Reference: A Model of Self
The Universe begins as it emerges from non-awareness into awareness. It may appear at first as a vast field of awareness having the form of light. The physical universe evolves within this universal field of awareness. The perception of the physical universe agrees from person to person. This is like personal minds sharing this field of awareness, or universal mind.
The personal minds seem to exist within a vast field of awareness, or universal mind.
The personal mind seems to be produced by the condensation of awareness at locations within this vast field. This condensation is postulated to comprise of various stages as shown in the whirlpool model above.
The mind begins with awareness. Awareness consists of perception and recognition. According to Wikipedia, the process of perception involves the following steps:
- Body’s sensory organs are incited by means of light, sound or another physical process.
- These sensory organs transform the input energy into neural activity.
- These neural signals are transmitted to the brain.
- The brain organizes and interprets the signals.
- This creates awareness or understanding of the environment.
But the various elements of this process are themselves perceived in a way. Therefore, it is not quite definitive how we perceive and recognize things
We perceive only what awareness tells us through the mind.
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As soon as perceptions are recognized, they become experience. Over time experience condenses as information. Experience and information seems to be stored in a very efficiently organized matrix constructed out of definitions and logics. It seems to have the form of an electromagnetic field supported by macromolecules and neurons in the body.
A matrix constructed out of definitions and logics seems to form the core of the mind.
From information the mind generates hypotheses. Certain hypotheses get confirmed as theories and can be relied upon for prediction. Hypotheses and theories help associate data in the mind.
Hypotheses and theories seem to aid the computation that occurs within the mind.
This leads to the generation of wider principles, which provide directions to thinking. Principles are followed by axioms, which are taken for granted to be true when one thinks.
Principles and axioms seem to provide the basis on which the mind operates.
Finally, there is self that represents the uniqueness of the mind. This is the final form of condensed awareness at a location in the field of awareness of the universal mind.
The uniqueness of the mind appears as Self.
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The objectivity of awareness is determined by the basic field of awareness of the universal mind. Thus, the uncompressed awareness at the point of perception is the most objective in nature. When this perception is condensed as experience and information from some unique perspective of the mind it becomes subjective.
The awareness consistent with the universal field of awareness is the most objective in nature.
The awareness becomes more subjective as it is condensed through various stages of the mind in its unique way. The end product of that condensation is self, which is regarded as a unique individuality.
The most subjective form of awareness is the unique individuality of the self.
The reality is made of the objective awareness at the level of the universal mind. The subjective awareness of self then appears to be as real as it is consistent and coherent with the universal mind.
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The minds are thus constructed out of condensations of awareness at various locations within the universal mind. The uniqueness of condensation is the self that is recognized by its individuality.
Mind relates the condensation from simple universal awareness to the complex self.
The simple and vast universal mind has the form of light. The unique and complex self has the form of the human body. Spirit and matter occur together as essence and form at every point of condensation.
Matter provides form to spirit, and spirit provides essence to matter.
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As a summary of this model.
(1) Mind is a multi-dimensional matrix of definitions and logic.
(2) Self is the most condensed expression of the mind.
Also please refer to A Model of Self.
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I have nicknamed this model as The Whirlpool Model of Mind and Reality as evident from the picture analogy above.
Minds are like whirlpools in an ocean of awareness. Self constitutes the bottom tip of the whirlpool. Some whirlpools go deeper than others.
But then there is the Nirvana of “no whirlpool.” 🙂
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I have always used this model for both a combination of Hubbard’s Tone Scale + Organizing Board.
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Well, then. It is outed now.
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I drew a diagram of this years ago, with the tornado or whirlpool model and then arbitrarily labeling it with tone levels and 27 department org board after clay demoing organization a few times and the clay looking like a double-helix DNA strand. Then I mapped triangular points within the vortex, it seemed lovely, dynamic and more descriptive to me. I passed it around to a few of our blogger friends, but a few years ago, it seemed to get no interest at that time. I haven’t looked for a copy of it for a long time but I guess could simply redraw one if anyone cared. I don’t care quite so much anymore. Back then, I was into the idea of big ultimate breakthroughs whereas now I get joy from small moves.
Then 2nd Transformer began talking about vortices and I was reminded of it again. He has quite a bit on the ball and his journey is similar to our own.
I like this model of getting away from linear diagrams and into much more organic designs, such as Paisley for example. These beautiful and convoluted models seem more similar to life as I know it and graphically represent my abstractions of the seething, writhing and undulating chemical and physical world in which I live.
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The key realization for me has been along the following line.
(1) I wondered what is out there if I am only aware of my mind’s interpretation of nerve impulses.
(2) I did not know what is causing these nerve impulses in the first place.
(3) Now I know that it is the Ground State out there. It is the disturbance of that ground state which is causing the perception.
