On the Qualia Problem of Perception and the Measurement Problem of Quantum Theory
The qualia problem of perception is simply pointing out that the way we perceive the world is in terms of subjective qualities rather than numerical quantities. For example, we perceive the color of light in the things we see rather than the frequency of light wave vibrations or wavelengths, just as we perceive the quality of the sounds we hear rather than the frequency of sound wave vibrations. Another example is emotional qualities, like the perception of pleasure and pain and the perception of other emotional qualities, like the emotional qualities that color the perception of the emotional body feelings we perceive with emotional expressions of fear and desire. There is no possible way to understand the perception of these emotional qualities, just as there is no way to understand the perception of the colors we see or the qualities of the sounds we hear, in terms of the neuronal firing rates of neurons in the brain or other nervous systems. The frequency of wave vibrations and the neuronal firing rates of neurons are both examples of quantities. The problem is we do not perceive things in terms of numerical quantities, but rather in terms of subjective qualities.
All our physical theories are formulated in terms of numerical quantities, not in terms of subjective qualities. For example, in ordinary quantum theory or in quantum field theory, we speak of the frequency of light wave vibrations or the wavelength of a light wave in terms of a quantum particle called the photon. A photon or light wave is characterized by the numerical quantities of frequency and wavelength. When we formulate the nature of a light wave or photon in quantum theory in terms of Maxwell’s equations for the electromagnetic field, we can only describe numerical quantities. In ordinary quantum theory and quantum field theory, the electromagnetic field is the quantum wave-function, ψ(x,t), that specifies the quantum probability that the point particle called the photon can be measured at a position x in space at a moment t in time. That quantum probability is specified in terms of the frequency and wavelength that characterizes the wave-function for the photon. Maxwell’s equations for the electromagnetic field is understood as the wave equation for that wave-function. In a similar way, the Dirac equation for the spinor electron field is understood as the wave equation for the electron’s spinor wave-function.
The situation with the holographic principle is very similar. The quantum state of a holographic world that’s being observed by an observer is always formulated in terms of quantized bits of information called qubits that are encoded on the observer’s holographic screen, which is best understood as the observer’s own event horizon. Everything the observer can observe in its own holographic world, which includes the quantum states of all the point particles in that world like the photons and the electrons, can be reduced to the information of qubits encoded on its own holographic screen. The inherent nature of the qubits is to encode this information in terms of numerical quantities, which are best understood in terms of a numerical binary code of 1’s and 0's.
This is just like how a computer screen encodes bits of information in terms of pixels, except the qubits have the property of quantum entanglement, which basically reflects how the qubits are encoded with rotational symmetry on the surface of a sphere. That spherical surface is best understood in terms of the observer’s event horizon that acts as its holographic screen when its horizon encodes qubits of information.
The problem is that qubits of information are numerical quantities that are essentially encoded in a binary code of 1’s and 0’s, just like the bits of information encoded on the pixels of a computer screen. The quantum entanglement of the qubits is telling us that this is a quantum computer rather than a classical computer, but the basic idea is very similar. The quantum state of the observer’s holographic world is always encoded in terms of the numerical quantities of the qubits. This encoding of numerical information in terms of qubits on the observer’s holographic screen translates into the way numerical information is encoded for the quantum fields that describe all the point particles that appear in that holographic world, like the photons and the electrons, which in turn are described by numerical quantities like frequency and wavelength.
The problem is that we do not perceive the world in terms of these numerical quantities, but rather in terms of subjective qualities, like the color of light or the emotional body feelings of pleasure and pain. How is it even possible to go from a physical theory that only describes things in terms of numerical quantities to the perception of subjective qualities? The answer is that at the level of our physical theories, it is not possible.
The key to resolving this problem with our physical theories is to understand the true nature of the subject, which is an essential aspect of how subjective qualities are perceived. Who exactly is the perceiver? In terms of the holographic principle, the observer can only be understood as a point of perceiving consciousness at the central point of view of its own holographic world. That holographic world is only constructed when the observer begins to undergo some kind of accelerated motion, like the accelerated motion that the observer’s point of view is following with an accelerated world-line through some space-time geometry or the accelerated expansion of space that occurs due to dark energy that underlies the accelerated expansion of the physical universe. The observer is at the central point of view of that accelerated expansion of space. That accelerated motion gives rise to the observer’s event horizon that becomes its holographic screen when qubits are encoded on its event horizon.
The observer’s holographic world is only constructed when the observer’s point of view begins to undergo this accelerated motion, which in turn gives rise to the observer’s event horizon that becomes its holographic screen when qubits of information are encoded on its horizon. Everything the observer can perceive in its holographic world is a form of information that can be reduced to qubits encoded on its own holographic screen. In the process of perception, those forms have to be projected like images from the observer’s holographic screen to its own point of view.
The key point is that perception always occurs in a subject-object relation. The observer itself is only a point of perceiving consciousness at the center of its own holographic world. The observer is the subject and all the objects it can perceive in its own holographic world are forms of information that are encoded on its own holographic screen. All the forms of information the observer can perceive in that holographic world can be reduced to qubits of information encoded on its own holographic screen. Those forms have to be projected like images from the observer’s own holographic screen to its own point of view at the center of that holographic world.
How do we explain a consensual reality observed by many observers? The answer is information sharing. Each observer is at the central point of view of its own holographic world defined on its own holographic screen, but when the respective holographic screens of many observers overlap like a Venn diagram, they can share information, like the kind of information sharing seen in a network of connected computer screens. Information sharing allows many observers to share a consensual reality.
