manjit
New
Hello Everyone :)
Really don't know how to even begin to contextualise the following post. Have an hour or so free, so wanted to jot down some thoughts that have been percolating inside my head for quite a while now without any real outward expression....for my own benefit more than others, sometimes it helps to clarify one's own thoughts by writing them down; I really don't have anyone to discuss these things with in "real life" or even online, the things that possess my thoughts almost exclusively. Don't even know if there is a place for this online/in public, but I've noticed a lot of posters on this site have knowledge & awareness of a lot of the concepts, information, authors and set of experiences the following speculations are a kind of "synthesis" of....
My speculation is in regards to the ultimate nature of reality and it's relation to the human experience.
First of all I will mention, due to where I am posting this, that I personally have found the materialist reductionist / atheist / debunker disciplines approach, as they currently stand, to the phenomena I am taking into consideration here, as utterly irrelevant, passé, an out-dated dinosaur etc. Obviously many will think this comment is the height of woo woo absurdity. As somebody who genuinely believes they have no bias to approaches or outcomes, and as somebody who has found that I generally have more awareness of the actual science, data, literature, history etc of these so-called "sceptical" approaches than many if not most of those who loudly promote or believe the "woo woo" approach to any mysterious aspects of the universe, consciousness & the full spectrum of human experience - I really have no concern, interest or regard for that whole mind-set. So onwards....
Basically, after a deep & intensive immersion in these questions for 25+ years, I believe the following are the 3 most likely scenarios for the ultimate nature of reality and it's connection to the human experience:
1) We are living in a completely un-"mysterious" mechanical reality, initiated & maintained by completely un-intelligent, random & mechanistic processes, and that the entire universe, human consciousness & the full range of human experience will one day be fully explained within this framework. However, contrary to some popular beliefs, we are nowhere even remotely close to such an explanation with our current sciences & understanding. If this case is true, I believe we are at least several centuries short of the revolutions and advances within the sciences for them to adequately explain these phenomena. When I state several centuries of evolution in scientific thought, I fully understand that with our current incredible, exponential rate of scientific advancement, that this is an extremely long estimate - this reflects just how far I believe we currently are from such mechanistic, scientific "explanations"! Personally, of the 3 scenarious I present, I believe this is the most unlikely possibility. The range of phenomena I am aware of, and have experienced, alongside my knowledge of science makes this view of reality, at least currently, completely untenable for me.
2) For the vast majority of my investigations into the nature of reality, I have come at it from a religious, mystical, theological & philosophical approach. I am very familiar with most religious and mystical teachings, to quite a substantial depth, as well as their historical, cultural, linguistic context, and their evolution through time. I have also had many thousands of hours of meditation and other "spiritual" practices, along with an endless & uncategorisable variety of "spiritual" experiences, awakenings, insights, ecstasies, visions etc.
Although this is the area I have most in-depth knowledge & understanding of, for the last several years I have kind of lost interest in this approach, as I feel no current system of mystical theology sufficiently explains the full spectrum of human experiences possible. In view of this, I will make this scenario exponentially briefer than it could have been.
The "theology" I would propose as most likely, in this possible scenario, is that this physical universe & the human experience is a universe created as a kind of school or learning area for individualised aspects of being, or "souls" (perhaps something akin to what Thomas Campbell suggests in his TOE book, or as Seth spoke unto Jane Roberts :)
In this perspective, "Reality" is composed of almost infinite multiple mini-realities or universes on a variety of levels, each with their own teaching "purpose".
Contrary to what most mystical teachings state, it does not seem as if in the human experience we are meant to "know" the grander reality, as that would obviate the entire purpose of physical reality. Ie., if we knew our "real" identity in the grander reality, then the "game" down here would no longer work, and no "lessons" would be learnt. Like enjoying any good movie, we must suspend dis-belief, so we must suspend dis-belief in our current experience of physical reality, ultimately illusory though it may be.
