It’s fairly unusual in my experience to encounter individuals who embody the very essence of my writing work—the central theme of my writing and the publicizing of my thoughts on my blog, “John’s Consciousness.” Within a whole range of social interactions over decades, I have experienced a number of serendipitous connections which I immediately feel, when I encounter individuals who clearly possess what I would describe as particularly “radiant spirits,” and there is occasionally a kind of curious struggle within me that can occur when I also feel the need to resist social norms that say, “There shouldn’t be such things.”
I understand the skepticism of those who disagree about whether there is something more to our temporal existence that is fundamental and foundational, for which there are no physical laws to describe, and which could not be described in temporal terms—only alluded to and spoken of in metaphor. I have tried these many years to express it in terms that others could appreciate. I believe I have had some success and have received some wonderful responses from visitors who say, “Yes, I get it,” or “I also feel this way,” or “This lines up well with my own experience.”
So I know it’s not just a fluke in me—in fact, in my view, it’s not a fluke at all. It is a fundamental component of existing as a physical being in a physical universe. It is beyond the temporal; and as a result, it is also, in important ways, difficult to explain precisely.
This foundational element I speak of is an ineffable, transcendent connection that we have with other spirits in the world, and with the natural world—with the universe. It is an invisible connection. It is not something you can point to definitively, nor can we determine any sort of physical center from which it springs. It is simply there—a part of our existence in this universe.
In his breakthrough publication, “One Mind,” physician and medical scientist Larry Dossey, M.D., an international advocate for the role of the mind in health, writes:
“Among the information that has been shoved to the side is a vast body of evidence dealing with how consciousness manifests non-locally in the world, unconstrained by space, time, and the physical limitations of the brain and body…our awareness (of these connections can) …intrude in a dazzling variety of ways—in mundane situations such as sitting quietly, listening to music, viewing art, meditating, worshiping, praying, washing dishes, gardening or doing nothing.”
Beyond this physical universe, beyond our temporal experience of the world—our capacity for sensory and intellectual analysis of our sensory input which takes place in the brain is extraordinary. Clearly, the human brain is an extraordinary instrument for all sorts of important capacities, which have helped us to survive hundreds of thousands of years.
These connections are unlikely to be explained by neuroscience, even though they frequently result in a physiological response that can be described and explained by the science of the brain, even though there is no observable phenomenon taking place between us, no detectable energetic force on display to account for the connection, like a magnet drawing us toward one another.
Novelist-philosopher Arthur Koestler, in his monumental work, “The Act of Creation,” performed a historical survey of a large number of creative geniuses in science, and noted:
“…Their virtually unanimous emphasis on spontaneous intuitions, unconscious guidance, and sudden leaps of imagination, which they are at a loss to explain… (And concluded that) …a higher order of reality existed, and that it alone invested existence with meaning…that the isolation, separateness, and spatio-temporal limitations of the self were merely optical illusions.”
My own views are clearly philosophical, if not especially poetic always, but as is often the case in life, what we make of our circumstances can color our conclusions about them in either direction. I generally prefer to find some positive aspect, if possible, and focus on gleaning some benefit from them, in spite of any predictions of the negative sort.
John's Consciousness 