At this point, it’s necessary to make a brief digression into what quantum theory tells us about the nature of perception, which is called the measurement problem of quantum theory. Quantum theory tells us that the quantum state of an observer’s world is only an unobserved quantum state of potentiality until an observation or measurement actually occurs. This unobserved quantum state of potentiality is understood as a quantum superposition of all possible observable states of that world. In terms of the holographic principle, this unobserved quantum state of potentiality or superposition of all possible observable states can be understood as an entangled state of all the qubits encoded on the observer’s holographic screen. The qubits have the property of quantum entanglement, which arises from how they’re mathematically defined in terms of the eigenvalues of a matrix, like a spin matrix. A spin matrix for a spin ½ variable encodes information in a binary code of 1’s and 0’s since the observable states of that spin variable can only be observed in a spin up or spin down state, like a switch that is either on or off. Unlike a classical switch, the spin states have the property of quantum entanglement that arises from how they’re mathematically defined in terms of the eigenvalues of the matrix. Quantum entanglement is defining the quantum spin states with rotational symmetry on the surface of a sphere, and with the holographic principle, that spherical surface is understood as the observer’s own event horizon.
The quantum state of an observer’s holographic world is characterized by quantum entanglement due to how all the qubits of information encoded on the observer’s holographic screen become entangled with each other, which is due to how the qubits are mathematically defined on that holographic screen in terms of the eigenvalues of a matrix. In terms of the holographic principle, this is called a matrix model. This entangled quantum state of all the qubits is the essential nature of the quantum state of an observer’s holographic world. Everything the observer can perceive in its holographic world is a form of information that’s reducible to qubits encoded on its own holographic screen. Until that observation occurs, these forms of information are only defined in an unobserved quantum state of potentiality that’s understood as a quantum superposition of all possible observable states of that world. An observable state is a state in which the qubits take on definite values, but until an observation occurs, the qubits are entangled in an unobserved quantum state that reflects the quantum superposition of all possible observable states of that world.
The holographic principle is describing the measurement problem of quantum theory in much the same way that ordinary quantum theory describes it. In ordinary quantum theory, we talk about the quantum state of some observable object, like a point particle. The quantum state of the point particle is described as being in an unobserved quantum state of potentiality or a quantum superposition of all possible observable states of that particle until an observation occurs, at which point the quantum state is reduced to an actual observable state. With observation, this quantum superposition of all possible states of the particle, like all its possible locations in space and time, takes on a definite value. Observation is the only way the particle can be localized to some actual position in space at some moment of time, which is the nature of a measurement.
With the holographic principle, this idea of the quantum state being reduced to an actual observable state with any observation is much the same, except we no longer speak about the observable states of a single point particle, but rather the observable states of an observer’s entire holographic world. Only the observable states of an observer’s holographic world are being observed, which include the observable states of all the point particles that appear in that world. Just like the observation of a point particle reduces its quantum state to an actual observed value, the observation of the quantum state of an observer’s holographic world reduces that quantum state to an actual observed state. The observed values that point particles appear to take on in that holographic world, like their observed locations in space and time, only take on definite values when the quantum state of the observer’s holographic world is reduced to an actual observed state of that world. That reduction of the quantum state of a holographic world only occurs when the qubits of information that are encoded on the observer’s holographic screen take on definite values. Until that observation actually occurs, the qubits are entangled in an unobserved quantum state of potentiality that’s understood as a quantum superposition of all possible observable states of that world.
There’s no way to understand how observation occurs in a holographic world without understanding how all the entangled qubits encoded on an observer’s holographic screen become disentangled with observation. Observation is the essential process of disentangling all the qubits. How exactly does this process of disentanglement happen?
The key idea that’s needed to understand how the entangled quantum state of an observer’s holographic world becomes disentangled in the act of observation is the concept of choice. The entangled quantum state of the observer’s holographic world is an unobserved quantum state of potentiality that’s understood as a quantum superposition of all possible observable states of that world. In the process of observing that world, choices have to be made that reduce this quantum superposition of all possible observable states to an actual observable state. This reduction of the quantum state is always a choice, like the choice about what to observe in the world or the choice about which path to follow through that world.
Who exactly is making these choices? The only possible answer is that only the observer itself can make its own choices about what to observe in its own world or which path to follow through that world. How exactly does the observer make its choices? The answer is that the observer makes its choices with its focus of attention on its own holographic world. As the observer focuses its attention on events that appear to happen in its own holographic world, the observer is choosing what to observe in that world and which path to follow through that world. In the process of focusing its attention on that world, choices are made, which reduces the unobserved quantum state of potentiality of that world, understood as a quantum superposition of all possible observable states of that world, to an actual observed state. In terms of the holographic principle, in the process of focusing its attention on that world and making choices about what to observe in that world or which path to follow through that world, the entangled quantum state of that holographic world becomes disentangled.
Where does the observer’s focus of attention come from? The observer itself is only a point of perceiving consciousness at the center of its own holographic world. The events of that holographic world are being displayed on the observer’s own holographic screen that surrounds the observer’s central point of view, but those event only appear to happen as the observer makes observations of its own holographic world by focusing its attention on that world, and in the process, chooses what to observe in that world or which path to follow through that world.
The key to understanding how the observer makes its choices by focusing its attention on its own holographic world and making observations of that world is found in the nature of how that holographic world is perceived. With every observation of its own holographic world, forms of information are projected like images from the observer’s holographic screen to its own point of view at the center of that holographic world. The very process of observation can only be described as a holographic projection.
