tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26506099526747278202024-03-19T08:40:45.535+01:00W-wa JeziorkiPoland, Warsaw, Mazovia. Spirit of place, development, <br> human spirituality; consciousness.Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.comBlogger3794125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-45481712198896082882024-03-18T11:34:00.002+01:002024-03-18T14:18:57.479+01:00After death – what's next? Lent 2024, Day 34<p>Is there life after death? The term is tautological. Biological life ends with death – so that's the end of biological life. The right term for what we're searching for is <i>survival of consciousness</i> after death.</p><p>And here already we have the big split. Materialists believe that consciousness is merely a byproduct of biological evolution; an epiphenomenon of emergent complexity. Consciousness, they hold, resides only within the skulls of higher-order animals, upon this planet, the only one we currently know to host intelligent life. Panpsychists, however, believe that consciousness is the fundamental property of the Cosmos; without Big-C consciousness, there would be no universe for us to observe, no space, no time, no matter. The 'vacuum of space' is actually filled with consciousness.</p><p>If you are a materialist, for you nothing exists but matter, so I'd suggest there's little point in you reading further. For you, biological death equates with the snuffing out of conscious experience forever. An eternity of oblivion awaits. End of, get over it. YOLO.</p><p>If, however, you hold that consciousness is indeed fundamental, read on; there are several key questions worth pondering over as to the survival of your consciousness after biological death. </p><p>The topic of near-death experience (NDE) and research into this phenomenon is fascinating and controversial. Reported experiences all share similar features – a life review, moving through a tunnel towards light, being met by loved ones who've already died, and a changed attitude to life and death following the experience. There is a growing body of scientific literature* into the phenomenon which suggests it cannot be ignored out of hand. </p><p>Yet it's by no means universal; not everyone who's brought back from clinical death claims to have had an NDE. Various studies point to between 10% and 50% of resuscitated patients reporting one. And there's no clear evidence of a sheep-and-goat effect (NDEs are reported by materialists/atheists as well as religious believers). </p><p>Debunkers have come up with numerous rational explanations for NDEs, but still the phenomenon remains. More and more quantitative research data from successive studies is building up. This is not just wishful thinking; advances in medical science means people can be resuscitated from ever-longer periods of heart or brain inactivity. And as more and more people are brought back from the brink, more reports of what some of them at least have experienced are being collected.</p><p>As with psi phenomena, the problem that science has is to do with the fact that NDEs just don't fit the established scientific model, and so <i>a priori,</i> they need to be dismissed or ignored. Science looks for mechanisms, vectors, forces; physical causes that lead to physical effects. Here, we have none of which science is currently aware of. We can but postulate – quantum effects in the brain? Yet these are said to be tens of trillion trillion times weaker than necessary to have any noticeable effect on cellular structures. </p><p>But a panpsychist approach, accepting the existence of non-local consciousness, makes some sense here. NDEs can be seen as small-c consciousness merging into Big-C consciousness. Whilst this makes sense, it raises the question I posed earlier on in this year's Lenten series of blog posts, namely – does the individual identity fade away into the collective consciousness of the Cosmos? And if so – does this equate with oblivion – at least, oblivion of the Self?<br /><br />More tomorrow. More questions than answers!</p><p>* Leading researchers in this field that are worth looking for on YouTube are Sam Parnia, Pim van Lommel and Bruce Greyson.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/into-afterlife-ii-lent-2023-day-34.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023: Day 34</a><br />Into the Afterlife (Pt II)</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/04/purpose-lent-2022-day-34.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 34</a><br />A search for purpose</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-ecstasy-of-wilko-johnson-lent-2021.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 34</a><br /><i>The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson</i><br /><br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/what-goes-round-comes-around.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020; Day 34</a><br />What goes round, comes around</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-76211418157924146302024-03-17T18:13:00.005+01:002024-03-18T08:39:18.530+01:00Time and Spirituality Pt III: Lent 2024, Day 33<p>In his book <i>Real Magic</i>, Dean Radin talks about the three forms of magic; <i>clairvoyance</i> (perceiving through space and time); <i>force of will</i> (impressing your will onto the world) and<i> theurgy</i> (communicating with spirits). In each form, one's consciousness has to reach out across time to make its mark.</p><p>My take: clairvoyance – be it remote viewing (across space) or precognition (across time) – is a real phenomenon. I'm prepared to accept its existence, though I believe that it occurs naturally in only the tiniest number of gifted people, and to a limited extent, though it's a talent that can be developed by exercise. Force of will – prayer, if you like – can work though only if it aligns with an overall Cosmic Purpose rather than with one's ego. Theurgy – I'm not sure on this one; my experience suggests that departed loved ones do visit you in dreams, which may hold significance if you listen.</p><p>I see, however, another form of magic (magic being physical effects without physical cause). This is one that's important in my daily life – the forestalling or preclusion of mishaps by being <i>consciously aware of their possibility</i>. (<a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2024/03/do-we-have-free-will-pt-iii-lent-2024.html" target="_blank">See this post for more details</a>.) This is willing yourself good fortune, or willing yourself the avoidance of misfortune. </p><p>Again, this means delving into the future, affecting future outcomes. Not wanting to fall ill, not wanting an accident, not wanting to lose your wallet, keys or phone, not becoming a victim of crime, not having something break down (means of transportation, for example); these are goals that can be achieved by conscious thought, reinforced by projection of your consciousness into the future. I do this by offering a silent prayer as I leave the house. And importantly, this is backed up by a prayer of gratitude for stuff not going wrong as I return home.</p><p>Even if all that such habits do is reinforce your careful and diligent behaviour, then they work. But I would posit that they work above and beyond the physical cause-and-physical effect level (I return home safe and sound, nothing's gone awry, nothing missing or broken, because I have taken conscious care to ensure that happens). They work because I have willed away misfortune.</p><p>The opposite is complacency; the notion that because it all worked out well yesterday and today, it will all work out well tomorrow. Complacency breeds unexpected mishaps – your consciousness was not scanning the horizon. Consciousness needs to be alert.</p><p>There are things people badly want in life; health, a decent job, a partner, children; subconscious desires which align with the unfolding universe. A bigger, newer, car doesn't. And when you want something badly enough, that want or need moves from the subconscious to the conscious. Would it spoil some vast, eternal plan if it were to come true? No? Does it align with the Cosmos? Yes? Then pluck it from the future, and it shall be.</p><p>Tomorrow: a short series of blog posts about life after death.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/into-afterlife-i-lent-2023-day-33.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 33</a><br />Into the Afterlife (Pt I) </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/04/is-search-for-understanding-futile-lent.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 33</a><br />The Search for Understanding</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/connecting-with-metaphysical-lent-2021.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 33</a><br />Connecting with the Metaphysical</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/on-my-planet-there-is-no-disease.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 33</a><br />"On my planet there is no disease"</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-32526291126108103022024-03-16T15:38:00.001+01:002024-03-16T16:16:30.651+01:00Time and Spirituality (Pt II): Lent 2024, Day 32<p>Yesterday I considered the notion of time flattened out across past and future, with the present being a passing illusion. With the notion of the block universe, a hypothesis that Einstein espoused, all is happening at once; spacetime being truly four-dimensional rather than three-dimensions in time. The block universe theory suggests all of spacetime exists as a single, unchanging block. Past, present, and future are all equally real, just with different perspectives depending on the observer. Einstein's theory of general relativity is compatible with the block universe, he came to acknowledge it as a likely consequence of his theories.</p><p>But we can posit something different. We can think about time as not being a straight arrow running along a single dimension from past into future, but maybe that arrow can be bent to run forward, but with an up/down vector, and with a left/right vector too. So three-dimensional time, though still in accord with the second law of thermodynamics, cannot run backwards. Entropy-driven, it can to run only from future to past. But if you bend that arrow far enough, and can be made to return to where it came from. The tighter you bend the arrow, the more recently in the past it can end up.</p><p>How many arrows of time are there? One, for literally everything, the entire Cosmos, every visible galaxy out there? Or one arrow of time for every particle in the entire Cosmos? And whether one timeline for the whole Cosmos or one timeline for every single particle, are those timelines bendable?</p><p>In <i><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-brief-history-of-time-review-part-1.html" target="_blank">A Brief History of Time</a></i>, Stephen Hawking identified three main arrows of time: thermodynamic: (related to increasing entropy/disorder), psychological – our own perception of time flowing forward (we remember the past but can't directly experience the future) and cosmological: time progresses as the universe gets bigger. </p><p>Or is the hypothesis of time's arrow (bendable or not) unnecessary in a block universe in which past present and future are all flattened out, joined together eternally in a singularity of time?</p><p>The theological implications of a block universe would point to an omniscient Divinity, an alpha and an omega, existing at the beginning and end of time at the same time (and at all points in between). This would stand in opposition to an unfolding universe, patiently progressing from Zero to One, a universe of emergence and complexity co-existing with entropy and disorder, in which the Divinity would be a guiding purpose, a work in progress, not perfect, but steadily tending towards ultimate unity and understanding. </p><p>A block universe would have implications for reincarnation too – living all lives simultaneously across all time at one go, so flashbacks or dreams would be openings-up to events being experienced in real time elsewhere in the continuum, rather than having any quality of having happened in the past.</p><p>How do precognition and retrocausality – if they indeed do empirically exist – operate? By bending the arrow of time this way or that, or back upon itself – or by becoming as one with the block universe and simply reaching out across time in the same way I reach across my desk for my mug?</p><p>Both are fascinating ideas. We have no more than a intimation that precognition and retrocausality are real phenomena. Even if proven across thousands of experiments that a tiny, though statistically significant, effect exists, scientists have no idea how these phenomena could possibly work, and so dismiss them as pseudoscience.</p><p>Seeking a theoretical framework, I would join those panpsychists who posit the work of consciousness – both the Big-C Consciousness, the prime-mover, the reason, the purpose, the direction of the Cosmos, but also small-c consciousness of individual biological entities, willing an outcome which aligns with the Big-C purpose.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-practice-of-gratitude-lent-2023-day.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 32</a><br />The Practice of Gratitude</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/04/is-search-for-perfection-futile-lent.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 32</a><br />The Search for Perfection</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/meditation-lent-2021-day-32.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 32</a><br />Meditation</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/divine-intervention.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 32</a><br />Divine Intervention</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-20546839007762386762024-03-15T23:04:00.007+01:002024-03-18T12:51:47.447+01:00Time and Spirituality (Pt I): Lent 2024, Day 31<p>My thinking on the subject of time has progressed significantly since last Lent. I have grappled with the concept of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternalism_(philosophy_of_time)" target="_blank">block universe</a>, the notion that the past, present and future are occurring simultaneously. The corollary to this is that time is an illusion (and, to quote Douglas Adams, lunchtime doubly so). Physicist and philosopher Bernard Carr talks about the <i>specious present</i> – a present that's never really there, happening at Planck-time, so what we really have is the past and future separated by the shortest-possible sliver of 'nowness' that we're capable of experiencing.</p><p>That shortest sliver of can be described in terms of physics as the shortest possible unit of time, the Planck time (5.4 x 10<sup>-44</sup> seconds, the time it takes a photon to cover one <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units" target="_blank">Planck length</a>, which is 1.6 x 10<sup>-35</sup> metres), or in biological terms, around a twentieth of a second (think of individual frames of a film perceived by our brains as moving pictures). So 'now' has come and gone; 'nows' continue to pass from future into past. There is, practically, no 'now'.</p><p>I wrote earlier this Lent about how the <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2024/02/emergence-and-complexity-vs-entropy-and.html">direction of time's arrow is said to be determined by entropy</a> (leave an ice cube on a table at room temperature and it will melt; even if you freeze the room, you will never reconstitute the form of that ice cube). But at the same time that entropy is busy creating chaos, the Universe is creating complexity. The Universe could have been a uniform soup of evenly distributed hydrogen atoms – but isn't. Instead, it is galaxies, star systems, planets – and life. And before time – before the Universe was born – there was Consciousness (Big-C Consciousness, as opposed to the small-c consciousness that we individually experience). To Big-C Consciousness, time is irrelevant and meaningless. </p><p>There can be no time without memory. </p><p>And there can be no memory without small-c consciousness. </p><p>And so, without consciousness, without a conscious observer to notice its passage, we cannot have time – we can only have a block universe, where all time is equally real, past, present and future, simultaneously. Spacetime without small-c consciousness shrinks from three dimensions modulated by the passage of time to four static dimensions.</p><p>The need for an observer to consciously experience the passage of time is like the conundrum about a tree falling in a forest with no one there to hear it – does it make a sound? The answer is, of course, no – because the experience of sound requires an ear to collect the vibrations of air, a brain to process the signals sent to it, and consciousness to be aware of this sound.</p><p>And so without conscious observers around to subjectively experience time, everything is happening simultaneously, from Big Bang to the heat death of the Universe and all points in between. This is how Big-C Consciousness, which I would take as the Divine, perceives the Cosmic Entirety.