NO DEBATE: CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE GROUND OF BEING

The science is clear. No debate. No Consciousness: no colours, no flavours, no feelings, no odours, no sounds, and no ideas (number, form, and meaning).

But don’t take it from me. Let’s explore it together.

To simplify the investigation, let’s first consider just one facet of Consciousness: Hearing-sound. What follows is a theoretical description of the propagation of sound, and its link to Hearing.

Say a drum is hit. This causes the skin of the drum to vibrate. This is a mechanical movement. This movement is not sound.

The movement of the skin causes a ‘pressure wave’ of molecules in the air. This wave is not sound (it’s just molecules moving in a pattern).

The pressure wave moves through the air and may impact a diaphragm in a microphone, causing it to vibrate. This vibration is not sound. This, in turn, moves a coil. This movement is not sound. The movement of the coil in relation to a magnet is translated into an electrical signal. This signal is not sound.

This electricity may then flow into a transmitter antenna. This flow of electricity is not sound. The flow then makes electrons vibrate up and down it, producing radio waves. The radio waves travel through the air at the speed of light. These radio waves are not sound. They are electro-magnetic ‘quanta’ exactly like light, but with a longer ‘wavelength’.

When the waves arrive at a receiver antenna, they make electrons move inside it creating another electrical current. This current is not sound.

The current may then pass through a speaker causing a coil to move. This movement is not sound. The coil is connected to a speaker cone causing it to pulse. This pulsing of the cone is not sound.

The movement of the cone causes another pressure wave in the air. This pressure wave is not sound (again, it’s just moving air molecules).

As you see, the theory of the propagation of sound includes many different theoretical forms of matter and energy moving in different ways, none of which are sound.

One of those forms, radio waves, can and does move through airless space!

So what is ‘sound’?

To discover the answer, we need to continue to follow the theoretical signal.

Next, the pressure wave may hit the eardrum of a person, causing it to vibrate. Again, this mechanical movement is not sound.

The vibration of the eardrum is transmitted to three tiny bones in the middle ear. These bones are called the malleus, incus, and stapes. These moving bones are not sound, but simply amplify the vibrations. The vibrations are then transmitted to the fenestra ovalis membrane causing it to vibrate. This is, again, a mechanical movement that is not sound. These vibrations create pressure waves in a fluid that fills a snail-shaped structure called the cochlear, in the inner ear. This pressure wave is not sound.

An elastic partition runs from the beginning to the end of the cochlea, splitting it into an upper and lower part. This partition is called the basilar membrane.

Once the vibrations cause the fluid inside the cochlea to ripple, a traveling wave forms along the basilar membrane. This traveling wave is not sound.

Hair cells — sensory cells sitting on top of the basilar membrane — ride the wave.

As the hair cells move up and down, microscopic hair-like projections (known as stereocilia) that perch on top of the hair cells bump against an overlying structure and bend. This up and down, and bumping and bending are all mechanical movements. They are not sound.

The bending causes pore-like channels, which are at the tips of the stereocilia, to open up. When that happens, chemicals rush into the cells. This movement of chemicals is not sound. As the chemicals move, they create an electrical signal. This electrical signal is not sound.

The auditory nerve connected to these hair cells carries this signal as an electro-chemical impulse to the auditory centre of the brain. This electro-chemical impulse is not sound.

Once the theorised impulse reaches the theorised auditory centre of the brain, somehow (no one knows how) the theorised signal is theorised to be transmuted into an actual sound that is actually Heard.

Based on this theory, sound and the Hearing of it arise as a single immaterial phenomenon.

From a ‘personal perspective’, it is only the last event in the sequence that is actually experienced: the immaterial appearance of sound that is coincident with the immaterial awareness of the sound.

What is true of sound is true of Seeing-colours

The theory states that, in the absence of light, inside the head, in complete darkness, the theorised physical electro-chemical energy flow within the theorised eye and optic nerve is theorised to be transmuted (once again, no one knows how) within the theorised visual cortex into actual ‘patches of colour’ AND the actual ‘Seeing experience’.