What exactly is projecting the images of the observer’s own holographic world from its holographic screen to its central point of view? What exactly is the observer focusing as it focuses its attention on that world? The answer is the light of consciousness. As the observer focuses its attention on the events that appear to happen in its holographic world, the observer is focusing the light of consciousness. The light of consciousness is focused as the observer focuses its attention. The light of consciousness is being focused like the light of a movie projector as the observer focuses its attention on events that appear to happen in its own holographic world. The images of the observer’s holographic world are being projected from its holographic screen back to its own point of view like the projected images of a movie.
The light of consciousness is emanating from the observer’s own point of view and is projecting all the images of its holographic world from its holographic screen back to its own point of view, where the images are perceived. Observation is inherently a process of holographic projection.
The light of consciousness that arises as the observer focuses its attention on events that appear to happen in its holographic world is an inherent aspect of this process of holographic projection. The light of consciousness that arises as the observer focuses its attention is what is projecting the images of the observer’s own holographic world from its holographic screen back to its own point of view, where the images are being perceived. In that process of observation and holographic projection, choices are being made as the entangled quantum state of that holographic world becomes disentangled and the unobserved quantum state of potentiality of that world, understood as a quantum superposition of all possible observable states of that world, is reduced to an actual observed state. The projecting light of consciousness that arises as the observer focuses its attention is what allows for those choices to be made with every observation.
This brings us back to the qualia problem of perception. The way the observer perceives events that appear to happen in its holographic world is in terms of subjective qualities rather than numerical quantities. The observer does not perceive the numerical quantities of the qubits encoded on its own holographic screen that underlie the forms of information it perceives in its holographic world. Instead, the observer only perceives the subjective quality of things. The subjective quality of things is inherent in how the projecting light of consciousness is focused as the observer focuses its attention on events that appear to happen in its own holographic world.
Perception always occurs in a subject-object relation, and the observer itself is the subject. All the observer’s objects of perception are forms of information encoded on its own holographic screen that can be reduced to the numerical quantities of qubits, but when the observer makes subjective observations of its own holographic world, the subjective quality of things is inherent in how the projecting light of consciousness is focused as the observer focuses its attention on the events that appear to happen in its holographic world. These objects of perception do have objective aspects in terms of the numerical quantities of qubits, but the subjective quality of things is always inherent in how the light of consciousness is focused with the observer’s focus of attention as those forms are projected like images from the observer’s holographic screen back to its own point of view, where the images are being perceived. The only way to understand the subjective quality of things is in terms of how the observer focuses its attention on things, and in the process, focuses the projecting light of consciousness.
When personal bias enters into the way we focus our attention, subjective experiences become personally biased due to how that personal bias contaminates the pure light of consciousness. That contamination of the focus of attention and the light of consciousness with personal bias leads to choices being made with personal bias and to the expression of personally biased emotions. Personal bias in the expression of emotions underlies the perception of feeling emotionally self-limited to the form of an emotionally animated body, which leads the perceiver to emotionally identify itself with that personal form. Personal self-identification is a subjective experience that only arises as a subjective quality when the focus of attention and the light of consciousness become contaminated with personal bias.
The Mind Is Not the Brain
The holographic principle of quantum gravity is telling us that the mind is defined on a mental screen that is best understood as a holographic screen that encodes information for an observer’s own holographic world. Everything the observer can observe in its own holographic world is a form of information that is being displayed on the screen. This not only includes all perceptions of the world external to the body, like sight, sound, smell and touch, but also all internal body perceptions, like emotional body feelings. This mental screen displays all mental perceptions, like thoughts, memories and other forms of mental imagination. In some sense, these forms of information are projected like images from the observer’s screen to its own point of view and are animated in the flow of energy through its own holographic world, which is the nature of emotional perceptions.
The holographic principle tells us that the observer’s holographic screen arises as its event horizon that becomes its holographic screen when quantized bits of information are encoded on the screen. The observer’s event horizon arises due to its own accelerated motion. Just as all the perceived forms of information can be reduced to quantized bits of information encoded on its own holographic screen, the perceived flow of energy arises from the energy of the observer’s own accelerated motion.
This tells us that each observer is at its own point of view at the center of its own holographic world that only arises due to its own accelerated motion that gives rise to its event horizon that becomes its holographic screen when information is encoded on its horizon. A consensual reality shared by many observers becomes possible when their respective holographic screens overlap like a Venn diagram and share information.
The observer’s holographic screen is its mental screen that displays all the forms of information for its own holographic world, which include both external and internal sensory perceptions. External and internal only refer to the boundary of the body. All the forms of mental imagination, which are the nature of mental perceptions, are also being displayed on its holographic screen, which is its mental screen.
What is the evidence for this bold claim other than the mathematics of modern theoretical physics that lead to the discovery of the holographic principle? The answer is the testimony of enlightened beings. The enlightened being that gave us the book of Genesis described it this way:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters • Genesis
The spirit of God is the observer at the center of its own world, which can only be understood as a point of consciousness. The face of the deep is its event horizon that arises due to its own motion. This is what enlightened beings can actually see.
The Tao says something very similar:
In the silence and the void, standing alone and unchanging, ever present and in motion, I do not know its name, call it Tao • Tao-Te-Ching
The Tao is that moving point of consciousness at the center of its own world. That is what the observer is at the level of perceiving its own world. At a deeper level, it is the ultimate reality of the void that creates the whole thing.
