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..:: The Mental
Field III ::..
“Chaos Theory”
By
Alan Schneider
Let us consider the conclusive remark at
the end of the last essay “We do not really exist”. What
can this apparently impossible statement mean? How can we seem to exist
on one hand, and not really be so on the other?
Ultimately, only the Divine
Light is really “there” as a conscious state of manifestation – all else
is the result of the ego’s interpretation of the input of the physical
senses. We do not directly experience the Logos because we have been
taught not to by our culture.
At least initially, even in
deep meditation, most people who manage to go far enough into trance
will find themselves confronting a paradoxical condition – they contact
the background limit of the personal mind at the foundation of the ego.
This background condition amounts to the Threshold of Chaos that
is, in fact, the portal through which all Creation emerges into
conscious perception. Because this is an ego-related phenomenon, we tend
to misperceive the information as being the result of some non-specified
personal origin, when it is all of Divine origin in all
cases. This even applies to the perception of the body and physical
senses.
I have heard the Chaotic
Threshold referred to as “The Inner Light”, “The Inner Sound”, “The
Self”, “The Super Conscious Mind”, “Samadhi”, “Satori”, and several
other descriptors. And this threshold certainly is the origin of the
Mental Field – the subject of these most recent articles. But what is
it? How does it account for the Creation of our individual
consciousness? And just what is this chaos phenomenon?
Chaos is an apparently
complete lack of order, meaning, and structure in a given manifest
condition. The slightest indication of any order or structure of any
kind precludes the existence of chaos – some degree of meaning is
still present, however transitory. The human mind, based as it is on the
ego and ego interpretation, stops at the Threshold of Chaos, because
that is the maximal extent of its own manifestation as an orderly
system. Beyond the Threshold, nothing can be directly perceived or
known. Chaos is the ultimate mystery of mysteries. However, the always
persistent ego has still evolved a science of this non-manifest state –
Chaos Theory. Please read on!
A discussion of this Chaos
Theory is in order here. Chaos Theory falls into primarily two
categories – Mathematical Chaos and Social Chaos. Mathematical Chaos
describes certain abstract considerations of the impact of chaotic
variables on probability and probabilistic outcomes of complex
equations. Social Chaos, on the other hand, deals with the psychology of
perception on both an individual and collective level – the personal and
social patterning of perception. It is the pervue of Social Chaos Theory
that I am concerned with here.
Both approaches to Chaos
Theory have as one of their primary concepts the strange attractor.
This phenomenon is best understood through a preliminary discussion of
linear attractors. Attractors are characteristics of a
dynamic system toward which it evolves, or moves, over a long enough
period of time. Linear attractors are of three varieties: fixed point,
limit cycle, and toridal. The fixed point attractor is
illustrated by the center of a system of circular motion, such as the
axel to which a wheel is mounted. The limit cycle attractor is
seen in the presence of two or more limiting conditions or processes
that determine the outcome of some dynamic process – such as the
swinging of a clock pendulum, where gravity and the clock driver
mechanism (e.g. spring, battery, etc.) are the attractors at work. The
toridal attractor is the result of multiple frequencies present
in the limit cycle attractor network. The shifting of the Earth’s axis
accounting for the Astrological Precession of the Equinoxes is such a
toridal attractor system – the limit cycle attractors are the Sun’s
gravitational field and the Earth’s mass. But certain variations in the
magnetic fields of both the Earth and the Sun cause the constellations
to appear to “move backwards” (i.e. counterclockwise) around the North
Star, completing one cycle every 24,000 years.
A strange attractor is
yet another step into mathematical non-linearity. The strange attractor
is evidenced only by the results that it produces in very complex
systems – the phenomenon itself remains concealed beyond the boundary of
chaos in the system. Observations over sufficiently long periods of time
point to the presence of the strange attractor when it “exists”. The
occurrence of genuinely democratic government in history is probably
caused by the presence of a strange attractor – there is something
resident in the human mind, or perhaps Cosmic Mind, that will cause the
formation of democracy under the right set of initial conditions.
Sensitivity to initial conditions is another key concept of Chaos
Theory – if precisely the right balance of factors is not
present, democracy will not occur. As a more tangible example, The Red
River Valley Flood of a decade ago was caused by two interactive strange
attractors – unusually heavy winter snowfall in Canada, and an unusually
warm Spring in the region. The key term here is “unusual” – the
potential certainly existed for both conditions to occur, indicating
that the strange attractor for heavy snowfall was “present”, as was the
strange attractor for a warm Spring, but the probability, based
on observations of past events, was that neither would occur. Yet they
did, and unprecedented flooding was the result.
