THE PHYSICAL WORLD AS A SIMULATION
THE MATERIAL WORLD AS VIRTUAL REALITY:
What do you really know? What do you know beyond any shadow of a doubt?
René Descartes asked himself this question and came to the conclusion
that the only fact he could know for absolute certainty is that he is a
thinking being. "Cognito, ergo sum," he
wrote in the 17th century. I think therefore I am. Because I am
thinking now I know that I exist at this moment.
The idea causing doubt in Descartes' mind about the world he seemed to inhabit was that he could just as well be living as a brain in a vat hooked up to some type of advanced machine completely simulating his experience of the world. His brain's sensory input could possibly only connect to a powerful computer putting together a cohesive world experience.
How could we tell the difference if we actually had bodies, or if our bodies and their senses were just being simulated by some type of super computer? Of course, the utter immersiveness of our life experiences coupled with the experience of everyone else seemingly perceiving similarly our shared world makes most people, even intelligent ones who have come in contact with Descartes' basic idea, believe our physical world as ultimately real.
However, from a philosophic viewpoint the question must be dealt with. Yet, it makes no difference as to how scientists and others do their work, since their work consists of studying and using the physical world via physical means. But, scientists should not get upset when people question this most basic assumption, since it's just that: an assumption.
Luckily, these modern times allow many people to easily comprehend this idea of virtual reality because computer technology has become powerful enough to do many kinds of physical world simulations remarkably well. Aside from basic computer games available in many modern households, advanced flight simulators move whole cockpits on hydraulics with computer monitors for windshields. Virtual reality goggles and gloves give wearers enthralling experiences of completely artificial worlds. Even movies like The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, eXistenZ and many others explore the idea of virtual reality well. The majority of the residents in these movies' worlds do not suspect the simulated nature of their worlds.
Any information that you receive from the world is through your senses, and if your senses can lie then what can you absolutely know about the world? All one's beliefs in almost everything could break down, resulting in a very scary and vulnerable mental state. Perhaps, the most direct way to seriously question one's senses is to take a hallucination inducing drug. Thus, the mystical experience of enlightenment is the temporarily breaking out of the simulation. Such experience is ineffable since we only have words for things within our world.
The idea causing doubt in Descartes' mind about the world he seemed to inhabit was that he could just as well be living as a brain in a vat hooked up to some type of advanced machine completely simulating his experience of the world. His brain's sensory input could possibly only connect to a powerful computer putting together a cohesive world experience.
How could we tell the difference if we actually had bodies, or if our bodies and their senses were just being simulated by some type of super computer? Of course, the utter immersiveness of our life experiences coupled with the experience of everyone else seemingly perceiving similarly our shared world makes most people, even intelligent ones who have come in contact with Descartes' basic idea, believe our physical world as ultimately real.
However, from a philosophic viewpoint the question must be dealt with. Yet, it makes no difference as to how scientists and others do their work, since their work consists of studying and using the physical world via physical means. But, scientists should not get upset when people question this most basic assumption, since it's just that: an assumption.
Luckily, these modern times allow many people to easily comprehend this idea of virtual reality because computer technology has become powerful enough to do many kinds of physical world simulations remarkably well. Aside from basic computer games available in many modern households, advanced flight simulators move whole cockpits on hydraulics with computer monitors for windshields. Virtual reality goggles and gloves give wearers enthralling experiences of completely artificial worlds. Even movies like The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor, eXistenZ and many others explore the idea of virtual reality well. The majority of the residents in these movies' worlds do not suspect the simulated nature of their worlds.
Any information that you receive from the world is through your senses, and if your senses can lie then what can you absolutely know about the world? All one's beliefs in almost everything could break down, resulting in a very scary and vulnerable mental state. Perhaps, the most direct way to seriously question one's senses is to take a hallucination inducing drug. Thus, the mystical experience of enlightenment is the temporarily breaking out of the simulation. Such experience is ineffable since we only have words for things within our world.
GOD AS CREATOR OF OUR VIRTUAL REALITY:
While most people have
not had the intense experience of all their basic assumptions about the
world breaking down, many people have had experiences of things that
do not fit with the standard materialistic view of the world. Or,
at least, many have experiences that does not fit in with the rest of
their view of the world they've assumed their whole lives. This
coherent world
around us demands our near constant attention and interaction, forcing
us to put aside
doubts about whether the world truly exists or not.
But, doubts remain strong when we accept our extra-ordinary experiences as true. While usually not strong enough for us abandon our belief in the physical world, many such intense experiences make us accept the spiritual as additionally real. If even one of the experiences of ghosts, psychic phenomena, angels or God—from the millions of witnesses throughout all human history—is true then the materialistic viewpoint—the viewpoint that claims the material world creates all mind and experiences of consciousness—breaks down.
While the possibility exists that both the material and the spiritual worlds could arise separately, using Occam's Razor and basic logic would point to either the material creating the mental or the mental/spiritual creating the physical. Given that many people have experienced non-material phenomena, the latter must be true.
