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Integral World: Exploring Theories of Everything
An independent forum for a critical discussion of the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber
Lexi Neale Lexi Neale studied in 1966-1969, B.Sc. Zoology and Psychology, London University. In 1972 he met his Master, Prem Rawat, in India. He is still with him doing Integral Practice. As an Enlightenment Master, Prem Rawat teaches a time-honored Integral Practice that he calls Knowledge of the Self – as in Know the Knower. It involves deep absorption meditation practice (First Person), listening to guidance from the Master (Second Person), and participating in service (Third Person). Lexi Neale is affiliated with The Prem Rawat Foundation, an award winning charity providing aid for the relief of human suffering. Contact tprf.org and wordsofpeaceglobal.org (wopg.org), and [email protected].

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The AQAL Cube Meta-Theory of Integral Relativity

Lexi Neale

This paper is the sequel to “The AQAL Cube, A Second-Tier Differentiation Of Ken Wilber's AQAL Square”, published in Integral World on 5.13.2011. It assumes the reader's familiarity with the above, and with Ken Wilber's AQAL Model.

ABSTRACT

The differentiation made by the AQAL Cube model between Physical (Local) existence and Non-Physical (Non-Local) existence, both of which I propose are coexistent and co-evolving, is my basis for this Meta-Theory of Integral Relativity. The AQAL unfolding of Physical existence according to the dynamics laid down by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and modeled by Wilber's AQAL Square, tells the Local/Physical side of the story; but Quantum Consciousness and Transpersonal research are hinting of a quirky Non-Local side to existence, as through Alice's Looking Glass.

INTRODUCTION

The Integral Relativity between Consciousness and Energy in the Physical and Non-Physical Domains is ultimately resolved in their Non-Dual experience, as Pure Energy and Pure Consciousness, by the Knower.

We have arrived at an amazing confluence of experience in our evolution. On the one hand, one proof of a relative truth equating Energy with Mass resulted in a “Light brighter than a thousand suns”, as Oppenheimer quoted from an ancient scripture when he saw the nuclear fireball he had unleashed. On the other hand, a proof of an Absolute Truth equating Energy with Consciousness resulted in an explosion of inner Light that inspired that very scripture in the first place. As science approaches its holy grail of a Unified Field of Energy, the human Consciousness is also approaching the true Holy Grail of a Unified Self, the Knowledge of which is the very cause of that amazing confluence, of that Unity, of that Peace welling up in our own being.

The wreckage we wreak in our evolution from the rational to the transrational is the result of our landscape shifting from a paradigm to a paradox; from “old concepts no longer apply” to “no concepts apply anymore”. Toto, we are no longer in Kansas. But does our passage to Oz have to be on a maelstrom? When science, as “knowing”, similarly evolves from the practice of rational proofs to the practice of transrational proofs, neither do we remain in Kansas either. Science as “knowing” becomes Scious as “Knowing”. Outer knowing becomes integral with inner knowing, just as outer turbulence becomes integral with inner turbulence. It is as if we are accelerating through a sound barrier of the mind, with all the associated turbulence, but on the other side of the shockwave we enter silence and stillness. The moment we equate science with con-sciousness, we ourselves become the experiment and the proof. Socrates defined the ultimate Science when he said: “Know thy Self”. Ironically, the prototype democracy made him drink the hemlock for that.

The model I use to propose this meta-theory is the AQAL Cube, which is like a key to open the Integral Relativity lock.

In “The AQAL Cube, A Second Tier Differentiation...” I made the case that Wilber's “Eight Primordial Perspectives” [1] are in fact the Eight Perspectives of the AQAL Cube, where his four “Inner Perspectives” are equivalent to the four Non-Physical or Non-Local Consciousness Perspectives of the AQAL Cube (Octants 1, 3, 5, 7), and his four “Outer Perspectives” are equivalent to the four Physical or Local Mind Perspectives of the AQAL Cube (Octants 2, 4, 6, 8). FIG 1. is the First Person AQAL Cube of Eight Perspectives. FIG. 2. is the Third Person AQAL Cube of Eight Perspectives.

