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 19 Dec 2008 @ 09:42
Cosmic Egg, Cosmic Onion
It is time to stop being outsiders looking in, aliens in a place which is our own, alienated people who don’t belong, fragmented beings seeing things with a fragmented consciousness and awareness. One way we can deal with these problems is to start looking around from the inside, being comfortable with ourselves and the world, constructing a worldview where we are insiders rather than outsiders.
In his book “Wholeness and the Implicate Order” David Bohm looks at the situation instigated by the creation of a grid which we put in front of our eyes and consciousness and see things “over there”, separate and alien. This is the case, he suggests, with Descartes’ co-ordinate system and also, going further back, with the Euclidean geometry project itself. In passing, he suggests that herein lies the mystery and solution of Zeno’s paradoxes. In slightly different language and terms I will try to convey my understanding of what he is getting at. A line between A and B is finite but the minute we try to measure it with a number system we encounter problems that lead to contradictions. The minute we try to measure a finite length with numbers we create a fractal, something where finite and infinite co-exist because between any two points on a line an infinite number of quantities exist, which is what Zeno’s paradoxes are all about. This is my interpretation of what Bohm says when he hints that he has solved Zeno’s paradoxes.
And indeed, as we know from the Differential and Integral Calculus, this Cartesian system does not like infinities. You cannot integrate or differentiate across discontinuities. The hidden bugbear of this alienated Cartesian system, despite its successes of the past three centuries, is infinitude.
The Cartesian project, like the creation of 3-D perspective which happened earlier, in the Italian Renaissance, are signs that a certain split in consciousness, in awareness, was descending on the Western mind. Other evidence of this is the Mind/Body split and dualism also associated with the name of Descartes.
Now is the time to heal this split. How to do it? By taking the grid away; by taking the graduated quantities also. One way we can do this is suggested by Chaos theory which isn’t very interested in grids and gradations, but is rather more interested in maps and scales of self-similarity. In Chaos theory infinities are no longer seen as a problem but as something inherent in the fractal vision which can easily be dealt with.
Personally, I believe that the ancient view of a cosmic egg, or the more modern idea of a cosmic onion, both fractal, are very near to the truth. I also believe that the so-called space-time continuum is an alienated view that misses a lot and does not exist. It seems to me that the reality we are in is the inside of a cosmic entity, such as those just mentioned, and that at the centre of each whirling fractal at smaller and smaller scales lie infinities. In other words the inside of this cosmic entity is discontinuous, riddled with an infinity of holes rather like a Sierpinski gasket. Infinity is no longer something that can be ignored.
Moving inside and looking around and exploring is the first step to becoming Insiders, and at home in the Cosmos.
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16 Oct 2008 @ 08:40
Some Thoughts on questions raised by Erwin Schrodinger and David Bohm
Erwin Schrodinger’s little book consisting of “What is Life”, “Mind and Matter” and “Biographical Sketches” is still cutting-edge today though written nearly half a century ago. I will mention one point he raises and I think it is central to further progress in science/physics. David Bohm’s work “Wholeness and the Implicate Order” more or less takes up Schrodinger’s challenge and though very much “work in progress” outlines an approach to these questions. Schrodinger says that science and particularly physics have reached an impasse and must re-assimilate consciousness into the equation, which was banished at the time of Descartes’dualism. He suggests this is done by adopting the Hindu “Law of Identity” which says that we all share in our consciousness , in the consciousness of the Godhead.
Bohm’s effort is vast and complex and deep and I will not try to give an account of it here. What I will do is put forward certain thoughts which reading these two books have prompted in me. Mainly, I would conclude that my interest in the importance of self-similarity, which I have referred to a number of times in previous mathematical articles, is a working out and development of points made by Bohm. Considering these points has led me to draw further conclusions, which you may find original and striking.