Instead of Descartes' evil genius simulation maker, one only has to look to any religion (except perhaps Buddhism) to find that God is our creator. For those who haven't experienced God directly and consciously through the mystical experience, faith—the hallmark of religions—is required. Perhaps, death is when you wake up from the dream of life and end the simulation.
If God knows all, why not get your answers as straight from the source as possible? If all that you really know is that you are a mind, then wouldn't the best way to know yourself be to explore your own mind? This non-physical investigation is what mystics claim to do. They claim that by freeing your mind from its sense input, then you will find out the true nature of the world. The Hindu mystics coined the word maya, meaning illusion, for what the world is really made of.
The physical world does not exist. It is a simulation. You must let go of the assumption that has been the basis for all you have believed to be true. To believe that the physical world does not ultimately exist and that the spiritual is all that is truly real usually requires you to unlearn what has been the basis for everything you have learned since birth. All knowledge that you have gained has been based on the assumption that the physical world actually exists. Most people are very reluctant to give up on an assumption that has served them so well and is ingrained in them. What could be gained by giving up this assumption?
What you will gain is a more powerful belief system that can explain much more about the world than your current belief system. However, you can only grasp this new belief system while you suspend your current belief system. This concept will not stick in your mind unless there is a new world view to take it's place. Thus, I work to present a world view that integrates science and mysticism.
This new paradigm must start with an explanation of what created God; how did God arise. Assuming a starting point of absolutely nothing except the possibility for thought to exist, then it did happen; something became aware. This single consciousness was created in the same way that a subatomic particle can spontaneously come into existence out of pure vacuum due to an incredibly small but nonzero probability. But, it is just a single consciousness, a mind alone amidst nothing. The closest equivalent experience for a human is to imagine being completely paralyzed, feeling no body, while not being able to take in anything from your senses. More like a dream state except this single mind would have no memory of anything.
Consciousness is not definable, but "aware logic" may come the closest. Consciousness happened into existence due to pure logic outside of time or space, which didn't exist then. Thought does not need time just as logic does not need time. Presumably, the physical world was created by this mind in order to separate itself into many, many individual parts, so that the one mind could know itself fully. God is perfect and full of love, but, remember, it gave its creatures free will.
The physical world simulation appears made to replicate as closely as possible what actually is. Time and space only exist in the physical. There seems no theoretical limit to the number of dimensions possible. Perhaps, after we humans have fully comprehended three dimensional space, we may start to comprehend four dimensionally and may eventually as a species and/or planet move into fourth dimensional space.
But, doubts remain strong when we accept our extra-ordinary experiences as true. While usually not strong enough for us abandon our belief in the physical world, many such intense experiences make us accept the spiritual as additionally real. If even one of the experiences of ghosts, psychic phenomena, angels or God—from the millions of witnesses throughout all human history—is true then the materialistic viewpoint—the viewpoint that claims the material world creates all mind and experiences of consciousness—breaks down.
While the possibility exists that both the material and the spiritual worlds could arise separately, using Occam's Razor and basic logic would point to either the material creating the mental or the mental/spiritual creating the physical. Given that many people have experienced non-material phenomena, the latter must be true.
Instead of Descartes' evil genius simulation maker, one only has to look to any religion (except perhaps Buddhism) to find that God is our creator. For those who haven't experienced God directly and consciously through the mystical experience, faith—the hallmark of religions—is required. Perhaps, death is when you wake up from the dream of life and end the simulation.
If God knows all, why not get your answers as straight from the source as possible? If all that you really know is that you are a mind, then wouldn't the best way to know yourself be to explore your own mind? This non-physical investigation is what mystics claim to do. They claim that by freeing your mind from its sense input, then you will find out the true nature of the world. The Hindu mystics coined the word maya, meaning illusion, for what the world is really made of.
The physical world does not exist. It is a simulation. You must let go of the assumption that has been the basis for all you have believed to be true. To believe that the physical world does not ultimately exist and that the spiritual is all that is truly real usually requires you to unlearn what has been the basis for everything you have learned since birth. All knowledge that you have gained has been based on the assumption that the physical world actually exists. Most people are very reluctant to give up on an assumption that has served them so well and is ingrained in them. What could be gained by giving up this assumption?
What you will gain is a more powerful belief system that can explain much more about the world than your current belief system. However, you can only grasp this new belief system while you suspend your current belief system. This concept will not stick in your mind unless there is a new world view to take it's place. Thus, I work to present a world view that integrates science and mysticism.
This new paradigm must start with an explanation of what created God; how did God arise. Assuming a starting point of absolutely nothing except the possibility for thought to exist, then it did happen; something became aware. This single consciousness was created in the same way that a subatomic particle can spontaneously come into existence out of pure vacuum due to an incredibly small but nonzero probability. But, it is just a single consciousness, a mind alone amidst nothing. The closest equivalent experience for a human is to imagine being completely paralyzed, feeling no body, while not being able to take in anything from your senses. More like a dream state except this single mind would have no memory of anything.
Consciousness is not definable, but "aware logic" may come the closest. Consciousness happened into existence due to pure logic outside of time or space, which didn't exist then. Thought does not need time just as logic does not need time. Presumably, the physical world was created by this mind in order to separate itself into many, many individual parts, so that the one mind could know itself fully. God is perfect and full of love, but, remember, it gave its creatures free will.
