Concurrent Sessions Friday, October 22, 2010
C1. Arising and Dissolving: The Spontaneous Play of Nondual Awareness
Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy Institute - Panel
There is a Vastness beyond time, beyond mind, beyond thoughts of "me," "you" or even "That." Called by many names, it is where all names cease, all conceptualization dissolves, yet simultaneously it is the ground of all arising. There is no separate "subject" who "realizes," and true Understanding cannot be made into an object. Yet, the Mystery is ever-present, awake, spontaneously expressing itself as this moment, this body, this appearance and disappearance. When thought lets go of needing to control, we see from beyond separation what is actually present, and begin to speak from Nondual Awareness rather than about it. We see life's spontaneous and dynamic play arising and dissolving moment to moment.
Format: Including both direct experiential invitations and conversations from the Vastness, we hope to invite participants to explore with us speaking and living from what is Undivided.
Experiential invitations (1 hour), Break (15 minutes), Conversational "dances" (2 hours, 15 minutes)
At the end of the presentation, you are better able to:Playmates in the Vastness: (sometimes referred to as facilitators):
- describe the role of Nondual Awareness in therapy.
- speak from Nondual Awareness in therapy rather than about it.
Kenneth Bradford (Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of Holistic Studies, John F. Kennedy University); Peter Fenner (Timeless Wisdom); Dorothy Hunt (Moon Mountain Sangha, Inc./San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy); Kaisa Puhakka (Clinical Psychology Professor, CIIS); John Prendergast, Moderator (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology CIIS/The Sacred Mirror and Listening from the Heart of Silence)
This concurrent session is eligible for CE credit.
C2. Perspectives on Non-dual Awareness
In Dreams Awake: An Overview of Lucid Dreaming. West and East, Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. (Founder oflhe Lucidity Institute)
"Dreams are a reservoir of knowledge and experience," writes Tarthang Tulku, "yet they are often overlooked as a vehicle for exploring reality." Lucid dreaming (dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming) is the magic carpet of such vehicles, and for more than a thousand years, the Tibetan Buddhists have used lucid dreams as a means of experiencing the illusory nature of personal identity and awakening to reality. Lucid dreaming is not only an extraordinary experience; it is also a learnable and potentially rewarding skill. Recent scientific research has proven the reality of lucid dreams, and has led to the development of new methods of inducing them. This workshop will provide a brief overview of lucid dreaming, touching on techniques and technology for achieving lucid dreaming; a model of dreaming and waking consciousness; scientific research on mind-body relationships during REM sleep; and several applications of lucid dreaming – exploring consciousness, enhancing creativity, personal development and self- integration, dream yoga, and transcendent experience. Find out why Thoreau said "our truest life is when we are in dreams awake."
Evolutionary Nonduality? Jeff Carriera (Director of Education, EnlightenNext)
Is "Evolutionary Nonduality" an oxymoron? Explore the roots of an authentically American philosophical tradition The experience of nonduality is the direct recognition of absolute wholeness. In the great Enlightenment traditions this experience often leads to a shift in identity in which the "realizer" sees themselves as one with – or not separate from – all of creation. In this realization, reality is seen as ultimately unchanging and evolution as an illusion. Is there a way to understand nonduality that could include the reality of evolution? There is in fact a tradition of great American mystics and philosophers who have explored this question. From Ralph Waldo Emerson to William James to Andrew Cohen, American thinkers have wrestled with a unique evolutionary interpretation of nonduality; this has had a tremendous impact on the development of the American mind. Evolutionary nonduality describes an experience of reality that seems to have fueled the development of this tradition of thought. This experience is a dramatic shift in the sense of self. When this shift takes place an individual stops experiencing themselves as a separate entity abiding in the universe and instead realizes that even their sense of individuality is part of the experience of the evolving universe itself at the very edge of its development. As Andrew Cohen puts it, "From the biggest perspective, all human experience can be seen as being part of a process – an evolutionary or developmental process that is moving forward in time. Our own personal experience of that process in all its many dimensions – inner and outer, gross and subtle – is ultimately a very small part of an infinite unfolding." In this talk, I will explore my own experience of Evolutionary Nonduality and discuss how, over the last two centuries, Evolutionary Nonduality has combined with spiritual wisdom from the East to catalyze and fuel a profound stream of American spiritual philosophy.