</p><p>Consider this – it takes eight minutes for a photon to travel from the Sun to you. And yet, from the perspective of the photon, travelling at the speed of light as it does, that journey is instantaneous. As is a journey of billions of light years from the most distant star we can observe. From the photon's point of view, there is no travel time; it is instantaneous. Neutrinos also travel at or about the speed of light; I have postulated that cosmic neutrino background (CNB, the universe's background particle radiation composed of relic neutrinos, may somehow act as a timeless carrier of Big-C consciousness. The CNB is a relic of the Big Bang; relic neutrinos separated from matter when the universe was around one second old. </p><p>Here's how Big-C Consciousness, then, can perceive past, present and future, as one. Permeating through the Cosmos at light speed. (Tap in to Big-C Consciousness, and you too, feel the past and the future?)</p><p>And I have come to question the notion of an eternal afterlife lived in the blissful perfection of having achieved a teleological end-point. Instead of 'life everlasting', I have posited that at the precise moment of the final culmination of the journey from Zero to One – the Cosmos returns to its Zero state at Big Bang. And the cycle begins all over again.</p><p>But in a time-flat block universe, eternity is an instant, and that instant could last an eternity.</p><p>More tomorrow.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/science-vs-paranormal-lent-2023-day-31.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 31</a><br />Science vs. the Paranormal</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/04/consciousness-fundamental-and-universal.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 31</a><br />Consciousness - fundamental and universal?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/im-better-than-you-lent-2021-day-31.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 31</a><br />I'm better than you - no really, I am!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/divine-inspiration.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 31</a><br />Divine Inspiration</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-64570180564245484882024-03-14T20:45:00.007+01:002024-03-14T22:12:47.070+01:00The Divine in your life: Lent 2024, Day 30<p>Prompted by a comment from AdtheLad, today I shall examine the Catholic concept of Grace from a metaphysical standpoint. Let's start by asking – what is g<i>race</i>?</p><p>The <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6Z.HTM" target="_blank">Catechism of the Catholic Church</a> defines graces as "the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and eternal life. Grace is a participation in the life of God."</p><p>If one accepts (whatever one calls God), a Divine presence or purpose or reason in the Cosmos, and accepts the Church definition metaphorically (without attributing possession of XY chromosomes to the Divinity), the notion of Grace takes on a great metaphysical significance.</p><p>Yes – a helpful God, helpful to those who are responsive (that is, those who do see themselves as spiritual beings), helpful to those embarked on the eternal journey of spiritual growth, seeking the Divine. </p><p>I see being in a state of Grace as being plugged into the process of the unfolding of the Universe, ethically aligned with the eternal journey from Zero to One – the path that leads to ultimate fulfilment.</p><p>Catholic theology distinguishes two forms of Grace: sanctifying and actual. Sanctifying Grace is defined as the permanent gift which elevates the soul to a supernatural state, enabling it to participate in the life of God. Actual Grace is temporary and specific. An inspiration or a strengthening touch from God that empowers us to make good choices in particular moments. </p><p>Again, I can buy into these two distinct forms of Grace; Sanctifying Grace serving as the catalyst that initially binds an individual consciousness into a unity with God as the Divine Purpose and prompts the search, the process of spiritual growth. And the Actual Grace, present in day-to-day life, that one can draw on. 'Quantum luck', if you may.</p><p>In Catholic theology, the Holy Spirit plays a crucial role in dispensing Grace. By cooperating with the prompts of the Holy Spirit through prayer as dialogue (with intuitions as the return channel), individuals can become more receptive to God's guiding hand. I'm in agreement with this too. Those moments of intuition, inspiration, and indeed guidance, are all extremely helpful in navigating the journey.</p><p>I feel that I am in receipt of the grace of God, and for that I am deeply grateful for it! I feel that I can tap into it at will, and that it can indeed affect physical, as well as metaphysical outcomes. Grace is the mechanism through which prayer works; however, petitioning the Lord with prayer must first align with Divine Purpose.</p><p>This has been a useful exercise in seeking commonality between how I see metaphysical phenomena and Catholic theology; Grace as a highest common factor, is a worthy bridge. Seeking such bridges across all faiths in an ecumenical reach-out is sorely needed by mankind.</p><p>My father asked rhetorically, several times, shortly before he died at the age of 96: "Why was I so lucky?" I think he knew the answer: God's Grace.</p><p>[Pop the word 'grace' into Google Translate, and it'll give the Polish as '<i>łaska</i>'; but pop in '<i>łaska</i>', and Google will give the English as 'mercy'. But then divine mercy it renders as <i>miłosierdzie boże</i>.]</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/godno-god-lent-2023-day-30.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 30</a><br />God/No God</p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/let-spirit-guide-you-lent-2022-day-30.html" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 30</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Let the Spirit guide you!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/on-being-perceptive-lent-2021-day-30.html" style="background-color: white; color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 30</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">On being perceptive</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/time-religion-and-metaphysics.html" style="background-color: white; color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 30</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Time - religion and metaphysics</span></span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-25731539159746887722024-03-13T19:02:00.001+01:002024-03-13T19:02:32.069+01:00Altruism and consciousness: Lent 2024, Day 29<p>Many years ago at a teenage disco at our local Polish centre, I was chatting up an attractive girl after dancing with her. I asked her what she considered to be the one most important quality she looked for in a boy. I was expecting something like 'determination', 'courage', 'intelligence', or 'energy'. Her reply surprised me. She said: "kindness".</p><p>As a teenage male, I was genuinely struck by that unexpected answer, and I have pondered upon it from time to time. There we were, innocently engaged in the ritual of finding a partner, and I receive what was in effect an answer of biological significance; here is a potential mother potentially looking for a mate who's able to empathise and behave altruistically.</p><p>Richard Dawkins is famous principally for two books; <i>The Selfish Gene</i> and <i>The God Delusion</i>. Central to the thinking of the British evolutionary biologist and notable atheist is the role of the gene in evolution. The idea he propounds is that replicating one's genes into the future is what matters most in the cold calculus of evolution. If there is altruism in the strict Dawkinsian sense, it is limited to helping carriers of your gene propagate it further. So being a caring, mentoring grandparent, then, or even or an uncle or aunt, fits the model. There are even studies that show that strangers with the same surname are extended more help than a randomly named person would get. </p><p>A panpsychist approach, however, to altruism extends beyond the family, indeed – beyond the human species even. Consideration is shown to the ecosystem as a whole on the basis that it is conscious, we are part of the whole, that the ecosystem is essential to the survival of humanity and everything else on the planet. Including our genes!</p><p>Long-term thinking, whether selfish or altruistic, requires an ecosystem within which consciousness can continue to flourish hundreds, thousands, of generations into the future, evolving spiritually. Genes and biology and ego are linked. Consciousness stands above that, on the meta-level, as it were.</p><p>Altruism includes, but is not limited to, acts of charity or selfless help to our fellow (non-related) human beings. I see altruism in a broader sense as co-existence in harmony with animals, plants and insects. Removing a spider or two from my shower cubicle before I turn on the hot water. Warding off ants from my doorstep with used coffee grounds rather than ant-killer. (Ticks and gnats/mosquitos –<i>Culex pipiens – </i>are dealt with mercilessly, however.)</p><p>On the basis that we are all one or something, I feel an intense, personal responsibility for our environment, stewardship of the land.</p><p>Is altruism somehow linked to karma? Here I am stuck, calling for an intuition to steer me towards an answer. If we are to believe the concept that bad deeds bring on bad karma, does altruistic behaviour attract karmic <i>reward</i>? Here I am stepping into purest metaphysical space; for if there is no physical effect without a physical cause, as physicalist reductionists would say, the attribution of random happenings, misfortune or good fortune to one's behaviour is pure magical thinking. </p><p>However, the well-disposed consciousness, benignly wandering through life without any sense of entitlement, receiving with simplicity everything that happens to it, wishing no harm to those of good will, does ultimately bring reward – hope, and meaning. </p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/building-your-own-religion-how-ai-would.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 29</a><br />Artificial Intelligence creates a religion</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/meditations-on-travel-lent-2022-day-29.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 29</a><br />Meditations on travel</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-ups-and-down-of-life-lent-2021-day.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 29</a><br />The ups and downs of life</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/prophetic.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 29</a><br />Prophetic</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-24687067966200883972024-03-12T18:57:00.000+01:002024-03-12T18:57:17.249+01:00Spirituality, the Ego and the Environment: Lent 2024, Day 28<p>Looking back over this blog, the topic of human spirituality is becoming ever-more important to me. This is my 33rd Lent, in the meaning of a conscious effort to change my habits over a continuous 46-day period. My first Lents, back in the early 1990s, were little more than exercises in abstinence – giving up alcohol, meat, confectionary, salt snacks and fast food for the duration. Indeed, it was only in 2011 that I started labelling blog posts about Lent with the tag 'human spirituality'! </p><p>Age, acquired knowledge, wisdom and an increased sense of physical mortality prompts an ever-deeper philosophical investigation.</p><p>Several threads come together to inform my spirituality and philosophy, including psychology, cosmology, physics and metaphysics, all of which I've touched on. The environment is another thread that I want to discuss today. </p><p>I am concerned by climate change and that concern has led to significant changes in my lifestyle, behaviour and outlook. </p><p>I have come to see materialism (both in the sense of physicalism = belief that there's no more to reality than physical matter, and in the sense of materialism = a way of life focused on consumption) as the path to perdition. For the individual consciousness, for humanity and for our planet. Materialism rids us of hope and replaces it with a vacuous contest to see who can acquire more toys before they die.</p><p>Talking to friends and colleagues, I appreciate that most people do understand that the climate is changing, that human activity is foremost in driving that change – and yet they are not showing any willingness to adapt their behaviour accordingly, to help to mitigate the effects. Holiday plans still mean jetting off to exotic destinations! A new car is a must! There's a million and one household gadgets we absolutely need! The acquisition of more and more things, leading to stuffocation. A materialist treadmill from which there is no escape, driven by the ego's desire to be admired. To be socially respected, to be appreciated as top dog in the status hierarchy.</p><p>The ego is needed up to a point; it drives you along, but only up to that point when you realise you have achieved material comfort and no longer need to chase the next dollar, thousand or million. But so few people can do that.</p><p>Surrounded by the <i>człowiek, który się nie zastanawia</i>, the person that contemplates not, I worry about our fate as a species. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDBHFdUkaGuQRgYdfGVduCptRL5KMRm_rIzxcBnuHdIWbePo9B_QqNjIkbSj6WGvewjkUV1twwkY37t1H90L5ecZZmDXYVb9W4qyVhAE5cPAUR4UM-x5mUTEtJQGL63x35oI6h7toM94sI800psGw98OChDfSLLGYur_b_mTkghhhGV61qiIeBCk78eD-C/s400/Zastan%C3%B3w%20si%C4%99,%20cz%C5%82owieku.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDBHFdUkaGuQRgYdfGVduCptRL5KMRm_rIzxcBnuHdIWbePo9B_QqNjIkbSj6WGvewjkUV1twwkY37t1H90L5ecZZmDXYVb9W4qyVhAE5cPAUR4UM-x5mUTEtJQGL63x35oI6h7toM94sI800psGw98OChDfSLLGYur_b_mTkghhhGV61qiIeBCk78eD-C/s320/Zastan%C3%B3w%20si%C4%99,%20cz%C5%82owieku.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>Surging on in life without pausing to check the map. Where are you going to? What's your aim? What's your purpose? How does the way you live your life affect other humans, and the animals and plants with which you share your environment? What do you want to achieve and what mark do you ultimately wish to leave on the Earth?<div><br /></div><div>Out unthinking consumption creates a powerful demand, a vacuum that extracts raw materials from the earth, and burns fossil fuels to power their processing into the goods that we crave to own. This has been going on for two and half centuries, and over the past half century the greenhouse gas emissions that our consumption creates has escaped our control.</div><div><br /></div><div>How much of what we buy – including food – do we waste? How much of the money that we earn by working so hard do we spend on what we waste? A life in which we consume less and waste less creates a profoundly virtuous circle; less money worries, less need to work so hard/so long, more time to realise one's potential – and that's what really counts in life.</div><div><br /></div><div>If we, the two billion people of the rich world, dialled back our consumption, we could quickly reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions that are threatening the stability of the ecosystem on which we depend. In the meanwhile, I'm watching the world around me consume its way to climate catastrophe.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXyV54aqd72ub-dNt97NGgy2e_jAhJfZXwq4ePm_PWWcIfzzHOHy4-mD_Er_Q8QhG7xF9OIZJFloL1_a_DcitpS-jkHdachUjZ04h9kEJdzKcYZs4A2iKmXuF8U4ALqjHVa-3vlJR5RixjMONKEee-sLElutJkD6Jv1VnVDN1LNtwTdGjwYfoDJ8l6zwld/s1600/Climate-change-stripes-Globe-Global-warming.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXyV54aqd72ub-dNt97NGgy2e_jAhJfZXwq4ePm_PWWcIfzzHOHy4-mD_Er_Q8QhG7xF9OIZJFloL1_a_DcitpS-jkHdachUjZ04h9kEJdzKcYZs4A2iKmXuF8U4ALqjHVa-3vlJR5RixjMONKEee-sLElutJkD6Jv1VnVDN1LNtwTdGjwYfoDJ8l6zwld/w400-h225/Climate-change-stripes-Globe-Global-warming.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>We all really need to re-think our lives and consider the future. I really like Canadian artist Sarah Lazarovic's Buyerarchy of Needs. Scale down, good people, now. For your descendants' sakes. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqmZ6Dbq7C7LMxqq_tTT7l5xpqPdvwXHE_LEtVbUeI-seOsUBmP_ugeoze8FvfODZQBGPzTvxVAfNjcaFyZRGh2nOmGU549pUQvd4JcgCHAXCiIWKk7zc9NXZzkdS2HGrIhT8g5X6AYy5zT8kvcnPrwQ8sKzXGlLYURdLstuboxIIIVdPtM7Xbg41f0KI4/s1050/Buyerarchy-of-Needs.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="926" data-original-width="1050" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqmZ6Dbq7C7LMxqq_tTT7l5xpqPdvwXHE_LEtVbUeI-seOsUBmP_ugeoze8FvfODZQBGPzTvxVAfNjcaFyZRGh2nOmGU549pUQvd4JcgCHAXCiIWKk7zc9NXZzkdS2HGrIhT8g5X6AYy5zT8kvcnPrwQ8sKzXGlLYURdLstuboxIIIVdPtM7Xbg41f0KI4/w400-h353/Buyerarchy-of-Needs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/can-future-affect-past-lent-2023-day-28.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 28</a></div><div><p>Can the future affect our past?</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/understanding-infinite-and-eternal-lent.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 28</a><br />Understanding the Infinite and the Eternal<br /><br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/higher-life-forms-imagined-lent-2021.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 28</a><br />Higher life forms, imagined</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-secret-and-hidden.