DOES CONSCIOUSNESS CREATE REALITY?

Why Creativity is the Key to our Future and Quantum Mechanics for Dummies.

---

How do we understand the reality we live in?

Humanity has gone through different stages and opinions in the matter.

Today, CLASSIC PHYSICS is mainly based on the experimental method, which focuses on objective and repetitive experimentation.

In this realm of knowledge, what cannot be explained or recreated simply does not exist.

It all started when Galileo proposed a heliocentric vision of the Earth as a sphere which circles around the Sun.

NB: I would add that he was preceded by Eratosthenes, who measured the radius of the Earth in 300 BC, but I guess Galileo has the merit of saying ‘hey fuck you Church people, the Earth isn’t flat and the universe doesn’t revolve around us!’

And to further complicate things in 1929, Edwin Powell Hubble decides to inform us that the whole flippin’ universe is constantly expanding and so there is absolutely no such thing as something entirely still.

So I guess good old Heraclitus, was also onto something when he was all ‘panta rei folks’.

But, since talking about something moving, kind of implies something fixed in comparison, physicists use these things called ‘reference systems’ or ‘inertial frames of reference’, in which a reference point – which is moving in a state of constant rectilinear motion (basically in a straight line at fixed speed) – is considered fixed, with respect to the object we are measuring.

For example we assume that fixed stars are such, merely because they are so far away that they appear to be so.

Continuing with our historical excursus, in the 1600’s Isaac Newton sets the basics for modern physics by placing MATTER as the main object of his studies.

---

Here’s your Oxford definition of matter: ‘that which occupies space and possesses rest mass, especially as distinct from energy’.

---

According to Newton and pretty much every physicist since, human beings, as everything on Earth, including the air we breathe, are entirely made of matter.

In this mechanical world view, everything is CORPORAL, and subject to the natural cause-effect laws of physics.

However, towards the end of the 1800’ comes a new study of matter which explores particles at the SUBATOMIC LEVEL. (Basically really tiny microscopic stuff that can only be measured with really fancy instruments and technologies).

And, what they discover is, to say the least, MIND BLOWING. Basically, at a subatomic level, electrons DO NOT ACT LIKE PARTICLES OF MATTER, ACCORDING TO THE LAWS OF PHYSICS.

…WHAT??????

It’s pretty complex stuff, but if you want to look into the basics, there are plenty of youtube videos on the ‘Double Slit Experiment’, Schrödinger’s ‘Cat-in-the-Box Experiment’ and the ‘EPR Paradox’, which are the three main empirical observations in the field of QUANTUM MECHANICS.

Here’s a video explaining the DOUBLE SLIT EXPERIMENT by comparing photons (light particles) to tennis balls.

---

---

The double slit experiment, shows how at subatomic level, light can act as particles (or photons) of matter or as waves, based on whether or not they are OBSERVED.

For a more complex explanation please read this journal article on science mag (you need to sign up but it’s free). http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6034/1170.abstract

This entirely revolutionises our notion of reality, science and everything we know. It means that particles only act as particles, because they are observed.

The question to be asked is:

Does the world of perception exist because it is perceived? And would the physical reality be the same if we weren’t there to perceive it, or would it act differently or indeed not exist at all?

According to quantum mechanics it seems that the answer is YES.

Moving onto Consciousness….

Could a COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS (for example everyone on Earth) actually create a physical reality? I am not talking about a matrix like illusion that rests within our minds. I am talking about actual concrete matter.

Is it possible that ‘reality’ is a fluid state (think of waves), a chaos made up of infinite potentiality, from which human beings can manifest a reality, for example by producing/emanating energy?

---

Quantum physics discovered that physical atoms are vortices of energy that are constantly vibrating. So every material structure in the Universe including you and me radiates a unique energy signature. – Bruce Lipton

---

This reminds me, sure enough, of the findings of another great scientific mastermind. Albert Einstein introduces the concept of relativity and the infamous formula:

E=mc2

(which, for who is interested was proposed in a 1905 paper on Special Relativity titled ‘Does the inertia of an object depend upon its energy content?’)

Translated, this means that energy transforms itself, and is dictated by the mass of a body, multiplied by the squared value of the speed of light in a vacuum. In other words, energy and mass are directly related concepts.

Up to this day, man has been able to transform matter into energy (hello atomic bomb and nuclear reactors) but not the other way around. That is because (note the tiny little c-squared) the amount of energy that would be needed for such a deed to be possible, is enormous.

---

‘Doc, you don’t just walk into a store and buy plutonium!’ – Marty McFly, Back to the Future

 

---

However recent studies in nuclear physics at Imperial College London have discovered the possibility of turning a pair of photons into an electron and its antiparticle, a positron. For more details check this article out: http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrodgers/2014/05/19/einstein-was-right-you-can-turn-energy-into-matter/

The possibility we could be looking at is that human consciousness, or emotions, may indeed possess a particular form of energy, which allows us to actually CREATE MATTER. If this were true the potential consequences for humanity could be magical. It means the conception we have of the planet we live in are dictated by the knowledge and limitations through which we understand it.

Could our limited perception be limiting our infinite possibilities? Are we the ones who dictate the types of experiences we have? And, more importantly, could we take control of our own consciousness and eliminate the boundaries we have imposed upon ourselves?

There is one more question to ask when we consider the notion of collective consciousness, which is perhaps, the biggest mystery of our existence. Why is it that we all perceive the same reality?

This paradox is the reason why, mankind has always been split between two: those who believe that there necessarily must be an objective and physical reality (hence modern physics) and those who believe in a certain abstract something (be it a god, gods, spirit, energy, infinite, fate, destiny…) that constructs our reality.

Maybe we are finally close to uncovering this mystery, or rather, to finding a communion between these two opposing theories. But, the real dilemma is,

HOW??????

We have just discussed how physics, science and reason as we know it describe the reality we perceive. They describe our CONSCIOUS REALITY.

http://s218.photobucket.com/user/Dyntor/media/Sigmund.gif.html

Could it be, maybe then, that the key to the reality that exists outside our consciously perceived reality is to let ourselves slip into the realm of the SUBCONSCIOUS MIND?

Is it really just a consequence that we use, or better, are aware of, such a tiny part part of what goes on in our mind? By exploring the subconscious mind we could be unleashing many of the dilemmas of reality and all the weird stuff we don’t understand, such as hallucinations and psychoses, hypnotic states, emotions, and so much more!

Examples of individuals controlling their brain’s subconscious impulses are not unheard of: for example fire walking, fasting for days and many other insane human endeavours, practiced mostly in ancient and oriental cultures whose practices not surprisingly involve act such as meditation and isolation, aimed at delving further into oneself and cutting out the external pre conceived reality.

 Could the venture into the subconscious be our bridge into a future reality? A reality where conceptually, anything could be possible, from altering the balances of space and time, to changing the particles in one’s own body. A reality where we are the gods, we are the crafters and our consciousness is the only great ‘cause’.

Or maybe just a world where we rediscover simplicity, and are more in harmony with the fluidity of the reality we are immersed in. Whatever the outcome, I think the degeneration of humanity and the social world we live in is definitely calling for a change. We cannot make provisions for what is to come for the future of our kind: it is too different a reality for us to even be able to imagine it. But I think that our responsibility as (as Nietzsche called us) the ‘last men’, is to set the course for future generations and explorers. To start taking a step back from the capitalist knowledge regime we are subject to, and start promoting and encouraging creativity, self awareness, emotional exploration and meditation. Only then, can we start to imagine a possible change.

Talk about ‘spiritual’ revolution.