The Measure of Reality
I came to this belief whilst doing my first acid trip years ago, and have since become ever more sure, and recently it has been written about by all manner of people, but essentially it boils down to this (Using my Metaphors):
Consciousness is not the experience, but rather, the measurement of the experience.
It is the quantification/qualification(understanding/emotion) of what transpires into an abstract form which is connected via association to any and all possible other abstractions which have measured previously. We call this understanding, forming ideas. These ideas sort-of build off of each other in that they are unique in some way, and their combinations are also unique. The basic fundamental ideas(parts) are those which form a greater idea(Whole), and any time an idea has similarities, it is because it shares similar foundations. (Imagine Prime numbers as the Unique parts & composite numbers as the Shared wholes). This is apparent when ones thinks of say “fruit” which brings with it numerous other trains-of-thought such as “types of fruit” or “Fruits you like” or “Sources of Fruit”. All of which is then connected further until a final idea is reached which is then output to your consciousness. This output is usually at the request of a question or purpose which we are consciously aware of. We want to think of where the car keys are, we retrieve that information, or if none comes up, we know, from previous experience that we need to look for them. However, the part we have missed is that most of our consciousness is there as a response to events occurring around us, and thus we constantly are both striving to make sense of the world around us, and using previous knowledge and insight, act appropriately towards an intended goal.
This goal results in our mingling with the environment and others around us, for example to get food, or to sell products, or to learn things, or to record data, or to receive data, etc. This network allows us to work ever more efficiently, and using the mass resources of everyone around us, we can achieve our goals faster and more efficiently. This network is again an abstraction, but this time I prefer to call it a projection in that it occurs externally rather than internally. We project roles onto groups of people as a means of allowing ourselves to take on other roles. This structure is a form of memory, similar to how we abstract ideas into different combinations of understanding and emotion, we form industries and jobs to ensure our constant supply of necessities. Once we have achieved a plateau, we exceed it and strive for higher levels of understanding/process/comfort and this has led to an increasingly globalized world, where we stand on the cusp of the next generation of human civilization. This next civilization will be one of ever increasingly complicated systems, but most importantly, that of the human race. Right now, wars are being waged due to the sudden globalization of the world, but that is because, until now, we haven’t been globalized, and technically, still aren’t. We have contending ideas as countries just as people have contending ideas, but eventually those walls will be broken down through greater awareness and understanding and intermingling of people all over the world. The countries each will take on roles such as the companies have done within their borders. These roles will be larger in scope than may be possibly recognized just as the roles of corporations and human innovation have led to effects on the climate long before recognized. This I feel will continue and we as a planet may soon too have a larger role all together to play in the universe. The galaxies are much older and their roles too may be forever unknown to us, but I believe that each of these systems in-of-and-including the universe is each a unique measure of THE experience that IS.
Some may call this experience God, some may call it simply the universe, other may call it existence, the tao, gaia, reality, samsara, etc. But whatever it may be called, this experience is separate from us but we are a measure of it and a direct response in some way to it, and through tools like meditation, and entheogenic drugs, we can learn to release our “level” of consciousness, and by letting go, we can begin to flow, with the universal experience whilst still being lucky to have tools like memory to remember for us.
Carry On All Who Wish to Grow.