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 28</a><br />The Secret and the Hidden</span></p></div>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-81147534850903174412024-03-11T21:12:00.002+01:002024-03-11T21:12:14.585+01:00Personality and Belief: Lent 2024, Day 27<p>Watching an interview with British theoretical physicist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Isham" target="_blank">Christopher Isham</a> yesterday, I was struck by his observation that how one interprets quantum mechanics boils down to whether one is an extrovert or an introvert. Here's the quote:</p><p>"There is some link between people's interpretation of quantum mechanics and their psychological type in a Jungian sense. This is the distinction between introvert and extrovert; an extrovert being someone whose primary attention is outside and the introvert is someone whose primary attention is inside. I noticed that those physicists who are extrovert tend to favour the empirical pragmatic probability of measurements as being all that we can say about the world, whereas people like me who are strongly introvert favoured anything but that, and that was the reason they argued so much because they never could understand each other's point of view."</p><p>Wow. Now extrapolate this from interpretations of quantum mechanics to philosophy. Could there be a link between extroversion and <i>materialism</i> on the one hand, and introversion and a <i>metaphysical perspective</i> on the other? Put it another way; if you're an extrovert, are you less likely to believe in a supernatural divine power than an introvert?</p><p>I have written before about personality type in the sense of the panoply of behavioural disorders categorised by modern psychiatry. I believe that we all, to a lesser or greater degree, are on the spectrum of one or more of the main forms of disorder, however very few of us have these on a scale significant enough to merit diagnosis or clinical intervention. </p><p>Examples of these disorders include depression, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, dyslexia, hoarding disorder, anorexia, bulimia, substance abuse, schizophrenia, narcissism, paranoia, to name the better-known ones. The percentage of the population clinically diagnosed with such conditions is low. However, diagnosed cases are but the tip of the iceberg, with the vast bulk of people demonstrating low-level symptoms in a way that isn't debilitating in their day-to-day functioning or social interactions but which nevertheless still manifest themselves enough to affect personality.</p><p>So – is the way we <i>experience reality a product of our biology?</i> If your personality is indeed shaped by manifestations of your behavioural traits, which themselves are thought to be genetic in origin – then do your genes shape the way you look at the world?</p><p>This is another aspect of the free-will/determinism debate. Is your worldview determined? </p><p>I'd posit that there does exist a metaphysical will above that ego-driven material will, which seems increasingly to me to be determined by external factors (upbringing, environment and, yes, biology). The metaphysical will is intuitive; it functions by openness to the cosmic stream of consciousness, ethical in purpose, unfolding along with the Universe. Alignment with the Flow.</p><p>There is a clear correlation between spirituality and sense of purpose and meaning to life. People with that strong spiritual belief system do tend to be happier. Meaning brings hope; being trapped within materialism brings on hopelessness. The more you push back against the demands of your ego in favour of the calm voice of your consciousness, the happier you get.</p><p>More tomorrow.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/being-positive-is-much-more-than-just.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 27</a><br />Being Positive is more than just being Optimistic</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/god-and-nation-nationalism-and.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 27</a><br />God and Nationalism<br /><br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/consciousness-in-other-creatures-lent.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 27</a><br />Consciousness in other creatures</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-physical-and-metaphysical.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 27</a><br />The Physical and the Metaphysical</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-31472129172958451252024-03-10T10:09:00.011+01:002024-03-10T19:32:05.043+01:00Understanding the Esoteric: Lent 2024, Day 26<p>I had been planning to write a post or two about esotericism this morning, when I woke from a dream. <br /><br />{{ I had devised a <i>random number-veneration generator</i>. A black cube made of lacquered hardwood, with sides of about 6cm, filled with machinery – brass cogs, spindles ratchets, springs, coils, escapement mechanisms what have you – and <i>heavy</i> in your hand. The machinery, intricate and precise, is sealed inside, with no way of physically accessing it. </p><p>What is the number than shall be venerated today? It whirrs, it clicks, it calculates. And the result it gave me, transmitted directly into my mind, for Sunday the tenth of March was... 46.</p><p>Forty-six. This is the number. But why 46? What is its significance? Why should it be venerated on <i>this</i> of all days? I hurriedly add the two integers, four and six, to produce ten. Ten! Why, it is a One followed by a Zero! A <i>regression</i>, from Completeness to Nothing! The <i>wrong</i> direction! "A butterfly cannot become a caterpillar!" Or maybe just <i>seemingly </i>the wrong direction... How could...? }}</p><p>And in that instant, all became clear. The entire notion of esotericism is like this. Take a random notion or concept that can be interpreted in multiple ways, and bury it within an arcane structure of numerology, linguistics, mystical visions, obscure references and call it an secret key that unlocks a door to another layer on the path to the Ultimate Truth...</p><p>Seeking a universal spiritual dimension of reality, as opposed to the external ('exoteric') institutions and dogmas of established religions, esotericism draws on mystical beliefs and traditions harking back to the Gnosticism of the early days of Christianity, as well as the Kabbalah and Hermeticism. The esoteric tradition, continued through such secretive groups as the Rosicrucians, contends that there is hidden spiritual knowledge reserved for select initiates, hidden from the masses.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYXCtMxfENc7WC4P5RAGqzf2z17f94UA3ibuWe24xM41KP072lh_EDc28yYuJln4-oQTAKArSTKA5ji9hfafHQxyIzgA5jkq3i_QVP_AvZ_Y8gTsLGyDlvN1AGaApnPm1kn0TX9h6Vnok_Diw6GPJftQeqfu4iJsOtrFdSX93T-atPmAN6IVI-zrwCSFL/s770/Universum.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="770" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYXCtMxfENc7WC4P5RAGqzf2z17f94UA3ibuWe24xM41KP072lh_EDc28yYuJln4-oQTAKArSTKA5ji9hfafHQxyIzgA5jkq3i_QVP_AvZ_Y8gTsLGyDlvN1AGaApnPm1kn0TX9h6Vnok_Diw6GPJftQeqfu4iJsOtrFdSX93T-atPmAN6IVI-zrwCSFL/w400-h311/Universum.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Allow me now to become controversial. I'd posit that the war waged by the Church Fathers against the Gnostics, and the secrets kept hidden with esotericism can be framed in the light of a struggle between neurotypical hierarchs and a network of the neurodiverse. </p><p>For the leaders of the early Christian church, the Truth was not hidden. It was made manifest in the death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, mankind's Lord and Saviour, who died on the Cross to redeem us sinners. Those who follow the Lord shall be rewarded by eternal life in the Kingdom of God. There it is! Nothing more to it than that. Everything in plain sight, simple, straightforward – follow the Lord. Without question.</p><p>But no! The Gnostics emphasised personal spiritual knowledge (<i>gnosis</i>) above the teachings and authority of religious institutions. They "held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment" [<i>Wikipedia</i>.] A hidden divinity to be accessed by esoteric insight, not prattled off once a week on Sunday.</p><p>The Church Fathers did not like this one bit and carried out a centuries-long fight against the Gnostics, branding them as heretics, destroying Gnostic texts and persecuting adherents of Gnosticism.</p><p>But what if Gnostics ("those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding – or perception and learning – as a particular modality for living") were merely individuals who today would be diagnosed as being somewhere on the high-functioning end of autism disorder spectrum ('savant syndrome')? Symptoms include restricted interests, ritualistic behaviours, higher levels of perception skills and attention to detail.</p><p>If indeed this is the case, then the condition of being an early Gnostic would be genetic. Maybe the Gnostics exhibited biological markers, such as enlarged caudate-putamen structures in their basal ganglia, that caused them to process information differently to rank-and-file adherents of canonical Christianity? </p><p>And now I slip into Dan Brown territory. Bloodlines! Descendants of the second-century Gnostics walk the earth today, seeking knowledge and understanding rather than pursuing material goals in life!</p><p>This brings me to a major thread from my Lenten blog posts from 2023, considering how one's approach to spirituality and religion may differ due to underlying neurological factors. More tomorrow.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-ghost-in-machine-lent-2023-day-26.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 26</a><br />The Ghost in the Machine<br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-end-of-times-lent-2022-day.html" style="background-color: white; color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 26</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">The End of Times</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/physical-immortality-lent-2021-day-26.html" style="background-color: white; color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;">Lent 2021: Day 26</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Physical Immortality</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/intimations-of-immortality.html" style="background-color: white; color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 26</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Intimations of Immortality</span></span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-69530479932455730292024-03-09T20:08:00.000+01:002024-03-09T20:08:02.587+01:00Dealing with Evil: Lent 2024, Day 25<p>On the one hand, there's Jesus's injunction to turn the other cheek. To love your enemy.</p><p>On the other hand, there's the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/game-theory/The-prisoners-dilemma" target="_blank">Prisoner's Dilemma</a>. And its empirically demonstrable solution: always cooperate with the other fellow until he does the dirty on you, then smack him back and keep on doing so until the moment he repents and returns to cooperation; at that moment, you do likewise and continue cooperating (until such times as he defects, then you return to counterstrike mode). </p><p>Play the game a million times, and the optimal strategy turns out to be cooperate-cooperate, defect-defect, <i>every time</i>. Tit-for-tat, in other words. Continuing to cooperate, turning the other cheek while the other guy is smiting you repeatedly in the face, is a strategy for suckers. It only encourages wrong-doing (example: Obama and Merkel's response to Putin's invasion of Crimea in 2014).</p><p>The Prisoner's Dilemma model works well enough, but has two problems. The first is identifying what constitutes a defection. A colleague criticising your work at a meeting, or neighbours who habitually let their dog crap on your lawn – can either be classed as a transgression? The second problem is determining an appropriate and proportional response to what you judge to be a transgression. Start a vendetta against your colleague or neighbour?</p><p>In multinational diplomacy, judging where to draw the line as to the other party's egregious behaviour and choosing a proportional response is crucial. The quote, widely attributed to philosopher Edmund Burke, "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing", applies to individuals as much as to collectives such as nations or treaty partners. Not sending the correct signals when red lines are crossed marks you out as a soft touch.</p><p>Let's return to Jesus. Does He mean loving your enemy literally, even as your enemy is herding you into a gas chamber?</p><p>How should we deal metaphysically with a murderous tyrant across the border, whose behaviour threaten your country, your family and you? Pray for his speedy death? Pray for him to fall victim to a brain haemorrhage in his sleep? Or surround the tyrant with compassionate thoughts aimed at persuading him to see the error of his way? Both, I feel, are doomed to failure, even if millions aim such intentions at him nightly.</p><p>What does work then? Letting go, metaphysically at least, and let the material world deal with its material problem in the material way? Maybe the metaphysical works at the personal level. One's ability to will one's own fate works to a certain, limited, extent, but projecting it on a larger scale, to will the eradication of, say, malaria, or evil people, probably doesn't. Why not? </p><p>We seek the truth underlying reality. We seek it scientifically, in the material realm, we seek it esoterically in the metaphysical realm. The process of discovering the truth is an eternal process. We are not destined to find out now, in this space and time, in this life. A world devoid of evil, because people willed it thus, is beyond our grasp.</p><p>I wrote on <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2024/02/emergence-and-complexity-vs-entropy-and.html" target="_blank">Day 14 of Lent this year about entropy</a> as a physical explanation of chaos, the opposite of emergent complexity. Things breaking down, people dying – entropy. Making things, people being born – emergence. Blessed are the builders, cursed are the killers. But there's always tit for tat and the Prisoner's Dilemma. Do not kill, but if someone starts killing you people, your family, you are obliged to hit back physically at the source of that evil, and keep doing so until it backs away and gives in.</p><p>Where metaphysics breaks down against the rocks of reality. <br /><br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/intuition-and-dreaming-lent-2023-day-25.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 25</a><br />Intuition and Dreaming</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/writing-it-all-down-lent-2022-day-25.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 25</a><br />Writing It All Down</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/faith-and-knowledge-lent-2021-day-25.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 25</a><br />Faith and Knowledge<br /><br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/chances-complacency-and-gratitude.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 25</a><br />Chances, complacency and gratitude</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-6174770605917861432024-03-08T22:26:00.002+01:002024-03-16T15:40:28.096+01:00The Ego Alone – the Individual vs. the Collective (Pt IV): Lent 2024, Day 24<p>Thought-experiment time: imagine the most egotistic, narcissistic person you know, marooned on a desert island. Life's comfortable (food is plentiful, there's shelter, a warm climate, no predators), but there are no other human beings around, and escape is impossible. </p><p>Imagine, say, a Trump, on his own, minus entourage, with no one to impress, or boss about or shout at. What would be going through his mind? How quickly would he implode psychologically? </p><p>We see here the individual, the <i>individualist</i> – entirely focused on self – and yet emotionally dependent on the collective. Such a narcissistic ego requires the collective to provide non-stop positive feedback, the crowd acting as a mirror in which the ego can view its reflection. Without fawning flunkies, without the adulation of the masses, the ego's sense of being collapses. The individual ego, it turns out, is anything but independent. For such folk, isolation, loneliness, is the greatest fear. </p><p>Although I'm sure I'd be unable to cope with the level of isolation on that island, I do appreciate the joy of solitude; not having any one around to bother me making demands. Over time, with age, my biology-linked ego has faded; I no longer seek the attention of or approval from others. A calm consciousness rises instead to replace it.</p><p>And yet despite my individualism, my deepest concerns are not for my own future, but for the Collective. I don't want a return to war, sparked by a tiny handful of egos. I don't want future humans to suffer from the effects of a changed climate, changed by a couple of generations' unthinking dash for material possessions.</p><p>So – seeking an afterlife that's essentially the same as this one, but with your ego residing in another plane is, according to me at least – is unlikely to occur. Seeking an afterlife with your ego residing in another body is even less probable (different body = different biology = different ego). But seeking an afterlife in which your consciousness, unshackled from your ego, survives in some for or another, well, that's a notion I'm open to, if only because this squares with my life-long experiences of anomalous qualia memories from another time, another place.