Here I discuss some basic aspects of quantum mechanics that are not often explained and are often at the heart of common misconceptions about the role of consciousness in reality and the type of reality that is implied by quantum mechanics.  More >

Ultimately, we're not made of things but of processes; we're not objects or subjects, we are happenings.

Both subject and object are complementary aspects of an experiential process. The process is fundamental whilst the subject and object are virtual appearances.

The unified cosmic process (Brahman) has subject=God (Supreme Self) and object=quantum field (spirit world).

This unified cosmic process operates 'between' moments of existence; changing the state of NOW so that it seems that there are many successive moments.

As these moments blur together there seems to exist myriad individual experiential processes (Atman), which operate 'across' moments of existence.

This is how Atman is Brahman, depending on whether we contemplate the process as operating 'between' or 'across' moments. When 'between' it is One, whilst when operating 'across' it is many.

The individual experiential processes (Atman) have subject=Jiva (personal self) and object=Maya (phenomenal world).

In this way the unified cosmic process seemingly animates myriads of virtual processes, hence the One manifests as many. Many subjects (embodied beings) and many objects (physical universe).

But ultimately there is just one unified cosmic process, which can be known as either one subject (God / Supreme Self) or one object (quantum field / spirit world).

Anyway, that is one possible English interpretation of the mathematics that I intuitively received and have been contemplating since 2000. The maths is crystal clear and very succinct but it is hard to find words to describe it because words have so much egoic / materialist baggage attached.

Hope it makes sense to you...

BTW for much more detail see System Science of Virtual Reality.

Worldly concepts, words and thought processes cannot give the mind enough traction to grasp reality. However the mind itself CAN grasp these things and the intellect can understand. Although the word 'mind' means different things to different people... Hence I'll explain a little of where I'm "coming from" in regards to 'mind'...  More >

The following is a brief overview of an information system ontology and metaphysics, i.e. those concepts, entities and processes that provide a foundation for a non-materialist, consciousness based world-view. The explanation is kind of technical because it is difficult to explain non-materialist issues in a mostly materialist language, however the understanding itself is very simple and intuitive once one shifts to a non-materialist paradigm. This explanation starts from general principles and works towards particulars.  More >

There are countless intriguing patterns that can be found within the I Ching. I don't know what they mean, but here we explore some of them... Firstly we map out the correlation between the hexagrams and the binary numbers, and then within this context we explore that patterns formed by the various pairs of hexagrams and groups of pairs.  More >

There are some who believe that only sentient beings such as humans can collapse quantum wavefunctions. IMHO this is a fallacy and it leads to a paradox, which can be resolved by developing a deeper understanding of consciousness.

The paradox is, if sentient being are required to collapse a wavefunction, then how could the classical universe exist before sentient beings evolved, and how could sentient beings evolve if the classical universe didn't yet exist? At what stage did the pure quantum potential suddenly start collapsing into particular classical actualities? How did this new ingredient "wavefunction-collapsing-sentience" arise from the pure quantum potential? There is a maze of paradoxes here...

In fact any interaction with another system will collapse the wavefunction. Any observation will do it, because whenever an observable is required by another system as part of an interaction the wavefunction must collapse to provide an observable. This approach is a natural part of an efficient simulation algorithm, which only computes the state of a virtual system when another virtual system requires an observable in order to experience and interact with it.

The sensitivity to collapse is why researchers are having so much trouble building quantum computers, they call it the "decoherence problem". In order to perform computations with wavefunctions we can't have them collapsing willy-nilly, but the slightest interaction with any aspect of the surrounding universe will collapse the wavefunction. So how can one develop a framework within which to compute with wavefunctions?

If it was only sentient beings who collapse wavefunctions then the decoherence problem would be easy to solve, just put the quantum computer in an opaque box and don't let anyone open the box until the computation has had plenty of time to complete. Then a sentient being can open the box to collapse the wavefunction and observe the final result of the computation. This is not what happens in reality.

The only way out of the quantum-sentience-paradox is to accept that not only complex systems with complex forms of awareness (such as ourselves) are involved in the collapse of the wavefunction, but even simple systems with simple forms of awareness. Hence the way out of paradox is to overcome anthropocentric concepts of consciousness and accept some form of panpsychism, such as pan-proto-experientialism.