FIG.1 FIRST PERSON AQAL CUBE

FIG 2. THIRD PERSON AQAL CUBE

The point being: it is all about Perspectives, and about Perspectives taking Perspectives. Relativity, whether in terms of General Relativity or this proposed Integral Relativity, is really about the relativity between the Observer and the Observed, between the Experiencer and the Experience, between the Knower and the Known. The Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle, concerning the behavior of Non-Local and Local energy in the presence of an observer, is all about this relativity; which begs the question about the actual relationship between Consciousness and Energy.

In this Meta-Theory of Integral Relativity, I propose an equation between Consciousness-as-experiencer and Energy-as-experience. Low in the Consciousness/Energy spectrum, in First Tier, the experiencer and the experience are fused; whereas high in the Consciousness/Energy spectrum, in Third Tier, the experiencer and the experience are Non-Dual. In mid-spectrum beginning Second Tier the two differentiate, which is why the AQAL Cube is a Second Tier model - in making the differentiation between Non-Local and Local awareness. In this paper I pursue the implications of that differentiation, in making a case for the Integral Relativity between Consciousness, Mind and Energy.

THE RELATIVITY OF PERSPECTIVES

Early Greek philosophers deduced that perception results from the interaction of three factors: The Knower, the Means of Knowing and the Known. We perceive the world out there as the realm of the Known. The problem all the philosophers and empiricists have had ever since is to correctly identify the Knower and the Means of Knowing. That problem exists in the lower part of the Spectrum of Consciousness, where almost all of humanity is located, called First Tier.

In First Tier, Consciousness has not yet differentiated from Mind but operates as a fused Consciousness-Mind entity. This is because First Tier Consciousness is so identified with Mind as to assume it IS Mind. It subsequently assumes that Mind is the Knower of the Known out there, and that the Body is its Means of Knowing. This mistaken material Consciousness identity is called the self-aware Ego.

As we evolve further along the Spectrum we enter Second Tier, where Consciousness manages to differentiate itself from Mind by no longer identifying with it. This is a great spiritual feat, because the Consciousness identity now shifts from the Physical Domain to where it really belongs in the Non-Physical Domain. As a result it assumes a spiritual identity where it assumes it is the Knower, and that the Mind AND Body are now the mere Means of Knowing. The Ego has been humbled, and this new more subtle mistaken Consciousness identity is called Soul.

Evolving ever further along the Spectrum to Third Tier, the Soul identity begins to become aware of Pure Consciousness as the One Knower; and that Soul Consciousness is yet another mere Means of Knowing along with Mind and Body - a humbling experience indeed. In other words the One Knower, on whatever Level, is the true experiencer and everything else is the experience of a trail of mistaken identities. In Third Tier, the Knower or Witness ultimately makes Consciousness as transparent as Consciousness made Mind.

It is because our perspectives evolve individually through the Spectrum of Consciousness that we need a model of Integral Relativity to help awaken Consciousness and Mind on all Levels; from their initially being fused to their ultimately being Non-Dual. So we begin our inquiry into this fundamental relationship between Consciousness, Mind and Energy with some fundamental definitions.

DEFINING CONSCIOUSNESS, MIND AND ENERGY

In Western science the terms Consciousness and Mind are used synonymously because they have not yet been differentiated. Amit Goswami in his book The Self Aware Universe [2], says that in the East there is a very clear differentiation: “Manas”, etymologically as Mind, is the field of reference within, where our Non-Local Consciousness-as-experiencer (Vijnanamaya) identifies our Local awareness as Mind-as-experience (Manamaya).