</p><p>But how about if your afterlife were to take the form of a dilution of your individual, small-c consciousness into one, vast, cosmic, Big-C Consciousness? I have long posited this as the end-point of the unfolding Universe, its Purpose met, its destiny fulfilled. You are no longer either ego nor individual, subjective conscious experience, but the consciousness of everyone, everything that ever existed. You know all, there are no secrets, everything is clear – but you are now everything.</p><p>This squares with Buddhist and Hindu teachings; the 'I' subsumed into the 'we'. A difficult concept for individualists to swallow – whether materialist individualists or ones with a more spiritual outlook.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/we-are-all-sentinelese-lent-2023-day-24.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 24</a><br />We are all Sentinelese? </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/memory-identity-and-reincarnation-lent.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 24</a><br />Memory, identity and reincarnation</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/reconciling-science-and-spirituality.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 24</a><br />Reconciling science and spirituality</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/refutation-ii.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 24</a><br />Refutation (II)</p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-89929112375356184722024-03-07T22:21:00.004+01:002024-03-08T15:22:29.287+01:00The true Self – the Individual vs. the Collective (Pt III): Lent 2024, Day 23<p>We have all learned how to 'mask'; how to camouflage our true selves to blend in with the collective. Becoming a part of society, integrating, becoming accepted by our peers, is crucial to the years between adolescence and parenthood. </p><p>At this stage in life, it's all about marking our place in the status hierarchy, with the aim of selecting an optimal mate for reproduction. Of course, this intent is carefully masked within society and hidden from the participants themselves (who don't really realise at the time why they are going to this party or that dance). </p><p>We try to fit in. We learn what we can and what we cannot say; how sincere we can really be, and how we behave. What words and behaviours are interesting enough to get noticed and liked – and where to draw the line, how not to repel or outrage with what we say and do. Be an outlier, by all means, but not an outsider.</p><p>The ego is driven by biological imperatives in youth. This is not the time of life to search for the meaning of life. It is the time to integrate but also to make one's mark, and the ego helps here. Status symbols help here. As a teenager, having one's own income – a Saturday or holiday job – suggests that one is self-reliant and not just poncing off indulgent parents.</p><p>In the traditional 'sex-for-security' model, girls will favour young men who can demonstrate resourcefulness, reliability and emotional stability. So if you're not resourceful, unreliable and emotionally unstable, at least you have to <i>pretend</i> to be. It's what society, the collective, expects of you. It's what your biology expects too – survival of the fittest. Adapting to the environment, the social environment here being the collective. Survival of those who fit in best.</p><p>So buckle down, put on a brave face and get on with it.</p><p>Meanwhile, somewhere in the background, the consciousness is feeling, observing, experiencing, as it has done since earliest childhood. That's where the true Self is residing. The notion of masking your true self while promoting the ego, and your 'shell of foam', is extremely common behavioural trait by people – don't reveal your true self to others, in particular those who have yet to form a judgment. Create an image, pose. impose, impress. Play a role. </p><p>The aim is to reach a level of material comfort, settle down, settle in, reproduce, bring up the children – and then what? Once everyone is adequately fed, clothed and housed, educated and, like Kahlil Gibran's arrows that have left the bow, it is time for the ego to withdraw; it has performed its biological duty.</p><p>You no longer have to flash that brave face. Now is the time for the true Self to come to the fore, to seek its destiny, to manifest its true potential. Heed the intuition's calling; listen to the inner voice. You no longer need to prove your worth to society in material ways as a productive consumer; it's now time to step off the materialist treadmill. Busting a gut at work to earn extra money to buy things you don't need to impress people? That's teenage stuff, really. Juvenile behaviour. Needed in young-adult years, but a mindset that's a millstone in middle age, holding you back from contentment and joy. Not for me is bucket-list travel, ticking off destinations so I can impress other by reeling off exotic places visited. Not for me shopping around for fine clothes or cars.</p><p>What, then?</p><p>The search for deeper meaning drives me on. Today, this has never been easier, with the works of scientists, philosophers, theologians, historians and sociologists accessible online. Curiosity is no longer restricted by limited access to libraries and bookshops. Forming an understanding of reality that matches that which your consciousness experience, that's my goal.</p><p>The first half of your life can indeed be driven by your biology and ego. But the second half should should have deeper purpose. And for the good of the Collective – and the environment – dial back the materialist impulse.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-spirituality-of-cosmic-life-lent.html">Lent 2023: Day 24</a><br />The Spirituality of Cosmic Life</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/matter-and-materialism-lent-2022-day-23.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 23</a><br />Matter and materialism</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/near-death-experiences-do-they-tell-us.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 23</a><br />Near-death experiences and the Afterlife</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/refutation-i.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 23</a><br />Refutation I</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-71361722555716019262024-03-06T16:40:00.001+01:002024-03-07T11:56:29.070+01:00Ego vs Consciousness – the Individual vs. the Collective (Pt II): Lent 2024, Day 22<p>The ego, the consciousness – singular and plural. One ego, many egos. Many egos clash. (Clash is what egos tend to do!) But many consciousnesses? Or one consciousness? Ultimately, just the one eternal, Cosmic, consciousness? Egos sit at the heart of conflict. From wars between nation to which brand of breakfast cereal we'll buy this week. Consciousness, however, is calm and reflective, bearing no malice, meaning no harm. Observing, understanding, perceiving, rather than shrieking "Me! Me! Me!"</p><p>Our biologies make our egos as they are, shaped by evolution and circumstance; the ego has far less free will that our egos would imagine! Buffeted by forces of the material world, the ego is pushed and pulled into behaving as it behaves. But the consciousness remains still. It is a manifestation of the one Universal unity, poured into our biological body, and destined to part from it at biological death.</p><p>But were we One before death and will we be One after our bodies die?</p><p>And here I scratch my head, and admit that this isn't my own personal, subjective experience. It feels to me as though my consciousness has experienced life in human form before living this one. This I experience through flashbacks (anomalous qualia memories from another time and another place) and dreams (far rarer, far more specific narrations of actual events). Such dreams stand out as they are bereft of cognitive dissonance, the the Unities of time, place and action all fit. The flashbacks, however, are common and happen on average several times a week. They are more frequent with the turning of the seasons; they are more frequent in Jakubowizna than in Jeziorki, and they were more frequent in Jeziorki than in Perivale. They often come (maybe a third? Maybe a half?) in the form of flashbacks-through-flashbacks, where that sense of familiarity echoes through a memory of a moment in childhood during which I originally experienced such an anomalous flashback.</p><p>But is this universal? I doubt it! I have not met more than a tiny handful of people reporting a similar phenomenon. To square this, I need to reach for David Eagleman's <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/possibilianism-lent-2021-day-18.html" target="_blank">possibilianism</a>, and my own intuition that all who seek God shall find God in their own way.</p><p>This has gone on all my life, convincing me that there is something very real to the concept of reincarnation, though how it works (the vectors of consciousness) is completely beyond my understanding. It is the prime motivation behind my spiritual quest to make sense of it all, and very much informs my worldview.</p><p>In my case, I do not feel that I was with the One before birth (<a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/05/intimations-of-immortality-revisited.html" target="_blank">maybe briefly between lives</a>). Logically, therefore, I do not expect to return to the One after death. Rather, an individual journey of growth in understanding and wisdom, growing like a snowball from one biological lifetime to the next. </p><p>So: becoming part of the One – when does that occur? Right at the end of time, or incrementally, in stages? A slow blending together, A fusion of souls/consciousnesses over millennia? Past-life recollections from more and more people across future incarnations?<br /><br />Or, following on from the concept of the block universe (eternalism) – if the reality of time is that everything that happens does so simultaneously, then are questions of what happened before we were born and after we die become irrelevant?</p><p>At this stage, many more questions than answers. However, the end-point is clear (for me at least!) – <i>all in God, God in all</i>. We (plural) are One (singular). Though how that happens, as we live our biologically separate lives, separate bags of living cells, experiencing life subjectively, individually, is currently beyond my grasp. I search on.</p><p>Here, another big think-you to my brother Marek for pointing me towards the works of Greek philosopher Plotinus, and the idea of duality of the One in two metaphysical states, which worked its way into Western esoteric philosophy. And another concept, that of 'lumpers' and 'splitters', as used by physicist and philosophy writer Freeman Dyson who suggested that we can broadly, if over-simplistically, divide "observers of the philosophical scene" into splitters and lumpers - roughly corresponding to materialists (who imagine the world as divided into atoms) and Platonists (who regard the world as made up of ideas). I'd take this idea further – lumpers are generalists, whilst splitters are specialists.</p><p>More tomorrow!</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/god-aliens-and-unfolding-universe-lent.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 23</a><br />God, Aliens and the Unfolding Universe</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-good-lord-and-environment-lent-2022.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 22</a><br />The Good Lord and the Environment</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/muscle-memory-mindfulness-and.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 22</a><br />Muscle Memory, Mindfulness and Metaphysics</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/repeatable-metaphysical-experiences.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 22</a><br />Repeatable Metaphysical Experiences</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-92196207026165782682024-03-05T20:08:00.000+01:002024-03-05T20:08:13.485+01:00The individual vs the collective (Pt I): Lent 2024, Day 21<p>"We are all part of the continuous whole" – an insight that came to me many years ago while out walking on a sunny spring day in Jeziorki. Is consciousness an <i>individual</i> phenomenon, reality as we experience it subjectively by ourselves, to ourselves? Is this the only way we experience consciousness? Are our biological bodies vessels into which consciousness is poured, and then filtered through and flavoured by our egos? </p><p>It certainly feels that way. There's the I, the pure consciousness, and the ego.</p><p>Let's separate the two. Consciousness – the simple act of being aware – is more than just the sum of our five senses acting upon our neurons at any one moment in time. The depth of our conscious experience is intensified by memory, by understanding, by longing, by feelings of satisfaction and anxiety, by aesthetic preference, by familiarity, by emotion.</p><p>This is not to negate ego. It has an evolutionary role to play in the earlier stages of our journey through life, in particular, socialisation (<a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2024/02/stages-of-life-where-are-you-lent-2024.html" target="_blank">the third of seven</a>). The ego is a suit-and-mask ensemble worn by the biological self. It helps with establishing our place in the status hierarchy (or ladder of authority); this plays a part in mating and natural selection. In other words, the ego is closely linked to our biology.</p><p>Only once material comfort has been achieved and the kids have left home (to quote the rabbi), our strictly biological duties carried out, can life truly begin. However, 85% of people, according to developmental psychologist Robert Kegan, are stuck at that third stage. Held back by their ego, the principal driver in their lives, they continue to scrabble for a higher position in the status hierarchy, wanting more material possessions, which signal to other human their relative place on the ladder. It is a treadmill that has nefarious side effects for society and for the environment. </p><p>The ego should, with maturity, be relegated to lesser duties, while consciousness – driven by curiosity and a thirst for understanding – should come to the fore. </p><p>I certainly feel that this is the case with me; I have a '<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dilligaf" target="_blank">Dilligaf</a>' attitude these days when it comes to projecting status or any desire to show off. Far more important is staying content, experiencing a positive balance of joy over sorrow, no money worries, because I've learnt to tell needs from wants, let those wants wither away. Key to this is establishing primacy of consciousness over the ego. </p><p>Too many of us are still in jobs they don't like, earning money to buy things they don't need, to impress people they don't know. Once materially comfortable, all basic biological needs assured, it's better (and healthier) to step back, consume less, take it easier, and focus on making the most of your human potential. </p><p>But isn't that an introspective and self-centred way of life? </p><p>If consciousness pervades the universe, ultimately uniting the entire cosmos, where is the place for the individual? </p><p>That's what I shall explore over the next days.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/intuition-inspiration-and-creativity.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 21</a><br />Intuition, Inspiration and Creativity</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-much-spirituality-do-we-need-lent.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 21</a><br />The perennial question - how much spirituality do we need?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/where-are-you-really-from-lent-2021-day.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 21</a><br />Where is your <i>soul from</i>?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/seeking-symbol-with-meaning.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 21</a><br />Finding a symbol for your religion</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-42893866496667302172024-03-04T13:55:00.005+01:002024-03-04T14:07:40.338+01:00Do we have free will? (Pt IV) Lent 2024, Day 20<p>A work that was formative and influential in developing my thinking on science and spirituality was Stuart A. Kauffman's <i>Humanity in a Creative Universe.</i> A present from my brother, it served as the basis of my series of Lenten blog posts for 2018. </p><p>Kauffman's central idea is that the rejection of Newtonian certainties and their replacement with quantum possibilities has allowed magic back into our lives. Mechanistic physics, in which everything is determined by laws of motion and thermodynamics, is good at explaining reality at the meso-level that we perceive; but what goes on at the micro- and macro-levels of the sub-atomic and pan-galactic is not to be explained in Newtonian terms. </p><p>Fundamental to the Newtonian paradigm is the notion that the possibilities constituting reality are always definable and therefore fixed ahead of time. Yet we now know that at the sub-atomic level, the notion of particles/waves existing in superposition (exemplified by Schrodinger's cat, alive and dead at the same time until a conscious observer looks) breaks down that paradigm. Instead, we have, as Kauffman calls them, 'possibles' and 'actuals'. When a particle is in superposition, it is a 'possible'. Only after we have measured it, witnessing the collapse of the wave function, does the 'possible' becomes an 'actual'. Zero <i>and</i> one becomes either zero <i>or</i> one.