"The Galactic Phase-Rectifier and Interface-Coupling Disintegrator"
An essay defining the parameters of individual capacity to alter |
Ice Point is defined as the temperature at which a mixture of air-satrurated pure water and pure ice may exist in equilibrium at a pressure of one-standard atmosphere, that is, 273.15 degrees Kelvin. Which specific molecules are ice and which water does not enter the picture as a valid question. Here we are dealing with probabilities, the mathematical law of large numbers, which itself is a mixture of paradox and mathematics. We cannot predict which specific set of molecules, let alone which individuals, will change into a portion of an ice lattice, thereby not only altering its identity, but its apparent role as well.
This is the critical point. Above or below there will be initiated a direction for the remainder of the molecules to take. A 'message' is 'communicated' to this remainder, prompting them to begin a structural transformation. Assuming that the requisite temperature change is so small as to approach 1 over infinity, the other question is, how much time does it take to react? Is there a time lag?
This focusing on delta-time approaching zero is important insofar as the mechanism of change (cause) can only be apprehended in the act of transformation. But, as with quantum mechanics, the closer we come to time change equals zero, the less we can ascertain just where to look. It also has to be taken into account that the observer and his instruments of measure affect that which is being measured; and, the subjective threshold of difference triggering the recognition of change is yet another factor to be considered. Perhaps more significant information can be obtained if we approach the problem from another poitn of view.
ALCHEMIC APHORISM
From the Encyclopedia Britannica: "Alchemical Theory came to focus on the idea that there exists a substance that can bring about the desired transformation instantly, magically, or, as a modern chemist might say, catalytically." From the teachings of Chuang Tzu: "To shape and to transform are two phases of the same process. The imperceptible Tao shapes the universe continuously out of primordial chaos; the perpetual transformation of the universe by the alternations of Yin and Yang, or complementary energies, is nothing but the external aspect of the same Tao." The great physicist, Wolfgang Pauli, on considering the 'Principle of Complementarity' stated: "The general problem of the relationship between mind and body, between the inward and the outward, cannot be said to have been solved by the concept of psycho-physical parallelism postulated in the last century. Modern science has perhaps brought us nearer to a more satisfactory understanding of this relationship, by introducing the concept of complementarity into phsycis itself. It would be the more satisfactory solution if mind and body could be interpreted as complementary aspects of the same reality." [from "The Roots of Coincidence," by A. Koestler].
In the first case we have a special, all-purpose, abstract substance, a Philosopher's Stone, responsible for change. Next, we symbolize a particular form of an event or thing in terms of its complementary energies or aspects, the continuously fluxing combinations of which account for all phenomena as pure process. And lastly, we have what may be considered an altogether different level of abstraction as it relates concepts from different dimensions, but is nonetheless relevant to the previous frame: a complementarity of mind and body.
The first suggests a kind of 'vital staticness' [potential only] on the part of the affected thing or event and as such is unsatisfactory to describe process. That is, it has to be recognized that, in going from a Newtonian universe considered mechancial, objectifiable and determinable [predictable], a new paradigm has been established that incorporates process as basic, interdependently self-regulating, participatory and quantumly indeterminable.
There is, of course, some fundamental common features to all transitions, wheter they be of an inorganic substance, an organic entity, or a social order. There is a certain crumbling, disintegration and dissolution of existing structures to an amorphous state, however briefly this state may be. This is followed by a period of apparent chaos. Chaos is a measure of instability at every point of a given system. The process of restructuring and transforming whatever into a newly defined and recognizable something must first pass through the phase of group or mass identification. Just prior to this stage, information is generated and created from connections that were not there before. The previous dissipation bleeds a complex system of many confluing motions, reducing all dimensional information to lower and lower levels of entropy and dimensional information. This natural response to excessive rigidity actually effects a hierarchial organization due to the randomness and chaotic behaviour of whatever processes are involved. That is to say, nonlinearity presents all possible connections, simultaneously producing a dimensional hierarchy of information. But the patterns ansd symbols that emerge from these shifting (stretching and shrinking) uncertainties evolve as a direct result of feedback, on different scales, between the elements involved and the impinging, interactive realm of available raw material, whether of a physical or psychic nature. The identity of self, whatever that self represents, is what collapses under the weight of disintegration of the order framing that self. If it is a social order, the social self loses its tether and sense of community. The transitional zone brings uncertainty and possible regression to a former condition of identity, from nation/state to tribal, for instance. A vaccuum is created needing to be filled by a new and responsive order, a new identity.
From the Encyclopedia Britannica: "In crystalline solids, the atoms (and molecules) are not only held in place, they also are arranged in a definite order that is constantly repeated throughout the sample. All crystals are grown by distrubing a balance, a symmetry, that exists between the crystalline material and the gas, liquid, or amorphous solid that exists in contact with it. Disturbing the balance by altering the conditions, such as lowering the temperature in the case of an equilibrium between water and ice, may result in an increase in the amount of crystal with respect to the noncrystalline material." Inorganic transitions behave mechanically only on the macroscopic level. If we were to delve more deeply into the micro world of subatomic particles we would enter the domain of probability and the law of large numbers.
A combination of disorder and order is a kind of Gestalt akin to that of nonlinearity and linearity. In order to apprehend the whole picture there must be understood this mutual interplay and tension between a self's assertive and integrative tendencies, each taking its turn in active relief against a background held in mute repose. The striving for symmetry, for identification, is an asymmetric act, and the driving force at the heart of self-actualization. And, for this reason, if no other, it becomes necessary to approach the very concept of transitional state, transitional moment, not from the point of view of attempting to determine a definitive, albeit generalized, a priori Cause, but from an appreciation of the dynamcis of Causal-Acausal interaction.
