PHL 709 Exam Readings Notes

( g ) Remarks to Arupa - McKenna

Arthur Young saying:
o Someone brought him machine and told him to improve it
o When he asked what the machine does, the guy said he had no
idea
o Then asked how can I improve it if I don't know what it does
o McKenna feels that psychadelics are in a similar situation
Psychadelics of the Tryptamine family imitate an objective reality
"Psychadelics are windows"
Plato: "If God didn't exist, man would invent him", same thing as with
psychadelics, if they didn't exist we would invent them through
computers
"We know nothing about the nature of reality" & "unable to give an
adequate definition of mind, being, or self"
"We are probably as far from any godlike notion of objective truth as
any society in the past"
o Finds the "ant-people" religion theory more palpable than the
big-bang theory
o Says the following about the Big Bang theory: "when the whole
universe sprang from nothing and for no reason at all"
Stan Grof's "psychoid"
o a world that occurs in Jung's thought; it is both in the world, and
within
o psychedelics allow you to explore in this state between mind and
matter
We are like characters in a novel both propelled & victimized by
coincidental forces (synchronicity) that shapes our lives
o "You trapped the mind in the act of making reality"
Psychedelics give us access to hyperspace
McKenna suggest psychedelics are illegal because they can cast
doubts on the validity of reality
McKenna suggest Psychedelics should be split into two categories:
o Tryptamines (psilocybin, DMT ect.)
o Other substances (LSD ect.)
McKenna calls Psychedelics the "new world"
McKenna calls for more "vertical strengthening" instead of "horizontal
broadening" of faith by people taking more and larger doses of
psychadelics
Psychedelic plants were almost treated as sacred beings or deities in
the ancient world

( h ) The Nature of Shamanism - Haule

"Shaman" comes from "saman" meaning ecstatic one in Siberian
Tungus language
"Ecstacy" means standing beside yourself (out of body)
In modern day, shamanism is usually a collection of techniques for
altering consciousness (via psychedelics, meditation)
Shamanic practises are at least 40, 000 years old
Monophasic Culture - only recognizing one state of consciousness
(awake reality), Western culture for example
Polyphasic Culture - recognizing multiple states of consciousness
(dreams, meditative awake reality), Shaman cultures for example
Shamanism was re-discovered in 1672 by Avvakum Petrovich
o Predicted the victory in the war against the Mongols
o Was banished for heresy to Siberia
Mircea Eliade
o A Shaman initially becomes ill, and undergoes ecstasy where the
body is dismembered and reassembled (essentially being
"reborn")
o Become masters of ecstasies
o Retrieve / guide lost and fallen souls
o Their soul travels between worlds or cosmic planes
o Sometimes battle other Shamans in these planes
Jung
o "The original model of the individual process"
o Shamanism was done many years ago but just recently
surfaced / discovered again
o "foundation of medical psychology"
Misunderstandings
o Psychiatry in our society classifies mystical states as pathological
o Western society has superstition towards using altered states of
consciousness
o Shamanic cultures are seen as a threat to other religions and
society
Lvi-Strauss "magic and science require the same mental operations
and complement one another"
People started going to tribes to participate in Shamanic practises that
involved psychedelics
How Shamanism Works
o using their autonomic nervous system to experience what lies
below consciousness
myths and archetypes comprise it
collapses the barriers between objective and subjective
knowledge

archetype comprises the ultraviolet region, body the

infrared region
Trance Induction
o Autonomic nervous system can be tuned with
extensive motor behaviour (ex: dancing)
auditory driving (ex: drumming)
fasting
sensory deprivations
other austerities (pain, injury, extreme cold)
psychedelics
o a waking-dream state
"Bottom to Top" archetypal organization is available when Shaman
consciousness is attained
o This allows the unconscious part of the brain that dreams to
examine the consciousness that observes reality
o Shamans think analogically rather than in a language based
manner (getting rid of the language barrier allowing
communication with animals)
o Rituals can bring them back into this state of mind
o links image to physiology
o everyone's brain-and-psyche is normally structured archetypally
Ritual healing works by making the injured bring suppressed structures
into consciousness
o These structures can produce conflict and collapse the ego in
development towards a relationship with the self and the world
Shamans are essentially harmonizers of social and natural unbalances

