Consciousness and A Quantum View of the World

Lately I've been thinking about the possibility that the unidentified dark matter and dark energy in our universe, which alters the orbital speed of interstellar gas and dust and exerts a gravitational force on visible matter, is actually consciousness, itself.

There are vast amounts of missing matter in our universe--About 72% of our universe is comprised of dark energy and 24% dark matter. Only about 4% of our universe is actually comprised of ordinary matter and interstellar gas and dust (in other words, everything made up of atoms, including humans).To put it in perspective, in our galaxy alone, if stars were individual grains of salt, it would take about 40,000 containers of salt to equal the amount of stars in our galaxy, and the distance from one grain of salt to another would be around 15 miles in open space. That is just our galaxy. I could elaborate further on the vastness of space and how insignificant our little lives are, but I'll save that. I find it funny and ironic that the superclusters of clusters of galaxies in our universe kind of resemble the brain's neurons. The superclusters are like cobwebs that span over 100 million light years and are separated by vast voids.

Just like the shapes of the foods we eat sometimes coincide with the health benefits to particular organs (for example walnuts are shaped like a brain and they help brain function, tomatoes are red and have 4 chambers and are good for the heart), perhaps it is not coincidental that the largest structures observed in the universe resemble neurons.

I searched online to see if anyone had expounded on my theory of dark matter and dark energy actually being consciousness, and came across a paper outlining basically everything I was thinking.  He uses no scientific/psychological jargon and poses his thoughts and ideas with little references or experimental evidence, but it is easy for anyone to read and understand. I also find that he has a sort of Taoist undercurrent to the structure of his wording. He seems very into spiritualism and consciousness, as am I.  I dig the way this dude thinks. 

Here's a link:
http://www.ronritter.com.au/darkenergy.html

Also, here's a video of Dean Radin. I remember seeing this guy in the movie/documentary "What The Bleep? Down the Rabbit Hole". He is a researcher and author in the field of parapsychology and was the former president of the Parapsychological Association. He wrote The Conscious Universe and Entangled minds.

Dean Radin: A Quantum View of the World


(ETA: Here's another video w/ Radin. Very interesting!)

Dean Radin: The Global Consciousness Project

Sour Boy Pie

I once lifted my eyes
To see a great gap in the sky
There was a place for me
A path so clear and luminous
The ache faded away for a while--that dark and empty hole inside
But now it’s calling me back
And it’s begging to eat up all that was my light

I probably would have come to hate you
You probably would have gotten bored
I probably would have laid beside you, feeling all alone
I probably would have cried in the dark
While you were turned the other way
It wouldn’t have ended well, no not at all

The light was never yours, it was always my own
Reflecting off of you
I couldn’t see through
All the smoke to see you’re just my mirror
You saw just what you wanted to see
I didn’t really see you, all along it was me

Down, you hide
Down, inside
Behind a mask
There’s no need for truth
There’s no need for promises.
There’s no need for reasons why
There’s no need to say goodbye

I probably would have come to hate you
You probably would have gotten bored
I probably would have laid beside you, feeling all alone
I probably would have cried in the dark
While you were turned the other way
It wouldn’t have ended well, no not at all

(You never stole anything  of mine
I’ve had my slice of  sour boy pie
I’ve got my bottle of wine
The moon and I will be lovers tonight )

Cosmic Whisper

I heard you whisper in my ear a thousand years ago
In a dream
Set in motion
All I had to do was find you

Felt a tugging at my core
And followed will and wind
Rode the spiral to the end
I was wrong again

With billions of galaxies beyond the milky way
How naive to think that my emotions are significant in any way
In the great expanses of space...
But I still can’t see your face.

We’re all so broken
But I’m not as broken as you
The pain is like an old familiar friend
A late-night bed guest
Coming around to climb inside from time to time

After a while, I miss his taste
I learn to like his
icy embrace
He feeds on my tears and
I feed on...
I feed on the rage

With billions of galaxies beyond the milky way
How naive to think that my emotions are significant in any way
In the great expanses of space...
But I still can’t see your face.

