A theory of everything

| Cosmic Consciousness | Dreams | Karma & Nirvana 1895-6 | Manipulating consciousness | Reincarnation & Karma | Taylor Swift's Karma | Theory of Everything | Time & the specious present |

A Theory of Everything? Image: Lorenzo Petrantoni.

Contents

1. What, why, how?
2. The Cs
3. Consciousness
4. Compassion
5. References

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Dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien's God on Middle-earth, Tom Bombadil.

1. What, Why, How?

What is the meaning of life? Where do we come from? What is our place in the universe? What am I? ..... These and other questions constantly arise as human beings on planet Earth go about their daily lives allowing conscious thoughts to run free and/or guide them. Science and philosophy, religion and experience provide us with theories on everything, from why we need sleep,  to how to split an atom and create an atomic bomb which, to some individuals, is the crown of creation. Physicists, in an expression of god-like arrogance, regularly talk of creating a science-based theory of everything reliant upon the hard sciences of physics and mathematics (Campbell 2013). Yet as time goes by, the number of theories expands and the amount of information available at hand explodes exponentially. This has especially been the case since the ubiquitous availability of the internet-connected smartphone. Science has continued to appropriate discussion around the origin and essence of conscience by embracing AI (artificial intelligence) and the quantum realm, with the aid of quantum computing. The idea that a computer can achieve consciousness is being pushed with vigour.

Yet amongst all this white noise, distraction and complex theoretical prognostication, individual consciousness continues to draw us back to those simple questions at the head of this article, especially as age passes and we, as individuals, reach the end of life. As a result, the present 67 year old writer has developed a so-called theory of everything.... or at least a theory or model within which everything that he/she/them can understand or imagine will fit, and all or most of the aforementioned confusion can be contextualised and more easily dealt with. What, then, is that theory?

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2. Consciousness & Compassion

The theory of everything hinges on two ideas bound in reality - cosmic consciousness and compassion.

Our ultimate origin is the cosmic consciousness, also known as the Creator, Source, or God. It is the origin of the universe, and of everything therein, including Earth-bound humanity. Cosmic consciousness, or CC, has no beginning or end, it is infinite in all aspects - thought, power, time and space. The nature of cosmic consciousness and it presentation as an entity sich as an old, bearded man seated on a throne is such that its true comprehension is beyond the reach of any sentient being, whether Earth-based or extraterrestrial. In turn, we are fractal elements of this cosmic consciousness. We are both connected and separate, unique but part of what J.R.R. Tolkien referred to as The One. Our individual consciousness is like a seed of the original cosmic consciousness . That is why in the Christian church we are often referred to as the children of God, or it is said that God is within us. Yet this assertion is present within all manner of religious belief, from Buddhism to Islam and Hindu, in that we have a connection with the Source, Creator, God or Gods.

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3. Consciousness

Just as cosmic consciousness is infinite in all aspects, our individual consciousness is eternal. As a senior Jewish Rabbi recently proclaimed, "Life does not die" (Friedman 2023). But what is our individual consciousness? Why do physicists, philosophers and scientists in general have a real problem in understanding and defining or explaining what it is, whilst at the same time asserting that they will, in the short term, definitely provide an answer to the problem of defining consciousness and the related Mind : Body problem? The reason is simple: they are constrained to the material realm, and consciousness is not so constrained, just as our reality is not.

Our individual consciousness is simply our reality, our existence, our present. We know what our consciousness is because we are conscious beings. We live with our consciousness every moment of every day of our life. And that specific, individual consciousness evolves from the point of conception through to death - a process that is repeatable as we are reborn (reincarnate) and our consciousness therein evolves over time. That individual consciousness - the fractal element of the cosmic consciousness - is not physical. It is not emergent from the physical brain as scientists and philosophers proclaim, and adhere to with an almost religious fervour. Our consciousness is eternal to our physical body, and never dies. Aspects of our non-physical, external consciousness flow into the brain and physical actions emerge as a consequence. Our thoughts, feeling, emotions, ideas are transmitted from our external consciousness to the brain and our physical body, resulting in limited physical actions as outputs of the biological machine which is that brain.

The brain is not the creator of consciousness, or the origin of consciousness. It is merely a transducer, a receptor of non-physical information which is then converted into physical outputs. The so-called Mind: Body problem is a scientific distraction, created by Descartes in the 1500s. The brain and body is like a a smartphone. The smartphone has memory, has distinct applications (Apps), is powered by the electrical current of a battery and receives electromagnetic waves through Wi-Fi or cables. It can do various things. But it is not sentient or conscious. If you want to watch a YouTube video on your smartphone, that YouTube video isn't created within, or does not emerge from the smartphone; it is created externally and transmitted from that external source through non-physical electromagnetic waves via Wi-Fi or cable to the YouTube app on the smartphone, wherein it is converted to video and presented to the viewer. It thus travels from creator source, though the ether to the smartphone, converted back to its original form and viewed. Our consciousness is like that. It is the original source of all the information we ever receive or are aware of - our feelings, emotions, identity, knowledge, memory, ability, experience and more. All of those things are created by, and subsist within, our non-physical, external, eternal, fractal consciousness. It is a unique fractal element of the cosmic consciousness, connected and disconnected, or independent, therein. And this latter part - the independent part, or what is commonly referred to as free will - raises the important second element of our theory of everything, namely Compassion.

