![]() ![]() In endless cycles, it manifests itself as separate physical embodiments, allowing for an experiential context, only to merge in unity again and start afresh. Life is the endless play of the Self ( lila) losing itself only to find itself again in a constant game of hide-and-seek. Then the enlightened mind can withdraw from the physical realm and enter a state of pure bliss. The quest of the mind is to cultivate a state of awareness, allowing the illusion to be seen for what it is. Reality is a vast and impermanent illusion ( anicca) comprised of endless distractions and suffering. Perhaps 13.8 billion years ago or perhaps 6,000 years ago with fictitious properties making the universe appear older (or even 5 seconds ago, with false memories implanted in all human minds) There is no mystery and that is all there is to say. We know the fundamental laws of nature and consciousness is simply the result of how the brain works. It is all just one big coincidence and happened by pure chance. Needless to say, all of the alternative explanations of existence cannot be proven or disproven. Some other radical explanations for the content of my personal conscious perception in this very moment have been listed in the introductory part of Chap. Such musings about the nature of the objective world our subjective experiences seem to bear witness to-from Berkeley to Putnam-only represent the tip of the existential iceberg. This is, perhaps, a perfectly natural assumption. It can even seem to the victim that he is sitting and reading these very words about the amusing but quite absurd supposition that there is an evil scientist who removes people’s brains from their bodies and places them in a vat of nutrients which keep the brains alive. He can also obliterate the memory of the brain operation, so that the victim will seem to himself to have always been in this environment. Moreover, by varying the program, the evil scientist can cause the victim to “experience” (or hallucinate) any situation or environment the evil scientist wishes. The computer is so clever that if the person tries to raise his hand, the feedback from the computer will cause him to “see” and “feel” the hand being raised. There seem to be people, objects, the sky, etc but really all the person (you) is experiencing is the result of electronic impulses travelling from the computer to the nerve endings. The nerve endings have been connected to a super-scientific computer which causes the person whose brain it is to have the illusion that everything is perfectly normal. The person’s brain (your brain) has been removed from the body and placed in a vat of nutrients which keeps the brain alive. Here is a science fiction possibility discussed by philosophers: imagine that a human being (you can imagine this to be yourself) has been subjected to an operation by an evil scientist. The well-served and previously glorious materialistic and reductionistic scientific worldview is yielding to a novel scientific conception of subjective consciousness and objective reality-and their unexpected intimate kinship. In essence, the human mind is witnessing the most radical paradigm shift in its own history. Beginning with an information ontology, a radical participatory ontology is hinted at. As the cracks in the current edifice of science continually grow, the new information-theoretic paradigm is embraced. Moreover, peer-reviewed studies are appearing in the physics literature describing mind-matter interactions in double-slit quantum experiments-a long suspected connection by many pioneers of quantum mechanics. Then, the surprising therapeutic effects of psychedelics is discovered, next to a myriad of transcendental planes of being, accessible to pure consciousness. Moving towards a more empirical analysis, the enigma of intelligence is discussed, arising in decentralized systems and even in inanimate structures. The notion of spirituality is creeping back into science. The nature of consciousness, as has been suggested by ancient Eastern and shamanic traditions, is necessarily universal and primal. In attempts to bridge the chasm between the objective and subjective, scientists and philosophers have opened up to the unspeakable. This gives rise to the very first formal description of consciousness. ![]() By extending the information-theoretic paradigm, the informational nature of consciousness is uncovered. ![]() Finally, the human mind faces its own nature. ![]()
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