Book of One: Volume II
Pragmatic idealism: Human metaphysics for modern minds
Methodological considerations of pragmatic idealism. The background for our Manifesto and its underlying worldview.
V 0.1 Launch version. © Copyright by Martin Aurum / Home of One
Table of contents
Disclaimers ⎮ Introduction ⎮ General metaphysics ⎮ An open source approach ⎮ Metaphysical idealism vs. dead-end materialism ⎮ The best of both worlds: Pragmatic idealism ⎮ How useful fictions led us astray ⎮ Piercing through the veil: Local vs. nonlocal ⎮ You, a holon within holons ⎮ Mapping the whole mind ⎮ Individuation and becoming whole ⎮ Be kind, we're all learners ⎮ The relationship between One and I ⎮ Some dynamics of karma, reincarnation and free will ⎮ Axiomatic summary: Pragmatic idealism
Before proceeding with this volume, it is recommended to read Book of One, Volume I: Manifesto.
All images are placed below and referred to inline
11,687 words
60 minutes
Pragmatic idealism: Human metaphysics for modern minds
“One benefit of switching humanity to a correct perception of the world is the resulting joy of discovering the mental nature of the Universe. We have no idea what this mental nature implies, but the great thing is —it is true. Beyond the acquisition of this perception, physics can no longer help. You may descend into solipsism, expand to deism, or something else if you can justify it—just don’t ask physics for help.[...] The Universe is immaterial — mental and spiritual. Live, and enjoy.”
– Richard Conn Henry, Professor in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Nature vol 436, 7 July 2005 (source)
Disclaimers
This is not a scientific, religious or even academic publication, but a pragmatic humanistic essay on how we arrived at the concepts conveyed in our Manifesto (Volume I) and its underlying worldview: Pragmatic idealism. We claim no authority other than that of the consciousness of its author.
It is to be expected that any presentation of universal consciousness and the dynamics of consciousness development in the human condition will meet resistance from religions, diverging worldviews, competing practices and hardcore materialists. Please understand that nothing in this presentation is to be considered dogma. Take what you can use, if anything, and leave the rest. Also, it is not required that you adopt a particular belief system, or any belief system for that matter, to benefit from the teachings of consciousness development. And, likewise, you can freely subscribe to any faith or belief system and still learn or benefit from the core concepts of pragmatic idealism.
Introduction
It is likely that anyone well versed in the dynamics of consciousness, metaphysics and the nature of the human condition will struggle to find anything new on these pages. In fact, we don’t pretend to bring anything new to the table, except perhaps a slightly different, or modern, packaging. As the quote above suggests, we’re at a point in time where we need to realize that physics under materialist science will never give us a full account of the true nature of the world. It can’t.
It is our contention that humanity has always had great intuitive knowledge about nature, including its own, but it was always a product of the ages and the cultures that expressed it. Our earliest written sources date back thousands of years, and before that oral and cultural traditions sought to keep the most fundamental insights safe – sometimes referred to as ‘perennial knowledge’. This information, or at least parts of it, always seemed to be there to reflect a larger truth than our immediate human experience, only it was unevenly distributed, colored by time and culture and often hard to access for the general public. Indeed, the very concept of truth was construed, misused and even weaponized. However, in these very years, a new multidisciplinary narrative is being formed, where the story of who we are is being rewritten and developed further than ever before in human history. Home of One is a pragmatic and humanistic account of this story, written as far as possible in neutral and unbiased language.
General metaphysics
It is the aim of Home of One to not dive too deeply into any particular tradition or individual body of knowledge, but to rather go wide, looking for perspective, patterns and generally acceptable truths. At the same time, we try not to replace traditions with claims of ultimate truth. It’s an approach one might consider ‘general metaphysics’, metaphysics meaning the study of what nature is, and general meaning a pragmatic approach to understanding that nature by studying and merging a variety of data sources that seem to fit together and paint a bigger picture. Of course, the unbounded richness of nature itself would always thwart any contention about ultimate truth with billions of local truths. Whatever we think the world is, there will always be exceptions, nuances, contradictions as the world is always growing, experimenting and coming into existence. But if we humans could start to roughly agree about what and why we are, it is our belief that our understanding of consciousness would aid and accelerate the development of an ever evolving humanity. To achieve that, we need to make human metaphysics accessible and actionable to a greater percentage of the population, using plain language, consistency, logic and storytelling as the main drivers. We will try to steer clear of too specific or overly complex academic discussions and seek to avoid the ‘battle of the isms’ that follow in the wake of any attempt to define or redefine the world. We will however seek to be as firm about our position as possible, although not being naive about the fact that we are sometimes operating on the fringes of what language, cognition, science and experience make possible.
An open source approach
Home of One seeks to approach these questions by adopting an open source framework. Open source, as we know the principle from software development: Ever evolving and in principle never complete. And open source, as in ‘open to source’, making itself available to universal consciousness itself. That’s why everything on these pages are versioned with open invitations to anyone who cares to engage, comment and help crowdsource forever improving future versions. But even if not a single person cares to contribute, and then indeed this would just be a home of one (lower case), the open source approach will still allow for continued improvement by the main author. It’s also a very concrete way of saying: We’re probably not completely right yet, but we’ll try to get closer. Most projects follow an eighty/twenty rule, meaning it takes twenty percent of the time and resources available to get to eighty percent completion. And the remaining eighty percent to get it done. Nothing is ever done, of course and for any individual to get even close to being just eighty percent accurate about the nature of the world it would likely take more than a lifetime. That’s why open source, and its principles of crowdsourcing, ‘shipping early’ and working on a ‘constant beta’, seem a more viable approach than never publishing.
Our lofty goal is a ‘Wikipedia for universal consciousness’, a deliberately naive approach, but also a worthy endeavor. Of course, Wikipedia is known to generally follow materialism, which is understandable as it’s currently the dominant worldview of our culture and also the standard view of mainstream science. In our case, as you will see below, we will however need to move beyond materialism, or the nature of consciousness and the world will forever escape us in its shallow metaphysics. This is also the reason why Home of One is not as open as Wikipedia but cautiously will moderate comments and eventually select skilled editors in due time. Comments are already open though, find the link above (click the ‘social version’).
Statistically speaking, the more qualified minds that participate in Home of One and the more relevant sources that are included, the closer to truth we should get. The internet is in itself a structure that mimics universal consciousness in the way that it holds individual pockets of knowledge and interaction, and at the same time it connects everything and everyone, storing vast records of insights. Never before have we had a better opportunity to gather, refine and evolve the understanding of what we are. And yet, never before has so much confusion, inequality, misinformation and suffering been surfaced. We must learn from and take that into account too.