(4) So, the ground state is above perception (above the surface of the whirlpool), and not below self at the other end.
(5) The self is the very condensed mind. It is not a separate being.
The whirlpool model may be used with any scale to show condensation or consolidation and narrowing down of some property.
This model tells me that Ground State (no definition) and Self (solid definition) are at opposite ends of some scale of manifestation or definition.
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Yes, well we shall see.
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The model tells me that I am looking at the ground state through the tunnel of the mind.
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In my model, one is the vortex.
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One may shift the reference point of “I” that way too. It is flexible.
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“One may shift the reference point of “I” that way too. It is flexible.”
“I” may occupy a certain and sliding bandwidth of this vortex.
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Or, “I” could be the whole vortex.
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In this model, mind simply acts as a matrix of “definitions & logics”. When it is implinged upon by a certain input, reactions percolate around in this matrix, and then a response is there as an output.
Concepts like intention, will, power of choice etc. are aspects of this mind. There is no separate being.
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But there are physics we have to be open to. Tone scale needn’t have a being at its root anymore than EMR wavelength.
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We are not looking at the Tone Scale in the above model. We are looking at the condensation of awareness. Awareness seems to condense into thoughts and then into self, just like the electromagnetic wave seems to condense into atoms and then into object..
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At the bottom of reality, some may think that there is a Being, but that Being is simply a condensation of awareness.
So at the bottom of all reality is awareness.
That awareness arises as a disturbance from an area beyond awareness.
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“That awareness arises as a disturbance from an area beyond awareness.”
Possibly. That awareness may also arise as the reverse polarity of the current awareness. There are more than a few ways to satisfy this.
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And where does current awareness arise from? You don’t want to get into infinite regression.
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“And where does current awareness arise from? You don’t want to get into infinite regression.”
Like visible light, consciousness may occupy a certain and sliding bandwidth of the overall self vortex.
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The whole field is Consciousness, or it is made of consciousness. The vortices exist in this field of Consciousness. Vortices are also made of consciousness.
“I” is a piece of consciousness constructed as a vortex per this model.
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“Immanence without hope.”
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The vortex can dissolve in the field of Consciousness.
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The vortex can dissolve in the field of Consciousness.
Like the “dust devils” (thermal) on the desert, they spin and whip around until they dissipate resulting in the death of the dust devil.
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What sustains the self is the body. The self seems to disintegrate with the body.
But the vortex dissipates into smaller motions. Smaller motions from several different dissipated vortices may combine to make a new vortex.
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I work to get the water in my swimming pool very crystal clear because at night I like to sit next to it and watch how the light from a street light shines down through the surface and makes perfect shadows on the bottom of the ripples from my pool pump. There are roiling “clouds,” vorteces, twisting and swirling until after a few feet of travel, they dissipate. I cannot see these by looking at the surface of the water. I can only see their shadows after the light has been deflected by then leaving their shadows on the bottom of the pool. Here is an example: click here.
I like to think of the water as the ground state, invisible until disturbed. I like to think of the ripples as disturbance levels, I like to think of the vortices as the resultant selves which come together from the processes at work. I like to think of myself as one of these vortices being made of the water yet for a moment or two arising into something more than the ground state and I like to think at that moment of “immanence without hope.” This model gives me a nice feeling of understanding of the forces at work around me. From my perch on the edge of the pool, I understand that I am the analogy for unknowable since the vortices will never know that I am present and being a part of those processes, that I am unknowable. I like to think then that the vortices have “immanence without hope.” And I hope they are at peace regarding to their return to the ground state.
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Beautiful!
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Sorry, click here to see the video.
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The mind is a matrix of definitions and logic that goes deeper and deeper into many condensed levels. When it receives an input it acts like a pin ball machine.
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“When it receives an input it acts like a pin ball machine.”
All worldly philosophical and machine logic seems patterned after the mind and vice versa.
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It seems like that, doesn’t it! But one can get more out of this analogy as described below.
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The activity of thinking is like a ball (input) thrown into a charged pin ball machine (the mind matrix), which throws it around to come up with some output.
Thus, the mind seems to be some kind of a charged mechanism. All points in the brain have a certain potential.
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A sensory input impinges on the mind to produce perception.
A perception impinges on the mind to contribute to experience.
Experiences impinges on the mind to contribute to information.
Information impinges on the mind to contribute to hypothesis.
Hypothesis impinges on the mind to contribute to Theory.
Theory impinges on the mind to contribute to Principles.
Principle impinges on the mind to contribute to Axioms.
Axiom impinges on the mind to contribute to Self.
These are different levels of THOUGHT. There may be more numerous levels and they may be named differently.
The key point is that the mental matrix increases in its density on a gradient, and so does the thought as it is processed through these gradients.
SELF is a thought of extremely high density.