</p><p>Without the presence of the conscious observer, the particle remains in superposition, and we just don't know what the outcome will be. And here I'll briefly jump back to the 18th century, and the Anglo-Irish philosopher, Bishop Berkeley, who argued against Newton back in the day. Two hundred years before the birth of quantum mechanics, Bishop Berkeley stated that a conscious observer was necessary to observe the Universe – in effect the mind of God was needed to hear the sound of a tree falling in the forest if no one was there. Consciousness is essential for the existence of matter. There was no scientific evidence to back up this line of argument, no experiments with a photon gun or a Geiger counter, only intuition. Yet our understanding of the subatomic realm today suggests that Bishop Berkeley's subjective idealism may indeed be an accurate description of reality.</p><p>The key question within this new paradigm is the extent to which we can <i>will </i>possibles to become actuals. <a href="https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2101/2101.01538.pdf" target="_blank">Kauffman has recently written a paper with Dean Radin</a> (he that sceptics love to scorn), entitled <i>Is the Brain-Mind Quantum? A Theoretical Proposal with Supporting Evidence</i>. The paper's long list of scientific citations includes an article by Etzel Cardeña which I wrote about last year, a peer-reviewed study of psychic abilities, <a href=" https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-24699-001" target="_blank">The experimental evidence for parapsychological phenomena: A review</a>, published in 2018. As with Prof Cardeña's article, Kauffman and Radin are clear about the results – the effect is weak, but it's clearly there, above chance, experimentally demonstrable and not random. Whilst Prof Cardeña says that something's going on, but we don't know what it is, Kauffman and Radin attribute it to quantum effects within the mind.</p><p>They conclude: "Today, with growing evidence for quantum biological effects, the plausibility that some aspects of brain function are quantum is increasing... it is time to take the evidence for quantum mind, and thus psi, more seriously." The paper examines experiments in which participants try to alter the outcome of a randomly generated event, by willing it to happen. Here's the discussion:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>For the first time since Newton, psi experiments in general and psychokinetic studies in particular could scientifically allow for a “responsible free will.” In these experiments, participants “try” to alter the probability of truly random events, or to alter the fringes in an optical interference pattern. “Try” is another word for “Will”. In our normal lives, we believe that we convert intended Possibles to Actuals all the time by choosing and doing, where counterfactually we could have chosen and done otherwise.</p><p>The core question is this: Can such a free will be responsible? In Quantum Mechanics, the outcome of measurement is ontologically indeterminate, breaking the causal closure of classical physics.</p><p>If the psychokinetic studies are valid, then a human can not only “try” to alter the outcome of a physical system by intentionally altering the probabilities of the outcomes of measurement, but their will can actually accomplish their desire. Thus, Mind trying and doing can alter the outcome of “actualization” to behave non-randomly. A responsible free will is not ruled out. The proposal that mind mediates actualization of potentials contains a deep difficulty: Before, e.g, human minds, measurements nevertheless occurred. How? One answer is a form of panpsychism where interacting quantum variables measure one another. This view of Quantum Mechanics is consistent with the Strong Free Will Theorem that says that electrons “freely decide” to become Up or Down upon measurement.</p></blockquote><p>Wow. I think Bishop Berkeley, were he around today, could hold such a view quite freely. </p><p></p><p>I have written before about the possibility of the human body being a receiver of universal consciousness; but can it also serve as a <i>transmitter?</i> A transmitter of consciousness with the power to alter future outcomes? If so, it is extremely weak, though demonstrably present. But present in everyone? I doubt it. Something that we can strengthen through exercise? Possibly. </p><p>So – summarising my own thinking on free will; we have far less <i>material</i> free will than we'd like to think we have. It is the world that pushes us around, not us that push the world around. But I do believe that there's a deeper free will, at the metaphysical level, where what we <i>will</i> can be made manifest, although this must align itself with the Cosmic Purpose (i.e., there's an ethical dimension to this).</p><p>God the Father (the Past – what has happened). God the Son (the Present – what is happening, current environmental factors); God the Holy Spirit (the Future – willing positive outcomes).</p><p>Underpinning all this is gratitude; it is the energy source that powers your will.</p><p>"If you will it Dude, it is no dream" (Leb. 7:19)<br /><br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-practical-uses-of-intuition-lent.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 20</a><br />Practical uses of intuition</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/free-will-determinism-and-consciousness.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 20</a><br />Free will, consciousness and determinism</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/who-are-you-no-really-who-are-you-lent.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 20</a><br />No, but who are you<i> really?</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/applying-occams-razor-to-your-religion.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 20</a><br />Applying Occam's Razor to your religion</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-44782147576524799852024-03-03T11:54:00.002+01:002024-03-18T11:31:05.225+01:00Do we have free will? (Pt III) Lent 2024, Day 19<p>There is (or isn't, depending on which philosopher you listen to) biological – material – free will. But I would posit the existence of a <i>metaphysical</i> free will, and this expression of free will I would group alongside prayer, as in <i>willing an outcome</i>.</p><p>In practical terms, our lives are bounded by physical constraints. We live where we live, we do what we do. It's not practical to drop everything on a whim and say, "It is my free will to fly to the Solomon Islands, now." This requires planning, research, a holiday window in one's work schedule, a timetable. Our free will has self-imposed limits. In real life, choices are very limited, restricted by the humdrum realities of day-to-day life</p><p>Rather than setting off to a more exotic destination, the question facing me each day is binary – leaving my <i>działka</i>, do I turn east for Machcin II? Or west to Chynów? There's no other choice. Once that decision has been taken, another one surfaces. If I take the eastern option, do I turn north for Grobice or south towards Dąbrowa Duża? If I take the western option, do I turn north for Sułkowice or south for Krężel? At every subsequent crossroads along the way, the number of new possibilities doubles or triples. Sometimes, there's a plan. Sometimes, spontaneity guides me. Free will is there, but limited.</p><p>But a more important thought that I consider as I set off is <i>willing </i>there to be no misfortunes upon my way. That there be no sprained ankles, no lost wallet, no run-ins with nasty people or dogs; the Edge of Chaos is ever-present; not much to ask for, you may say, given that such incidents are extremely rare in any case. I have a fear of losing wallet or keys or things in general that manifests itself regularly in my dreams, where I can't find my rucksack or my bicycle or my phone and this causes me to wake, or at least to snap into a lucid dream state in which I become aware of the fact that I'm dreaming and that the object in question isn't really lost in real life, and I return to dreaming a more pleasant dream.</p><p>The conscious thought that precludes or forestalls misfortune needs be to bolstered by gratitude when, upon return, as I consider that no misfortune indeed came to pass. One cannot become complacent, thinking that because today had been good and yesterday had been good, tomorrow will also be good. Being plugged into the metaphysical is a long-term position.</p><p><b>Steering serendipity</b></p><p>Can your will affect luck? Example: will I catch my train? I've dithered too long (at home, in the office). A dash ensues. The emphasis on <i>willing </i>myself to catch my train. If it turns out that I've just missed a westbound Metro to Młynów, it means I'll miss my connection, my train home from there to Chynów... Miss it, and it's an hour's wait. Somehow I catch them, that string of successes continues...</p><p>My best example here happened two summers ago; as I was locking the gate on the <i>działka</i>, I realised I'd left my phone on the kitchen table. I run back, open the house, get the phone, dash out, lock the gate – there's six minutes left, it's a nine-minute run... I <i>will</i> catch that train! I did. It arrived three minutes late that day. Factors that affect a train's punctuality are many and varied, blind chance, you may say, its lateness that day a pure coincidence. But until I was actually on board, there was a possible and an actual. I feel I <i>willed</i> that particular connection. An unfalsifiable proposition. </p><p>So – setting off from my house, that little prayer, considered consciously, never prattled complacently, has become a habit. For a day free of misfortune. Applied superstition? Again, an unfalsifiable proposition.</p><p>Prayer can be seen as an expression of will. But prayer as <i>free </i>will? If indeed <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2024/02/aligning-prayer-with-cosmic-purpose.html" target="_blank">prayer must align with the Cosmic Purpose</a>, with the ethical vector – if the Cosmic Purpose tends towards the Good, then is our <i>metaphysical</i> free will bound by ethical constraints? If I look at the evil people who's will brings chaos, death and suffering, then no – but to what extent is a Putin or a Hitler merely the outcome of purely <i>material </i>forces, genetics, upbringing, environment and circumstance?</p><p>More tomorrow.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/intuition-and-superstition-lent-2021.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 19</a><br />Intuition and Superstition</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/between-randomness-and-cause-lent-2022.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 19</a><br />Between Randomness and Cause</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/pleasure-put-it-off-or-have-it-now-lent.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 19</a><br />Pleasure and Self-Denial</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-balance-spiritual-and-physical.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 19</a><br />Balancing the Spiritual with the Material</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-54463346922199748342024-03-02T12:15:00.000+01:002024-03-02T12:15:15.815+01:00Do we have free will? (Pt II) Lent 2024, Day 18<p>The answer to the free will/determinism problem is not binary; it's not either/or, but traditionally it has been heavily skewed towards determinism by materialist philosophers.</p><p>A good starting point for the deterministic view was posited by French polymath Pierre-Simon Laplace in <i>A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities </i>(1814). Imagine a superintelligence that knows the precise location and momentum of every single atom in the universe. From that knowledge, it can calculate their past and future values according to the laws of classical mechanics – from the beginning of time to the end of time. So everything is predetermined. "For such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past could be present before its eyes," he wrote. Later named 'Laplace's Demon', this became a famous thought experiment that seemingly dismisses free will.</p><p>Note, however, that term '<i>classical mechanics</i>'.</p><p>Because as soon as quantum mechanics appeared on the scene, around 100 years ago, the uncertainty principle at its heart would shake determinism to its classical core. Is that photon a particle or a wave? When will that atom of radioactive isotope decay? Is Schrodinger's Cat dead or alive? At the subatomic level, uncertainty rules. Quantum mechanics is probabilistic in nature. Faced now with an quantum universe, Laplace's Demon becomes unable to answer with certainty what will happen within an atom a fraction of a second into the future, let alone what will happen to you in a ten years' time.</p><p>Physicalist science and classical mechanics still work at our observable level, but this is no longer good enough to render an accurate picture of reality. "Who cares about the subatomic?" you may ask. It has implications. </p><p>Quantum mechanics can define the properties of ensembles of particles – but not individual ones. Predicting the exact outcome for a single particle is impossible. However, the theory can predict the probabilistic behaviour of a large number of particles; the larger, the more accurate. And in our day-to-day human-scale reality, quantum mechanics demonstrates remarkable agreement with experimental observations, extending to a great many decimal places. </p><p>This predictive power does allow scientists to make precise calculations in various domains, including electronics. Understanding how electrons behave in solids, a key concept in quantum mechanics, was fundamental to developing semiconductor theory, for example. Without this knowledge, the progress that we've seen in transistors, the backbone of modern computers – and indeed all modern electronics – would have been held back. Our computers would likely still be relying on vacuum tubes, slow and bulky.</p><p>Yet despite quantum mechanics' success in prediction, the underlying reality it describes remains philosophically puzzling. We understand the mathematical framework, but the dead cat? A hundred years on, there's no consensus as to which interpretation of quantum mechanics is most accurate. The theory is counterintuitive and challenges our classical understanding of the world.</p><p>So the three key aspects of quantum mechanics we need to grasp are:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Wave-particle duality: particles can exhibit wave-like behavior, and vice versa, defying the classical distinction between the two.</li><li>Superposition: a quantum system can exist in multiple states simultaneously, <i>until it is observed</i>, which seems contrary to everyday experience.</li><li>Entanglement: two particles can become linked in a way that their fates are intertwined, regardless of the distance separating them, seemingly defying the concept of locality.</li></ul><p></p><p>These concepts have led to various <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_quantum_mechanics" target="_blank">interpretations of quantum mechanics</a>. Wikipedia lists 13 mainstream interpretations, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_interpretations_of_quantum_mechanics" target="_blank">numerous unorthodox interpretations</a>. Each one attempts to explain what's going on behind the mathematical framework. None has gained universal acceptance. This lack of consensus reflects the ongoing debate about the philosophical implications and ontological meaning of the theory. </p><p>And so, we don't know what reality truly looks like at the quantum level, at which deterministic classical mechanics holds no sway.</p><p>In particular, is the presence of a conscious observer necessary to determine whether a photon is a wave or a particle, or which state a quantum system is in, or that one entangled particle behaves in a way linked to its twin's behaviour? </p><p>What is the role of consciousness in this quantum world? Can it therefore influence outcomes? And if it can – what does this mean for the notion of free will?</p><p>I would argue that there's a spiritual dimension to the question also. Your biological body may indeed be far less free than your ego might suppose, shaped by the determinism of classical-mechanical reality, but the consciousness experienced within your mind has far a greater range of options.</p><p>More tomorrow.</p><p><br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/intuition-consciousness-and-physical.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 18</a><br />Intuition, Consciousness and the Physical Universe</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/focus-zen-in-art-of-meditation-lent.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 18</a><br />Zen in the Art of Meditation</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/possibilianism-lent-2021-day-18.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 18</a><br />Possibilianism</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/teetering-on-edge-of-chaos-my-3000th.