On this theory, there is no ‘little person’ inside the head looking out through the eyes into the theorised material world. In any case, the optic nerves are theorised to be opaque, and all the signals are theorised to be from ‘outside to inside’.

On this theory, both the ‘observer’ and the ‘observed’ arise as one immaterial inseparable fleeting whole.

What is true of Hearing-sounds and Seeing-colours, is true of Smelling-odours, Tasting-flavours, Feelings-feelings, and Knowing-ideas (number, form and meaning).

On this theory, all sensations and ideas are held to be immaterial phenomena that are inseparable from the immaterial Awareness that arises along with them.

On the basis of theory, the world that is actually perceived (including your own apparent body, and drums and microphones and speakers, and ears and brains, and everything else), is composed entirely of immaterial colours, sounds, odours, flavours, and feelings that appear to be ‘things, events, and relations, as specific immaterial ideas of ‘number, form, and meaning’ are associated with the fleeting immaterial sensory images that are inseparable from the immaterial Consciousness in which and to which they appear… as in a dream!

This is the paradox of perception: the world appears to be physical, and science treats it as physical, but based on the physical hypothesis, the perceived world cannot be.

And it is only the perceived world that can ever be directly observed.

On this theory, no person (including any scientist) has ever, or can ever, See or Feel or Taste or Smell or Hear or Know anything made of matter… full stop.

Of course, that is all theory :)

As any good scientist, let’s do an experiment to test the theory.

Look straight ahead.

Notice that the visual field appears like a circle, with an indefinite edge.

Notice that ‘beyond’ the edge is neither ‘black’ nor ‘white’… simply ‘void’.

Notice no body is apparent.

Now ‘look down’.

Notice that only the front of the torso and limbs are apparent… but no head.

Where the head should be, the ‘whole world’ appears (or at least that bit perceivable from the perspective of the person One appears to be).

This Seeing is completely clear. Ever unchanged. All change is apparent only as these coloured patterns play within and to this clear Seeing. This Seeing-colours is not-two.

This visual field is the Eye of Consciousness. It is the only Eye there is.

Beyond theory, beyond doubt, it is plain to See that the apparent world is illusory.

Hold up a thumb. Notice it is larger than things Known to be much bigger than it. A thing cannot actually be both larger and smaller than another thing. That it appears so, is plainly an illusion.

Or look along a straight stretch of road. Notice that the edges appear to converge towards the horizon, though they are Known to be parallel. A thing that converges cannot be parallel. That the road appears to converge is plainly an illusion.

There are many other simple tests that prove beyond doubt the illusory nature of the perceptual world… see if you can recognise them.

In truth, Consciousness is in no body. Every body (including the bits referred to as ‘my body’, observed from the ‘first person perspective) are an appearance in and to Consciousness.

Dreams plainly demonstrate that it is possible to experience an entirely fictional world which can appear solid.

The apparent dream world and the apparent waking world are of the same immaterial quality. All that differs are the rules governing the behaviour of apparent objects.

In the dream world all sorts of ‘strange’ things can appear to happen ‘without rhyme or reason’. In the apparent waking world, the rules are much more rigorous.

Science is simply a process through which the rules of the apparent ‘waking’ world are made explicit.

The most rigorous theories use mathematics to model the form of theoretical objects (quantum field, sub-atomic particles, atoms, molecules, proteins, cells… all the way up to stars, galaxies, clusters, and the background radiation), and their theoretical properties (mass, charge, spin, etc), along with specified theoretical constants (Fine-structure Constant, etc), as well as theoretical laws (Conservation of Momentum, etc) that together describe their theoretical behavior.

There is usually a long chain of mathematics (including the maths embedded in the devices used in any experiment, as well as those used to display the results) that links the theoretical behaviour to the observations.

A theory is held to be valid when the theoretical behaviour of the theoretical objects reliably (though not necessarily perfectly) maps or predicts the observed behaviour of observed objects.

That is all.