The Physical Reality of Nonduality. Peggy LaCerra (The Center far Evolutionary Neuroscience (CEN)
The concept of nonduality is traceable to the Upanishads, in which 'advaita', or the nondual nature of the 'self and 'the whole', constitutes one of the foundational teachings. Three thousand years ago when these scriptures were written, the only approach toward gaining an awareness of nonduality as the cosmic reality was experience and/or tutelage based upon another's experience. While it is reasonable to assume that an experiential approach to nonduality might prove to be the most pleasurable one for the 'self, there are sound reasons to believe that a scientific approach might ultimately prove to be more beneficial to 'the whole'. In this talk, we will explore the physical reality of nonduality and the nature of the neurocognitive architecture (the behavioral decision-making system of the brain which give rise to the 'mind') and briefly discuss some of the apparent potential advantages to humanity of adopting this approach. We will also consider applications of nondual awareness for the psychotherapeutic encounter.
At the end of this presentation, you are better able to:Embodying Non Duality. Dr. lIan J. Grand (California Institute of Integral Studies)
- describe the importance of nonlocal awareness in the therapeutic encounter
- clinically apply mindfiilness in an outpatient psychotherapy setting
From one perspective, Non Duality simply means de-centering from historically-based images of self as separate, disembodied, and disconnected from world becoming. It suggests that continually changing natural, social, and spiritual environments evoke differentiated gene, tissue and social and personal biological response. Individuals and groups are seen as transitory, changing sites of creative experience dancing within multiple fields of meaning making and experience. In this view, conscious and unconscious embodiments, excitations, feelings, histories and experiences are valued, and creative struggle, joy, vitality, pain, and mourning are seen as part of living.
This presentation will use movement, images, language, and music to explore possible meanings of an embodied Non Dual perspective.
Default to Nonduality. Zoranjosipovic, Ph.D. (Psychology Dept. and Center for Neural Science, New York University)
The two large globally distributed networks in the brain, the task-positive extrinsic and the task-negative intrinsic or default network, have been focus of much research recently. A somewhat simplified view about the nature of their relationship has emerged, one that sees them as being fundamentally antagonistic. This talk will attempt to introduce a more nuanced understanding of their functioning. I will show the results of our study on the 'influence of nondual awareness on the ami-correlated networks in the brain', and discuss them in light of different views about nonduality. Nondual awareness presents a unique opportunity to study the functioning of the intrinsic/ extrinsic networks in the brain, as it cognizes everything without dividing the field of experience into internal vs. external, into a rigidified self vs. other.
I Am Missing Me. Mokshananda (Spiritual Teacher)
A lover of science and an integral evolutionist, Mokshananda offers that, as far as he can see, spiritual realization is the only lasting "balm" for the plight of manifest existence. From his upcoming book, "I Am Missing Me": "Buddha, in his First and Second Noble Truths, and post-modern evolutionary theorists suggest the same thing. Discontentment, suffering, and pervasive dissatisfaction are 'hard-wired' intrinsic deep structures that appear to us from early human and pre-human evolutionary realms. Those early hominids that mated or ate and then rested on their laurels were less likely to past their genes on to future generations than those who kept on going, never feeling satisfied, mating, eating and wanting more. In a very real sense, the current human organism is the living, genetic heritage of all that. We think, it's my unhappiness, but it's much more impersonal than that. It's all of ours, and to the extent we accept this, which is Buddha's truth, is to the extent we start to become free of it. That's why it's called a Truth – it's not something to be overlooked–and why the 1st and 2nd Noble Truths precede the deep realizations offered by the 3rd and 4th Noble Truths. In other words, it's hard to "wake up" to non-dual awareness when you're still doing battle with your humanness."
An Evolutionary Perspective on Non-dual awareness, Peter Baumann (Founder of the Baumann Institute) & Tami Simon (Founder of Sounds True)
Discussion format.