Nisargadatta Maharaj describes the same thing:
Once you realize that there is nothing in this world which you can call your own, you look at it from the outside as you look at a play on the stage or a picture on the screen. To know the picture as the play of light on the screen gives freedom from the idea that the picture is real. In reality I only look. Whatever is done is done on the stage. Joy and sorrow, life and death, they are real to the man in bondage. To me they are all in the show, as unreal as the show itself.
In reality nothing happens. Nothing happens to space itself. In pure consciousness nothing ever happens. Onto the screen of the mind destiny forever projects its pictures, and thus illusion constantly renews itself.
The totality of all mental projections is the Great Illusion. When I look beyond the mind I see the witness. Beyond the witness is infinite emptiness and silence.
The timeless and spaceless reality is undifferentiated, the infinite potentiality, the source. It cannot be perceived, but can be experienced as ever witnessing the witness, perceiving the perceiver, the origin and end of all manifestation, the root of time and space.
Be aware of being conscious and seek the source of consciousness.
In pure being consciousness arises. In consciousness the world appears and disappears. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. The center is a point of void and the witness a point of pure awareness; they know themselves to be as nothing. But the void is full to the brim. It is the eternal potential as consciousness is the eternal actual.
First we must know ourselves as witnesses only, dimensionless and timeless centers of observation, and then realize that immense ocean of pure awareness.
On the surface of the ocean of consciousness, names and forms are transitory waves. Only consciousness has real being, not its transformations.
In reality there is only the source, dark in itself, but making everything shine with the light of consciousness.
Absolute reality imparts reality to whatever comes into being. It is the very source of reality. It is what is, pure being, the timeless reality. It is not perceivable; it is what makes perception possible.
Unperceived, it causes perception. Being nothing it gives birth to all being. It is the immovable background of motion.
The Supreme reality is the void beyond being and non-being, beyond consciousness.
Realization is sudden and irreversible. You rotate into a new dimension. You see everything as it is. The world of illusions is left behind.
The experience of the inner void is an explosion into reality.
Go back to that state of pure being, the I Am in its purity before it became contaminated with false self-identifications. Abandon them all. Focus the mind on pure being. In it all disappears: myself, the life I live, the world around me. Only peace and unfathomable silence remains.
To be born means to create a world around yourself as the center. You are that point of consciousness. By your movement the world is ever created. Stop moving and there will be no world • Nisargadatta Maharaj
Thomas Vik commented:
Welcome to the comment section, James! I appreciate you diving into the deep end of the pool with such a thoughtful response. Your blend of quantum physics and spiritual wisdom creates quite the conceptual tapestry.
I notice you’re describing the same territory as my article but mapping it with different tools. While I’m pointing directly at the experience, you’re explaining the mechanics behind it. Both approaches circle the same mystery.
Isn’t it fascinating how the mind loves to build elaborate frameworks around what’s essentially immediate and simple? Your holographic principle elegantly describes what happens, but the description itself appears in the very consciousness it attempts to explain.
The physicist in you knows models aren’t territory. The physician in you knows diagnoses aren’t the patient. What remains when we set aside both the models and the modeling mind?
Thanks for bringing your unique perspective to this conversation. The intersection of quantum physics and direct experience is where the real fun begins.
My response:
You’re absolutely right. All I’m doing here is making a map or a model of the reality that we perceive. As you well know, the ultimate reality of consciousness that perceives the perceivable reality can never be mapped or modeled and cannot be conceptualized. Only the perceivable reality can be mapped or modeled and conceptualized. That’s essentially the purpose of theoretical physics. I’m pretty confident that the map or model I’m describing here is essentially correct for two reasons. First, it gives a complete metaphysical explanation of recent developments in theoretical physics, specifically the holographic principle. I’m using complete in the sense of the Godel incompleteness theorems. The consciousness that knows about the consistency of mathematical systems can never itself be reduced to any mathematical system. The consciousness is always outside all mathematical systems. Second, this explanation is consistent with the testimony of enlightened beings. I’ve primarily used the testimony of Nisargadatta Maharaj for this purpose, but there are many others I could cite. When I put the physics and the testimony together, this is the map or model that I get, and I’m pretty confident in its essential correctness. This is the only metaphysical interpretation of physics that makes any real sense in light of the testimony given by enlightened beings.
Of course, as you correctly point out, having a map or a model is not the same as making a journey. Spiritual enlightenment is most definitely a journey that you make, and the only real purpose of having a map is to help you make that journey. This is a very odd kind of journey since you essentially go nowhere. You end up exactly where you started. That’s the nature of the alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end of the journey, along with all points in between, are the same point. The essential nature of the journey is in destroying delusion. Only delusion is telling you that you’re somewhere that you’re not, and so you have to destroy delusion to finally realize where you really are, which is nowhere. The map or model I’m describing in terms of the holographic principle is very useful in terms of understanding that delusion.
It would seem that it’s impossible to explain the nature of delusion since any explanation has to be constructed in delusion. How could we trust any explanation about delusion that’s constructed in delusion? The answer is that delusion is like a computer-generated virtual reality, like depicted in the movie the Matrix, and a computer-generated virtual reality has to obey computational rules. That’s why at least at some level, events in the world appear to be governed by the laws of physics. Although a virtual reality has no absolute truth in it, there’s some element of mathematical truth in it. We can discover that mathematical truth and reverse engineer it, which is how the holographic principle was discovered. The holographic principle is telling us that the world we perceive is a great big holographic illusion, and that our belief that we are in or a part of that world is delusional.