No science can ever say anything about the ‘true nature’ of the fleeting sensory images (colours, odours, flavours, feelings, sounds) and ideas (of number, form, and meaning) that together manifest apparent ‘things, events, and relations’…

Nor of this Consciousness in which and to which all theories and observations appear.

Nor can it ever say anything about ‘meaning’, or the ‘lived experience’. What it is to experience a dawn over the desert, or the thrill and terror of battle to the death, or the hug of a child, or an argument with the boss, or the disgust at a rotting pile of garbage, or the strains of a Mozart symphony or the heady beats of an African drum… or anything else about what it is to experience ‘life’.

Plainly, science and introspection demonstrate that Reality is Aware, Immaterial and Non-dual and that the apparent world is merely an illusion arising within and apparent to this Consciousness:

Before all things, Consciousness alone is… ever unchanged.

A mystery unto ItSelf.

As these words are apparently read, there are no other experiences happening any where or any when else, for there is no where but here and no when but now.

This is not the same as ‘solipsism’ which claims ‘only I exist’.

Consciousness is the ground of all being.

Just as it once appeared that ‘I have a child’s body, with childish thoughts and feelings, living in the surroundings of childhood’, and now it appears ‘I have a completely different adult body, thoughts, feelings, and surroundings’… so, in ‘eternity’ Consciousness experiences all life.

Consciousness is the immaterial invisible intangible inaudible indivisible timeless tasteless odourless formless changeless inconceivable non-dual ground: Sensing-sensations (colours, flavours, feelings, odours, and sounds that are one with it) and Knowing-all-ideas-ever-unchanged (number, form, and meaning that are one with it), with Power to manifest within and to itself fleeting ever-changing sensory images in accord with ideas that together give the appearance of an apparently solid 3D world subject to certain ‘natural’ laws on all scales and throughout all apparent space and time, filled with the most amazing life-forms (along with dreams, hallucinations, and imaginings, including all manner of stories) perceived (in turn) from the first person perspective of each creature in the apparent world; as though looking out its eyes and experiencing its body, thoughts, feelings and surroundings as ‘my body’ and ‘my thoughts’, and ‘my feelings’, and ‘my surroundings’… as in a dream.

Telling the Never-ending Story.

No one is deluded or confused by this dream. Instantly, as sensations arise in accord with ideas, the sensations and ideas are simply recognised with perfect clarity. No sensation is ever confused with some other sensation, nor any idea confused with a different idea. It is like a reader recognising the meaning of words that tell the tale of a fable. The story simply unfolds as the words are read. The reader is not fooled into thinking the fable is real. Such is the Never-ending story :)

This Reality cannot be grasped by concepts/ideas… for it is not an idea.

Ideas (of number, form and meaning) only reference other ideas that in the ultimate form the closed set of all possible things, events and relations.

No idea can ‘be’ that is not Known.

No idea can ever change, for if it did, it would no longer be the idea that it is.

Each idea takes its number, form and meaning by reference to other ideas that take their number, form and meaning from still more ideas that in the ultimate form the closed set of all possible things, events and relations… ever unchanged.

No idea can ‘be’ the immaterial Reality that Knows-all-ideas-ever-unchanged.

And yet, without thought, Reality is plain.

In simply looking, the Reality referenced by the words Seeing-colour are made plain.

In simply understanding, the Reality referenced by the words Knowing-ideas is made plain.

In simply being Aware, the Reality referenced by the word Consciousness is plain:

Omniscient… Knowing-all-ideas-ever-unchanged

Omnipresent… Being all there is Here (Spaceless) and Now (Timeless).

Omnipotent… the only Power manifesting sensory appearances instantly within Awareness in accord with ideas to create ‘meaningful experiences’.

These are the fundamental attributes of Consciousness.

This is Thou… so long as no meaning is attached to the words :)

The ‘person’ One appears to be is just another ‘sensory object’ (formed of sensations and ideas) masquerading as ‘the subject’… more meaningless words :)

As such, there never has been and never will be any such thing as an ‘enlightened being’…

Though there is no end to ‘enlightening experiences’…