(k) Imaginary Landscape : Making Worlds of Myth and Science William Thompson
Rapunzel
Literal Level
o German fairy tale
o Plot: a couple live next to a witch's (Dame Gothel) garden
that is fenced. The pregnant wife wants "Rapunzel", a plant
that grows in the witches garden. The witch catches the
husband steeling it and allows him to take it on terms that the
child is given to the witch. The witch raises her and calls her
Rapunzel. She is beautiful and has long hair that is used as a
ladder after the witch locks her up in a tower at the age of 12.
A prince finds her and asks her to marry, and they plan the
escape. The witch finds out, cuts off her hair and casts her
into the forest. The witch tricks the prince into climbing up the
hair then lets go and the price falls and is blinded by thorns.

He eventually finds her in the forest and they live happily ever
after.

o Can be seen as a story where the witch is trying to raise

Rapunzel and bring her back to asexuality where there is
stability, instead of male-female sexuality which creates chaos
and unbalance (which is why the witch casts her out into the
wastelands after she finds out Rapunzel is seeking out the
prince)
o Stability is reached when finally Rapunzel gives birth to a
female and male, where as the rest of the story is filled with
only giving birth to daughters and everything is in disorder
(similar belief to the old times where families want a male
child, female children are seen as problems)
o Rapunzel can also be seen as a story about the plant
Rapunzel and how the character is similar to the plant (see
"Cosmic Level")
Structural Level
o Similarities in the plot
Small window in the castle & tower
garden is surrounded by wall, tower by thorn bushes
men climb up in the story but when they come down
they get in trouble with the witch
always two people on set (man/wife, Rapunzel/witch,
prince/Rapunzel)
Anthropological Level
o Rapunzel gives birth to twins "how one becomes two"
o Achievement of a stable couple
The witch and Rapunzel represent a stable couple
First couple isn't stable
Husband doesn't take on the role as a father and
loses power to the wife's needs
the child really belongs to the "society of women";
the mother and witch
o The witch "Gothel" translates to "Bright God", and "Rapunzel"
to Rampion (the plant), these are the only two characters with
proper names
This suggests the child belongs to the witch and the
husband and wife just act as a midwife per se
o The prince is reduced from a hunter to a gatherer (woman like
role) as he has to eat berries and roots in the wasteland after
he is blinded

o Just like asexual organisms create a mother daughter pair,

where the daughter is identical to the mother (witch and
Rapunzel) and are stable
after seizing the child the witch regresses back to
matriarchy from patriarchy, and from sexual
reproduction to asexual replication
o Ones that aren't asexual and unstable (female-male pair)
o Similar to a couple of other ancient stories where there are
three females, and the males pick the plant, and the first born
child has to be given up as punishment
o Witch seeks the firstborn to be "sacrificed" as revenge on
society since she was also cast out of society
o Reduction, males are reduced in this story (husband to the
power of the witch and wife, prince reduced to picking berries
in the wasteland)
o
Cosmic Level
o Rapunzel or Rampion (the plant) has the ability to fertilize
itself, and uses a long column to attract insects to bring pollen
which eventually splits "when one becomes two"
just like Rapunzel giving birth to twins "when one
becomes two"
similar to how Rapunzel the character lets down her hair
to bring in the prince to reproduce
the sexual organs of the plant are at the very top (just
like how Rapunzel the character is in a tower)
o The witch "Gothel" translates to "Bright God" (the moon), and
"Rapunzel" to Rampion (the planet Venus), the prince is Mars
This can represent the "courtship of Mars and Venus"
where the moon returns, and Mars goes into the
darkness of the solar system (the wasteland) then when
the moon is gone, Mars comes back near Venus

(L) Reductionist Science and Religion - Will Tuttle

Herding Culture - looking at animals as a commodity, not form of
life
o Western and European culture
o Cutting down forestry so it can be used as cattle grazing or
farmland for things livestock eat (ex: soybeans)
o Europeans use to mass slaughter Bison and Pigeon, usually
for sport; not food
Our culture replace Bison and Pigeon with Cow and
Chicken
o Biomass of planet is 1:99 (where "99" is the weight of
humans and the animals they consume)

o Our culture depends on the energy of herding animals (the

caloric intake)