This situation takes on even more significance when we further characterize the terrain with the second-order dimensional notion of Growth, as opposed to mere considerations of Appearance Change. Appearance changes are analogous to relabeling frames of reference through suitable transformations; the invariance of the physical laws underlying these relabelings remains intact. We are therefore looking for a qualitative-transformative model, something geometric with less emphasis on 'metric.' This avenue may yield more substantial information especially when it is realized that the classical mechanical approach is limited by its dependence on a Newtonian worldview; and the quantum mechanical is limited by Heisneberg's Uncertainty principle.
Let's envision a Universe wherein the Laws of Physics and the Logic of Cause-Effect relationship hold sway for only some probabilistically determinable percentage of the time in the macroscopic world. In this Universe a hammer will fall to the ground not always; some time it may shoot straight up or sideways or just hover for a while before behaving in some other unusual way. Machinery would act in a similar manner; streams and rivers could, without warning, change direction and speed; all natural and, by extension, all man-made process-systems and physical enterprises would elicit this universal tendency toward uncertainty and unpredictability. The "Laws" of conservation of energy and matter would be replaced by the "Theory of Conservation of Relative-Time-Scale Distribution." Time, thus, would not run in one direction only; Orientation with respect to time, in the linear sense, would be replaced by orientation with respect to the highest likelihood of a specific event taking place in a given nonlinear field.
Time would take on a linear aspect only when joined to the other forces known to infuse and only sometimes govern the Universe; otherwise, when it uncoupled to act independently, physical phenomena would undergo a phase transition, then normal mutability contours would adjust and integrate nonlinearly, not subject to linear time restrictions. This would engender random fluctuations and unforeseeable effects vis-a-vis these other forces.
In this Universe, "Time" is not considered an aspect of a four dimensional continuum, but rather is imparted the status of a "Force." In fact, this Universe is not confined to a mere four dimensions - it is many-dimensioned, the forces defining its nature and structure are likewise many-dimensioned, and time is a separable, quantum influence of matter.
Four-dimensional space-time would thus be a special case phenomenon of 'ordinary' infinite-dimensional Universe only when Time, the Force, fused inextricably with the three dimensions of space and related to the other forces as a dependent factor, helping them to shape events and patterns. In this state it would temporarily (a gauge at best) assume the role of classical linearity presenting to the subjective mind an orientation and direction, that is, it would create predictability. Just when it would do this, however, would not be predictable.
Is Time a force? Could it be possible for the absurd Universe I just described to actually be the truth of the matter? Do we, as intelligent, self-aware life-forms live inside a bubble bounded by the velocity of light and the prism of mind transmuting events into sensible cause-effect relationships? Does mind, in effect, linearize time and relegate it to the plane of space by infusing and rendering coherence to dimensions, which otherwise would be indistinguishable, conceived as special aspects, tips of icebergs, of independent Forces in a multi- or infinite-dimensional Universe? Without linearity, without the aspect of time in its spatial-property identity, is there, or could there be, a universe with which we are familiar - a four-dimensional continuum? Is this 4-D universe and all that it contains "happening" as a result of a "hiccup," a bifurcation, a glitch, a positive amplification of an otherwise 'normal' nonlinear discontinuum: an "Age of Linearity"?
Does the existence of nonlinear phenomena, systems, and quantum reality offer a view, a glimpse behind the veil of Reason? Is the generally accepted picture of what is going on and how things work and relate to one another hopelessly naive and laughable? Are we and all we perceive and understand mere projections contained and constrained within some kind of energy grid, affording consciousness a framework by which to coalesce in order to ponder the miracle of existence? Do we, Homo Sapiens, have even the slightest clue as to what our role is in the scheme of things, in the big picture; and is the fundamental meaning and significance of Life appreciated for what it truly is? There is more than enough reason to doubt this.
Whether we are 'merely' projection or not, we probably have some responsibility for keeping our part of the Universe together. Is the way we perceive and think about reality nothing other than a reflection of the nature and design of our local universe? Very possibly. Our ideas, concepts and models translate Nature into
terms agreeable to the way we think about ourselves. As Homo Sapiens, we are both limited and liberated by our humanness. In the acts of inquiry and moment to moment experience, we humanize the Universe. In other words, from our point of view, we live in a human universe.
According to theory, the Universe looks the same no matter what point of view we adopt. That is, every point in spacetime can be thought of as the center of the universe. What then is the meaning of center if there is no quintessential 'center'? It has existence only in relation to a bounded closed curve of constant arc. Actually, 'center' is an equivalence class relation in its most general characterization. All points locating a circle, e.g., on some coordinate plane are equivalent insofar as they are of equal distance from one unique point - the center.
My experience of the universe is equivalent, barring differences of a perceptual reality sort, to that of any other life-form capable of rational-construct formation, based on percepts of geometric references, therefore, I am the center of the Universe. To be more specific: I am the center of MY universe. To be even more to the point: I am the center of MY universe which
I, from moment to moment, create and lend cohesion to thereby holding up my end of the firmament.
Egomania enters into all this, ladies and gentlemen, at the point of departure when the feet leave the ground contemporaneously with the forgetting of the equivalence class nature of our declarations. Why diminish through selective ignorance the veritable scope of true identity? The strain is enough to stunt and ossify the most
ambitious of religious and epistemologic devotees.
The linearization of time is a physical parallel to the perception of order and cause-effect relationship. It is the inner illumination intertwined, blended to substance, outwardly spreading the center of consciousness everywhere simultaneously as the 'within' dimension. What we are actually perceiving, intuitively, is nonlinear reality translated through the prism of consciousness, revealing, exposing only those dimensions allowable within the grid, but yet leaking, exuding, percolating chaotic material of a higher dimensional
matrix for which the interconnectedness of our four-D universe gives it singular status, cemented by time-force.
