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..:: The Mental Field III ::..

“Chaos Theory”

By

Alan Schneider

              Let us consider the conclusive remark at the end of the last essay “We do not really exist”.  What can this apparently impossible statement mean?  How can we seem to exist on one hand, and not really be so on the other?  

            Ultimately, only the Divine Light is really “there” as a conscious state of manifestation – all else is the result of the ego’s interpretation of the input of the physical senses. We do not directly experience the Logos because we have been taught not to by our culture.  

            At least initially, even in deep meditation, most people who manage to go far enough into trance will find themselves confronting a paradoxical condition – they contact the background limit of the personal mind at the foundation of the ego. This background condition amounts to the Threshold of Chaos that is, in fact, the portal through which all Creation emerges into conscious perception. Because this is an ego-related phenomenon, we tend to misperceive the information as being the result of some non-specified personal origin, when it is all of Divine origin in all cases. This even applies to the perception of the body and physical senses.  

            I have heard the Chaotic Threshold referred to as “The Inner Light”, “The Inner Sound”, “The Self”, “The Super Conscious Mind”, “Samadhi”, “Satori”, and several other descriptors. And this threshold certainly is the origin of the Mental Field – the subject of these most recent articles. But what is it? How does it account for the Creation of our individual consciousness? And just what is this chaos phenomenon?   

            Chaos is an apparently complete lack of order, meaning, and structure in a given manifest condition. The slightest indication of any order or structure of any kind precludes the existence of chaos – some degree of meaning is still present, however transitory. The human mind, based as it is on the ego and ego interpretation, stops at the Threshold of Chaos, because that is the maximal extent of its own manifestation as an orderly system. Beyond the Threshold, nothing can be directly perceived or known. Chaos is the ultimate mystery of mysteries. However, the always persistent ego has still evolved a science of this non-manifest state – Chaos Theory. Please read on!  

            A discussion of this Chaos Theory is in order here. Chaos Theory falls into primarily two categories – Mathematical Chaos and Social Chaos. Mathematical Chaos describes certain abstract considerations of the impact of chaotic variables on probability and probabilistic outcomes of complex equations. Social Chaos, on the other hand, deals with the psychology of perception on both an individual and collective level – the personal and social patterning of perception. It is the pervue of Social Chaos Theory that I am concerned with here.  

            Both approaches to Chaos Theory have as one of their primary concepts the strange attractor. This phenomenon is best understood through a preliminary discussion of linear attractors. Attractors are characteristics of a dynamic system toward which it evolves, or moves, over a long enough period of time. Linear attractors are of three varieties: fixed point, limit cycle, and toridal.  The fixed point attractor is illustrated by the center of a system of circular motion, such as the axel to which a wheel is mounted. The limit cycle attractor is seen in the presence of two or more limiting conditions or processes that determine the outcome of some dynamic process – such as the swinging of a clock pendulum, where gravity and the clock driver mechanism (e.g. spring, battery, etc.) are the attractors at work. The toridal attractor is the result of multiple frequencies present in the limit cycle attractor network. The shifting of the Earth’s axis accounting for the Astrological Precession of the Equinoxes is such a toridal attractor system – the limit cycle attractors are the Sun’s gravitational field and the Earth’s mass. But certain variations in the magnetic fields of both the Earth and the Sun cause the constellations to appear to “move backwards” (i.e. counterclockwise) around the North Star, completing one cycle every 24,000 years. 

            A strange attractor is yet another step into mathematical non-linearity. The strange attractor is evidenced only by the results that it produces in very complex systems – the phenomenon itself remains concealed beyond the boundary of chaos in the system. Observations over sufficiently long periods of time point to the presence of the strange attractor when it “exists”. The occurrence of genuinely democratic government in history is probably caused by the presence of a strange attractor – there is something resident in the human mind, or perhaps Cosmic Mind, that will cause the formation of democracy under the right set of initial conditions.  Sensitivity to initial conditions is another key concept of Chaos Theory – if precisely the right balance of factors is not present, democracy will not occur. As a more tangible example, The Red River Valley Flood of a decade ago was caused by two interactive strange attractors – unusually heavy winter snowfall in Canada, and an unusually warm Spring in the region. The key term here is “unusual” – the potential certainly existed for both conditions to occur, indicating that the strange attractor for heavy snowfall was “present”, as was the strange attractor for a warm Spring, but the probability, based on observations of past events, was that neither would occur. Yet they did, and unprecedented flooding was the result.  

