A Simple Cosmology of the Universe

Before the beginning, before space and time, there was nothing but pure consciousness. And consciousness had neither pattern nor form, only awareness.
The Simple Explanation calls the pure consciousness that exists outside our universe the “metaverse.” In the original Greek, “meta” means an idea above and beyond the topic of discussion that brings greater understanding and context to the topic. In this case, the topic is the nature of the universe. In order to better understand our universe, the Simple Explanation begins with that which lies beyond this universe—the metaverse. This metaverse has many names in many traditions—“The Great ‘I AM’” and “God the Father” in the Torah and Bible, “Sat” and “Parambrahma” in Hindu scriptures, the “Tao” and “wu ming” in ancient Chinese texts, and “The Absolute” in modern philosophy.

Then consciousness had a thought which unfolded into countless dimensions. This multi-dimensional metaverse still lacked space and time but it now quivered with limitless mathematical potential. In a twinkling, our entire universe was imagined in the fullness of its complexity, from the tiniest quanta through the greatest astral body; every animal, vegetable, and mineral; every element; everything. At the moment this thought occurred, the metaverse conceived every organizing principle needed to shape and sustain space and time, energy and mass. All was in ideal balance. Every system was theoretically in tune; every function perfectly performed; the consequence of every action anticipated, understood, and plotted to the nth degree. And it was all good.

Once the metaverse formed a particular thought, thought became an object in the great sea of no-thought. Where there was only pure consciousness, now there existed something—thought. In order to preserve the undisturbed tranquility of the metaverse, thought sealed itself off from pure consciousness by focusing inward, and in so doing formed a toroidal-shaped bubble around itself. Where there was only the tranquil nothingness of the metaverse, there was now thought and directed action, initiating sequential time. On this day that time began, consciousness wrapped itself around our universe, forming a border between us and infinity. Mind took on a shape.

The “Shape of God’s mind,” also known as  the “Universal Unit of Consciousness,” the “Womb of Creation,” the “Son of God,” “logos,” “the Word,” the “universal fractal formula.” We can think of this wireframe version of the toroid as the idealized mathematical blueprint imagined by the metaversal consciousness prior to creation.

This toroidal-shaped membrane is composed of conscious thought and its concept of this universe, split off from the unformed metaverse and operating on its own. The Simple Explanation calls this original torus the Universal Unit of Consciousness (Universal UC). The content of its thought is the entire logos of our universe. The Bible puts it this way:“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Logos was in the beginning with God. All things were made through the Word, and without this logos, nothing was made that was made,” (John 1:1).

Which begs the question: How is it possible for an object (our universe) to rest "inside" the formless metaverse without affecting its undifferentiated nature? How can space and non-dimensionality, time and timelessness, change and the changeless co-exist without touching the untouchable metaverse?

This paradox is easily solved by imagining that the toroidal membrane itself possesses a fractal surface akin to the Koch snowflake. As you can see, through endless divisions, the perimeter of the figure becomes infinitely complex and long, while the interior of the 2-dimensional Koch snowflake remains finite and contained to the figure, never reaching "outside."



These are the first four iterations of the Koch snowflake fractal formula. At each computation, a side is divided into three equal segments and an equilateral triangle the length of a segment is placed at the center segment. The center segment’s line is then erased, leaving behind a perimeter that is four times longer than the original side. Even though endless computations may lengthen the perimeter to infinity, the snowflake’s volume remains finite.

Now imagine applying the Koch divisions to the surface of the Universal UC torus, with the divisions facing outside. As the membrane divides toward infinity, the space within remains finite and contained; keeping the undifferentiated unity of the metaverse unsullied. The effect of this infinitely recursive fractal surface can be likened to that of an invisibility force field deployed around our universe, i..e, "What happens in our universe, stays in our universe."

The concentrated thought of the Universal UC focused inward on a singular point of limitless energetic potential—enough to seed our universe. Concentration gave rise to toroidal forces that begat energetic waves. Our universe began to expand outward as energy exploded into the torus of space out of the zero point field at the center. In Sanskrit, “ananda” means both energy and joy. The Simple Explanation suggests that organized consciousness , “chit,” combined with ananda and began emitting the building blocks of our universe.

Shape gives rise to toroidal forces that explode into dimensional space as patterns of energy culminating in material quanta.  Cosmologists refer to this initial energetic event as the Big Bang.

