——

sequence

——

What is consciousness?

This should be the first question to be answered—otherwise, the rest of the statement will only make you ask the same question over and over again—but it's the question that is not answered until the end. In fact, not only this article, but the entire spiritual community cannot give the right answer.

Not only could it not be answered, but the spiritual community brazenly asked deeper questions:

What is the meaning of the existence of consciousness?

I think that "Elementary Spirituality", written by more than a dozen "guild" spiritualists and only a few thousand words, must have confused you.

To summarize briefly, there are only two modes of their writing: one is to explain a word you don't understand with a bunch of words that you don't understand, and the other, worse, to explain a bunch of words you don't understand with a word that you don't understand.

Now, without kidding, this article is for you who have finished reading Elementary Spirituality.

I'm going to start from the beginning, starting with the pagan who was burned to death in a daze, and all the way to the present, there is a spiritual organization (in fact, the "Sanhedrin") that uses the "Spirit" series of stories that seem to be true and false to inform the world of the existence of the spiritual world.

This 150-year-old history of spirituality, plus the names of several people you are familiar with, and embellishment with many interesting anecdotes, the combination is definitely much easier to understand and much more interesting than "Elementary Spirituality".

By the way, Andy, who wrote the "Spirit" series of stories, I met him at a symposium. He seems to be a pretty nice guy, but somehow he looks a little Asian.

Wait, maybe he's Asian......

Again, Miss Emilia Walton, I really have no reason to believe you're reading this, but if you do, I want you to know that my office is near the back door of the guild, and that time, you secretly bought a hot dog and came back, only to be seen by me through the crack in the door.

I know I shouldn't have written about it in this article, because your perfect image can't afford a hot dog (poppy seed bread, onion slices, pickled cucumbers, and yellow mustard, in fact), but I can't help but want to get your attention. If this happens again, I'll see you eating a hot dog too.

————————————————

1. "Spirituality" that should have had a more accurate name

————————————————

The end of the nineteenth century was the period of enlightenment in spirituality.

Until then, spirituality was more of a branch of theology that could not be properly mentioned. A group of overly religious and overly rational believers come together to figure out the nature of God. Of course, the answer they seek is not the somewhat ambiguous one recorded in the Bible, but one that is accurate and rational and can be confirmed by a certain amount of research. This blasphemy against the Creator can only be done in secret.

After a long period of data collection and collation, coupled with rare non-humanitarian experiments, this group of people really found an answer, or more accurately, found a word - consciousness.

As for this "consciousness", don't think about its dictionary definition. If you describe it, it should be the one that makes you think, and it makes you feel and express your emotions. You can also name it with other words, such as "mind", "mind", "soul", or "cabbage". Well, the last one I made up to make up what I mean.

In spirituality, "consciousness" is an abstract concept that refers to a form of existence that is independent of matter and energy. The group of believers mentioned above believed that the essence of God was the collection of all consciousnesses. The consciousness that man possesses is given by God and was once a part of God.

So, what is consciousness? It has to be something. Just as "energy" is also an abstract concept, you obviously can't say that you see a "kinetic energy", but you can say that you see some particles or a few waves, and "particles" or "waves" are enough to answer the question "what is energy". Thanks to Albert Einstein, we also know that energy and matter can be converted into each other when conditions are met. In other words, if we leave aside the concept of "consciousness", the world as we know it has been unified to a large extent. All that's left is to see which comes first, the proof of Theory M and the aliens' destruction of all mankind.

The trouble is that consciousness is independent of matter and energy, so answering the question "What is consciousness" is the same dilemma as answering the question "Is God matter or energy?" Fortunately, a religious named Aaron Solomom found the answer, and this answer was:

This question can never be answered.

Solomon divides the existence of consciousness into two forms, namely free consciousness and attached consciousness. Loose consciousness is meaningless. It cannot be measured, nor can it be characterized. Attached consciousness is the "cabbage" mentioned above, and you can find it in any kind of creature. That is, before consciousness attaches to living beings, its substance cannot be answered, and after attachment, its substance has changed, so even if it is answered, it will not be the correct answer.

