Toward a Unified Metaphysical Understanding - Tag: csr    
 Motivating and Clarifying the Paradigm Shift at the Heart of Science
2013-12-08
There is a fundamental inconsistency at the core of the scientific method / world-view that makes it unable to comprehend quantum mechanics (which seems paradoxical due to the inconsistency) nor can it comprehend consciousness or spirituality.

I have been identifying, explaining and challenging this inconsistency in a series of articles to help motivate the paradigm shift that will eventually make quantum mechanics understandable as well as making research into consciousness and spirituality understandable to modern science and recognised as vitally important.

There is an entry point here: http://anandavala.info/article/Are-we-today-as-wrong-about-any-scientific-fact-that-is-widely-accepted-as-geocentrism.pdf

If what I say is correct, which it seems to be, then these documents point towards the possibility for a radical paradigm shift!

Pass on the good news if you know people who would be interested, the more people who help figure this out, the sooner and the clearer the shift will be.

Especially people interested in the interface between science, consciousness and spirituality. As well as the hard problem of consciousness, psi-phenomena, scientific realist interpretation of quantum mechanics, cybernetic interpretation of quantum mechanics, virtual realism, virtual reality hypothesis, simulation hypothesis, computational metaphysics, reinterpretation of ancient mystic wisdom, etc... It's all connected!

Enjoy :)

 What is the highest perceived benefit or aspiration of my Life?
2013-12-02

Only a few hours ago the I Ching urged me to commit to my highest aspiration and to announce my intention. It said "Make known the arrival of a message from heaven and announce it at the Earth altar. If you don't deliver your important message you will be cut off and isolated. Call out. Tell us now. Now!" Then along comes an invitation to do so on Facebook, which motivated this... :)

So, what is the highest perceived benefit or aspiration of my Life?

 More >

 Cognitive Repression in Physics - Reasons for the Entrenched Culture of Denial
2013-11-30
The quotes below discuss reasons for the entrenched culture of denial within physics (as well and philosophy and science in general) regarding the consequences that quantum mechanics has for naive realism (AKA classical objectivism).

"After more than 50 years (now over 80 years) of unquestionable success as a theory, questions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics continue to plague both physicists and philosophers. It is argued here that discussions about the meaning of quantum mechanics remain stymied as a result of the failure of physicists to formulate a cognitive paradigm adequate to their theory. The conventional interpretations which they offer can be seen as inadequate in one of two ways — implicitly, they retain one or the other of the two basic tenets of classical physics, the objectivity or the knowability of nature. This, it is argued, can be viewed as a form of cognitive repression of knowledge acquired, but not yet assimilated. A psychological explanation for the persistence of classical beliefs is proposed...

Piaget has invited the comparison between the historical development of scientific thought and the cognitive development of the child. Both, it is suggested, proceed through the emergence of discrete stages of structural organization, each stage brings with it new possibilities of conceptual integration, and concurrently, the possibility of a verbal articulation of the new level of organization perceived. Prior to the establishment of a new conceptual structure, knowledge already present in nonverbal forms (in e.g., sensorimotor rather than representation schemes) finds no avenue of expression, and, to the extent that it jars with the earlier established structures, demands cognitive repression. Piaget [1] tells us that an action schema which "cannot be integrated into the system of conscious concepts is eliminated... (and) repressed from conscious territory before it has penetrated there in any conceptualized form." Caught in a transition between stages, the child, when pressed to articulate perceptions requiring cognitive structures which are not yet available, displays confusion, denial and avoidance - a disequilibrium strikingly reminiscent of the mechanism of affective repression." (Cognitive repression in contemporary physics, Evelyn Fox Keller, http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.11911)

"There exists a cognitive repression of the interpretation problem by the majority of physicists. For that majority the questions concerning the meaning of quantum mechanics are answered once and for all by the Copenhagen interpretation, and all further inquiry is rejected as a sign that the inquirer does not understand the topic. Further questions are called "only philosophical" and thus not befitting a physicist. But if one inquires in depth what the Copenhagen interpretation says one gets a variety of different answers. According to Fox-Keller this, too, is a sign for evasion, whereby what is evaded is the necessity of a new cognitive structure which differs radically from the existing one. Fox-Keller calls the old structure classical objectivism. To her, the confusion concerning the interpretation of quantum mechanics exists, thus, in the attempt to retain one or more components of the classical position. While this may be as it is; I suggest that the search for interpretations different from the Copenhagen interpretation very often is motivated by trying to evade its radical consequences, that is, an act of cognitive repression on the part of the proposers." (On the Interpretation and Philosophical Foundation of Quantum Mechanics, Anton Zeilinger, http://typo3physik.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/zeilinger/philosoph.pdf)

