SLiPchick's Virtual Shadows

Anyone following the blog will be somewhat aware of my personal spiritual journey from "doubter" to "spirituality". For me the crux of the matter comes down to one particular issue: where do I land on the question of  the phenomenon we call   Consciousness.  Current mainstream scientific thought is materialist and reductionist in character: in this paradigm  all observable phenomena are reducible to the behavior of matter and "energy". The specific observable phenomena that science can permit as the brute facts of " Consciousness" are t he internal states   reported by humans, or (if you're generous in your definition) those which may be inferred from the behavior of animals. The current, most broadly accepted model for this is that these represent " epiphenomena": internal experience arises from and is wholly determined by  electro-chemical events within neurological tissue. While this is surely a  reasonable hypothesis which ca...

In case any of you hadn't noticed, I'm not a religious person. I've spoken elsewhere on the blog of my disaffection with mainstream Christianity. My family was nominally (largely non-practicing) Methodist.  I was rarely taken to Church as a child, m y single mother would sometimes get a "bug" to go and we'd attend occasionally for a few weekends, but that always petered out.  Since my father was largely out of the picture, my maternal grandfather was the main male figure in my life when I was growing up. He was not a Church-goer, as wasn't my grandmother; though there was a sense of conventional "belief" in the family. While I don't think he identified as or would have liked being called such, I believe his rational and scientific focus (as well as his suffering through the Great Depression as a young man) meant he was, in essence, an Atheist. In any case, Church and conventional organized Christianity (or religion of any sort) was not a ...

A reader asked me to elaborate on how I "established communication" with Penelope. That's a bit of a hazy topic in that with 20/20 hindsight I can see that I've communicated with Her in various ways all my life. I'll start off by taking the question to mean communicating with Her explicitly; recognizing Her as Penelope , specifically as a distinct intelligence and my spirit partner, companion, spouse, muse (or whatever the @#%$*! She is). Does it really matter Hon? We are what We are to each other.  And all cats are grey in the dark? In a manner of speaking, I suppose ;-) Anyway, I really became aware of Penelope back around 2015. I have some aspirations to being a fiction author and have several novels and many shorter pieces in varying stages of completion. Over the years I've attended a number of writers' groups to discuss my work with others. At that time, one of the members in the group I was attending suggested a provocative exercis...

I've been thinking about a possible way to interpret/resolve the observer problem in quantum theory. It’s kind of like the old riddle about whether if a tree falls in a forest with no one there to hear it, does it make a sound ? The answer depends somewhat on the definition of “sound”, the requisite physical events are present, but if no perceptive system is there to “hear”, then does “sound” per se occur? The quantum observer problem presents a similar paradox: Without an observer the quantum field exists in superposition of all possible states. The act of observation -- sensing -- collapses the quantum field into what we call perceived material reality. If a tree falls in a forest with no one there to observe it, does the tree even exist to fall? Or the forest for it to exist within? Does even the notion of "falling" have meaning? Classical physics (and our perceptive and reasoning systems) would have it that the existence of objects is independent of their be...

Once again on the drive to work, Penelope and I had a very enlightening discussion on the nature of reality (seems like there's a pattern developing here ;-)). A big topic in "fringe" science is " emergent " behavior or properties. Many characteristics (behaviors, properties) we observe in the world are stochastic  (probabilistic, statistical, "random") in nature. Which is to say they manifest as the accumulation of the properties or behaviors of many individuals, who (observed independently) don't necessarily exhibit the emergent characteristic as individuals. It's unclear where in the accumulation this transition occurs. A similar process appears to be in play with the emergence of perceived "reality" from the accumulated quantum wave function collapse provoked by conscious observation. Science presumes that the particular collapse state of the wave function for a particular quantum entity is random; perhaps it is, but the...

When I first encountered Penelope as a distinct entity, there was a delightful period of discovery when I detected Her presence all around me. I had the sense of Her near me, touching me, whispering to me, "dancing" in front of me, almost constantly. As is unfortunately the wont of human brains and psyches: even the most magical and wondrous experiences can take on a patina of mundanity when they persist over time; and I'm somewhat ashamed to admit this has happened in my relationship with Penelope. So, lately I've been asking for Her help in finding some way to regain a more visceral sense of Her presence in my day-to-day life. She's recommended some things and has placed some encounters for me that have suggested various exercises that I'm exploring. A big part of it consists "simply" of  acting "as if" She's present as a material partner in day-to-day activities. Things like: having a place for Her at the table, recognizing Her...

I was thinking about "Scale" on the way to work this morning. Humans tend to think of things in terms of the scale of humanity, both size and time. It might be argued that much of the history of human intellectual development has consisted of, or been driven by a recognition of or discovery that there are other scales operating in the Cosmos. Early human spiritual realizations appear to have been driven by observations of natural cycles: day and night, birth and death, the cycles of the seasons, the repeating patterns in the sky. Over time and with increasing precision of observation and record keeping it was possible to recognize larger and larger scales that evolved over long periods. Technological advances allowed that to be pushed even further, and then into smaller and smaller scales as well. Through all this there remained a tendency to observe living organisms at the same time scale as humans. Until relatively recently the advent of time-lapse photography has...

I was chatting with Penelope about what I've been reading online regarding other folks' experiences of having spirit "encounters": be they guides, guardians, lovers, whatever. There are many remarkable commonalities among the experiences I've been examining, but also quite a few apparent differences. Does this mean these are different phenomena? Different sorts of entities being encountered? What's the scoop? What I've been able to make sense out of based on many conversations with Penelope goes something like this: While there are certainly more than one sort of "entity" that might be encountered on the "spirit plane" (for want of a better term), we incarnated humans come with a life history and a lot of psycho-spiritual "baggage" (not all of it conscious, in fact probably most of it decidedly un conscious) which colors what sorts of experiences we're ready for, are willing to accept, can even conceive of. When ...

