We Are The Universe

[Into Darkness]

The universe must be made of nothing but energy. Every atom is just a piece of energy moulded into an atomic structure.
The universe seems physical because we translate that energy into physicality. It is still though just energy.

This means that your body and mind is just energy formed into a specific type of energy pattern. It is energy turned into a form of art.

That being said, your conscious awareness is therefore the universe itself becoming conscious and aware. It's the universal energy field taking shape and thinking.

So on that basis, your awareness is the universal energy pattern focusing itself through one particular medium (a human form). Once that Human form ceases to be, the energy does not disappear because energy cannot be destroyed. Electrons within the human brain stop firing physically but the actual energy pattern of the mind itself is not destroyed, the atoms/energy still exists.

I therefore posit that when a conscious being dies it does no cease to be, it's awareness goes from being Human and expands it's awareness back into the universal energy field, an obviously self aware field of energy that is sustaining the universes atomic structure and laws.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

An idea so original it's only been around for thousands of years.

 

[Into Darkness]

An idea so original it's only been around for thousands of years.

Yeh but we're looking at this scientifically in this thread, based on our current scientific understanding, something they didn't have when Panpsychism first came out.
We know through science that everything is energy, so a conscious being is the universal energy field moulded into consciousness. This can only mean that we are the universe itself thinking and experiencing. That must mean upon death we cannot cease to be, there must be some primary source of "thought" which our awareness must return to.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Magnets are cyclic thought generators.

 

[ITL]

Magnets are cyclic thought generators.

One day we might even figure out how the damn things work.

 

[Into Darkness]

I give up trying to make interesting discussion around here. It's too much of a challenge.

 

[Jedi_Master]

The universe must be made of nothing but energy. Every atom is just a piece of energy moulded into an atomic structure.
The universe seems physical because we translate that energy into physicality. It is still though just energy.

This means that your body and mind is just energy formed into a specific type of energy pattern. It is energy turned into a form of art.

That being said, your conscious awareness is therefore the universe itself becoming conscious and aware. It's the universal energy field taking shape and thinking.

So on that basis, your awareness is the universal energy pattern focusing itself through one particular medium (a human form). Once that Human form ceases to be, the energy does not disappear because energy cannot be destroyed. Electrons within the human brain stop firing physically but the actual energy pattern of the mind itself is not destroyed, the atoms/energy still exists.

I therefore posit that when a conscious being dies it does no cease to be, it's awareness goes from being Human and expands it's awareness back into the universal energy field, an obviously self aware field of energy that is sustaining the universes atomic structure and laws.

I just feel like I should be lighting something before discussing this topic...

 

[HIjol]

I have always kinda liked this view of the planet...one living, breathing Earth...too bad we do not treat her as such...and to know that my energy essence might continue on...as long as it goes to the good side of the Force...

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Yeah, I don't see this being correct.

As far as we know, a mind is a trait of a brain and can't exist without one.

You can argue that a brain is made up of molecules made up of atoms, made up of fundamental particles which might be purely a modulated form of energy.

But the mind exists through the configuration of a brain and there is no evidence of an imprint imposed on the brain or the brain working as a vessel or the imprint of the mind staying intact after the brain dies.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

This is more or less my interpretation of the universe. Except there's no energy, only information.

Matter and energy imply they are made of something, whereas information is a more abstract thing that does not have such whimsical requirements. That way you avoid infinite regress and other hairy stuff. Since the existence of information is loosely equivalent to your ability to locate it (see Leprechaun parable), an inherent ability to reference itself through a conscious like yourself might be enough to make it exist from its own point of view without any additional requirements.

This also makes the universe directly influenced by your consciousness, as it constraints the physical laws to be such that it exists, and blah blah blah, just call it the anthropic principle and be done with it.

Now can we discuss sterile neutrinos?

 

[RoJoHen]

I mean, it's a neat thought in a more fanciful version of reality, but in no way do I see this being true.

 

[Silvercrest]

Once that Human form ceases to be, the energy does not disappear because energy cannot be destroyed. Electrons within the human brain stop firing physically but the actual energy pattern of the mind itself is not destroyed , the atoms/energy still exists.

Even if everything else you wrote was confirmed, you are making a total leap here. People throw around the phrase "energy cannot be destroyed" out of context, omitting the rest of that particular law and without understanding what it means.