As the experiencer, Con-Sciousness means “knowing with” - the Knower or Witness witnessing through the Eight Fundamental Perspectives of the AQAL Cube. Energy means “at work”, or “activity”, or the Witness acting through its Eight Fundamental Perspectives. The basis of equating Consciousness with Energy is therefore through the Eight Fundamental Perspectives assumed by The Witness. Full-spectrum Consciousness at work is Full-spectrum Energy, whether Non-Local or Local. This is the dynamic of Integral Relativity.

Integral Relativity makes the case that Consciousness, as the Knower and experiencer, is Non-Local. It operates locally through its experience of the Physical Universe as Mind, like a driver operates a car. Mind acts with its experiential Intelligence Structures through the correlated behavior of the physical body.

QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS

In Western science the word “consciousness” is taboo because it is not considered to be an empirical phenomenon. It is just and fitting that Quantum Physics, in its pursuit of Quantum Consciousness, has distinguished itself as a Second Tier science in differentiating Consciousness as Non-Local, as a result of the Heisenberg effect. In Quantum jargon, non-physical reads as Non-Local, and physical reads as Local. Experiments prove that an observer can intend, Non-Locally, the position of a Local particle [3].

The main proponents of the Consciousness Field are Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose who, as a team, are in the process of equating the Quantum Field with Consciousness [4]. In a recent EnlightenNext interview [5], Hameroff said:

“Neutral monism says that there's one common underlying entity that gives rise to, on the one hand, matter, and on the other hand, mind. In our model, that underlying entity that gives rise to both matter and mind is quantum spacetime geometry. In the Vedic traditions you could call it Brahman, the underlying ground of being. So it's not materialistic – it goes below matter… You can call it whatever you like – Spirit, the cosmos, quantum gravity – whatever it is that gives rise to both mind and matter and underlies all of reality... You know, most people think that consciousness emerged over eons as a byproduct of random mutations and the inherent complexity of natural selection, but I look at it the other way around. I think a fundamental field of protoconscious experience has been embedded all along – since the big bang – in the Planck scale, and that biology evolved and adapted in order to access it and to maximize the qualities and potentials implicit within it. Of course, putting consciousness at the most fundamental level of the universe also has big implications for enlightenment and spirituality... In fact, the Kabbalah says that we have this world of wisdom and light, and then we have the world of aggravation and strife, and that consciousness dances on the edge between the two worlds... And that's why I believe that if the quantum consciousness hypothesis is proven, it will give credence to the spiritual dimension of life...”

In my discussion of Quantum Consciousness I do differentiate between quantum processing in the brain (Octant 6 of the Third Person AQAL Cube) and correlative experiential intelligence structures (Octant 2 of the Third Person AQAL Cube). I also have my reservations about unconditionally equating Quantum Consciousness with Brahman and God, in that Consciousness is a spectrum through the Three Tiers. I also differentiate the Non-Local Consciousness spectrum from its correlated Local Mind Spectrum. Nevertheless, Consciousness as a Non-Local AQAL Domain is at the root of my hypothesis, in differentiating the non-physical Consciousness Quadrants of the AQAL Cube from those of the physical Mind.

In dealing with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, where the role of experimenter-observer can influence the outcome of the experiment, Danish physicist Niels Bohr popularized a model called the Copenhagen interpretation, which claims that Consciousness causes the quantum wave-function to collapse, resulting in experimental quantum unpredictability. But there is also an alternative interpretation proposed by Roger Penrose. Hameroff continues in the EnlightenNext interview:

“Rather, he (Penrose) suggested that consciousness is the wave-function collapse, or at least one particular kind of collapse. It's a quantum collapse that gives off fundamental units of conscious awareness, just like an electron orbital shift gives off a photon of light. And like photons, quanta of consciousness come in a spectrum of different intensities, frequencies and qualities...