Even a fundamental particle has its own primitive form of consciousness - nowhere near as complex and rich as ours, but it is aware nevertheless. A particle couldn't interact with other particles if it wasn't aware of their existence and their state of being. It needs to observe their state of being in order to react to them, and this observation collapses the wavefunction of the other particles.

Thanks to Tim Cumper for raising this issue and inspiring me to write this article...

Taking numbers consisting of 1's and squaring them reveals an interesting countup-countdown pattern in the resulting product.

1^2= 1

11^2= 121

111^2= 12321

1111^2= 1234321

11111^2= 123454321  More >

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 >

I just read a very thought provoking article The Truth by Eric Gross, which I thoroughly enjoyed. In response to it something came to mind, certainly not as a criticism but simply as an extra dimension to consider...  More >

Some quotes from Advaita Vedanta:

“Truth must be discovered, but there is no formula for its discovery. You must set out on the uncharted sea, and the uncharted sea is yourself. You must set out to discover yourself…” (J Krishnamurti)

- # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # -

"No person from outside can make you free... No one holds the Key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one has the authority to hold that key. That key is your own self, and in the development and the purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom of Eternity..." (J. Krishnamurti)

- # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # -

“That which is the subtle essence, in it is the self of all that exists. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou ... art it.” (Chandogya Upanishad 4:10:1-3)

- # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # -

Recently I have been feeling harassed by someone and yesterday during "peace negotiations" with them I realised why they were behaving how they were, and I took a fresh look at myself and saw that I also do a similar thing - it helped me to understand many things about my life. I'll try to explain what I realised and what that meant to me. Perhaps this insight might be of some use to you if adapted to your life...

Firstly, I'll describe how they were behaving, at least according to my perceptions. Have you ever known someone who came to look at you through shit-coloured glasses and assume that was the real you? And then tried to “help you” by seducing you and others to see you in that shitty way? And they did all this in the name of Love? And they misunderstood your attempts to clarify things as defensiveness? And they remain staunchly self-righteous – believing themselves to be a beacon of loving kindness?

I realised that I also do this to others by looking at aspects of society (such as propaganda, entrenched confusions, self-reinforcing closed loops of hidden assumptions, outmoded paradigms, etc) through shit-coloured glasses and stating my views rather harshly at times. I do this out of love for the victims of illusion and its resulting suffering, the oppressed, the deceived and the exploited. I also do it out of love for truth, reality, decency, honour, peace and health. However this is only one view and most people see things differently, for instance those seeking comfortable illusions or distractions, those seeking power and dominance, those seeking mayhem and chaos, etc. It is a subtle trap to fall into one-sidedness and to denigrate the ways of others. Even if one knows that those ways are destructive and dangerous it is not productive to denigrate them. Even if those following those ways (e.g. authoritarians, mass media, materialists, egotists, fanatics, etc) routinely denigrate other ways.

As part of a propaganda campaign it is standard practice to spread a one-sided view and to denigrate other views, however this is really a form of cultural violence, and violence begets violence. If one truly believes that it is truth that will set us free, then one must accept all ways no matter how abhorrent they may appear. One should not condone them, but one shouldn't react with hatred towards them. Instead accept them as part of what is and find ways to help the whole situation evolve towards a healthier state. Rather than focus on attacking the negatives one can focus on nurturing the positives.

Of course, this doesn't mean that I should never warn people of dangers. That would be irresponsible, it just means that there are times, places and ways of doing this. I must also learn to accept that many people will blindly wander into suffering and despair and there is nothing that I or anyone else can do about it. Making regular snide remarks and disparaging comments about these destructive paths is not going to turn anyone away from them, it will only make people bitter towards me and more entrenched in their ways, whilst at the same time corrupting my expressions and obstructing my communications with others.

Overcoming negative reactions is not easy though, there are subtle mind-games that must be overcome. I have found that in myself some of these are related to the activities of the shadow, that part of ourselves that we habitually deny even exists. That is what this article is about...  More >

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 >

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 >

• 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