It is probably no exaggeration that each reader of a treatment on the nature and function of "self" has an understanding of the term as a conglomeration of philosophical, psychological, sociological, and biological ideas. As a consequence, we interpret, filter, whatever we may be reading through that perception. Each different definition we run into acts as an aspect of this black-box concept.
Ken Weber from his book, "Eye To Eye": "The self, the mental self, is a linguistic structure, a creation of history and a creator of history. It is a stroy; it is a text. It lives via communication or dialogue, it is constructed of units of meaning or symbols, and it lives out a course in time or history." And again: "The Self is the ground of every stage of development." And further: "The self as the locus of identification as well as the center of the sense of identity - the intuitive apprehension of proximate "I-ness" which correlates with the act of apprehension." "The self as navigator of development." With reference to structure, he states, "If one takes the hierarchy of basic structures and then subjects each level to the influence of a self-system, one will generate the basic features of the stages of development presented and described by The Hierarchy of Basic Structures of Consciousness." He goes on to delineate a list from the Causal to the Physical. "All deep structures or internal substrate levels are 'archetypal' when apprehended collectively."
Howard Gardner, from his book, "Frames Of Mind," after describing various culturalizations and interpretations of the sense of self, states [on page 274]: "Cultures confront the choice of selecting, as a primary unit of analysis, the idividual self, the nuclear family, or a much larger entity (the community or the nation): through this choice, cultures determine (nay, dictate) the extent to which the individual peers inward to himself or gazes outward to others."
Further on he writes: "Nonetheless, if compelled to present a "transcultural" statement about the self, I would offer these remarks. I see the sense of self as an emerging capacity. From one vantage point, it is the natural result of the evolution of intrapersonal knowledge; but this evolution necessarily takes place within an interpreting cultural context, even as it is necessarily channeled by representaional capacities which draw on the full gamut of human intelligences. In other words, in my view, every socity offers at least a tacit sense of a person or a self, rooted in the indivual's own personal knowledge and feelings. However, this sense will inevitably be interpreted and possibly remade by the individual's relationship to, and knowledge of, other persons and, more generally, by the interpretive schemes supplied by the encompassing culture. Every culture will also engender a mature sense of the person, which will involve some balance between intrapersonal and interpersonal factors. In certain cultures, such as our own, the emphasis on the indiviual self may become sufficiently extreme that it leads to the appearance of a second-order capacity, which presides over and mediates among the other forms and lines of intelligence. This, then, is a possible outcome of cultural evolution - but an outcome, it must be stressed, that is difficult for us to judge and may be based, at least in part, on an illusory view of the primacy of our own powers and the degree of our own autonomy."
One could build a library compiling definitions and descriptions of self and sense of self from many different disciplines and fields of study, sifting through for commonalities and universals, categorizing specifics, themselves couched in diverse areas, from the cultural to the neurological to the psychic. So, I've taken an approach that brings into light those aspects which I believe state the broadest possible features in order to prevent tangential nuance and vague connotational affects, affects which may color the entire discussion. I've chosen these definitions because they can be arranged in a hierarchy of identification, each embedded in the one above, analogous to the previous essays' description of "Composition Series" with all its associated idea matrix intact.
Sandwiching this list are two other possible definitions.
Self, multi-dimensional: Let me elaborate. Consider our
'onion-skinned' sphere of the previous essays. As the radius of
this sphere changes quantumly, these changes correspond to a locally-connected, time-space continuum in phase space [Phase space induces a natural topology as there is a sense of the states being 'close.']. In phase space, moreover, the complete state of information about a dynamic system at a single instant in time collapses to a point. This model is isomorphic to the depiction of a hierarchially arranged set of embedded configurations representing densities of consciousness of information-detail as a vertical (time) series of horizontal (space) slices. Each level corresponds to a geometric state or degree of consciousness: 1) The quality of each degree, or density of matrix-detail [any matrix is the 'sum' of a symmetric and an anti-symmetric matrix], remains invariant across scale, fractal-wise and, 2)Dimensional identification, as awareness transforms geometrically, spherically, if you will, at critical thresholds along a composition-series vertical slice made up of self-contained, independently operating, horizontal frames of subjective experience, presupposes the potential to quantumly leap beyond the restrictions of ordinary linear time [Homotopic Oscillation] due to the capacity for compactification, that is, the compression of the elements of the vertical slice into a single element, or, alternatively, as the collapse of the linear dimension of time to zero.
On the fourth dimension there is a symmetry to what was previously considered 'time,' corresponding to total dissolution of the interface, complete empathetic melding, on all dimensions simultaneously. The picture is one of an infinitely detailed, perfectly balanced, mosaic of spontaneous space. Operationally, it is nested reflectively, that is, action between scales behaves nonlinearly. With this comes the capacity to be open to 'incoming' and expressive to 'outgoing,' as a portal with flesh, unidirectionally growing along a vertical slice, capable of experiencing all mediums of consciousness (dimensions of self/spacetime). The 3-D time-differential is compressed to zero dimensionality by its perception as a single point in phase space. Alternatively, if we think of linear time graphically as a ruler of whatever length we choose, then take it in hand and turn it on end so that its length, its extension, cannot be seen, we will be looking at linear time 'edge on,' as it were, a single, 4-D point, the instantaneous now.
As was stated above, the fourth dimension is symmetric with respect to linear time. As this time axis shrinks to zero in extension, that is, as time-rate-of-change approaches zero, the quantum effect of nonlinearity becomes the dominate feature of the fluctuating topological space, inducing a phase-space dimensional shift caused by the indeterminability of detail-degree over pattern-identity. The ability to discriminate between the two, within a realm of probabilities, becomes impossible. The total energy of the finite, yet unbounded, 4-dimensional spacetime continuum is equivalent to the mass-density of its nonlinear information [field of conjugate opposites] when that dimension is perceived as a medium of consciousness.