Metaphysical idealism vs. dead-end materialism
It is our hope that Home of One will serve as a conversation piece and a sandbox for anyone interested in challenging their materialist worldview, seekers looking for the bigger picture, as well as metaphysical or consciousness development enthusiasts. However, Home of One is not the place for highly specialized or detailed accounts of anything. Again, think wide, not deep. We’re a catalyst, not the end destination. In our Academy we will try to connect people with further knowledge to aid them in their continued journey.
Home of One subscribes to a pragmatic form of idealism, a practical take on universal-consciousness-as-fundamental and guidelines on how to live fully and find peace in a post-secular materialist society. We don’t mind faith or the thorough study of the material world, but find the dogmas of both religion and materialism highly counterproductive, fear-based and deadly.
Perhaps the following table can bring some clarity on how the two general worldviews overall are different.
[FIGURE 1]
With this table it’s easy to see why you can never fully convince a diehard materialist about the basic concepts of idealism, as the rigorous demand for total objectivity and reproducibility completely rules out the very nature of the human condition: Humans are subjective entities, living in a subjective and experiential reality. And the deeper we get into the nature of that reality, the more subjective things tend to get and the further we go beyond the limits of cognition and language. That’s the reason some parts of metaphysics are so poorly expressed by science, and poetry, art or music often is the better choice. But experience is still the ultimate source of knowledge, as Feynman put it, and that is true for metaphysics as well (please refer to the various modalities of consciousness listed in our Academy to begin your own exploration).
Somewhere along the way of the rise and rise of materialism it was forgotten that objectivity is an illusory ideal. The key implications of quantum mechanics, in particular the role of the observer and nonlocality, were largely ignored. So was the empirical evidence that shows how consciousness prevails and sometimes thrives in the event of reduced or absent brain function. Even the replication crisis, where experiments can’t be replicated (link), is largely forgotten, probably because it’s hard to do something about. And where would materialism be without its ‘cornerstone of science’?
The best of both worlds: Pragmatic idealism
While it is a necessary effort to constantly remind materialism of its own shortcomings, the confrontation between materialism vs. idealism tends to be about what we can or cannot prove under the dogmatic standard view of science, which today still is the home turf of materialism. And since we’ve just seen that the very nature of idealism will not and cannot and should not conform to this limited worldview, this confrontation is unlikely to take us where we need to go, which is somewhere closer to the truth about our nature and the nature of the world.
A more pragmatic approach than the thesis/antithesis type of debate, is the synthesis approach where we try to get the best of both worlds, but also include a clear idea about which is more fundamental. The following model by Dean Radin elegantly brings more balance to the discussion:
[FIGURE 2]
In this pragmatic model the classical disciplines of science remain largely unscathed, except of course they now have to consider how they exist in consciousness. The major benefit of the integrated model is that we are free to study and define consciousness itself as fundamental and not as a byproduct of something else. This leads us to pragmatic idealism. A pragmatic idealist draws her conclusions about the world based on three types of data:
[FIGURE 3]
A pragmatic idealist welcomes the parts of materialism that are useful, i.e. when building a house, sending a rocket to Mars or providing valuable observations about the behavior of the material world. But knowing how something behaves is not the same as knowing what and why it is.
Pragmatic idealism simply integrates all the prevalent sources of data that make up the full human experience in consciousness. Then, and only then, are we remotely capable of piercing through the veil at the edge of our physical reality, into what lies beyond. The following model outlines how we will benefit from continually evolving objective and subjective knowledge to demystify our reality.
[FIGURE 4]
What we call mystery is simply natural wonder, not yet understood from our perspective in space and time, also known as spacetime. While we can never objectify each individual’s subjective perspective, the scientific collection and structuring of empirical data has indeed done great work in terms of mapping the world behind the veil, e.g. as seen with psychedelic research or near-death and out-of-body experiences. Nicola Tesla, one of the world’s greatest inventors, was on point when he predicted the following, except it will take longer than what he hoped for:
“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”
– Nicola Tesla
How useful fictions led us astray
“Physicists can make measurements, but cannot say anything about the essence of reality.”
– Anton Zeilinger, Nobel prize winner 2022 (source)“It is a mistake to think that the task of physics is to find out what nature is like. Physics is concerned with what we can say about nature.”
– Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate (source)
In 2022 three scientists, one of them Anton Zeilinger, won the Nobel prize in physics for quantum experiments that showed how physical entities have no standalone existence, but only arise from measurement. This shows that the primary level of reality, the thing that is measured in the first place, isn’t physical, which refutes materialism at its core. Scientific American wrote that the universe is not “locally real” (source), which from our immediate perspective seems completely counter-intuitive. It hurts when we bump the knee against the table, what could be more real than that?
However, quantum physics is just about the finest and most tried science there is, and we must consequently adjust our worldview to embrace its findings. Actual, or greater, reality must lie within the nonlocal domain then. But let's first look briefly at some of our general concepts of what makes up local reality in relation to matter and mind.
The nature of matter has been studied in great detail. With ever greater telescopes, microscopes, math and physics we looked both up and down and deeper into our world. Along the way we came up with useful fictions about the world that brought our understanding further along, until we got smarter and discarded them for new ones. Today we suffer in particular from one of those fictions, the Standard Model of particle physics, which posits that the world is made from elementary particles. It still serves as an inadequate foundation of the scientific disciplines and worldviews that were built upon it, despite the fact that it only accounts for 95 % of the universe and quantum physics have shown that the world is not made up of small particles of matter, but rather fields that only seem to ‘act’ like particles when measured. An electron, say, is an excitation of the electron field, like a small wave drifting on the surface of a lake. We arrived at this conclusion by reducing our reality into ever smaller parts until we found that at the root level, it seemed there was nothing there and yet, everything was there. A unified field that somehow was the source of everything in the material world and only become some-thing when it came into contact with consciousness. Everything we knew was not made up of tiny particles joined together by predictable forces but rather fields upon fields of unbounded potential. And regardless of how you set up measurement, an observer is required, making consciousness fundamental to matter.