Understanding delusion is always the first step in terms of destroying delusion. That’s the nature of the journey, and that’s the only purpose of having the map. As you point out, the map is only constructed in delusion, and so is a part of delusion. In the process of destroying delusion, you eventually have to destroy the map. That’s the irony of spiritual awakening. Whatever method you use to make the journey, like a map, has to be destroyed in the process of completing that journey. You can take nothing with you. Everything, even your most precious map, has to be left behind. Everything is part of delusion. Everything has to be destroyed. You can take nothing with you and you have to leave everything behind to complete the journey to the final destination of nothingness, which is the nothingness that is the ultimate nature of your own timeless spiritual being.
If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.
Truly, I have attained nothing from total enlightenment • Buddha
The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To destroy the false you must question your most inveterate beliefs. Of these the idea that you are the body is the worst.
You gain nothing. You leave behind what is not your own and find what you have never lost: Your own being • Nisargadatta Maharaj
It all depends on whether your goal is to escape from the Matrix or just have a better experience in the Matrix. Are you Neo or are you Cypher?
Neo is the One who experiences no perceivable reality, which paradoxically, is the reality of the One that perceives and creates all perceivable realities. Cypher can experience any possible perceivable reality, but Cypher has no experience of the ultimate unperceivable reality that Neo experiences.
The choice to individuate from the infinite potential is what starts the whole thing. That choice to individuate is a process of differentiation. The infinite potential is undifferentiated. The reverse process of becoming the One is a process of deindividuation and undifferentiation.
Do not try to bend the spoon. That is impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth. What truth? There is no spoon. Then you’ll see that it is not the spoon that bends, but only yourself.
It’s All in Your Mind, Man
Everything an observer can observe in its own holographic world is a form of information that’s being displayed on its own holographic screen. Every form can be reduced to information encoded on the screen, just like a virtual reality movie that’s being displayed on a computer screen. Every form is projected like an image from the screen to the observer’s point of view and is animated in the flow of energy flowing through its holographic world, which can be traced back to the energy of its own accelerated motion that gives rise to its holographic screen as its event horizon.
The observer perceives both the form of things that appear in its own holographic world and the flow of energy that animates those forms. The observer perceives things in its own holographic world in terms of its own body, which is the central form that appears in that world, like the form of an avatar that appears in a virtual reality movie that’s being displayed on a computer screen. The form of its own body is what allows the observer to divide up its own world into external to the body and internal to the body. This division into internal and external is only possible because the form of the observer’s own body is being emotionally animated relative to all other forms that appear in its own holographic world.
The observer’s holographic screen is its mental screen that displays all the forms of information for internal and external sensory perceptions of its own holographic world along with all forms of mental imagination like thoughts and memories. Just like the perception of mental imagination, those forms of perception are projected like images from the observer’s screen to its own point of view with every perception of its own world.
We only have a sense of internal and external because we’re emotionally identifying ourselves with the emotionally animated form of our own body due to our perception of emotional body feelings that make us feel emotionally self-limited to that personal form. This process of the observer emotionally identifying itself with the form of its emotionally animated body is emotionally reinforced when a body-based personal self-concept is emotionally constructed in its mind. This emotionally driven self-identification process is the only thing that makes the observer believe that there are internal and external aspects of the world out there demarcated by the boundary of its own body. Since the form of the observer’s own body is always emotionally animated relative to all other forms that appear in its own world, this emotionally driven self-identification process allows the observer to have the dualistic experience of self and other in its own world.
In reality, the observer is the spiritual center of its own world. The observer is always present as a spiritual presence of consciousness called the Self at the center of its own world. The Self is that presence of consciousness at the central point of view of the holographic world that it perceives, which is being displayed on its own holographic screen that in effect is its own mental screen, which is the nature of the observer’s mind. Everything the observer can perceive in its own world, whether in the form of external or internal sensory perceptions or mental perceptions of its mind, is being displayed on its own mental screen, and so it really is all in its own mind.
The observer’s holographic screen is like a computer screen that encodes bits of information, except this is a quantum computer where all the information encoded on the screen is encoded in terms of entangled quantized bits of information. Even a quantum computer must obey computational rules, which is why events that appear to occur in the observer’s own holographic world seem to be governed by the laws of physics. The laws of physics can always be traced back to how quantized bits of information are encoded on the observer’s own holographic screen.
This raises a very interesting question: Are the laws of physics discovered or invented? At a deeper level, is mathematical truth discovered or invented? The answer is both. At a very deep level, which is the level of the Source of the Self, mathematical truth is invented due to how entangled quantized bits of information are being encoded on the observer’s own holographic screen. That encoding of quantized bits of information on the observer’s own holographic screen is how the observer’s own holographic world is constructed, which by its very nature is a creation process, and so it’s possible to say that at this very deep level of creation, mathematical truth is constructed or invented.
On the other hand, at the level of the observer itself, mathematical truth is discovered. The observer or Self is discovering the mathematical truth that’s being invented by its Source. Mathematical truth is invented at the level of the Source of consciousness, and is discovered at the level of consciousness itself, which is called the Self.
The Mind Is Not the Brain and I Am Not the Body
An interesting aspect of the holographic principle is how it explains the nature of the mind. The mind can only be understood as a mental screen that displays forms of information. That mental screen is essentially a holographic screen that only arises as an observer’s event horizon due to its own accelerated motion. The observer’s event horizon becomes its holographic screen when it encodes quantized bits of information.
The mental screen is understood as a holographic screen that encodes information for all the forms of information the observer can perceive in its own holographic world. Those perceived forms include both internal and external perceptions of the observer’s holographic world. Internal and external only refer to the boundary of the body. External sensory perceptions include sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Internal sensory perceptions include emotional body feelings, pleasure and pain. The mental screen also displays forms of mental imagination, like thoughts, memories and daydreams.
