How far is a Second?
-Or-
Whole work art,
in which time
turns into space.
If superior humans are ever to walk this
earth, we need to form new ways of knowing, new ways of learning. Gestalt, whole work art universities are
needed which entrain consciousness on an artistic, symbolic, mystical
holism. What can save us now is only a
complete synthesis of ecology and religion, placing cooperation over
competition, over the discourse of division and hate. There will be no deus ex machina, and the
future of our earth is our responsibility.
Only complete sublimation of our destructive tendencies and a
“revaluation of all values” can change our current direction.
There may be other forms of
consciousness which we can use to shape our future to the greater benefit of
all humanity. To reach an understanding
of what these forms could be, requires an understanding of how our mind
currently creates the world we see. What
are the limits of our perspective, and can it be expanded?
The writings of Julian Jaynes suggest
that our consciousness has been through changes in the past. Bicameral man, Jaynes suggests, exhibited a
previous form of mentation which was vastly different from our own. His theory suggests that consciousness itself
can perform major evolutionary leaps, producing new humans which see the world
in an entirely different way.
The theories which PD Ouspensky
developed about 2D, 3D and 4D modes of perception elucidate the theories of
Julian Jaynes. In combining these two
theories, a more complete theory of consciousness emerges.
It is widely believed that preliterate
people with oral tradition had excellent memory for preserving their
myths. They are documented to have
flawlessly retained consistency and accuracy in the preservation of their oral
cultural heritage. PD Ouspensky states
that animals lower than humans, such as dogs, exist in a two dimensional mode
of perception. In fact, humans see in 2D
as well, but we extract a 3D perspective out of that vision. In the book Tertium Organum, Ouspensky states that 2D perceivers experience
every event as a new separate memorable event, due to the restrictions of their
perception by the 2D mode. I believe these 2D
perceivers would have improved memory, which would explain the amazing feats of
memory which are reputed to have been demonstrated by ancient people. Francis Yates, in The Art of Memory, explains techniques used by people in the middle
ages and ancient times, to improve their memories to flawless levels. It may be possible to exist in a dual 2D/3D
state to benefit from the perceptual advantages of each “operating
system.” Ouspensky states that
conceptions, ideas, are what allow us
to interpret the world around us in three dimensions. 2D perceivers do not have the perception of three
dimensionality, because they do not have the conception of such in their minds. The idea that objects have 3 dimensions,
combined with synesthetic cues, such as touching 3d blocks as a child, helps a
child learn the visual cues which correspond to three dimensionality. 3D perceivers have the tool of a “concept”
such as “chair.” This allows them to
generalize and understand a larger piece of their reality. This generalization would likely have a
detrimental effect on memory.
One of the largest questions, in my
mind, is, can you have language without consciousness? And the answer, I believe, is that 2D
perceivers can have spoken language without having what we experience as modern
consciousness. I believe the line is
drawn between bicameral and modern people with the advent of the written
word. The written word creates the “mind
space” to conceptualize "concepts" and especially certain concepts, such as
dimensionality. This is what creates a person who can make the jump from 2D to
3D mental processes.
A war between bicameral(2D) people,
and modern consciousness(3D) people, occurred when the Spanish conquered the
Aztecs or, perhaps to a lesser extent, the English settlers conquering the
American Indians. It is clear what
happens when these two types of people clash.
Or, rather than a direct clash, you simply have assimilation. Bringing religion to the natives always
entailed bringing reading and writing, too. In several generations, there are no more Bicamerals, just more modern
people, with a different color skin.
It is likely that Bicameral
consciousness has other benefits as well as superhuman memory. Jaynes stated he could “make” a bicameral person, given the right
environment. I think we should. A “Bicameral
College
Leonard Shlain suggests, in his book, The Alphabet and the Goddess, that the
advent of literacy changed people, making them more aggressive and
violent. As well as a reduction of the
violent tendencies, a Bicameral school would produce poetic minds. A vast curriculum of mythopoetic literature
could be the canon of such a school.
These students could employ the concepts of Joseph Chilton Pearce, while
saturating in the poetry of Blake, Shakespeare.