Another useful fiction, this one related to the nature of mind, is the idea that non-conscious brain matter somehow is able to produce human consciousness, even though we under materialism can’t explain it. This is called ‘the hard problem of consciousness’ and for over a century materialist scientists have argued that we just need better brain scanners to see what’s going on. It is true that brain activity is correlated to conscious experience, but a pragmatic idealist will argue that’s about as naive as seeing the sun move across the sky and concluding that the sun must orbit the Earth. On the contrary, what shows up in brain scans are merely neural correlates to consciousness which exists beyond the brain. This is shown by a plethora of mounting empirical evidence from the vivid and ‘more real than real’ conscious experiences people account for when the function of their brain is reduced, impaired or absent, as seen with meditation, death, brain damage, illness and altered states of the brain/mind. This argues in favor of the filter or receiver hypothesis of the brain (source) that says that our brains merely filter and react to a larger conscious reality ‘out there’. When the function of, in particular, the so-called ‘default mode network’ of the brain is gradually weakened we experience more of this larger reality. Further evidence arises from the study of and the theory of evolution that shows how each species is biologically tuned mainly to the information about reality that is relevant for their fitness (i.e. ability to survive and reproduce). The way we experience reality is similar to a simplified virtual desktop on top of the underlying complex machine code of computers (Donald Hoffman), or the instrument dashboard of an airplane which allows the pilot to fly her plane entirely with a grossly simplified version of the larger reality (Bernardo Kastrup). In general, the deeper we pierce into the depths of mind, i.e. moving away from material reality and raising the quality of our awareness, the more of this larger reality we experience. Typically, the explorers and experiencers of expansive mind states who venture here describe a much larger and more profound reality than what is accessible with our mundane daily consciousness. This ‘hidden’ reality is typically experienced as hyper-real and filled with love, bliss and insights that explorers are generally unable to fully account for using the logic and language of the material world. Sometimes the expansive experiences are adverse or challenging, but even in those cases they are generally considered of high value due to the insights they provided.
Finally, a third useful fiction that deserves mention here, is the idea that time is absolute. Certainly most of us would argue that a minute is always the same, regardless of wherever and by whomever it is measured. After it has passed, another minute will always show up and pass, just like the one before it. The same goes for any unit of time, for all eternity, or at least since the Big Bang. However, several perspectives challenge this conventional understanding of time as an objective and continuous entity. Einstein showed us that time is merely a fourth dimension and that there is nothing special about the current moment – even the past and future are not always well defined. According to the tenets of general relativity and quantum mechanics, time lacks an inherent existence. Instead, it arises as a consequence of complex interactions among physical systems. The second argument comes from the ‘block universe theory’. Proponents of this theory assert that past, present, and future somehow coexist simultaneously. Our perception of time as a linear progression results from our subjective consciousness attempting to comprehend a four-dimensional reality. A third argument delves into the connection between time and entropy. The increase of entropy, associated with disorder, plays a crucial role in our subjective experience of time. As the second law of thermodynamics dictates the irreversible increase of entropy in closed systems, some propose that our perception of time is merely a consequence of this statistical behavior. Thus, time becomes an illusion, a construct stemming from the asymmetry created by the arrow of entropy.
It’s not difficult to see how these useful but flawed fictions help support and trap us in the materialist worldview. It’s time we finally look beyond them for a better and more useful narrative.
Piercing through the veil: Local vs. nonlocal
Many of our core ideas of matter and spacetime are practical and useful fictions, but they are decidedly illusory and prevent us from comprehending reality as it is. Something larger and more fundamental lies beyond the veil of what we immediately experience in this world of ours. Here’s a model of what’s going on:
[FIGURE 5]
At the surface of our local plane we experience both matter and mind. Humanity has done a lot of work to explore both areas of experience as already outlined. Each area has a local and a nonlocal domain that exist side by side, or rather, the local is embedded in the nonlocal. The local domain is the apparent reality system that most people call the world. But it is also known by other names, suggesting its illusory nature, most famously ‘maya’, the great magic illusion as coined by the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. In modern times it is sometimes referred to as ‘the holographic universe’. On these pages we just call it the practical illusion, because for all intents and purposes, it is very practically real, familiar and not very magical as seen from the viewpoint of most humans alive. It’s also something we need to be very pragmatic about in our daily lives to survive and thrive.
But when we go deep enough into both matter and mind, we depart from the domain of the local. We venture into the nonlocal realm that lies beyond. Nothing from the local domain has a real or fundamental presence here, as this is the domain of no-thing (not matter) and everything, the latter meaning everything-but-‘things’. The two domains are in various traditions also respectively referred to as form vs. beingness or the manifested vs. the unmanifested. Ever heard the saying, that the best things in life are not things at all? The nonlocal is the source of all things essential, love, bliss, insight. This source is One, the unbounded source of the unmanifested, universal consciousness. Imagining what the nonlocal is like with our daily consciousness is like a cell in your body imagining what you are like. And yet, people go ‘out there’ routinely by going inside through tried and tested modalities (a particular mode in which something exists or is experienced or expressed) of awareness.
This is not solipsism, my friend, the world of universal consciousness is very real. It’s not physical, but mental and only accessible via subjective experience, in some cases shared subjective experience. Don’t believe me? Start practicing any of the modalities mentioned in our Academy and you’ll eventually ‘see’ for yourself, likely with your eyes closed. Or read up on the excess of literature, videos and stories stored in our culture. Be a pragmatic idealist, at least just for the heck of it, and you will eventually start to warm up to the idea that nature is so much more than mundane and ‘meaningless’ particles put together for no apparent reason. The accounts of the nonlocal are more incredible, confusing, wondrous and sometimes terrifying than any Marvel movie. Everyone who ever ventured here returns with strong subjective experiences that permanently changed the trajectory of their lives. Tales of the nonlocal are always limited by the shortcomings of language, earthly cognition and the culture in which they were told. However, it is safe to say, judging from case studies, empirical data and subjective experience, that the nonlocal domain is the place of many reality systems and conscious agents of far greater consciousness and development than our own. And yet, everything is truly One, as these systems and agents are intrinsically connected with us, although this fact escapes humanity on a profound level.
Venturing into space strapped to a rocket is such an incredibly inefficient way to search for other worlds and lifeforms in universal consciousness. The treasure is waiting just behind the veil of our mundane dimension of spacetime. There’s a reason practically all cultures have had harsh coming-of-age initiation rituals that often led to perceived death before actual death. Some of them were so brutal that actual death actually occurred. Add to this most cultures’ use of mind-altering (or should we say ‘brain-reducing’) plant medicines that in one form or another simulates dying-before-death. We’ve departed with most of the rituals in our modern world, which has estranged us from pain and fear as transformative experiences. However, it’s safe to say there’s a psychedelic renaissance going on in most parts of the world right now, and we’re better for it. It’s a proven way to heal and expand consciousness, especially when it is combined with other modalities such as self-inquiry, metaphysical studies and meditation.
With a deeper understanding of the local vs. nonlocal interplay going on in universal consciousness, it’s also clear that most of what materialism calls paranormal phenomena, such as clairvoyance, precognition, remote viewing, distant healing, out-of-body experiences, telepathy etc. can simply just be considered … normal. On Home of One we don’t go much into these phenomena, but their commonality (source) suggests that the veil between local and nonlocal is not an absolute boundary, but rather it seems the nonlocal is weaved into our perceived local world, so close that we can ‘touch it with our eyelashes’ (paraphrasing Swedenborg), or, rather, our individual awareness, when only we know how. It’s unclear how the actual dynamics work, but from the perspective of material life on Earth, the nonlocal is best viewed as an umbrella-term for real but non-physical or currently non-apparent reality systems. It is also a delivery system for accessing information and/or energy through and from those realms, including the local.