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 18</a><br />Teetering on the Edge of Chaos</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-6699641332947126792024-03-01T18:24:00.009+01:002024-03-04T08:19:40.679+01:00Do we have free will? (Pt I) Lent 2024, Day 17<p>Over the next few days, I shall take an in-depth look at the philosophical question of free will vs. determinism to ask how just free we really are – what's been decided for us in advance, and whether we can influence outcomes. This is a topic about which I have written over the years, and looking back, I can see that my thinking is getting sharper.</p><p>We tend to <i>think </i>we have free will...</p><p>"I shape the way my life goes. It's the decisions I take that determine what happens to me. Accepting fate is fatalism – the mindset of a loser. I'm not a pinball bounced about a pinball machine by random forces. I am full in control of my destiny. It is I that pushes the world around, not the world that pushes me around."</p><p>I'd take a guess that this is how most Western people think. Priding themselves on their rational thought and determination, they subconsciously dismiss all the external factors that have shaped the course of their lives. It is the Western way to pride ourselves on our individual autonomy, our agency, our willpower.</p><p>But free will is not the same as willpower. Long have I pondered over the question of whether willpower is a question of nature or nurture. Is there a gene for determination? Being weak-willed can mean being prone to <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/08/focus-on-attention-focus-on-beating.html" target="_blank">procrastination</a>, laziness, attention deficit, inability to defer gratification, or just generally taking the path of least resistance through life. Not just putting things off, but not doing them altogether.</p><p>I know I have to do my seven set of exercises a day. Generally, I do them. Friends and family may call my logging of these into a spreadsheet a bit obsessive, but it works. 'Beat last year' is the target. But procrastination is hard to fight; the exercises – which could be done over the course of the day – tend to get bunched up in the evening. Overall, however, I <i>am</i> doing more exercises as I get older, hopefully for a good health outcome. Willpower is saying to myself "Drop and give me 25!" and then doing 25 perfectly executed press-ups. (Done them. Just to prove to myself that I'm not bullshitting.) </p><p>But free will is a higher-level thing than mere willpower. Why am I the way I am? Why am I here? Not just as in 'here and alive on Planet Earth' but 'sitting at this table in a small house on an acre of land in rural Mazovia, writing this Lenten blog'. There are factors beyond my control that have brought me here, shaped my biology, my character and my decision-making processes.</p><p>American neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky argues that our choices are determined by our genetics, experience, and environment. In his book, <i>Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will</i> Prof Sapolsky suggests that the common use of the term 'free will' is erroneous. He argues that our nature and nurture have all but squeezed agency out of our lives; accident of birth, upbringing, hormones, psychiatric predisposition, all steer our choices. The flipside of the 'we have no free will' argument is that criminals are merely victims of circumstances.</p><p>Looking at the arc of my life so far, I can see the influences behind my big choices. Influences such as pure fate; random happenings that would conspire to shape significant events further on up the road, and decisions taken because of the way I happen to be.</p><p></p><blockquote>And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack<br />And you may find yourself in another part of the world<br />And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile<br />And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife<br />And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>– Once in a Lifetime,</i> Talking Heads (1980)</p></blockquote><p>So - is our fate entirely out of our hands? More tomorrow. </p><a href="Lent 2022: Day 17 Defining God Lent 2021: Day 17 Karma - more than just social control? Lent 2020: Day 17 Religion and Feeling Good" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 17</a><br /><span>Intuition, Precognition, Divination</span><div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/defining-god-lent-2022-day-16.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 17</a><br />Defining God</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/on-karma-form-of-social-control-or.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 17</a><br />Karma - more than just social control?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/religion-and-feeling-good.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 17</a><br />Religion and Feeling Good</span></p><br /></div>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-85103337663811019722024-02-29T20:38:00.002+01:002024-02-29T23:21:02.597+01:00Do we become more spiritual as we grow older? Lent 2024, Day 16<p>Looking back over my blog, which has been running almost 17 years now, I can see a definite rise in the frequency with which I post on the topic of human spirituality. That label was applied to just two posts from 2008 (out of 280). Last year, it was 79 (including 46 across the duration of Lent). </p><p>Does this indicate a shifting worldview? Looking for comfort to assuage a subconscious fear of the oblivion of biological death? A need, a calling, a desire for the numinous? All three? Let me sift through in this post.</p><p>It's not just me. Church pews tend to be occupied by the elderly rather than by the young.</p><p>I remember a TV show from the 1960s called <i>All Our Yesterdays</i>, hosted by Brian Inglis, which featured newsreel footage from the run-up to WW2 and the war itself. His catchphrase, "Twenty-five years ago this week..." prefaced news headlines from the time, which he discussed. The show came to an end in 1972, as it ran into post-war austerity which no longer drew the viewers that wartime footage did. Anyway, Brian Inglis - a serious, respected journalist and historian, then turned his attention to the paranormal. Reading about this (probably in my parents' <i>Daily Telegraph</i>), I concluded that old age and fear of death had prompted him to seek the paranormal as a crutch. Yet... at the time, he was ten years younger then than I am today!</p><p>Another Brian – physicist Brian Josephson – professor emeritus of physics at the University of Cambridge, known for his work on superconductivity and quantum tunnelling, won the Nobel Prize in 1973. Then he turned his attention the relationship between quantum mechanics and consciousness, and the synthesis of science and Eastern mysticism (quantum mysticism), thus drawing criticism from the scientific mainstream. Prof. Josephson is still alive, aged 84; and there are fairly recent interviews with him on YouTube in which he talks about extra-sensory perception and the unity of mind and matter. This, from a Nobel Prize winner in Physics.</p><p>Pim van Lommel, a Dutch cardiologist, born in 1943, is known his studies of near-death experiences covering hundreds of survivors of cardiac arrests. This work led to him writing <i>Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience</i>, published in 2007 to become a best seller. However, Dr van Lommel's work drew widespread criticism from the medical profession; they said it was pseudoscience, full of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. He is also around on YouTube (and worth a watch).</p><p>The fact that these men followed their intuition in face of public ridicule, having achieved success in their field, suggests that the draw of the unknown and the power of their curiosity can be greater than simply wishing a quiet retirement or mainstream popularity.</p><p>The rabbinical injunction not to study the Kabbalah until one reaches the age of 40 makes sense. Truly appreciating the esoteric requires a mature mind. Coming back to the seven stages of life, there are times when the key thing is to put bread on the family table, raise children, pay off the mortgage – getting on with it <i>is all</i>. With small children round the house, it's not a time for spending in quiet contemplation of the metaphysical. That time shall come. And once it does, those dreams and visions kept quiet from one's earliest days, need to be explored. They cannot be ignored.</p><p>Everyone who seeks God shall find God <i>in their own way</i>. For some, regular churchgoing will suffice. It provides fellowship, sense of community, the order and stability of tradition; I can understand the draw of such a way of life far more than spending money on status symbols. That stage of life, the social self, should disappear in the rear-view mirror as one moves towards acquiring wisdom, enlightenment and transcendence.</p><p>If your intuition takes to you explore unconventional areas of research that you hold to be the right direction on your path toward the numinous, then so be it. Physicalism, or reductionist materialism, is but an alternative point of view, and not the ultimate reality of the Cosmos. Shrug off the nay-sayers.</p><p>Time might feel like it's not on our side as we tread this path, which seems to stretch out further and further upon the horizon; the longer one travels, the further ahead into the distance the destination seems to disappear. The chart <i>below</i> shows that the perception of time should be slowing down, not speeding up the older we get. For a ten-year-old, one year is 10% of their total life experience; for a 50-year-old, it's but 2%. But over the next 50 years, it will only halve. Each passing year should only feel slightly shorter than the past one, once you hit middle age. Yet subjectively, it feels like this graph has been flipped horizontally.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQphrL3ovfA-rwpvBSmyGuyHAFUtPeS59IRWVhRtKNvjwJASgIfD8KQtb-iD6Ci4GMaFnIQol49jXRj6ygcEFPH7HChi0FIArbQ4hpZlwFhZP980iMVouoJZ_j1CMmHVc9zBEcO5sAoPBMuOW_Cd803xUmxFk1xSc9BX2m_rxgrO1n84JrPifjC2B615g_/s918/Subjective%20impression%20of%20time.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="918" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQphrL3ovfA-rwpvBSmyGuyHAFUtPeS59IRWVhRtKNvjwJASgIfD8KQtb-iD6Ci4GMaFnIQol49jXRj6ygcEFPH7HChi0FIArbQ4hpZlwFhZP980iMVouoJZ_j1CMmHVc9zBEcO5sAoPBMuOW_Cd803xUmxFk1xSc9BX2m_rxgrO1n84JrPifjC2B615g_/w400-h315/Subjective%20impression%20of%20time.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Once living a comfortable life, seek not a life of luxury – dedicate it instead to a search for meaning, purpose, wisdom, enlightenment and transcendence. <div><br /></div><div>The reward is joyous.<br /><br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/intuition-it-is-magical-lent-2023-day-16.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 16</a><br />Intuition – is it magical?<br /><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/focusing-on-spiritual-is-not-easy-lent.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 16</a><br />The difficulties of focusing on the spiritual</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/this-planet-my-home-and-for-future-lent.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 16</a><br />This planet is my home, today and tomorrow</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-metaphysical-journey-as-i-see-it.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 16</a><br />My metaphysical journey, as I see it</span></p></div>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-21593862577294808152024-02-28T15:59:00.002+01:002024-03-01T21:12:14.480+01:00Aligning Prayer with Cosmic Purpose: Lent 2024, Day 15<p>Prayer has had a tough time. The phrase "thoughts and prayers" has become devalued in the mouths of American politicians after yet another mass shooting leaves dozens of schoolchildren dead; it's a word used by email scammers out to catch trusting and naïve people. Prayer is dismissed as a form of magical thinking, hoping for a physical effect (stopping mass shootings) without a physical cause (appropriate legislation).</p><p>Can we summon something into reality by thinking about it?</p><p>Physicalist science would say "of course not."<br /><br />Religions would have you say "of course you can."</p><p>I'd say: "It depends." It depends on what it is you're praying for. I'd offer a synonym for prayer – <i>willing</i>. As in, "I am <i>willing</i> something to happen/not to happen". And if what you are willing to happen aligns with the Vast Eternal Plan, then I'd posit it has more chance of happening than if it didn't. </p><p>If you pray for a Lamborghini so that you can show off to everyone, that's less likely to come to pass as the result of your metaphysical intervention than if you pray for a worthy outcome.</p><p>Yet we have prayed for peace – the slaughter in Ukraine continues with no prospect of peace. We have prayed for Rysiek's health – he died despite the intensive and heartfelt prayer of many friends. Prayer doesn't work, some may argue, and in bleak moments it feels that way.</p><p>Nevertheless pray, or <i>will</i>, I do. Daily. Waking up, brushing my teeth, out on a walk, as I drop off to sleep. Expressions of gratitude, for health, for life, for things not sliding into chaos, are a part of my daily routine; I am conscious of being grateful and offer the experience of gratitude as a form of prayer, which confirms alignment with the Purpose. Gratitude is the bedrock. </p><p>Our lives, our world, teeters ever on the edge of chaos, and prayer, based on awareness of just how precarious life is, can keep us upright, walking the narrow way, and not tumbling over that edge. </p><p>The metaphysics of will? I'd see it grounded in the mystery of quantum uncertainty. We don't know the outcome of a quantum measurement until we consciously observe it and the uncertainty collapses to a concrete state. But can we <i>will </i>the outcome? Science is split. Physicalists and reductionist materialists would say absolutely not. Random events are occurring within the atom, but an external mind cannot affect whether the outcome is A or B. Yet there's a growing number of scientists open to the reality of mind over matter; they try to capture this experimentally, the results show a weak but consistent effect that's both statistically significant and above chance.</p><p>And here comes the next split. Is the power of mind over matter available to everyone? Or to anyone who's been trained, who's using the appropriate protocols (initiated into the occult, for instance)? Or are only a small handful of humans gifted with special powers such as the ability to foretell the future, forestall disaster, heal others at a distance or view remote locations? Large-scale experiments into psi phenomena do show a group of outliers who have better results than the average participant (<a href="https://www.sheldrake.org/research/telepathy/experimental-tests-for-telephone-telepathy" target="_blank">better able to predict who out of four random callers will ring the phone next, for example</a>).</p><p>There's no consensus on this one yet. Perhaps never. </p><p>My view is – if you <i>will</i> such abilities, if you are open to such possibilities, you will have far more likelihood to deploy them successfully. Like intuition, the ability to "petition the Lord with prayer" is something that becomes more available to you the more attention you pay to it. Don't ask for too much; be aware of those small miracles that <i>do </i>come true, and be thankful for them.</p><p>Dismiss the power of prayer, of course, and it never make itself more available to you. Materialists convinced they live in a material world of physical cause and physical effect are unlikely to pray. And that includes the 10% of Americans who define themselves as 'Religious But Not Spiritual'.</p><p>Accepting that the Cosmic Purpose is to tend towards the Good, prayer should be aligned with the Good. Prayers for health, for wisdom, for hope, for confidence, for good cheer, for peace, love and understanding...</p>