Robert Graves laments that there is no
longer any classical mythological canon which is taught at universities or even
an unofficial group of books which everyone is assured to have read. My concern is that the Bicameral mind uses
large mythopoetic associations to communicate in synergy, simultaneous, emergent,
iconic thought. If Julian Jaynes'
bicameral mind still exists, underneath our own, we have prevented access to it
by not giving it the raw data en mass which it requires to formulate its poetic
expulsions. There is not a common
mythosphere in which common poetic schemes can emerge. Everyone is living in their own separate
mythopoetic world.
The few people who do begin to create a safe
womblike mythosphere begin to experience the other attributes of true
mythopoetic genesis. Namely; vestigial
precognizance, high levels of synchronicity, the ability to see the fabric of
an emergent reality coming into being.
Jung experienced high levels of synchronicity due to the common
mythospere he created with his colleagues and patients. The attempt to use the subconscious as a
creative source was the driving force in the creation of the art form
Surrealism. Surrealists use art, poems,
games, and other techniques to tap their inner emergent creativity. In the Surrealist
Manifesto, by Andre Breton, he discusses how he accessed his “subconscious”
through the use of surrealist techniques.
I suggest that the Freudian subconscious is simply latent 2D or
Bicameral mentality. Mastery of our
subconscious is generally agreed upon as a good idea. But what about 4D? What about our
superconscious?
Having grown up with Madeline L' Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, I am pleased to use
concepts which I first learned in her work as a child, here, in my
philosophical musings. Later, I enjoyed
watching The Last Mimsy with my
younger brothers, and was pleased to see the same philosophical concepts. Both of these stories actually draw from real
theories pertaining to the fourth dimension.
The concept of a Tesseract, or of walking
through walls, in Wrinkle, or the ability to see and manipulate higher
dimensional space, in Mimsy, are all
good examples of the theoretic impact of being able to observe and interact
with higher dimensions. It is important
in art to create the framework which younger generations conceptualize advanced
ideas. In fact, the art which children
are exposed to as a child has a permanent effect on a child's creativity, or
lack thereof. It is a scary thought that
the book Momo, by Michael Ende, is
not even available in America
When Philip K Dick wrote Valis, he wrote the entire book in third
person, referring to himself as “Horselover Fat,” in doing so, he reasoned that
the third person narrative gave him “much needed objectivity.” PKD may have done this to create a level of
detachment towards otherwise painful memories.
Or, his underlying pseudo, or full-blown schizophrenic tendencies may
have dictated this writing style. I
suspect creating a sense of detachment, internally, can create an “internal
observer” which can assist in debunking internal irrationalities. Most people react emotionally to their
environment, then, afterwards, justify their actions by applying a logical
narrative. This cogio-rationalization is
the antipathy of good sense. If instead
you segment an internal “personalitiy” into an objective internal observer, you
can use logic to self-modify and sublimate irrational and emotionally driven
behaviors.
In the work of Carlos Casteneda, this
third person detachment was carried even further, ultimately to the betterment
in his many novels. I believe that at
best, the character Don Juan was loosely based on a real person. Most likely this man was neither as perfect
as Casteneda mythologized him to be, or as knowledgeable. At worst, for readers who demand “truth,” Don
Juan was an internal projection of Castenedas own consciousness, a breakaway
logic loop, an internal guide that all of us need to develop. Casteneda formed a mystic system which holds
distinct similarities to that of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff. Casteneda made a whole mythological world
where he could come to terms with his own (excellent) philosophical musings and
apply the teachings in sociological terms.
In other words, Casteneda created a world where characters could act out
the reality of living out a specific a mystical system. The resulting books contain as much “truth”
as you can get out of them, and can be valuable tools for forming your own
mythosphere.
The idea of higher dimensions of space is
not controversial among scientists. At
the last time I read up on it, string theorists were considering it practicable
to use eleven dimensions of space to conceptualize the phenomena we observe,
such as gravity and electromagnetism.
The scientific method encourages the
gathering of data, but how do you gather data when you doubt even what you
see? It is important not to assume what
you see in your 3D perception mode is real.