All of these perceptions are being displayed on the mental screen. In some sense, these mental forms are like images that are projected from the mental screen to the point of view of the observer at the center of its own holographic world. The mental screen is understood as an event horizon that’s the boundary of that holographic world, which is the bounding surface of space where all the information for that holographic world is encoded.
The mental forms are not only projected like images from the mental screen to the observer’s central point of view, but are also animated in the flow of energy that flows through the observer’s holographic world. That flow of energy can always be traced back to the energy of the observer’s own accelerated motion that gives rise to its event horizon. Mental forms are projected like images every moment, and the course of time is only a sequence of animated events or moments that arise in the flow of energy.
The boundary of the body is only a demarcation in space that divides external sensory perceptions from internal sensory perceptions. Internal sensory perceptions primarily take the form of emotional body feelings. With every expression of emotions by the body, the body is emotionally animated, and internal emotional bodies feelings are perceived. Since those emotional body feelings are perceived inside the body, the observer naturally feels emotionally self-limited to its body as it perceives those internal emotional body feelings. That feeling of emotional self-limitation to the body is what allows the observer to emotionally identify itself with its body. The personal self-concept, which is always body-based, can only become emotionally constructed in the mind due to that feeling of emotional self-limitation to the form of the emotionally animated body.
It’s important to realize that the mind is not the brain. The mind is a mental screen that’s understood as a holographic screen that encodes information for everything the observer can perceive in its own holographic world, including external sensory perceptions, internal sensory perceptions, and forms of mental imagination, like thoughts and memories. In the sense of evolution, the brain developed after the mind.
In the sense of Darwinian evolution, the only purpose of the brain is to defend the survival of the body. This naturally happens through a process of Darwinian evolution and natural selection that leads to the survival of the fittest bodies. The fittest bodies are those bodies that are best able to defend their own survival through expression of self-defensive emotions, of which fear and desire are the prime examples. To survive, the body must eat other bodies, which is expressed through the desire to eat, but the body must also avoid being eaten by other bodies, which is expressed through the fear of being eaten. The fittest bodies are those bodies that survive because they are best able to express these self-defensive emotions in terms of the expression of fear and desire.
Darwinian evolution and the survival of the fittest body are always being driven by the pleasure-pain principle. Whatever promotes body survival, like eating, feels good and gives pleasure, while whatever threatens body survival, like being eaten, feels bad and gives pain. When a body expresses fear and desire, it is really only pursuing whatever gives pleasure and avoiding whatever gives pain. Like all internal emotional body feelings, pleasure and pain are perceived internal to the boundary of the body, which again creates a feeling of emotional self-limitation to the body.
This is the essential purpose of the brain, which allows for the emotional construction of the body-based personal self-concept in the mind. The personal self-concept is always constructed in the mind as a body-based personal self-image is emotionally related to the image of some other thing. These emotional relationships are inherently self-defensive in nature as they defend body survival, and in the sense of Darwinian evolution, have been selected over eons of lifetimes as the fittest bodies have survived.
In the sense of Darwinian evolution, body survival is the only real purpose of the brain as a body-based personal self-concept is emotionally constructed in the mind. The personal self-concept is always built out of memory, either in terms of past events that are being remembered or future events that are being anticipated, and that memory is always an emotional projection into a remembered past or an anticipated future. The personal self-concept has to be built out of memory since that’s the only way a body-based personal self-image and the images of other things that appear in the world can be emotionally constructed in the mind.
In the sense of Darwinian evolution and the survival of the fittest body, the brain always develops after the mind. The only real purpose of the brain is to emotionally construct a body-based personal self-concept in the mind. The only real purpose of that personal self-concept is to defend body survival through the expression of self-defensive emotions.
Every life-form is the central form of information for its own holographic world, and every holographic world is perceived by its own observer at the center of that world. The mind understood as a mental screen that displays all the forms of information for that world is a holographic screen that encodes all the information for that world. The mental screen is the bounding surface of that world that’s surrounding the observer, and the observer that perceives that world is at the central point of view of that world. The life-form is only the central form of information that’s being displayed on the observer’s mental screen.
The observer is only able to emotionally identify itself with its central form due to its feeling of emotional self-limitation to its central form that arises as its central form is emotionally related to all other forms that appear in that world. The observer only emotionally identifies itself with its central form due to its perception of feelings of emotional self-limitation to that form as that form is emotionally animated relative to all other forms that appear in its holographic world. This process of the observer emotionally identifying itself with its central form is being driven by Darwinian evolution due to the expression of self-defensive emotions that defend the survival of the body. Only this process of the observer emotionally identifying itself with its central form as its central form is emotionally animated relative to all other forms that appear in its own holographic world allows the observer to have the dualistic experience of self and other.
The observer is at the central point of view of its own holographic world that’s being displayed on its own mental screen that’s understood as a holographic screen that arises as its event horizon due to its accelerated motion, and which becomes its mental screen when its horizon encodes information. Everything observable in the observer’s world is a form of information that’s being displayed on its mental screen and is animated in the flow of energy. Every observer has a central form of information, which is its own life-form, that’s displayed on its own mental screen and is being emotionally animated relative to all other forms that appear in its own holographic world. Many observers can only share in a consensual reality when their respective holographic screens overlap like a Venn diagram and share information, just like in a connected network of computer screens.