As this spherically-framed dimension exercises its will to asymmetry, accelerating into the present as delta-time approaches zero, consciousness frequency alters quantumly until sufficient energy is attained to transform it into another mode. The Intuitive mode contains, embeds and subsumes the Analytic, and is of a higher-ordered frequency of Mind. The Analytic, or Rational, is understood as 'construct-producer of both within and without universes, generating dimensional images thereof.' From this vantage point, dimensions of Self accessible to validation represent a linearly discontinuous series of embedded mediums of either self/environment, or consciousness/Unconscious. Psychic-reality apprehension, in an atmosphere of resolution formation, behaves nonlinearly at the interface between ordered consciousness and disordered Unconscious.
Self, nonlinear field: The lowest, or most general, order of embeddedness, an element, thing, event, or process existing of and by itself, autonomous and symmetrically complete within a given time frame; shaping in a kind of pre-self-conscious state, yet incapable of multi-dimensional manifestation on the plane of existence, unless in a continuous state of flux or transformation, emerges as a result of, or is precipitated by, the complexity of the nonlinear field. It is immanent to this field [Universe], yet transcends the sum-of-dynamic-parts by orchestrating the arrangement of available global features. Nonlinearity shines through, as it were, the linearized foreground, representing the global or holistic identifying nature, the topological properties responsible for spontaneity, the asymmetric urge, and creativity. Frames of abstractions are to be seen as such. A symmetry striving to form a greater symmetry taps its asymmetric bloodline in order to allow for and perceive other connections, connections not yet known or recognized. As dimensions of consciousness shift in one direction or the other, the degree of complexity of the content of a specific (in local time and space) identity-matrix follows suit.
Nonlinear interactions at critical values don't produce chaos, they produce spontaneous self-organizing forms.
Traveling through space at close to the speed of light we would see the rest of the universe transpiring from now to whenever end it has in store, if indeed the idea 'end' makes sense here, in the blinking of an eye, while yet we, with the help of a lot of spare parts and a good mechanic, would not age, even our machinery would not age. At this limit we would be on the boundary between the third and fourth dimension, on the surface of four dimensional reality with the time axis turned 'on end' so as to appear, geometrically, as a single point of eternal Now. Equivalently we would experience the same time-gravitational effect if we could stand on the surface of a neutron star or black hole, a neat trick. From the point of view of the rest of the Universe, we would not age very appreciably. What would we see?
We might be aware of another Universe impinging in some obscure way on our own, whose moments of linear time would find their source in our Universe's infinite-dimensional time field, and vice-versa; Or, the geometric average of a cluster of adjacent Universes, each representing a slightly different twist on our own. At this point, our particular identities might become integrated into the general identity of the third dimension. [A particular solution is distinguished by being the locus of symmetry of its general solution; and is defined by the boundary conditions, giving them a place in the general solution]. Access to this general solution, this general identity, would occur at the same threshold where we become aware of our four-dimensional particular identities. We, therefore, would once again each take on the role of a 'singular identity.' And in turn, the 'surface' or 'boundary' of the fourth would stand for, and be realized as integrated into, its general identity. The boundary of any dimension generates a space in the next higher dimension. For example, in bounded, finite Euclidean space, a 1-D line segment can generate a 2-D plane, bounded by four line segments; a plane, in turn, is capable of generating a 3-D cube, bounded by six planes; and the boundary of 3-D space, similarly, is capable of generating the fourth dimension.
Remember the Taoist, Chuang Tzu: "To shape and to transform are two aspects of the same process." External appearance is the result of combinations of complementary opposites, such as time-energy, position-momentum, in perpetual transformation. The strange attractor of Chaos Theory is a trajectory towards which all other sub-trajectories of a turbulent, nonlinear system tend to converge, the target trajectory, the appearance of the uncertainty hidden beneath. An underlying order presents itself. Particles of energy each possess a set of possible trajectory histories, world lines, expressable as a probability amplitude wave telling us the likelihood of determining what specific energy state a particular particle is in. With the act of perception, observation, the wave collapses and a determination as to energy state, position, is realized. These various possible states are homotopically related, that is, each can be transformed, through symmetry restricted by relevant conservation laws, into one another. The observed energy state is then that which all other possible energy states are seen to converge, like a snapshot of the particle in transition, frozen in time.
A species may be thought of as the end result of the convergence of the various trajectory histories of its ancestory and the multitude of functions that conflue to express themselves as a particular organic entity. A species is also in a state of flux, at any given moment it too can be understood as a snapshot frozen in time. Appearance is thus seen to be dependent on unknowable factors and subject to undeterminable phase transitions or bifurcations. The same is true in the realm of the abstract as we attempt to explain and clarify the invariant features of an underlying physical phenomenon. Appearances of form, intellectualized as defining features, can be suspended, and their basic motive assumptions dispensed with, if we find or scheme other abstract overlays more commensurable with a new understanding. We are concerned with reality at the structural level, so any description that serves to organize and explain that structure is subject to modification if not outright abandonment. Witness the change in understanding of the 'basic' assumptions of the nature of time and space prior to Einstein's reassessment.
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.
According to Hegel, Thesis, automatically and by necessity, generates Antithesis, and the two are then fused, or synthesized, forming a higher-ordered Thesis. Applying this model of growth to our present context, we can say that both open and closed frames of Reality seem to be arranged like an infinite mirror regression of embedded groups of equivalence classes. As a factor group is formed, the creation of a class, or coset, simultaneously produces, through ordered partitioning, one that does not contain any elements of the other class, our Thesis. As we go up the chain to the next factor group, these classes are fused into one. The process of transformation, from one permutation level to the next, is initiated when the asymmetric tendency of Thesis evolves to a critical point. The reflection in the opposite direction, Antithesis, sets in motion a subsequent resolution, synthesizing these complements, causing them to fuse on a quantumly higher plane of complexity and entropy, a new Thesis. To this schema of change we have added the possibility of two-way travel on the helix axis, the vertical time line. As a result, this appended schema not only models growth for both the conscious and unconscious aspects of self, but also landscapes relief-shifts in perceptual reality. Expansion of consciousness and the plumbing of psychic depths are explored, charted and energized by the orchestrating center of their being, the Self.