Bohm talks about holograms and the making of them with coherent laser light, which was relatively recent when he wrote his book in 1980. It seems to me that “coherence” is a key concept in all this and has some bearing on self-similarity in that when all the light is coherent rather than incoherent, there is some sort of self-similarity at work. In previous examples I have written about, I have spoken of self-similarity in right-angled triangles and pentagons and spirals, which are essentially geometrical. Also I dealt with self-similarity in the Fibonacci and other sequences, which is a numerical example. Coherent light is, I believe, an example of self-similarity on a completely different plane. In every case, self-similarity leads to remarkable, almost magical results. Pythagoras’ theorem is remarkable, as is the Fibonacci sequence and its properties. Who can doubt that holograms display remarkable properties also. For reasons that are not entirely clear, wherever we find self-similarity, on whatever plane, we find things of a truly remarkable nature. This immediately suggests to me two corollaries, which if true, are also remarkable.
Now the causes of magnetism are not really known. I am suggesting here that it is another example of self-similarity in the form of coherence. That is, the molecules in a magnetized piece of metal, such as iron, are coherent in a way that produces the remarkable property of attraction. It is known that there is a co-ordination between the molecules, an ordering which has this effect, but the concepts of self-similarity and coherence are new in this respect.
This also suggests to me the solution to another riddle: superconductivity. A similar explanation seems to be suggested by the known facts. In a superconductor the electrons move together in a co-ordinated way to produce the remarkable property of by-passing any resistance. On the analogy of the hologram and the magnet, we can put forward the hypothesis that when certain materials have all their electrons in the same state, presumably the same shell, and presumably the lowest level, the base level, then the remarkable property of superconductivity occurs. This is a form of self-similarity and coherence. This idea is supported by the known fact that all materials at Absolute Zero temperature have their electrons in the base state, and it is usually at a very low temperature, close to absolute zero, that superconductivity occurs. But this hypothesis does raise the possibility of achieving superconductivity at higher temperatures, even room temperature, if materials can be found that have the requisite properties mentioned above.
Going back to Schrodinger and the “Law of Identity”, a possible reason for all these remarkable properties which follow from self-similarity and coherence, is that when a part is similar in form to the greater whole, then it mirrors in some way the similarity of our consciousness with that of the Godhead. More >
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1 Oct 2008 @ 08:40
Consciousness, Mind and Information
Mystics and indigenous cultures talk of a cosmic shift in consciousness occurring in the early part of the 21st century. The Mayan calendar even gives a date for this process late in the year 2012. It is appropriate then for me to consider the subject of consciousness and see if any light can be shed on it and these events.
As you may recall, Hegel spoke of the process whereby Spirit “alienates” itself into matter and then develops, through many forms, to return to itself in Mind. In an earlier article I proposed a “translation” of these terms into scientific ideas. Thus for Spirit we have Energy, and matter remains as matter, with the added idea that it is frozen or alienated energy or spirit. Also matter is discrete, individualised whereas Spirit is continuous and undifferentiated. So also we imagine is energy continuous and undifferentiated. Now when we arrive at the third term of Hegel’s triad, namely Mind, we reach the very thing we are concerned about today. For Mind, in an alternative formulation is the same as Consciousness. The consciousness of the godhead. In that essay “Mind Identity” I put forward the idea that Mind is translated by the scientific and journalistic term “Information”. Hence consciousness and information are related in some way. What I am suggesting is that just as matter is a discrete form of energy, both of which find their synthesis in “Mind” or consciousness, in the same way information is both individual, discrete bits of data/information, and also continuous like a field or wave. In other words information is the union of energy and matter in the same way as Consciousness/Mind is the union of Spirit and Matter.
Now there are many issues connected with these ideas. Indeed, everything I have written about, such as identity, and Schrodinger’s “Law of Identity”, alienation, archetypes and sub-personalities, are all connected in various ways with this.
