The Metaphysical Journey as I see it

Lent 2020 - Day 16

I believe in the primacy of subjective experience. No one else can get a peek inside your consciousness; no one else is aware of what you are aware of; no one else can intercept your train of thoughts. What goes on within you is not just private - it is secret. Thus no one can can say to you that you have not experienced what you have just experienced.

I have learned to abandon the notion of God as a omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent (male) deity; rather I see the Universe - all things visible and invisible - as One. It is an Unfolding, a process from imperfection to perfection, towards a state of understanding all and being conscious of all. There - that's my God. An eternal journey, taking as long as the Universe will take to reach its fullness. God as Destination rather than as an overseer.

I have long ago rejected the notion that I must be good so that my soul can be saved so that when I die I can go to Heaven. One brief life is not enough to acquire awareness; consciousness dwells, it abides within the Universe and it has been evolving upward, as we have evolved upward from apes, from shrews, from reptiles, from fish, from amoeba.

We know little of consciousness. An increasing number of scientists are starting to wonder whether it is a innate property of matter, along with mass and energy, increasing with complexity, present not between the neurons of the brain, but at an atomic level. In the three and half billion years since the first living creature appeared upon our planet, consciousness has expanded vastly. Consciousness, I would argue, is what's driving evolution, pushing at the biology. It would be interesting to see just how it would look three and half billion years hence.

The other reason I have rejected the Christian Heaven is because it is ego-focused; you are promised to remain you in your Christian afterlife - providing you behave. I don't believe that you in your afterlife will still be you. Your consciousness will intrude, it will permeate, it may even clash with, a follow-on consciousness - but it will no longer be you. Qualia memories from your current life, subjective experiences that you have felt - will flash into someone else's consciousness after your physical demise.

I know this because I have felt it from childhood - I am open to it. I have not suppressed those *PAFF* moments because they interfere either with the dogmas taught in my Catholic upbringing, nor with reductionist rationalism, which seeks to replace the metaphysical in the Universe with equations and laws. I alone know what I feel - I have trained myself to identify those moments, how they feel and where and when they might be coming from. There is a familiarity, a canon of qualia, the spirit of a time and place other than the here and now. I've had them all my life, they fit, they are congruent. They feel like - and are as valid as - memories from my current life. There is far more going on that we can grasp - as yet. I can but sense it, but not explain it fully. With each passing year, insight grows, my ability to put it into words improves.

I believe that with future generations, the recycling of consciousness will snowball, we will acquire greater understanding of the process - the vectors of transmission that are at work here - and the in the process, our levels of consciousness, our awareness will increase. We will advance yet further away from the primitive life forms that once carried our genes.

It was 4.1 billion years ago that the first cells are believed to be formed (Earth is 4.5 billion years old). Around 3.5 billion years ago lived the most recent population of organisms from which all organisms now living on Earth have common descent (the Last Universal Common Ancestor, LUCA), a single-celled organism with a ring of DNA floating freely within it. In the intervening years between the last LUCA dying and the first Homo Sapiens being born, an amazing parade of life forms has come and gone; 99% of all the species that ever lived on Earth are now extinct.

Now just imagine the massive leap from single-celled organisms to us. That took around 3.5 billion years. Not imagine a leap of that same magnitude that can be attained over the next 3.5 billion years. What angelic beings could exist then? How great their consciousness? [Our Sun is expected to remain stable for the next 5 billion years, but the Solar System should not be a constraint for our descendants. Never mind the technology - just consider that consciousness...

Our consciousness - not our bodies nor our egos - will survive and evolve. Humanity has shown dogged fortitude - and despite everything - has been blessed with more good luck than it deserves.

You have nine trillion (9 x 10¹²) ancestors, if you trace your lineage back all the way to the first life form to appear on our planet 4.1 billion years ago. Each of those nine trillion ancestors had to reproduce successfully for you to be alive today. Just one broken link in that chain - just one ancestor that failed to reproduce - and there'd be no you. There is purpose behind all this - but only if you observe it and thrill to its magnificence.

Gratitude and observation, curiosity and a burning desire to know what's next. That's what drives my metaphysical journey.

A consciousness, moving over the face of the Earth

This time three years ago:
Spirit of Age, spirit of Place

This time four years ago:
The crux of the matter

This time six years ago:
10,000 steps is a lot for one day

This time seven years ago:
Bary mleczne - Warsaw's cheap eateries

This time eight years ago:
Nikkor 45mm f2.8 pancake lens reviewed

This time nine years ago:
Old Town, another prospect

This time ten years ago:
W-wa Śródmieście - commuters' staging post

This time 11 years ago:
Filthy ul. Poloneza
[Now re-named ul. Kujawiaka]

This time 12 years ago:
A sight that heralds the coming of spring