St. Sarah the Egyptian Gnostic Community

How the observer seeks the Gnosis of the implicate order

I can believe anything, for a while. When I hear a new theory I like to poke and prod at it for a while and see what falls out. The latest new idea that I’m kicking around is Dr. David Bohm’s theory of the Implicate Order.

For the sake of keeping this brief I will assume that you either read the article I just linked or you are already familiar with the theory, specifically the use of the hologram as a metaphor for this idea. This post is my attempt to put some kind of order to my thoughts about this, and define a cosmogony that includes some ancient Gnostic mythos as well as modern quantum science.

So if the implicate order of the universe is holographic, what is the medium that this hologram is printed on? I propose that it is divinity itself, that the crystalization of divinity and the subsequent interference patterns that resulted form the implicate order. The ancient concept of the pleroma, or fullness, seems to indicate pretty strongly that this is the case. The question becomes, what caused the crystalization of divinity? I’ve posted on that elswhere, and I need to readdress that eventually before I trot it back out.

Each part of a hologram contains the whole image, therefore each part of the implicate order contains the entire explicate order. Put another way, each part of the divine contains all of reality.

Since a single holographic plate can contain several images it would stand to reason that the implicate order can contain several explicate orders. For the sake of argument let’s say that there an infinite number of possible realities. How do we choose which flavor of reality we expereince? What is it that is making the choice in the first place?

Quantum physics calls the thing that does the choosing the observer. I call the observer the IAM, and the IAMs are us, as we exist beyond the physical. I have a number of reasons for calling them IAMs, but they’re not really important here, just so you know what I’m talking about. The IAM is the entity that ‘reads’ the holographic film that the implicate order is printed on. Like the light that recreates the hologram, the IAM is a reality-producing machine.

The fact that the IAM is here in the implicate order would indicate that its function is to produce reality, but where did it come from? This is the mystery that I will not try to tackle at this time. You can insert your favorite Gnostic creation myth here to describe it. Incidentally, the IAM, the observer, and the spirit are all analogous in this model, so a myth where Sophia breathes the spirit into the first human would work well. One theory I have that may explain it is the self-awareness of the IAM. At some point a part of the implicate order becomes self-aware and begins to create reality for itself, since a thing can’t be both aware and eternal. once an IAM becomes aware it begins to forget its origins in favor of the reality it creates.

I think that the IAM is very susceptible to the suggestion of other IAMs. Early on in the IAMs experience of reality (when we are children) it is not particularly committed to any definition of reality, and therefore travels at will through the various interference patterns that make up the infinite realities. Once it encounters another IAM there is a transfer of information. The IAM that is encoutered has an established definition of reality that it shares with the inexperienced IAM, which then comes to believe what it is told is reality. This happens gradually and IAMs tend to congregate around one version of reality. The IAM then comes to forget the other flavors of reality it has experienced in order to ‘fit in’ with the others that share its reality. I call this a consensus reality, and there are probably several, like pockets of solidity floating in a fuzzy possibility cloud of all potential realities.

If the IAM has forgeotten that it doesn’t have to be confined to a single version of reality then it has also forgotten the true nature of the implicate order and the divinity of which it is built. The role of the IAM in the implicit order is to rediscover it’s ability to create reality from the implicate order, and then reuinite with it. This is known to the ancient and modern Gnostics as anamnesis, or loss of forgetfullness. It is known to Jungians (which I identify with) as individuation, the process by which the spirit is made whole by a remembering of the fundamental union the spirit shares with all things.

In the future, as long as this mythos sticks with me, I will take some time to elaborate on the different parts of this idea so that you and I can understand it better. However, one interesting implication that this idea brings to the front is the possibility of ultraterrestrials.

It would be possible for there to be other entities that exists within implcate order that are not IAMs. These entities may not be as committed to the explicate order as we are. The IAMs may be able to experience there entities on a very fundamental, or implicate, level. We may experience there entities and ghosts, aliens, vampires, archons, aeons, and so on. I watch a lot of those ‘ghost hunter’ type programs, and it got me thinking. If ghosts are untraterrestrials that travel on a more implicate level than we do, then our IAM is experiencing them directly when we ’see a ghost’ and they probably won’t show up on film anyway. But that just something to think about, and I’m sure I will post more on this later.

Please feel free to question and comment at length about this, I know it’s fragmentary and brief, but it’s a first pass. Your input will help me refine my thoughts.

For your consideration,

I’m going to make a switch from my usual self-important, holier than thou style of blogging to talk a bit about something that I really don’t have a great handle on. I know my style up to this point hasn’t left very much room for the readers to comment, and since my blog has broken a new record of readership yesterday, I thought I would post a topic that would be more of a dialogue than an article.

I’ve been struggling with the idea of sex, both the act and the distinction. If we as gnostics believe this reality to be a false creation of the demiurge, and that one of the chief tools of the demiurge is distinctiveness, the we have to acknowlegde that sex is an extension of that distinctiveness.

However, I know that we can’t live in the world of forms without navigating and indeed using the creations of the demiurge. I’m using them now. I’m breathing the air, I’m stuck to my couch by gravity, I’m typing with the body that was created for me. All of these things keep me trapped in the world, yet I can’t achieve gnosis without them. It’s the eternal catch 22.

A good friend of mine shared a quote with me from the zen tradition that says: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” I think that’s particularly relevant. Maybe the trick is to do all the things that people normally do, but understand that they aren’t real.

Your thoughts?