Information is usually regarded in the context of computers and networks. And for many years there has been information science. But we don’t have to be specialists in this field to know that it is relevant to our present inquiries. Just looking at the events of the past few years is enough to confirm the belief that information is central to what’s happening and about to happen in the world. In this country (England) there have been numerous examples recently of lost or stolen information/data concerning thousands of people and their identities. This never used to be an issue but it is now. Also, it is said “information wants to be free” which puts it on a par with spirit which also tends to greater and greater freedom. Money is becoming less and less material and more and more digitalised and ethereal and spiritualised. Indeed it is becoming electronic information. Money has been proliferating for a long time at an uncontrollable rate and so has data/information. In the realm of culture the Matrix movies portrayed consciousness as pure information many times. All this, and the growing dominance of the information class, the media, suggests to me that information is the springboard by which we will all reach consciousness and identity with God. More >
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9 Sep 2008 @ 08:58
The Other Erwin Schrodinger
I was recently reading a small book by Physicist Erwin Schrodinger, noted for his Nobel prize and contributions to Quantum theory and the paradox of “Schrodinger’s Cat”. What is not well known is his mystical approach to certain things for example his concept of “negative entropy” to explain some unique characteristics of life itself. Writing over 50 years ago he states that classical physics has reached an impasse and has to change its ideas in some ways, in order to be able to advance further. The first way is to adopt what he calls the “Law of Identity”, which he borrows from the Hindu religion. This asserts that we all share in our consciousness in the consciousness of God. Schrodinger sees the question of whether this involves souls as an unnecessary complication, and seems not to believe in them. Linked to his view of consciousness is his profound belief that the split between Subject and Object, central to Classical Science, is an illusion. He believed that it is really a split in our minds, in our consciousness, that creates this illusion of a separation between observer and object. His views were remarkable at that time and are still cutting-edge today. I completely agree with his analysis and add here a few thoughts of my own. Recently I have been thinking and writing about “the Other” and it is clear to me that the split between Self and Other, which is the cause of so much trouble in the world, is a split in consciousness similar to what he describes. Self/Other is a false dichotomy, an illusion, on a par with that between Observer and Observed. It is caused by a split in our consciousness, our way of looking at things, and I will now elaborate why.
Schrodinger’s “Law of Identity” says that we all share, in our individual consciousness, in the consciousness of God. This is the Hindu view and that of many mystics. But most world religions resolutely deny that we are part of the Godhead and consider it blasphemy to say this. Yet it is this very same denial, I believe, that is the cause of this split in our consciousness that leads us to create “the Other” and “the Object”. First we deny that we are like God, then we start to perceive God as the Other, then we perceive parts of ourselves as other, then Nature, Woman, Gays, Blacks, Muslims and so on. This condition is called Alienation. In these circumstances the alienated Self, the Ego, itself splits into countless inner others. To the alienated, everything is other, nothing is self. In reality everything is God, but alienated people cannot see that. One consequence of this estrangement from God, and ourselves, is that we try to destroy everything we see as other. But this is impossible. The other is everywhere. It is like our shadow. In attempting to destroy the other all we do is destroy ourselves. All the environmental problems we have, such as climate change, come from this unconscious desire to destroy the other, and Nature is a huge other. The remedy for this malaise and all such, is to accept that there is no Other; Everything is Self, Everything is God. More >
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2 Sep 2008 @ 11:30
Sexual Identity is Basic on the Material Plane
In the past, since the beginning of modern progressive thought, it has been the case that anti-racism was the touchstone of the movement against the hatred of Difference, which is better described as discrimination and Fascism. In my last article, ”HomoRacism” I questioned this fact and put forward the idea that if we are to consider priorities it is not in fact racism which is fundamental. I put forward my personal opinion that sex, gender and sexuality are even more basic than the colour of our skin. The emergence of contradictions in the different attitudes of minorities who themselves discriminate against other minorities shows that a new and complex situation is developing. It is actually my belief that whereas the material identity that is crucial is the one outlined above, namely sexuality, the spiritual identity is something different. Specifically I believe in what Erwin Schrodinger, the famous Quantum physicist, called the “Law of Identity” that we all in our consciousness are one with God. This is the real identity which I believe will be revealed in the era of post-modernism. And this accounts seemingly for the huge importance which people are placing on questions of spiritual identity and particularly Religion. So I do think that the traditional paradigm on identity and ant-fascism has to be critically looked at and the new realities taken into consideration.