Reductionism - reducing / breaking down the animal into what it

is used for

o This method takes out the unpleasant aspect of killing an

animal
if you break down the animal into individual parts,
each part doesn't have a life or personality
only if you look at the whole animal can you say it
has a life or personality or "soul"
o Modern industrial production (for cars etc.) was invented
with slaughter houses
Like a "disassembly line" animals came in, and at
each station a different part of the animal is taken off
or disassembled
Creates a faster more efficient way to take apart the
animal for consumption
o Lab animals are used for testing so we don't harm humans
in the process
most of the research testing animals end up dead
justification: by sacrificing the animals for testing we
can prevent future things happening to those
animals or humans
we reduce them as a commodity for testing, not
forms of life
o Reductionist Society: Humans
Much like the animals we are reduced to being small
components that make up an economy, nothing
more
If we don't contribute to an economy, we are of no
benefit

Our value to society is based on a an individual Net

Worth
Animal Sacrifice
Done in some religions
Usually sacrificed in a religious ritual for our "guilt
and sin" as an offering to a God
Some religions say animals were created for us to eat
in Christianity the "Paradise" or heaven is where "The
Lion shall lie down with the Lamb"
Our natural instinct at birth is to not kill animals or
eat them, but as we grown up and view them as a
commodity, this instinct is overwritten
The cause of Wars
o Plato suggests the cause of wars is herding culture
We fought over conquering territories for centuries,
so the territory can be used for cattle grazing
(livestock)
Claims a vegetarian society would be the best one
Pythagoras Warning
o As long as we destroy lives around us (animals, other
humans) we destroy ourselves
o Predicted that his math could be used for evil (inventor of
the Pythagoras triangle laws)

(M) The Exegesis III - Phillip K. Dick

The
(N) The Exegesis Glossary - Phillip K. Dick
The
(O) Utopian Neuroscience - BLTC
Should Humans use Artificial means to achieve the most happiness
possible (infinite)?
Is it necessary? Were our ancestors that were farmers and had no
technology less happy than we are today?
Ethical Objection
o it's unnatural
o if we are given artificial happiness, we will settle with things (ex:
injustice) that would normally cause unhappiness
since it wouldn't bother us, because we are always
artificially happy
wouldn't try to improve technology or help others with
illnesses because everyone is happy no matter what; world
won't improve

o only after getting rid of world suffering should we bioengineer

happiness (priorities)
o either way in the end with the happiness you will still end up
dying
o how can you measure or compare happiness, what is the
reference point
will something artificially a million more times pleasurable
be more valuable than our peak happiness experience
now?
Technical Objection
o Can happiness be treated as a biological category?
nasty emotions may be abolished in the future
new emotions may be created
with brain scans we can find specific areas of the brain and
over-express them to achieve greater biological happiness
increasing mu-opioid receptors (a splice of the regular
opioid receptor) to lessen pain or increase hedonistic tone
o Can happiness be measured and put into a quantity?
o Can happiness be neurologically amplified permanently?
trying to do so in a way without causing side effects
(psychosis or mania)
Amplifying happiness may lower something else (ex: the
more the happiness sensation increases, things may seem
less funny relative to your high level of happiness)
Experience Machine Objection
o We would opt out of a machine that gives us a virtual happiness
We value real world happiness more
Like a drug, you might never want to leave the machine
like an addiction (since the real world would no longer be
desirable since it isn't as pleasurable)
more likely to choose the machine/virtual happiness if you
are a pessimist
more likely to choose regular life if you are an optimist
then again, should you suppress or get rid of dreams
because they aren't real?
Inappropriate Behavior Objection
o Negative experiences are learning lessons and are needed for
progress
Sometimes a more positive feedback may be a better way
for progress
o We wouldn't be able to mourn after death of loved ones
Character-Sapping Objection
o Extreme well-being may promote egotistic / impulsive / risktaking actions and negligence