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“SELF is a thought of extremely high density.”
Self at its basis may be a simple feedback loop of thought we call self awareness. This might be the healthy form of self. Inflating ego seems to be when that feedback loop experiences amplification and then reverberation. This is not good. However, all of these points can be complementary to the notion of “disturbance levels.”
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“SELF is a thought of extremely high density.”
This statement, as anything else, is relative. One may say that self is the most dense part of the mental structure represented by the whirlpool model.
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And seems subject to electronic reverberation, not good.
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Could you please expand on that. Thanks.
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If we use the analogy of self as electronic inputs, processing, and outputs, we can use something like a microphone (input), amplifier (processing) and loudspeaker (output). When the input is amplified and then the output is captured once again by the input and amplified, we get an electronic runaway of “re-echoed sound.” Likewise, the self can use this analogy with inputs, processing, and outputs. The self can also experience this electronic runaway with inflated ego and all manner of worse and worser outputs such as psychotic break, road raging, etc.,.
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Thanks. I got it.
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Don’t you think this is a good analogy for the physics of the ego?
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It could be if I can find some good examples to substantiate it. Reinforcement seems to occur in some cases and not in others. What makes the difference?
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I think that we tend to build up abstractions and as we do, like building blocks we build an analogy, a mental frame of reference. If another has been doing something similar, then there is reinforcement, but if one’s abstractions, then one’s analogies, frames of reference are too different or going in a different vector, or just emphasizing a different aspect, then there is no reinforcement, no agreement. Not a bad thing, just the difference between waves being complementary or interfering.
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There are dampening factors. The more educated and cultured a person is the less likely he is to be an effect of road rage.
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Same as myu example. Education provides preparation for the suppression.
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Please describe your view of a psychotic break in this context of electronic reverberation.
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In this context I mean like in your pin ball example, the balls simply react to the contact and knee jerk reactions without thought deeper than the circuits in the pin ball. When one is no longer considering, predicting the results of their actions and are “going off.”
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That is not what I had in mind. Mind is made up of a matrix of defintions (contact points) and logic (determination of next contact point). The thought is built in both definition and logic. Pin ball machine example was not meant to represent knee-jerk reactions. It was used to show how certain definitions may get activated in a certain logical sequence by the input to produce an outpoint.
There are probably many such routes that a thought can take. Therefore options and choices representing free will are there. Then there may be some kind of intention that directs the choice out of all the options at each point of definition.
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Self seems to provide uniqueness to the whole system of thought or mind. This is the INDIVIDUALITY. This is how the THETAN of Scientology is put together. All the abilities of a thetan are determined by the configuration of this system of thought.
The INTENTION of an individual is determined by this system of thought.
The FREE WILL of an individual is also determined by this system of thought.
An INDIVIDUAL is completely defined by this system of thought.
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It seems to be a grand tautology where each frame of reference provides for self reinforcing definition of self. For me, neti neti is a tool for slowing this reverberation with the goal of reversing and quieting the over-amplification. At a point, I believe that self reaches a kind of balance, of equilibrium where one can quietly begin to believe laudible things again without reverberation and without harm and without amplification of the ego. I see the reverse of this as death, or the ground state of animal life. It is not the absolute ground state of life for life is a relay of passing on the seed of life. It is quite a balancing act.
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Looking from a wide enough context everything must ultimately appear to be tautological. If something is not tautological then there is a gap to be filled.
I am starting from the broadest possible scenario, so tautology is a guiding factor for me.
I think that as the gaps are filled and inconsistencies are resolved, there will come about a better balance and the reversal of Samsara will automatically start to take place.
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This system may have a mode under which it reconstructs MEMORIES. That may require some input. After that the pin ball process is allowed to continue without interference.
The mode for active IMAGINATION or VISUALIZATION may be similar but not the same. Here input may be added from time to time to modulate the pin ball process, or a feed back circuit may be employed.
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Dreams may be the function of visualization that is unwinding in some way.
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FREE WILL is not completely free. It depends on the different pathways avaiable in the matrix of the mind.
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Engrams seems to be those perceptions that are not processed and, somehow, locked at the level of perception. They are not reduced to the next level of experience.
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Such perceptions are somehow suppressed. They are not easily available to attention. What could be the mechanism of suppression?
There could be too much confusion there that disperses the attention. One should then move back and broaden the view and look at that area within a larger context.
Or, there could be too much force that fixes the attention. one should then move forward and look more closely at the details of where the attention is getting fixed.
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Don’t you think that suppression begins with some sort of interference with the personality matrix of another? This could range from mild to harsh.
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There seems to be interference in terms of too much force and confusion.
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Weren’t you ever put off just a little when you mother asked something like, “How many times do I have to tell you not to leave your dirty socks on the coffee table?” My point: isn’t suppression a gradient?