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31 Aug 2008 @ 09:19
HomoRacism : Homophobia and Racism
I’ve never really liked the terms Islamophobia or Homophobia because people don’t take these terms very seriously, even though they reflect the truth of the problems some people have with Muslims and those of different sexuality. The public consider these terms psychobabble and have always seemed to prefer more gutsy terms like racism, fascism etc. for analogous conditions. I would like to suggest that we rename the hatred of gays as HomoRacism.
Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican Archbishop of Capetown, said a while ago in defence of gays that the hatred people showed for them was the new Apartheid and the new racism. Desmond Tutu, in my opinion, is one of the greatest men alive and a beacon to all. With religion playing such a large part in this new homoracism, it is noticeable that a large number of black people are themselves the perpetrators of this new form of racism. This seems paradoxical, and to an old-fashioned liberal a person of colour could never be a racist. But this is patently true. This fact makes us look closer into the complexities of being human, and makes us question the belief held almost as a truism that racism is the basic form of fascism. Similarly anti-racism is held to be the corner-stone of Anti-fascism. The Truth is that this view is too simplistic. Fascism is a huge problem, and always has been, with Identities and the Other.
Gays have always been persecuted, just like Jews, through-out history even in societies like the Roman Empire which was completely multicultural, and where racism was unknown. At that time it was a capital offence to be homosexual, and also the Jews were persecuted on account of their monotheistic religion, because they would not worship the emperor, and not because of their race. It is my personal view that identities based on sex are more fundamental than those based on race or religion and the modern emergence of the contradictions referred to earlier confirm this fact.
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27 Aug 2008 @ 08:32
Theology of the Other
It is my basic belief that the fundamental contradiction of the human condition, our basic duality, is that we are all both human and divine. We are all human but we also partake of the nature of the divine godhead. This has been known to mystics for millennia and perhaps before that to the people who shared the Perennial Philosophy as part of their indigenous culture.
It is also my belief that it is the denial of this fact that leads to the problems people have with “the Other”. It is not just minority groups or Nature itself that represent our problem with “the Other” but essentially our denial that we are divine. It is indeed ironic that traditional “civilised” accounts of the “Fall” of man and woman portray it as a result of the “hubris” of wanting to be like God. Our “hubris” consists rather in thinking we are greater than God in our isolated individuality, cut off from ourselves, each other, Nature and the Source itself. Putting our faith in this isolated individuality, and all hopes of global salvation based on it are the two main fallacies that have to be tackled by humankind. The reality is exactly the reverse. It is the Self-conscious level of awareness which cuts us off from this knowledge of the real duality of our nature. We don’t have to become like God, we have always shared in being so, and the “Fall from Grace” is a forgetting of this basic truth. Original Sin is not thinking we are Gods, but that we are greater than God/dess on account of our isolated, alienated individuality. Our extreme individuality, narcissism, is an expression of this. All the problems which are besetting the world today from racism, war, homophobia, sexism, hatred of disabled people, all sorts of scapegoating of others, and particularly climate change all stem from this crisis of identity. Everything in the world is teaching us the same lesson concerning “the Other”. God is the real Other, and our denial of all “the Others”, within us and society, is the same thing on a different scale. More >
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24 Aug 2008 @ 15:14
This is a restatement of the classic Twin Prime conjecture in a more particular and provocative form
If you take any prime number greater than 2 and square it then take the next prime above the original one and square that,then the intervening numbers will always contain at least two pairs of twin primes.
example: 3 squared is 9 and 5 squared is 25 and between the numbers 9 and 25 you will find two pairs of twin primes namely 11,13 and 17,19
Comments appreciated
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12 Aug 2008 @ 09:13
The Truth, Denial and Fascism
According to Gandhi, God is Truth and he considered it the most important thing in his life to tell the truth and honour it when others did too. There’s nothing wrong with denying something which is false or obviously untrue. Yet everyday we witness people repeatedly denying things which every one else believes and there is something pathological in it. Often it is obvious that what they are denying is a part of themselves.