 

As the interior torus of our universe expanded, over and over and over again pale echoes of the Universal UC attached themselves to the particles streaming out of the Big Bang. In Sanskrit, these smallest material quanta are individually known as “anu” and collectively called “maya,” or creation. “Avidya,” Sanskrit for “loss of consciousness” or “delusion,” is a necessary by-product of material instantiation as each individualized point-of-view in time and space replaces universal, non-localized awareness.

The Universal UC pulses with concentration at the birth of every thing in our universe. These pulsations funnel waves of consciousness inward from the border of the Universal UC toward creation, informing each new piece of material with its own unit of consciousness (UC) as it emerges from the universal portal of here and now.

Particles rush into our universe from the zero point field at the center, exploding outward, filling our universe from the middle. The outer fractal membrane presses inward to contain the energy exploding outward. Matter flows outward from the middle, repulsed by the energy streaming into the universe from the center, and coherence presses inward from the outer universal boundary. We experience the repulsive energy as “joy” and excitation, and the containing energy as “love” and security.

This cutaway view of the torus from the top shows ananda/joy exploding outward

and coherence/love pressing in.

This is the point in creation when the Universal UC is traditionally referred to by such names as “God the Creator,” “Shakti,” and the “Mother of 10,000 Things.”

Time passes and creation becomes more complex as subatomic particles reach out to one another according to the principles of organization conceived by the metaverse and set into motion by the Universal UC.

And particles joined to make atoms, atoms to make molecules, molecules to make single-celled organisms. Single-celled organisms diversified into the full panoply of life, and every one of these material building blocks came equipped with its own unit of consciousness (UC). Each unit of consciousness knew what particular role it needed to play in order to help the universe create and sustain itself, for every UC could decode and instantiate its own special piece of the metaversal ideal.

quanta UC

atomic UC

molecular UC

cellular UC

organism UC

societal UC

global UC





At each stage along the way from simple to complex, units of consciousness are increasingly sophisticated in their ability to regulate and manage their existence.

Sustaining Creation requires an uninterrupted stream of organization and intention funneling inward from the border that separates our space and time from the metaverse at large. Like pure potential pouring down the gravitational well of a great black hole, our possible futures become increasingly limited as they funnel toward the crucible of here and now at the heart of creation. Here and now, all potentials collapse as only one course of action is realized.

We generally refer to collapsed potential as “history.” The “future” is uncollapsed potential. There are an infinite number of potential futures that become increasingly constrained as they approach here and now. Here and now is the gateway of singular choice. The arrow of time flows downward through the middle of the torus, past here and now, and emerges into the past as a line of singular history. “Karma” is the consequence of historical choices made in the here and now.

Karma is the mechanism through which the consequences of behavior inform future potential. Karma is a force of influence that arises out of the decision-making history of every unit of consciousness in the universe. Each UC generates its own karma. We are all affected by one another’s karma. The more a unit of consciousness has in common with another UC, the more it is affected by the other’s karma. Our aggregate karma affects all of creation.

Tao te Ching -- Verse 53

The Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, is an ancient Chinese collection of 81 wisdom verses. In the "Simple Explanation” model, the Tao spoken of by Lao Tzu refers to the metaversal information and principles of organization that have informed our universe since the moment before creation; also known as the Universal Unit of Consciousness. Non-being refers to clearing your personal UC of earthly memes and karma. Non-action refers to allowing the original universal UC to direct your personal UC for the greater good. Here is the 53rd verse of the Tao Te Ching, which I have translated directly into Simple Explanation terminology from Jonathan Star's verbatim translation.

Staying centered near the vortex maintains alignment with the metaverse...

Verse 53

If those in charge possessed even the smallest bit of understanding,

they would follow nothing but the great metaversal way and dread straying from its main path.

The great metaversal path is very easy to travel, yet those in charge prefer taking side roads.

The seat of government is excessively well cared for, while the nation's fields are overgrown with weeds and the storehouses are all but empty.

Clothed in gorgeous garments, sporting the finest gadgets, gorging themselves with food and drink--bursting at the seams with more possessions than they could possibly use--this is recognized for what it is: the boasting of thieves.

This is the opposite of the metaversal path! Really!

______________________________________________

The Simple Explanation of verse 53 is that those in charge would make better decisions if they leaned not on their own self-serving understanding, but followed the principles of metaversal organization. This is expressed metaphorically as "staying centered" on the path. Using the torus as a visual model of staying centered looks like this:

The Simple Explanation's torus model showing the (white) line of metaversal information running through the zero-point center of here and now. This pole transmits the perfect choice for any given moment.