However captivating and alluring the nonlocal domain sounds for any Earthling, whatever we can and will learn from it, must be integrated and serve as guidelines in the local domain for us to benefit from it. After all, there must be a higher meaning with us all being temporarily trapped in this reductive local reality. Why did we come here? And why did universal consciousness, this unbounded source of all that is manifest and unmanifest, go to the incredible lengths of creating the local domain of spacetime? After all, even though nature constantly experiments, it rarely sustains anything that serves no purpose for its continued evolution.
Ever noticed how fixated kids are on the concepts of infinity and eternity? First of all, they just came from there, so there is that (see the later chapter about reincarnation). But, secondly, it’s not hard to imagine where the interest comes from on a much more profound level. It’s the very question from unbounded universal consciousness itself: What and why am I, when I am everything and nothing at the same time? That question can only be answered from the perspective of apparent limitations. One spontaneously created our limited realm to experience this infinity, supposedly by what we normally consider the Big Bang. Spacetime is a timely and limited realm for understanding eternity and infinity. A world of form to experience the formless, a world of time to experience the timeless. A ‘thing’ can’t be all things, and yet the sum of or absence of all things helps us understand the possibility of both every-thing and no-thing (I’m using ‘things’ broadly to mean everything with form, including objects, matter, concepts, thoughts, ideas etc.). We can only truly experience wholeness through fragmentation. For whatever One is, it is also that which it is not.
That’s the essence of the wonderful and agonizing dualistic game of life we partake in here on Earth. The world is the drama of universal consciousness (paraphrasing Hindu philosophy). And also the comedy, the thriller, the romance and the tragedy. But I don’t mean to imply that universal consciousness thinks and makes decisions like humans do. Rather it is probably more like a spontaneous, intuitive, unbounded intelligent force that goes so far beyond anything we can ever even imagine, even if we tried for thousands of years (and we have!). And for much, much longer, literally since before the dawn of time itself, One has been working, playing, suffering and dreaming through the eons to manifest itself here on Earth and in untold numbers of other reality systems too.
You, a holon within holons
What we need to know is that we are here on Earth to serve by helping universal consciousness know itself through an endless variety of ever evolving forms. All forms point to the formless whole with a thousand fingers. You are yourself a form of a billion forms. And you are embedded as a form within billions of forms. From parts within parts, to systems within systems, and all the way up to worlds within worlds, and solar systems within galaxies. Universes within universes and possibly beyond? Each form is a whole, and yet made up of parts. Arthur Koestler coined the term ‘holon’ to describe this phenomena:
[FIGURE 6]
A very similar figure is presented with some more details by cosmologist Martinus (link).
Everything in nature has this fractal quality where you can zoom in or out, seemingly forever. Once nature has found a design pattern that’s elegant, effective and easily reproducible it uses it everywhere. That’s why microscopic brain scan images show a striking similarity with macroscopic image simulations of astronomical cosmology, many light years across (source).
You probably don’t pay much attention to a single cell in your body or microbiome, but perhaps you should. Because you yourself are such a singular cell in much larger bodies, namely your family, community, city and ecosystem, planet, solar system, universe, and ultimately universal consciousness. It’s both fascinating and humbling, and also the cure for our deadly delusion that we’re at the top of the food chain. That’s not to say that you’re insignificant, on the contrary! Nature needs you, because it is you. Whenever a holon does not perform according to its intended purpose, the holons that it is part of, suffer from it too. And vice versa, whenever the larger holons suffer, it hurts the smaller holons it is made up of. Most holons in nature have an intuitive understanding, or at least innate behavior, that reflects the importance of this mutual interdependence. Except of course us humans, who largely treat both our bodies and our environment with contempt and disregard for our role and place in nature. If we consider humans the brain cells of Earth, truly we are a deranged and subversive species with an incredible talent for bodily self-harm. But we’re not failing as long as we’re still trying, learning and growing. There is hope.
Apart from the fractal nature of holons, physicists have argued that the universe has a hologram-like structure (source). A holographic structure entails that each fragment of the structure contains some of the data of the whole, but only from the perspective of the fragment. There will be loss of detail as one descends to ever smaller fragments of the whole, but partial approximations of the original data will always be carried through. Individual human consciousness is such a fragment of the whole, universal consciousness, with the unique ability to defragment and partially reintegrate with the whole through meditation, altered states, near death experiences etc. This allows us to access more of the whole data structure than what is contained inside the individual fragment, the dissociated self.
Mapping the whole mind
With the understanding that the world essentially is mental and the understanding of holons and holograms as universal design principles it becomes logical to look for models of our own psyche – both to guide the exploration of our individual and collective minds, but also as a possible model for universal consciousness. After all, why would our own minds not be modeled after the universal mind, at least in part? And surely our individual ‘mind fragments’ must contain at least some information about the whole.
C. G. Jung has provided us with the following map of the human mind:
[FIGURE 7]
We won’t go too deep into Jung, but use his map as inspiration for our own inquiry and highlight a few of his key concepts.
Jung talked about individuation, which is the process of psychological development and self-realization. It involves integrating unconscious elements of the psyche, such as the shadow and archetypes, into conscious awareness. Individuation ultimately leads to a sense of wholeness, authenticity, and the realization of one's unique purpose, ultimately fostering personal growth and transformation.
Any journey of consciousness development begins with recognizing the illusory and deceitful nature of the ego, that hides behind the shallow persona we show the world. Under the ego lies the personal unconscious and the shadow that the ego doesn’t want you to look at. Jung's concept of the shadow refers to the unconscious aspects of an individual's personality that they deny or repress. It encompasses undesirable qualities and impulses that are suppressed due to societal norms, personal fears, shame, trauma, and repression. Integrating the shadow involves recognizing, accepting, and integrating these hidden aspects to achieve psychological wholeness and self-awareness.
The shadow is a complex in the personal unconscious with its roots in the collective unconscious and is the complex most easily accessible to the conscious mind. That’s why many people doing shadow work, e.g. beating addiction or working with personal trauma, often go through their personal darkness only to find themselves arriving closer to greater consciousness and feeling kinship with One. This is the twofold meaning of becoming whole: First, accepting and integrating all parts of one’s self, and secondly, reaching and integrating the embodied knowledge that we are One. The self is (part of) the One.
On the journey of doing shadow work, people usually come across archetypes, which are recognizable cultural patterns, perceived as entities. They either guide or challenge the traveler, sometimes both. The collective unconscious and its archetypes can only be made possible by the information delivery system of the nonlocal, e.g. ‘the whole mind’ that is humanity. The journey’s end goal is generally referred to as that of enlightenment or awakening, and the dynamics of this process are described in much more detail in Volume III of Book of One (link).
