The Mystery of Consciousness 

If there is a road from Mathematics to Consciousness, it won't be from
mathematics as it is ordinarily understood (if at all). At earlier levels,
you were reminded of the limits of mathematics and you were taught that
reductionism and holism are complementary methods. To get a grasp on
consciousness, both methods are necessary and neither one is sufficient.
Their synthesis is elusive, but we can learn from nature, and in particular
from her universal longing and striving and then from the way she coordinates
these actions into intelligent-seeming structures. But there is more.

One must realize, or just believe, that there really is something big going
on behind the scenes which our complementary viewpoints cannot fathom.
Great art can be a portal to this transcendent immanence. Great religions
teach the paradox directly, but with hard to control results.

In the Tao te Ching, Lao-tzu teaches how to flourish with nature, but he never
proves that she is really out there. His precepts are not convincing if you can not
even sense Nature's Way. With Christianity, we are impressed with a huge story
to convince us that indeed, there are vast powers "out there" and even within us.
And then we are told to live our lives in ways similar to what Lao-tzu prescribed.
Christianity was tailor made for the mind-set of people whose relationship with their
environment was quite different from that of the Chinese of Lao-tzu's day 500 years
earlier. It is worth pondering, how these different mind-sets arose. For Lao-tzu's
people, the Tao was taken for granted and only its mysterious ways needed to be
interpreted. Native American Indians had a similar religion. Christianity developed
within a radically different mind-set that questioned the existence of God and
distrusted nature. It therefore founded its faith on miracles.

Today, we are beyond miracle plays and are ready for direct knowledge.
We can now prove that truth is beyond appearances and (thanks to Kurt Gödel)
we know that truth is beyond programming. So here we are with all of our
marvelous tools for seeing and knowing, and yet almost no one has cracked
into the mystery of consciousness. We need a new breakthrough. The lessons
of complementarity and earlier studies on polarity and duality are a start.
Today, we are ready for a profound understanding of creativity in the fine arts.

We can break out of our shells and touch the "otherside", by using our imagination
driven by an honest and heartfelt longing. What nature does unconsciously, we
must do intentionally through a form of sub-creation. The testing and probing that
plants do is for some animals called curiosity or ambition. At our level it is a
creative exercise in faith and hope.

In order for us to be woven back into our web of life, we have to reach out
using our morally directed imagination and wisdom. We used to think like
the higher animals. Through a long process of oral and then written traditions
our languages and ways of knowing allowed us to reflect more and more
upon ourselves. Gradually, we fell out of the web of life as we increasingly
mis-appropriated our thoughts. Our violent history did not help matters.
We destroyed almost anyone who was weaker or different and burned our
"bridges" so that there was no turning back. Our view of the world became
increasingly literal, material and amoral. It is NOT a complete disaster.
Many people have glimpsed a silver lining.

Click on the wizard for glimpse of where science is going.
Web surfers who have wormholed directly to this level could profit
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© Beyond Photography Renaissance series is copyrighted 11/20/97.
Ask for permission to copy and watch for subtle updates.
Hidden music is Symphony #4 created by Michael Starke in 1997
Level 10.