Such an assumption could prevent you from making the leap into 4D
perception, superconsciousness. In other
words, rather than observing phenomena and trying to form conclusions from my
data, I would like to start with the quirks of perception itself. The reason for this reversal of any
scientific method is due to the effect our preconceived notions on the topic at
hand. Not only are these preconceived
notions aspects of “rational” thought, they are also hard wired into our
language itself and perception itself.
Many difficulties present when assuming
that perception is reality. An excellent
book which discusses the shortcomings and misconceptions which arise in regards
to consciousness is The User Illusion,
by Tor Norretranders. Norretranders book
has recent scientific studies which shine a distinct light on exactly what
consciousness is not. For a more
mystical take on perception, Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception is a good start. Entertain the possibility, at least, that the
world is not as you perceive it.
The User
Illusion in a nutshell is this:
Everything you observe is translated before you perceive it, everything
is processed, extrapolated, changed, by a preprogrammed retinue which is a
function of your brain. What you observe
is, in a very real sense, not reality itself; it is an interpretation. This effect is commonly demonstrated by the effect
which optical illusions have on the perception.
The preprogrammed interpretation can be tricked into seeing movement
where there isn't any, as well as many other deceptions.
It is a common belief among psychologists
that depth perception is a learned behavior which occurs during
childhood. Depth perception, for the purposes
of this essay will be defined as the ability to conceptualize and therefore
perceive three dimensions visually.
People who are given eyesight later in life, by medical intervention,
often complain that they do not have depth perception and literally find seeing
to be mentally exhausting.
The system which I use to explain the
fourth perpendicular, or fourth dimension, to myself and others, is that of
Ouspensky. Ouspensky was a
mathematician, mystic, and is commonly remembered as a follower of the
teachings of Gurdjieff.
Gurdjieff came from the era of “whole
work art,” which was a concept which Richard Wagner designed. Whole work art, by design, enchants all the
senses at once, and can have the effect of “stopping time.” When all sense organs are focused on the same
event, senses blur and can create euphoric synesthetic experiences. Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan teachings are
clearly Gurdjieff without Gurdjieff. One
of Gurdjieffs teachings was to live above the realm of the accidental. This can easily be translated to Castaneda's
concept, “Intentionality.” Gurdjieffs
teachings were cast upon great doubt when he himself had an automobile accident
which left him in a coma. Castaneda
wisely used different terminology to deploy the same teachings. By using a third person concept, and relying
on the teachings of Don Juan, Castaneda could claim ignorance to
his own work while having the master (Don Juan) stay incorruptibly perfect.
This
is an obtuse way of letting the story speak for itself, or, parallels the concept
“anything that can be believed is truth.”
Nevertheless, it is an interesting subterfuge, makes for a great story,
and may actually be a highly intelligent attempt to bypass modern man's incipient
cogio-rationalizations. He simply says,
this is the truth; take it or leave it.
Synesthesia is the best perceptional tool
that we can use to perceive fourth dimensional phenomena. Wagner, in his opera Parsifal, states that inside the Grail castle, “Time turns into
space.” This is the effect, according to
Ouspensky, of entering a higher perceptional level. Ouspensky states that movement, which can
only take place in time, becomes an aspect of a greater dimension of space. Higher perceivers, according to Ouspensky, “extract
more dimensions out of time.”
Gurdjieff was known during his era as
a mystic and dance instuctor. He
designed a dances and musical scores which were designed to place his students
in a mystical state of being. Gurdjieff taught a complex mystical system which
students referred to as “The Work.” He
wrote several books and traveled extensively. Olgivanna Hizenburg, a prominent
student of Gurdjieff in Russia ,
was instructed to leave for America America
Buckminster Fuller was known for his
concept of “spaceship earth,” and well remembered for his dome structures. He was a famous architect, inventor and
“futurist.” Among many inventions in
sustainable architecture and engineering were state-of-the-art discoveries in
geometric load bearing techniques.