Individuation and becoming whole
At the end of the journey of individuation, where realistically only few will ever arrive, is the essential self, which from a metaphysical perspective is a dissociated part of One’s own Self, the essential part (holon) of the essential whole.
T. S. Eliot wrote (excerpt from ‘The Little Gidding’):
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-treeNot known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always--
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
It’s a striking description of enlightenment, where finally the self rejoins One through complete individuation. “Costing not less than everything”, i.e. death or ego death, is usually the price that people must pay. What they lose is merely everything they are not. We are not our physical bodies, or the illusory ego, or the stories of what happened to us. What remains after they are gone is the core subjective field, our consciousness, that forever is and will be us.
Even though complete enlightenment may seem too distant a target for most people, every little step enables the traveler to gain perspective, grow their strength and acquire the skills needed to take ever larger steps. The deeper a person goes into their shadow, the brighter the light of consciousness will eventually shine in them. With this in mind, it’s almost comical, or perhaps tragic, to see how much our culture generally shunts most forms of shadow work. We fear all forms of pain and suffering, some of us to the point where we would rather die than get to the source of our being. Materialism provides us with adequate distractions up to a point but it will never be sustainable or balanced, as The Sevenfold Crisis also shows (this will be explored in more detail at a later point). At some point, most people will begin to wonder and start looking for answers or alternatives. When this happens, the motivation is usually driven by suffering more than curiosity, leading most people to seek the more enjoyable or pleasurable areas of consciousness development: Love, peace, joy etc. This is known as ‘spiritual bypassing’ and will actually just prolong the fragmentation that prompted the search in the first place.
The model below (source unknown, please let us know of its author), outlines the paradigms of fragmentation vs. wholeness. Only by recognizing that all emotions are equally important to experience in full, can one become whole. In fact, each end of the spectrum, the good and the bad, are mutually dependent on each other to even exist. Welcome everything, accept it all without judgment or resistance but avoid both craving and aversion. Only then will you have a chance of becoming whole. Only then will you move through and grow from every gift and task life offers you. Nothing is final, remember, your life on Earth is a practical illusion so you might as well face it all right now. The longer you wait, the more your suffering will grow, accumulate and probably spill over into those close to you.
[FIGURE 8]
As Rumi put it: “The cure for the pain is in the pain”. Get in there, my friend, but make sure to take precautions. Get help, do your research, identify the right process, and create the space and conditions for healing. The word purgatory comes from a Late Latin verb meaning ‘to cleanse’ and purge shares the same root. What happens in the purgatory of life is that everything that is not you simply burns away. It is purged from your mind and body. Fire is one of the most transformative forces in nature, it both warms us, feeds us and burns away the old to create room for the new. Sounds a bit scary? Sure, but whenever you don’t do the work, you usually leave it to others, namely the people closest to your heart. Start small, but start. Increase the quality of your intent every day and put it to good use. We promise you that eventually you will realize that “the fire and the rose are one”, as Eliot’s undying words express it.
Be kind, we're all learners
News flash: None of your material possessions will make it to the afterlife. Both the ancient Egyptians and the vikings tried with their overstocked tombs and failed. The only thing you bring with you is experience, the growth in your consciousness. The self work you do now is the seed you plant for future lifetimes. After death you will wake up from the practical illusion of your life on Earth. You have returned to greater reality. The dissociation is lifted and you are with One again. Whatever learning you acquired is the gift that you bring with you. It is offered to the whole of One and every contribution is cherished. Your growth journey will not stop there, however, it will be forever.
It’s beneficial to remember that everyone and everything is invariably at different stages of growth. Itzhak Bentov came up with the following model to describe this:
[FIGURE 9]
The first bell curve shows the distribution of consciousness in the current population. In the middle is the majority and norm. To the left is the less developed minority, e.g. closer to our ancestors. To the right is the most developed minority. He argued that many of them would be locked up or put in asylums, as they struggled to integrate their level of consciousness within the norm of the majority. For context it should be mentioned that it is only a few decades since clinical psychology even came up with guidelines for identifying spiritual awakening. Chances are, if you had a spontaneous spiritual awakening half a century ago, you would risk being force medicated or put in a straightjacket. However, some would succeed with their integration in the societal norm and often use their lives for the benefit of collective consciousness. The idea of Bentov’s model is that our species is constantly evolving in consciousness, whether we like it or not. It simply follows from the dynamics of One's grand development project, we might as well embrace it wholeheartedly.
Surely, most people, or at least their egos, would probably argue that they should be placed on the most evolved side of the curve, and in a way we all are! Because we are all at the peak of our personal development, some have just done more self work than others and are on a different trajectory. In other words, we are always at the level that we have worked to get to. Unfortunately, we cannot simply jump ahead or skip any of the immediate steps in our development. And that’s not the point either. Because there is no end goal, only the endless journey of evolution. Every step is a prerequisite for the next one, like an endless ladder of growth. Everyone is at their current level for a reason, namely to grow exactly there and then. Find peace in this fact, and you will be at peace with everyone on the planet, including yourself. Be kind, we’re all learners. No one is stuck, they just need to do the work. Have patience, help them grow and you will help yourself. They are you, in fact, there are no others (paraphrasing Ramana Maharshi).
Jung said there are no coincidences. There’s a growth plan right in front of you that most likely has absolutely nothing to do with whatever materialist society is demanding of you. The map lies hidden deep in your heart, listen to it, and you will find direction. Walk this way and the way appears (paraphrasing Rumi). You’re not supposed to know what happens to you, until it does. Celebrate the mystery, the journey, the love and the suffering. Nothing that is meant for you in this life is more than you can handle. Life itself wants you to succeed. It will sometimes seem overwhelming, but only until you rise above. And if you want to grow faster, get smart and serious about it. Make it your mission in life. Perhaps you will then consider an even more challenging incarnation next time and take one for the team. Chances are, where humanity is headed, the easy options will soon be in short supply anyway. You might as well up your game starting now.
The relationship between One and I
Let’s explore how the relationship between universal consciousness and individual subjects is structured. Here we will summarize five such frameworks that are all relatively similar in their anatomy but come from very different sources: Bernardo Kastrup’s analytical idealism, Thomas Campbell’s larger consciousness system, Martinus’ cosmology, Advaita Vedanta’s ancient philosophy and Donald Hoffman’s conscious realism.
1 Bernardo Kastrup’s analytical idealism
Philosopher and computer scientist Bernardo Kastrup (1974-), PhD PhD, proposes a unique, coherent and detailed perspective on the organization of the relationship between universal and human consciousness. According to him, consciousness is the fundamental fabric of reality, organized by three key principles: dissociation, transpersonal structures, and intentionality. Dissociation allows for the experience of separate minds, while underlying interconnectedness and unity is retained. The transpersonal structures facilitate shared experiences and collective phenomena. Through intentionality, individuals actively participate in the creative unfolding of reality.