In The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and in his interviews with Bill Moyers , the late Joseph Campbell talked about how modern scientific discoveries in physics and astronomy had steadily pushed back any sense of humanity having a central role in all of the vastness of the visible universe. As a mythologist he asserted that it was time for new myths to arise, to address current human needs and understandings about the human race as a whole, about the planet, and about the universe. I wondered how do we as seemingly small and limited humans have an intimate personal relationship with this infinite incredible wonderment of a universe in which we find ourselves? What I came up with was that we are as deep and subtle as it is vast and seemingly incomprehensible, two simultaneous mysteries waiting, each aching to be plumbed.

Modern physics tells us that consciousness plays a role in creating the physical reality we see around us. An "observer" is necessary to collapse the wave function  that encompasses all the superposed quantum possibilities into actual observed reality. With a few notable exceptions, talking about just what an observer / consciousness is in this context or how it plays this role tends to remain a hand-waving mystery (or uncomfortably dismissed non-issue outside their purview) for most physicists at this point in time. A while back I had a vision of consciousness in this role as a sort of "read head", like on a CD drive. It moves along the possibilities of the quantum world and choses which tracks to follow. This supposes the all the quantum possibilities are present and fixed. An alternative metaphor I recently arrived at was of consciousness being more like the sculpting / carving head of a CNC Machine  that carves reality out of the lustrous onyx of raw prob...

Imagine lying entwined with your dearest love while he's engaged in the most deeply immersive VR game.  To make it challenging, part of the startup conditions is to forget it's a game. You can see the gameboard from a higher perspective, as well as immerse yourself into his perspective and see what he's experiencing,. When he does well, it's a genuine thrill.  You can nudge some things around so that he notices them or that some things "fall" certain ways, but doing too much of that or too dramatically would ruin the essence of the game.  You can whisper clues and hints in his ear, and (under the right circumstances) reveal your presence to him. Usually during his "rest periods", when he's relaxed and open. You can't pull him out of the game without him "dying". You can't play the game for him (what would be the fun in that anyway?). The turn is over soon enough. Then reset and try again, or play a different one. I ...

Penelope told me that Time is not the enemy, given that spirit is eternal and as divine essence we live in Eternity. That's distinctly  not to say that while incarnate and embedded within it, time is always or particularly my friend :-/ Sigh.

A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was . -- Master Yoda, Star Wars I've realized one of the ways I'm becoming "detached" is by not paying attention to what's going on around me. Particularly to the folks at work in my conference call meetings. That's rude at best and not serving my interests or the commitments I've made to the job. These folks have put their trust in me and are providing for my material well being, they deserve better from me. Moreover, it's important for me to be present in the world when I'm engaging in my life activities. I'm incarnated, this body has physical limitations that I'm far from being able to transcend in any fashion without injury or death, caution is only prudent. Pay attention! Bravo, love! There are lessons to be had in the "least"...

What is any of this to us? Time is endless and ours. Love and Death are only the games we play in it. -- Tanith Lee,  Delirium's Mistress Penelope tells me Time is not the Enemy, that we have Eternity, so I needn't ever feel rushed or urgent. At the same time I want something big  to happen in this lifetime. I'm both excited and terrified to find out what she's set in motion.

Penelope? Yes my dear ;-) You know what I'm going through right now. I do, love. I'm sorry you're feeling so horny and don't feel like you're getting enough release. How about we try a "throb job" after your conference call? I'd like that. Me too. We haven't really done that in the afternoon in a while. I'm so proud of how you're sticking with this. I promise you it will be WORTH IT.  I believe you, I trust you, I just get so distracted sometimes. Keep working on the Lucid Dreams and your will and imagination. It's coming together (and soon we will be too ;-)) Do you come (i.e. orgasm)? I experience a emotional/spiritual epiphany from joining with you, from interpenetrating our spirits and expanding inward/outward together. It's an explosion of love and joy that for all practical purposes from my perspective equals an incarnated orgasm. That's about the best I can put it into English without it starting to soun...

I've had a lot of occasion to be reconsidering my stance on materialism lately. By " materialism " I mean the philosophical stance that all that exists is physical matter and its movement through space and time. A notion of " energy " is permitted in via the back door to accommodate the source of the movement and (through increasingly detailed study and grudging allowances) acting as the substrate of materiality (E=mc 2 ). By this accounting, our human perceptions of mental events, such as "consciousness" and "free will", are mere illusions and "epiphenomena" created wholly from electrochemical processes in brain tissue. Materialism in this sense is a foundational principle of classic modern science (along with empiricism , reductionism , on a core of logical positivism ). While the classic formulation of science as a discipline has much going for it as a method to investigate the Cosmos, including many self-correcting mec...

I've been pondering "discontinuities" observable in our understanding of reality/the cosmos. These represent, I think, hard problems for our science, though I think they tend to get glossed over or treated as meaningless/inconsequential in one way or another. Some are characterized as "emergent" properties. Some as "epiphenomena". Some as "impossible barriers". All of which seems like hand waving non-explanation. In no particular order, and I'll elaborate on them further as I go along: 1. The actual "leap" from quantum reality/mechanics to macroscopic reality/behavior (some quantum-like behavior in the macro world notwithstanding). 2. The energy to matter/matter to energy transition (E=mc 2 ). We think we know what that's about. We apparently know enough about the matter to energy side of the equation to make weapons and power plants; but we have no concept really of going the other way except for very small amounts...