C3. The Science of Ancient Traditions
"For the Sake of Consciousness" (Purushartha): The Strong Anthropic Principle in an Egoless Universe. Alfred Collins, Ph.D. nasadasin@gmail.com (Alaska NeurolTherapy Center)
An idea taken from the Indian philosophical theories (darshanas) of Samkhya and Yoga may shed light on the compelling but widely rejected idea that the universe exists with its actual qualities in order that we humans can exist and experience it. The biggest problem with this idea is its apparent hubris, the implication that the "tail" of humanity wags the "dog" of the vastly greater cosmos in which we are set as apparently minor players. Indian thought, however, does not suggest that the universe exists to make humans possible, but rather that the universe, including the human mind (together mind and body are called prakriti), exists for the sake of consciousness (artha = "for the sake of," purusha = "consciousness). I want to draw a parallel between purusa and Roger Penrose's "Platonic world" or realm of essential "ideas." The key similarity is that the realm of ideas is trans-human; it exists beyond human life even though we can occasionally access it by clarifying and purifying our experience. This purification, I argue, is the practice of purusartha, the process of realizing in a deeper and deeper way that the purpose of the world (both the physical and the mental realms) is not human life but consciousness that dwells precisely beyond human life, in the realm of "Not I" (naham) that the Samkhya Karika (verse 64) understands to be the highest moment of thought. The universe, including us humans, exists so that we (it) can realize "not I" and therefore apophatically establish the I-ness of consciousness that we glimpse with increasing clarity as the true experiencer of ourselves and our world.
Transcend from duality Non-duality through teachings of Bhagavad Gita. Satya Kalra Path to Anandam
The Bhagavad Gita is a spiritual guide that teaches step by step how to transcend from duality to non-duality Today, we hear a lot about duality and non-duality. What does this really mean? In order to answer this, we must understand what is duality and non-duality? How to transcend from duality to non-duality? Duality (Dvaita) is the state of separation from Oneself (Reality, God). In this state, one experience miseries and pain, dissatisfaction, emotional conflicts, anger, fear, and loses one's capability to cope with daily challenges. He feels lost. It is usually referred as the pair of opposites: honor and disgrace, heat and cold, pain and pleasure, criticism and praise, birth and death, joy and sorrow, like and dislike, body and spirit, good and evil, reality and unreality. In this path, one thinks that God is separate from him and tries to attain God-Realization through external means such as rituals, selfless services without expecting the fruit of actions and lives in God's Consciousness, transcends pair of opposites. Thus attains God.
It is all external. Non-duality (Advaita) is the Unity with the Self/Oneness with Supreme. It is the state of Ultimate Bliss-Anandam/Nirvana. In this path, one realizes the Self is Supreme (God). One feels complete, wholesome and liberated from miseries and pain. He realizes his true nature (Self-Realization). For him, there is nothing beyond to experience. The Ultimate Truth is revealed. However, due to the pairs of opposites, one fails to experience Oneness with the Supreme. By focusing on the pauS of self-purification and self-transformation through spiritual practices and meditation (7-steps, based upon the teachings of Bhagavad Gita), one can transcend from duality and experiences Non-duality, Oneness with God, He is no longer separated from God–He is God!
The direct apprehension of Self within the tradition of Uwaiysi Sufism. Sarah Hastings ka$ting$17@gmail.com (International Association of Sufism)
Within Western psychology, traditional developmental models consider self-development conclusive at healthy, normal adult maturity (Cortright, 2007; Helminski, 1992; Metzner, 1998). However, certain spiritual and mystical schools, specifically to this discussion, Sufism, argue that further trans-egok development is possible. This discussion looks at the tradition of Uwaiysi Sufism, a contemplative, mystical branch of Islam cultivated in the Middle East. The ultimate goal within this tradition is articulated as the absolute understanding of Self. It is understood in this tradition that before a practitioner has recognized his or her essential or transegoic nature, or Self, that the self is merely a conceptualization comprised of illusory mental and egoic representations of what the person thinks he or she is, instead of knowing of his or her stable and unchanging identity as identical to divine nature. This discussion looks both at the experience of the practitioners journey from self to Self, in addition to looking at the method with which one directly apprehends the Self. Sufism describes that when the practitioner concludes identifying with the mental representation of self and surrenders to the knowledge of the heart, one can directly experience Self. This talk will bring insight to such things as this traditions understanding of: (a) higher Self-development potential, (b) the journey towards developing Self, and, (d) how ones limited self causes disillusionment and suffering. By investigating traditions that have both historically studied and promoted transegoic stages, it is possible to contribute to the enhancement of human experience.