            The Jungian archetypes are excellent examples of strange attractors, ones that  occur in the field of psychology, and effect human perception. The archetypes are demonstrated by their effect on perception, and emerge into conscious manifestation as archetypal symbols that are more or less consistent across cultures and human history. The significance of the archetypes as strange attractors is that they lie beyond the boundary of observation – past the Threshold of Chaos. We can only say that there appears to be a concealed influence at work shaping our human behavior and perception – a driver outside the realm of experience that is still affecting experience. There is much debate in psychology up to the present day regarding the existence of archetypes, and their implications for behavior, if they do exist. But Jung’s research cannot be ignored, and his theories of the archetypes and the collective unconscious must be taken seriously.

            Referring to the Sphere of Consciousness diagram of the Psyche mentioned often in these articles, emerging from relatively deep inside the sphere are the archetypal symbols. Deeper still is the Primal Self (or simply Self), located at the center of the sphere. As one sits in meditation, the many archetypal symbols tend to simply appear in consciousness from nothing – they just spontaneously take form and action.  As one meditates continuously across time, the archetypal symbols tend to assume more and more universal forms – glowing spheres or disks (e.g. Sephora or Chakras) that seem to be pregnant with intrinsic meaning – circular Mandala forms that occupy the Mental Field in its entirety. With sufficient patience invested in the meditation practice, the Primal Light of the Logos may ultimately be experienced in deep trance as an omnipresent manifestation, but this too will seem to simply spontaneously appear in the Mental Field from nowhere. I am convinced that all of the non-personal, non-ego-oriented perceptual material in the Psyche emerges from the other side of the Threshold of Chaos into conscious perception, driven by strange attractors residing beyond that threshold.

            One implication of this proposition is that it substantiates the contention that we do not, in fact, really exist.  If all that we perceive as ourselves is ultimately coming to us from beyond the Threshold of Chaos, then the source of reality and existence is also beyond that Threshold.  Anyone who meditates long enough will discover that there is a Void at the end of personal consciousness that accounts for all personal manifestation, but is not personal itself. This is the beginning of the collective unconscious. Here, one simply waits until manifestation is given by the Void to the Mandala of perception that is all that remains of the Mental Field at that point, and works with what emerges.  

            Examining this non-existence of personal identity from the perspective of brain morphology and neurology yields similar results. It is well known to medical science, based upon the results of lobotomies, and other less drastic “experiments”, that the essence of personal self-awareness – the ego – is located in the prefrontal lobe of the brain, behind the frontal lobe of the cortex. Since there is nothing else present there other than synoptic junctions and patterns of synoptic electrical activity occurring at a very high rate of repetition and density, we are forced to conclude that “I” am a system of synoptic relationships acquired across time – a field of electrical activity in the prefrontal lobe that occurs at a high enough frequency and amplitude to permit limited self-awareness of its own action to take place. When we attempt to examine this phenomenon through direct perception, we find, not surprisingly, that there is nothing there but basic instinct after acculturation is eliminated from the psychological “equation”, and once again find ourselves confronting the Threshold.  In a truly quantum sense, the personal mind vanishes as soon as we attempt to observe it, and only existed as associative electrical patterns in the first place!  

            Many studies of the Threshold of Chaos have been conducted by Seers and Sages throughout history. These studies have supported the concept of Karma as one of the, if not the most, important factor shaping what emerges across that Threshold.  Karma is the shape of individual destiny, from the most minute and transitory expressions (quarks, and other particles generated in accelerators that have half-lives of nanoseconds), to the most infinite and enduring – the apparent universe of physical form. Perception itself is determined by Karma, as is human and all other behavior. Karma is the Will of the Logos manifest in all expression everywhere. For some reason hidden beyond Chaos, things and events must occur as they do. Many of the world’s great Seers have also come to the conclusion that each human being has an ideal spiritual manifestation, also hidden beyond the Threshold, called the Soul or Atman, and that the refinement and purification of that Soul is the Divine cause of Karma, and the appearance of the Logos as the form of a physical universe of interactive transitory fragments. The Soul is the personal Mandala portal to the Logos and the Divine Light. This is where the foundation of reality lies, not in the ego. 

            Finally, it is possible to literally enter the Threshold of Chaos in deep meditation, experiencing what Buddhism calls Satori – the condition of pure non-dual awareness, without subject or object. In this state, one experiences the condition of non-existence as a literal mode – being-in-not-being, and not-being-in-being. Something is there, and nothing is there. This may well be the ultimate state of consciousness of which the human being is capable – direct observation of our non-existence through full participation in that condition. In the final analysis, the perception of the ego is driven by organismic desire. Once that desire is released by austerity and meditation, the truth is free to all to perceive as it is – we do not really exist – and what lies beyond the Threshold does.

                                                                                - With Love, Alan -

                                                                         (CR2008, Alan Schneider)

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