Primordial template of consciousness - Essay 1

Hello reader. I am sure we all have our own version of how things are regarding existence. I thought I would present a stream of thought that details part of how that lays in my head.

:-k

A rather short essay on the primordial template of consciousness.

Essay 1

[i]Explanation of terms:

  1. Primordial - instinctive, fundamental - beginning of memory aware.
  2. Template - pattern, sequence - patterns before and after awareness.[/i]

The seed . . .

[i]This is my first attempt at writing an essay of the consciousness. I thought it worthy of criticism, discussion, debate and modification. I will do my best to defend the core of my thoughts but as it is merely an essay written on the fly it might lack some structure. It was a case of inspiration, that I thought it would be best written on the fly; that this discourse of thought made it here.

I use the words conscious and consciousness interchangeably to allow for some interpretation on the readers part. The Explanation of terms is left intentionally vague.

My influences are David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Yin and yang, Modern Science and all of you wonderful people at I love Philosophy.[/i]

The position . . .

To understand my what my conscious is now, I feel I have to understand what my conscious was before becoming self aware or self-conscious.

To understand how my conscious came into being from a point of view of a person approaching what is referred to as the mid life in 2017, I feel I must time travel in the luxury of my own “mind of memories” back to my first memory and beyond.

First of all I have to proceed in reverse to find a stage that caused life before awareness. This stage we can call the “continuum”. I feel it proper to go in reverse given that I have this feeling of complete awareness as of now. Awareness in this discourse refers to two things: 1. The parental awareness of knowing a new individual person is on the way and 2. Self-awareness or self-conscious, which is the state that the aforementioned new individual person enters to become aware of oneself.

If I go back as far as I can to my first memory so that I can identify a milestone of life that I call my “inception of awareness” - the first time I became aware of my self - it is at this point that I go back a small time further before my first memory - at this point I am viewing the world through young eyes and senses to build patterns of a reality I am yet to become aware of. I call this the “pattern stage” and it is the pattern stage that our whole life from the “inception of awareness” becomes dependent on. This dependence is a “dependence of causation”. So what about the pattern stage? What comes before the pattern stage? I posit two stages prior to the “pattern stage”. The first just before the “pattern stage” that I call the “instinctual stage” and before that the “biological stage”. The “biological stage” is caused from the coming together of two people to make a baby and the rest is history.

On the “continuum” exists conscious people that can add to the “continuum” yet another conscious person, as many times as is caused by the act of a relationship, that leads to events that causes a new conscious person to come into being. We know that the being that is caused is initially unaware of anything because it is but a mere biological cell. The cell then splits and multiplies until at some stage we consider it to be a person - not a self-conscious person but an unconscious person - a person that is still considered a person because this person contains everything necessary to proceed forward in life with little effort until the said individual becomes self-aware or self-conscious.

What of these early self-conscious thoughts then? What are we to make of them?

To me they would be similar to impressions of some sort that each time self-projected help to build the strength of the self-conscious to something powerfully self accepting at some arbitrary stage before pubescence.

I posit that the “pattern stage” then enters into a secondary mode called the “second pattern stage”. This “second pattern stage” continues in parallel to the self-conscious for the rest of our life. Growing stronger from the “pattern stage” until leveling off for a while only to give way to more a more “wise stage” in life.

From the “second pattern stage” on, we develop the distinct nature of yin and yang and we think in dualistic terms about many things in life.

After the leveling off we enter the “wise stage” where we start looking for the more absolute nature of our existence. This is a distinct stage that shows itself like no other stage in life as there seems to be some very abstract reasoning going on consciously.

The conclusion . . .

I conclude this short essay now with a few thoughts. I read back over my words and see that I have left gaps. I also noticed when using my imagination while reading it was easy to cover the previously mentioned gaps. I question myself as to the value of this stream of thought. I wonder how I can improve on it through much meditation.

Now I leave it to the discernment of those who have read it.

:slight_smile:

You should damn well know after your essay, that consciousness keeps growing.

What do you really think a million year old would say to your essay?

Think. And think outside the box.