Non-dual Kashmir Shaivism. Dr. Maria Syldona healingbalance@scienceandspirit.org Institute far Human Psychospiritual Development
'Science of Life', 'Science of Spirituality', 'Science of the Soul' - these are some of the descriptors given to non-dual Kashmir Shaivism by its sages and scholars. Its Model of the Manifestation of the universe, and of a human being, is said to be the 'entry point' to Kashmir Shaivism. Inherent in this Model is the involutionary process whereby Ultimate Reality or Absolute Consciousness becomes the universe and everything within it. Perhaps even more importantly, the Model in a reverse exposition reveals psychospiritual tenets of the evolutionary course that actualizes the process of realization of the true divine nature of a human being. Other aspects of this all-encompassing Model treat the nature of the universe as vibration and sound. Drawing upon ancient scriptural works and commentaries by renowned scholars, this overview of Kashmir Shaivism encompasses its basic tenets as well as parallels with contemporary cosmology, physical sciences, and psychology. The Model presents an elaborate treatment of fundamental mind/brain processes such as perception, and contains parallels with contemporary neuroscience research. It also illuminates the nature of supra-mental functioning as in intuition, clairvoyance and premonitions. Comparisons between Kashmir Shaivism's Model of universal manifestation and contemporary scientific theory reflecting our current understanding of this manifestation serve to illustrate the potential value of Kashmir Shaivism in furthering the progress of contemporary science, both physical and psychological. Equally as significant as the theoretical aspect of this elegant Eastern tradition is the 'practice aspect' which is designed to accelerate humankinds ultimate evolutionary realization. The state of non-duality, or the ultimate oneness of the innermost Self, or Absolute Consciousness, is the intended state of a human being. Living life in this state represents true human evolution, the realization of which could finally create the world as the peaceful paradise in which we are meant to live.
Cognitive Spiritual Science. Pratibha Gramann rmg.pratibha@att.net (Saybrook University)
The ancient text known as Patanjali s Yogasutras was written about 350 BC, and it is based on the oldest system of Indian philosophy, known as Samkhya philosophy. For many people, the philosophy known as Vedanta is the queen of Indian philosophies, but Vedanta has its roots in the earlier philosophy of Samkhya. It is Samkhya philosophy that delineated the evolution of creation based upon the three gunas, or the three energy principles of creation known as illumination, activity, and inertia. Samkhya is a dualistic system of philosophy that recognizes two, eternal principles. These are: consciousness (purush) and matter (prikriti). The commentator of the Yogasutras, Hariha-rananda Aranya (1981) has been given credit for reviving the philosophy of Samkhya as the basis for the Yogasutras. Patanjali states that the nature of human life is that of pain and suffering. Secondly, he states that humankind would like to rid the mental suffering. In essence, the entire text is about how to remove the mental suffering, become enlightened, and attain liberation. There are four sections to the Yogasutras: section one is a description of the mind with a description of the first four concentrations of mind, and the cognitive samadhis; section two consists primarily of methods to engage the mind toward attainment of the samadhis; section three consists of a description of powers of the mind which naturally develop as a result of engaging the mind in regular, sustained, and long term samadhi. It also states the precautions and results of the misuse of powers; section four is titled kaivalya which means aloneness, and it can be equated with the Buddhist term, nirvana. In giving a description of the mind, Patanjali states that there are five states-of-mind. In other words at any one time the mind is either resdess, in dullness, distracted, one-pointed, or without thought. The mind constantly shirts, and we humans have the job of becoming aware of our mind-state and working out how to engage it in order to live our life in the latter three mind-states. These three states of dlstractedness, one-pointed, or mind-without thought ptogressively increase concentration which leads to a flow of consciousness and depth knowledge.
Encounter with Hie Unknown. Dr. Jordan Peterson jordanbpeterson@gmal.com (University of Toronto)
The symbols commonly encountered in dreams, mythology, religion and literature appear to be derived from a combination of archaic biological experience and cognitive capability. New anthropological, psychological and primatological research indicates that our ancestral experience with predatory serpents profoundly shaped the psy-chophysiology of our visual systems and the development of our motivational, emotional and cognitive structures and processes, particularly those involved in anxiety and incentive reward. It is for this reason that the image of the eternal serpent is frequently utilized (as in the book of Genesis) as a representation of the primal force or state that existed prior to the differentiation of the world of experience, and whose manifestation gave rise to consciousness. The serpent, symbolically speaking, represents the simultaneously terrifying and attractive unknown, just as the mythological dragon harbors a virginal female or a golden treasure or serves, bodily, once dismembered by the hero, as a substrate for being itself. Encounter with the unknown (!) activates evolutionarily ancient fear and approach systems, each with its own particular biological substrate; (2) motivates exploration, once initial fear or anxiety has receded; and (3) produces new information, then incorporated into representational and practical knowledge. The ancient enemy of our primate ancestors, the snake, thus comes to stand for the danger and challenge that has shaped and perhaps even created our consciousness, in tandem with powerful, associated sources of sexual selection #8211 the eternal attraction of the female to the hero who can overpower and master the serpent.