Alternatively it can help positive character building

More likely to cause positive characteristics, more likely to
fulfil life projects and help others
Stuck-In-A-Rut Objection
o You think nothing can go wrong when things are actually going
wrong
o Settling with the simulated happiness when in reality you can
achieve sometimes greater happiness
o Won't reach our full potentials because we are happy with
everything and who we are with the artificial happiness
Socially Disruptive Objection
o Artificial happiness might turn us all into "alpha's" which disrupt
the social hierarchy of society
o Will cause "alpha male dominance", with possible violence that
the artificial happiness wouldn't make us feel bad about
Selection Pressure Objection
o Which genes would you choose to improve in your child, if any;
would you rather pass on all your genes so the child is truly
yours
o Would you get permanent gene changes that will last
generations, or only a gene that is changed with one generation
Risks of Haste Objection
o Superintelligence should come before superhappiness
That way we can understand the implications of
superhappiness
Carbon Chauvinism Objection
o Why mess around with genes when you can just go in a
simulation and simulate your happiness, or re-upload a new
version of yourself

(Q) Meditation as MEME Weeding - Blackmore

Memes: ideas, habits, skills, stories, or any kind of information that is
copied from person to person
Replicators: information that is copied with variation and selection
o Lots of slightly different copies are made, most are killed off and
the few that survive pass on whatever that was that helped them
survive
Dennett described process as evolutionary algorithm
o One the requisites are in place, it must happen
o If you have heredity, variation, and selection then you must get
evolution or design out of chaos without the ait of mind
Memes are only information (like genes) and are selfish in the sense
they must get copied. If they can get copied, they will and do not care
on the consequences for us and the world

The ones that get copied because they are valuable to us, or use tricks
to get into our heads to get passed on
Dawkins: religions = viruses of the mind
Ex: Roman Catholicism:
o Basic teachings passed on in church by learning the catechism,
prayer, etc. Churches tempt worshippers inside and lift their
hearts, making them want to spread the memes. It is spread to
their children who are encouraged to also marry or convert a
Catholic and bring up their kids in faith
Meditation: also a meme, but they also defuse the power of other
memes.

(R) Breaking The Spell - Dennett

Hyperactive Agent Detection Device (HADD) - ex: detecting an agent
like a wolf and knowing to run
Shamanic Induction - Hypnotism like a placebo effect; a shaman doing
a healing ritual, which really has no scientific healing, but through a
placebo effect helps your body heal
Exopsychic (exo - outside, psychic - of mind) Decision Procedures "divination" ex: a priest receiving the word of God
o Liability - when something goes wrong, the priest can just blame
God since it was God that told him, he is just the messenger
Ex: the priest tells the king that God told them to go to war
and they will be victorious; but they end up losing the
battle
(S) The Mind of Iliad - Jaynes
The Iliad man is what Jaynes calls man back in the ancient times
o Analyzes the poem of Achilles
o Theorizes that all the voices from God were really just
schizophrenia-like
o Says this is the origin or religion and Gods
o The Gods weren't able to create something from nothing, or go
against natural laws
o The Gods merely give advice or orders, and the "Heros" that talk
to the Gods almost never fear them
o The Trojan war was merely hallucinations
o People back then weren't fully "conscious" as we evolved we
became more conscious of the real world and not the dreaming
state, or schizophrenic / subconscious state of mind
(T) The Bicameral Mind - Jaynes
Human nature used to be split into two ( "Bi-cameral" ), an executive
or decision making part called the God, and the follower called the
man

o Neither of those minds were conscious

o Example: when you are driving a car, you can carry on a
conversation without consciously thinking about the driving
The most common are auditory hallucinations
o in ancient times most just heard a voice commanding them what
to do, and didn't see any visions
This is similar to people with schizophrenia; no visual
hallucinations, just voices commanding them to do things
Sometimes multiple voices having different personalities /
stances on things; interpreted as the Devil, God, angels
ect.