Thank you for your contribution Ecmandu. I have no doubt of the possibility that the consciousness keeps growing. I am not certain what a million year old would say to my essay. Perhaps you could tell me. Thanks for the advice - I will consider what you are saying.

:smiley:

Your essay is a pleasant read … humble yet thoughtful.

My first impression … your essay seems to piggy back on the OP “Intelligence: Cosmic or Personal” … unintentional I’m sure … our subconscious can be a little rascal at times. :slight_smile:

Your journey back in time would necessarily have to begin when CONSCIOUSNESS … as in IMMUTABLE CONSCIOUSNESS … first entered “form” … not necessarily human form.

That’s a long trip … suppose I should give you some time to make it. :slight_smile:

Yin Yang is only a “dualistic” concept in the Western Psyche. I mentioned in a previous post … an alien perspective is always viewed through the prism of the viewer ergo: Western thought.

For a better understanding of Yin Yang you may want to study the Chinese concept Ba Gua.

I learned this from some well educated Chinese people who could speak English. I would say Yin Yang … they would respond … “Oh … you mean Ba Gua”

@ pilgrim-seeker_tom - First let me say thanks for your honest review. Thank you pilgrim-seeker_tom for your honest review, I appreciate it. I dare say it piggy backs a number of philosophies and is meant to demonstrate one of many ideas I have about the mind.

Yes it probably would - however I am presenting a bubble here not totality. I do like the spiritual side to this though.

As far as the yin yang is concerned I actually believe the yin yang is more about oneness as opposed to two-ness - so a dialectical monism or dualistic monism. I do not subscribe to the western thought on taijitu but the supreme ultimate described as the absolute toward the bottom of the essay under the part that is expressing wisdom. We start out as one - split to two until we begin to find ourself and then return to one. I am not sure else how to explain my yin yang affinity.

I can offer this from Zen
Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.

One day we can start a new thread detailing the oneness and two-ness of yin yang and the interdependence of seemingly opposite forces and how they depend on each other - there are five elements to the modern yin yang symbol. I am familiar with the concept of Wújí as being the absolute and Taiji as being the dual. In the meantime I am happy to continue the conversation whichever way it goes and appreciate your questioning of my western psyche.

Peace pilgrim-seeker_tom.

:smiley:

Essay is very cognitive, thank you, author! =D>

Encode_Decode … seems I have offended you … I apologize.

You seem so sincere and earnest in your search for answers … and you have obviously made a huge investment in attempting to secure a formidable reservoir of ‘knowledge’.

Suppose the difference between us is I prefer to reach for the Big Kahuna so to speak … what you call “totality”.

Impossible?

Perhaps … than again … the search for wisdom should be the enjoyable part … reaching the destination may be like winning a gold medal in the Olympics … what does one do for an encore?

I like Manni’s new signature line:

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Interesting read. …no need to be apologetic.

Consciousness is probably just alpha/beta waves, for me it ‘represents’ the soul [as does the entire form] which is complete and therefore not growing [even where consciousness is]. From birth on-wards the soul settles into its inhabited form and develops respectively ~ as you and your life does. The longer you live the closer you get to the souls full potential in earthly form, almost as if you grow into yourself so to say.

That’s a big topic in and of itself. My personal experience is of a detachment which becomes increasingly attached to the living form the soul inherits. I envision something akin to a pool of being ~ a space before becoming shaped, and indeed it will be possible to build a human and [other intelligence’s] in the future, building up to a conscious being some-when during the build process.

Wouldn’t that be the “philosophical stage”? Seeking the nature of reality is not what wisdom is about. Wisdom is about discovering what is best to do or believe … often stemming from the philosophical stage of discovering Truth. Sadly, what is best to believe is often discovered to not be what is Truth … too late. Hence the incentive to create a distinction between the morose, wise fathers conscious of the real situation and the merry, blind faithfuls conscious of only a plausible situation (e.g. "Do not eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge [“consciousness of”] Good and Evil", but rather, “Pray that it be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”).

Consciousness ≡ the process of remote recognition.