 The world-view arising from my work
2013-11-28

When one sufficiently overcomes the habit of naive realism one can coherently understand the nature of reality rather than remain trapped in a self-reproducing closed loop of unconscious assumptions and resulting misunderstandings.

A coherent understanding can be attained personally and also examined scientifically. A personal understanding will transform one's life. A scientific understanding will transform civilisation.

The main features of a coherent understanding:

  • Reality is that which perceives rather than that which is perceived. The objects of perception are not objective because they depend on how we perceive them. The objective reality is the stream of awareness within which the objects of perception arise and which is our true self.

  • We have experiences of "being in a world", which is how the situation appears from our perspective. However those appearances do not reveal the true nature of reality, just as experiences of a VR game world do not reveal its true nature to be computation.

  • There are underlying processes that animate our stream of awareness and give rise to the appearances that we apprehend. These processes are that by which we perceive and cannot be apprehended as objects of perception, thus they themselves seem unmanifest and abstract.

  • All manifest forms are inferred to exist from our perceptions, however they have no independent self-nature. Hence the ideas of matter and a physical universe are myths.

  • The underlying processes animate all systems and enable them to experience, react and thereby interact. All system interactions are driven by reciprocal experiences and there are no inanimate systems.

  • The underlying processes that enable our individual streams of awareness are part of a unified process that animates everything.

  • There is a global coherence to this unified process, which imparts a global coherence to the realm of manifest forms. Thus no event is local, every event is a 'movement' of the entire cosmos.

  • We can operate via sensory perceptions and thereby exert influence locally, or we can operate via the inner-most animating process 'within' us and thereby exert influence globally or remotely.

  • Our individual state of being (both body and mind) arises from the many levels of interacting sub-systems that comprise us. If these sub-system interactions are dysfunctional we suffer.

  • Our interactions and relationships integrate us into many levels of super-systems (groups and organisations) that comprise society as a whole. The collective state of being emerges from this integration. If our interactions are dysfunctional the emergent collective suffers.

The main results of the work from which this world-view arises can be found here http://anandavala.info/OIPVSE.pdf



 Motivation behind my work
2013-11-26
My initial motivation was the need to resolve the tension between my rational and spiritual sides. Once that was eased my attention also turned to the civilisation-wide tension between science and spirituality.

There is so much needless suffering and destruction that arises from misguided sciences, misguided religions, the conflict between them all and the resulting confusions and dysfunctions that permeate our cultures and minds.

I really believe that this tension can eventually be resolved and out of that will arise a unified science/spirituality that will have a lasting positive influence on our whole civilisation; so profound that we can barely even imagine what it will be like from our current vantage point.

There are so many people contributing in different ways to this process of unification at present and my greatest hope is to serve some useful role in that effort...

"There is this hope, I cannot promise you whether or when it will be realized - that the mechanistic paradigm, with all its implications in science as well as in society and our own private life, will be replaced by an organismic or systems paradigm that will offer new pathways for our presently schizophrenic and self-destructive civilization." (Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Founder of general systems theory)


Schizophrenia seems to be a problem where there is no means for thoughts to be coherently 'grounded' in truth or reality, hence the tension of confusion builds upon itself creating more confusion and running out of control.

If the wikipedia description is interpreted as applying to our civilisation rather than an individual person it is surprisingly relevant to our current situation as reflected in politics, media, social breakdown, etc:

"Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and by impaired emotional responses. Common symptoms are delusions including paranoia and hallucinations, disorganized thinking and a lack of emotional intelligence. It is accompanied by significant social dysfunction. The onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia

In the case of our civilisation I would propose that the core confusion is naïve realism, which gives rise to numerous other confusions such as exoteric religion, empirical science, mechanistic views of human nature, oppressive legal and social systems, entrenched struggle for dominance over others, etc. These reinforce the confusions and generate vast amounts of tension throughout civilisation.