“In Roger's model, which he calls orchestrated objective reduction, you don't always need an outside observer. If a quantum system evolves to a critical threshold – which involves gravitational warping on the quantum scale – it will self-collapse. There's an objective, natural reduction of the quantum wave function that results in a simple moment of consciousness, or a simple “quantum” of consciousness, if you will. And when these collapses happen again and again in your brain, you get a series of conscious moments that give rise to your experience of a stream of consciousness. So consciousness, in this model, consists of a series of discrete events, yet is experienced as continuous. You can think of it kind of as frames in a movie, only with a movie you have an outside observer. In this case, the frame itself has the observer built into it. The conscious moment and the quantum wave-function collapse are one and the same event...

“We know that consciousness in the brain happens at about forty times per second. It's called gamma synchrony... And in the model that Roger and I have developed, we've proposed that Singer's gamma synchrony is actually evidence of quantum-state collapses happening forty times per second – or more – among coherent, organized networks of the brain's microtubules...

“And a few years ago, the Dalai Lama sent some of his best meditators to a lab up in Wisconsin. They found that, while meditating, the monks had the highest gamma synchrony ever recorded. They were actually operating at about eighty to one hundred hertz, whereas the experimental control subjects were at forty... Years of meditating had changed their brains so that they were just normally in this higher-frequency gamma range. That suggests they're having a richer and more intense conscious experience more frequently than the average person.”

My discussion has attempted to disentangle Non-Local Consciousness from the coexistent and co-evolving Local Mind via the AQAL Cube. I here propose that the First Person AQAL Cube can model the reconciliation between the Bohr and the Penrose interpretations of Consciousness and the quantum wave collapse. Non-Local Consciousness initiates its own wave-collapse through Non-Local Intent, as per Bohr; and in so doing releases a Local quantum of Mind, as per Penrose, through which a correlated Local Behavior can be enacted. The higher the Level of Consciousness we access, the greater the gamma-synchrony we produce at the correlating Level of Mind, resulting in an increasing capacity to act on an intention.

The converse is also true: In Mind there is the experience, the thinking, feeling and perception; whereas in Consciousness there is none of that, only the experiencer/identifier. So to pass from Mind to Consciousness, such as in meditation, we non-locally intend the suspension of Consciousness wave-collapse into Mind, resulting in the suspension of Mind, which is meditation. The conscious intent of a First Tier (fused) Consciousness/Mind to meditate is to let go of Gross identification, and so dis-identify with the Mind. This is the first step in moving towards a Second Tier perspective. Similarly, the conscious intent of a Second Tier Consciousness to meditate is to suspend its collapse into Mind, resulting in No-Mind. This has been corroborated experimentally by the experimenter suspending a quantum outcome by meditatively suspending the intent for an outcome [2]. In other words, in Second Tier Consciousness, we as a self-aware Witness, can choose to remain in non-physical Non-Local awareness instead of, and as well as, in physical Local awareness. This is the quantum leap of human evolution.

THE EMERGENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND ENERGY

I began the AQAL Cube hypothesis by correlating its Eight Perspectives with Wilber's “Eight Primordial Perspectives”. It remains for us to see how they may mesh with the Quantum Consciousness hypothesis.

In “The AQAL Cube, A Second Tier Differentiation...” we saw how each of the Eight Perspectives are produced as triplet-combinations from the three axes of the Cube and their six polarities: Individual/Collective, Subjective/Objective and Non-Local/Local. I propose that the intersection of those three axes represents the original fundamental origin of Energy/Proto-consciousness: Amplitude, Frequency and Polarity. A simple example of this are the three modes of radio waves: Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM) and Polarity or Digital Modulation. In terms of the Physical Energy Spectrum, Amplitude translates as amplification from an Individual effect to a Collective effect, which is Gravitation. Frequency translates as the Subjective/Objective arena of experience, which is the Electromagnetic Spectrum. Polarity translates as the quantum dynamic between Mind and Consciousness, which is Particle/Wave, or Locality/Non-Locality, or Physical/Non-Physical. This corroborates Stuart Hameroff's statement that proto-consciousness could come into existence at the most fundamental level.

