Is Consciousness a function of the brain or vice versa?

February 16, 2009
 

Nautilus pompilius
Nautilus pompilius

Ask yourself this question: Is consciousness a function of the brain or is the brain a function of consciousness?

 

 If you answer that consciousness is dependent on the brain then when the body dies, consciousness disappears too. First scenario: there is no consciousness around so there is no information processing; second scenario: the body and brain rots but consciousness is still around and probably processing information that only angels, demons and gods process as well. The glare of the body life blinds consciousness when riding a living brain. Brain drops dead, consciousness remains, out of the darkness light is present – spirit would be out of our world but touching it and relating to it.

 I belong to the group that believes the brain is a function of consciousness. From this very simple belief flow many effects. Perhaps there is a matrix of consciousness which has a “geometrical – mathematical” edge of subtle manifestation. I think this is what Pythagoras was on about when he said that a stone was a piece of “frozen music” and that everything has a number basis. This matrix of consciousness has a field which includes and extends into our own “individual” consciousness. This is where consciousness is NOT a function of the brain.

 From this side of the cranial fence I believe that an ancient text such as the I Ching – the Book of Changes can assist us in our exploration of the moment, the situation of the now. The Pythagorian emphasis on Number is expressed in an amazing mantic art that is based solely on number.

 

The eight trigrams of the bagua (King Wen "Later Heaven" order). Two of these trigrams makes a hexagram.

The eight trigrams of the bagua (King Wen "Later Heaven" order). Two of these trigrams makes a hexagram.

 The I Ching has as its basic structure 64 hexagrams (see also this blog for picture of the 64 hexagrams)which are generated by 8 trigrams which are in themselves generated by combination of two very simple bits of information a whole or a broken line. This is what excited Liebniz when he saw the exact parallel of his binary code with the ancient Chinese Oracle which at a minimum estimate has existed for over 5000 years and worked with binary bits thousands of years ago before Liebniz was born and dreamt of calculus.  

 This coincidence was surpassed by the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick. The way the amino acids are formed and combined to create the helix spiral of our DNA also parallels the mathematical combinations required to create a six lined hexagram of the I Ching. Dr Martin Schonberger published “The I Ching and the Genetic Code – The Hidden Key to Life” in 1973. He discovered that there was a one – to – one equation of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching and the 64 DNA codons of the genetic code. This discovery provided Carl Jung his topic of the funeral address in honour of the great German translator of I Ching, Richard Wilhelm. He said, “It can’t remain in the dark forever, that we are touching here on an Archimedean principle, with the help of which our occidental thinking could be unhinged.” Schonberger said, “that is precisely what happened by the manifestation of I Ching code in genetic code.”

 

I Ching as description of Genetic Code (diagram from "Earth Ascending" Jose Arguelles.

I Ching as description of Genetic Code (diagram from "Earth Ascending" Jose Arguelles).

  

schonberger_01

Here we find that an ancient Chinese text written over a course of thousands of years in its mathematical / numerological operation and in the exact binary equivalence with the genetic code shows that “consciousness” exists within the formation of the genetic code which gives every life form its unique characteristics and in the Book of Changes.

 Or is it just one big coincidence? 

Some relevant statements about how archetypes and the number form of the same, the sacred geometry of the archetypal forms are made in Robert Lawlor’s book  “Sacred Geometry”.  He defines the “archetypal”  as “universal processes or dynamic patterns which can be considered independently of any structure or material form.”He states that, ” Modern thought has difficult access to the concept of the archetypal because European languages require that verbs or action words be associated with nouns. We therefore have no linguitic forms with which to image a process or activity that has no material carrier.”Ancient cultures symbolized these pure, eternal processes as gods, that is, powers or lines of actions through which SPIRIT is concretised into energy and matter.Lawlor uses DNA as an example of the above. Genetic coding as the vehicle of replication and continuity does not lie in the particular atoms (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen or Nitrogen) of which the gene substance, DNA, is composed as these are subject to change. Thus, the carrier of continuity is not only the molecular composition of DNA but also its helix form.

 The helix, a special type from the group of regular spirals, results from sets of fixed geometric proportions. These proportions can be understood to exist a priori, without any material counterpart, as abstract, geometric relationships.Thus, one can say that the architecture of bodily existence is determined by an invisible, immaterial world of pure form and geometry.This invisible realm is part of  the consciousness of the universe. The brain is a function of this invisible innate geometry of life, this sacred geometry.