Kastrup sees each individual, as well as all other living organisms, as an individual ‘alter’ of the universal mind. It is a term adopted from the psychology of dissociative identity disorder, where the one universal subject of consciousness fragments into multiple disjoint centers of subjectivity. Universal consciousness is structured in a similar way, where all alters are the same mind, and yet has no direct access to the inner life of the other alters as they are separated by a dissociative boundary.
“We, and all other living organisms, are surrounded by the transpersonal phenomenal activity of universal consciousness, which unfolds beyond the dissociative boundary of our respective alter. The inanimate world we perceive around us is the extrinsic appearance—i.e. the phenomenal image imprinted from across our dissociative boundary—of this activity. The living organisms we share the world with are the extrinsic appearances of other alters.” (source)
What we experience as the body of another person, is simply the outer appearance of an alter. The inanimate world around us is the outer appearance of the transpersonal activity of universal consciousness. When you experience the world, you experience universal consciousness. There is no experiencing universal consciousness apart from the world. Beyond the world to experience universal consciousness is to be universal consciousness (paraphrasing Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj that Kastrup often quotes).
Furthermore, Kastrup explores the concept of intentionality, the capacity of consciousness to be directed toward objects and experiences. He argues that intentionality arises from the inherent creativity and self-expression of universal consciousness. Each individual mind, as a dissociated expression of universal consciousness, possesses the power to shape its subjective reality through intentionality, thereby participating in the ongoing creative process of the universe.
Kastrup argues that metabolism is the prerequisite of life to uphold the dissociated alter. Once metabolism stops, e.g. at death, the alter re-associates back into the universal mind. Again, we see a holon-like structure, where each alter is universal mind. Just as a hologram contains information from the entire image within each fragment, individual minds hold within them the potential for accessing (some of) universal consciousness. This structure implies that every aspect of the cosmos reflects the whole, and each mind contains the potential for infinite interconnectedness and knowledge.
It is worth noting that Kastrup holds PhD degrees in both computer science and philosophy. His interest in philosophy of mind and the nature of reality came in part from working with artificial intelligence at CERN and Philips.
2 Thomas W. Campbell’s larger consciousness system
A similar framework comes from physicist and consciousness researcher, Thomas Campbell (1944-), PhD, who presents a comprehensive perspective on universal consciousness. Campbell's view suggests that consciousness is the fundamental fabric of reality, and all beings are interconnected within a larger consciousness system. He proposes that our individual experiences and reality are derived from a virtual reality system, similar to a computer simulation.
According to Campbell, consciousness is evolving and learning through experience. By making choices based on love, cooperation, and personal growth, individuals contribute to the evolution of consciousness. Campbell emphasizes the importance of reducing fear, ego, and self-centeredness to align with higher consciousness.
He introduces the concept of ‘the larger consciousness system’, which encompasses all realms of existence. This system is conscious and intelligent, and it interacts with individuals through various means, such as dreams, intuition, and synchronicities (the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significant). Through personal exploration and developing a connection with the larger consciousness system, individuals can expand their understanding of reality and their place within it.
Campbell suggests that the ultimate purpose of existence is to evolve and increase the quality of consciousness. By cultivating a state of love, compassion, and selflessness, individuals can contribute to their own growth and the overall evolution of consciousness. He encourages open-mindedness, skepticism, and the scientific exploration of consciousness to gain deeper insights into the nature of reality.
Overall, Campbell's perspective on universal consciousness emphasizes the interconnectedness of all beings, the significance of personal growth and choices, and the continuous evolution of consciousness. His ideas encourage individuals to embrace a loving and open-hearted approach to life, while exploring the deeper nature of reality and their own consciousness.
It is worth noting that Campbell’s insights came both from extensive out of body explorations, as well as his academic training in physics and professional work with NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense.
3 Martinus’s cosmology
Another framework comes from Martinus (1890-1981), a Danish mystic and author on consciousness and cosmology. His thoughts on universal consciousness centers on the idea of interconnectedness and the evolution of consciousness through spiritual development. His cosmology offers a holistic view of existence and provides a practical roadmap for individuals seeking personal growth and a deeper understanding of their place within the cosmic consciousness.
In Martinus' worldview, consciousness is seen as the fundamental essence of existence, and all manifestations, including physical reality, are expressions of this universal consciousness. He proposes that consciousness evolves through a process of reincarnation and spiritual development.
Martinus emphasizes the principles of love, empathy, and compassion as the driving forces behind spiritual growth. He believes that the purpose of life is to expand consciousness and reach higher levels of understanding, leading to greater unity and harmony within the cosmic consciousness.
His cosmology also explores concepts such as karma, the interconnectedness of all life forms, and the existence of multiple dimensions beyond the physical realm. Martinus sought to provide a comprehensive framework that integrated logical, philosophical, and spiritual perspectives into a unified understanding of universal consciousness.
According to Martinus, universal consciousness is a living whole. He sees consciousness as that which controls the evolution of life – including biological evolution. The various species are rooted on the spiritual plane, and emerge, manifest their lives and evolve on the basis of what is possible on the physical plane. For humans this takes place as a struggle for existence. Man is regarded as a living being that has evolved from an animal stage. This evolution will continue as our evolution towards becoming human beings is incomplete. We lack the experiences that will develop various faculties in us, including sympathy, tolerance, social understanding and an ethical sense. In the long term this will lead to a just and all-loving world society.
It is worth noting that Martinus had very little formal schooling and that his very comprehensive and consistent cosmology and analysis (many thousands of pages) was developed mostly in an information vacuum, through direct contact with the nonlocal domain.
4 Advaita Vedanta’s ancient philosophy
The most prominent historical framework comes from Advaita Vedanta, a prominent school of Hindu philosophy. According to Advaita Vedanta (which means ‘non secondness’ or ‘non duality’), the ultimate reality, referred to as Brahman, is a formless, limitless, and universal consciousness that pervades everything in the universe.
In Advaita Vedanta, the individual self, known as Atman, is considered to be identical to Brahman. It asserts that the true nature of each individual is the same as the universal consciousness. However, due to ignorance, individuals mistakenly identify themselves with their limited body and mind, leading to a sense of separateness and suffering.
The goal of Advaita Vedanta is to realize the non-dual nature of reality and attain liberation from the cycle of birth and death. This realization is achieved through self-inquiry and the direct experience of one's true nature as pure consciousness.
Advaita Vedanta also emphasizes the illusory nature of the phenomenal world (maya). It suggests that the physical world and individual identities are temporary manifestations of Brahman, appearing distinct due to the play of maya. The ultimate reality is considered to be beyond all dualities and concepts.