A great of deal of non-religious or non-theologically based "mystical" experiences support this idea, such as the NDE narrative (at least in the last century), mediumship, channeling, the experience of mystics who are entirely unconnected or tainted by a priori mystical, religous, spiritual or cultural beliefs & concepts etc.
The information we have available also suggests, if this scenario is true, that we actively choose to "come here", our (usually) challenging (if not down-right horrific) life circumstances, are to learn and to add to the vast database (God, Oversoul etc) of knowledge & experience. This universe will clearly not be one of the more pleasant "schools" of experience :(
I believe the old concepts of "forced" re-incarnation, found in Hinduism, Buddhism, some schools of Gnosticism, and many related mystical schools, is based on a variety of influences through time, such as misinterpreted "inner experiences/visions" (which I have also experienced), cultural influence, religous doctrine & control, human misunderstanding & fears, conceptual & linguistic evolution of ideas etc etc. However, I really do not feel any kind of genuine mystical experience really supports this idea, especially if it is a matured experience. Even in the writings of these fear-based religions, such as Buddhism, the epitome of these teachings clearly infer that this is ultimately correct, and the narrow fearful view of reincarnation is a human construct.
The main lesson we are here to learn, I suggest, if this scenario is true, is to love one another, and be kind, despite the horrors, abuses, hatred etc we humans like to level at each other...... NOT to escape to some imagined heaven of eternal bliss, or Nirvana etc.
This is a scenario which to fully explain & support with copious reference could take dozens of volumes, but I will leave it here, as I am most currently interested & stimulated by scenario 3, which I think at least has some "truth" to it - though, actually, scenario 3 can co-exist with scenario 2 in many ways, perhaps as one particular dimension of scenario 2, as in the mechanics of the demi-urge of Gnostics, or the "Kal" of Indian mysticism, who would be the regulator or caretaker of this universe...but this would be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain, as there is literally nothing in our purview which could not be manipulated by this very "force", including our very belief in something "beyond" it.....
Really don't know how to even begin to contextualise the following post. Have an hour or so free, so wanted to jot down some thoughts that have been percolating inside my head for quite a while now without any real outward expression....for my own benefit more than others, sometimes it helps to clarify one's own thoughts by writing them down; I really don't have anyone to discuss these things with in "real life" or even online, the things that possess my thoughts almost exclusively. Don't even know if there is a place for this online/in public, but I've noticed a lot of posters on this site have knowledge & awareness of a lot of the concepts, information, authors and set of experiences the following speculations are a kind of "synthesis" of....
My speculation is in regards to the ultimate nature of reality and it's relation to the human experience.
First of all I will mention, due to where I am posting this, that I personally have found the materialist reductionist / atheist / debunker disciplines approach, as they currently stand, to the phenomena I am taking into consideration here, as utterly irrelevant, passé, an out-dated dinosaur etc. Obviously many will think this comment is the height of woo woo absurdity. As somebody who genuinely believes they have no bias to approaches or outcomes, and as somebody who has found that I generally have more awareness of the actual science, data, literature, history etc of these so-called "sceptical" approaches than many if not most of those who loudly promote or believe the "woo woo" approach to any mysterious aspects of the universe, consciousness & the full spectrum of human experience - I really have no concern, interest or regard for that whole mind-set. So onwards....
Basically, after a deep & intensive immersion in these questions for 25+ years, I believe the following are the 3 most likely scenarios for the ultimate nature of reality and it's connection to the human experience:
1) We are living in a completely un-"mysterious" mechanical reality, initiated & maintained by completely un-intelligent, random & mechanistic processes, and that the entire universe, human consciousness & the full range of human experience will one day be fully explained within this framework. However, contrary to some popular beliefs, we are nowhere even remotely close to such an explanation with our current sciences & understanding. If this case is true, I believe we are at least several centuries short of the revolutions and advances within the sciences for them to adequately explain these phenomena. When I state several centuries of evolution in scientific thought, I fully understand that with our current incredible, exponential rate of scientific advancement, that this is an extremely long estimate - this reflects just how far I believe we currently are from such mechanistic, scientific "explanations"! Personally, of the 3 scenarious I present, I believe this is the most unlikely possibility. The range of phenomena I am aware of, and have experienced, alongside my knowledge of science makes this view of reality, at least currently, completely untenable for me.