Buckminster Fuller, with the help of his students, came up with the idea
of Tensegrity structures, and called one of his favorite design philosophies
“4D.” I see Fullers life as a perfect example
of “whole work art.”
Castaneda, in his later work, came up
with a series of physical exercises which are similar to yogic or meditative
techniques. Castaneda called these
exercises “Tensegrity.” and suggested they would help people “see.” “Seeing,” I
believe, is a euphemism for perceiving higher reality.
Ouspensky, in his work, has a diagram
of what a 4D circle would look like.
Below I have pictures of crop circles which look exactly the same, and
may be diagrams of 4D structures, ironically enough, on a 2D canvas! Could
“aliens” be four dimensional creatures, and are the crop circles intended to
give us a diagram of their perspective?
Or is it a group of prankster Ouspensky followers sneaking out in the middle
of the night and making intricate and massive crop diagrams? I don't know about you, but as interesting as
I find Ouspensky's ideas, I sure wouldn't waste any time mashing his ideas into
corn mazes.
A fourth dimensional cube is called a hypercube,
which is what was sent back in time in the movie The Last Mimsy. A hypercube
could appear to be a regular cube to a 3D perceiver, in the same way that when
a 3D object, when intersecting a 2D plane, can create a 2D section. The famous surrealist Salvador Dali painted
Jesus crucified on a hypercube.
Many people have trouble conceptualizing the fourth
dimension in a practical, physical way. One
of the best ways to experience and improve your perception of 3D is to play
with a Rubik's cube. There are working
models of 4D Rubik's hypercubes online, therefore it is possible for humans to practice
movement in four dimensions. We do not
experience 4D in the world around us, as it is believed that our world is three
dimensional. It is a common
misconception that the fourth dimension is time. Castaneda's writings discuss exercises which
were used to induce non-ordinary experiences in perspective, and in linearity
of perception (in time.)
The fourth dimension may be a
dimension of intention, pure will. Specifically
interesting in such an imaginal realm are the implications on the concept of
morality.
Drawing from the writings of Philip Dick, I believe that the
human soul may be a part of larger “4D bodies” consisting of an unknown amount
of separate people living simultaneously, outside of the concept of time.
Perhaps all people are part of one large 4D collective soul. PKD discusses in his Exegesis his feeling
that he was two people living two lives, one in his era and another in biblical
times, as a persecuted Christian. Dick
uses the novel Ubik to explore the concept of forms and the effect of will on
reality. I believe PKD was trying desperately
in his novels and his Exegesis to
explain his real fourth dimensional mystical experiences.
Dick enjoyed toying with the concept of reality and
stated famously; “I like to build universes which do fall apart.” When Jesus taught that you will be judged on
your internal sins, I believe he was setting the stage for the moral tenets
future state of being in which reality itself is a projection of personal
will. In Arthur Schopenhauer's
teachings, the concept of “world as will and idea,” a true 4D philosophy is
further fleshed out. Joseph Chilton
Pearce in his novel Crack in the Cosmic
Egg and Michael Talbot in Holographic
Universe, expound scientific theories which suggest our internal state is a
reflection the world around us. The
concept “as above, so below,” may have been a way of saying the universe is a
hologram, before the term existed.
In a world which is a result of your inner will,
flawlessness of will would be required.
The thought “I wish he were dead” would be as dangerous as killing a man yourself. I believe the Earth may be a
“jail” for “souls” who haven't yet mastered flawlessness of will. Living in a reality in which your thoughts
manifest as pure will requires a flawless morality. Any hidden negativity or judgment toward your
fellow men could cause injury or pain to them.
Living under the morality of will also require you to “conquer the monsters
of the id.” This monster of the id may be the same concept which is discussed
in theosophical terminology as “the dweller in the threshold,” or “the guardian
of the threshold.”
In fictional terms, the movie Sphere, by Michael
Crichton, and the 1956 Science fiction movie The Forbidden Planet, a device is present which gives the power to
materialize the subconscious desires on a material level.
In Forbidden Planet, the story takes place remote
world, and in Sphere the drama takes place deep under the sea. This resonates well with the “dweller in the
threshold” concept, as he is only reached in deep contemplation of the inner
recesses of man. The philosophy of
Thelema, which was developed by Aleister Crowley, may be based on an awareness
of these same concepts.