Nonduality PUlS+. Nikhileshwari Devinikhileskwari@gmail.com (Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat)
Adi Jagagduru Shanakaracharya, the founder of the spiritual science of advaita vedanta, substantiated his philosophy through his commentaries on the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Brahma Sutra over 2,500 years ago. This could be summarized as: Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jeevo brahmaiva na aparah. Brahman (impersonal ultimate truth) alone is real, this world is unreal; the Jiva (soul) is identical with Brahman. Yet, in the final writing ofShan-karacharya, "Prabodh Sudhakar", he declared that physical reality (Maya) was not an illusion and the nirakar aspect of ultimate truth (nih+akar=no form) was ultimately established in a sakar aspect (sah+akat=form) or form of God, just as light is established in the sun. He further elaborated that the essential role of devotion or bhakti to the sakar aspect of divinity, and the necessity of grace to purify the mind and thus make nondual realization possible.
What implications does this curious reversal of position have for modern day followers and philosophers of nondual vedanta? A larger discussion of this point is the reconciliation of the seemingly disparate approaches found in Vedic literature of the One - are you really that or do you belong to that? Which is it... because you can't have your cake and eat it, too! Additionally, bliss and Oneness are mutually exclusive - with one, you have two (experiencer and experienced) but with the other, you have nothing (no experiencer therefore no experience). Further, what is the taste, texture and nature of that nondual state, and what awaits the awakened one after the death of the physical body?
Thus, a student of nonduality may learn and benefit from a complete examination of Shankaracharya's final observations. These same observations are substantiated by passages in the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Puranas, and in the writings of the Jagadguru lineage of Saints, thereby giving a very comprehensive "stamp of approval" by scriptural literature.
C4. Scientific Approaches to Nonduality
Spiritual Neuroscience and Technology. Dr. Bill Baird baird@math.berkeley.edu (Neurotechnology Research)
This introduces theoretical work on the neuropsychology of consciousness, creativity, and accelerated psychological/spiritual development. We take a spiritual view of science here that the 'unified field' from which all reality is created is a field of universal consciousness and love. This ground field is self aware in a rudimentary way but cannot see itself well because it is aware of everything at once. It uses manifestation to develop its ability to reflect on its creations from local perspectives. The scope or range of the reflective capacity of the ground field develops steadily in cosmic evolution from molecules to cells to humans as part of its thrust toward greater self awareness. Personal consciousness is seen as the result of the coherent quantum state in the brain described by Penrose and Hammerorf which brings the microscopic ground field of universal consciousness up into direct large scale interaction with the dense spirit/matter of molecules and neurons that make up the brain. Every conscious personal experience is a local act of reflection for the ground field that occurs at every collapse interaction of the quantum field state with the dense brain structure. In this view our awareness is a channel from universal consciousness that brings creative inspiration, insight, intelligence, and loving "grace" to the conditioned Turing and Goedel limited ego/computer operation of the brain. The shifting stream of content in ordinary reflective awareness at the focus of attention is generated by action/sensation cycles of neural activity alternating between sensory and motor areas which are communicating by gamma frequency synchronization. Cognitive and affective neuropsychology shows how in spiritual practice these mechanisms of attention can open brain operation ever further to the transformative influence of consciousness and eventually expand its range of reflection to encompass all of reality in nondual realization. Neuro-technology can assist this opening.
An EEG-based quantum model of Consciousness. Russell Hebert, Ph.D. (Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center)
This speaker presents EEG evidence to support a quantum source of consciousness. The author will discuss previous quantum and neurosdence theories and will show that the emphasis has been on content of consciousness. This presentation will suggest that in order to make a link between the physical (classical) brain and non-physical (quantum) consciousness it is fruitful to separate consciousness into two aspects- de-objectified (ground state) and objectified (excited state). We will show how focusing on the de-objectified ground state has contributed to consciousness theory. Our previous research involved an analysis of EEG alpha phase synchrony in fifteen advanced practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation technique, proposed to be an ideal experimental condition to investigate the de-objectified ground state. With this approach a unique alpha standing wave was observed. The article describes characteristics of this EEG waveform that in several ways favors the quantum theoretical proposals of physicists on the subject of quantum brain dynamics. Taking nothing away from advances made in the past by other researchers, this discussion proposes three emphasis shifts in understanding the nature and source of consciousness. The proposal is merely a shift of emphasis. First is a shift of emphasis from objects within consciousness to the observer within consciousness. The second is a shift from zero-lag gamma EEG to zero-lag alpha. The third is a shift from a purely classical physics neuron model to an interpretation based quantum brain dynamics interacting with neural systems. The alpha standing wave, though not proposed to be the source of consciousness, is recommended as a link to a quantum source of consciousness. Thus the article is proposed to offer evidence-based stepping stones for developing a link between the classical brain and the quantum field, the proposed source of consciousness. Implications for non-duality will be discussed.