I therefore propose that all Eight Primordial Perspectives of the AQAL Cube are produced at the most fundamental Consciousness/Mind Level as eight triplet-permutations between the three fundamental vibratory modes of Consciousness and Energy: Amplitude (Large/Small), Frequency (High/Low), and Polarity (Non-Physical/Physical), or AFP.

The AFP triplet would be capable of encoding an incalculable number of perspective permutations in both a quantum Wave and Particle by using modulating variables of Amplitude, Frequency and Polarity. This would be a match for the incalculable number of permutations of Kosmic address generated by the AQAL Cube's 64 binary-perspective lattices discussed in “The AQAL Cube - A Second Tier Differentiation...”. It therefore seems probable that the cellular microtubule lattices made of tubulin may even form the material framework of a cell's binary-perspective lattices, where gamma-synchronous quanta of Mind manifesting in Consciousness-intended locations on the lattices produce a cohesive experience of correlated binary perspectives.

The AQAL Cube model therefore predicts that tubulin lattices within the cell differentiate the Eight Primordial Perspectives on a molecular level, where each of the 64 binary-perspective-lattices is encoded with its own AFP triplet combinations.

Similarly, the AQAL Cube model predicts that each modulated quantum of Consciousness/Energy identifies and arrives at its intended perspective-lattice as its own AFP triplet, as a key that opens its own perspective lock, resulting in a quantum moment of Mind experience from that Perspective. This could further suggest that experiential pathologies could result from AFP experiential distortions that get encoded on the correlated tubulin lattice, but which could be therapeutically erased once knowing their Kosmic Address. This is the quantum equivalent of gene replacement therapy.

For these reasons I propose that the AQAL Cube be examined as a viable model for the Penrose/Hameroff Quantum Consciousness hypothesis. Through the AQAL Cube model, we have now arrived at a basis to formulate a Meta-Theory of Integral Relativity.

A META-THEORY OF INTEGRAL RELATIVITY

Einstein's General Relativity pertains to this Physical Universe, in describing the inter-relationship between Energy (E) and Mass (M) within the boundary of the Physical-Universal Constant (C), called the speed of light. The behavior Local/Physical Energy states within Wilber's Four Quadrant Physical Domain is predictable according to the Laws of General Relativity.

One of the physical proofs of General Relativity involves the space-time continuum, where space is a function of Mass, resulting in gravitation as a function of curved space; and where time is a function of Energy, as motion in space, resulting in time dilation as a function of Mass accelerating towards the speed of light. Even within a closed system such as the Physical Universe of physical energy, General Relativity implies Integral because Energy, Mass and the Speed of Light constant are interdependent.

Incidentally, the General Theory is in the process of being revised by the physicist Julian Barbour [6], who is reconciling the General Theory with quantum mechanics by making Energy, Mass and quantum locality even more relative. Instead of Einstein's fixed space-time fabric, Barbour does away time as a quantifiable entity and instead maps the changing relationships between phenomena. It is leading to a model of quantum gravity that accounts for the 96% of so-called missing matter in the General Theory. Nevertheless, all this is still within the constraints of the Physical Universe.

Meanwhile, the principle of relative change introduced by Barbour is the foundation of most ancient of cultural cosmologies. For example, the classic Tai Chi symbol of a Light Principle intertwined with a Dark Principle embraces the core of Integral Relativity. Tai Chi means “Movement of Breath”. We have already seen how Breath is synonymous with Consciousness (Masculine Light Principle), and how Consciousness at work is Energy (Feminine Dark Principle). An almost identical inter-twining Mayan cosmogram called the Hunab Ku means “Movement and Measure”. Once again, Movement pertains to the field of activity, and Measure pertains to the field of intention. All this sounds very familiar.

The AQAL Cube's Eight Octant Kosmos differentiates a Non-Local, Non-Physical Domain with its Laws of Consciousness that operate in tandem with the Physical Laws, all of which have yet to be integrated into a Theory of Integral Relativity equating Consciousness with Energy. With an Integral model we would expect that Local Energy, Local Mass and the Local Universal Constant, inter-relating as E = MC2, would equate seamlessly with their counterparts of Non-Local Energy, Non-Local Mass and the Non-Local Kosmic Constant, if they can be identified.