Principles, as the embodiment of invariant properties, can be conceived and perceived across space and time. That is, horizontally, given a set of circumstances, we can pattern relationships, focus on certain facets that best describe the principles involved, to the best of our knowledge, and see (cognition) this configuration in other contexts regardless of labeling. And, vertically, we can make comparisons between different levels of ideas and concepts by factoring, component-wise, to see new relationships, joining or partitioning ideas to build broader or more precise concepts, respectively, and then, repeating this process on the new scale. Stated differently, there is a gradation of conceptual inclusions describing a given local matrix across scales of perceptual realities.
This process whereby ideas are 'built-up' into concepts can be compared to the product formation of complex groups by simple ones. Accordingly, a composition series pivoting on common features, confluing previously disjoint ideas into an identity equivalence class, may represent different scales of measure. Imposing conditions, surgical incisions, on a given subject of analysis reduces the number of ideas (narrowing the concept) needed in a given class in order to capture the essentials. Telescoping down to circumscribe just those precise, linearly independent collections of ideas able to efficiently and succinctly explain 'Transition,' in all its varied forms and dimensions, eventually will bring us to complete coverings of self-contexts or frames of definition. However, these coverings of self-identities can never be fully realized except analytically or socially. Intuitively, the eye cannot see itself.
The composition series of transitional concepts modeling self assertion and integration, arranged in a hierarchy, matching levels to the corresponding ones of the definitions of self-series, interpenetrates and embodies this series, via cross-product operations on orthogonal axes. And, in its turn, the self-series imparts to the transitional its psychological content associated with the symbol of the sphere, a Mandala.
The cross-producting infuses the spark of life to the previously static series of self. Because of the catalytic nature of the transitional series of the inner dynamic of assertion and integration, the concepts and principles involved in the self-identity helix are infused by and plugged into the nonlinear time-field displacement. We now have the self as the union of conscious and unconscious components, dynamically poised at the threshold of being, a synthesis to a higher ordered actuality. The algebraic helix symbolizes the conscious element, the geometric, the unconscious.
Are Principles objective? Can we perceive beneath appearances an order, or is this order dependent on consciousness? Is there a four-dimensional continuum because we are four-dimensional creatures; or is it that our minds can only perceive and be aware of four dimensions? One solution at reconciliation is to say that Principles are multi-dimensional and our four-dimensional consciousness (as potential) thereof is a special case embedded in the whole.
The Intuitive mode of perception, including the instincts and those primitive qualities of the human animal which have been the source of survival and knowledge assimilation about the external world since time immemorial, is the foundation for the Analytic mode. This latter includes the intellect, reason and those qualities that may be said to be rigidly immaterial.
The Analytic side of homo-sapien is an historically later development, and stands, as it were, between random, multi-dimensional psychic and physical realities, and the central self. Functionally it appears in mind as a filter of mental-feeling constructs and abstract sets of relationships and worldviews, relative in time and space, and possessing an intellectual life of their own. Symbolic patterns and common forms of invariants are articulated directly as absolutes to the conscious light from the surrounding unconscious darkness by the transcendent capacity of the Intuitive mode, as the conscious instrument, for its part, goes 'out to it,' to know. Awareness of self, balanced at the interface between these two, serves to dissolve the barrier (illusory to begin with) at the root of the schism separating Man the Intellect from Natural Man.
The Self is realized in the 'act' of acting; and is manifest at the boundary (equivalent to the center point), almost as an effect, between consciousness and the unconscious. Its full expression in instantaneous space-time must be presaged by and requires the integration of the whole personality. Thus, as the self impinges on and interpenetrates its various dimensional environments, it shapes and defines its reality, and potentially experiences true freedom.
But what are these common denominators of what is called 'the critical point' or 'phase transition'?
Within the past twenty years or so there has been a veritable barrage of scientific research and theories spewing forth on the study of the nature and possible mechanisms, introducing interesting and innovative concepts, associated with this elusive phenomenon of sudden and dramatic transition from one state to another. The probabilistic law of large numbers no longer suffices as a means of dismissing the behaviour of large interactive systems. It almost seems as though theorists had put the whole mysterious problem on the shelf until a more convenient and information rich environment was created to understand the underlying nature of what is turning out to be the general way that systems, natural and manmade, actually function. The emergence of Fractal Geometry and Chaos Theory lent such an environment.
In the January, 1991 edition of Scientific American, there is an article on Self-Organized Criticality, by Per Bak and Kan
Chen. Their theory can be summed up as follows: "Many composite
sytems naturally evolve to a critical state in which a minor event
starts a chain reaction that can affect any number of elements in
a system. Furthermore, composite systems never reach equilibrium
but instead evolve from one metastable state to the next. Self-organized criticality is a holistic theory: the global features,
such as the relative number of large and small events, do not depend
on the microscopic mechanisms. Consequently, global features of
the system cannot be understood by analyzing the parts separately."
Their model used for study was a simple pile of sand. They
added grains of sand, one at a time, onto a flat circular disc.
"The pile stops growing when the amount of sand is balanced, on
average, by the amount of sand falling off the edge. At that point,
the system has reached the critical state. Both subcritical and
supercritical piles are naturally attracted to the critical state.
In general, the critical state is robust with respect to any small
change in the rules for the system."