A Reluctant Guide to Enlightenment: William James and the Non-Reality of Will, Self. and Time, Jonathan Bricklin (New York Open Center)
Is consciousness already there waiting to be uncovered and is it a veridical revelation of reality?" William James asked in one of his last published essays, "A Suggestion About Mysticism." The answer, he said, would not be known "by this generation or the next." A century after his death, as if on schedule, physicists are now making the case, both experimentally (Craig Hogan) and theoretically (Julian Barbour), that answers James's question in the affirmative. By separating what James passionately wanted to believe about will, self, and time, from what his "dispassionate" insights and researches led him to believe, I show how James himself laid the groundwork for adopting this eternalistic revelation as veridical. "Consciousness already there waiting to be uncovered" is consistent with James's "neutral" monism, and his belief that Newtonian, objective, even-flowing time does not exist. Prime reality was not, for James, an object-world appearing to a subject-self, but a "monism" of "pure experiences," a stream of "sciousness" (consciousness widiout consciousness of self)> "thinking objects...some of which it makes what it calls a 'Me,' and only aware of its 'pure' Self in an abstract, hypothetic or conceptual way." These pure experiences "exist and succeed one another," entering into "infinitely varied relations," "throw[ing| the question of who the knower really is wide open." While never fully abandoning commonsense dualism himself, James believed that parapsychological and other transpersonal phenomena had "broken down...the limits of the admitted order of things," and that insofar as science denies such exceptional occurrences, it lies "prostrate in the dust." The "most urgent intellectual need" he felt was that "science be built up again" in a form in which transpersonal phenomena "have a positive place." In centennial retrospect, his veridical revelation, and his corroboration of it, helped create a positive place for the most tadical reconstruction of physics today.
Nonduality Concerning The Comparison Of Methods In Quantum Mechanics And Functions In Consciousness. Dr. Franz Jansen jansen.franz@orange.fr
Certain conceptions of the wave function of quantum mechanics based on superposition of physical states, Heisenberg's uncertainty principal or non-locality are in contradiction with conceptions of the macrocosm, thereby showing duality. Nevertheless, there is a certain degree of isomorphism (in the sense of Douglas Hofstadter) between quantum mechanical methods and functions in human consciousness suggesting nonduality for the understanding of quantum mechanical methods.
"Schrodinger's cat" thought experiment suggested that a cat couldn't be simultaneously in superposition of a living and dead state if depending on superposed physical states. However, consciousness functioning with potentiality can imagine several possibilities for the same time period, as if they were in superposition. A mother without news of her son fighting in a dangerous war necessarily envisages several possibilities in superposition: her son in good health, wounded or even dead. New information induces the collapse of superposed potential situations to only one. This could resemble the wave function collapse during measurement.
Potentiality systems in human consciousness show the characteristics of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. A fireball turned rapidly by a juggler gives the impression of a circle. This is not real, only potential, so that the exact location of the ball within the circle remains uncertain, due to insufficient information.
Reality systems are present in consciousness only when exact time and space coordinates are available, whereas observations with lacking time or space coordinates automatically evoke potentiality systems, in order to complete lacking coordinates by potential but probable coordinates. This can induce a feeling of non-locality, for instance when a plane is lost somewhere over the ocean.
In conclusion, the comparison of methods in quantum mechanics with functions in consciousness seems to suggest nonduality.