2) For the vast majority of my investigations into the nature of reality, I have come at it from a religious, mystical, theological & philosophical approach. I am very familiar with most religious and mystical teachings, to quite a substantial depth, as well as their historical, cultural, linguistic context, and their evolution through time. I have also had many thousands of hours of meditation and other "spiritual" practices, along with an endless & uncategorisable variety of "spiritual" experiences, awakenings, insights, ecstasies, visions etc.
Although this is the area I have most in-depth knowledge & understanding of, for the last several years I have kind of lost interest in this approach, as I feel no current system of mystical theology sufficiently explains the full spectrum of human experiences possible. In view of this, I will make this scenario exponentially briefer than it could have been.
The "theology" I would propose as most likely, in this possible scenario, is that this physical universe & the human experience is a universe created as a kind of school or learning area for individualised aspects of being, or "souls" (perhaps something akin to what Thomas Campbell suggests in his TOE book, or as Seth spoke unto Jane Roberts :)
In this perspective, "Reality" is composed of almost infinite multiple mini-realities or universes on a variety of levels, each with their own teaching "purpose".
Contrary to what most mystical teachings state, it does not seem as if in the human experience we are meant to "know" the grander reality, as that would obviate the entire purpose of physical reality. Ie., if we knew our "real" identity in the grander reality, then the "game" down here would no longer work, and no "lessons" would be learnt. Like enjoying any good movie, we must suspend dis-belief, so we must suspend dis-belief in our current experience of physical reality, ultimately illusory though it may be.
A great of deal of non-religious or non-theologically based "mystical" experiences support this idea, such as the NDE narrative (at least in the last century), mediumship, channeling, the experience of mystics who are entirely unconnected or tainted by a priori mystical, religous, spiritual or cultural beliefs & concepts etc.
The information we have available also suggests, if this scenario is true, that we actively choose to "come here", our (usually) challenging (if not down-right horrific) life circumstances, are to learn and to add to the vast database (God, Oversoul etc) of knowledge & experience. This universe will clearly not be one of the more pleasant "schools" of experience :(
I believe the old concepts of "forced" re-incarnation, found in Hinduism, Buddhism, some schools of Gnosticism, and many related mystical schools, is based on a variety of influences through time, such as misinterpreted "inner experiences/visions" (which I have also experienced), cultural influence, religous doctrine & control, human misunderstanding & fears, conceptual & linguistic evolution of ideas etc etc. However, I really do not feel any kind of genuine mystical experience really supports this idea, especially if it is a matured experience. Even in the writings of these fear-based religions, such as Buddhism, the epitome of these teachings clearly infer that this is ultimately correct, and the narrow fearful view of reincarnation is a human construct.
The main lesson we are here to learn, I suggest, if this scenario is true, is to love one another, and be kind, despite the horrors, abuses, hatred etc we humans like to level at each other...... NOT to escape to some imagined heaven of eternal bliss, or Nirvana etc.
This is a scenario which to fully explain & support with copious reference could take dozens of volumes, but I will leave it here, as I am most currently interested & stimulated by scenario 3, which I think at least has some "truth" to it - though, actually, scenario 3 can co-exist with scenario 2 in many ways, perhaps as one particular dimension of scenario 2, as in the mechanics of the demi-urge of Gnostics, or the "Kal" of Indian mysticism, who would be the regulator or caretaker of this universe...but this would be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain, as there is literally nothing in our purview which could not be manipulated by this very "force", including our very belief in something "beyond" it.....