Quantum Physics has already demonstrated a continuum between Local and Non-Local Energy, effectively saying that Energy is Energy, Local or Non-Local; and that it still conforms to the Laws of Conservation of Energy when transforming from Non-Local Wave to Local Particle and back. Furthermore, Quantum Physics is now equating Non-Local Energy with Consciousness because of the Heisenberg Uncertainty effect of an observer (experimenter) influencing the outcome of a quantum experiment.

In this context, Non-Local Mass would be the momentum of Consciousness, operating as Intent, to exert a Local effect as a quantum of Mind. We have already seen in “The AQAL Cube, A Second Tier Differentiation...” how Consciousness, meaning “knowing with”, identifies with a specified Level on the Spectrum of Consciousness according to its Level of Attention. The At-tention is the Witness “holding on” to that Level. And from there, Consciousness can operate with Intention. In-tention, or “holding in”, is how Consciousness initiates a wave-collapse, thereby initiating a Local effect through a correlated quantum of Mind. Mind is therefore the Ex-tension, the “holding out”, of Consciousness to project a Non-Local Intent into Locality as a particle with Mass; and that Mass achieves the desired Local effect.

The third element of the equation is the Non-Local Kosmic Constant, which we have previously identified as the One Knower, the Kosmic Light, of which physical light is the Local equivalent as Einstein's Universal Constant. If Consciousness is the “heads” side of the coin, and Mind is the “tails”, then the coin itself, heads or tails, is the Kosmic Constant, the Witness.

When the Spectrum of Consciousness is viewed in parallel with the Spectrum of Energy, our evolution through the Spectrum of Consciousness leads us to Who we are; our evolution through the Spectrum of Energy leads us to What we are; and the Witness Knows the difference. With the AQAL Cube as our primary model, we have now arrived at a basis to formulate a fundamental hypothesis of “A Meta-Theory of Integral Relativity”.

Its First Tenet is “The Equation Of Energy With Consciousness”, which states: The Witness taking perspectives is Consciousness; and The Witness acting through those perspectives is Energy; where Full-Spectrum Consciousness is the Witness taking AQAL Perspectives as Intent, and where Full-Spectrum Energy is the AQAL vehicle of that Intent. In other words, Full-Spectrum Consciousness at work is Full-Spectrum Energy, whether Local or Non-Local. The Energy Spectrum is therefore the matrix, the vehicle, of the Consciousness Spectrum. Car and driver on all Levels.

Because The Witness is Level-specific, according to its position on the Spectrum, any “reality” being witnessed is relative to that Level of witnessing. An illusion is therefore an “apparent reality” when it has no transparency on that Level of witnessing, where the greater reality behind it cannot be seen. Wherever our Consciousness is located on the Spectrum, that is the Level of reality we identify with. The relativity between Consciousness and Energy is therefore Level-specific throughout the Consciousness/Energy Spectrums.

This hypothesis is also supported by Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which demonstrates how subject and object, as observer and observed, are mutually inclusive as a perspective-induced illusion; and that in the relative realms of manifestation, nothing is certain. The inference here is that only the undifferentiated One Knower is the One Certainty, the One Reality, that pot of Gold at the end of the Consciousness Rainbow.

The Second Tenet of Integral Relativity is a transcendent but inclusive interpretation of the Law of Conservation of Energy - that Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but only transformed from one state to another. Through the First Tenet of Integral Relativity, equating Energy with Consciousness, the Second Tenet is “The Law of Conservation of Consciousness”, which states: Consciousness cannot be created nor destroyed, but only transformed from one state to another.