The Jungian archetypes are
excellent examples of strange attractors, ones that occur in the field
of psychology, and effect human perception. The archetypes are
demonstrated by their effect on perception, and emerge into
conscious manifestation as archetypal symbols that are more or
less consistent across cultures and human history. The significance of
the archetypes as strange attractors is that they lie beyond the
boundary of observation – past the Threshold of Chaos. We can only say
that there appears to be a concealed influence at work shaping
our human behavior and perception – a driver outside the realm of
experience that is still affecting experience. There is much debate in
psychology up to the present day regarding the existence of archetypes,
and their implications for behavior, if they do exist. But Jung’s
research cannot be ignored, and his theories of the archetypes and the
collective unconscious must be taken seriously.
Referring to the Sphere of
Consciousness diagram of the Psyche mentioned often in these articles,
emerging from relatively deep inside the sphere are the archetypal
symbols. Deeper still is the Primal Self (or simply Self), located at
the center of the sphere. As one sits in meditation, the many archetypal
symbols tend to simply appear in consciousness from nothing –
they just spontaneously take form and action. As one meditates
continuously across time, the archetypal symbols tend to assume more and
more universal forms – glowing spheres or disks (e.g. Sephora or
Chakras) that seem to be pregnant with intrinsic meaning – circular
Mandala forms that occupy the Mental Field in its entirety. With
sufficient patience invested in the meditation practice, the Primal
Light of the Logos may ultimately be experienced in deep trance as an
omnipresent manifestation, but this too will seem to simply
spontaneously appear in the Mental Field from nowhere. I am convinced
that all of the non-personal, non-ego-oriented perceptual
material in the Psyche emerges from the other side of the Threshold of
Chaos into conscious perception, driven by strange attractors residing
beyond that threshold.
One implication of this
proposition is that it substantiates the contention that we do not, in
fact, really exist. If all that we perceive as ourselves is ultimately
coming to us from beyond the Threshold of Chaos, then the source of
reality and existence is also beyond that Threshold. Anyone who
meditates long enough will discover that there is a Void at the end of
personal consciousness that accounts for all personal manifestation, but
is not personal itself. This is the beginning of the collective
unconscious. Here, one simply waits until manifestation is given by the
Void to the Mandala of perception that is all that remains of the Mental
Field at that point, and works with what emerges.
Examining this non-existence
of personal identity from the perspective of brain morphology and
neurology yields similar results. It is well known to medical science,
based upon the results of lobotomies, and other less drastic
“experiments”, that the essence of personal self-awareness – the ego –
is located in the prefrontal lobe of the brain, behind the frontal lobe
of the cortex. Since there is nothing else present there other than
synoptic junctions and patterns of synoptic electrical activity
occurring at a very high rate of repetition and density, we are forced
to conclude that “I” am a system of synoptic relationships acquired
across time – a field of electrical activity in the prefrontal lobe that
occurs at a high enough frequency and amplitude to permit limited
self-awareness of its own action to take place. When we attempt to
examine this phenomenon through direct perception, we find, not
surprisingly, that there is nothing there but basic instinct
after acculturation is eliminated from the psychological “equation”, and
once again find ourselves confronting the Threshold. In a truly quantum
sense, the personal mind vanishes as soon as we attempt to observe it,
and only existed as associative electrical patterns in the first place!
Many studies of the Threshold
of Chaos have been conducted by Seers and Sages throughout history.
These studies have supported the concept of Karma as one of the,
if not the most, important factor shaping what emerges across
that Threshold. Karma is the shape of individual destiny, from the most
minute and transitory expressions (quarks, and other particles generated
in accelerators that have half-lives of nanoseconds), to the most
infinite and enduring – the apparent universe of physical form.
Perception itself is determined by Karma, as is human and all other
behavior. Karma is the Will of the Logos manifest in all expression
everywhere. For some reason hidden beyond Chaos, things and events
must occur as they do. Many of the world’s great Seers have also
come to the conclusion that each human being has an ideal spiritual
manifestation, also hidden beyond the Threshold, called the Soul or
Atman, and that the refinement and purification of that Soul is the
Divine cause of Karma, and the appearance of the Logos as the form of a
physical universe of interactive transitory fragments. The Soul is the
personal Mandala portal to the Logos and the Divine Light. This
is where the foundation of reality lies, not in the ego.
Finally, it is possible to literally enter the Threshold of Chaos
in deep meditation, experiencing what Buddhism calls Satori – the
condition of pure non-dual awareness, without subject or object. In this
state, one experiences the condition of non-existence as a literal mode
– being-in-not-being, and not-being-in-being. Something is there, and
nothing is there. This may well be the ultimate state of consciousness
of which the human being is capable – direct observation of our
non-existence through full participation in that condition. In the final
analysis, the perception of the ego is driven by organismic desire. Once
that desire is released by austerity and meditation, the truth is free
to all to perceive as it is – we do not really exist – and what
lies beyond the Threshold does.
- With Love, Alan -
(CR2008, Alan Schneider)
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