And even if you can take "energy cannot be destroyed" and make it mean something, and even if you can explain what you mean by an "energy pattern" that exists independently of matter, you're committing a syllogistic fallacy. "Energy patterns are made of energy" + "energy cannot be destroyed" does not necessarily equal "energy patterns cannot be destroyed."

 

[Robert Maxwell]

There's also nothing the least bit scientific about it. It's Deepak Chopra-level woo.

 

[RoJoHen]

It's also the basis of the Minbari religion from Babylon 5...so that's fun.

"We are the universe trying to understand itself."

 

[Silvercrest]

Well, the initial premise has a certain amount of validity. As far as I know, the concept of "solid matter" doesn't exist below the molecular level. It only exists there because the negative charges of atoms are all on the outside ... therefore, atoms repel each other. Therefore, structures made of atoms repel each other when pressed together. We like to envision subatomic particles as hard little blue or red balls whirling around each other. But that can't be what they really are if the principles of "solid" or "hard" don't exist (and if you can't accurately determine both their position and velocity). At that point it's hard to envision what these things actually are. Ghostly blurs of "something" swooshing around. And a little harder to tell the difference between "energy" and what we call "matter". It's not a big leap to perceive the entire universe as made of energy.

It is, however, a bigger leap to suggest that it's conscious and aware.

 

[Into Darkness]

I'm saying that if everything is purely energy at it's basic level and it's "structured" and thus capable of producing beings that can think and are self aware then that energy source (that is all things) itself must in some way be conscious. When the energy is moulded into animals and humans it's "refining" the energy but fundamentally it's still the energy itself. So when a conscious being dies it loses it's individual identity but it is still the energy it's always been so expands back into the "whole".

If energy is simply an information cloud, then what you are now even after death is recorded in the energy cloud. Right now you are information and will always be information.

 

[RoJoHen]

Even if consciousness is some quantifiable energy pattern, it's still contained within the brain. It doesn't leave when you die. It dies right along with you and stays inside your head. The only place it's going is into the ground.

 

[Silvercrest]

I'm saying that if everything is purely energy at it's basic level and it's "structured" ... then that energy source (that is all things) itself must in some way be conscious.

Structure automatically equals consciousness? That must mean my house is alive. I guess that would explain a few things.

If energy is simply an information cloud,

That's a big IF.

then what you are now even after death is recorded in the energy cloud. Right now you are information and will always be information.

You're still trying to take "energy cannot be destroyed" and make it mean something out of context. This time you're equating "energy cannot be destroyed" with "information cannot be destroyed." Nothing says that!

The actual Law of Conservation of Energy says "energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but can change from one form to another."

Take the words INTO DARKNESS, for example. Those same letters can be displayed as TNIO RKSNADSE. The letters are all still there. No letters were created or destroyed ... just changed from one form to another.

So, do they carry the same information? Has anything been lost?

 

[Into Darkness]

Even if consciousness is some quantifiable energy pattern, it's still contained within the brain. It doesn't leave when you die. It dies right along with you and stays inside your head. The only place it's going is into the ground.

Look at it like this. An Atom, even subatomic particles do what they're supposed to do, it's like they are programmed for a specific tasks, programmed to react the way they do. What is this information? how is it stored? how does this information cause a particle do what it does?
An electron acts differently to a proton, the only reason this can be is if information/coding is telling it to act differently.
Now a particle doesn't have a brain so information for a particle doesn't constitute a brain. On an energy level information is stored differently.
If the universe is one big information cloud then all information is stored throughout all of it.

Just like every cell in your body has the same DNA/information in it, but each cell becomes something different. So you could say that every particle has some kind of DNA database which tells everything what to do and all information is contained within every single particle. Like a fractal I guess.

 

[Skellington]

Even if consciousness is some quantifiable energy pattern, it's still contained within the brain. It doesn't leave when you die. It dies right along with you and stays inside your head. The only place it's going is into the ground.

Yes, unfortunately (or not, if you welcome oblivion). The mind's continued survival would possibly be like a computer program flying off somewhere and continuing to run after the computer is turned off (unless the brain's quantum-mechanical nature could make a difference, which seems dubious in the extreme).