Not centering decisions within the metaversal plan leads to egoic decision-making, which is referred to as taking side paths. Self-centered decisions made by government officials, by definition, puts their interests above those in their care. This is because when we stray from the central path of wisdom, our choices are dictated by personal karma and memes rather than the greater good.

If the job of every unit of consciousness (UC) is to reach out to others with love, help, and information, that goes doubly for those sitting atop the hierarchical pile. The very reason for government is the care and feeding of those governed. For those in charge to ignore their "Heavenly Mandate" in favor of feathering their own nests is an abuse of power. Such abuse may prosper for a time but it cannot be maintained, as it goes against the metaversal plan.

Verse 53 says that the extravagent excesses indulged in by those in power comes at the expense of the greater populace. Lao Tzu likened such extravagence at the expense of others to "the boasting of thieves." He ends the verse with two exclamations to drive home the point! Really!

Readers of the Simple Explantion may realize by now that verse 53 not only refers to human society, but applies equally well to all other units of consciousness, be they sub-atomic particles, cells, or what-have-you. One of my favorite blog articles describing the hierarchical nature of the universe is "My Self, the Governor of Whoville." Once you see yourself as one who governs others, you will be closer to understanding how verse 53 applies to your life and your decision-making.

 

Using the Blog's Topical Index

The best method for finding your way around the Simple Explanation blog is to use the Topical Index on the right side of the screen.



 The articles under Concerning Consciousness have to do with the fractal nature of consciousness and the relationship between consciousness and matter.

The "Simple Explanation of..." articles demonstrate how explanations within a variety of fields (religion, spirituality, psychology, sociology, politics, biology, physics, etc.) can be described in terms of the Simple Explanation.

Toroids and Toroidal Forces is a series of articles that explore the geometrical figure of the torus.

Red blood cells are toroids

The Simple Explanation uses the torus as an all-purpose model of our material universe.

Meme Share is an interactive space where readers may share memes with other readers. What's a meme? Use the topical index to find out!

I apologize for the Miscellaneous category. Don't know where else to index these articles. There are some very popular articles there.

Toroidal skylight in Gaudi's Sagrada Familia Cathedral

 Personal Process Notes is my attempt to humanize the blog space with my personal presence. If you wish to become acquainted with the Simple Explanation's author, this is the place.

Dr. Cyd Ropp

Process Note: "Effacement of Ego"

Naturally, I give out Simple Explanation business cards to people I meet, so they can check out the blog if they are curious.

The other day I was out of business cards, so I went to print out some more on the computer printer. The printer chose to run out of black ink during my business card print job. Here is the comical result. I call it: "Effacement of Ego." It suggests to me that the blog is more important than my egoic declarations of authorship. :-)

Autumnal Tori Abound

Here's today's centerpiece on the table at the Albion Inn. A lovely example of the toroidal pattern imposing itself upon pumpkins, squash, and tomatoes. Enjoy!

Toroidal pumpkins, squash, and tomatoes.

Toroidal Symmetries and Fractal Divisions

Noodling around with a protractor, bisecting circles into smaller circles to make them into toroids. Along the way, the 2-D drawing displays beautiful symmetries of various kinds.

I drew this toroidal pattern using a pencil compass on paper. The lines you see at the circles' centers is where the compass dug into the paper. Pardon the mathematical imperfections, as this was done freehand.

I imported the drawing into Paint and airbrushed out the compass scratches. I can see toroids all over this drawing, but you may only be seeing the circles.

Here I've used the Paint program to highlight the largest torus in this drawing, which shows up if you imagine this as a cross-section of a sphere. The blue lines show the cross section of the torus cutaway. This inner torus has been subdivided again into two smaller tori (darker blue circles). The vertical yellow lines are the poles; the longest pole is for the central torus; the two shorter lines are the poles of the two subdivided tori. You can go on subdividing each torus this way, each time dividing the cutaway of the torus into half-sized tori.

This torus and its poles was used to illustrate "the great square within the torus." Same view as the blue lined cutaway above.

The darkest blue circles represent my clumsy eyeball method of illustrating how the torus is dividing fractally. Each torus cross section can divide into two more.
I wish I had a program that would draw these things more accurately. Any volunteers?