(U) Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind - Jaynes

Did learning come about in evolution?
o Did evolution eventually give us enough brain tissue to allow us
to have consciousness?
Many things are performed without consciousness (ex: interpreting
colours, breathing ect.)
What consciousness is not:
o not mentality
o does not copy experience
o not necessary for learning
o not necessary for thinking or reasoning
What consciousness is:
o Introspecting; combining real world data with mental processes
o The "I" (not to be confused with the self), ex: I saw myself
swimming (the "I" did the "seeing")
o narratization of things around us in the world
o concentration
o suppression (of unwanted thoughts)
o Predicts consciousness started around 1400 - 600 BC
In ancient times they heard voices directly from God; in newer times
they heard it from their "heart"
A long time ago, Adam & Eve talked directly to God and it wasn't a big
deal, then later in history they just heard voices (certain people) and
they would be a big deal, in present day no one hears them, and it
would be an extremely big deal to do so; we long for the schizophreniclike experience
Religion is like tradition; even though we don't hear the voices, we
keep the habit going of trying to summon or worship the voices from
long ago
Blindsight - a person that has functioning eyes, but skips a step in the
brain that allows them to interpret what they see; virtually blind

o ex: a doctor puts a picture infront of a "blind person" and they

can consistently guess it right but can't see it
Cargo Cult - on some islands with isolated tribes like Papa New Guinea
o They would copy the "rituals" of people working on a landing
strip, with lights calling in a plane
o Things would then fall from the sky for them from the Gods
(really just planes dropping them off)

(V) Fine-Tuning: The New Design Arguments - Davis

Fine tuning: idea that basic regularities or laws of nature and
cosmological constants are minutely adjusted to allow for life and even
intelligent life
Differences of new DA to old: 1) newer DAs appeal to general examples
of fine-tuning; 2) they emphasize facts in physics, astronomy and
chemistry rather than facts in life sciences; 3) they make little appeal
to specific purposes; 4) they are not arguments from analogy but
inferences to the best explanation
General conclusion: if the initial conditions or fundamental constants in
the universe were slightly different, it is unlikely that life would have
emerged
Criticisms:
o Anthropic Principle
Given our presence in the universe, it follows the requisite
conditions for life are met. We should accordingly only
observe values that are compatible with our existence
No explanation for apparent design is required or expected
because if the universe were other than as it is, we should
not be here. Since we are here, we must expect the
universe to be much as it is
o Many Universes
Our universe is one of many, maybe even infinite number
3 views:
universe is oscillating, and many big bangs and
universes with new set of laws and constants
many causally unrelated regions of present universe
where the laws and constants are different from the
way they are in our region
many worlds interpretation; All or many possible
combinations of natural laws and cosmic constants
are actualized somewhere; most of them dont
produce intelligent life, but some do
Alternative 1: World is fine-tuned as it is due to entirely blind forces
and natural causes, apart from any intelligent designer

Alternative 2: the world is as it is because it was designed this way by

an intelligent designer
o Can explain questions like why is there a universe at all and
why is there anything instead of nothing

(W) The Blind Watchmaker Dawkins

Dawkins mentions a famous passage by the theologian William Paley.
o Paley says imagine if you find a stone on the ground in a field
and someone asked you where it came from, youd just assume
it has been here forever. However imagine if you find a watch,
you certainly cannot assume the same. With the intricate design
of the watch you can only assume at some point it had a creator.
o Paley then compares the human eye with a designed instrument
such as a telescope and concludes that the eye must have had a
creator for vision the same way humans created the telescope.
o Dawkins denies that claim and says that the only watchmaker in
nature is the blind forces of physics. It is natural selection which
Darwin discovered that is the only explanation for the existence
and purposeful form of all life. It has no purpose in mind neither
it has a mind or an eye. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at
all. It is the blind watchmaker.
Dawkins replies to creationists disbelief in Darwins theory claiming
humans cant be designed by mere chance.
o Dawkins explains that what Darwin said is that evolutions
transformation is gradual, from simple beginnings as primordial
entities. Each successive change in the gradual evolution was
simple enough, relative to its predecessor, to have arisen by
chance. But the whole sequence of cumulative steps constitutes
anything but a chance process. The cumulative process is
directed by non-random survival.
Superstitious beings misconception.
o If you walk up and down a pebbly beach, you will see that
pebbles are not arranged at random, the smaller pebbles are
found running along the length of the beach while the larger
ones are in different zones. A tribe living near the shore could
attribute that to a Great Spirit in the sky with a sense of order.
However we can explain that its only due to the blind forces of
physics. It is the action of the waves that caused that, the waves
through around the pebbles aimlessly and each pebble responds
differently depending on its size.
Dawkins aims in this chapter to explain the difference between
single-step selection and cumulative selection.
o Typewriter Example:
Give a typewriter to a monkey let him keep bashing on the
keyboard until he writes a famous line by Shakespeare