William Blake told the story of Job to explain the
concept of being crucified by one’s own morality. Blake stated “one law for the lion and the ox
is oppression.” I believe this concept
speaks to the inability to judge a 4D thinker by 3D morality.
The concept of an item which solidifies
thought into reality is often associated with a device, often a fourth
dimensional concept such as a hypercube, or tesseract. Perhaps the Kabba in Mecca
The Rose Cross of the Rosicrucian’s
is an unfolded cube, and Lon Milo DuQuette explains that the Rosy Cross has an
infinitesimal point on its center; “the ancients symbolized the point as a
white cubic stone which contains within itself the potential of all
creation.” DuQuette goes on to explain
that the three dimensions of the cube, seven position of the cube, (center plus
the six sides) and twelve edges add up to twenty two, which relates directly to
the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew Alphabet and correspond the number of
cards in the Cabbalistic Tarot.
In The
Carnelian Cube, a science fiction novel written in 1948, the main character
finds a small carnelian gemstone cube in an archaeological dig. The cube is attributed to be the once-property
of Apollonian, and has the magical property of transporting its user to a
parallel reality which is a projection of such users will. The cube is used by placing it under one's
pillow, causing your dream to become a real world. The furtherance of plot consists of the main
character entering these unpleasant new realities, which are projections of his
flawed intentions and desires. This cube
has the power, like Michael Chrichton’s Sphere,
to generate a new reality. The Carnelian
Cube is an excellent example of this important meme.
According to Manly P Hall, in The Secret Teachings of the Ages, “The solar system was organized
by forces operating inward from the great ring of the Saturnian sphere, and
since the beginning of all things were under the control of Saturn, the most
reasonable inference is that the first forms of worship were dedicated to him
and his peculiar symbol, the stone.“
The Monolith from 2001, A Space Odyssey may also be somehow related to this Saturnian
concept. According to Jay Weidner, Stanley
Kubrick originally intended to have the large second obelisk/monolith located
on a moon of Saturn, rather than Jupiter.
The Osiris-Set-Isis myth has Osiris, (Saturn) being
overthrown by Set, (Jupiter) in a fashion repeated by many ancient myths. The Roman philosopher Varro believed that
Yahweh of the Jews was the same as their concept of Jupiter, Jove being the
highest god of the roman Pantheon.
Blavatsky clarifies this concept by stating, outright, that Saturn is
Yahweh, the Father and Jupiter is “the Sun, the risen and glorious
Savior.” This is the myth which Jesus
is referring to when he states, “I and the father are one.” This was the ancient apotheosis of the
mystery religions, of which Jesus and Apollonious were high initiates.
The Gnostic concept of a Demiurgic or
Archontic force may parallel or relate to the Dweller in the Threshold concept,
and may also have been associated with early Christian Gnostics with
Saturn.
Occultist Aleister Crowley wrote
several essays about Yoga called Yoga for Yahoos and Yoga for
Yellowbellies. Crowley
defined Yoga as Union , and associated the practice
of Yoga with creating a non-dual state.
Says Crowley
Terminology:
Synchronicity - The experience of two or
more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur
together by chance and that are observed to occur together in a meaningful
manner.
Synchromysticism - The drawing of
connections in modern culture (movies, music lyrics, historical happenings and
esoteric knowledge); and finding connections that could be coming from the
collective unconscious mind; and finding connections between occult knowledge
(i.e. esoteric fraternities, cults and secret rituals, politics and mass
media.
Synesthesia - a neurologic condition in
which a stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to an automatic,
involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.
Bicameral Mind Theory - A state of consciousness
which predates our own, consisting of the two hemispheres of the brain having a
kind of “master-slave” relationship, one “speaking” in the form of auditory
hallucination, and the other “obeying.”
Julian Jaynes, the creator of this theory, suggested that schizophrenia
may be vestigial bicameral consciousness.
Meme – A meme
is an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a
culture.
