Integrating Science and Mysticism

Introduction

Meme Storage in DNA

The Physical World as Simulation

The Urantia Book

UB Quotes Database

INTEGRATING SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM

God, Consciousness and Quantum Computers

Why are we here? What is the ultimate nature of reality? What is the nature of our creator?

Consciousness is the subject that brings religion and science together to relevantly address these questions for the modern world. Add in historical shamanism and the results will be interesting.

The investigation into the nature of consciousness begins by asking if humans can artificially create an aware machine. Today's computers, though based on quantum theory, are strictly mechanical. A mechanical machine will always produce the same response given the same inputs; thus it has no reason to be conscious. Non-deterministic phenomena are found in quantum physics. Possibility exists during the quantum superposition state when the world is not looking at the subatomic particle. It is during this superposition state that consciousness can influence the physical by altering the outcome (readout) of that state.

Scientists have proven in the lab that such quantum states can be used as the basis for computers. Spurring on this development is the goal of very fast and very powerful computers that can easily crack today's cryptography technology. But a useful quantum computer is some years away.

How would one design a quantum computer that more than just answers its programmed tasks, but one that can give itself tasks, a computer that has free will? Such a computer would have a complexity similar to a brain. How does one tell if such a computer is conscious?

As DNA is part of all life, does DNA do more than just code for proteins? As only a few percent of our genome actually codes for proteins, the rest of DNA -called introns- may store software for the brain. Given that complex instincts can be inherited, the only and obvious place for this software storage is in DNA. Introns may have more of a fractal pattern similar to language compared to the protein coding regions.

Memes are units of information transferable from one mind to another. Ideas compete for replication by our brains just as genes try to get reproduced. So the proposed storage units of thought in DNA are labeled as memes.

Randomness is not an acceptable theory for the method of genetic changes during evolution. Lamarck's theory that what happens during the life of an organism alters the genetics of its offspring is evidenced by inherited disease resistance. If there is intelligence modifying DNA for the next generation, perhaps DNA can alter itself. DNA itself must be conscious, which is a step beyond even quantum evolution.

If quantum computers are required for consciousness, then our brains must be quantum computers. Our brains are the perfect combination of classical (mechanical) computer and quantum computer with each controlling the other to varying degrees. What are possible mechanisms in the brain for this quantum computer?

Each neuron is more than a simple switching device but is actually a quantum computer. When placed in the proper mechanism, DNA functions as a quantum computer. It is proposed that to transfer a quantum computer's state from one neuron to the next, the neurotransmitter serotonin works as a qubit (quantum state) carrier.

If consciousness can be produced by a machine, then Descartes' question arises; how can we say we are not already in someone's virtual reality? Does Gödel's incompleteness theorems suggest this question's answer is unprovable? But there are hints. One hint is that quantum mechanics, the underlying system of the physical world, is a binary -and therefore digital- system. Another hint is that nothing physical can travel faster than the speed of light except quantum influence.

It is suggested that psychedelic and other drugs induce mystical experiences by disconnecting the brain's quantum computer while keeping it running and conscious. This consciousness, temporarily freed of body and senses, readily connects with the timeless creator. The mystical experience is when one breaks out of the simulation and sees reality for the first time. The experience is ineffable, and appears to be to what Plato's cave allegory refers. Time and space only exist in the physical.

Consciousness creates the physical. The physical is illusion, maya. There is ultimately only one consciousness; God. God is doing the simulating. The physical world models the spiritual world seemingly perfectly. Since all consciousness is one, you are part of God. There is no explanation of what consciousness is or how a single point of it happened to come into existence. It created the physical to separate itself to completely know itself.

Consciousness controls the physical, so we consciously (or subconsciously) create our life and our world. At death our spirit is released from its physical confines to the realm of pure possibility. If you have faith in God and heaven, then you will go there. If you believe in nothing, that's what you'll be.

By working to minimizing our mechanical mind's influence, we open ourselves up to possibility, our higher selves. Conscious evolution is required to prevent the human race from . By many people believing in the equivalent ideal world perhaps the world will change. Is humanity heading towards a singularity or omega point?