The structure of part of a DNA double helix.

The structure of part of a DNA double helix.

 pythagorean-geometry

 

These refraction photos are the closest visualization that science can give with respect to the nature of atomic substance, which appears to be patterns of geometrized light energy.

These refraction photos are the closest visualization that science can give with respect to the nature of atomic substance, which appears to be patterns of geometrized light energy.

 

fludd-circles


A TAFE experiment with Astrology and the I Ching.

January 5, 2009

The experiment concerned whether the mantic techniques of “astrologising” and casting a hexagram would assist in focusing an intention for change.

 

Say our ordinary experience of time is like driving down a road. We look ahead, we look at the rear view mirror and the side mirrors as we drive down the road. Occasionally we come across a dip in the road and we can’t see very far ahead except for the dip. If we have driven on this road before, we recognize the dip and we know from previous experience how deep it is and how far it extends. If we haven’t, we take it as it comes. Now, what if we look at the dip on the road as the unknown and hazardous element of the near future where we are concerned about a particular issue. Can we do anything which will assist us in knowing the dimensions of this “dip” and what may lie just beyond it?

 

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I Ching Hexagrams. These are the 64 hexagrams used in the        I Ching.

 

 This is where the intuitive arts of I Ching and Astrology come in. They may be methods which can measure the dimensions of the “dip” and give a glimpse of what lies just beyond it.

 

The experience that the horoscope was drawn for, a couple of weeks ahead, would validate what the I Ching showed. In this scenario the I Ching reading is a signal from the dip ahead in number patterns and the horoscope gives a synchronous timescape illuminated in signs and symbols of astrological lore after the hexagram was cast.

 

The situation I drew up the horoscope for was a meeting with Management of our Institute. I needed to get an OK to push for a more proactive role in our influence on training for non English speaking background workers at BHP. I don’t want to bore you with the details but basically it was very, very important to me because it would open the door for 1000 migrant iron workers to get skilled so they could move up the ladder of qualifications classification…for more money and better recognition of their already learned skills. The educational need was for more English language tuition with vocational courses thrown in. They’ll learn English and arm themselves with vocational skills in preparation for the time when BHP would close down. The whole access and equity, social justice bit together and to boot, my father was a steel worker at the Port Kembla Steelworks.

 

Karmic payment time, big time. So, it was important that this deal went through.

 

I don’t know about you, but I when I really want something and I believe in my heart of hearts that what I want is also for the betterment of others, I realise that I can’t do it alone. The job’s too big to do on our own.

 

Sometimes it is important to have a periscopic picture of the dip ahead and its terrain. I called on the assistance of the invisible forces and they answered in astrological signs and ideographic hexagrams. The conjunction of the mantic techniques pointed to a favourable outcome. Advisedly it also indicated the potential hazards. 

 

After the appointment with management I reviewed the readings of both the horoscope and the hexagrams of the moment with the benefit of hind sight. Here comes the clincher – without the readings’ advice and warnings the outcome may not have been the same … so, do the readings predict the future or do they assist in making the future by engaging their energy? What I mean is, the myth of star and hexagram consultation is more like a partnership in creating the future rather than a one way line of “future” information. The “gods – the invisible forces” operating at this hinterland of observation and coincidence are functionalities and not separate cartoon figures of winged feet and curly tails. These “gods” enter through the mantic operation of “casting a hexagram / casting a chart” and assist in the arising of the outcome that is required for the moment.

I Ching traditional coins. I use 3 ordinary dollar coins. Heads and Tails are the same on any coin.

I Ching traditional coins. I use 3 ordinary dollar coins. Heads and Tails are the same on any coin.

 

From this vantage point, I don’t do anything except open the door for the “gods” to finish what is intended to blossom.

 

The focus for me in that exercise was not so much the external details of the events but rather their symbolic connection. The question for me is how to focus with more of myself than just the “rational  – informational” shell? The cracking of the shell is the equivalent of gaining a helicopter view over the dip in front of us.

stavros

Flotillas of Hope Astrological Sky Map - Horoscope.

Flotillas of Hope Astrological Sky Map – Horoscope.