How is the Human Ego Created?
You are the consciousness that creates your own ego through personal bias in the focus of your attention as you fixate your attention on personal concerns. Personal bias in the focus of your attention leads to the expression of personally biased emotions that leads you to emotionally identify yourself with your personal form. Your ego is only an emotionally energized false belief that you believe about yourself as you emotionally identify yourself with that personal form. That false belief is emotionally constructed in your mind as ego-thoughts. That false personal self-identification is delusional. Destroying delusion is the process of destroying the personal bias that underlies that false belief.
At the root of that emotionally driven false self-identification with a personal form is the expression of fear and desire, which are survival emotions that allow the personal form of a body to survive and live in a world. In the sense of Darwinian evolution and the survival of the fittest body, a body can only survive in the world if it expresses fear and desire.
Underlying the expression of fear and desire is the pleasure-pain principle. Whatever gives pleasure promotes body survival while whatever gives pain threatens body survival. We are only expressing desire in the pursuit of pleasure and expressing fear in the avoidance of pain, which is how we defend body survival in the Darwinian sense of the survival of the fittest bodies. The bodies best able to express the survival emotions of fear and desire are the fittest bodies that survive and can live a life in the world.
At the level of the human ego, this basic survival mechanism has become amplified, exaggerated and distorted due to the emotional construction of a body-based personal self-concept in the mind, which is the ego. The ego is a mentally constructed body-based personal self-image that is emotionally related to the image of some other thing. These emotional relationships are all expressed in terms of the survival emotions of fear and desire.
This mental construction mechanism relies on memory, as the mentally constructed personal body-based self-image is emotionally constructed out of memory in terms of an emotional projection into a remembered past or an anticipated future. Unlike the simpler animal that only expresses fear or desire in the appropriate moment, the human mind is constantly churning out the ego as a mental story that our minds are telling us about ourselves.
Our minds are constantly telling us these ego-stories about ourselves, even when there is no appropriate situation in the present moment within which to express fear and desire, like a lion that is about to attack you and eat your body. Our minds are on the constant lookout for danger, even when there is no danger. These ego-stories are what keep our minds on the constant look out for danger even when there is no danger, and as such, seem to increase the fitness for survival in the sense of the survival of the fittest body.
These mentally constructed ego-stories have evolved in our minds because they are an effective means of increasing the chances of body survival. The downside is that you drive yourself crazy having to defend your body survival all the time against all the imaginary threats to body survival that you can imagine in your mind. You drive yourself crazy with fear and anxiety with the constant fear of your own death.
The personal body-based self-concept is always emotionally constructed in a social context. This idea of the human self-concept as a social construct, which is really nothing more than a collection of personal stories we tell ourselves in a social context, makes the clear distinct between the “I am” consciousness that perceives or knows about the story and the “me” that is the central character of the story. We tell ourselves this story as the story is emotionally constructed in our minds in terms of a personal self-concept.
The essential idea is that someone has to know about the personal story that our minds tell ourselves about ourselves, which is the “I am” consciousness, while all the events of the story revolve around the central character of the story, which is the personal self-concept called “me”. This story is always created in a social context since the “me” central character of the story is always emotionally related to other characters that appear in the story. The very nature of that social context is emotionally constructed out of the expression of emotions that emotionally relate the “me” central character to other characters in the story.
As has long been recognized, as in the psychoanalytic work of Freud, the “me” central character is always body-based. The human self-concept can only be emotionally constructed in the mind as a body-based emotional construction, as one’s personal body is emotionally related to other bodies. The expression of emotions relates one’s body to other bodies, and in the process, creates the emotional context of this emotional construction.
This is a very good way to understand how the human self-concept is emotionally constructed in the mind in a social context, as one’s own body is emotionally related to other bodies, but this social context has an even more fundamental biological basis, which can be understood in terms of Darwinian evolution, natural selection, and the survival of the fittest body.
At the level of the human life-form, human behavior is determined by Darwinian evolution and natural selection. The behavior of the human life-form is driven by Darwinian evolution in the sense of the survival of the fittest body. The bodies that survive, which are the bodies that self-replicate and reproduce their forms, are the bodies that are best able to express the survival emotions of fear and desire, which leads to the survival of the fittest bodies. The expression of the survival emotions of fear and desire are in turn driven by the pleasure-pain principle. Whatever promotes body survival feels good and gives pleasure, while whatever threatens body survival feels bad and gives pain. At the simplest level of human behavior, the human life-form is pursuing whatever gives pleasure as it expresses its desires, and is avoiding whatever gives pain as it expresses its fears.
In essence, this is a system of reward and punishment that rewards the human life-form with pleasure when body survival is defended and punishes the human life-form with pain when body survival is threatened. This system of reward and punishment is how the behavior of the human life-form is conditioned to express fear and desire. In the sense of Darwinian evolution and natural selection, the bodies that are best able to express the survival emotions of fear and desire are selected for survival, and are the fittest bodies that survive. Out of this self-defensive emotional expression, a body-based personal self-concept is emotionally constructed in the mind that has as its only real purpose the defense of body survival.
The emotional conditioning of the mind, which results in the emotional construction of a body-based personal self-concept in the mind, is being conditioned by a system of reward and punishment that is the essential nature of the pleasure-pain principle. Whatever promotes and defends body survival feels good and gives pleasure, while whatever threatens body survival feels bad and gives pain. The mind is being conditioned to emotionally construct the body-based personal self-concept in defense of body survival by this system of reward and punishment. This emotional conditioning occurs whenever a person is rewarded with pleasure when body survival is defended and is punished with pain when body survival is threatened. This emotional conditioning of the mind causes a person to defend body survival as though its existence depends on it. This emotional conditioning is being put into effect as the person expresses desires in the pursuit of pleasure and expresses fears in the avoidance of pain.
Even to say that the person and its mind are being emotionally conditioned to defend body survival as though personal existence depends on it is not exactly right. The spiritual presence of “I Am” consciousness that perceives the behaviors of the body and mind, which can be called the mind’s eye that is the observer of the mind, is being emotionally conditioned to defend the survival of the body as though the existence of the observer depends on it. This is the essential lie at the heart of personal self-identification. The observer is emotionally identifying itself with the form of its body due to its perception of feelings of emotional self-limitation to the body that arise as body survival is defended.