Patterns are distinguished by virtue of relevant contrasts of affectance upon senses. Through inheritance many fundamental affectance contrasts are preprogrammed as relevant (e.g. pain and comfort, light and dark, hot and cold, smooth and rough,… yins and yangs…). When a pattern triggers recognition of relevancy, “consciousness of” the pattern is formed. In homo-sapiens, this begins in early fetal development for internal senses, “inner consciousness” and “subconsciousness”. External consciousness doesn’t occur until external senses are triggered, even though many affectance contrasts are already prewired and prepared to alert response (e.g. sounds and parental face).

Ditto … wisdom :sunglasses:

Nonsense . . . You have not offended me at all - in that case I am sorry if I gave you that impression.

Smile pilgrim-seeker_tom - I respect your views. I actually appreciate where you were coming from - it is just that I was presenting a bubble of thought. I was pointing out a few more things to do with my knowledge of yin yang just so that you knew that I do not necessarily follow a dualistic notion of it.

Just to reiterate: I am happy to continue the conversation whichever way it goes and appreciate your questioning of my western psyche.

Peace

:smiley:

I feel much better now.

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Perhaps we both read each others posts too superficially.

I was not questioning your western psyche … I was expressing my views of THE western psyche … of which I am a life long member. :laughing:

Encode_decode … some comments that may shed some light on our conflicting views of Chinese philosophy/phenomenology.

For most of the past 11 years I’ve had the privilege of living among the Chinese people … providing me with a “bird’s eye” … bird as in sparrow … view of their current culture and a peek at the Chinese Psyche … which stretches back many thousands of years.
My life among the Chinese people has largely been associated with the “peasantry” with whom I have a strong affinity … perhaps due to my own rather peasant status as a Canadian. I’ve found that the English speaking Chinese people … almost always the well educated … often with a Western University education … reflect a muddled view of the Chinese Psyche … no doubt the result of their western education and privileged lifestyle.
Furthermore when I attempt dialogue concerning the Chinese Psyche with western people … particularly well educated western people … these people have an “eagle’s eye” view of the Chinese Psyche. I write “eagle” for effect … eagle as in far removed from the object being viewed … not as in the eagle’s superior vision capabilities. The result being fruitless dialogue.

Pilgrim-seeker_tom … Well you were 100% correct about me presenting the dualistic view of the yin yang in my essay. I also took away the oneness in my article by separating the sentences and adding the term absolute. I am still not too sure our views are conflicting - to me it is more that I have not presented my views fully.

I find our dialogue fruitful and most satisfactory. I think given enough time we will come to an understanding. I find it is hard to get the full message across on a forum the first time around.

I wrote the words as I thought of them and the only corrections I made were spelling mistakes - so the essay is nowhere close to perfect - and because I am a westerner - writing as I think is going to come out as western psyche in a lot of cases.

As well as the psyche - I think it is important to question our ego’s. I might be saying the same thing twice here, but as you know English contains a lot of ambiguity.

The oneness of existence kind of relies on dualistic thinking to analyze. Your past eleven years experience sounds fascinating - it kind of makes me jealous - I am kidding about the jealous part - I am very happy for you; that you have been able to have that experience. I understand what you are saying in your post.

A few comments on “Psyche” as in Western Psyche and Chinese Psyche.

First from a Chinese perspective … In their physical realm the 1-10% have overwhelming advantages/privileges vis a vis the peasantry. Are these advantages/privileges retained in the psychic realm?

I think not … IMHO one mind is one unit in the psychic realm … making the Chinese Psyche highly dominated by the peasantry of the physical realm.

In the Western Psyche … for some time now … the middle class and upper class have had a strong influence in the collective western psychic realm … perhaps explaining the Western sense of superiority … as well as explaining why such a large component of the Chinese population consider themselves as inferior to western people.

Some thoughts on ego … IMHO the ego is connected to the psychic realm … if true … the ego would always echo the overarching sentiment of the respective collective psyche.

I like that. I think it has a lot of merit - in my other studies I consider the race as a whole - a collective consciousness so to speak. I could nearly state “the ego would always echo the overarching sentiment of the respective collective psyche” is a fact.

I am glad you found it interesting Amorphos. I am yet to respond to two of your posts; “Konflikt - as a root philosophy.”(I really like this one) and “You can’t cause cause without first having cause = illogical”(I am reading this one again now); which I plan to leave a comment on each. Your post “Everything is inherited, except that which inherits it?” I found most stimulating.

