Created January 6, 2023

Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.

Chapter Three

How Could One Imagination Create a Universe of So Many Beings?

Consciousness itself is a form of information processing. The closest analogy would be to call consciousness an energy computer, a computer made out of energy.

The consciousness level of a human being could never do all the things that the theoretical First Self has demonstrated in the universe we confront. We are limited to some degree by the physical constraints of our brain and nervous system. However even were we to be separated entirely from our body and discover that our consciousness still exists, if that is the case, it appears unlikely that we would at once have the functionality of mind to encompass the view into the inner perspective of all conscious beings in the universe simultaneously. Why is this so?

Human beings can partition their minds to a limited extent. In playing the piano, for example, the left hand and the right hand are doing different things at the same time. And creatures who are thought to be less intelligent than humans, such as octopi, have a brain in each tentacle, suggesting that each arm-leg might have its own sense of self which the whole creature is also able to experience through the sub-brains.

But living through each mind in the universe is a far more daunting task. As we know ourselves today, we would not be prepared for the experience of suddenly being able to see out the eyes and other sensory equipment of every mind in the universe. What we would probably experience in that situation would be complete overload, a chaos of unintegrated fleeting thoughts, feelings, images and impulses. It would likely be quite unpleasant.

What accounts for this vast difference in mental capacity? It possibly comes down to the amount of energy accessible by the mind in question. A human consumes and expends a few thousand calories worth of energy each day. The total universe production of energy per human 24-hour day is almost infinitely larger. The First Self must have always had energy on that scale. Being able to imagine many creatures and then enter them to live through them – with or without memory of being The First Self while in the creature – and to be able to enjoy the multiplicity of lives all at once is sign of infinite or virtually infinite attention span.

The First Self may have created beings vastly more mentally capable than we are, we just haven’t met them yet. Or their existence has yet to have been documented as fact.

It could also be that living through creatures with certain degrees of mental constraint – and doing so with no memory of actually being The One Self – enables The One Self to enjoy more powerful experiences with zero sense of them being just imaginary. Whereas from His/Her original perspective, it may be all too obvious that all of it is just imaginary.

Speculating further, the personas created by experiencing many lives sequentially (if that is what is going on) could create complex personalities that The One Self could enjoy as companions or “apprentices” over vast periods of time.

The One Self could help these avatars learn how to handle more simultaneous inputs and challenging ethical questions that would make it safer to allow them to be born into beings of greater power.

At the end of a long course of instruction and demonstration, a self that has accumulated wisdom and understanding over many lifetimes in an ascending array of levels of being (powers of mind), that such a self could be reabsorbed into The One Self as a conscious subself, a personality aspect imbued with the deep learning of experience.

If this is the sort of game the Universe is playing, even at our limited human level we can understand and appreciate the Universe’s motives. We are witnessing The Play Of Consciousness – the title of a wonderful book by Swami Muktananda. But simply the fact that it is playful does not mean that it is mere entertainment. The Universe is its own art form. It is aesthetically beautiful.

The theory that consciousness came first and created matter-energy – what I call The Theory of the Conscious Universe – is very close to the theories put forth by all Eastern spiritual traditions such as Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism, and virtually identical to Kashmir Shaivism – except that the language the writer uses today is closer to the language of Western science. This is on purpose. The writer’s intent is to persuade the reader to open-mindedly consider the possibility – and perhaps probability – that something like the scenarios painted here is the real truth about what the universe is.

What about Western spiritual traditions? To what extent does The Theory of the Conscious Universe square with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?

All of these Western spiritual traditions stem from the founder’s experiences of communicating directly with The One Self and/or with beings more powerful than ourselves who serve The One Self.

The founder in each case teaches that consciousness continues after the death of the body.

And the main message is to do kindness continuously, and to seek to do what The One Self (whom they call God or Allah) teaches.

In certain branches including Jewish Kabbalists, Christian Quakers, and Islam in general, allowing The One Self to take over control of one’s body and mind is a specific teaching.

In at least these four specific areas – receiving guidance from above, consciousness survival after death, the importance of continuous kindness, and surrendering to control by The One Self – the Theory of the Conscious Universe lines up very well with spiritual traditions on Earth.

Love to all,

Bill