The emotional expression of fear and desire is always being driven by the pleasure-pain principle. Whatever feels good and gives pleasure, like eating, promotes body survival, while whatever feels bad and gives pain, like being eaten, threatens body survival. When fear and desire are being expressed, a life-form is only pursuing whatever gives pleasure through the expression of desire, and that life-form is only avoiding whatever gives pain through the expression of fear. There is an inherent emotional conflict when the same thing sometimes gives pleasure and sometimes gives pain.
The human life-form is a social animal, and not only expresses the primitive survival emotions of fear and desire, but also the social emotions of emotional attachments. The immature body of a child cannot fend for its own survival, but must emotionally attach itself to the body of its caregiver in order to survive. At the level of the body, the expression of an emotional attachment is as self-defensive as the expression of any other survival emotion, as the purpose of the attachment is the defense of body survival.
There is one more important emotional expression at work in the defense of body survival, which is the fear of death. The fear of death is a very unpleasant experience, which most people don’t want to look at. Most people will try to push that fear of death out of their conscious awareness and keep it unconscious through a process of denial. The number one way people deny their fear of death is through their desire to be in control and have power over things. If you have absolute power over things, then you have nothing to fear, not even from death.
The problem is that whether people live or die is not really under their control, and so when they try to deny their fear of death by expressing the desire to be in control, they only create more frustration for themselves when they try to control what can’t really be controlled. The desire to be in control can only lead to frustration and a sense of futility.
People are not really in control of whether they will live or die. There is a universal power in control of whether any particular life-form lives or dies, which can best be understood as the normal flow of energy through the universe that animates all things. You can call it God’s will if you like. The expression of personally biased individual will only interferes with the expression of unbiased God’s will. This personally biased expression of individual will, expressed as the desire to be in control and have power over things, which is expressed as a way to deny the fear of death, only interferes with the normal flow of things and creates an emotional disturbance in that flow. When people try to control what really can’t be controlled, they only end up creating feelings of frustration for themselves and making things worse for themselves.
This problem is well summarized in the stages of death and dying. When confronted with the fear of death, people will first try to deny it through their desire to be in control, and when that fails, they become angry, and when that fails, they try to bargain, and when that fails, they become depressed. The final stage in the process of death and dying is surrender and acceptance when death is finally accepted.
The desire to be in control as a denial of the fear of death is the ultimate self-defensive expression that defends the survival of the body. Surrender is the ultimate antidote to this self-defensive expression, as body death is accepted.
There is only confusion about that state of affairs because the observer is emotionally identifying itself with the emotionally animated form of its body. That emotional animation of the body always creates perceived feelings of emotional self-limitation to the body as that personal form is emotionally animated relative to all other forms that appear in the world that the observer perceives. As the observer perceives these feelings of emotional self-limitation to the form of its body, it tends to emotionally identify itself with that personal form. This tendency for personal self-identification is emotionally reinforced when personal bias arises in the observer’s focus of attention that leads to the expression of personally biased emotions that have as their only purpose the defense of body survival as though the spiritual existence of the observer depends on it.
This personal bias that arises in the observer’s focus of attention really represents nothing more than a false personal self-identification that occurs as the observer emotionally identifies itself with the emotionally animated form of its body. The observer’s focus of attention becomes fixated on emotionally defending the survival of its body as though its spiritual existence depends on it. This personal self-identification is false because the spiritual existence of the observer does not depend on body survival. This false personal self-identification of the observer with its body is only the result of the Darwinian conditioning of its mind that results in the emotional construction of a body-based personal self-concept in its mind.
This discussion of the self-defensive nature of emotional expression is important in that it goes a long way toward explaining how the personal self-concept is emotionally constructed in the human mind. The personal self-concept is only constructed in the mind as a personal body-based self-image is emotionally related to the image of some other thing that appears in the world the observer perceives, which is typically the image of another person. These mental images are constructed out of memory in the sense of an emotional projection to a remembered past or an anticipated future. This emotional projection to a remembered past or an anticipated future always takes the observer out of the events of the present moment.
Where and when does the observer really exist? The observer is only a focal point or spiritual presence of consciousness at the central point of view of its own world. The observer can only know itself to be that spiritual presence of consciousness. The observer only really exists here and now, in the present moment. Any personal self-concept that is emotionally constructed in the observer’s mind can only take the observer out of the present moment as a personal past is remembered or a personal future is anticipated.
The observer can only find itself in the present moment, here and now. This is the problem that no idea that the knower can ever know about itself can ever be the true nature of the knower. The personal self-concept that’s emotionally constructed in the observer’s mind is only an idea that the observer has about itself. The observer knows about that idea, but the true nature of the observer can never be reduced to that idea.
The personal self-concept that’s emotionally constructed in the observer’s mind is really just a false belief that the observer believes about itself. Believing a false belief about yourself is the problem of delusion. The observer believes a false belief about itself, which is delusional, when the observer believes what its personal self-concept is telling it about itself, which is that the observer is a person in the world that it perceives.
Why does the observer believe this false belief about itself? The problem comes down to the self-defensive nature of emotional expression, the only purpose of which is to defend the survival of the body in the Darwinian sense of the survival of the fittest body.
When self-defensive emotions are expressed, the observer really feels emotionally self-limited to the form of its body as its body is emotionally animated relative to all other forms that appear in the world it perceives. That feeling of emotional self-limitation to the body causes the observer to emotionally identify itself with its body, which essentially is a false belief that the observer believes about itself, as emotionally constructed in its mind with the emotional construction of a personal self-concept.
Once emotionally self-identified with its body, the observer feels compelled to defend body survival as though its existence depends on it. Underlying the expression of self-defensive emotions is personal bias in the observer’s focus of attention that leads to the expression of more personally biased self-defensive emotions, which only perpetuates the vicious cycle. This personal self-identification is a lie since the observer is a spiritual presence of consciousness, and nothing the observer can perceive in the world can threaten the spiritual existence of the observer. The observer can only know itself to be that spiritual presence of consciousness, which has its own timeless spiritual being that is called I Am, and that depends on nothing it perceives in the world, not even whether its body appears to live or die.
The observer’s false belief that it is the personal form of its body that appears in the world it perceives, which is essentially an I-Am-the-body idea, is only a false ego-story that is emotionally constructed in its mind. The problem of delusion is created when the observer believes this false ego-story about itself.
Why did God create a world in which these false ego stories could evolve? My answer is that there is no other way that God could have created the world if God wanted that world to be full of life. Darwinian evolution and the survival of the fittest body isn’t an accident. Darwinian evolution is how life survives and evolves. The expression of the survival emotions of fear and desire is how life survives and evolves.
At the core of the survival of the fittest body is the pleasure-pain principle. Life survives and evolves as life pursues the life-promoting things that give pleasure by expressing desires, and avoids the life-threatening things that give pain by expressing fears. The pleasure-pain principle is an essential aspect of how life survives and evolves. You can’t have life without it.
Although not often recognized, the pleasure-pain principle is an aspect of the subjective quality of things. It can never be described by a physical theory because it is not an objective or numerical quantity. It is purely a subjective quality, which brings us to the qualia problem of perception. Why does our consciousness perceive things in terms of subjective qualities and not in terms of objective quantities? All our physical theories are in terms of objective quantities, but our perceptions are in terms of subjective qualities.
My answer is that is the way God designed the world so that life could survive and evolve. The pleasure-pain principle is a prime example of that creative process. I’ve written in other essays about how these subjective qualities are inherent in how the light of consciousness is illuminating the observer’s world and projecting images of the world from the screen of the mind to the point of view of the observer of the world, where the images are perceived. I’ve called the observer the Self or the mind’s eye. The images are being displayed on the screen of the mind, and the light of consciousness, as it emanates from the point of view of the observer, is projecting those images from the screen back to the observer. In the process, those images have subjective qualities.
At the level of the screen of the mind, the images are purely objective in the sense of numerical information encoded on the screen. I’ve argued that the screen of the mind is a holographic screen that arises as the observer’s event horizon due to the observer’s own accelerated motion. The observer’s event horizon becomes its holographic screen when it encodes quantized bits of information. At the level of this holographic screen, the observer’s own holographic world is described by a quantum state formulated in terms of these quantized bits of information encoded on the screen.
The quantized bits of information encoded on the observer’s holographic screen are entangled since they have the property of quantum entanglement that arises from how they’re mathematically defined in terms of the eigenvalues of a spin matrix. At this level of the quantum state of the observer’s holographic world, the quantum state is an entangled superposition of quantized bits of information encoded on the holographic screen, which is purely numerical and geometrical in nature.
The problem is that is not how we perceive the world. We perceive the world in terms of subjective qualities, not numerical quantities. The qualia problem of perception is inherently connected to the measurement problem of quantum theory. To solve one problem is to solve the other.
The observer can only perceive its own holographic world if the quantum state of that world is reduced. This process of quantum state reduction is called the measurement problem of quantum theory. The quantum state of the observer’s holographic world is an unobserved quantum state of potentiality that is specified in terms of an entangled superposition of all possible observable states of that world. Entanglement is a natural aspect of the quantum state since the quantized bits of information encoded on the observer’’s holographic screen are all entangled.
In the process of observing anything in that holographic world, the quantum state must be reduced and disentangled. The entangled superposition of all possible observable states of that world must be reduced to an actual observable state of that world.
In terms of the holographic principle, I’ve argued that this reduction of the entangled superposition of all possible observable states of that world to an actual observable state goes forward in terms of the projection of images of that world from the observer’s holographic screen to its central point of view. I’ve argued that the light of consciousness, as it emanates from the point of view of the observer, is what is projecting those images from the screen back to the observer.
This solves the measurement problem of quantum theory in the sense that the light of consciousness is what is reducing the entangled quantum state of that world to an actual observable state in the process of projecting and perceiving the images. All the perceived images are forms of information that can be reduced to quantized bits of information encoded on the observer’s holographic screen, but in the act of the light of consciousness projecting those images and the observer perceiving those images, the entangled quantum state is reduced to an actual observable state.
This also solves the qualia problem of perception in that the subjective quality of things being perceived by the observer in that holographic world are inherent in how the light of consciousness that emanates from the observer’s own point of view projects the images from the observer’s holographic screen back to its central point of view.
The Source plays a critical role in this creative process as the source of the creative energy that underlies the accelerated motion of the observer and the animation of all forms in its holographic world, but the observer also plays a critical role in this creative process. The observer has to focus its attention on events in its holographic world for this creative energy to be expressed. As the observer focuses its attention on events in its holographic world, its attention allows for the expression of that creative energy.
The best way to understand this is with the idea of the light of consciousness that underlies the reduction of the quantum state. The quantum state of the observer’s holographic world is an entangled superposition of all possible values that the qubits that are encoded on its holographic screen can take on, but that quantum state must be reduced to a definite state for the observer to observe anything in its holographic world. Quantum state reduction occurs as the qubits take on definite values.
This process of quantum state reduction is best understood as holographic projection. The observable images of the observer’s holographic world, which are observable forms of information, are projected like images from its holographic screen to its central point of view. In the process of holographic projection, the qubits take on definite values.
The best way to understand holographic projection is that the light of consciousness that emanates from the observer’s central point of view is projecting the images of its holographic world from its holographic screen back to its central point of view. In the process of holographic projection, the quantum state of the observer’s holographic world, which is a state of potentiality, is reduced to a definite state as the qubits take on definite values. Ultimately, it is the observer’s own light of consciousness, which is focused as the observer focuses its attention on events in its holographic world, that is reducing the quantum state and projecting the images.
Just as the observer’s light of consciousness, which emanates from the observer’s central point of view and is focused as the observer focuses its attention on events in its holographic world, is reducing the quantum state of that world and projecting the images of that world from its holographic screen back to its central point of view, the energy of the observer’s accelerated motion underlies the animation of the projected images.
There is a deep connection between the observer’s focus of attention that focuses the light of consciousness that projects the images, and expression of the energy of the observer’s accelerated motion that animates the images. The observer’s focus of attention allows for expression of that energy. The Source is the ultimate source of that energy, but that energy can only be expressed as the observer focuses its attention on events in its holographic world, which allows for the expression of that energy.
The observer has to focus its attention on events in its holographic world for that energy to be expressed. That creative energy originates from the Source, but it is the observer’s focus of attention on events that appear to happen in its holographic world that allows for expression of that energy.
When the observer totally withdraws its attention away from events that appear to happen in its holographic world, the expression of that energy comes to an end. This is when the observer enters into an ultimate state of free-fall as its accelerated motion comes to an end. In an ultimate state of free-fall, the observer has no event horizon and has no holographic screen that displays all the images of its holographic world. The observer’s holographic world disappears from existence from its own point of view.
Since space-time geometry is only created in that holographic world, even the course of time comes to an end when the observer enters into an ultimate state of free-fall. Everything in the observer’s holographic world, which includes all images of that world along with the very nature of space and time in that world, disappears from existence in the observer’s ultimate state of free-fall, and only nothingness remains.
What happens to the observer in that ultimate state of free-fall when only nothingness remains? The answer that enlightened beings have given us is that the observer’s individual consciousness dissolves back into its Source of undifferentiated consciousness like a drop that dissolves back into the motionless ocean. This timeless experience of the ultimate nothingness of existence is called spiritual enlightenment.
This brings us back to the pleasure-pain principle that underlies the survival and evolution of all life in the world in the sense of Darwinian evolution and the survival of the fittest body. The pleasure-pain principle inherently represents the subjective quality of things, which can be traced back to how the light of consciousness projects the images from the observer’s holographic screen back to its central point of view.
When God creates life in the world, God is also creating the observer of that world. I’ve called the observer the Self, which is a presence of individual consciousness at the central point of view of its own holographic world. That presence of individual consciousness must be differentiated from its Source of undifferentiated consciousness, which is God. God, the Source, creates the Self by differentiating consciousness. God, the Source, is like a motionless ocean of pure undifferentiated consciousness, unlimited, undivided and timeless in nature. That motionless ocean of pure undivided consciousness is often called the void or absolute nothingness, but it is better to think of it as an infinite, timeless, empty space of potentiality. It is the infinite potentiality for the creation of everything, including the individual consciousness of the Self, the creation of life, and the creation of a world characterized by time in which life appears to live.
Life can only live through the expression of emotions. The expression of emotions can be understood as the flow of energy through the world. That flow of energy through the world requires the experience of time in that world. That’s why relativity theory describes the world in terms of a space-time geometry of that world.
The holographic principle solves the problem of the space-time geometry of the world in terms of quantized bits of information encoded on an observer’s holographic screen. The observer’s holographic world, which includes the space-time geometry of that world along with everything else the observer can perceive in that world, is understood to spontaneously emerge from how quantized bits of information are encoded on the observer’s holographic screen. I’ve written about this process of holographic emergence in many essays. The basic idea of holographic emergence is found in Ted Jacobson’s work on the thermodynamics of space-time, which has been generalized into what’s called a matrix model.
These ideas explain how all quantum theory and relativity theory emerge from the holographic principle. The basic idea is that all the wave equations of quantum theory, along with gravity, which is understood in terms of Einstein’s field equations for the space-time metric that is really a wave equation for gravity, all naturally emerge from the thermodynamics of space-time, which the holographic principle formulates in terms of the entropy of a holographic screen that is given in terms of the number of quantized bits of information encoded on that surface of space, along with the temperature or thermal energy of that surface, which is understood in terms of the acceleration of an observer that underlies the creation of that surface as the observer’s event horizon. All these wave equations are really describing waves that appear on that surface of space.
Ted Jacobson showed that Einstein’s field equations for the gravitational space-time metric, which defines space-time geometry in the frame of reference of an accelerating observer, can be deduced from the laws of thermodynamics simply in terms of the holographic entropy of the accelerating observer’s Rindler horizon, which in terms of the holographic principle is proportional to the surface area of the horizon, and the Unruh temperature of the event horizon, which is proportional to the observer’s acceleration. In other words, the law of gravity has a purely geometric and thermodynamic origin in terms of the holographic principle. The law of gravity is really only a thermodynamic equation of state.
Einstein’s field equations for the gravitational space-time metric describe gravitational waves that appear in the curved space-time geometry of the accelerating observer’s frame of reference. Gravitational waves are defined on the observer’s event horizon that becomes its holographic screen when qubits of information are encoded on the accelerating observer’s event horizon. In a similar way, all of quantum theory is described in terms of wave equations, like Maxwell’s equations for the photon electromagnetic field and Dirac’s equation for the spinor electron field.
These quantum wave equations all arise from the holographic principle in terms of a mechanism called holographic emergence. All quantum wave equations, which include Einstein’s field equations for the gravitational space-time metric, are arising in terms of qubits of information encoded on an accelerating observer’s holographic screen. Since that holographic screen is essentially an event horizon that arises due to the observer’s own accelerated motion, and that event horizon is a bounding surface of space that is like a surface of the ocean, these quantum wave equations really describe nothing more than waves that appear on the surface of the ocean.
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The holographic principle also explains how multiple observers can appear to perceive the same world, when in fact, each observer is observing its own holographic world from the central point of view of that world, as all the images of that world are being displayed on the observer’s holographic screen. The holographic screens of many observers can overlap like a Venn diagram and share information, just like the kind of information sharing that occurs in an interactive virtual reality game that is being displayed on multiple computer screens, each observed by its own observer.
Information sharing between overlapping screens creates the illusion that multiple observers perceive the same world, when in fact, each observer is observing its own holographic world displayed on the screen of its own mind. The observer’s body is only the central form of information that appears in that world, like the form of an avatar in a virtual reality game. The dualistic illusion of self and other is only created as the observer emotionally identifies itself with its body due to feelings of emotional self-limitation to the form of its body that arise as its body is emotionally animated relative to all other forms that appear in that world. That emotional animation of form divides the observer’s world into self and other due to the motion of the observer itself, which is what makes the whole thing feel real as the observer perceives that expression of emotional energy and emotionally identifies itself with its personal form. Every expression of desire, fear, anger and blame creates a sense of separation and division due to that personal self-identification.
This brings us back to how God created the world and all life in the world. The first thing God had to create is the observer of that world, which God created when God differentiated the individual consciousness of the Self from the undifferentiated consciousness of the Source. The observer is a presence of individual consciousness at the central point of view of its holographic world that is differentiated from the undifferentiated consciousness of its Source.
The second thing God had to create was the energy of motion characterizing the observer as the Self moves relative to its motionless Source. That relative motion of the Self gives rise to the accelerating observer’s event horizon. The accelerating observer’s event horizon becomes its holographic screen when it encodes quantized bits of information. That’s how the quantum state of the observer’s holographic world is created and defined, which represents an unobserved quantum state of potentiality that is specified in terms of an entangled superposition of all possible observable states of that world.
The third thing God had to create was a mechanism that allows that world to be perceived as the quantum state of that world is reduced to an actual observable state of that world. That mechanism is the light of consciousness that emanates from the observer’s own point of view as it illuminates its holographic world and projects all the images of that world from the observer’s holographic screen back to its central point of view.
God is creating the experience of time by creating the observer and creating the energy of motion of the observer as the Self moves relative to its motionless Source. God not only creates that energy of motion that gives rise to the accelerating observer’s event horizon, but also creates the quantized bits of information that are encoded on that surface of space, which becomes the observer’s holographic screen. That’s how the space-time geometry of the observer’s holographic world is created.
That energy of motion that is created as the Self moves relative to its motionless Source is the very nature of emotional expression. Emotions are expressed in terms of the emotional animation of the body. The body can be understood as the central form of information that appears in the observer’s holographic world. That holographic world is being displayed on the observer’s holographic screen, which can be understood as the screen of its mind, which displays all the images of the observer’s holographic world.
Coherently organized forms of information with the ability to self-replicate form naturally emerge in a holographic world since the underlying qubits of information encoded on a holographic screen have the property of quantum entanglement that arises from how they’re mathematically defined in terms of the eigenvalues of a spin matrix. Entangled spin variables have a natural tendency to align together or point in the same direction over a sequence of observational events due to their quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement allows quantized bits of information encoded on an observer’s holographic screen to naturally become organized into coherent forms of information, like the form of a body, that self-replicates form over a sequence of observational events.
The form of the observer’s body is really only the central form of information that is being displayed on the screen of its mind, like the form of an avatar in a virtual reality that’s being displayed on a computer screen or the central character of a movie that’s being displayed on a movie screen. The form of its body is always emotionally animated relative to all other forms that appear in the observer’s holographic world, and that energy of motion arises from the accelerated motion of the observer itself that gives rise to its event horizon that becomes its holographic screen as quantized bits of information are encoded on the screen. The observer’s body is only the central form of information that appears in that holographic display.
The observer itself can only be understood as a focal point or spiritual presence of consciousness at the center of its own holographic world. The observer has to be present to perceive its own world as it focuses its attention on that world. Everything the observer can perceive in that world is like the projected and animated image of a virtual reality movie that is being displayed on the screen of its mind. Even the observer’s body is only like the form of an avatar that appears in that virtual reality movie.
The screen of its mind displays both external sensory perceptions of that world, like sight and sound, and internal sensory perceptions of its mind, like thoughts, memories and emotional body feelings. All these perceptions are being displayed on the screen of its mind. The observer itself can only be understood as the mind’s eye that arises in relation to the screen of its mind.
The observer is only confused about the difference between external perceptions of its world and internal perceptions of its body and mind because the observer is emotionally identifying itself with its body. The observer is creating an arbitrary boundary between external and internal perceptions in terms of the boundary of its body.
This arbitrary division of external perceptions of its world and internal perceptions of its body and mind in terms of the boundary of its body allows the observer to create the illusion of self and other in its holographic world. The observer divides up its world into self and other by emotionally identifying itself with the form of its body. Emotional self-identification with the form of its body naturally happens as the observer perceives feelings of emotional self-limitation to its body as the form of its body is emotionally related to all other forms that appear in its world. By dividing its perceptions into external and internal in terms of the boundary of its body, the observer is creating the illusion of self and other in its world. In reality, all its perceptions are being displayed on the screen of its mind.
The emotional behavior of the human life-form is ultimately being driven by the motion of the observer itself, which is what emotionally animates the behavior of the human life-form. This naturally happens as the observer focuses its attention on the behavior of the human life-form and that emotional animation of behavior naturally arises due to the motion of the observer. In a very real sense, the emotional animation of the behavior of a human life-form that appears in the virtual reality movie of the world the observer is watching from its point of view at the center of that world arises due to the motion of the observer as it focuses its attention on that behavior.
This brings us back to the problem of the human ego, which is that the attention of the observer has become fixated on defending the survival of its personal form as though its spiritual existence or being depends on it. That personal bias in the focus of its attention is what creates the human ego, as body survival is defended as though spiritual being depends on it.
This problem of delusion becomes amplified, exaggerated and distorted when the personal body-based self-concept is repeatedly and emotionally constructed in the observer’s mind as a means of continuously defending body survival as though the spiritual existence of the perceiving spirit depends on it. This is the problem of the human ego with its constant need to defend its own survival, and in the process, defend body survival. These are the ego-stories that our minds are constantly telling us about ourselves.
The pleasure-pain principle is an essential aspect of this drive for body survival in the Darwinian sense of the survival of the fittest body. We express desire in the pursuit of pleasure and fear in the avoidance of pain as a means to defend body survival. That is the only way life can survive and evolve in the world. That’s why God created the pleasure-pain principle as an essential aspect of how the light of consciousness is illuminating the observer’s world as the images of that world are projected from the screen of its mind to its central point of view. The pleasure-pain principle is an essential aspect of the quality of things that allows life to survive and evolve.
The human ego only amplifies, exaggerates and distorts this natural process that allows life to survive and evolve as the body-based personal self-concept is continuously and repeatedly emotionally constructed in the mind. The human self-concept or ego only takes this process of defending body survival to an extreme degree as it becomes the primary concern of the human mind. All of the human mind’s time and energy is monopolized in the defense of body survival. This only happens because of personal bias in the observer’s focus of attention, which becomes fixated on defending body survival as though the spiritual existence of the observer depends on it.
The truth is the spirit has its own spiritual existence or being, called I Am, that is independent of whatever appears to happen in the virtual reality movie. That spiritual being is independent of whatever appears to happen to the form of its avatar in the virtual reality movie. That spiritual being is independent of whatever appears to happen to its avatar, such as when that body appears to be born, appears to live a life in the world, or appears to die. That spiritual being can only be present for the human body/mind as it perceives whatever appears to happen in the virtual reality movie.
This brings us back to the question: why did God create the human ego? Why did God give us the ability to develop personal bias in our focus of attention?
You could say that’s just the way creation has to be. Creation is a spontaneous expression of creativity for the sheer joy of it. Creation is driven by God’s love, which is called agape. This is a selfless love for all things in creation. It is the love of the Creator for all of its creations. That process of creation requires the three aspects of creation: the creation of the observer as the individual consciousness of the Self is differentiated from the undifferentiated consciousness of the Source, the creation of the energy of motion as the Self moves relative to its motionless Source, and the creation of the light of consciousness that is illuminating the observer’s world as the images of that world are projected from the screen of the observer’s mind to its central point of view.
Personal bias is an aspect of how the light of consciousness is being focused as the observer focuses its attention on events that appear to happen in its world. The inevitable outcome of this personal bias is the creation of the human ego when the observer’s focus of attention becomes fixated on defending body survival as though the spiritual existence of the observer depends on it.
So it’s not really accurate to say that God created the human ego. The Self creates the human ego when its focus of attention becomes fixated on defending body survival as though its spiritual existence depends on it. The focus of attention of the Self becomes contaminated with personal bias. God only creates the conditions that lead to the creation of the human ego. God created these conditions because that is how life is created and survives and evolves in the world. This is all a spontaneous expression of creativity for the sheer joy of it that is being driven by God’s love for all God’s creations.
Creation is a spontaneous expression of creativity for the sheer joy of it. Creation is like the play of a child. When a child plays a game, the child creates things in its own imagination. The child plays the game for the love of playing the game and the love of creating things.
That’s what the expression of divine love is like. Divine love is called agape, which is a selfless kind of love that is characterized by service to others and self-sacrifice. More importantly, divine love is characterized by the love of creation and the love for all creations.
That is what infinite potentiality does. It creates everything from absolute nothingness for the sheer joy of creation. It’s all a spontaneous expression of creativity for the sheer joy of it. The important thing to realize is that it’s all being created in the imagination of the One consciousness.
On the other hand, the creation of the human ego may be a means by which the Self becomes willing to return to its Source, which is called the path of return. When the Self has clearly seen and becomes fed up with the total waste of time and energy inherent in the creation of its ego, it becomes willing to return to its Source. When the Self has had enough of the suffering created by its ego with the ego’s insane desire to control everything in the defense of body survival and the ego’s unwillingness to let go, the Self becomes willing to surrender, let go and move on. When the Self is no longer under the sway of its ego with its delusional fear of death and its insane need to control everything, the Self becomes willing to allow its ego to die away.
To be alive, emotions have to be expressed. The expression of emotions implies motion. It is literally the point of view of the Self that is moving relative to its motionless Source. The Source has no life in it because the Source is motionless. Only the Self moves. The Source is like a motionless ocean of pure consciousness, infinite, timeless and undivided. The motion of the Self creates the screen of the mind, which is like the surface of the ocean. The screen of the mind only arises due to the motion of the Self. The waves that appear on the surface of the ocean only arise due to the motion of the Self. That motion creates all emotional experiences, which are necessary for the experience of life. The motionless ocean has no emotional experiences, and has no life in it.
The motionless ocean creates life and all emotional experiences by first differentiating itself into the point of view of the Self, like a drop that is differentiated from the ocean, and then creating the emotional energy that underlies the motion of the Self. That motion creates the surface of the ocean and the waves that appear on the surface of the ocean. An emotionally animated life-form is only a wave that appears on the surface of the ocean. Underlying the emotional animation of a life-form is the motion of the Self.
The analogy of the Source being like an infinite ocean of undifferentiated consciousness and the individual consciousness of the Self being like a drop of water that differentiates itself from the Source and begins to move relative to the motionless ocean is totally consistent with the holographic principle. The Self is the observer at the central point of view of its own holographic world or frame of reference. The motion of the Self relative to the motionless Source is what gives rise to the observer’s event horizon, which is the surface of the ocean. This is beautifully described in the book of Genesis:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters • Genesis
The spirit of God is the Self, which is the observer at the center of its own world. The face of the deep is the observer’s event horizon, which only arises due to the observer’s own motion relative to the motionless Source. What we call God is the Source, which can only be described in terms of negation as void, formless, darkness and the deep. The Source is this infinite, motionless ocean of undifferentiated consciousness. The Self is a spiritual presence of individual consciousness at the center of its own world, which must be differentiated from the Source and begin to move relative to the motionless Source. That’s the only way the face of the deep can arise. This process of differentiation is made explicit when the book of Genesis describes that the light is divided from the darkness. The light refers to the light of consciousness, which is an aspect of the individual consciousness of the Self. When the Self is divided from the Source, the light of consciousness is also divided from the darkness of the Source.
This also explains the nature of the mystical union of the Self with the Source. Mystical union only arises when the motion of the Self comes into alignment with the normal way the Source creates all the energy that animates all things. The Self has a limited ability to move in its own way, which arises from personal bias in the focus of attention of the Self when the Self emotionally identifies itself with its emotionally animated personal life-form. That personal bias in the focus of attention of the Self leads to the expression of personal biased emotions that have as their only real purpose the defense of the survival of that life-form. The Self is defending the survival of its life-form as though its existence depends on it. The expression of self-defensive personally biased emotions only interferes with the unbiased expression of the divine will of the Source, which creates feelings of disconnection and personal self-limitation that reinforce the tendency of the Self to emotionally identify itself with its personal life-form, which leads to the expression of more self-defensive personally biased emotions, which perpetuates the vicious cycle of personal self-identification and self-defense. That personal self-defense is really only an ego-defense mechanism that occurs in the mind as the ego is emotionally constructed in the mind as a body-based personal self-concept.
The only way to break this vicious cycle is through surrender. The Self surrenders the expression of its own personally biased self-defensive emotions or individual will to the unbiased expression of the divine will of its Source. This naturally happens when the Self turns the focus of its attention away from its personal self-concept that is emotionally constructed in its mind, looks within, and refocuses its attention on its own sense of being present as the spiritual presence of consciousness that is the perceiver of its own world. The Self naturally surrenders when it realizes the true nature of its own spiritual being, and that it really has nothing to defend in the world it perceives. Its personal life-form that appears in that world is only an illusion of what it really is. That illusion of personal identity is created in its mind as a personal body-based self-concept is emotionally constructed in its mind, which only happens as personally biased emotions are expressed. That emotional process of constructing a personal self-concept in its mind comes to an end when the Self surrenders and personally biased self-defensive emotions are no longer expressed, which naturally happens when the Self realizes the true nature of its own spiritual being that needs no defense.
When the Self surrenders the expression of its own personally biased self-defensive individual will to the unbiased expression of the divine will of its Source, the animating flow of energy through its life-form comes into alignment with the normal flow of all things, and there are feelings of connection to all things rather than feelings of disconnection and personal self-limitation. There are also expressions of creativity and right actions.
This is the natural state of a presence of consciousness that has surrendered to its Source. This is the mystical union of the Self with its Source, which always represents a death-rebirth transformation, as the false personal identity of being a person in the world, as emotionally constructed in the mind in terms of a body-based personal self-concept, dies away, and the true spiritual identity of being a spiritual presence of consciousness at the center of its own world is reborn. This is the normal way to live a life in the world, which is an awakening within the dream.
On the other hand, the ultimate state of spiritual enlightenment is a kind of death that has no life in it because it has no expression of emotions in it. This is an awakening from the dream. When the dreamer awakens from the dream, everything in the dream, including life itself, disappears from existence and only the true nature of the dreamer remains. The true nature of the dreamer can only be described as the infinite nothingness of No-Self, which is really the infinite potentiality for the creation of life and the creation of the emotional energy that animates all life-forms.
Spiritual enlightenment is inherently a timeless experience because all motion comes to an end. All emotional expressions come to an end. Life itself comes to an end. It is the ultimate experience of death, as the spiritual being of the Self comes to rest in the peace of the pure timeless spiritual being of its Source. It is the ultimate experience of that motionless, timeless spiritual being. That is what one ultimately experiences when one awakens from the dream of living a life in the world. Although it is experienced as infinite nothingness or emptiness, empty of all things and all emotional experiences, it is really the infinite potentiality for the creation of life and emotional experiences.
The experience of spiritual enlightenment really can’t be discussed because it can’t be conceptualized. There is no description in terms of concepts that can describe it. The timeless experience of unlimited and undivided timeless spiritual being can’t be conceptualized. The best that one can ever do is to describe it by way of an analogy, as in the timeless experience of individual spiritual being, which is called the Self or I Am, dissolving back into its Source of unlimited and undivided timeless spiritual being like a drop of water that dissolves back into an infinite, undivided, motionless ocean of pure being.
Since spiritual being is what one calls consciousness, individual consciousness, which is always present for a body/mind at a point of view, is dissolving back into its Source of unlimited and undivided pure consciousness, which is called nondual awareness, like a drop of water that dissolves back into the ocean.
That individual presence of consciousness, present for a body/mind at its own point of view, is always differentiated from its Source of undifferentiated consciousness, like a drop of water that is divided from the undivided ocean, but must ultimately return to its Source by dissolving back into the ocean.
The whole thing begins in an infinite empty space of potentiality described as an unlimited and undivided motionless ocean of pure consciousness, which can be called the Creator. The undifferentiated consciousness of the Creator first differentiates itself into the individual consciousness of the observer, like a drop of water that is differentiated from the undivided ocean. That focal point of individual consciousness begins to move with accelerated motion that gives rise to the observer’s event horizon that is a bounding surface in that empty space that limits the observer’s observations in space. That surface in space, which is like the surface of the ocean, becomes the observer’s holographic screen when quantized bits of information are encoded on the surface. Everything perceived is like a wave that appears on the surface of the ocean. This construction mechanism creates the observer’s holographic world.
The interesting question to consider is what happens when the observer’s own accelerated motion comes to an end in what’s called an ultimate state of free-fall? When the observer’s accelerated motion comes to an end, the observer no longer has an event horizon that acts as its holographic screen that encodes information for everything it perceives in its own holographic world. In that ultimate state of free-fall, everything in the observer’s own holographic world disappears from existence from its own point of view, and nothing remains. Even the perceived flow of time comes to an end when images of that holographic world are no longer projected and animated.
What happens to the observer in that ultimate state of free-fall? The answer is the individual consciousness of the observer, present at the center of its own holographic world, dissolves back into its motionless Source of undifferentiated consciousness like a drop of water that dissolves back into the ocean. This naturally happens as the observer’s accelerated motion comes to an end in an ultimate state of free-fall, and everything in the observer’s holographic world disappears from existence from its own point of view, and nothing remains. Individual consciousness ultimately dissolves back into its Source of undifferentiated consciousness. This ultimate experience of the individual consciousness of the observer dissolving back into the infinite nothingness of the undifferentiated consciousness of the ocean is called spiritual enlightenment.
Ultimately, the observer is the ocean. Ultimately, you are the Creator.
Ironically, you become the Creator when you stop creating anything. The number one thing you are creating is your own sense of being a self. That sense of being a self is only created when the undifferentiated consciousness of the Creator differentiates itself into the individual consciousness of the Self. That’s how the creation process begins. The creation process ends when the Self dissolves back into its Source and the sense of being a self comes to an end. Without that sense of being a self, you can only know yourself to be the Source, which is the infinite potentiality for the creation of all things, including the sense of being a self. The creation process goes forward as the animating energy of motion that animates all things is created and the projecting light of consciousness that illuminates all things is emanated. Without that creation process, there is only the infinite nothingness that is called No-Self, which is experienced as infinite emptiness, stillness, silence and darkness.
The only point that nonduality makes is that ultimately you are the Creator. Thou art That. That is the ultimate experience of spiritual enlightenment. You become the Creator when you stop creating anything, even your own sense of being a separate self. And yes, that leaves you with a kind of nothingness, which is really the infinite potentiality for the creation of everything, including your own sense of being a separate self. The other way to say this is ultimately there is only One undivided and unlimited timeless consciousness, which is the true nature of timeless spiritual being. With the creation of the Self, the I Am, which is always a divided and limited kind of individual consciousness and being, everything appears to come into being, but that is only an appearance in the One consciousness. Even life itself is only an appearance in the One consciousness.
The other way to say this is the world we perceive is not an ultimate reality. The perceivable reality of the world is not an ultimate reality. Only the One consciousness is an ultimate reality. The One consciousness is what ultimately exists when everything in the perceivable reality of the world disappears from existence. Perceivable reality is very much like a virtual reality that only appears to exist within the ultimate reality of the One consciousness.
There is only the One Consciousness, or nondual awareness, that’s described as the undifferentiated consciousness of the Source. In physical terms, this One Consciousness is like an empty space of potentiality. In metaphorical terms, it’s like an ocean of pure undivided consciousness. It is infinite or unlimited, and also eternal in the sense of being timeless and motionless, and yet it creates all motion, energy and time. Since it can only be described in terms of negation as absolute nothingness or void, it is called No-Self. It has no Self and there is no other. It is alone, and yet it expresses itself in the diversity of creation. That is what you are, what I am and what everything is. The One consciousness has many points of view, and each point of view is at the center of its own world. It cannot be conceptualized because all concepts only belong to the world of creation, not to the Creator, and yet it can be experienced as the true nature of being, which is called pure timeless being.
That experience of pure undivided timeless being is always experienced in silence, stillness and emptiness. That experience cannot be conceptualized, and yet it can be experienced and you can know that’s what you really are, or more accurately, it realizes the true nature of what it is. It only realizes the true nature of what it is when it stops creating anything and everything it creates disappears from existence. That realization is called awakening from the dream. Everything it creates is only a dream that it is dreaming, and when it awakens from the dream, the dream disappears and only its true nature as the dreamer remains. That experience of its true nature is called spiritual enlightenment.
What creates the Creator? The simple answer is that nothing creates the Creator because the Creator is the infinite, eternal, undivided and unlimited timeless nothingness that timelessly exists before all creations. That’s why Jesus was able to say Before Abraham was, I Am. The Creator does not exist in time. The Creator has timeless spiritual existence. The Creator is what timelessly exists before all creations. The Creator is what creates the experience of time.
The Creator creates the experience of time when it differentiates itself into the point of view of an observer at the center of its own world. The experience of time is only possible in that world in terms of the space-time geometry of that world. The Creator is creating that world. The Creator creates that world and the experience of time in that world when it differentiates itself into the observer of that world and the observer begins to move with accelerated motion relative to the motionless Creator. The Creator is creating the experience of time by creating the motion of that observer. That accelerated motion creates the observer’s event horizon, which becomes its holographic screen when quantized bits of information are encoded on its horizon. Everything the observer can observe in its holographic world is a form of information that’s being displayed on its holographic screen. When that accelerated motion comes to an end in an ultimate state of free-fall, everything that appears to exist in that world disappears from existence from the observer’s point of view, and the experience of time comes to an end.
To be clear about things, I’m questioning the reality of what you call reality. What you call reality is unreal. It’s a holographic virtual reality. It’s like a dream. It’s called Maya because it’s an illusion. Only the dreamer is truly real. Only the dreamer has true spiritual being. Life is but a dream. As the Bhagavad Gita says: The unreal has no being; the real never ceases to be.
Even worse than calling your so-called reality unreal is what I’m saying about your Self. Self is an illusion that is part of the virtual reality. There is no true Self; there is only false self and No-Self. Self is a belief, and no belief is true. You discover that when you look within. What you call reality is unreal, and your Self is an illusion of that unreality. This realization is always the starting point for true spiritual progress and the discovery of reality.
The experience of the ultimate truth is an experience that is beyond belief. Everything that can appear to exist in your world is created within the context of your belief, which is inherently an emotional context. The experience of the ultimate truth is beyond your world, beyond any emotional context, and beyond belief. Beliefs are only created in an emotional context in a time-bound world. The ultimate truth is beyond that world, beyond time, and beyond the emotional context of all beliefs. The experience of the ultimate truth is inherently timeless. It is the timeless experience of the infinite emptiness, stillness and silence of pure timeless spiritual being.
Relational ontology is only operative at the level of the mystical union of the Self with the Source, which can be understood as an awakening within the dream. At this level, the flow of life is inherent in the union of the Self with the Source in the sense of the normal flow of animating energy through all things. This normal flow of energy inherent in life is the essential aspect of mystical union, as one surrenders the expression of one’s own personally biased individual will to unbiased divine will and the flow of energy comes into alignment.
At the level of spiritual enlightenment, there is no flow of energy and there is no life. There is no union of the Self with the Source, only the dissolution of the Self into the Source. This is an awakening from the dream. When the dreamer awakens from its dream, everything in that dream, including life itself, disappears from existence and only the true nature of the dreamer remains, which is another way of saying that life is but a dream. The absolute nothingness that remains when one awakens from the dream, which is the true nature of one’s timeless spiritual being, has no life in it. Instead, it can only be understood as the infinite potentiality for the creation of life, which only happens when it creates life in the flow of animating energy.
Of course, there is a mystery wrapped within an enigma here that cannot be unraveled for the simple reason that absolute nothingness cannot be conceptualized. How can the absolute nothingness that has no energy or life in it create energy and life? How can the timeless create the experience of time? That of course is the mystery of infinite potentiality, and no matter how hard we work at trying to conceptualize it, we will never succeed because it can’t be conceptualized. It will forever remain an eternal mystery.
It’s important to point out that although the mystery of absolute nothingness and infinite potentiality, which is the mystery of One undivided, unlimited, and timeless consciousness, which is also called nondual awareness, can never be conceptualized, it can be directly experienced through the experience of spiritual enlightenment.
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