In my previous writing (Part 1) I used a jug of wine as a symbol to explain why I believe we spend so much time dulling our senses with chemicals and activities that cater to the brain’s incessant need to process information around us to assure our survival. That post came from my musings in psychology. In this part (Part 2), taken from a paper I wrote on a unified theory of consciousness (in one of my weaker philosophical moments) I put on my physicists hat explain our relationship to time. Hopefully after Part 3 I can time all of this together into a unified theory that will explain everything about everything.
In this physical world we are constrained by time. We can change our location throughout the universe by moving but time marches ever forward no matter what we do or where we go. We are able to look far back in time using telescopes that see photons that were created far in the past but we still haven’t seen the beginning (or end) of time. The only way that humans can overcome the vector of time is through the mind. We can both remember the past and imagine the future therefore transcending time completely. This author’s believes that this often overlooked superpower that we possess is one of the keys to understanding everything about everything. The body is constrained to the physical plane but the mind can move freely forwards and backwards in the temporal plane. So how can the physical body exist in one plane of existence and the consciousness simultaneously exist in another? Lets first examine some lessons from physics.
It is well known that the speed of light is asymptotic at a point at which time and space reverse properties (i.e. on the other side of the asymptote you can change your time but not your position whereas on this side (our side) you can change your position but not your time). I propose that time is the barrier between the physical and spiritual world where consciousness resides. How does this work?
Imagine for a moment a loaf of sliced bread wrapped in a plastic bag. Each slice represents a step in time. Around the ‘loaf’ of bread is a plastic bag that represents the barrier of the speed of light…i.e. the asymptotic delta function that represents the point at which time stretches to zero on one side and to infinity on the other (the Christian concept of eternal life). On the inside of the bag one is constrained by time and on the outside of the bag one is not. When you are in your physical form you are inside the bag riding along as each slice of bread (time) marches past. When the physical body (brain) dies however you (your mind or consciousness) survives in the plane of existence on the outside of the bag. Remember the thing we call the mind is not constrained by the physical universe.
What are the implications of this theory? First if you can accept the fact that the physical being could exist ‘within the bag’ and the consciousness could exist outside the ‘bag’ simultaneously. This would allow the mind to communicate directly with God who presumably exists outside the bag in the eternal (timeless) realm. Christian thought suggests that the holy Spirit of God (which exists in both planes of existence simultaneously) allows us to communicate between the physical being and mind through the barrier of the bag and that the bag exists because God created it to hold us after we became sinful beings in the garden of Eden.
Now consider one of us (we will call a “being”) who dies (Physically) at a particular point in time (Pick a slice…any slice). That being is now free to pass through the barrier of the ‘plastic bag’ from time-constrained space to non-time constrained space, i.e. from the earth to heaven or eternal life. On the other side the being can move outside the bag to look in at any angle (time). As the eternal being moves over the surface of the bag he/she/it can look at any slice from the beginning to the end so this being can review its own life or the lives of any being throughout recorded history from beginning to end. The effect is that once the being passes to the timeless side of the bag, he/she/it can see any point in time past, present or future for everyone that this being knew on earth. After you die just move a few feet to the right and meet your wife who may have survived you by 10 years on earth. To you …you see her instantly when you move to that point in eternity but to her 10 years has passed. So there is no waiting for loved ones to pass away because there is no time on that side of the bag.
This is not necessarily meant to be a Christian theory but it does explain how mind and brain could exist in parallel without the need for the physical-monism theories espoused by modern neuroscience. Note that I have not spoken of the brain as the place where “mind” exists. I am one of those that believes that what we call mind is distributed throughout the body in the brain, muscles, neurons, tendons, blood, etc. (i.e., the brain may house some executive control functions but it does not do all of the thinking). But I digress…The loaf of bread, contained in its Wonder bread plastic sheath explains a lot about how we can exist physically in a time constrained space and in one unconstrained by time at the same time. After you die you can move freely along the slices of bread (time) looking forward and backward but for now you are stuck inside the physical plane of existence (inside the loaf). The good news is that if you want to access the timeless plane of existence on the other side of the loaf’s bag you can easily do it…just use your brain. If you have had a hard time reconciling the concept of time I hope this discussion has helped.
At this point we have discussed why we do what we do in part 1 and how we exist both in time and eternity simultaneously. In Part 3 we will look at the concept of “thou” and hopefully tie our theory of everything together.
Dr. Andy
A cognitive optical Psychophysicist with an interest in everything