It was further determined that, "... specific features, such as the local configurations of sand, change all the time because of the avalanches. On the other hand, the statistical properties, such as the size distribution of avalanches, remain essentially the same (invariant)." Criticality is a global property. A very important measuring concept was defined in relation to the flow of sand from the pile over time. This flow was erratic with no determinable pattern, but when graphed there were seen signals that had "features of all durations." These signals are called "flicker noise." "Scientists have long known that flicker noise suggests that the dynamics of a system are strongly influenced by past events. In contrast, white noise, a random signal, implies no correlation between the current dynamics and past events."
From the theory of self-organized criticality, this phenomenon is interpreted as: "Flicker noise is a superposition of signals of all sizes and durations." From the point of view of the concept of composition series, the Moirre effect of flicker noise can, without much effort, be seen to parallel the gestaltic stacking of scaled or quantumly varied factor groups, arranged in a precise orientation, lining up each successive identity equivalence class. We would not be looking at the separate symmetries of each factor group however, but instead, only those features held in common would be highlighted, their global properties. Each of these factor groups represents a dimensional lens, but when placed congruently 'on top of one another' the terms of each realm would lose their separate meanings (and labels) subsequently synthesizing into one grand equivalence class of "ordered orientations." The end result would be to distill or filter out local perturbations; and variations with respect to the central axis would translate as flicker noise.
Flicker noise also looks very much like a fractal (invariance across scale), and, of course, ideas associated with the strange attractor from chaos theory. This idea of flicker noise comes up again later.
Backing up, as it were, and looking at global properties instead of trying to determine the underlying mechanisms responsible for causing certain, yet unpredictable, phenomena in nature to undergo abrupt dramatic change as a result of relativley infinitesimal input or stimuli is fast becoming a more cogent approach to the understanding and 'prediction' of these occurrences.
As another example, in the same article it was pointed out that the number of small earthquakes is related to the number of large ones (known as the Gutenberg-Richter law). They constructed a model to duplicate the effects of earthquakes utilizing the known mechanisms from plate tectonics. I won't go into the gory details but suffice it to say that the critical state of their model produced a flicker noise as a proportion of large to small earthquakes.
As with the model of the sand pile, what we are dealing with here is a type of chain reaction or "branching process." "By simplifying the dynamics of the avalanche somewhat, one can identify the major features of the chain reaction and develop a model." The chain reaction maintains a critical state, true also of the model of the earthquake: "The uniform increase in force is balanced by the release of force at the boundary." This study points out the significance of what are called 'power laws' such as the Gutenberg-Richter law, and considers it as evidence that "the earth's crust is indeed locked in a perpetually critical state."
Harking back to the previous essay, it is pointed out that "in four or more dimensions the individual branching processes are essentially independent." We will meet this notion of branching processes again later.
The article goes on to discuss the success of the theory of self-organized criticality to explain the distribution of earthquake epicenters: "For more than a decade workers have known that power laws can describe the distribution of objects such as mountains, clouds, galaxies, and vortices of turbulent fluids. The number of objects within, say, a sphere of radius 'r' is proportional to 'r' to the power of some constant 'D.' Such a distribution is called a fractal. We find that fractals describe the distribution of earthquakes."
And furthermore, "... fractals can be viewed as snapshots of self-organized critical processes. Fractal structure and flicker noise are the spatial and temporal fingerprints, respectively, of self-organized criticality."
Another important influence in any study of sudden transition is that of impinging influences, that is, initial conditions. "In chaotic systems, a small initial uncertainty grows exponentially with time. Furthermore, as one attempts to make predictions further and further into the future, the amount of information one needs about the initial conditions increases exponentially with time ... preventing long-term predictions."
There is a discrpency made between weak and full chaotic activity. Mainly, they differ by duration of predictability of the system involved. A weakly chaotic system behaves according to a power law; a fully chaotic one, an exponential law.
Chaotic behavior is in some respects at least, symmetric: "The conservation of elements is an important feature of many systems that naturally evolve to a critical state. The theory of self-organized criticality is not limited to systems that have local conservation laws." As symmetry is intimately realted to conservation laws in physics, the above would seem to imply that self-organized criticality is an invariant principle of Universe at large.
They go on to decribe a biological model which simulates the evolution of a colony of living organisms and mimics the generation of complexity in nature. They conclude: "The complexity of the global dynamics is intimately related to the criticality of the dynamics. In fact, the theory of complexity and the theory of criticality may generically be one and the same." And further:"... evolution operates at the border of chaos."
There is no reason for all sectors of a system to be directly
affected by some external force for the entire collective to experience
a phase transition. Newtonian philosophy seems to have believed
that the concept of closed systems was an actuality, that they somehow existed autonomously from the rest of the universe. Does the
human body go through its peculiar phase transitions, from birth
to childhood, to middle age to elder, to death, as a reflection
of genetic programming alone? Or are these gene elements, this double
helix of DNA, this mass of chromosomes, somehow in nonlinear relationship with external fields or forces? Each factor group of the overall
gestalt is composed of an independent, generative, central mechanism,
the identity equivalence class, and all other members of the factor
group, the cosets, are similar in design and order to this class
but are nonetheless dependent echoes of the central energy in a
kind of branching pattern, aftershocks or rings, as when a stone
enters a pond. Do we, can it be said, honestly grow our own individual
bodies from scratch, from a fertilized egg? Do we know that much?
Does the average man on the street know how his circulatory system
works? His immune system? Is the whole thing on automatic?
In the February, 1991 issue of Scientific American, there
ig an article entitled, "The Physiology of Perception," bywalter
Freeman. The article was mainly interested in the sense of smell
discussing as it did, in technical detail, the processes relating
the various parts of the overall system, from nose to brain and
back again, a circuitry.
The following are excerpts from that article: "An act of perception consists of an explosive leap of the
dynamic system from the basin of one attractor to another; the
'basin' of an attractor is the set of initial conditions from which
the system goes into a particular behavior." In the article the
concept of 'nerve cell assembly' is equivalent to 'basin of an
attractor.1 "The chaos is evident in the tendency of vast collections
of neurons to shift abruptly and simultaneously from one complex
activity to another in response to the smallest of inputs. Chaos
underlies the ability of the brain to respond flexibly to the outside
world and to generate novel activity patterns, including those that
are experienced as fresh ideas."