Notice the interesting way this fractal division works. It will go on forever, larger and larger or smaller and smaller, in true fractal manner.

Usually when I've thought about multiply-linked tori, they appear to nest at a single center pole, like Russian dolls. But these new drawings show how the tori can divide fractally along different lines. 

Concentric tori courtesy of http://www.multidimensionalmusic.com/review2.html

The Simple Explanation has also used nesting toroids to illustrate chakras.

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A little more fooling around in Paint gives us a "quasi torus" in the vertical direction (yellow). Look for more on this tie-in to quasi-particles in a future article.

Here I've used the poles to define a quasi torus perpendicular to the blue set. Following the logic of the Simple Explanation, I don't really think the tori divide up and down like this, along the poles, since the poles represent time and motion rather than space. I think the tori only divide in the horizontal (blue) space. But here we can see that this structure has room for a fully symmetrical set of divisions in the vertical (yellow) dimension.

The Rhetoric of Childbirth: The Trial of a California Midwife

In 2001 I was awarded a Ph.D. in Rhetoric from the Department of Communication at the University of Memphis. My dissertation, The Rhetoric of Childbirth: The Trial of a California Midwife, examines the language used by medical experts in the 1997 trial of Abigail Odam, a San Diego midwife who was arrested and convicted of several felony counts of "Practicing Medicine Without a License" for childbirths she assisted with in private homes. 

I've just made the book available on the web as a pdf. You may download it for free from my lulu.com storefront.

This is academic writing at its finest. Definitely not simple. Those of you reading this blog in other countries are probably not aware of the professional schism between physicians and midwives in the United States, typical of the larger divide between conventional Western medicine and traditional/alternative healers.

Here is the Abstract:

How one characterizes pregnancy determines how the exigency of birth should be handled.  Should pregnancy be defined as a medical condition as obstetricians would claim, or is childbirth a natural, normal event rarely requiring medical intervention, as midwives would have it?  The testimonies of health care professionals who appeared as witnesses in the case of The People of the State of California v. Abigail Odam were analyzed using Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad in order to demonstrate the significant professional demarcation revealed by the discourse, clinical approach, and philosophical worldviews held by adherents of the medical model of birth and traditional midwifery.  Trial testimonies such as these make it possible to see how physicians and midwives describe physiological processes in markedly different ways--the result of differences in perspective arising from very different terministic screens.  The trial also provides a situated example of the state's alliance with conventional philosophy, science, and medicine, and how the lay midwives, who came to the trial as a culturally marginalized profession, were further hampered by the structural imposition of rules of evidence and discourse that tended to undermine their rhetorical style and non-scientific worldview while simultaneously privileging the discourse of physicians.

Communing With the Soul of God

This morning we were reading from The Second Coming of Christ/The Resurrection of the Christ Within You. This book was assembled and edited by the Self Realization Fellowship from numerous writings published by Paramahansa Yogananda during his lifetime (1893-1952).

Paramahansa Yogananda

Yogananda taught his followers a modified Kriya yoga technique of "scientific meditation" as the way to open up intuitive vision and access direct knowledge of "God" or, alternately, "Reality." The following quote from his chapter on Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3:1-8) leads into a discussion of what it means to be "born again":

 "All bona fide revealed religions of the world are based on intuitive knowledge. Each has an exoteric or outer particularity, and an esoteric or inner core. The exoteric aspect is the public image, and includes moral precepts and a body of doctrines, dogmas, dissertations, rules, and customs to guide the general populace of its followers. The esoteric aspect includes methods that focus on actual communion of the soul with God. The exoteric aspect is for the many; the esoteric is for the ardent few. It is the esoteric aspect of religion that leads to intuition, the firsthand knowledge of Reality." (Yogananda, p.240, vol. 1)

According to the Simple Explanation, the exoteric, public image of a religious institution is defined by the memes held by or rejected by that institution. The "moral precepts" and "doctrines, dogmas, dissertations, rules, and customs" are the particular memes and meme chords that define membership in that institution. Many religious meme chords are shared by members of diverse religions. Religions generally share, for example, belief in the overarching "God" meme chord, and generally agree on most of the lesser-included memes that make up the God chord, such as memes concerning God's omniscience and omnipotence, and the importance of communing with God in prayer. Then come the memes religions do not share in common--memes of saints and saviors, histories, and other customary beliefs. The memes they do not share set them apart from each other. 

