Scientific American has published an article on Dissociative Identity Disorder that should be of interest to everyone who has ever thought about the nature of the life (and world) that we currently enjoy. Bernardo Kastrup, Adam Crabtree and Edward Kelly wrote the article together, and it is based on some of their observations regarding the research of others. You can read the entire article for yourself here: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/could-multiple-personality-disorder-explain-life-the-universe-and-everything/
The article was of particular interest to this blogger in relation to past posts that have appeared here. Indeed, regular readers of this blog will recall that I have discussed the possibility that our individual minds/consciousness could be small parts of the mind/consciousness of God. Stated another way, we could say that EVERYTHING (including us) exists within the mind of God. And, of course, such a theory would have profound implications for the very nature of reality itself.
Kastrup, Crabtree and Kelly provide a sequential and easy to understand framework for the philosophical tree that underpins their article. With this background in place, they are in a position to make their point. They write: "So, for idealism to be tenable, one must explain—at least in principle—how one universal consciousness gives rise to multiple, private but concurrently conscious centers of cognition, each with a distinct personality and sense of identity.
And here is where dissociation comes in. We know empirically from DID that consciousness can give rise to many operationally distinct centers of concurrent experience, each with its own personality and sense of identity. Therefore, if something analogous to DID happens at a universal level, the one universal consciousness could, as a result, give rise to many alters with private inner lives like yours and ours. As such, we may all be alters—dissociated personalities—of universal consciousness."
They conclude: "Idealism is a tantalizing view of the nature of reality, in that it elegantly circumvents two arguably insoluble problems: the hard problem of consciousness and the combination problem. Insofar as dissociation offers a path to explaining how, under idealism, one universal consciousness can become many individual minds, we may now have at our disposal an unprecedentedly coherent and empirically grounded way of making sense of life, the universe and everything."
Was the Eighteenth Century philosopher George Berkeley right after all? Could this help to explain the mathematical universe that Max Tegmark has so eloquently written about? Doesn't the ability to imagine such things at the very least make them a possibility? A world/universe within a single mind - is that possible? (think JRR Tolkien and George RR Martin) What do you think?
The article was of particular interest to this blogger in relation to past posts that have appeared here. Indeed, regular readers of this blog will recall that I have discussed the possibility that our individual minds/consciousness could be small parts of the mind/consciousness of God. Stated another way, we could say that EVERYTHING (including us) exists within the mind of God. And, of course, such a theory would have profound implications for the very nature of reality itself.
Kastrup, Crabtree and Kelly provide a sequential and easy to understand framework for the philosophical tree that underpins their article. With this background in place, they are in a position to make their point. They write: "So, for idealism to be tenable, one must explain—at least in principle—how one universal consciousness gives rise to multiple, private but concurrently conscious centers of cognition, each with a distinct personality and sense of identity.
And here is where dissociation comes in. We know empirically from DID that consciousness can give rise to many operationally distinct centers of concurrent experience, each with its own personality and sense of identity. Therefore, if something analogous to DID happens at a universal level, the one universal consciousness could, as a result, give rise to many alters with private inner lives like yours and ours. As such, we may all be alters—dissociated personalities—of universal consciousness."
They conclude: "Idealism is a tantalizing view of the nature of reality, in that it elegantly circumvents two arguably insoluble problems: the hard problem of consciousness and the combination problem. Insofar as dissociation offers a path to explaining how, under idealism, one universal consciousness can become many individual minds, we may now have at our disposal an unprecedentedly coherent and empirically grounded way of making sense of life, the universe and everything."
Was the Eighteenth Century philosopher George Berkeley right after all? Could this help to explain the mathematical universe that Max Tegmark has so eloquently written about? Doesn't the ability to imagine such things at the very least make them a possibility? A world/universe within a single mind - is that possible? (think JRR Tolkien and George RR Martin) What do you think?
When God created the universe, he did so by starting with intention leading to THOUGHT. I have no trouble being friendly to the notion that all that we see (and are) is a simulation. What better place to simulate it than in his own mind....a thought experiment of sorts. Interestingly, I don't see anything in the Bible that would contradict this notion. In fact, some of it would be more easily understood in that context.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know what you thought before you put it on paper Miller.
ReplyDelete"In the beginning was the Word, through whom all was created."
Now this goes far beyond what we are able to TYPE.
"The Word' means "SOUND".
Sound equals waves, or energy. So all is created through waves of energy. All is an illusion as the Buddhist say. All is energy as the Baghadavitta says.
It is ok to see ALL are manifestations of the ALL. (as the Hindu would say.")
nck