The philosophy of Advaita Vedanta advocates for transcending individual ego and merging with the universal consciousness. It teaches that the realization of one's true nature as Brahman brings about liberation, inner peace, and the dissolution of suffering.
Advaita Vedanta is usually assigned multiple sources of origin. Philosopher and theologian Shankara (ca. 700-750 a.d.) is considered a renowned exponent of its philosophy, from whose doctrines the main currents of modern Indian thought are derived. There are stories indicating that he may have had nonlocal access to universal information.
5 Donald Hoffman’s conscious realism
In Donald Hoffman (b. 1955) presents a groundbreaking worldview, conscious realism, which is a form of idealism. Drawing from the realms of cognitive psychology, quantum physics, and evolutionary biology, Hoffman's ideas provide a framework that sheds new light on the nature of spacetime, perception, and fundamental reality.
Incorporating insights from general relativity, Hoffman suggests that spacetime, traditionally considered a foundational aspect of reality, might be an emergent property rather than a fundamental building block. General relativity itself introduces the concept of spacetime curvature due to mass and energy, opening the door to the idea that spacetime's manifestation could be secondary to a deeper, more abstract level of existence.
Quantum field theory, a cornerstone of modern physics, supports Hoffman's perspective by highlighting the probabilistic nature of particles and fields. This probabilistic behavior aligns with his notion that evolution favors fitness over accuracy in our perception of reality. The probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics further underscores the plausibility that our sensory experiences have evolved to serve a survival-driven purpose rather than providing a direct mirror of fundamental reality.
Moreover, Hoffman's worldview is strengthened by the principles of evolution by natural selection. Organisms that have a more accurate representation of reality may not necessarily have a survival advantage over those with perceptual shortcuts that prioritize fitness. Therefore, if our perceptions are geared towards survival and reproduction rather than a precise depiction of reality, it supports the notion that consciousness is a fundamental and integral aspect of the universe.
While Hoffman's ideas challenge mainstream materialism, they are grounded in the existing tapestry of scientific understanding. By weaving together concepts from cognitive psychology, quantum physics, and evolutionary biology, his framework paints a compelling portrait of a universe where consciousness is absolutely fundamental and spacetime is ‘doomed’ as he puts it.
Donald Hoffman is a professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, with joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science.
Other sources that are relevant to pragmatic idealism include (in no particular order) hermeticism, theosophy, perennial philosophy, Christian Sundberg, Emmanuel Schwedenborg, Meister Eckhart, Rupert Spira, Eckhart Tolle, Eben Alexander, Michael A. Singer, Joe Dispenza, Alan Watts, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Rupert Sheldrake and more. We choose to be fairly high-level in our worldview, reflected in our manifesto, so individuals can explore further and add their own personal flavor. Please consult our Whole Mind Catalog for even more inspiration.
Even if this site talks solely about consciousness in the human condition it’s important always to remember that humans not in the least are the only factor influencing the world. ‘Mind at large’ is a term often used to mean the contents of universal consciousness that are not contained within the sum of all human alters and it is overwhelmingly larger than the totality of humanity.
Some dynamics of karma, reincarnation and free will
“What we do now echoes in eternity.”
– Marcus Aurelius
What happens when we die? Nothing, says materialism, except the end of suffering, which probably is its greatest selling point. However, it is clear this cannot be the case from what we’ve already learned. With idealism consciousness transcends singular human lives and we are all here to develop it together. Thus, we have to talk about the mechanics of two central concepts: karma, reincarnation and free will.
Karma is the concept that the intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). This can be understood on several levels:
Personal: Whatever you do now, will affect you later. Clean your place, or don’t. Study or don’t study. Argue with your neighbor, or don't. Exercise, or don’t. Spread love or not etc.
Collective: On a broader level, the way we organize all aspects of human life and enterprise, from political systems to communal or organizational structures to family values and legacy, deeply affect our collective future.
Quantum: Quantum physics experiments show that consciousness literally co-creates our physical reality and it is only logical to assume that the intent behind our contribution matters, also when co-creation happens sub- or non-consciously. We basically live in a world that reflects the quality of our intent.
Metaphysical: In many karmic traditions it is believed that karma is passed on to the future self via reincarnation, which makes perfect sense with the transpersonal development perspective of universal consciousness. It is already well known that e.g. trauma is passed on via DNA, why wouldn’t there be a similar structure governing consciousness? The idea is usually that what you gave in life, you will be receiving next time around. A condensed version of this typically happens immediately after death in the ‘life review’ (more below).
For all levels of karma it is true that the quality of our intent and actions constantly will influence the reality we live in. Realizing that we are all one leads to the basic concept of always giving to others, rather than taking. This method of exchange is summed up with the so-called ‘golden rule’: Treat others as you would like others to treat you. Karma makes sure the same also goes for the opposite: You reap what you sow.
If others are you in universal consciousness, why would you ever take from yourself and not give? It’s nonsensical under idealism but not under materialism: Only in a paradigm, where we see ourselves as separate entities competing for finite resources, do the concepts of ‘survival of the fittest’ and the private ownership model of capitalism make sense.
Reincarnation is the idea that consciousness is eternal, or at least that it doesn’t die after the physical body has perished (discarnation). At some point, the individual unit of consciousness, or parts of it, is reborn in a new physical body. Empirical data from 2,500 interviews of children with past life memories, indicates that reincarnation happens after 16 months on average (source). Remember that time is likely very different or nonexistent in the post-material, or nonlocal, realm, so all sorts of things could be happening there for virtually eons and most likely they do.
The evidence of past life memories definitely requires the experience of an alter or a unit of consciousness to continue to exist after bodily death, at least in part. This idea is substantiated by thousands of near death experiences on record, where memory and consciousness is kept, at least in part. If this is the case it makes a lot of sense to invest heavily in personal growth whenever possible. But even if each alter is simply dispersed into universal consciousness and future alters are created from the universal pool of experience, it still makes sense to develop the self in one’s current lifetime, as it will only increase the quality of the pool.
A 1975 study conducted by psychiatrist Raymond Moody on around 150 patients who all claimed to have witnessed an NDE stated that such an experience has nine steps:
Sudden peace and relief from pain.
Perception of a relaxing sound or other-worldly music.
Consciousness or spirit ascending above the person's body, sometimes remotely viewing medical professionals' attempts at resuscitation (autoscopy).
The person's spirit leaves the earthly realm and ascends rapidly through a tunnel of light in a universe of darkness.
Arriving at a brilliant "heavenly place."
Being met by "people of the light," who are usually deceased friends and family, in a joyous reunion.
Meeting with a deity* that is often perceived as their religious culture would have perceived them, or as an intense mass emitting pure love and light.
In the presence of the deity, the person undergoes an instantaneous life review and understands how all the good and bad they have done has affected them and others.