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<a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/intuition-and-instinct-lent-2023-day-15.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 15</a><br />Intuition and instinct<br /><br /></div><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/religion-practice-belief-inquiry-and.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lent 2022: Day 15</span></a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Religious belief, practice, inquiry and experience</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-afterlife-faith-and-doubt-lent-2021.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 15</a><br />The Afterlife - Faith and Doubt</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/rites-and-rituals.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 15</a><br />Rites and Rituals</span></div></div>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-3240572457891563742024-02-27T19:43:00.004+01:002024-02-27T19:43:48.289+01:00Emergence and Complexity vs Entropy and Chaos: Good vs Evil? Lent 2024, Day 14<p>The question of good and evil in the world has been challenging philosophers since the beginning of recorded history; how can a good God allow so much suffering? How do I understand good and evil? </p><p>I had a go at answering <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-do-we-perceive-good-and-evil.html" target="_blank">this question exactly nine years ago</a> (discovered by chance when I linked the dream-inspired short story I posted earlier today to it). I can see where my thinking on the question remains similar, and where it differs.</p><p>The death of Rysiek from cancer – a good man with a healthy lifestyle and no vices, leaving three young children, just before Christmas – clarified the way I perceive God, <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/12/an-alternative-theology.html" target="_blank">as I wrote late last year</a>, </p><p>What's changed little is that I see the Universe, and God, as a work in progress; an unfolding. Back in 2015, I wrote: "If the Universe is evolving spiritually towards perfection, it suggests that it is not, a yet, perfect; nor will it be perfect for many eons to come." I stand by that today. God is neither omnipotent, nor omniscient, nor omnipresent – but will be. The word here not only as the future tense of 'is', but in the meaning of intending something to happen. God intends to be. A teleological direction.</p><p>Also unchanged in my theology is the rejection of the idea that if there's a good God, there must also be an equal and opposite force of evil – Satan, the Devil. </p><p>Today I am more inclined to see good and evil in terms of emergence and entropy. </p><p>Let's start with entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Entropy can be defined as a measure of the disorder present in a system, or how spread out and dissipated energy is in a process or system, energy that can no longer be used to do work. Organised structures break down. Leave a strawberry on your kitchen table long enough and it will turn to mush as the cells that form it break down. Leave an ice cube on your kitchen table at room temperature and it will soon melt into a pool of water that will eventually evaporate. From order to disorder. The Second Law of Thermodynamics dictates an increase in entropy over time. The Universe is considered by many cosmologists to end in heat death, as one by one, the stars go out and the atoms that form matter cease of hold together. All the energy ends up homogeneously distributed; no more work can be extracted from any source. So that's entropy. It is entropy that dictates the direction of the arrow of time. That strawberry can never reconstitute itself from mush; at room temperature the water vapour that once was an ice cube will never go back to being an ice cube.</p><p>Yet despite that tendency for things to wind down, things are emerging. New life arises. New complexities evolve. After the Big Bang, we could have had a uniform Universe, with nothing in it other than randomly scattered hydrogen atoms. But no – we have an unfolding Universe of stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters; here on our planet we can see life all around us. We humans are developing ever-more complex societies; life is evolving everywhere in response to natural selection and the changing environment.</p><p>Good and evil. Consider the body of a dead Russian soldier, blown up by a shell while sent to attack well-prepared Ukrainian positions. What was once a sentient biological entity is now a collection of decomposing cells. Complexity that had emerged to live and breath and reproduce has been turned into useless matter, unable to do anything. Entropy. The man who sent this soldier to his death, to increase entropy in the system, the man who orders guided missile attacks on residential areas of Ukrainian cities, to kill, to maim – this is evil.</p><p>Consider the onset of spring (the past two days have been lovely in Jakubowizna). Warmth and sunlight, first butterflies, birdsong, tiny buds emerging on twigs, squirrels chasing each other in the high branches – emergence. Life from what had been for months cold, hard, dead earth. Emergence and complexity. Good.</p><p>Coming back to teleology – does complexity serve a purpose, or is it merely an accidental byproduct of random interactions? I intuitively believe that it does serve a purpose, and isn't random. That's for us to recognise, and be grateful for.</p><p>I wrote back in 2009 about the way <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2009/05/balancing-on-edge-of-chaos.html" target="_blank">our lives are forever balanced on the edge of chaos</a>; we could consciously stay upright and keep moving on, or we could complacently put a foot wrong and tumble over the precipice. That constant dance between emergence and entropy can be seen in the inherent dynamism of existence; new complexity emerges all the time from seemingly chance interactions. And all complex life eventually succumbs to the ever-present tendency towards disorder. Our bodies die. Every living thing dies. But they leave a trace. And there's more to the Universe than biological life – there is consciousness, and there is the conscious will.</p><p>More tomorrow.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-appeal-of-mystic-traditions-lent.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 14</a><br />The appeal of mystic traditions<br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/between-serendipity-and-proactiveness.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 14</a><br />Between Serendipity and Proactiveness</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/03/prayer-lent-2021-day-14.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 14</a><br />Prayer</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/choose-music-for-your-religion.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 14</a><br />Choose the music for your religion</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-29932141473416989562024-02-27T14:15:00.009+01:002024-03-01T21:54:22.895+01:00Mikorski's Trainset – a short story<p><b><i> [Based on a dream I had on the morning of Wednesday 27 February 2024. Note to railway enthusiasts – this isn't a work of fiction, nor is it a work of history. It's the retelling of a dream; I've done zero research on the topic, so please – no comments saying that this or that isn't authentic.]</i></b></p><p>Mieczysław Mikorski (1889-1970) was the engineer-general of Polish state railways (PKP) before World War II, a position he held from 1936 to the outbreak of war. Deported by the NKVD to the far north of Russia in 1940, he was put to work by the Soviets on designing and building a railway network inside the Arctic Circle. He was released as part of the 'amnesty' negotiated between Churchill and Stalin after the Nazi invasion of the USSR, though after his wife and both daughters died of typhoid fever, a tragedy that stayed with him always.</p><p>In the Middle East with General Anders' army, Mikorski's talents were deployed by Allied forces there and later in Italy; he was engaged with the Royal Engineers supervising the laying of narrow-gauge tracks laid up towards the front lines to deliver ammunition and supplies. He was promoted and decorated. He ended up in London after the war, on a decent War Office pension, and with the gold coins he'd smuggled in from Egypt, he managed to buy himself a large apartment on the second floor in Hepton Mansions, just off Kensington High Street.</p><p>Unable to find suitable full-time employment because of his age, he accepted work as a waiter in an exclusive French restaurant in Knightsbridge. He was perfect at the job. With some customers, he'd silently and efficiently take orders and deliver the meals and the wine; with others, he shine with affected bonhomie and wit. The tips were always significant. British aristocrats loved his pre-war mannerisms; he became a permanent fixture at the restaurant.</p><p>One Christmas, walking home, he passed the shop window of Derry & Tom's, and paused to look at a model railway, a miniature steam engine pulling carriages across a snowy model landscape. The next day, he popped in and spent an inordinate amount buying track, a transformer, a couple of engines, some passenger carriages and goods wagons.<br /><br />He was hooked. This was the first day of the rest of his life. </p><p>Mikorski's flat consisted of a kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, one large, one small, a large sitting room and an equally large dining room. Over the years, the three large rooms became filled with three large model railway layouts. The three represented the major projects on which he was working in 1939; the development of the port of Gdynia, the rebuilding of the railway junction at Kępno, near the German border, and the modernisation of Wilno station. Mikorski didn't recognise the post-war Polish borders, and his work, he believed, would be useful to Poland after Stalin dies and his homeland would once again be free.</p><p>Mikorski was a stickler for accuracy. After a while, the 'toy trains', as he called them, were of no value to him; immersing himself in the hobbyists' literature, he'd order precision high-end models from the best manufacturers, particularly from Switzerland. Money no object. He'd photograph his growing layouts with an Exakta camera, sending the prints to fellow enthusiasts worldwide with whom he would correspond. His photos and articles would end up in small-circulation mimeographed newsletters, eagerly subscribed to by wealthy railway modellers from Tokyo to Cape Town. Not particularly good with his own modelling skills, Mikorski formed a small group of model-makers whose talents matched his demanding requirements for precision in HO/OO scale, and to them he'd outsource the actual crafting of model buildings and landscape elements, as well as the rolling stock that he'd design himself.</p><p>Post-war London had several interesting private model-train layouts; one such was located at the headquarters of the railwaymen's trade union, used for labour tribunal cases. Signal boxes, points, junctions and sidings were accurately modelled here to demonstrate to the members of the tribunal the exact circumstances surrounding the incident that led to the unfair dismissal of a driver or signalman. Mikorski, via his well-connected network, had a chance to see this layout several times, which left a strong impression on him.</p><p>Over the years, Mikorski's flat filled out with models of locomotives hauling passenger express trains or shunting rakes of goods wagons. Visitors were 'by appointment only' and rare; a great treat for a knowledgeable and enthusiastic father bringing his son to see something absolutely exclusive. Rank-and-file hobbyists with their Hornby-Triang Dublo sets wouldn't appreciate the extreme commitment and precision that had gone into these layouts. Mikorski had his standards. A total of 450 square feet of his apartment were given over to his passion.</p><p>And over the years, the layouts would evolve. Keeping up with the latest trends, Mikorski replaced steam motive power with electric and diesel locos; these he would design these himself – or imagine himself ordering real rolling stock from America, France or Britain (never West Germany!) for a free Poland. He would also design liveries for such engines in PKP service, and have model-makers paint the little trains for him to his exact specifications. By 1955, his vision of a free Poland's state railway network consisted of modern electric locos and comfortable carriages, whisking passengers from Warsaw to Lwów or Wilno in a couple of hours, and freight trains connecting the coalfields of Upper Silesia and the industrial district around Kielce to the port of Gdynia, and thence on to global markets.</p><p>Mikorski also took seriously his post as Minister of Railways in the Polish Government-in-Exile, a post he held for many years despite the comings and goings of the various Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Second Republic. Whenever railways were on the government's agenda, he'd invite the various ministers and secretaries of state to his flat for long lectures about the needs for modern infrastructure, demonstrated with live action in 1/76th scale, followed by vodka and herring in his (rather cramped) kitchen.</p><p>He died in December 1970 of a heart attack following news of the protests against Poland's communist leadership that broke out in the coastal cities; the emotion was too much for him. An executor's sale followed. Because the layouts could not be removed nor sold <i>in situ</i>, the models were carefully removed and boxed and auctioned off in small lots; and thus ended the story of Mikorski's trainset. And my dream. </p><p>Back to Lenten posting later today.</p><p>This time five years ago:<br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2019/02/heathrow-now-and-then.html" target="_blank">Heathrow then and now</a></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">This time eight years ago:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2016/02/radom-line-works-change-face-of-jeziorki.html" style="background-color: white; color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Radom line modernisation will change the face of Jeziorki</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">This time nine years ago:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-do-we-perceive-good-and-evil.html" style="background-color: white; color: #000099; text-decoration-line: none;">How do we perceive good and evil?</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">This time ten years ago:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2014/02/civilisation-and-civil-society.html" style="background-color: white; color: #000099; text-decoration-line: none;">Civilisation and a civil society</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">This time 12 years ago:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2012/02/strong-late-winter-sunshine.html" style="background-color: white; color: #000099; text-decoration-line: none;">Strong, late-winter sunshine</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">This time 13 years ago:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2011/02/jeziorkis-wetlands-freeze-over.html" style="background-color: white; color: #000099; text-decoration-line: none;">Jeziorki's wetlands freeze over</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">This time 15 years ago</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2010/02/kensington.html" style="background-color: white; color: #999999; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #000099;">Kensington, a London village</span></a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">This time 15 years ago:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2009/02/lentern-recipe.html" style="background-color: white; color: #999999; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #000099;">Lenten recipies</span></a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">This time 16 years ago:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><a href="http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2008/02/off-my-patch.html" style="background-color: white; color: #999999; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #000099;">A walk through Sadyba</span></a></span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-46557046124508042952024-02-26T20:36:00.001+01:002024-02-26T20:36:47.343+01:00Aesthetics, metaphysics and ethics: Lent 2024, Day 13<p>[Inspired again by Marek, who asked:]<br /><br /></p><p>"Metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics. Are they separate fields? Do they overlap? Is there a hierarchy? Are they the same thing? How much of metaphysics is based on aesthetic 'intuition' ?"</p><p>I believe the foundation stone is aesthetics; preferences and familiarities. What you like, what's acceptable or tolerable, and what you dislike. In my case, I had formed a strong set of aesthetic preferences by the time I was a teenager.</p><p>As I wrote in my notebook on Friday, 2 February of this year:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lDh-iNh0dQ5AcTd518EcxWT38qXPo60_sLW93XEd648C8YDKx-CW0ZSSB7ucofIZVrpYOHeLydNt6IltWvIJVZTnGcZoRyEMx854cp0d62FPqhJ5LmhroDlkiDNrKF3gG2of91Eh8eEvbQ3xh2cSAwIhJcUiLr7MHZ-kNFxgKgdxSKNDb5-5FS0u_Afa/s4519/Note.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3518" data-original-width="4519" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lDh-iNh0dQ5AcTd518EcxWT38qXPo60_sLW93XEd648C8YDKx-CW0ZSSB7ucofIZVrpYOHeLydNt6IltWvIJVZTnGcZoRyEMx854cp0d62FPqhJ5LmhroDlkiDNrKF3gG2of91Eh8eEvbQ3xh2cSAwIhJcUiLr7MHZ-kNFxgKgdxSKNDb5-5FS0u_Afa/w400-h311/Note.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b>"An aesthetic that has been turning slowly into a theology. Via consciousness – qualia"</b><div><br /></div><div>Having covered my childhood metaphysical memories in yesterday's post, the question is how did this evolve into a quest with spiritual dimensions? The journey has taken decades and is far from over.</div><div><br /></div><div>Essentially, the idea has been to try to nail down this anomalous memory phenomenon that I've noticed since early childhood, and what it could mean. Since early on when writing on this blog, I've used the label <i>reincarnation?</i> with a question mark as I don't wish to be conclusive; as yet I don't know. Nothing more than a notion, backed up by a lifetime's experiences.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why am I continually drawn to a time and place outside my own lifetime? I'm sure I'm not alone in this feeling. The purely aesthetic response is unweakened over time, although the America that I feel and the America of today have diverged greatly.