The next article is a great read and I would recommend that you read the links that accompany it.
By Michael Prescott
Okay, so I'm thinking about reality. What it is. What we can say about it. (In the following, I'm heavily influenced by Arthur Ellison's book Science and the Paranormal, as discussed in an earlier post - http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/mich ... _idea.html
Reality is normally predictable, yet paranormal phenomena are possible. So there are "rules," but they can be bent or broken. This suggests two possibilities - that there is an objective external world that can be directly influenced by the mind, or that the world is subjective but relatively stable because of a consensus among observers or because of habitual thought forms.
Consider this second model. Consciousness is all that exists. In its pure undifferentiated state it can be called Collective Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, or Higher Consciousness (among many other things).
This Cosmic Consciousness buds into individual selves. These selves are not entirely separate from the larger field of consciousness (they can't be, because ultimately Cosmic Consciousness includes everything that is), but they have no direct knowledge of this connection; they believe they are separate.
These selves "perceive reality" (i.e. have mental experiences) in ways that largely overlap because the selves tend to manifest reality in the same habitual, conditioned manner, and because the ultimate source of these events, the ground of being, is Collective or Cosmic Consciousness. Where mental experiences overlap we have a shared reality, a consensus reality. It is not an illusion; it is real, because consciousness is real and these events arise out of consciousness.
A few selves are creative enough to construct a new reality and thus perform "paranormal" feats. They can, perhaps, perform levitations or healings that are inexplicable according to the conventionally agreed-upon "rules." Phenomena (mental experiences) of this kind seem bizarre because they don't fit most selves' established guidelines of how things are supposed to behave. But they open up new horizons, new possibilities, and allow other creative selves to test the boundaries of the "rules."
Although this model of reality is far from entirely clear, it would seem to offer resolutions to make vexing problems of philosophy and science.
For one thing, the mind-body problem ceases to be an issue. Everything is Mind.
http://www.iscid.org/encyclopedia/Mind-Body_Problem
The problem of universals, http://www.iep.utm.edu/u/universa.htm also known as the problem of properties, can be resolved by saying that any given property - say, whiteness - exists only as an idea ... and so does everything else. It is therefore no more or less real than any other existent.
How about the mathematical elegance of the cosmos? If the universe is a reflection of Mind, then we would expect it to "look more like a great thought than a great machine," as James Jeans put it.
The anthropic principle and cosmic coincidences? http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepage ... anthro.htm
The universe either is brought into being by observers or is trending toward self-awareness via living beings. Either way, it must be "fine-tuned" to produce and sustain life.
The irreducible complexity of some biological systems, http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/irred ... lexity.htm as argued by Michael Behe? These biological systems, like everything else that exists, are brought into existence by Mind. Just as some thoughts are irreducible to simpler components, so are some of these "physical" processes (which are only mental events).
The fact-value dichotomy? http://www.philosophyprofessor.com/phil ... nction.php
Values are properties of Mind ... and so are facts. Everything is a property of Mind.
A holographic universe? http://www.crystalinks.com/holographic.html
The originator of this theory, David Bohm, has said that the substrate of reality, the equivalent of the holographic plate, is (or can be seen as) consciousness. In this view, consciousness acts as both the ground of being (the holographic plate) and the means by which being manifests (the beam of focused light passing through the plate).
The famous double slit experiment in physics? http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/sc ... index.html
Electrons, photons, etc. are all properties of Mind and therefore behave intelligently.
The delayed choice experiment? Same answer. http://www.bottomlayer.com/bottom/basic ... choice.htm
Nonlocality? http://www.phys.lsu.edu/students/dhall/ ... ality.html
If everything is part of Mind, there can be no separation, and distance is an illusion. What is the distance between two thoughts?
Schrodinger's cat? http://www.phys.lsu.edu/students/dhall/ ... ality.html
The cat does not exist apart from consciousness. If we were to assume there is no consciousness observing the cat in the box then the cat does not even exist in the box. It is not alive and dead. It is not anything. So there is no paradox. On the other hand, if we assume the cat is conscious, or that it is observed by a cosmic Mind, then the decay of the isotope (and its consequences) is also being observed. So there still is no paradox.
I realize that this philosophical approach - monistic idealism, http://www.creativespirit.net/henryreed ... umn2_1.htm
I believe it's called - has drawbacks and ambiguities. Still, it does seem at first glance like the most elegant solution to a wide range of problems.
http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/mich ... _worl.html
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