Solomon happily shared his theories with the rest of the congregation. He even kept an eye on it, and did not use words such as "free consciousness" and "attached consciousness" that were suspected of blaspheming God. He is simply saying that God exists in a form that is not understood by human beings, and that when God came in the form of Jesus, He had changed the form of existence so that human beings could understand it. Therefore, God can always be admired, not interpreted.

This would have been a good word. Sadly, Solomon's articulation skills were so bad that his words would sound to more believers as if he were saying, "God does not exist." Well, it didn't take long for him to be burned to ashes.

Although Solomon killed himself in a daze, his theories about free and attached consciousness were followed by later generations.

Remember when I said that the end of the nineteenth century was the period of enlightenment for spirituality, and it was also the period when spirituality completely disappeared from ordinary society.

It all started with the advent of a book—the one that had the greatest impact on theology—Charles Robert Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

The theory of evolution directly denies the existence of "Chinese cabbage", and it is very well proven. Unbeknownst to Darwin, however, the cultists who had inherited Solomon's ideas had found and hidden over the years several blinking dolls, a dozen paintings that fell off walls for no apparent reason, and a pile of clothes that could float through the air.

The discoveries of this group of cultists prove one thing: consciousness can choose not only living things as carriers, but also non-living things as carriers. It is also a disguised proof that human consciousness is not evolved, but, to some extent, endowed.

In order to distinguish them from known life forms, the cultists gave the "consciously attached non-living beings" a resounding name—spirits.

With Aaron Solomon's experience as a reference, it became clear to the congregants how bad their situation was. On the one hand, they are inevitably drawn into the bitter struggle between creation and evolution, and on the other hand, they have to hide their scholarship from both the theological and scientific communities. This period of living in the cracks finally made them make a decision that would affect future generations. They quietly broke away from the church and took away all the academic achievements related to the "spirit", and also concealed the fact of the existence of the "spirit" from the whole human society.

When the group was about to name their scholarship, they thought of the "forerunner" Aaron Solomon. Although they had been studying consciousness, the spirit they had hidden was evidence that Solomon had died in vain.

So, with the obsession that one day he would wash away his grievances for Solomon, "Consciousness" was finally named "Spirituality".

————————

Second, little Werther

————————

Shortly before the birth of quantum mechanics, and thirteen years after Aaron Solomon was burned to death, "consciousness" entered the age of quantification before "energy".

That year, the psychiatrist Konrad Virt discovered for the first time the vibrational waveform of attached consciousness, which in turn determined the smallest unit of consciousness.

In order to understand all this intuitively, we might as well draw an analogy to quantum mechanics.

In the early years, the scientific community believed that energy was continuous. Not only that, but many other physical concepts such as rotation, angular momentum, etc., are also continuous. The meaning of "continuous" is "indefinitely divisible". In other words, there is no minimum. However, the famous Achilles paradox greatly challenges this so-called "continuity".

As for Achilles, if you don't get it right for a while, you can think of the very capable warrior played by Brad Pitt in the Hollywood movie "Troy". And in the paradox, such a vigorous person can't even catch up with a turtle. In fact, if the concept of "continuous" is really true, it doesn't matter if he is Superman or Flash, don't even want to catch up with this turtle.

Let's take a look at this paradox first:

Achilles saw a turtle in front of him, and he was immediately interested, ready to catch up with the other - why did he come here, you ask? How do I know, I probably want to make soup and drink it? Achilles fought hard and quickly ran the distance between himself and the other man when he first saw the turtle, but he never expected that the turtle had been crawling forward, and in the time he had finished this distance, the other party had also crawled forward for some distance. There was no way, Achilles had to run the distance that the other party crawled out again, but during this time, the turtle crawled out of the distance again. Achilles had no choice but to chase again, and the other party climbed again. Chase again, climb again...... If he continues to chase after him like this, Achilles will probably never be able to drink turtle soup again.

