arise (order / structure) and life should develop forms that we see today, which are part of the unification of the Universe as cosmic consciousness. Such a performance is consistent with the Chaldean-Egyptian cosmology and is reflected in their architecture, language and mathematics.
By taking such a point of departure for my reflections and by supporting me in mathematics as a universal and evolutionary language for all time and all contexts, I ask: is love the language of creation and mathematics its scientific expression?
What do you think?
Jon