Seeking to find a soul similar to my own
Searching for mirrors
Always finding my shadow
No matter how many times I’m spurned
I refuse to build a wall

Red lights are flashing but I walk on through
Barriers are all around but I still go to you
The flag is waving, but I can’t see clearly
Strike me down and make me crumble
I still haven’t learned

With billions of galaxies beyond the milky way
How naive to think that my emotions are significant in any way
In the great expanses of space...
But I still can’t see your face.

Lyrics Experiment

The Icelandic band Sigur Ros is known for their use of "Vonlenska" in many of their songs, which describes the unintelligible lyrics sung by the band. Although the lyrics are gibberish, I can't help but still hear words that speak to me, personally.

Sometimes the grammar doesn't really even make sense, but in a weird way... it does.

Try listening to the song and see what you can interpret from it. Then, compare it to the "lyrics" that I wrote down here. I'd like to see interpretations other than my own. :)

*These lyrics were my first interpretation of the song... When I hear it now, I can barely hear the "desire" part... not sure what it sounds like now. ("Is I all" ?)



(Untitled) 4 - Sigur Ros

Desire
Is I enough at all?
Desire
Is I enough at all?
Desire

Desire
Is I enough, alone?
Desire
Is I enough, alone?
Desire

Your Soul...

Desire
is I enough at all?
Desire
is I enough alone?
Desire

Is I love, Is I alone, Is I enough at all?

Your soul
Your soul
Ooh
Your soul
You silent missed-
desire
ooh
your soul, be silent now
your soul
your silent
your soul
you silent (moment)
you and only you
your soul, be silent now
your soul
your soul
your soul is all I want
you and only you
your soul


------------------------------------------------

I also interpreted the song IG?R



IG?R - Sigur Ros

Down, you're writhin'
You writhe
Down, you're writhin'
You writhe
Down, you're writhin'
You writhe
Down, you're right, Love
You're right
You silent sound
You're right, you know
You're right
You're I know
Down, you're right, alone
You're right
Down, you're right, Love
You'll run
Down, you're alone
You're all alone
You, you're silent
You're love.
You're right, and down
You're I want
You're all I want
You're all I want
You're all
You're all
You're all I know.

The Journey

The weekend of Halloween, my best friend Rachel and I decided to go on a little "journey", with the help of some friends of ours who happened to be mushrooms.

I had never done mushrooms before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I found that I felt more myself than ever.  I normally tend to see the flow of everything and the interconnectedness of everything and all energy anyway. I seem to sense things and see things in ways that many other people normally aren't cognizant of in their every day lives. During my trip, there were many moments of profundity and sage-like postulations about the universe etc., which is quite common to the conversations Rachel and I normally have. We were definitely more connected--directly connected--and on the same wavelength. Completely comfortable... the same person almost. I was aware of everything and had no doubts about anything. I just knew. I didn't think, I knew. It's as if the Universe opened up to me, and I could see everything through that crack in the sky.  I could see a clear path, which pointed straight to my purpose and direction.  I knew exactly what I wanted, from simple moment-to-moment things to bigger, long-term things. There was also a childlike, simplistic view of the world. It was kind of pure and everything flowed with no worries, no pain... just happy, wide-eyed wonderment.

It was quite hilarious because since it was cold that night, we were both walking around with blankets draped over our shoulders, which enhanced our feeling like little gurus while we were talking about deep subjects.
 
I find myself now with a sense of longing. I am craving something (and I don't know what), but it's not food or drink or material possessions.  I felt so close to something so much bigger than my everyday self, and now it's just sort of fading away.
 