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3. Compassion

The other Big C in this model or theory of everything is Compassion. In other words, Cosmic Consciousness, God, the Supreme Being, Creator or Source has as part of its modus operandi the inherent element of goodness, or compassion. It seeks not to be evil, not to be bad, but to be good. This is the core element of its nature, and in creating us as individual consciousnesses, sentient beings or whatever form that fractal element of the CC happens to be, then the meaning of that life is to be good. Tibetan Buddhist encompass it within the mantra Om mane padme om (trans. Help me be the best I can), and such a sentiment exists in all spiritual realms and social constructs - Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Gnosticism, and whatever religion or spiritual belief or legal system which is put in place. They are all basically seeking to create and support goodness, compassion, understanding and caring, even if only to varying degrees. Therefore the meaning of life, the ultimate goal of existence for sentient beings, is to attain a higher level of consciousness which is aligned with an expression of compassion. It is interesting to note, and of relevance here, that in a recent study of more that 4,000 near death experiences, it was common that after the experience the experiencer felt a greater sense of compassion to humanity and less concern for material gain (Long and Ferrari 2024).

Those two elements combined, at the very highest level of understanding, have given rise to the universe and to us as individual consciousnesses. It is the framework within which the Creator or Source operates and within which the present theory of everything accommodates our reality, including science, belief, materialism and the non-physical realms. Our place on planet Earth, our relationship with alien extraterrestrial beings, our feelings, perceptions, present and physical reality fits within the theory under this bilaterial umbrella. Our evolving understanding of consciousness, and the fact of the evolution of individual consciousness over time, both fit within this model. Unfortunately those materialist science-based theories that proclaim that consciousness is emergent from (i.e. a product of) the brain rejects such a context.

The evolution of consciousness is an interesting concept. Materialists and a Catholic church which has banned the concept of reincarnation, stifles such a belief, as it limits individual consciousness to a single personal lifetime. That is, they state that it begins when you are born and it ends when you die. That is it. There is no opportunity for evolution of the consciousness. Unlike in Buddhism or other religions which rebirth, reincarnation and karma are core elements of the path of individual consciousness from a single point of creation as a fractal element of the cosmic consciousness as possible manifestation in the form of a single cell amoeba, through to ascent in physical form and level of consciousness to the ultimate non-physical form of being which has reached a level of consciousness close to the original cosmic consciousness, or what the Buddhists call Nirvana. Also, with the present materialist theory of consciousness (as far as it has been explained to date) every part of individual consciousness is presented as a product and output of the brain and nothing else. This had been said to correlate with physical actions and reactions in the brain to things such as love and hate, thought and action. However the materialists have got the issue back-to-front. Consciousness creates and initiates the physical reactions in the brain which give rise to physical reactions in the real world, not the other way around. For example, when we see through out eyes there is activity in the brain which correlates to that. As a result, materialists state that the origin of sight is that link between the eyes and the brain, which seems reasonable. However, this does not explain how some individuals can be unconscious, and can nevertheless see without the use of their eyes, as for example when a person has a near-death experience (NDE) and they float out of their physical body and look down upon it on the ground or operating table. They see all around them, and when they are revived and return to their physical body they are able to describe accurately and in detail what had taken place. This is evidence of the role of the independent non-physical consciousness in being able to see external to the physical system of the eyes and brain. Also, it cannot explain the scientifically proven ability of remote viewing, whereby an individual can take their consciousness to a remote location and view events there. This has been used by American and Russian security services as part of their spying strategies and also to identify the location, for example, of kidnapped individuals or missing airplanes.

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4. References

Campbell, Macgregor, What is the point of a theory of everything?, New Scientist, 9 October 2013.

Friedman, Manis, Life Can't Die, Rabbi Manis Friedman, YouTube, 26 April 2023, duration: 57.49 minutes.

Long, Jeffrey and Alex Ferrari, Near-Death Experience (NDE): A ground-breaking study of over 4,000 NDEs, Nexus, August-September 2024, 54-63

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| Cosmic Consciousness | Dreams | Karma & Nirvana 1895-6 | Manipulating consciousness | Reincarnation & Karma | Taylor Swift's Karma | Theory of Everything | Time & the specious present |

Last updated: 8 August 2024

Michael Organ, Australia