I explain this in more detail in "Simplified Anatomy of the Global Systemic Crisis and How to Heal Civilisation" http://www.anandavala.info/STAR/anatomy.html

 Quantum Mechanics, Naïve Realism, Scientific Realism, Abstraction and Reality
2013-11-26
I was recently asked: "Is QM in its abstract mathematical proceedure that applies to particles, and just abstract conceptualisations, not considered naive realism?"

No, it is called scientific realism because it claims that aspects of reality can be known scientifically. Scientific realism can be naïve realist, for example via claims that particles are real. This is naïve realist because it is based on the assumption that that which is portrayed by our observations is real.

However in the case of QM it is not naïve realist - it is in fact the antithesis of naïve realism because it claims that the observables that we apprehend are not in any way objective, they are created in the act of observing and are thus totally dependent on how we observe.

Thus QM claims that anything that is portrayed by our experiences cannot be objectively real - whilst naïve realism claims that that which is portrayed by our experiences is objectively real. The two are diametrically opposed.

QM is realist because it claims that that which is represented by wavefunctions are real. I.e. they exist independently of our observations - in fact they are inherently unobservable. Whenever we try to observe them what we experience are the 'observables' that are created in the act of observing.

So QM doesn't claim that particles or waves are real, these are just observables. It is that which is represented by wavefunctions that are real and which give rise to observations of either a particle or a wave depending on how we observe it.

BTW QM doesn't claim that the mathematical proceedures are real - these are just symbolic models via which we comprehend quantum systems.

Hence this type of realism is scientific realism because the things that are considered to be real can only be apprehended by the mind via 'abstract' scientific conceptualisations. The fact that these are 'abstract' doesn't imply that they are unreal - in fact it implies the opposite.

Within a naïve realist paradigm 'abstract' means 'unreal' because it can never be portrayed by the content of an experience no matter how augmented that experience may be (e.g. by microscopes or telescopes or particle accelerators etc). Due to naïve realism we are in the habit of thinking that only the things portrayed by our experiences can be real and that everything else is abstract and unreal.

However, when we step away from naïve realism and seriously consider the role of experience we realise that if experience is fundamental and not just an anomaly then that which is most real must underlie our ability to experience. Furthermore, "that which underlies our ability to experience" cannot be "that which is portrayed by our experiences". Thus that which can be observed is unreal and that which is real would seem 'abstract' because it can never be observed.

In other words, to use a metaphor, reality is the sight within seeing rather than that which is seen. Hence the most real is the most abstract.


BTW it is very rare to find a coherent discussion of the non-naïve realist nature of QM. Most discussions try to introduce naïve realist features or apply it within a naïve realist context.

This is because over the past 80 or so years there have only been a handful of physicists who could think outside of naïve realism. Thus the standard attitude is that we should focus on the world that we know via naïve realism (i.e. the physical universe) and we should use QM to make calculation about that world. Meanwhile we should avoid any attempts to think about what QM really means, i.e. what it is really saying about the nature of reality.

Thus it has been declared over and over that QM makes no sense and that attempts to think deeply about it will drive you insane. This attitude arises because a naïve realist cannot conceive that there is anything beyond naïve realism, thus someone who thinks outside of naïve realism must be insane, or so it seems to them.

There are now a few physicists who are beginning to see beyond naïve realism, but the vast majority of physics and science in general is still thoroughly naïve realist.

Here is a very short article that I wrote for a fringe science newsletter regarding the paradigm shift that is slowly emerging within physics: http://anandavala.info/article/EmergingParadigm.pdf

A more detailed analysis is conducted here: http://anandavala.info/OIPVSE.pdf


Note: in order to conduct this research I had to break away from habitual ways of thinking by dropping out of academia, however this means that this work has no way of being heard by academics or others engaged in similar work. If these ideas resonate with you then you can help by bringing it to their attention.

Thank you for listening and helping! I hope that it helps you as much as it has helped me to develop a clearer understanding of the nature of reality.