Theory of Consciousness. Edward Asseo, Ph.D. edouardasseo@yahoo.com (Telecomunication Engineer I Philosophy Epistemology)
The Theory of Consciousness is a mathematical reformulation of the Hegel system. It gives a vision of the universe as an all-inclusive whole comprising the objective world and the subjective world. The Hegel system is based on the duality of the Being and the Nothing but in fact, the Being and the Nothing pass into one another and this continuous passage is called by Hegel the Becoming. Therefore this duality permanently tries to resolve itself in a nonduality : the result is the universe itself as an ongoing process by which duality and nonduality pass into one another. Calling into question the postulate of objectivity is our starring point. To do so, we start by thinking about a simple mental experiment by which we can express this postulate. This leads to taking into account the so-called knowledge function C(X) by which the object X is known. The knowledge function must not be confused with sensitive perception nor with thought. It appears that this function should be reflexive, i.e. C(C) should be defined. The conditions to which the function C(X) should comply are expressed and called the Conscience relations. We can see that the mysterious experience of the reflexivity of knowledge by which "I know that I know", will be basic in the theory. The three books of the theory 1. Theory of knowledge: The Conscience relations are developped mathematically and it is shown that the fundamental laws of modern physics (Quantum Mechanics and Relativity) can be derived from the Conscience relations. This yields a new paradigm in physics. 2. The Subject-Unverse: The Philosophical presentation of the Theory 3. Conscious systems: A conscious system is a system which inplements the Conscience relations. The principle and architecture of the brain as the center of consciousness are derived.
Two Conscious Entities in One Brain and Spirituality/Enlightenment. Frank Heile, Ph.D. jrank@heile.org (Physics, Stanford)
I will present evidence supporting the hypothesis that two conscious entities simultaneously exist in the human brain - the primary conscious (based on the sensory representational systems) and the symbolic consciousness (based on the language/symbolic representational systems). The experiments and phenomenon that can be interpreted as favoring of this hypothesis will include: the theory of mind, split-brain experiments, Hindsight, the priming effects of non-conscious sensory experiences, emotions in general, Libet's results on the time delays in the intention to act and the top down versus bottom up attention system differences. In fact the evolutionary development of the God concept and of spirituality in general will be interpreted as evidence for the belief in these two separate conscious entities. When the symbolic consciousness was first developing in humans, the symbolic consciousness would have been much weaker than it is today and therefore the primary consciousness would have seemed even stronger to the weak symbolic consciousness. This is when the God concept would have developed - the primary consciousness would represent God and the symbolic consciousness would represent Man. In fact many of the spiritual practices such as prayer and meditation can be seen as attempts to unify these two separate conscious entities. This hypothesis will make it possible to interpret some of the diverse spiritual practices and spiritual texts that have developed around the world as further evidence in favor of the two conscious entities hypothesis. For example, enlightenment could be the result when one realizes that the artificial separation into the symbolic consciousness and primary consciousness does not really exist - they are both just aspects of our unified consciousness.
Evolution Changes Everything: How Science Evolves Beyond Dualism. Dr. Horace Fairlamb fairlamh@uhv.edu (Univ. of Houston-Victoria, Professor ofInterdisciplinary Studies)
In the shadow of Descartes, modern scientific philosophy has wavered between mind-body dualism and a monism of matter extended in space. For many modern scientists, substance or property dualism is the only credible alternative to materialist reductions of mind to matter. The hegemony of mechanistic materialism began to crumble with the discoveries of field theories, relativity theory, quantum non-locality, and the formal attractors of complex systems. But the most far-reaching reconstructions of science will come from evolutionary theory. Where Darwinism modeled the material conditions (contextual and genetic) of adaptation, theories of self-organization are revolutionizing the scientific concept of causation by discovering how complex forms detetmine themselves from the inside out. What these theories show is that causation itself evolves as matter takes on increasingly autonomous forms. This development revolutionizes both the knower and the known of science. It confirms the Goethean conception of science rather than Newton's: a science in which nature is an interior logic unfolding in rime, a logic that must be recreated within the mind to be conceived by the mind.
Evolution and complex systems theories are restoring the pre-modern hierarchical conception of natural causation, a transformation that requires post-materialist conceptions of substance. Whereas matter in space embodies the notion of substantive exclusion, complex systemic causation posits interrelated aspects of a single reality, an interior holism of formal-causal aspects. As causation evolves, the independence of fundamental causal elements declines while formal dependence and formal immanence increase. This trend points beyond the modern science of exclusive parts toward the metaphysics of an inclusive, immanent whole. Such a non-dual ground of nature could not be the object of scientific observation, though it seems to be the metaphysical ground toward which the evolution of causation points.
White Robed Monks of St. Benedict