.Atoms Lite .The Transformation of Matter The way in is not the way out. We are obligated to follow the path of materialism to its natural conclusion. This is the only way for us ultimately to transcend materialism, and the sooner we recognize this necessity, the sooner we can satisfy it. This is our unfinished business. The goal is almost in sight, and we are almost certain to succeed.
We have understandably been captivated by matter. It continues to be both our boon and our scourge. We will loosen its grip on us only through our mastery of it. Only then will matter become transparent to us. Only then will we gain the broader perspective, which will allow us to see the physical realm as a construct of spirit. It is very difficult to wax philosophical about material existence while we remain in its thrall.
Science by itself, however, is not the key to the transformation of matter. The key lies within us. Science indicates that the physical world is a form of potential and relational existence rather than absolute existence. It suggests that our own minds may lie at the heart of the mystery of material existence, but science alone will not tell us how to unlock that door. Spiritual mastery follows upon and builds upon the physical mastery.
Science can help us to realize that atoms exist as formal abstractions, potent though that can be. They are the logical posit of any spatial existence: an insight that goes back at least as far as Democritus. Quantum theory has done its part to point to a non-spatial, noumenal realm behind the phenomenal aspect of the atom. The implication is that a noumenal ‘hologram’ projects and supports the phenomenal ‘holograph’ that is our ordinary experience. An ‘implicate’ order exists behind the ‘explicate’ order.
A crucial link between the implicate and explicate orders is the formal atom. The formal atom is the lowest common denominating form, and it serves to mediate between the higher level forms competing for their place in the Sun. The formal atom is the primary filter on the explicate, physical channel.
I see a tree bending in the wind. That I am awake is yet to be specified. Think of the tree as deriving from a formal tree class as in object oriented programming. The tree is in a spot with which I am familiar and is responding to the wind in a familiar fashion. If awake, I can close my eyes and the scene may continue to unfold in my mind’s eye with varying degrees of fidelity.
A gifted storyteller may conjure the image of a forest under a thunderstorm in the imagination of a rapt audience, and maintain ample consensus. In similar fashion are the diverse stories of our world extruded from the pleromic unity of the supersymmetrical monad, each of us participating in the storytelling chorus. The streams of consciousness whirl into the vortex of an expanding present. This at least is the context for the forms of trees and atoms. But this setting of the scene should warn us that trees and forms hardly exist in isolation in the purely relational symmetry of the monad. There are no static forms in the processional reality. The words of the storyteller flow together into the moving image of felt meaning. The words come from the story, and not the other way around. The trees must be extracted from the ecosystem of the forest to be transplanted into gardens.
Nonetheless, the formal atoms must be given their due. Whenever the other forms threaten to become unruly, the atoms rule. How so? They are the placeholders in the logic of space. Their alchemy determines how far the forms may be bent without breaking. Reality is a conspiracy and conjury of forms. They conspire so easily because they all took their first breaths together. They are the not so distributed intelligence of the cosmos.
We are on the verge of our physical mastery. Next we will be relearning to conspire with the forms.
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rev. 6/9/00