The mental screen, understood as a holographic screen, is the observer’s event horizon that only arises due to the observer’s own accelerated motion. Every observer is at the center of its own holographic world and is perceiving that world in terms of the forms of information that are being displayed on its own mental screen. Those forms are only emotionally animated due to the observer’s own accelerated motion.
Even a life-form as simple as an amoeba has its own observer with its own holographic world that’s being displayed on its own mental screen. The amoeba is the central life-form that appears in that holographic world. The amoeba has no brain, but the amoeba’s observer has a mind. The mind of the amoeba’s observer is being defined on its mental screen that can only be understood as a holographic screen, which can only arise as the observer’s event horizon due to the observer’s own accelerated motion.
The brain always develops after the mind. In the sense of Darwinian evolution and the survival of the fittest body, the brain develops as a means of defending body survival. The purpose of the brain is to emotionally construct a body-based personal self-concept in the mind that has as its only real purpose the defense of body survival.
The mind understood as a mental screen is always a horizon in space. That horizon is as far as the observer can look out into space, which is the nature of an event horizon. As the observer looks out into space, that horizon always arises as its mental screen that displays all the images of its own world. The observer can look out to the boundary of its own world in the sense of a cosmic event horizon. Every form that appears in that world is projected like an image from the observer’s mental screen to its central point of view and is animated in the flow of energy that flows through that world. That flow of energy can always be traced back to the energy of the observer’s own accelerated motion that gives rise to its event horizon, which is the basic nature of its mental screen and mind.
There’s a fundamental connection between how the observer looks out into space and how the world that the observer perceives is energetically animated. The observer only looks out into space when the observer focuses its attention on something, and there’s a fundamental connection between how its attention is focused and how energy and time are expressed in its own world. The observer has to focus its attention in order to express time and energy in its world. That expression of time and energy always can be traced back to the observer’s accelerated motion that gives rise to its event horizon, and it’s the observer’s event horizon that defines its own mind in terms of a mental screen that is the horizon in space of the observer’s own world. That horizon naturally arises as the observer looks out into space and focuses its attention on something that appears in space.
As soon as the observer looks out into space and focuses its attention on something that appears in space, its mental screen arises as its horizon in space that encodes information for whatever it perceives in space.
When the observer looks out into space and focuses its attention on something, it is always looking at something. The thing it observes is a form of information that’s being displayed on its mental screen, which is its horizon in space that encodes information for everything it perceives in its own world. The observer’s mental screen is the horizon of its own world. Nothing is observable beyond the observer’s own event horizon.
The observer’s mental screen always arises as its horizon in space that displays all the images of its own world. The observer’s mental screen naturally arises as its event horizon when it focuses its attention and looks out into space at something due to the fundamental connection between its focus of attention and its expression of time and energy in its own world. That fundamental connection can always be traced back to the observer’s own accelerated motion that gives rise to its event horizon.
The focus of attention of consciousness is fundamentally related to how the light of consciousness is focused as the observer observes events in its own world, which in turn gives rise to the expression of time and energy in that world. The light of consciousness is projecting all the images of the observer’s own holographic world from its holographic screen back to its own point of view. When the observer turns off its focus of attention, it also turns off the light of consciousness and turns off the expression of time and energy in its own world. The observer is also turning off its own accelerated motion.
The observer’s event horizon defines its own mind in terms of a mental screen that’s the horizon in space of the observer’s own world. That horizon arises as the observer looks out into space and focuses its attention on something that appears in space. Nothing is observable beyond the observer’s own event horizon. As soon as the observer looks out into space and focuses its attention on something that appears in space, its mental screen arises as its horizon in space that encodes information for whatever it perceives in space. This perception process naturally happens due to the fundamental connection between how the observer focuses its attention and how time and energy are expressed in the observer’s own world.
The reverse scenario is also in full effect. When the observer withdraws its attention away from the world it perceives and stops paying attention to that world, the observer also withdraws its investment of time and energy in that world. That withdrawal of time and energy is reflected in the observer’s own accelerated motion coming to an end. When the observer’s own accelerated motion comes to an end in an ultimate state of free-fall, the observer no longer has an event horizon that becomes its holographic screen and displays all the images of its own holographic world. Not only does the observer’s own holographic world disappear from existence from its own point of view, but even the perceived course of time comes to an end since time and energy are no longer being expressed. This ultimate state of free-fall naturally happens when the observer totally withdraws its attention away from the world it perceives. In this ultimate state of free-fall, everything in the observer’s own world disappears from existence from its own point of view, and nothing remains.
The nothingness that remains when the observer totally withdraws its attention away from the world it perceives and everything in that world disappears from existence from its own point of view is the true nature of what the observer really is in the sense of the ultimate nature of the observer’s existence, or what the observer ultimately is in the ontological sense of the ultimate nature of its being or existence. This is about what ultimately exists when everything else disappears from existence.
In an ultimate state of free-fall, when the observer’s accelerated motion comes to an end, the individual consciousness of the observer, present at the center of its own world, dissolves back into its source of undifferentiated consciousness like a drop of water that dissolves back into the motionless ocean. That motionless ocean of undifferentiated consciousness is often called the void, which is the motionless source of the observer’s individual consciousness. That moving point of individual consciousness, present the center of its own world, can only return to its motionless source when its own motion comes to an end in an ultimate state of free-fall.
This experience of dissolution into nothingness happens to you each night when you fall into a deep sleep. If this ultimate experience of dissolution into nothingness happens to you when you are awake and remain aware of yourself, you have the experience of spiritual enlightenment.