The physical world simulation appears made to replicate as closely as possible what actually is. Time and space only exist in the physical. There seems no theoretical limit to the number of dimensions possible. Perhaps, after we humans have fully comprehended three dimensional space, we may start to comprehend four dimensionally and may eventually as a species and/or planet move into fourth dimensional space.
IMPLICATIONS FOR SCIENCE:
Scientists don't like
making assumptions, but the ones who believe in a materialistic only
universe (that consciousness arises from the physical, not the other
way around) have already started with the biggest assumption of all.
Science has worked well discovering much about how the world works and
as a basis for producing advanced helpful technologies. But, science
fails when it comes to
addressing issues of God and soul. Science by definition cannot answer
meta-physical questions.
Yet, many believers in science and the materialistic world view claim science supports them. No, these people start with a physical-world-only view and mold their science to fit it. Science has its dogmas just like religions. Unfortunately, the scientific community does not usually accept its limitation and tends to be very critical of religion and other fields of study dealing with nonphysical things.
The limit to pure science is consciousness. Science can only observe and measure physical things, but consciousness is not physical. Thus, the next scientific revolution will put an end to "pure" or materialistic minded science. Currently science is actually catching up to what mystics have been claiming for millennia. There are a number of excellent books showing that modern science and ancient mysticism reveal the same things. The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra and The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav are the classics.
Pure consciousness theory jives incredibly well with the pictures of reality that quantum theory provides. Consider Bohr's "There is no deep reality." Or, "Reality is created by observation." "Undivided wholeness." Everett's "Many worlds interpretation" can be seen as all worlds existing in the one mind and the "best" one is chosen. Von Neumann's "consciousness creates reality" is obvious. I recommend Nick Herbert's excellent book Elemental Mind for contemplating these connections between consciousness and the quantum.
But showing that science and mysticism can produce similar answers to the ultimate questions of reality is just the beginning. The incredible power should come when science and spirituality merge. Only when scientists have a basic understanding of consciousness will they then be able to understand mind-body interactions, questions about artificial intelligence, the driving force behind evolution and more.
Just as the Church leaders refused to look through Galileo's telescope, many scientifically minded people refuse to look inwards to verify that God exists as a part of each of us. Reliability in reporting such experiences is an issue, since when experiencing God or the infinite people find what they want to find leading to somewhat of a lack of consensus of the knowledge gained. Also, consistent reproducibility of such experiences could make it more scientifically acceptable, but achieving higher states of consciousness is more complex than looking through a telescope.
People relate and understand new experiences by interpreting them through their past experiences and belief systems. Christian mystics especially tend to be caught up in the mythology of their religion, so that answers such as the true nature of reality tend to be heavily clouded in symbolic terms. Also, usually the most important information a seer gains is not about the true nature of the world but related to pressing personal questions.
The illusionary aspect of the physical world mostly makes no difference in our lives except for those searching for truth.
Yet, many believers in science and the materialistic world view claim science supports them. No, these people start with a physical-world-only view and mold their science to fit it. Science has its dogmas just like religions. Unfortunately, the scientific community does not usually accept its limitation and tends to be very critical of religion and other fields of study dealing with nonphysical things.
The limit to pure science is consciousness. Science can only observe and measure physical things, but consciousness is not physical. Thus, the next scientific revolution will put an end to "pure" or materialistic minded science. Currently science is actually catching up to what mystics have been claiming for millennia. There are a number of excellent books showing that modern science and ancient mysticism reveal the same things. The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra and The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav are the classics.
Pure consciousness theory jives incredibly well with the pictures of reality that quantum theory provides. Consider Bohr's "There is no deep reality." Or, "Reality is created by observation." "Undivided wholeness." Everett's "Many worlds interpretation" can be seen as all worlds existing in the one mind and the "best" one is chosen. Von Neumann's "consciousness creates reality" is obvious. I recommend Nick Herbert's excellent book Elemental Mind for contemplating these connections between consciousness and the quantum.
But showing that science and mysticism can produce similar answers to the ultimate questions of reality is just the beginning. The incredible power should come when science and spirituality merge. Only when scientists have a basic understanding of consciousness will they then be able to understand mind-body interactions, questions about artificial intelligence, the driving force behind evolution and more.
Just as the Church leaders refused to look through Galileo's telescope, many scientifically minded people refuse to look inwards to verify that God exists as a part of each of us. Reliability in reporting such experiences is an issue, since when experiencing God or the infinite people find what they want to find leading to somewhat of a lack of consensus of the knowledge gained. Also, consistent reproducibility of such experiences could make it more scientifically acceptable, but achieving higher states of consciousness is more complex than looking through a telescope.
People relate and understand new experiences by interpreting them through their past experiences and belief systems. Christian mystics especially tend to be caught up in the mythology of their religion, so that answers such as the true nature of reality tend to be heavily clouded in symbolic terms. Also, usually the most important information a seer gains is not about the true nature of the world but related to pressing personal questions.
The illusionary aspect of the physical world mostly makes no difference in our lives except for those searching for truth.