This chaotic behavior exists somewhere between merely random
act-"Lv-'Lty and that which is predictable. "... chaotic systems continually produce novel activity patterns ... such patterns are crucial
to the development of nerve cell assemblies (collective networks)
that differ from established assemblies. More generally, the ability
to create activity patterns may underlie the brain's ability to
generate insight and the trials of trial-and-error problem solving."
From a Time magazine review, July 25, 1990, on The Emperor's
New Mind, by Roger Penrose: "One consequence could be to establish
the boundaries of quantum mechanics, which says particles can suddenly
jump from one place to another without traversing the space in between.
Penrose's intuition, although he has no proof, is that these effects
may apply not just to atoms but also to objects as big as brain
cells. An act of creative thinking, he argues, could be the outward
manifestation of neurons making quantum jumps from one energy state to another."
We, as human animals, cannot be the end product of a purely
linear progression nor can we be the sum total of a confluence of
linear processes; without asymmetry, there is no Life.
From the article on "Perception": "A clue to the presence
of chaos waB an aperiodic common carrier wave everywhere in the
bulb not only during bursts but also between bursts even when there
was no extrabulbar activity. The lack of external driving meant
the activity was self-generating. Another clue was the apparent
ability of neural collectives in the bulb and cortex to jump globally
and almost instantly from nonburst to a burst state and then back
again. Global activity can be identified, measured and explained
only if one adopts a macroscopic view alongside the microscopic one."
Connectivity: "Information from any subset of receptors,
regardless of where they were located, would spread immediately
over the entire assembly." The particular set of receptors varies
unpredictably from one set of input stimulus to the next. The synapses
connecting neurons can be intensified with learning experience and
each pattern generated depends on which set of these are activated.
There is this "widespread sharing leading to collective activity,"
and a "generalization-over-equivalent receptors."
"Synchronous activity in each system is then transmitted
back to the limbic system where it combines with similarly generated
output from other sensory systems to form a gestalt. Then, within
a fraction of a second, another search for information is demanded,
and the sensory systems are prepared again by reafference." Sensory information perception in terms of chaotic systems
is presented to the human experience as a gestalt complex: "... the
signals are combined with those from other sensory systems. The
result is a meaning-laden perception, a gestalt, that is unique
to each individual. The assembly confers front-runner status on
stimuli that experience has made important to the individual.
"Perception requires global bulbwide activity and the bulb
participates in assigning meaning to stimuli. In short, an act of
perception is not the copying of an incoming stimulus; it is a step
in a trajectory by which brains grow, reorganize themselves and
reach into their environment to change it to their advantage."
Sensory perception involves continuous feedback: "It has
lqng been understood that nonlinearity in feedback processes serves
to regulate and control. A combination of order and disorder is
a kind of gestalt. The structures that provided the key to nonlinear
dynamics proved to be fractal. A fractal curve impli-es an organizing
structure that lies hidden among the hideous complications of such
shapes."
The notion of "meaning-laden gestalt" mentioned above can
be compared to a composition series of horizontal slices, each slice
representing one unique arrangement of the complementary Self/environemnt. Any one of these could unpredictably appear at the boundary
in the form of a gestalt. Self-organized criticality is another
way of looking at the dynamic ordering principle and organic mechanism of Spontaneous Space. It predicates the nature of the psychic
landscape at the intersection of the conscious and unconscious spatial domains of Self, and, in a very definite sense, accounts for the
spontaneous and creative character of the Self, fleshing It out
and identifying It with the interface.
Computers are generally incapable of performing what to a
small child is almost trivial: pattern recognition. In the January,
1987 edition of Scientific American there is an article on "Optical
Neural Computers." The piece was significant for the present context.
I will quote only a few excerpts in order to shed just a little
more light on the relation between chaotic behavior and instantaneous
perception and identification occurring at the transitional moment.
"Problems such as those posed by pattern recognition tasks
constitute a subset of what we call random problems: problems whose
solution requires knowledge of essentially every possible state
of a system. Problems such as pattern recognition in natural environments ... lack the structure that would allow simple algorithmic
solutions. The amount of disorder in a problem is equivalently the
amount of information needed to define the problem. The key additional
ingredient for a practical system that solves random problems is
a way to associate input data directly with the stored information
(experience) without requiring an exact match. Such a process of
association is a major feature of biological memory, where partial
features of an object trigger the retrieval of complete information
about the object.
"Computation in neural networks is done in a collective manner: the simple, simultaneous operation of individual neurons results in the sophisticated function of the neural network as a whole. This form of organization ... allows information to be encoded in the neural connections (synapses) rather than in separate memory to elements (neurons)"
A key fact: "Each distinct piece of stored information can
be represented by a unique pattern of connections among neurons.
For one thing ... the connections between the elements serve as the
programmable storage mechanisms that uniquely 'tune' the computer's
memory to a given problem. Another major feature of the operation
of neural computers is spontaneous learning."
What is the difference between creativity and learning?
Pattern formation as opposed to pattern recognition?
By 'invariant properties' is not meant some Platonic notion of Ideal Forms existing of and by themselves for all time; they are also more than Jungian archetypes welling up from the Unconscious in all their symbolic, universal and eternal glory; they are familieas of patterns of Universe, reflected in the human psyche, or as psyche, a factored form embedded in parent Universe. The notion of 'invariant properties' emphasizes patterns, any patterns, over the recognition of whatever separate parts make them up, not only as a means of understanding physical and psychic reality in a more information rich environment, but as the actual way that
reality is presented to our brains, to our senses, to our conscious minds, from 'outside' as well as 'inside,' how our brains work, how other natural systems work, how things grow and distribute themselves. To consider process in the inner-working terms of its collective activity may reveal the secret of its true nature.