 Freedom, Slavery and Fundamental Limits on the Growth of Civilisation
picture
2013-10-29
"... for some reason it appears we’ve given up our freedom to varying degrees in exchange for something. But in exchange for what? Security? Acceptance? Ease? It sure appears that way. But how did this come about? ... Looking at the contrived and extremely controlling political and economic structure of our planet’s various societies and the miserable state of most of its inhabitants, it’s clear something is seriously wrong." (Does Humanity Even Want Freedom? [link])

It is clear that in countless overt and subtle ways we are losing our freedom. Why is this happening? And importantly, how far might this proceed and how can we *effectively* resist it?  More >

 Regarding the nature of reality and the 'world'
2012-05-09
This is an edited version of my comments from a recent conversation with a good friend Glisten (with extra comments to clarify a couple points).  More >

 A True Current of Western Spirituality or a Partial Realisation?
2011-01-09

I was recently asked my opinion on the work and teachings of A.H. Almaas, called the Diamond Approach. This article is not a general review of his work, it is about something that I believe to be a common misconception of spirituality, particularly throughout the West (e.g. many proponents of Integral philosophy). However I found in Almaas' work a clear and succinct expression of that misconception, which has inspired me to say something about it now.

Firstly let me say that I am not familiar with Almaas or his work, however after reading an article on the core principles, written by him and an interview with him I think I can sense the gist of where he is coming from. He has many deep insights that suggest genuine realisations, hence I suspect that many spiritual aspirants could get some benefit from his fusion of depth psychology with aspects of both dualist and nondual spirituality. That is all I have to say regarding his work in general.

However, from my perspective and the perspective of Eastern spirituality, he succumbs to a critical mistake. It is this mistake that I will discuss here because it is very limiting and it is prevalent and growing in popularity throughout the West.

I am talking about a misconception of spirituality that is based on a partial realisation that is mistaken for a full realisation. The seeker attains a degree of realisation, but mainly at an intellectual level, which has not penetrated very deeply into their subconscious / unconscious mind – they are often not even aware that it should penetrate deeply or how deep it must go before one has full realisation. Hence they believe themselves to be realised and to understand the spiritual path, even whilst the bulk of their mind is unconsciously dominated by the ego and still bound within the illusory world that the ego imagines itself to inhabit and the illusory life that the ego imagines that it is living.

The partial realisation results in thinking that could be phrased as “Okay, so now I'm realised, but I'm still me, an individual person in the world - so what now? How can this realisation help me and others to lead a better, more spiritual life? That is after all what spirituality is really about.” This thinking results in the tendency to approach spirituality more as a spiritually themed lifestyle for the ego as it lives its illusory life in the world. Rather than seeking to deepen their realisation and eventually attain full and complete realisation of reality and truth, and thereby overcome the ego and all of its delusions; thus traversing the greatest paradigm shift of all and coming to apprehend and live in reality, which is radically different to what the ego imagines.  More >

 Purifying one's mind and infowar both personal and global
2010-12-16

Hello again everyone :)

I hope you have all been well!

I have been away for a while, maintaining abstinence from all in-depth discussions in order to still the mind and focus it. I'm not about to dive back into the fray of online discussions but I have re-opened my facebook profile for now and will generally hover on the periphery of cyberspace for a while. For those of you who are interested, I'll share a little of what has transpired for me over the past couple of months.

I've journeyed far and wide in a metaphorical sense, stilling the mind to explore deeply into certain issues, as well as going beyond the realm of ideas and emotions (the symbolic content of awareness) to penetrate deep within consciousness itself (the stream of awareness). Delving down through the layers, from the conscious mind, down through the unconscious and into the psychosomatic interface between body and mind. From this vantage point some very interesting work has been done and will continue. However this is getting ahead of myself, I'll back track and tell a little story, which also sheds light on information wars, propaganda, oppression, authoritarianism, effective resistance and other issues relevant to our times.  More >

 Mystic Perspective: Comments and Quotes
2010-11-08

I empathise with the difficulty that people have in grasping the mystic perspective. For those with an empiricist perspective these issues are usually perplexing and seemingly inside-out and back-to-front. I will briefly describe an approach to the mystic perspective that some have found useful.