Consciousness is the ultimate reality that is beyond space and time. The reality we perceive in the world, which includes space and time, is being created by consciousness. That creation process is the inherent nature of the mind. The mind is only a mental screen that displays the reality of the world perceived by consciousness, which in modern theoretical physics can be called a holographic screen. Consciousness creates the mental screen that displays the reality of the world like a computer screen displays a virtual reality. The idea of emergence, as in emergent space-time or the emergent laws of physics, only applies at the level of the mental screen.
There’s a universal field of dreams, but there’s no universal field of consciousness.
Consciousness doesn’t exist inside the physical universe. The physical universe understood as a holographic world only appears to exist within consciousness. The Source of consciousness is beyond that world.
There is only One Source of consciousness, which is best described as the undifferentiated consciousness of the void. That One consciousness differentiates itself into many points of view. Each point of view is an observer at the central point of view of its own holographic world, and each holographic world is organized around a central form of information called a body. The body is like an avatar for the One consciousness that appears in a virtual reality movie that’s being displayed on a computer screen. The body is only like a costume that the One consciousness is wearing in that virtual reality. There are many costumes, just as there are many worlds and there are many points of view, but there is only One consciousness.
The ultimate nature of undifferentiated consciousness can be understood as the ground of being or the ultimate nature of existence.
Only consciousness ultimately exists, which is the ultimate nature of existence and reality. Consciousness is what ultimately exists when everything else disappears from existence.
Awakening is simply a matter of knowing yourself to be the consciousness that perceives all concepts rather than identifying yourself with any concept that you can perceive. You know nothing about yourself other than the true nature of your own timeless spiritual existence.
The True Nature of Ontological Being is only to be found in the inner void, which is not really nothing, but the potential for everything. You can only find it if you look within yourself. You have to look beyond the center of Self into the silence and the emptiness of your own timeless being.
The Problem of the Ego
Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote that Belief means not wanting to know what’s true. This statement sums up the whole problem of the ego. The ego is based on a lie. The ego is delusional in the sense of a false belief that you believe about yourself. Instead of knowing yourself to be a presence of consciousness that only perceives its own world, you falsely believe that you are a person that only appears in the world that you perceive. You do not know the truth of what you really are due to this false belief that you believe about yourself. Even worse, once you believe this false belief about yourself, you do not want to know the truth. You don’t even want to hear about the truth. You actively become resistant to even the idea of the truth. The reason for this resistance is obvious. Once you believe that you are your ego, you will do anything to defend that false belief that you believe about yourself since that false belief has become your whole identity.
The consequences of this false belief follow from your need to defend that false identity. By its nature, the ego is selfish and self-defensive. The ego wants to control everything in order to defend itself. The reason for this selfishness, self-defensiveness and need to be in control is also obvious. The defense of ego is all about defending this false identity. At the level of the body, this self-defensiveness is all about defending body survival. Once you falsely believe that you are your ego, you then emotionally construct a body-based personal self-concept in your mind and you feel compelled to defend the survival of this personal self-concept and this false personal identity as though your existence depends on it.
Ironically, when self-defensiveness is eventually taken to an extreme degree, as it most certainly will eventually be taken in the defense of body survival as though existence depends on it, this self-defensiveness must then turn into self-destructiveness. When every man or woman is only out for his or her own selfish self-interest, who really benefits from that kind of personal selfishness? When every man or woman is defending his or her own body survival at all costs, and every other body is seen as a potential threat to the survival of his or her own body, who eventually survives that kind of a conflict? The answer is that nobody survives. Nobody survives when body survival is defended at all costs, as though existence depends on it. When self-defensiveness is taken to an extreme degree it must eventually turn into self-destructiveness, and then nobody survives.
What is the solution to the problem of ego? The answer is to destroy your own ego while your body is still alive. Leave your body alone and undergo a self-destructive process at the mental level of ego. Destroy your own emotionally energized body-based personal self-concept that’s constructed in your mind. You only need to destroy ego at the mental level to realize the truth of what you really are. You can only realize that truth and know the truth of what you really are if you undergo this self-destructive process of destroying ego at the mental level by becoming egoless and desireless.
The holographic universe model is indeed the correct description of the physical reality of the world we perceive. This is not only what modern physics is telling us with the holographic principle, but is also what enlightened beings have told us throughout the ages of human history on planet earth. Spiritual enlightenment is only about realizing the true nature of the perceiver, which is consciousness itself. Enlightened beings can actually see the nature of the hologram. This truth is not about what people appear to do in the world, but only about what the consciousness knows to be true. This is the only description of the world that is consistent both with what enlightened beings and the physics are telling us. I find it very weird that more people aren’t looking into this, but I guess that’s just ego for you. Ego doesn’t want to know the truth. Nietzsche wrote that Belief means not wanting to know what’s true, and ego is just a false belief that you mistakenly believe about yourself. Spiritual enlightenment is simply a matter of discovering the truth, which of course has to begin with your willingness to consider the truth. Strange that more people don’t have that willingness to consider the truth, but all I can do is keep writing about it and wait for more people to take off their emotional blinders.
The emotional blinders of the ego are nothing more than the result of how the focus of attention of consciousness has become fixated on the personal self-concept that’s being emotionally constructed in the mind. That fixation of the attention of consciousness on a personal self-concept is all about defending the survival of the personal self-concept as though the existence of consciousness depends on it. This ego-defense mechanism is delusional in the sense that it’s only a false belief that the consciousness believes about itself. The emotional expression of this delusional belief is the epitome of insanity. The only way consciousness can take off its emotional blinders and stop believing this false belief about itself is if consciousness accepts the truth of what it really is, which is nothing more than consciousness itself.
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