such as Methinks it is like a weasel. We assume the

typewriter only has the 26 Capital alphabets and a space
bar. Since the sentence has 28 characters in it and there
are 27 possibilities for each character, the chances that the
monkey gets it right is (1/27) to the power of 28 which is
insanely small. This is called a single step selection of
random variation
Cumulative selection using the same example however
will be different. It again begins by choosing a random
sequence of 28 letter but now it breeds from the
generated random phrase. It duplicates it repeatedly with a
certain chance of random error -mutation- in the copying.
Using a computer it will examine the mutant nonsense
phrases and chooses the one which however slightly most
resembles the target phrase. The target phrase can then
be reached in only 40-70 iterations.

X) The Debate Between Plato and Democritus, Heisenberg

o Plato much nearer to truth about the structure of matter than
Democritus or Leucippus
o Concept of Matter in Ancient Philosophy
o Dilemma of the one and the many
o Leucippus and Democritus founders of atomism
Tried to avoid the difficulty by assuming the atom to be
eternal and indestructible
o All other beings only exist because they are composed of atoms
o Being is not only one; it can be repeated infinitely many times.
Being is indestructible, therefore the atom is indestructible
o The empty space between atoms allows for position and motion
o this doctrine of Democritus and Leucippus is both its own
strength and weakness
explains the different aggregate states of matter (ex. Ice,
water, steam)
on other hand, the atom becomes a mere building block of
matter; its properties, position and motion in space turn it
into something different from the original concept of being
if atom has spatial properties, why should it not be
divided?
o Intention of atomic hypothesis: from the many to the one; to
formulate the underlying principle, the material cause, by virtue
of which all phenomena can be understood
o However, when the Greek philosophers discussed the laws of
nature, their thoughts were directed to static forms, geometrical
symmetries, rather than to processes in space and time

Circular orbits of planets, geometrical solids, appeared to

be the permanent structures of the world
o Plato adopted the idea of smallest units of matter, but he took
the strongest exception to the tendency of that philosophy to
suppose the atoms to be the foundation of all existence, the only
truly existing material objects.
Platos atoms: not strictly material, being thought of as
geometrical forms, the regular solids of the
mathematicians
Regarded them as composed from the triangles forming
their surfaces; therefore, form exchanging triangles, these
smallest particles could be commuted into each other
Ex. Two atoms of air and one of fire can be compounded
into atom of water
This way, Plato was able to escape the problem of the
indefinite divisibility of water
o Plato idealist philosophy: ideas are more fundamental than the
objects ideas can be described mathematically. God is a
mathematician from Platonic philosophy
o Answer of Modern Science to the Old Problems
o During 19th century, the development of chemistry and theory of
heat conformed closely to Democritus and Leucippus
o Concept of atom had helped the explanation of chemical bonding
and the physical behaviour of gases
o However, the atoms were still composed of smaller units
(electrons, protons, neutrons)
o Modern physics: decided in Platos views: smallest units of
matters are not physical, they are forms, structures, ideas,
which can be described in mathematics
o Plato was right that at the heart of nature, among the smallest
units of matter, we find mathematical symmetries
o the source for the one played a similar role the origin of both religion
and science
o but the scientific method that was developed in the 16th and 17th
centuries has pointed science into a different path from religion
o if we wish to approach the one, we must turn our attention to that
center of science described by Plato
o fundamental mathematical symmetries are to be found

Z) Fifth Mystery: Transcendence: Ritchie

Transcendence: going beyond common experience
o Not material, more mental and spiritual
Is Earth getting anywhere with peace and prosperity?