You are probably right; deep stuff. I have a zero/infinity annihilation theory I use to recycle universes which is mathematical by nature but philosophically relevant to growing into your self but it does imply reincarnation - not sure what to make of it. You have left me more to consider here. Thanks.

What comes before the pattern stage is indeed a big topic.

I would be fascinated to hear more about this.

I think your Konflikt - as a root philosophy has a lot of depth as a part of the following:

A = Right - conflicts with wrong
B = Wrong - conflicts with right
C = Universe - connects to the universe

ABC is a triangle. C is the Connection(interface) to the universe and the interior is the consciousness.

If you catch my drift. I mention this to illustrate some mathematical structure your posts inspire in me.

I am interested in this pool of being that you present in the above quote as this zero/infinity theory I have seems to fit what you say about shaping. The theory encompasses a tetrahedral quasi-crystalline structure that sits inside hyperspace(all matrices in code) via something akin to a space filling curve that emanates from the A and B in the above triangle. As the crystal fills the space it resembles the likes of a 3D fractal but more a quasi-fractal with no periodic repetition. So A and B are free to grow unevenly.This unevenness is restricted by the pushing/pulling forces that allow the structure to resemble what I can only class as an alien brain. Mind you that is just one way I can think of going about it. Morphing is allowed from an embedment in the mathematics. Notice here the brain fills the conscious space rather than the other way around. Forgive any logical inconsistencies in the description. Basically this model fills the allotted space and that is classed as zero/infinity.

I am not going to go to crazy here for an obvious reason; suffice to say that what you have to say is fascinating, and inspires much thought.

@ James S Saint - You have quite a way of shedding light on the ambiguity I express.

I can see what you are saying - I think I may have something the wrong way around there - I will think about that and get back to you - I am still thinking about what you have tripped me up on Hume in another post.

The patterns part makes a lot more sense to me (and same with the inheritance) compared with what to do with prewired stuff. In saying that I have put a lot of thought into the prewired stuff. I will consider the order that you are suggesting as I am sure you have a valid point there.

For me THE Collective Consciousness is a family of psychic communities … where it is impossible to delineate the boundaries … certainly not nation states … religions, economic models, political models, wealth distribution models and so on all affect which community one belongs to. Complicating this further is the strong likelihood of significant migration among the communities.

Seems logical that what we observe in the physical realm are the manifestations of events in the psychic realm … might explain a lot of the conflict we see … at the individual level (inner conflict) … family … extended family … community … region … nation and eventually in the geopolitical arena.

Encode_decode
I have read your replies btw, sometimes I just leave things for a while to let it go into my mind, or I have no current answer, - is why I don’t always answer. :slight_smile:

The way I see it is that there will be a medium point between you having the original soul-form in the otherworld, then having an earthly form. One thing is ‘destroyed’ so that the other thing can be made, …naturally you cannot destroy the soul ergo it simply changes. Consider the ‘cosmic blender’ theory I have posted many times about; the whole of existence is ultimately oneness and everything derives from that. ‘The pool’ is that oneness - the default state of all things, metaphysically it is statelessness. Because the soul and earthly body are incongruous, the soul has to become nothing prior to becoming something. So in short state becomes stateless and then state once more.

I think zero-infinity sounds like the above oneness, an emptiness which contains everything [because you have put everything into the cosmic blender].

Or there is no right and wrong, just different positions - at least initially. I suppose that if you take virtually anything to extremes it will be observed as right or wrong, but initially there’s just different pushing or force. For example, if you did good like cured all disease and took away death [as genetics can be made immortal as with some lobsters and other species which don’t age], you’d then have unlimited numbers crammed onto an already overcrowded planet. So lets take that to a further extreme; eventually you have enough humans to cover the planet, then you keep adding [giving birth] and you get another layer all stood upon the previous layers heads. Can we go further, of course, you just keep building [giving birth to] layers of people until there are so many layers the top ones can’t breath as they are beyond the atmosphere, and those below get crushed.
All that by just doing good!

_