In this light, the Equation Of Energy With Consciousness and the Law of Conservation of Consciousness essentially become spiritual laws, in bearing out Gautama Buddha's assertion (in the Pali Canon) of the continuity of Consciousness between incarnations. This brings us to some philosophical considerations of Integral Relativity.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND REINCARNATION

If Non-Local Intent is how Consciousness manifests a Local effect, the implication is that Consciousness also intends its incarnation. Consciousness is the seat of our Intent, which is colored and clouded by whatever band of the Spectrum we identify with – the joys and sorrows, attractions and repulsions, the loves and hates to be found on that Level of identification. All these formations formulate an intention for an incarnation best suited to deal with them, so that our droplet may best find its stream, then its river to the ocean. The stream of life flows with this perfect, coherent, evolving continuity of identity from Id to Ego to Soul to Supreme Witness.

Our Consciousness has an Enlightenment imperative, an evolutionary need to resolve its identity issues and at last be atoned in its undifferentiated state; and it expresses this need by intending an incarnation to best satisfy that need. In other words, our Consciousness intends its involution into the Material Domain to pursue its evolutionary objectives. This may seem shocking to us, especially if our life has been beset by trials of various natures. But those very trials are in fact what we personally needed in order to wake up into Consciousness. Eventually, our Enlightenment imperative becomes fully conscious, and we begin to “remember”, we begin to wake up.

In “The AQAL Cube, A Second Tier Differentiation...” we discussed how the Mind's psychological Structure Stages are like a ladder; how in any one life the ladder of Intelligence Structure Stages must be re-climbed from the very first rung; and how no rung can be skipped any more than a floor can be skipped in the construction of a building. In other words, in each life we have to relearn the rules of how to negotiate the physical world. But we did not discuss the climber – how our Non-Local Consciousness also evolves over lifetimes, but with continuity.

In our evolving Consciousness we are not all born equal, as a tabula rasa. In our Consciousness we can be more of an “old Soul” than those around us. The higher the State Stage of our incarnating Consciousness the more we remember of the process, and the faster we evolve through our Mind's Structure Stages of our incarnation. This is because we can intend better and better births conducive to our evolution. A child prodigy is a good example of accelerated evolution. The continuity of Consciousness is seamlessly perfect as our droplet makes its way to the stream, the river, the ocean.

In his book The Physics Of The Soul [7], Amit Goswami provides a quantum explanation of reincarnation in describing our individual Consciousness, our own “droplet”, as an evolving entity called the Quantum Monad. What makes each of us unique as a Quantum Monad is our perspective, the position we occupy on the Spectrum of Consciousness, as a result of the choices we make in our journey back to the Source.

We have already discussed how our perspectives evolve as the Eight Primordial Perspectives; and how those perspectives, as the intentions of our Non-Physical Consciousness, are enacted in our Physical Life via quanta of unique Amplitude-Frequency-Polarity (AFP) codons. This is a quantum explanation of karma. I propose that the uniqueness of each Quantum Monad is determined by its AFP signature, a modulated complex of Consciousness-vibration encoding its identity-perspectives, as the reincarnation package for its next Life.

“Life” is the physically incarnate means of the Non-Physical Consciousness to evolve towards and ultimately know its Source. Socrates' injunction “Know thy Self” begs the question “Who am I?” Our quest through all the Levels of seeking to know the answer to that question is our evolutionary imperative, which is as hardwired in us as the imperative to find food when hungry, water when thirsty, and even the next breath. Seeking to know ultimately leads us to our Enlightenment imperative: To “know the Knower”. To actually arrive at the end of the evolutionary road in a state of readiness to know the Knower, the conscious craving for this experience would indeed be as imperative as the need for the next breath. This Enlightenment imperative for Self-Knowledge is a self-evident, self-validating proof of Integral Relativity, where all the inter-dependent components of our being throughout the Spectrums of Consciousness and Energy are all brought into play in this Life.

“PROOFS” OF INTEGRAL RELATIVITY

First of all, we have to realize that any “proof” of the Integral Dynamics between Energy and Consciousness is relative to the Level in the Energy/Consciousness spectrum we are dealing with, and practical proofs of the Theory of Integral Relativity will unfold on those Levels accordingly.