Consider an AI mind within a VR simulation. If this mind had an empirical perspective it would seem to it that it had inner cognitive phenomena and that it lived within an external physical universe. However in a deeper sense these are just perceptual illusions and the actual reality is a single unified information process that is imperceptible, universal, non-local, timeless, all-pervading, etc. Realising this fact leads to a mystic perspective.  More >

 Topics Related to Recent Thoughts
2010-11-02
  • What questions can science not answer? http://qr.ae/7Xh2

  • What are some taboos in science? http://qr.ae/Jzq

  • What is consciousness? http://qr.ae/7FD

  • What is sentience? http://qr.ae/TRw

  • Hard Problem of Consciousness http://qr.ae/7nhU

  • What is naive realism? http://qr.ae/0cq

  • What exactly are qualia? http://qr.ae/7NA4

  • What is matter? http://qr.ae/7nnn

  • Does matter exist? http://qr.ae/7nta

  • What is it like to be a quantum computational process? http://qr.ae/7nht

  • Is the universe a simulation? http://qr.ae/TlI

  • Is it possible to create a general system simulator? http://qr.ae/jab

  • In simple terms, what does the Stern-Gerlach experiment imply about the nature of quantum systems and observable phenomena? http://qr.ae/7vvJ

  • Now that naive realism has been disproved by quantum mechanics, how will this impact our collective paradigm? http://qr.ae/0Sr

  • If society undergoes a paradigm shift to a non-naive realist paradigm, which words will retain their meaning and which will change? http://qr.ae/7nCC

  • Is a photon a particle or a wave? http://qr.ae/7KBb

  • What basic principles would need to be covered by a “virtuality tutorial”? http://qr.ae/72X9

  • What are memes and memeplexes? http://qr.ae/7ndi

  • Is the concept of a ‘person’ a social construct? http://qr.ae/7nUN

  • How do you know if you are self-aware? http://qr.ae/7Ryr

  • Can we have an agreed-upon definition of ‘reality’? http://qr.ae/KSb

  • What is the “problem of the external world”? http://qr.ae/7vyG

  • Do spirits exist in Reality? http://qr.ae/7G76

  • How can you learn faster? http://qr.ae/7tA7

  • What is evil? http://qr.ae/7tmW

  • How have Enlightened beings lived in human society? http://qr.ae/7nyv

  • What is a memetic disease and how do they operate throughout our minds and cultures? http://qr.ae/7nMq

  • How is the concept of a memetic disease related to the concepts of physical, psychological and social diseases? http://qr.ae/7nEi

  • What is the most endemic and destructive cultural phenomenon of all time? http://qr.ae/7tBw

  • Is the phenomenon of ethnogenesis an example of memetic autopoiesis of a collective intelligence? http://qr.ae/7Ih0

  • What use is the I Ching? http://qr.ae/1N8

  • What does it mean to be a person with big karma? http://qr.ae/cmc What is karma?

  • What does it mean that everything in the world is a teacher? http://qr.ae/0yV Sadguru - teacher within.

  • What is one thing you have to believe before you can experience it? http://qr.ae/030 Experiencing oneself as a “person in a world”…

  • What is the unique quality that is in the consciousness of the human beings who have attained the Supreme Enlightenment? http://qr.ae/dIU Complete absence of delusion

  • What is the likelihood humans don’t have the brain power to fully comprehend the answer to why we exist? http://qr.ae/7p14

  • What are system leverage points and why is it useful to know? http://qr.ae/7IF3

  • Is nature self-similar across scales? If so, what is the principle in which it is self-similar? What are some examples of self-similarity? http://qr.ae/a3a

  • What is one important thing that no one told you about? http://qr.ae/7RGl The universe isn’t a mechanism that one must ‘manipulate’ and that events are not just ‘accidental’ happenings - instead the universe is alive and responsive…

  • What is a narrative? http://qr.ae/0OG

  • What is a fractal? http://qr.ae/0gU

  • Is there a meaningful relation between fractals and cellular automata? http://qr.ae/0bu

  • What do the results of the PEAR GCP ICRL experiments say about consciousness and how can we scientifically explain them? http://qr.ae/v0h Consciousness itself, unaided by known physical mechanisms, can influence physical reality.” The likelihood that this is due to chance is one in a trillion (10^-12)…

  • What major social problems have been solved by philanthropy in the last 50 years? http://qr.ae/7r9u

  • What do you think of the many-worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? http://qr.ae/7yfA

  • Also “System Science of Virtual Reality” is a relevant ebook http://bit.ly/9XhElB for those who wish to explore deeper.