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a link; it is a metaphysical link; an effect without a physical cause (I could not have been in America in the 1930s or 1940s). I have considered physical vectors that could influence neuronal activity from one body another body (<a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2015/10/in-search-of-vectors-for-migrating.html" target="_blank">see this post from October 2015</a>), but since then I've rather tended to reject a physicalist approach (brain-waves, atoms, bacteria in the gut biome) in favour of a metaphysical one. </div><div><br /></div><div>A key question here would be – does it make any difference if a dead body is buried or cremated? I mentioned the case of the famous Polish writer, whose daughter found a plum tree growing on the plot of his grave; decades later, the tree gave fruit, nourished by minerals from his decomposed remains. That would be a physical vector; eat the plum, and ingest atoms that were once inside the author. Could they convey fragments of his consciousness? I'd now posit that consciousness is non-local in nature and doesn't need a physical carrier. But these are early days! Much more to uncover during the forthcoming years.</div><div><br /></div><div>And now we come on to ethics – and the notion that the Universe is powered by a loving Purpose that is unfolding in the direction of Good, of Love. The theology that I have constructed posits a Universe moving from Zero toward One, the one being unity, All in God, God in All, a moment of total fulfilment, the ultimate triumph of Good. The journey, however, is eternally long and beset with reversals of fortune; two steps forward, one step back.</div><div><br /></div><div>My brother asked me to consider a Venn diagram with the overlaps between aesthetics, metaphysics and ethics; I see it rather has a pyramid with ethics as the peak; Marek would see that pyramid as having steeper sides and a flat top that could be built upon. Excellent! Maybe there's an even higher purpose than ethics...</div><div><br /></div><div>Tomorrow: emergence and complexity vs entropy and chaos.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/high-church-and-low-religious-styles.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 13</a><br />High Church and Low: Religious Styles and Personality</div><div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/comfort-and-luxury-consciousness-and.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 13</a><br />Comfort and Luxury, Consciousness and Ego</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/Comfort%20and%20luxury%20-%20knowing%20when%20to%20stop:%20Lent%202021,%20Day%2013" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 13</a><br />Comfort and Luxury - knowing when to stop</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/buildings-and-sense-of-mystical.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 13</a><br />Holy buildings and the sense of the mystical</span></p></div>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-73469727849019471152024-02-25T20:18:00.006+01:002024-02-26T18:51:43.887+01:00Metaphysical memories of, and from, childhood: Lent 2024, Day 12<p>In the Joscha Bach/Lex Fridman interview I referred to two days ago, Dr Bach talks about deconstructing qualia. He mentions an experiment; stare at your face in a mirror for a long time, many minutes, and after a while that image so familiar to you starts to break down into geometries, colour, pattern.</p><p>This reminded me of something that happened to me in childhood, maybe aged nine or ten; in school learning about London from a geography textbook. The teacher talked on, but I found myself staring at the letters that formed the word 'London'. L-O-N... D-O-N. Where I was born, where I lived, where I was from. It was always London or <i>Londyn</i>, familiar, comforting; but all of a sudden, it was L-O-N... D-O-N. What is 'LON'? Who is 'DON'? Why does L-O-N... D-O-N look and sound and feel so strange?</p><p>This was a formative experience. It caused me to deconstruct other familiar words, starting with my name. Michael. MY-c'l. Michał. <i>MEE - hau.</i> The familiar transformed, broken down into fundamental particles, syllables, letters, sounds, characters. Shapes on a page. And familiarity disappears, replaced by strangeness.</p><p>Another transcendental experience – being in trouble in school. And yet, detached from the scene, almost out of body, everything is ultimately... fine. Intuition; and a consciousness separate from the ego and biological self.</p><p>Childhood skies – another thing. In the back garden at Croft Gardens, summer holidays in the early 1960s, one of those days when it was neither cloudless (rare) or fully overcast (often), but a contrasting sky of billowing white clouds against azure. Staring up at them, I'd notice that feeling of anomalous memories from another time and another place. My mind became unshackled from the here and now; there was, is, and will be Something Greater. To this day, the sight of such a sky will trigger a metaphysical response – qualia memories.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBBRZszOtpB730eU0dWaVAWPAUVcPvJaskDy2D8AbXmIKvtuLYAlAzXocCWd7uIUtWW7rmORysDZbnGHENdvtiFedcSsvFGdG1ChpoRxfJwlNsk9E3qmyVkWXgRmbqKg0fySeIDbhWfGxqVD0h44Qhtj39XErjAPBIIzo_IQ89zRmMYjKYQgwtCoAmstn5/s5246/The%20sky.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3523" data-original-width="5246" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBBRZszOtpB730eU0dWaVAWPAUVcPvJaskDy2D8AbXmIKvtuLYAlAzXocCWd7uIUtWW7rmORysDZbnGHENdvtiFedcSsvFGdG1ChpoRxfJwlNsk9E3qmyVkWXgRmbqKg0fySeIDbhWfGxqVD0h44Qhtj39XErjAPBIIzo_IQ89zRmMYjKYQgwtCoAmstn5/w400-h269/The%20sky.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Such was my sky today; between Dąbrowa Duża and Machcin</td></tr></tbody></table><p>A recurring memory (or set of memories) from childhood relates to when we lived, briefly, near Newport, South Wales when I was around three. Much I recall, but this one relates to the journey there, along the A40 (this was before the M4 was built); the old road would wind through small towns and villages – and in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire – orchards. Walking around Jakubowizna, those memories come back strongly, but they also remind me that as a small child, the sight of those orchards set off anomalous memories of strong familiarity, those from where I knew not.</p><p>Many of my primary-school classroom flashbacks I now realise were triggered by the illustrations in the <i>Janet and John</i> books we learnt to read from. These were essentially anglicised versions of the American <i>Alice and Jerry</i> books, using the same illustrations. Two of them, called <i>Days in the Sun</i>, and <i>The Five and Half Clu</i>b, I still have; my mother would have read them with me at home as well; pencilled on a page of the former is the date 13.6.63, which meant I was five years and eight months old when I would have read it. The story is set on a ranch on the Great Plains, far from the Hanwell in which I was growing up, but the illustrations were instantly familiar. "I've been here!" I felt. </p><p>I mentioned to our teacher (Miss Debonnaire?) a picture that had caught my attention; a boy on horseback against the prairie and a big sky. She said that she'd been to America and the skies there looked quite different to our English sky. Bigger.</p><p>Here's an image (below) that really resonated with me; little did I know that this train was the iconic Burlington Zephyr streamliner, one of the first diesel passenger trains in America. And there's that sky again.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSNJTUFU4XzNLmVkpAwsGVvc7y-WsSppOgh5sLTHfGDlJuhFvcZrJCFXVoTW9FVQFriDiBDS7EsKAyXrrT9slz4qkeDiXnoWapsSjKk30sNP6CNC8OnnT0pyFmEfA9J8FfhIh8Dtn6971hDgfj2v0lXGE3ZX5jwevkBMFSKPnVVCWiQ_hvgFbxE8WlR-Ym/s10748/Days%20in%20the%20Sun.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3698" data-original-width="10748" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSNJTUFU4XzNLmVkpAwsGVvc7y-WsSppOgh5sLTHfGDlJuhFvcZrJCFXVoTW9FVQFriDiBDS7EsKAyXrrT9slz4qkeDiXnoWapsSjKk30sNP6CNC8OnnT0pyFmEfA9J8FfhIh8Dtn6971hDgfj2v0lXGE3ZX5jwevkBMFSKPnVVCWiQ_hvgFbxE8WlR-Ym/w400-h138/Days%20in%20the%20Sun.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>I have written a bit more about the aesthetics and preferences of familiarity in <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2017/09/preference-and-familiarity.html" target="_blank">this post from 2017</a>. Indeed, those aesthetics guided my development, that interest in America going back to childhood. One TV show I recall (BBC <i>Radio Times</i> archive says it ran from June to October 1963) was <i>McHale's Navy</i>, with Ernest Borgnine, a comedy set on a Pacific island in WW2. That also had a strong air of familiarity about it, the uniforms, the military base, the equipment. Again, I was five at the time.</p><p>[While on the subject of my childhood and potential past-life recollection, this is a <a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/05/intimations-of-immortality-revisited.html" target="_blank">strange memory</a> that I feel must be shared here.]</p><p>The America of the 1930s, '40s and '50s was always there in my imagination; my aesthetic tastes guided by that era, whether it be Airfix kits of American military aircraft of the period, black-and-white Film Noir movies, Art Deco in its American form, morphing into Mid-Century Modern, the music, the novels... It all clicked, familiar, comforting, yet puzzling. And all this led me to do American studies at university.</p><p>From aesthetics to metaphysics? More soon.</p><p><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/obstacles-on-path-to-growth-lent-2023.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023: Day 12</a><br />Obstacles on the Path to Growth</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/understand-our-universe-and-our.html" style="color: #cc6600;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 12</a><br />Understanding our Universe and our physical reality</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/02/chance-and-luck-can-you-will-outcome.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 12<br /></a>Chance and Luck: can we will an outcome?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/build-your-own-religion-find-your-holy.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 12</a><br />Find your own Holy Places</span></p>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-32748403635837016092024-02-24T14:16:00.001+01:002024-02-24T14:18:36.815+01:00Spirituality vs. the Scientific Method: Lent 2024, Day 11<p>[A response to Marek]</p><p>I wrote yesterday “Science instinctively has a problem with the metaphysical” – my brother replied: "It’s fairer to say that science’s problem with the metaphysical is epistemological and methodological, and that individuals who claim to practice the scientific method have biases."</p><p>Very much so. I used the sentence as a shorthand, but today I shall go into Marek's observation in greater detail.</p><p>Coincidentally, yesterday, out of curiosity, I looked up the etymology of the word 'doctor' in both the academic and medical sense. The root is <i>docere</i>, the Latin for 'to teach'. In the pre-scientific world, medical knowledge and religious teaching were closely linked; monks and physicians often served as healers and religious authorities. Divine intervention was an intrinsic part of the healing process. (Indeed, during medieval times, many Jewish physicians were also rabbis). London's famous teaching hospital, Barts (Bartholomew's Hospital), for instance, was founded by the Augustinian Friars in 1123. The words 'hospital', 'hostel' and 'hotel' all derive their etymology from the same route (the dropped 's' replaced by the circumflex over the 'o' as in the French spelling of hôtel. With a root in the Latin <i>hospes</i> (meaning both 'guest' and 'host'), early mediaeval hospitals (hôtels de Dieu) provided hospitality to guests – pilgrims – and patients – alike. </p><p>{{ Suddenly 'Paracelsus' pops up in my stream of consciousness. On we go, thus guided. }} </p><p>From Wikipedia: [the Swiss physician Paracelsus 1493-1541] "was a pioneer in several aspects of the 'medical revolution' of the Renaissance, emphasising the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. He is credited as the 'father of toxicology'." Furthermore: "Paracelsus's approach to science was heavily influenced by his religious beliefs. He believed that science and religion were inseparable, and scientific discoveries were direct messages from God. Thus, he believed it was mankind's divine duty to uncover and understand all of God's message. Paracelsus also believed that the virtues that make up natural objects are not natural, but supernatural, and existed in God before the creation of the Universe." Bingo. A man I could see eye to eye with.</p><p>It was entirely normal to marry the natural with the supernatural before the scientific revolution brought on by Isaac Newton. (It must be said, however, that Newton was a deeply spiritual man, who spent as much of his life pursuing theological and occult interests as in developing the groundwork for rational science.) The Enlightenment chased away mediaeval superstitions and the notion of magical thinking – physical effect without physical cause. </p><p>With the development of the scientific method, hypotheses could be put to the test and objectively proved or disproved. Over time, the scientific method evolved as a way to explain reality, becoming a powerful tool driving the industrial revolution and two centuries later, the information revolution.</p><p>The key epistemological concepts underpinning the scientific method are:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Observation: gathering objective data from experiments or survey.</li><li>Hypothesis: a proposed explanation for an observed phenomenon, based on existing knowledge and observations.</li><li>Falsifiability: hypotheses should be set out in a way that allows them to be potentially disproven by observations.</li><li>Experimentation: testing the hypothesis under controlled conditions to gather data and evaluate its validity.</li><li>Inductive reasoning: drawing conclusions from observations, while acknowledging the limitations of generalisation.</li><li>Replication: repeating experiments to ensure results are reliable and not due to chance or error.</li><li>Peer review: scrutiny by other scientists to assess the validity of experiments, data, and conclusions (list summoned up via Google Gemini).</li></ul><div>Guided by these concepts, many rational scientific minds have come to reject all aspects of the metaphysical, dismissing attempts to classify and explain them as pseudoscience. (Debunking is an interesting subset of online trolling these days!) </div><div><br /></div><div>Yet scientific empiricism has its limits. Above all, there is increasing awareness in the scientific community that there are many things that science cannot currently explain, and the more it looks into these, the harder they become to explain. I've written about these before; the most important ones are the nature of consciousness, the origin of the Universe, fine-tuning, the origins of life, squaring gravity with the Standard Model, and the nature of dark energy and dark matter. A rejection of a metaphysical approach here might ultimately prove to be wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>The most fundamental questions about the nature of reality boil down to subjective and objective reality, and here the notion of the observer, so important in quantum mechanics, plays an important role. Does a tree falling over in a forest make a sound if there's no one to hear it? Would the Universe exist if there was no consciousness to experience it? Is there some greater purpose to the evolution of consciousness than biological advantage, survival of the fittest and adaptation to the environment?</div><div><br /></div><div>The inability of the scientific method to bring itself to bear upon first-person subjective experience of my own consciousness is to me where I'd draw the line. When a rationalist or physicalist (or reductive materialist, call them what you will), tries to explain away the phenomenon of anomalous qualia memory that I've experienced since childhood as 'misfiring of neurons' or 'memories of a film you once saw', I find such explanations hollow and lacking in substance; they just doesn't square with how it feels to have these subjective experiences.</div><p></p><div>They are what lie at the heart of my personal spiritual (or indeed metaphysical) quest; they inform me intuitively to concepts such as non-local consciousness that defies physical concepts of time and space.<br /><br /><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2023/03/personalities-and-disorders-lent-2023.html" target="_blank">Lent 2023, Day 11</a><br />Personalities and Disorders<br /><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2022/03/aliens-angels-and-daemons-lent-2022-day.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2022: Day 11</a><br />Aliens, Angels and Daemons</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-ego-consciousness-and-spiritual.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2021: Day 11</a><br />The Ego, Consciousness and Spiritual Evolution</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://jeziorki.blogspot.com/2020/03/dreams-and-afterlife.html" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lent 2020: Day 11</a><br />Dreams and the Afterlife</span></p></div>Michael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.com0