In the June 11, 1990 issue of U.S. News & World Report there
was an extremely interesting article entitled "The Musical Brain."
Avoiding the more technical passages, there were conclusions and
insights sharing a common ground with the above context, beginning with: "... the mental mechanisms that process music are deeply entwined with the brain's other basic functions, including perception,
memory and even language. Experiments demonstrate that the brain
sorts out the noises it hears by grouping together sounds that appear
to come from the same direction. ... this direction finding mechanism
is but one of many "modules" operating simultaneously to shape the
mind's perceptions. The interaction of these various modules of
the mind may be responsible for the brain's ability to be precise
and to generalize at the same time.
"The brain's willingness to choose generalizations over
precision is largely responsible for its uncanny ability to remember
melodies. ... the key to remembering a melody is that instead of
learning the exact sounds that make up a tune, the brain remembers
only the relationship between the notes.
"People subconsciously know through experience that particular
combinations of notes occur only in certain keys and gradually narrow
the possibilites as more combinations of notes are heard. This hidden
knowledge in the mind may arise as a natural consequence of how
the brain's neurons change the communication pathways among themselves in response to experience."
Composition series: "Working with a computer model of brain
cells called a neural network, (it was) found that as the model
was exposed to music, the layer of brain cells responsible for
processing individual notes sent signals to another layer whose
cells gradually became responsible for recognizing groups of chords
as belonging to particular keys. This hierarchical grouping occurred
even though the brain model was given no explicit instructions as to how the cells should connect themselves. Instead, the network
simply organized itself in a manner that reflected the intrinsic
organization of music itself.
"The enjoyment of music comes from a subtle interweaving of expectation and surprise. The interplay of expectation and surprise
may still take place as a result of the interaction between the
various modules of the mind." Stated somewhat more technically:
"The notes in music vary in a manner that lies halfway between the
total randomness of static noise and the dull predictability of
simple physical systems."
Whenever studies concern a composition series type development,
and the notions associated with stable chaos and pattern formation,
there usually is drawn some relationship to fractal geometry: "One
intriguing clue (as to why people like music) has come from a physicist
who suggests that music resembles not the sounds heard in nature
but the essence of nature itself. What distinguishes music from
other sounds is that music varies in a manner that is midway between
random and predictable. In between these two types of sound is a
natural variation known as "flicker noise." The most common kind
of noise found in nature, it typically reflects how a particular
physical system varies over time.
"Using equations (similar to those describing how the notes
of a musical piece rise and fall in relation to the composition
as a whole) -- part of a new science known as "fractal geometry" -researchers have created realistic-looking landscapes, planets and
clouds."
The article ends with the somewhat mystical statement:
"The brain, with its insatiable love of teasing out patterns in
the world around it, may create, produce and enjoy music as a demonstration -- a celebration -- of its being tuned into the ultimate
rhythms of nature." Victor Gioscia, physical philosopher, points
out that "we see and hear because our sense organs are synchronized
with certain frequencies in the environment."
"Between random and predictable" is one of the major themes
of what has gone before. Philip Slater, in his informative book, Earthwalk, draws a dichotomy, which he insists needs balancing,
between: 1) control, mastery, self-discipline, and technique, on
the one hand, and 2) innate gifts, inspiration, psychological readiness, and being in some sort of mystical harmony with the environemnt,
on the other.
Here we have the two complementary aspects of self and two modes of perception: the Analytic and
the Intuitive, the Linear and the Nonlinear, a gestalt.
Philip Slater on "orientation": "The content of action is
less important than the internal orientation with which it is carried
out." The highest consciousness has no substance, being of the dimension wherein only properties and possibilities lie; as it filters down through dimensions, through the moral, and other etheric levels, to finally, substance, corporality, we see the composition series stacking up, through the center of symmetry is the "internal orientation." It means sensing and experiencing the world and ourselves in terms of interconnected patterns; patterns that atune and harmonize us to our surroundings facilitating the
dissolution of the boundary as boundary. In its place: on the front side, individual selves living and having their being, existence, on the flip side, the inter-everything, multi-dimensional, nonlinear environment, a Gestalt; individual consciousness emerging from Unconscious Mind as an effect that is greater than the sum of the parts.
A composition series construction can be applied to many
different contexts. It can be defined as a recursively generated
circuitry arranged in a hierarchy of complex, mutually nested,
interdependent and globally connected gestaltic systems-- our multidimensional (possibly infinite), inner and outer environments. 'Inner'
and 'outer' awaiting final notice as to the substance of their distinguishing characterisitcs can, nonetheless, be reconciled without
fear of loss of primacy, either way. During moments or periods of
heightened awareness, more complex underlayers of relational configurations, patterns.
Even though we may imagine we perceive things, constrained
by respective levels of time, separate and disconnected from their surroundings, what we are actually able to see, whether we look from the point of view of an individual human psyche, with all its internal layers, or, from the the cosmic extremes, can only be sets of complexly embedded relationships, a textured mosaic, from the largest scope possible down to the concept of singularity, where reality falters -- fractals of consciousness.
Within the preliminary state of both inorganic and organic examples of metamorphosis, there must be the seed of transmutation. Temperature and pressure clearly affect the state change of water, but still, it must have the internal molecular nature to perform so. Similarly, the butterfly cannot be thought of as merely the product of genetic programming, the larval stage must have minimal conditions in order to accomplish its directed task. There must always be, in other words, this cooperation between external circumstance and internal capacity, between substance and ordering principle, for the predictable event to take place. Can this concept of interdependency be generalized and, if so, how can it be framed?
"One nature rejoices in another nature;
one nature triumphs over another nature;
one nature masters another nature."