Of course, this paradox sounds more like a joke, but it also illustrates what lies between Achilles and the tortoise (we don't mention the word "space" because that would be misleading, as this will be explained in the next chapter). It's not "infinitely divisible." At one point, the distance between Achilles and the tortoise had reached a meaningful minimum. Since the tortoise is slower than Achilles, it is obvious that the tortoise will not be able to climb the same distance as this minimum in the time that Achilles runs this minimum, and the distance it actually climbs out is meaningless even if it exists, because it is even smaller than the minimum. Achilles finally got his wish and could go and boil water.

The minimum value mentioned above, in physics, is called Planck length. It was proposed by the famous physicist Max Planck.

Applying the same way of thinking to energy, we have the smallest unit of energy, quantum.

Analogy the same way of thinking to consciousness, and there is the smallest unit of consciousness — well, that's more complicated. Remember the saying that "consciousness is independent of matter and energy". If we call the smallest unit of consciousness a "conscious child", or "spirit child" (oh my God, that sounds really cool), we will inevitably be suspected of materializing or energizing it. So, let's call it "Chinese cabbage seeds" first.

In fact, no one in the spiritual world has named "Chinese cabbage" at all. In fact, there are lessons to be learned from the past. Isn't it wrong to name God "consciousness"?

The psychiatrist Conrad Witt discovered that attached consciousness must be in a state of vibration. As with energy, the vibrations of consciousness are not continuous, but are carried out in the smallest unit of "cabbage seeds". Vibrations smaller than "a big cabbage seed", even if they exist, are meaningless. In other words, meaningful attachment consciousness can only vibrate in integer multiples of "cabbage seeds".

Following the narcissistic tradition of most spiritualists and scientists, Conrad Witt named the smallest unit of consciousness "1 vin", abbreviated as "1 vin".

——————————————

3. A concept unique to spirituality – expression

——————————————

With the concept of "1 Vit", the "Chinese cabbage" we have been talking about has become much easier to understand in an instant.

Here we need to borrow the way of thinking from quantum mechanics again. Think of "1 Werther" as a dot.

You probably want to say: Isn't it impossible to materialize!

Well, there's really no way around this. We can't explain what we can't understand to explain what we can't understand. If it helps you, you can imagine something more special instead of imagining a dot drawn on paper...... Like, God's point! Yes, according to Solomon, God is made up of a bunch of these dots. Later, Werther discovered the fact that "attached consciousness must vibrate, and free consciousness must not vibrate". Combining the two, we can say that God is made up of a bunch of non-vibrating points, and that we, human beings, are made up of a biological shell plus a bunch of vibrating dots.

Speaking of which, all of the above finally comes together.

Consciousness, when it exists independently, is a point that does not vibrate and has no meaning. Such consciousness is called free state consciousness.

When consciousness is attached to a carrier (which can be matter or energy), it must vibrate in an integer multiple of "1 watt", and this vibration gives it meaning. Such consciousness is called attached consciousness.

You see, the birth of human consciousness needs to go through a process from meaninglessness to meaningfulness, but in this process, meaningless things do not do not exist.

This process, to some extent, affirming (or denying) both materialism and idealism is called "expression" in spiritualism.

"Expression" applies not only to consciousness, but also to matter and energy. To understand the concept of "expression" more clearly, let's look back at the example of Planck's length and Achilles' paradox.

In order to catch up with the turtle, Achilles needed to run the last Planck length, but the word "run through" seems to be a misnomer. Space smaller than Planck's length doesn't make sense, so how does Achilles "run" through it? You can't warp the space. Otherwise, each of us has superpowers, and we can warp many times with one step. Here, the concept of "expression" needs to be introduced. Spirituality holds that space is continuous, but not every part of space has meaning. In order to be meaningful, it needs to be "expressed", that is, to reach the Planck length. If it's smaller than Planck's length, you'll crash out of a black hole and make it unmeasurable — okay, I'm taking a big leap here. I'm a psychiatrist, after all, and I'm not here to teach you physics lessons—even if such a space exists, it doesn't make sense.

Combining all of this, we finally understand what Aaron Solomon experienced at the end of his life.

True, long before the concept of "1 Werther" was proposed, Solomon understood one thing. And this matter, I'm afraid that no matter how good the expression ability is, it can't be said well.

[ God exists, but it is meaningless.]

– Aaron Solomon ]