  • Signs of an emerging Paradigm http://bit.ly/dfxL4R

  • Shape of the Emerging Memeplex and How to Nurture It http://bit.ly/bWtL1e

  • I Ching’s Advice on Nurturing the Emerging Memeplex http://bit.ly/cjRgrC

  • The I Ching’s “Wisdom for this Phase of the Journey” http://bit.ly/cFxqD5



 What is Consciousness? - My answer on Quora.com
2010-07-13

I see two approaches to this issue and will introduce them by briefly describing the context and development of each, showing how one leads into the other. I have endeavoured to keep this as simple and concise as possible for a subject of this depth.  More >

 Quotes regarding the illusion of being a person
2010-07-10

"The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In reality, there is no such thing. Feelings, thoughts and actions race before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain and creating an illusion of continuity. A reflection of the watcher in the mind creates the sense of 'I' and the person acquires an apparently independent existence.

In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying himself with the 'I' and the 'mine'. The teacher tells the watcher: you are not this, there is nothing of yours in this, except the little point of "I am", which is the bridge between the watcher and his dream. "I am this, I am that" is dream, while pure "I am" has the stamp of reality on it.
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I am That http://bit.ly/bvBQYR [full text pdf]

-=#|#=-=#|#=-=#|#=-=#|#=-

"So long as people do not understand the true nature of the objective world, they fall into the dualistic view of things. They imagine the multiplicity of external objects to be real and become attached to them and are nourished by their habit energy. Because of this system of mentation, mind and what belongs to it is discriminated and is thought of as real; this leads to the assertion of an ego-soul and its belongings, and thus the mind-system goes on functioning."
- Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY [full text pdf]

-=#|#=-=#|#=-=#|#=-=#|#=-

"When the television set is burned or destroyed, will the people in the movie feel the pain and die? You have no form, no shape..."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Seeds of Consciousness

-=#|#=-=#|#=-=#|#=-=#|#=-

"What is it that had birth? Whom do you call a human being? If, instead of seeking explanations for birth, death and after-death, the question is raised as to who and how you are now, these questions will not arise...

The body is born again and again. We wrongly identify ourselves with the body, and hence imagine we are reincarnated constantly. No. We must identify ourselves with the true Self. The realised one enjoys unbroken consciousness, never broken by birth or death - how can he die? Only those who think 'I am the body' talk of reincarnation. To those who know 'I am the Self' there is no rebirth.

Reincarnations only exist so long as there is ignorance. There is no incarnation, either now, before or hereafter. This is the truth."

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

Again for emphasis...

"There is no incarnation, either now, before or hereafter. This is the truth"

-=#|#=-=#|#=-=#|#=-=#|#=-

“Greatest assumption in human history: The existence of a personal identity. 99,99% of our global communications refer to a you and a me, but no one actually ever found an 'I' to exist anywhere! All our thoughts, emotions and words refer to something no one has ever been able to confirm to even exist. HA HA HA!! It's hilarious!! :D

And it's very very sad at the same time! The single cause of our current state as a species. We're all like sheep, following the herd, assuming what everybody else has also been taught to assume. Time to wake up my friends.” (Bentinho Massaro) ...  More >

 Simulation Argument and Dualism
2010-07-09

Monica Anderson said on Facebook: “I can't figure out if the SA (simulation argument) is dualist and would like to know”

Note: That which she calls SA I have elsewhere called the VR analogy or computational metaphysics.

I have contemplated this issue of SA and dualism at some length from many angles, in particular by studying an intuitively received mathematical model (SMN) of the reality generative process and how it processes information in order to create the appearance of indivudual perspectives upon a physical universe.

In brief I have found that the term 'dualism' has a certain meaning within a particular context, however SA changes that context and thereby also the meaning of the term.

To explain, first here is a comment I made earlier in the same thread, which explains the context of our current meaning of the term.  More >



Page: 1 2 3 4   Older entries >>