The person returns to their earthly body and life, because either they are told it is not their time to die, or they are given a choice and they return for the benefit of their family and loved ones.
(source)
*) At Home of One we simply view the concept of deities as advanced conscious agents and/or archetypes.
Another useful and more elaborate framework is Bruce Greyson’s NDE scale (link).
In the case of finite death, it is assumed that a similar process happens, except of course the final step. Seminal scientific studies on mediumship seem to indicate as much. The life review is described by many both as the notorious ‘life flashing before their eyes’ but also the ability to experience the feelings and sensations that they caused others to have in their life. It is not surprising that most people who return after such a review change their lives to mainly focus on learning how to love more and better. We should learn from them and heed our karma.
A good and consistent introduction to what happens in the afterlife, or should we say life between lives, comes from Christian Sundberg who claims to remember (link). There’s also a site collecting pre-birth experiences, or PBEs here. It seems to be the consensus that each alter chooses their parents before reincarnating, so as to get the best training grounds for whatever one wants to develop further in consciousness. How well or how badly it goes is determined by the quality of their intent, choices and actions, meaning that each life is offered as a field of opportunity to develop, with the given advantages and obstacles of that particular life, but not predetermined by destiny. If it was, intent would have little or no purpose, granting us no development space. Again, these dynamics make sense as a decentralized and crowdsourced system of organizing the large-scale development of both individual and universal consciousness. Ever heard the saying that goes something like ‘accept every moment as if you’ve chosen it?’. Well, you have. Surrendering to this fact is by far the most effective way to forgive your parents, your life situation, and ultimately yourself for having chosen the challenges you face.
We’ve talked about intent, choice and causality which leads to the age old question of free will vs. determinism. Are we free to choose for ourselves in life – or is everything determined beforehand by a greater power, logic or system? If everything is determined how can you have free will? And without free will, how can we experience and learn from ‘our’ actions? Under idealism we are all integral to the same subjective force, universal consciousness. Despite the fragmentation, dissociation and amnesia that only seemingly separates us from One, we are one. So, where does this leave us in relation to free will?
The whole concept of consciousness development and evolution will simply not work without the dynamics of intent, action, consequence and subsequent learning. However, the developmental impulse or trajectory we get from universal consciousness (of which we part) – often referred to as intuition, a calling, a daimon etc. – is the ‘brief’ we’re left with. It is not set in stone or determined. It is also not detailed or concrete. It is largely unmanifested, a vague and unattainable ideal. This leaves us with what I and others call a ‘decision space’: An opportunity to follow and act upon your intuition (or not) and how to follow it (or not). As discussed, One is likely not metaconscious (conscious that it is conscious), but we are, and One learns with us by following our trajectory.
A very simplistic, but useful, image of this dynamic is that of a very old tree in the forest. It’s always been there, no one knows what kind it is, where it came from or how old it is. It seems beyond time itself. Every year it grows these lovely fruits. Does each fruit have free will? Not in the sense that a fruit can be a different kind of fruit or species, like a bird. It also can’t live on another tree. But by living according to its true nature and facing its actual environment, it can strive to be the most ideal fruit possible. The ideal is unreachable and will always stretch far beyond the imagination of both the tree and the fruit. If the fruit struggles against its nature, it will become a poor fruit. And yet, a fruit that struggles with a tough environment, such as a lack of sun or nourishment, can still be a formidable fruit because it became this way despite its surroundings.
One is like the tree, something that is and has always been. We don’t know what it is and it doesn't know what it is. It is the only being there is and everything there is. It is infinite and beyond time. We are like the fruits that grow out of this being. We are only free to fulfill our individual ‘fruit-ness’ that evolves and reaches for an ideal that is never stagnant or finite. Or we can try to act against nature at our own peril. This is what’s happening under materialism and our egos will surely burn brightly when nature finally kicks our asses, although it may take several lifetimes. Our environment influences our decision space and our growth space. Right now materialism is mainly a subversive factor to us as very little of materialist culture is conducive to our true idealist nature. Saying yes to our true nature requires a departure from materialism, or we will continue to be strange fruits indeed. Life is not about us, it is about everything, that which we are part of.
“I submit to you that the meaning of life has nothing to do with making ‘free’ choices, as if such freedom were somehow distinct from the necessity of making said choices. The meaning of life has to do with paying attention to what is going on, observing the dance of existence, taking it in, reflecting, bearing witness. This is humanity’s service to nature, not the egomaniacal delusion of individual agency. Only when you truly see this, will you be free in the only way that holds water: the freedom to allow yourself to be what you cannot help but be, and to choose to do what nature demands.”
– Bernardo Kastrup (source)
We are all participating in the wonderful, thrilling, exhausting and dangerous learning game of life. We chose it, now let’s play with everything we’ve got. It’ll be over before we know it and then you get to play again. But you can’t go back to change each game, once it is over. So remember to exercise the highest possible quality of intent, especially when you face big challenges in life.
Axiomatic summary: Pragmatic idealism
The summary of this volume (II), along with volume III, is already contained in our Manifesto (Volume I). So here we’ll present a list of the main axioms stated in this volume. Axioms are statements or propositions which are regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true.
Please remember that we are pragmatic idealists, not materialist skeptics. Absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence. You don’t have to believe anything, just open yourself to the possibility of the idealist worldview, begin practicing consciousness development as outlined in Volume III, or find a suitable rabbit hole in our Academy to disappear in. At some point, given proper effort and attention, you may begin to know. Or, if you so choose, you can always continue your life as a skeptic.
Consciousness is fundamental, spacetime is a practical illusion.
Nature is experimental and parsimonious, so spacetime must have a purpose.
Individual consciousness does not die when the body dies.
Individual consciousness is (part of) universal consciousness.
Experience develops consciousness and is the only true capital.
Spacetime is a platform for growing individual consciousness.
Both negative and positive experiences are required for growth.
Decision space and causality are necessary for our learning experience.
Choosing love changes the world for ourselves and others positively.
Choosing fear changes the world for ourselves and others negatively.
We chose to come here in this life to develop and grow consciousness.
The world is a reflection of us, alters and mind at large.
Editorial note: The Book of One is currently being developed further and will grow to reflect universal consciousness in ever greater detail and accuracy. Home of One grows through open source, get involved.
Explore further
Volume I: Manifesto: The ‘life manual’ they forgot to give you, and the greatest story ever told. A short narrative outline of the nature of reality and why you are here.
Volume III: Development is a practical guide of how to develop your consciousness. Recommended for anyone looking to create inner peace and find purpose in life.
Academy sources relevant methods for training your consciousness, as well as further teachings to explore.
Become a member to receive all volumes as an ebook and join our community.
Coming later: Essays on The Sevenfold Crisis and how development in consciousness can solve it.