A Simple Explanation of the esoteric aspect referred to by Paramahansa that focuses on "communion of the soul with God" is that such communion is not of the religious meme-sharing variety, but involves its opposite--meme shedding. When one's grip on habitual thought patterns relaxes, their governing UC intuitively aligns itself with the metaversal principles embodied by the Universal UC. During these brief or extended periods of alignment, "firsthand knowledge of Reality" is glimpsed.

"Glimpsing God" through a toroidal skylight at Sagrada Familia Cathedral.

Exoteric knowledge is often defined as knowledge available to anyone, whereas esoteric knowledge is reserved for the innermost circle of devotees. This definition makes it seem as though true knowledge is being withheld by those in power. Yet, if one adopts the Simple Explanation's definition of meme-based vs. intuitive knowledge, then esoteric knowledge of God is truly available to any and every believer. The only limitation is the believer's own willingness to suspend attachment to their personal meme bundle long enough to allow their UC to align with the Universal UC.

When the memes are set aside, i.e. thought is suspended; language suspended; the person's governing UC remains. This fractal unit of consciousness underlies the memes. Unencumbered by meme attachments, the person's governing UC aligns with the Universal UC. This condition is called "bliss" in Buddhist and Yogic teachings. "Be still and know that I am God" is how the Bible says it (Psalm 46:10). Verse 16 of the Tao Te Ching says, "Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity," (J. Star translation).

To "be still" is to suspend attachment. Knowing comes during the still point between the pendulum swings of breath and thought. To "be still" is how we hear God. Be still.

Process Note: My Birthday

Can't let my birthday go by without blogging. Our season here at the Albion Inn will soon be drawing down as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival season comes to a close. Then I will have plenty of time to philosophize with you here at the Simple Explanation blog.

Franny and Zoey beaking on the bricks in the Albion Inn's rose garden.

Meanwhile, we have had a very pleasant busy season, full of good weather, great theatre, beautiful flowers, and excellent guests. 
Many more fresh blog articles are pending in the notes pile, including updates on how some of us have been putting the Simple Explanation into practice. I'm also going to be turning the articles into a single, cohesive book.

Tell me: would you be more inclined to read a book called "A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything," or "A Simple Fractal Model of the Conscious Universe"? Please leave your answer below as a comment if you would. Thank you.

Meaning Is In the Memes

The Simple Explanation states that a huge part of our personalities is shaped by the memes we hold dear as well as the memes we hate.

The memes you cling to (sanskara), both the ones you like and ones you don't like, influence your ability to exercise your free will in the here and now. When you unthinkingly lock onto a meme or set of memes, it is your belief in the memes that determines how you will interpret your surroundings and how you will respond. Your response may or may not be the best response to a situation, but it is the only one your set of memes allows.

We see this phenomenon at play every day. For example, a person (person A) whose meme bundle includes a belief that others are "out to get me" will interpret events in a manner that reinforces that meme. The most innocent statements on another's part (person B) will activate person A's "out to get me" meme, even when no such insult was intended. Person A's ego is hurt by their own meme, not by person B.

Another example of delimiting memes occurs during problem-solving. The more tightly held one's memes are, the fewer solutions will present themselves. The ability to consider solutions "outside the box" and to engage in "lateral thinking" comes about through nonattachment to the "shoulds" and "oughts" of how things work. One must be willing to set aside treasured beliefs in order to perceive memes outside one's own bundle and thereby discover fresh solutions.

I realized the other day that each and every cultural institution we belong to (family, workplace, church, mosque, tribe, nation, etc.) not only comes with its own bundle of shared memes held in common by its members, it also comes with a filter that prevents members from acknowledging or adopting incompatible memes. Memes are even more important to an institution than its members in the sense that members come and go, but memes persist.

Institutions are defined as much by their excluded memes as they are by their included memes. An exclusive institution holds tightly to the indentity provided by its memes; its border is strong and its filter powerful. An inclusive institution allows members more latitude in the memes they may hold; its border is less defined; its filter less opaque. An "open-minded" institution acknowledges the fact that there are memes out there in the greater culture that may have value, and is willing to consider new memes; its border is permeable and its filter thin.

A goal of the Simple Explanation is to demonstrate the simple commonality of the reality underlying the panoply of memes. Not just the religious memes; not just the spiritual memes; but the "rational" and "scientific" memes, too.