Ancients believed the world and nature were getting to be pretty well
known and man was set in its dominance of earth
Yet every century, a voice arises to express of what might be called
transcendence
Transcendence naturally has a wide variety of aspects, as does
evolution
Miracles of one millennium (firearms, compass, flying, radio etc)
become basic technology of the next; like how luxuries for the few turn
into the necessities of the many
Arts like alchemy and astrology grow to be vital science like chemistry
and astronomy
Major transcendences have to do with big abstractions like dimensions
and virtues, low numbers in dimensions unfold into higher numbers,
and once regarded good skills (e.g. killing) being demoted to bad acts,
sins and capital crimes
Other transcendences specialise in dispersing say a specific advantage
for one person into a general advantage for all
As individuals transcend into societies, societies transcend into
civilizations. Finitudes into infinitudes, mortals into immortals, matter
into mind into spirit, and possibly, creatures to their creator
Emergent Transcendence
o Go back into age of radiation, before Big Bang
o Nothing was formed or imagined, except for in the cosmic mind
of the Creator (assuming there was one)
o All we have: potential of a far future hidden in the vibrations of
photons or whatever other subatomic particles there were
o If mind or spirit existed, besides Gods it was unmanifest and
unknowable
o Gradually, radiation evolved, matter which evolved worlds and
turned out to be alive, self-sufficient and full of mystic
potentiality
o Individual self is the prime focus of consciousness and one of the
keys to transcendence
o Space, time and self are the 3 principal measures relating us to
this finite world
Dimensional frame through which each of us individually
impinges on what is called reality
The changes that gradually shift our relation to this frame
are what constitutes transcendence
Time Transcending
o Time- the dimension that reveals transcendence to most of us
first

o Imagine a baby; time is slow for them. Time goes by faster when
you are older because each additional unit of time we live
through is a smaller portion of our total experience
o Imagine how time must fly for someone who has lived a million
years
o Generations will pass like flashes of lighting, eons will drift by,
etc
o Birth and death will merge into simultaneous whole and time
itself will reveal its full stature as a dimension of development,
while total experience will blossom easily from the finite into the
increasingly imaginable perspectives of infinity
Space Transcending
o Same can apply to space as time
o Take baby again, he can understand that his crib is a yard long,
but acres or miles might be infinite to him
o When he grows, the transcendent relativity of space becomes
noticiable to him and miles (like years) shrink and go by faster as
they increase in number
Self Transcending
o Third measure of transcendence
o Interrelation between self and society; between human and
humanity, or between one organism and the superorganism of
Earth, or the relation between an individual consciousness and
the super-consciousness (universal mind)
o No matter how vital a self-cell feels to itself, its actual
importance to society and the world is temporary and
educational
o What constitutes an organism? Is a hive of bees an organism?
Roots searching for water? Ants searching for food? Flock of
birds? Etc
Insect Superorganisms
o E.g. ants. When they march through a jungle or open country,
other creatures stay out of way
o Those in the way get eaten (they bite in unison)
o Behaves like single organism, yet no central brain and no
individual is in command
o Mental side of ants illustrate transcendence. Individual ants are
random, and ineffective. But when they are in numbers, a
definite intelligence is evident and they become more
coordinated ant purposeful
Vertebrate Superorganisms
o Bird flocks, reindeer, schools of fish
o Schools of fish help each other grow, and discourages and
confuses predators which leads to survival

o Fish swimming at edges serve as eyes of fish at the center

o School of fish are leaderless- evidence that is transcending in the
direction of a super-organization of selfless cells, none of which
any longer has any real will of its own
Transcendence of Consciousness
o Idea of ones consciousness being absorbed into other
consciousness (presumably greater ones)
o Baby consciousness limited at first. Consciousness expands as
senses quicken and absorbed into awareness of his mother.
Consciousness again absorbed that he also has a father and
other family members
o Lots of ones ideas originate in other minds part of human
transcendence
Summary:
o Individual transcendence: each of us develops larger and larger
awareness of space, time and self
o Social transcendence: individual consciousnesss are absorbed
into super-consciousness or a group mind
o World transcendence: consciousness and super-consciousness of
nations and empires on a planet evolve into a world
superorganism that ultimately conveys them beyond the finitude
of space, time and self toward the infinitude of mystery in the
universe (God)
o All of them are intervolved