We choose to define truth as “a fact that has been verified.” It seems, however, that we aren’t very picky about who is doing the verifying. We accept many things as fact that we probably shouldn’t. What I mean is we often take people at their word. Friends, teachers, parents, governments, non-fiction books, all tell us “the truth” which then becomes truth for us. This, to me, is too great a leap to be taking as often as we are taking it. For example, I have been told by the media, friends, coworkers, and my government that there is a war going on right now in Iraq. I have no personal experience of this as truth, yet I choose to believe it. This is the definition of hearsay.

So by that reasoning the only things that we can legitimately call “truth” are those things which we experience first hand. All else is hearsay. I’m sure it would be next to impossible to live your life like that, only believing the things you experience for yourself. This is why we have trust. We choose to trust those people who give us hearsay and therefore we expand our working definition of truth considerably. Since we choose to trust the truth given to us by others, we could also choose not to trust it. More on this later.

If experience is the only real truth, the we should look more closely at it. We experience the world as images, sounds, smells, textures, and tastes. All of these supposedly external stimuli we experience come to us through the various sensory organs of our bodies. These stimuli are recorded by the sensory organs and translated to electrical signals which are transmitted to the brain via our neurological system. our brain then interprets those electrical impulses and creates a complete experience of the world. The brain does not experience the world directly. There is a layer of translation between the world and the brain that cannot be circumvented. So how can we know what the world is really like?

An example of this that I like to use is the color red. People with colorblindness aside, how can you be sure that the color you see when you look at a red object is the same color somebody else sees when they look at the same object? What if that person sees the red object having the color you know as green? You’ve both been taught that the color of that object is called “red” but there is no way of knowing for sure if the color red looks the same to everybody.

This means that all experience happens within your brain. Since all experience is internal and uniquely individual, there is no way of know if the world is the same for everybody. In my opinion the world is probably very drastically different from one person to another. So how can we be sure the world really exists? The truth is that we can’t. We choose to believe the hearsay the world presents to us, just as we choose to believe that there is a war in Iraq. We could just as easily choose to no believe it, or at least be skeptical. Therefore we live in what is potentially a world of lies.

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus said:

“Don’t lie, and don’t do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed.”

I think Jesus is trying to tell his disciples that the world of lies is self perpetuating, and we willingly buy into the lie. He warns his disciples not to perpetuate the lie by telling that lie to others. All things are disclosed before heaven, the ultimate truth that we all seek. The truth is that we are in a prison with widely spaced bars, and all we need to do to escape is recognize that we are trapped by the lies of the world and ourselves. Philip K. Dick had something to say about this when he wrote: “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” Try that for a while. Stop believing that this world is all there is and you will see the bars and easily pass through them.

For your consideration,

or; My day as a ripple in the pond

I had an interesting morning. I woke up and I felt like I was part of something larger. It was an odd feeling to say the least, and I won’t be able to adequately describe it here, but as I’m sure you’ve realized by now, I’m going to try anyway.

Before I do that, however, I want to tell you about the book I’m reading now. It’s called “The Holographic Universe” by Michael Talbot. I’ve always been a sucker for science, so I’m enjoying it on that level, but I’ve also always been just a little too dumb to really know what they’re talking about, so I have mixed feelings. I’ve also found myself being pretty skeptical about some of the data presented in the book. I wouldn’t be able to tell you if it’s actually accurate or not, but I know a lack of properly cited sources when I see one.

Regardless, the premise is very gnostic: The universe is a hologram that we interact with using brains which are configured holographically as well. I don’t really understand the science behind these claims, which I view as an asset since I can believe it to be true without being burdened by useless facts. I find that as a Gnostic it’s important to be able to take anything as fact for at least a short while, poke around under the hood and see if the new concept is working for you. That’s probably an overly syncretistic way of looking at things, but what can you do?

The interference pattern is important in holography, since it is the interference of light waves that makes the holographic image possible. Picture two pebbles dropped into a pond. The pattern of ripples they create as they overlap is an interference pattern. I won’t bore you with any more detail than that. But I told you that so I could talk about music.

I sing in a barbershop quartet, and in the barbershop harmony style there is a lot of importance placed on resonance and harmonic vibrations. The same kinds of patterns made by a laser on holographic film in order to produce an image also work through the vibrations of air molecules when sounds are made. In this case, four human voices singing at certain exact frequencies will produce an additional sound, a ‘ring’ or additional notes seemingly out of thin air. These notes are called harmonic overtones or undertones, and they are created by the interaction of vibrating sound waves. Musicians who play string instruments will most likely be familiar with this physics trick.

You can’t sing barbershop by yourself. You have to put aside the belief that you are an individual, at least for the length of the song, so that you can create those harmonic vibrations. I am reminded of the logion from the Gospel of Thomas:

48. Jesus said, “If two make peace with each other in a single house, they will say to the mountain, ‘Move from here!’ and it will move.”

The act of singing barbershop is a powerful symbol for me. I am constantly reminded of the reality of wholeness inherent in the universe. It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind, but twice a week I get to be part of the whole.

This brings me to the odd feeling this morning. I felt like i was part of the fabric of the universe, not an individual walking on top of the fabric. I could almost see myself as a ripple in a pond. Something that you can point to and say “That’s a ripple” but you can’t say where it actually starts or stops, and it is certainly not separate from the pond. I came to realize that it’s the same feeling I get when I sing barbershop, but I’m usually distracted by thinking about notes or words or dynamics so I don’t recognize this feeling as distinct from singing. This was the first time I’ve experienced this while I wasn’t singing. The neat part is I can get back to that feeling any time now that I know what it’s like. I don’t know what it means, and I don’t know what good it will do for me in the long run, but it was certainly interesting and I kinda enjoyed it.

For your consideration,