Excerpt from The Superposed Self


Mind and Body are complementary opposites, inextricably welded together, not only at the root as though they were two aspects of the same thing merely, or by interrelatedness as if they took turns acting as independent and dependent variables, but rather in the sense of mutual permeation, occupying the same space and time, in the sense of substance infused and illuminated by a universal intelligence. It may be that Body is manifestation in three dimensions with time running serially, and Mind is multi-dimensional. Substance, therefore, can be understood, from this perspective, as a medium of consciousness, the densest medium we can know.

The philosopher Immanuel Kant said, "We create Time, it is a function of our receptive apparatus." We perceive this flow, this time passing as through a screen or prism of the mind. But without this prism of linear time, there can be no knowing, and without nonlinear time, without that point of view from which we are able to perceive the three dimensions of space, including our own bodies, as integral to our subjective experience, there can be no substance as medium. Nonlinear time is Eternity without all the connotations Eternity brings with It.

All the 'times' -- the varying time-frames in the Universe -- mutually limited at the complementary opposites of no-time -- the velocity of light, and beyond the event horizon of black holes -- this homotopically-equivalent set of times comprising the fourth dimension, seeming to run parallel to 3-D space, are nonlinearly 'caught' in their essence as the 'foreverness of the moment.' Form, here, is Function.

Localized mind, limited within the confines of skin and bone, necessarily perceives an impersonal, disconnected objective reality. This schism between mind and body is an illusion caused by our identification with subjective reality, our tendency towards subjectivizing, or personalizing, experience. This overemphasis on the part of the ego, of what is originally only a mental, abstract fabrication in the first place -- the play of equal opposites -- is what allows us to fall into the myopic delusion that the rest of the world, and the Universe, is somewhere out there. The ego, as force and center of identity, demands higher status. It creates the split where reason and intellect -- rationality -- is imparted an almost divine character, and the body, intuition, instincts, are relegated to the profane.

We Homo Sapiens survive by our capacity to manipulate and shape our environment, our objective reality. We measure it, analyze it, delve into its secrets. What is its nature? How does it work? What does that particular form or pattern signify, if anything? Questions, probing, curiosity; the nature of the beast. At one time, Humankind understood, or perceived, the world, the Earth, to be infused with spirits, gods, that regulated events, both good and bad, and could, possibly, be entreated or appeased by offerings and sacrifices -- in some cultures very bloody sacrifices. As a result of breakthroughs in undestanding, penetration beyond the presumed images and models -- dogma for its time -- we began to withdraw these projections and personifications of forces and thereby learned, to a greater degree of clarity, the underlying nature of events and processes. But how did this withdraw of projected consciousness, this confining of the mind locally, begin? And why?

Working backwards, there had to be a time when Humankind started labeling things, including each other. And the word became flesh? We create and derive labels for things, for processes and relationships, forging descriptions, explanations, principles, rules, natural laws. Do these mental constructs, these symbols, represent an objective reality? Clearly they are not of the physical realm, they merely point to and reference it. Knowing this, are we then compelled to question the very existence of an objective reality? The invalidation of an objective reality would, of course, simultaneously invalidate subjective reality; they are connected opposite aspects. One has no meaning or significance without the other to push against; this may be old news. Nonetheless, it is often overlooked, both the subjective and objective being treated as though each had a separate, independent existence.

Across cultures around the world, the identity of self takes on different meanings by scale, from individual to group to community. But this is not what we're talking about here -- a social identity of self. What we're talking about are the percepts and subsequent recognition of something beyond our personal bodies as being other, a natural and necessary evolutionary development. From this fundamental recognition was spawned the conceptual subject/object dichotomy. If we likewise confine our definition and meaning of self to the subjective half of this irreducible pair of opposites, we do so at the expense of our true being.

Empirical, objective reality exists as such in two realms: the physical and the conceptual. Conceptually, the objective has no meaning without the subjective, here they are considered as equal opposites, artificially affecting independence for the sake of examination and understanding. In the physical realm, the belief in the separate existence of objective reality can only be achieved by the mutual belief in a separate, skin-encapsulated subjective reality; that is to say, the ego identified as self, as organizer and perspective, creates this objective reality. Without this adopted pretense, however, there would be no philosophy or metaphysics, no science or any of its applications. The house I'm in at present, the computer I'm writing with, electricity, lights, running water, the very clothes I am wearing, all of these and other things, would simply not exist.

The ego as force interacts between subject and object, in much the same way that the pion interacts between neutron and proton, alternating identities. The group, SU(2), in the case of the strong force, is irreducible thus simple. Taken as a whole, the probability amplitude wave need not be collapsed by choosing, through observation and perception, one over the other. All complex groups are products of simple groups acting as prime components. Similarly, algebraic models of complex systems, like an ecosystem or an individual organic creature, are built from irreducible factors, a nonlinear confluence of integrated aspects, underlying the superficial dichotomy of subject/object.

Polarized, these complementarities -- Body and Mind -- reveal themselves to be arranged symbolically as an interwoven double helix of differentiated and undifferentiated orientations, respectively, occupying the same psychic space, with the spirals or turns conceived as concentric paths or shells, confluing both linear and nonlinear time. Each separate helix has its own nature: one is algebraic, one is geometric. Each shell of fractal-like symmetry invariance contains the seed of asymmetric transformation, linking one to the other. This gestaltic interplay creates the required psychic field properties required for the possibility of transition. For spontaneous change to occur at the transitional moment, this double-helixed sphere must be set in motion. The asymptotic generator -- the angular momentum -- releases the respective energies of these complementary components of Self, allowing each to exercise its role, identity vacillating between 3-D subject/object dichotomy and 4-D perspective. If aligned properly, and without undo friction as a result of a battle for supremacy, the union will act as one.

Spontaneous Space exists even in what is considered an amorphous vacuum, witness the constant birth and death of virtual particles across the vast reaches of the known Universe. Underlying this is a pervasive and interrelated, geometric ordering principle, affecting a meaningful responsibility in the act of action. As clarity forgoes self-deception, knowing the lay of the land insures an inspired orientation at each turn, to the wayfarer.