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Yes, there can be a big confusion for the child in that incident.
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Yes, or even a little confusion which if amplified through many such incidents becomes runaway, reverb. The resulting explosion cannot be traced to a single small interference.
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True.
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The interference is in the form of EMR which is disharmonious with the other.
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Interference may lock up as a Standing Wave. This could be the basis for mass.
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“Interference may lock up as a Standing Wave. This could be the basis for mass.”
I get the premise. Do you have an observable example?
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Let’s take something suppressed. Let’s take this Scientologist who want’s freedom. He sees big outnesses in the Church but denies or justifies them, because he feels that there is no other route for freedom.
His desire to go free is bound with his earlier wins from auditing. He never had such wins elsewhere. Even though he is getting no more wins at present in the Church, the hope is there. There is no hope for getting such wins outside the Church.
So, his perception of outnesses in the Church and no more wins is locked in with his earlier wins and hope for more wins. This has equal force on both sides. It is locked in like a standing wave.
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“There could be too much confusion there that disperses the attention. One should then move back and broaden the view and look at that area within a larger context.”
I am finding it valuable to take a broad look at my first 15 years growng up in the Indian culture. It is interesting to see how the moral values start to get enforced on one, especially the sexual mores. There is a lot of confusion in that area in the Indian society.
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“There is a lot of confusion in that area in the Indian society.”
Does it seem like the influence of the Victorians? America is shot full of that.
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Yes. That and the threat of rape and pillage by earlier Turkish and Mongol invaders. I think that it is the result of influence of different cultures that have ruled India over the past thousand or so years.
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The “engram” does seem to be tied to personal processing speed. One prepares for disharmonious events and becomes inured to them, such as an athlete. A boxer who has trained might receive and survive a fist to the jaw that an untrained person might lose consciousness over. A car accident, spread out over longer time might not be so injurious as the way they occur in a fraction of a second.
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That’s true.
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Engram may have the same mechanism as suppression. They both may lock up as Standing Waves. The only difference is that Engram occurs at the level of Perception. But suppression may occur at the level of experience and information.
The solution to either is to simply not resist. Just look at the area under concern with mindfulness, and experience it fully.
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From the OP: “The mind begins with awareness. As soon as perceptions are recognized, they become experience. Over time experience condenses as Information. From information hypotheses are generated to aid association of data. Certain hypotheses get confirmed as theories and can be relied upon for prediction. This generates wider principles that provide direction to thinking. Axioms then follow, which are taken for granted in thinking. Finally, there is self that defines what one is.”
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Identification would be what I think of myself now. I just accept these considerations as “stable data.” These considerations act as “stable data” and as the basis of how I act and whatever else I consider.
For example, a person may consider himself to be very attractive to girls. He never questions it. He takes it for granted. He acts on that basis whenever girls are around. This would be an identification.
If he happens to analyze the reaction of girls to him, and looks at the above “stable data” critically, he might discover these to be considerations that he is taking for granted. At that point he may stop identifying with them, and think of himself very differently. There may now be a different set of considerations that he is taking for granted.
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For me, nothing is the momentary absence of relative differences within a frame of reference.
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Or, nothing could simply be the absence of awareness or relative motion.
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I have rewritten the Whirlpool model of the mind to make it more clear.
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Considerations are simply the “disturbance or wave patterns of awareness.”
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In mindfulness, one is bringing into view existing considerations and looking at them. One is not thinking.
When thinking, one is associating the considerations with each another. This is the activity of the filter. It is judging, evaluating, labeling, etc.
When investigating, it is more like looking with mindfulness. One is looking at the considerations as well as at the associations among them.
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A person who cannot conceive of “unknowable” is stuck in self.
It is like the inability to conceive of “zero” because one is stuck in one.
Such a person is self-centric and selfish.
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Here is a response to the following post by Mark Baker on Geir’s Blog.
http://isene.me/2014/07/30/invitation-to-critique-my-ot-viii-success-story/#comment-78928
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CHRIS: “Every model of the mind extends itself to encompass consciousness, doesn’t it?”
MARK: “Not really… (too many complicated words)”
(1) My simple understanding provides me with a one-to-one correspondence between the essence and its form.
(2) The essence denotes “spirituality” and the form denotes “physicality.”
(3) “Awareness – light” is one example of this one-to-one correspondence.
(4) “Self – body” is another example of this one-to-one correspondence.
(5) Light represents electromagnetic disturbance that condenses to form energy and matter.
(6) Awareness represents “perception-recognition” disturbance that condenses into consciousness and self.
(7) Consciousness is the awareness of the form and properties.
(8) An atom has consciousness to the degree it acts as an atom.
Based on the above hypothesis I would agree with Chris that “Every model of the mind extends itself to encompass consciousness.”
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