Disorder Waltzing with Emerson's Ghost

"In a world where we are forced to conform to society, it is necessary to have personal chaos." ~T. Alan Armstrong

“What we call chaos is just patterns we haven't recognized. What we call random is just patterns we cant decipher. What we can't understand we call nonsense. What we can't read we call gibberish. There is no free will. There are no variables. There is only the inevitable.” ~Chuck Palahniuk

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In the beginning, we are told, or at least 13.7 billion years ago, all matter in the entire universe was condensed into an infinitely hot, infinitely dense "singularity". How did it get here? From where did it originate? We have no idea. But science seems pretty certain that the universe did indeed have a beginning. "Hubble's Law" consistently demonstrates that galaxies are moving away from us at rate of speed proportional to their distance. Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is the pervasive evidence of the once infinite heat of this expanding singularity in which we now live.

Somehow, in some way, it all began.

Quantum entanglement implies that all of the matter in the known universe, all of the planets and stars and Hollywood actresses, everything that originated from this infinitely dense singularity of energy, is in some way connected. On an atomic level, all matter is one. There is a "New Age" stigma attached to this notion along with the archetypal image of the long-haired Wiccan who practices martial arts and uses crystals to commune with Gene Roddenberry's ghost -- but this idea of "oneness" is as old as it is new.

Imagine this: Life, or at least our own experience of it, is holographic in nature. We are a component of infinite consciousness merely having a finite, physical experience. We are all psychonauts with amnesia. To quote the great Bill Hicks' "enlightenment" routine -- all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration... We are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves... here's Tom with the weather. -- Truth can be found in strange places.

The quantum world is a bizarre world indeed. I have nothing close to the faculty to fully describe its nuances or to even to provide a competent synopsis. But there are certainly some underlying principals that resonate. The observer effect, entanglement, the role of consciousness -- these are all components that harmonize nicely with ideas of human potential and human transcendence that I consider integral to the life experience -- at least my own. Clearly there are many physicists who are more cautious in asserting the role of the conscious mind in the creation of this holographic reality, but there are many who are rather bold in elaborating this connection. I am enough of a Romantic to believe that the latter are closer to the truth.

Interesting Article:
http://www.renresearch.com/consciousness.html

Interview with John Hagelin, PhD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrcWntw9juM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSxluvq5HI0

I now offer you this pine cone.

***

In an essay that I recently discovered by Ralph Waldo Emerson, entitled "Compensation", he observes the underlying elegance of this entanglement as expressed in perceived opposites. Even in such "opposites", the nature of the counterpart implies connection. Unity. Synthesis:

POLARITY, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature; in darkness and light; in heat and cold; in the ebb and flow of waters; in male and female; in the inspiration and expiration of plants and animals; in the equation of quantity and quality in the fluids of the animal body; in the systole and diastole of the heart; in the undulations of fluids, and of sound; in the centrifugal and centripetal gravity; in electricity, galvanism, and chemical affinity. Superinduce magnetism at one end of a needle; the opposite magnetism takes place at the other end. If the south attracts, the north repels. To empty here, you must condense there. An inevitable dualism bisects nature, so that each thing is a half, and suggests another thing to make it whole; as, spirit, matter; man, woman; odd, even; subjective, objective; in, out; upper, under; motion, rest; yea, nay.

Whilst the world is thus dual, so is every one of its parts. The entire system of things gets represented in every particle. There is somewhat that resembles the ebb and flow of the sea, day and night, man and woman, in a single needle of the pine, in a kernel of corn, in each individual of every animal tribe. The reaction, so grand in the elements, is repeated within these small boundaries.

This elegant balance, or compensation, as observed by Emerson, is at the core of nature and existence. What appeals to me about this philosophy, as well as other perspectives and belief-systems which defy static, religious models of "good" versus "evil", is the notion that the universe acts in concert with our conscious experience. It is not independent of us at all. Nature supplies the compensation, we supply the choice given the circumstance -- and to many degrees, we even create the circumstance itself.

There is no independent "good "or "evil". Only action and reaction and the interpretations and intentions therein. There are no objects to consider -- just relationships. That does not mean that one cannot commit an "evil" act. Or that righteousness does not exist. Or your chair. Rather, both good and evil must exist. They demand one another.

Your chair is a bonus.

I have always had an inherent skepticism in viewing "God" as the spiritual personification of a king or ruler seeking to govern the behaviors of man and punish accordingly. It feels too primitive and tribal to attach such qualities to something as vast and magnificent.

Certain voices in the "religious" ranks may express the view that the AIDS virus is God's punishment for homosexuality. Others may view a natural disaster to be some form of judgement on the wicked. Primitive man would sacrifice to the volcano, to the river, to the sun. In many ways, such sacrifice was an attempt to create the same balance and compensation that expresses itself in the creation itself. Death brings about life.

Applying the laws of compensation to "punishment" reveal that a compelling balance is hidden within. Punishment could bring about one's enlightenment and spiritual dedication. In the end, if one believes that "God" intervenes in the affairs of men, then He arguably rewards wicked deeds. For there is no affliction that does not have its just compensation. It is inherent to the design. An eloquent expression, if not a bit of a tricky one. So punish me now, but "affliction shall advance the flight in me." Ultimately, it is my reward.

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Emerson once stated that a part of wisdom is recognizing the journey's end in every step of the road. Every motion is a beginning and an ending. The moment is now. All at once. Every step forward, an end of a journey. To live as such, to liberate yourself from your own habits and institutional beliefs, to acknowledge the fluid pulse of consciousness as it fashions experience, this is transcendence. Or maybe I am just talking shit.

I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings. ~Albert Einstein

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Even though I despise the New World Order and banking oligarchs who have been working behind the scenes to manipulate the world into a global fascism, I realize that even in matters of oppressive polity, there is balance, compensation. There is a natural cycle that exists which is larger than the elitists who seek to thwart this balance. And so it will fail. Their agenda will fail. and liberty will rise.

Until it is forgotten. And then the laws of compensation favor the fascist once again.

And now: Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids...