A Short History of Human Thought (Cliff Notes)

Ok, so I may be a little off-center to attempt to boil this down into a blog, but I'll give it a shot. Sometimes the constraint of trying to fit a complex topic into the constraints of a spontaneous, one-take-no-redos kind of format helps to focus the mind. Maybe a little extra diet coke will help :-)

Way back in the dawn of human consciousness when the cave people drew pictures on their walls we lived in the time of mythology. Myths were created and maintained because the stories pointed to a more profound truth that could not be expressed. Also, our ancestors of a few hundred thousand years ago (or longer) had no scientific explanation for anything. So, myths were numerous and served as the science as well as the religion of the day. We have come to discover with fascination how similar many of the myths were across pre-historic cultures.

Out of this foundation of mythology, gradually religions began to be formed. Nowadays we refer to early religions as Earth, Pagan or Mystery Religions. Many rituals were created, observed and passed down through generations. Many of the religions co-opted the appropriate myths that supported their beliefs. Many Mystery Religions contain some of the same creation and messiah stories we inherited in some of the great World Religions.

Eventually, as humans became more logical, a group of ancient thinkers, sometimes called the Ancient Sages, began focusing on the wisdom of living the good life. How to be happy and fulfilled. How to live correctly. This formed the basis of the great Eastern World Religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Confucianism. A parallel track of development occurred in the Middle East resulting in Judaism.

The golden period of classical Greek thought produced such thinkers as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and many more. This sober morality, precise deductive logic and naturalist inductive logic created a body of thought that has formed the basis of Western Thought for the last two millenia.

Christianity was born out of a mixture of Greek philosophy, Judaism, Mystery Religions and the teachings of Jesus. Christianity developed initially along a Neo-Platonic line of thought resulting in a strong metaphysical base and later incorporated the Aristotelian line of thinking with the work of the Medieval Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas. Christianity also developed a significant list of arbitrary doctrines during the early centuries that were motivated by political power and influence.

We finally reached the level of scientific thinking around the Renaissance and into the Enlightenment period. This followed primarily from Aristotle, was helped along by Francis Bacon, Copernicus and Galileo and came to a head with the work of Isaac Newton and others. Here, we took the logical, naturalistic tendency of Aristotelian thought and developed the scientific method. Science because very inductive and experimental resulting in the industrial age with all its advantages and disadvantages.

The 19th and 20th century saw an incredible creation of new scientific theories that overturned many existing theories in the fields of physics, biology, astronomy and chemistry. Albert Einstein is the poster child for using deductive thought to create grand theories of Relativity, time and gravity that are very non-intuitive, but turn out to be true and have been proved. Charles Darwin used induction to discover the Theory of Evolution.

It seems that as the 21st century dawns, we are entering a time where physics and metaphysics are converging. Many of the current physical theories such as M-Theory cannot yet be proven by experiment and it may not be possible. Much of what we are creating as the Theory of Everything is supported by a deductive system of logic rather than inductive, real-world experiments.

Perhaps we are reaching the End of Science as we have known it for the last 500 years or so and are entering a new era where Science and Metaphysics work hand in hand, moved forward by our increased use of intuition and higher consciousness that transcend traditional ways of knowing. If this is true, we are called upon to use more of ourselves than at any other time in human history.

Potential and Actual

The material world we live in is the world of science, senses, atoms, particles, forces and chemistry that can be measured and controlled to the degree we understand it through science and technology. It is also the world where our emotions are expressed through various relationships. It is a world of causes and effects that can be described and predicted to some degree as well.

The metaphysical world, if you choose to believe it. It is the ultimate cause of everything we see in the physical world. Even though there are billions of causes and effects that occur in the material world every nanosecond, the underlying ultimate cause (or first cause using Aristotle's language), is the metaphysical world. Some world views are completely materialistic and deny the existence of the metaphysical world.

If you are consistently scientific even into the realm of your personal life you might fall into this group. However, if you have any spiritual beliefs beyond that of naturalist or humanist style, you likely believe there is an underlying ground of being for the physical world. Differences of opinion about the nature of the metaphysical and its relationship to the physical occur once a belief in the metaphysical exists.

Maybe a few contrasts will help. In this list the left side represents the physical world and the right side the metaphysical:

• Relative - Absolute
• Actual - Potential
• Effect - Cause
• Sensory - Extra-sensory
• Objective - Subjective
• Changing - Constant
• Logical - Intuitive
• Approximate - Perfect
• Becoming - Ground of Being

In my interpretation, the metaphysical is not in the realm of the supernatural. Everything is One that includes what we'd call the metaphysical and the physical. We have our Source and Ground of Being in the metaphysical. We access the metaphysical through a consciousness that is aware of the Source. This awareness can be developed and increased if we have the will to do it. It is what allows us to truly discover who we are and to embark on a path of self-actualization and true expression and demonstration in the physical, or relative world.

Our consciousness can be raised to the extent that we have the potential to act from a position of a higher consciousness (sometimes called Christ, Buddha, Brahman, etc. depending on which religious tradition is used for language). The typical secular term for this is self-actualization. As we raise our consciousness we are able to respond to stimuli from the relative world in a way that is closer to the absolute. We are able to bring the potential of perfection from the absolute world into a more accurate instantiation in the physical world. This is the ideal, but not typical as most of us move up and down through lower and higher levels of awareness.

The metaphysical world is the place of pure potential. The physical world is the place of actuality. The potential of Energy/Light/Mind/Spirit needs the full experience of the Relative world and participates with all conscious entities in a dynamic co-creation of the material and psychic Universe. The depth of this bi-directional participation can be increased by seeking in order to find and knocking so that the door might be opened to us.

Metaphysics, Physics, Theology, and the Bible

I've always been intrigued by the so-called "magic" numbers from the Bible. Not the bottom-up analysis trying to come up with secret messages based on computer analysis of original Hebrew scriptures. But the more macro-level numbers that appear many times and have special significance. The most well-known of these are 3, 7, 12 and 40.

Of these, 3 has been of the most practical usage in my life. It's also used colloquially in phrases like "third time is the charm". I wrote a blog a long time ago about the optimum number of choices for any given circumstance that I believe is 3. When I really need to learn challenging material and know it cold, one discipline is to read/study the material 3 times. In the world of computer software, it is interesting that new products usually reach a foundational level of maturity on version 3.

One of the more interesting applications of the "power of 3" is the realization that the Bible can be read and understood on 3 different levels.

1. Literal - every word is the absolute literal word of God and must be believed and followed without change.
2. Story - the Bible is a collection of stories that teach us moral lessons. It is not important if they are historically true or not
3. Metaphysical - the Bible is a collection of stories that have metaphysical meaning. None of the stories are meant to talk about things that occurred in the physical world. Everything is symbolism that speaks of the evolution of human consciousness.

Of these, number 1 is the least useful for obvious reasons. Which translation? Do I have to go back to original text and learn Greek or Hebrew to really know? What about the evidence we have that mistakes, purposeful or otherwise, can be seen thoughout the history of copying and translating the originals? What about the contradictions? What is the practical relevance to my life reading this way about ancient cultures? Is this making the spriritual mistake of following the letter of the law as the Pharisees were accused of doing?

Level 2 is a useful way to read the Scripture to get practical moral lessons. Read in this way the stories are timeless and can be mapped onto contemporary situations for guidance and enlightenment.

The third level, the metaphysical, is in the realm of "secret knowledge" as understood by alternative ancient Christian sects such as the Gnostic Christians. This was a belief that the scriptures were written at multiple levels so that they can meet the reader where they are. The highest level of understanding is the symbolic, psychical or consciousness level. An understanding at this level yields the highest benefit and is closer to the Truth, but is difficult to understand by the uninitiated or untrained.

The third level is more interesting today because of the fact that we are a much more educated and advanced world than 2000 years ago. It makes it possible for more people to gain an understanding at this level since more of us are capable of thinking at higher levels of abstraction. Another factor is that knowledge of multiple religions and spiritual paths add layers of understanding to the metaphysical interpretations that are possible. A third factor is the connection with modern science that is possible when this level is used as a framework for study.

Many interesting connections and much spiritual enlightenment can be gained by a close metaphysical reading of the Bible, broadening that information to include ideas from Eastern Religions and Philosophy, then connecting to Modern Science especially in the areas of Evolution, DNA, Quantum Physics and String Theory. A quantitative understanding of the sciences is not necessary to get this understanding. However, a good conceptual grounding in world religions and the fundamental sciences is useful, either before starting a metaphysical study or picked up along the way.

The spiritual power that can be gained by integrating the perspectives of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Philosophy, Physics, DNA, Evolution and Cosmology is a large step toward "Christ Consciousness" that is present in all religions but called by different names.

Modern Physics

Modern physics tells us about incredible worlds that exist in the infinitely small and the infinitely large. M-theory, String Theory, 4 fundamental forces, Standard Model, SuperGravity and Quantum Mechanics are just a small subset of theories that are used to describe the physical world. The closer we get to a Theory of Everything the more impossible the chance of a scientific proof of the theory becomes. At what point does Physics become Metaphysics?

That is a particularly interesting question to me, given that I am in the middle of a conscious study of Metaphysics for the next few weeks. Listening to some of the best Theoretical Physicists talk about Strings, (mem)Branes, Collisions, Dark Matter, Dark Energy and on and on I am struck by how closely it resembles historical Metaphysical explanations for the Universe. Not on specifics, but on the style of communication.

Physics today is grounded and driven by extremely sophisticated mathematics that ordinary laymen such as myself cannot understand. It requires significant scientific and mathematical background. So, the implications of the theories that are predicted by the math must be communicated in "stories". Stories tell us about the wonderful worlds that exist in parallel Universes, Multiverses (multiple universes) and strange particles that zip, collide, split, disintegrate and form new particles at the sub-atomic level.

A story is the fundamental component of Mythology. That's where we started. Metaphysics, starting with Platonism and descendents told Metaphysical stories held together with logic. Modern Physics seems to have advanced to the point where we are weaving extremely grand and complete theories of the physical world told in the form of Stories that are held together by Mathematics, or Formal Logic. So, modern physics is based on a concrete and mathematically provable Logic, where as Metaphysics is held together by pure logic.

No matter how far Modern Physics takes us, though, it is still focused on the Effect, whereas Metaphysics is focused on the Cause. At some point, Cause can get very close to Effect. However, it can probably never get there. Another aspect of Metaphysics is that some forms are held together by personal experience in Consciousness as well as Logic.

The stories of modern physics seem to be contemporary versions of myths that we can spin with some degree of foundation or grounding in very sophisticated Formal Logic. (Mathematics). However, the goal is to understand the Effect so thoroughly that the Cause will be revealed. Metaphysics has a different starting point, which is to understand the Cause through Logic, Intuition and Meditation so thoroughly that the Effect makes sense at the highest level so that the true Order of the Effect can be understood and influenced by the intuitive insights of Metaphysics.

Sorry if I've boiled this down to much to be understandable. Obviously, many hours of stimulating and clarifying conversation are possible from these concepts.

Leadership and Virtue

Leadership seems to be more about the quality of being rather than the ability to give orders or boss people around. Great leaders blend general virtues into a strong individualism that permeates their thoughts, actions and results. Becoming a leader is, in a sense, becoming self-actualized and expressing that self-actualization in the medium of inspiring others to do their best; or better. If a leader is actualizing along a spectrum of virtue, her results tend toward the positive. If he is actualizing along a spectrum of vice, his results will tend toward the negative. At least positive and negative from our limited perspectives.

What are some characteristics of leaders? Here is one list: Judgement, Justice, Decisiveness, Initiative, Dependability, Tact, Integrity, Endurance, Bearing, Unselfishness, Courage, Knowledge, Loyalty, Enthusiasm.

There are many other lists of virtues including the 7 Heavenly virtues and the Knightly virtues. A cursory overview shows there is definitely quite a bit of overlap.

To be a good leader (not an evil leader), is to be consistent with virtue expressed along an idiosyncratic path toward self-actualization. Being, then becoming, never arriving.

Metaphysics

I've been participating in a few metaphysics discussions recently. We are lucky enough to have an erudite facilitator who has extensive background in philosophy, theology and law. One of the best things about a metaphysics discussion is the spontaneity of the session. Since, by definition, metaphysics is not logically provable, imagination and intuition play a large role in the direction of questions and comments. The range of background from the people involved can span a wide area, leading to a need for integration of perspectives that can stimulate, irritate and enlighten.

What is metaphysics? It is the exploration of ultimate causes. Isn't that Physics? No. Physics is the study of effects. That is, if you believe in metaphysics at all. To get to first base in metaphysics, you have to experience a leap of faith at some point. In other words, you have to believe that the ultimate cause of the Universe is beyond the physical that we can sense and measure. Anything that we can sense and measure is the effect of the ultimate underlying cause, which is metaphysical. Even the most fundamental physical particle or force has an underlying cause that is beyond the logical or sensuous.

Those of a traditional religious orientation might say this is a theological discussion, in other words, metaphysics is synonymous with God. What is there to discuss? The Bible say it all, right? No need to speculate. Just read the text and listen to what your local priest, preacher or pastor tells you to believe. Done. That is possible, but to do that misses getting in touch with the ultimate energy and infinity that would have to be a fundamental property of an infinite and omnipotent power. Why put "God" in a box? If we name it, we define it, and we can only define things in our own image complete with our own limitations.

Some possible world views include:

• The physical is all there is - metaphysics is just imagination
• Both the physical and the metaphysical exist - they exist in separate realms and do not affect each other
• The physical is an illusion - the metaphysical is true reality - our goal is to escape the physical
• Both the physical and metaphysical are real - the physical is the relative world or the effect of the metaphysical - the metaphysical is the absolute world and causes the physical

I subscribe to the last world view. The connection between the two is consciousness. Consciousness exists along a spectrum ranging from fundamental physical particles to human intelligence. Human consciousness is the highest consciousness that we know exists. There may be higher levels of consciousness, but we do not have direct proof of that. We have two way communication with the metaphysical realm through our consciousness

That's a screenfull for a single blog. I'll try to elaborate other perceptions on this topic as the Spirit moves.

2010 Has Arrived

Yes, I realize this happened 10 days ago, but I have not posted anything since December 21. Lots of holidays, family in town, getting ramped back up for the new year have kept me pretty silent. There are always ideas to noodle on, but sometimes it's hard to just decide which one to write about. So, I decided to write about not deciding what to write about. I'll list a few things that caught my attention over the last couple of weeks and maybe one of them will grow into a longer post.

• Today I participated in a very insightful discussion about Metaphysics. Topic was the relationship between the metaphysical and the physical world mediated by consciousness. Great stuff.
• "Up in the Air" with George Clooney was an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. If it wasn't for theatrical effect, the Clooney "girlfriend" should have been more upfront with him about her marriage situation. Just a thought.
• At work we started off the year with a bang. Two new hires started recently and we have a product release planned for March. Should be fun!
• Lots of family in town for the Cotton Bowl. I did not have a ticket so I watched it in HD at home while providing moral support to the chefs in the kitchen who produced a remarkable meal of beef slices, cheesy mashed potatoes, salad and shrimp cocktail.
• My Apple TV is working great! All my iPod music and all the photos on my laptop have been synced.
• Invictus was a great movie. Moved a little slow, but the context was very interesting. Sherlock Holmes was great but I had crappy seats.
• Enjoyed my daughter visiting for a few days. We got caught in the snow storm Christmas Eve, but made it home before most of the slipping and sliding in Dallas started.

I just remembered that I need to go review a bunch of scanned photos online and make some decisions about which ones to keep. Later...