It's hard to really explain some of the things that I saw and felt and knew as truths. One of the things that happened was a sort of revelation while listening to the live version of "Pushit" by Tool, off of the Salival album.  I experienced something kind of interesting. It's hard to explain, but I want you to try to feel what I'm saying, not just hear it. It's kind of important to know when listening to those lyrics that Maynard was sexually abused by his step-father when he was about 11.   As I was lying there just immersing myself in the song, I felt what he felt. I was there in that dark place. HIS dark place (it wasn't my own anymore). I felt hate, anger, rage, power, disgust, sickness, pain and shame.  I was both him and his step-father. Then, I realized I WAS that dark place. I was the darkness and the light. I was the hand that caressed him when he crawled inside that dark hole to hide.... The hand that clasped his in comfort. I was the hand, and I was everything...everywhere...and I saw all. The universe opened up to me.  Everything culminated and condensed down to one thing. This one thing was symbolic, and what I saw was (him?)... shrinking down to a fetal position and this image of a fetus is where everything ended (and began). When I tried telling Rachel about some of this, she told me that what she saw BEGAN with the image in the fetal position. I thought that was pretty interesting.  Kinda cool.  It's really hard to explain it all through language. Language seems so meaningless.

Empathic Moment

Yesterday I had a cool and sort of validating experience with being empathic. I never considered myself to be an empath or anything, and I don't really know how to turn my subtle senses on and off. I think everyone has psychic abilities, though. Anyway, I was at a concert with my best friend and I was pretty sleep-deprived and felt as though I was functioning on a different plane of existence than everyone else.

Not even looking at her, I turn to her and say in her ear, "I know what you're thinking". She just started grinning when I said that, and she didn't even have to ask "oh, really? or "what's that?" because she knew what I was talking about. It was only for a moment...out of nowhere, I actually *felt* what she was feeling and I just knew what she was thinking at that moment. It was like an a.d.d. moment on her part during the show, so it's not like she was dwelling on it all night. It was weird. I guess it's hard to explain the intensity of it, but it definitely shook both of us. There's something strange about her and I. It's like when we are together, something strange happens to the universe. I don't even think it's possible that anyone else has that kind of connection with anyone else.  I mean, we actually see the same ominous faces and distorted scenarios in bed sheet prints and patterns.  Haha.

Technology and the Buddha

I find myself perplexed by something….

With the exponential rate at which technology is advancing, we find ourselves facing the possibility that one day, computers will most certainly exceed human intelligence and there will be a technological-evolutionary jump called the Singularity, where humans transcend biology and become one with computers.  The line between humanity and technology will be blurred, and the soul and the silicon chip will unite.  Sounds like science fiction, right?  Well, if you think about the fact that we're already developing mechanical organs and limbs, as well as blood cell-size submarines called nanobots to be sent into the body on vital health missions, it doesn't seem so far-fetched.  We will be able to place ourselves in virtual reality environments and control the movements of these nanobots as if we were inside, seeing out of the eyes of these tiny robots.  Just like soldiers today remotely control intelligent weapons systems.

Anyway, these advancements in technology will make it so that we will never have to suffer from disease or ever die (provided we take well enough care of ourselves now, since it's easier to maintain perfect health than reverse disease and damage).

Now, here's the dilemma.  Buddhism teaches us that everything that is born is subsequently certain to die.   Death can be a teacher. Only when we face the mortality of ourselves and our loved ones can we be free from the fear of death and learn the lessons it has to teach us about life.

My question is this…

If we use science to our advantage and come to the point where death is no longer an issue, are we demeaning the Buddha?  Will we be missing one of life's greatest lessons?  What will happen to our consciousness if we keep living the same existence?

An excerpt, and one of my favorite lines, from Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance says…

"The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower.  To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha—which is to demean oneself."

So is science bringing us closer to the Buddha or further away?  If science IS the Buddha, and so are we… does conquering death bring us to a higher level of consciousness??  Or is it our own vanity that will lead us to destroying ourselves?  Will we devolve and become less conscious by never having to fear death?

This vanity—keeping ourselves alive while everything around us dies…seems to throw a wrench in our cyclic existence of birth, ageing and death.  Even if we choose to have our pets live forever, too… this is still selective and vain.  We are playing God.

Will some of us become Technological Age Hippies?