A simple First Tier proof of how our physical organism evolves structural complexity, to take it from First to Second Tier awareness, is in the MRI imaging of changes in brain structure/function as a result of meditation. There is marked enlargement of the brain's third and fourth ventricles, and enlargement of the pineal gland itself.

Hard-science research into Quantum Consciousness is a Second Tier endeavor yielding evidence of a continuum between Local and Non-Local awareness [4]. Penrose and Hameroff's work show how the tubulin lattices of any cell are the core of its intelligence, where Non-Local proto-consciousness interfaces with the cell's proto-mind.

Near-death-experience research is also becoming a “Second Tier” hard-science under the Human Consciousness Project, which has amassed a huge database corroborating the nature of NDE's during flat-lined brain activity [8].

In cooperation with the Dalai Lama, meditation research using double-blind testimonials between Tibetan meditators is providing “Third Tier” experiential subjective-empirical evidence of Causal Consciousness in Causal Energy Bodies in the Causal Domain [9].

All this evidence can now use a Second Tier Integral model like the AQAL Cube-per-Person to map all the data.

CONCLUSION

Integral Relativity is a steamy tango that takes place between two fundamental poles of Reality on all Levels of manifestation, starting with the Kosmic Matrix of Pure Energy and the Kosmic “Patrix” of Pure Consciousness. Their Tango is really an interpenetration, an ultimate lovemaking, whereby the Child-as-Kosmos is conceived.

In “The AQAL Cube - A Second Tier Differentiation...” I showed how, in this Physical Universe, those two poles inter-relate as two co-equal Domains - the Spectrum of Physical Energy (Local) and the Spectrum of Consciousness (Non-Local). On the one hand there is an involution of Pure Energy towards an increasing complexity of physical form; and on the other hand is the correlated evolution of proto-consciousness, inhabiting that increasing complexity of form, towards the realization of Pure Consciousness.

I also showed how the Three Tiers of the Consciousness Spectrum, as three distinct phases of this evolution, are the direct result of a relativity between the poles of Non-Local Consciousness and Local Mind; and that indeed all known states of Consciousness and Mind similarly result from varying degrees of engagement and disengagement between Consciousness and Mind through the Three Tiers. In the First Tier, Mind is fused with Consciousness because Ego is a materially oriented identity that disintegrates on death, and in so doing is responsible for the experience of death. In Second Tier, this error is realized when Consciousness differentiates itself from Mind as a spiritually oriented identity called Soul. But in Third Tier the actual “Identifier” of all previous (mistaken) identities throughout the Spectrum is discovered to be Spirit, the Witness, the Knower.

In other words, the Integral Relativity between Consciousness and Energy in the Physical and Non-Physical Domains is ultimately resolved in their Non-Dual experience, as Pure Energy and Pure Consciousness, by the Knower. And through that process the Knower realizes an ultimate Experience, a Knowledge, of more and more Energy as more and more Consciousness. It is an infinite and eternal process of the Witness awakening Unconsciousness into Consciousness, and thence into Pure Consciousness, via this AQAL Cube of self-reference called the Kosmos.

REFERENCES

1. Wilber, Ken 2006. Integral Spirituality. Integral Books, Boston.

2. Goswami, Amit 1995. The Self-Aware Universe. Tarcher/Penguin.

3. Aspect, Alain 1982. Physical Review Letters 49:1804-6

4. Penrose and Hameroff 1996. Towards A Science Of Consciousness. MIT Press, (pp507-540.)

5. EnlightenNext, Spring/Summer 2010, Issue 46. “An Exploration Of Quantum Consciousness”. (P. 55-56.)

6. Barbour, Julian 1999. The End Of Time. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, London.

7. Goswamy, Amit 2001. Physics Of The Soul. Hampton Roads Publishing.

8. Human Consciousness Project. horizonresearch.org

9. Institute Of Noetic Science. ions.org






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