The sort of denial we are talking about here is nothing to do with telling white lies, being discreet and tactful or even being “economical” with the truth. It is rather the sort of falsehood and denial involving parts of oneself and disowning important characteristics of our basic humanity.
There is clearly a strong psychological reason why people engage in systematic denial and in fact Freud called the “Denial Mechanism” one of the most significant of the defence mechanisms with which we protect the Ego.
People deny things in this way in order to protect their ego from destruction or the fear of it. It’s that important to their psychological balance. Whatever you’re saying to them is perceived as so threatening to the fragile stability of their ego that they deny it at all costs. They deny it, avoid it, change the subject, brush it under the carpet, but above all they “exclude” it and get rid of any evidence of its existence. It’s something which they consider completely alien in the same way as they consider certain human characteristics as alien. They are completely ill-at-ease with the truth of what you’re saying, in the same way as they are completely ill-at-ease with black people, gays. women, disabled people or any of the other myriad identities that exist in the human constellation.
By now you will have realised that the people I’m referring to who engage in systematic denial of parts of themselves and who systematically destroy the human basis of their personality, are border-line fascists.
The Law of Analogy, which I’ve referred to many times in previous articles and essays, shows clearly as we go from level to level the sinister emergence of full-blown fascism.
On the level of the personality and everyday life it is the denial defence mechanism itself. At the economic level it is the denying of equal job and other similar opportunities to marginal groups. At the social level it is the literal physical exclusion of these same minorities from access to the common life, often called social exclusion. At the political level it becomes full-blown discrimination of a legal and political sort enforced by law and force, such as Gandhi fought against in South Africa and India. At the combined legal, political and military level it becomes genocide, pogroms, concentration camps and all the horrors of the totalitarian system.
Each level is a qualitative step from a border-line fascist personality to open totalitarian political system. It starts with excluding parts of ourselves we feel uncomfortable with, but at every level it is accompanied by projecting onto others, excluding others, scapegoating others. The real battle is obviously within. Only when we are at ease with ourselves will all this cease. More >
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4 Aug 2008 @ 09:07
Why is Dialectic Important
In an article a while ago I contrasted the Taoist approach to solving problems with the Confucianist one. Taoism tries to grasp the essence of anything it analyses or any problem it is trying to solve. Confucianism, on the other hand, seems content with looking at and considering secondary, superficial, irrelevant and numerous inessential aspects of a subject or thing. Occasionally this leads to a solution, but usually this is arrived at only after years of piecemeal efforts by different people. The Taoist approach often yields a quick answer to the solitary enquirer.
The Confucianist way is analytical but reductionist, it splits things into a myriad of incoherent aspects that seem to lack a connecting thread. This is the method of traditional science. It is also very anxious to eradicate qualitative aspects of the matter in favour of purely quantitative ones. As part of this it gets rid of any analysis of the problem into complementary opposites or dialectical categories.
One can say that there is almost a phobia, as yet unnamed, which people have when dealing with qualitative and dialectical angles of the problem or idea. And I will tell you why. This fear, almost pathological, of qualities and opposites is very similar to the fear of intimacy which you find in a neurotic person, usually men. Because dialectical analysis, literally, is a way into the heart or Essence of a thing. And just as many people shun intimacy, likewise many people feel very uncomfortable with the essence of anything, preferring instead all sorts of distractions, secondary aspects and irrelevancies.
The analysis of anything in terms of its opposites and contradictions is a time-honoured method of getting to the heart or essence of it, and has been part of the Perennial Philosophy for thousands of years.
Some people think that the Taoist way of solving problems always involves an incredible “Eureka” moment, akin to a moment of mystical Enlightenment, which relies on the complete grasping in one stroke, of something’s essence. It does sometimes happen like that, but often it involves the hard work of thoroughly analysing and understanding the opposites and contradictions in the thing and their mutual connections.
More >
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