The material and the spiritual universe

Sum of the parts

The Whole

A human being physically consists of a mixture of chemical elements. Ultimately the material body exists as atoms and the exact chemical composition can be established in a laboratory. Today such an analysis is a routine exercise.

The human body consists amongst others of the elements hydrogen oxygen nitrogen carbon calcium chlorine iodine sulphur and phosphorous, and in smaller amounts many others e.g. the metals sodium iron magnesium copper zinc plus a variety of trace elements.

Should one now take these chemicals and in the correct proportions of the ingredients mix it all together in a big glass bottle shaking it vigorously and thoroughly for long enough while heating the mixture. When you open the bottle do you expect to find a human inside? A living one?
 

Please note it is important to understand that the words “spiritual” and “material” are not used here as they are often understood in everyday language, they are used in a more concrete and encompassing sense. The concepts are treated rather from a scientific perspective.
 

The Bible – a book

A book is made of ink, glue and paper (wood pulp), which in turn includes the elements carbon nitrogen oxygen hydrogen. The material printed book in itself is of no consequence and of very little value. Simply atoms and ordinary chemical compounds.

It has no material value by itself and that goes for any book whatsoever. The physical paper ink and glue are worthless yet the knowledge it contains is priceless, and dearly paid in blood and tears.

The value exists in the actual content in the form of information and knowledge, and above that insight and wisdom. It contains of the earliest recorded history and great understanding of the human nature. For which the ideas have to be understood, so in fact the book has to be actually read to have any value at all.

And further, should you be a believer the value in it is of the divine. It is salvation, forgiveness and comfort, it is mercy and hope, it is a light and a guide. In it is the Word of God.
 

A computer

Physically a computer also consists of chemical elements. Such as the metals iron lead tin copper silver gold, as well as non-metals e.g. silicon and carbon, and there is another essential thing- the flow of electrons, that is electrical current.

In itself the hardware is useless. The worth lies in computational abilities and efficiency, in the ease and specifically the terrific speed of calculations, in massive storage capabilities and almost immediate access to information, and incredibly high speed world-wide communication. Invisible digital data can be transmitted, and it can be magnetically or optically stored on a disc but the value again exists only in the information itself.

Things for which a human mind is hopeless.

The actual physical hardware itself honestly, it's just scrap. Yet if it is applied and used it becomes an incredibly powerful tool.
 

A radio receiver

There are different ways of thinking about a radio receiver (transceiver then rather). On different levels, each true in it's own right.

One listens to sound- the presenter himself is not there, although it is his voice. He is not present- you are physically actually hearing the radio speakers. It is an imitation only and not the actual person.

If the radio, the physical apparatus itself is damaged, the reception and sound will be affected for the worse. The apparatus could even be completely out of order, the radio then is broken and it gives no sound at all. Alternatively there can be say a broken antenna or a speaker that's damaged thus, which will adversely affect the sound or the reception.

Even though the human brain is infinitely more complex, in principle the radio is to me a good analogy with the human material organic brain. A person's brain is an apparatus facilitating communication between our own material world and a higher spiritual world where the person himself in reality actually is, as his spirit. Each person then in fact lives in a spiritual world which consciously is little known to us.

However his emotion and thought and his behaviour, his mind is extremely closely entwined with the organic mind in all kinds of physical manifestations. Emotion, pain, reason and then all the variety of possible mental disorders and illnesses. This would be a physiological material thing to do with the brain influencing communication and seemingly the person's mind.

As far as reason goes there is no inherent problem with this model- it is really just another, a different, an alternative description of known and accepted truths. Clearly, my analogy is meant as very abstract.

Please don't misunderstand me! I am not saying we are all walking around with a radio in our head!
 

The human Soul

A human being, seen very simplistically and clinically then is of made of the chemical elements- as atoms, in compounds or in ionic form. You can theoretically go even further to subatomic levels and do the whole zoo.

You could, I'd say, speak of contents or of ingredients, where to me the “ingredients” are broken down to these basic constituent elements themselves. “Contents” to me would be more sophisticated, past the mere material and up to the level of actual tissue and organs, but still not a living thinking, concious human.

One should be very careful with the terms so that we are sure we understand each other and are talking about the same thing. There are no universally accepted definitions. The terms as generally understood are not clear and I myself will not attempt to formulate them. I will only discuss some ideas. People unknowingly use the same words for different concepts so that the meaning has to be found in the content, and the context of the communication.

Traditionally the terms flesh, mind spirit and soul can be used with mind and soul as the same, often the words soul and spirit are interchangeable. Or body and flesh. As having the same, or very similar meanings.

Emotion and feelings were to be in the “heart”. Flesh then would be the physical human body, alternatively the flesh can be our sinful desires and the primitive animal nature. The mind is the seat of conciousness- in the organic body it manifests as the brain.

Personally I use the word “Soul” as: The Soul is the totality of a person, which means flesh, body, brain, spirit, mind and heart. “You don't have a soul, you are a soul.”

So that the soul is not spirit and it is not mind, nor is it physical nor does it exist in the body. It is all of these together, it is an individual's complete being.

Of course these entities freely influence each other and constantly interact amongst themselves. Emotions can affect, and even disturb the mind. The mind controls the body, the spirit influences the mind and in turn emotion, the body itself can influence emotion (e.g. with pain, pleasure).

They are able to interact in such ways for the reason that they all together exists as one entity. The soul.
 

The Spiritual

A friend of ours who is a clinical psychologist once assured me that things such as telepathy and extrasensory perception do exist and as a fact. I once asked a psychiatrist I knew also and he confirmed the same. Both these men I have complete confidence in and are of high regard in personal and in professional capacity. These phenomena are proved to exist. There have been many studies and including experiments although apparently not with much success.

It appears that controlled experiments don't really work but facts and events can be observed and recorded. It is similar to the situation in astronomy and astrophysics. We cannot in any way influence things that happen in far outer space which means we cannot perform experiments. However we may make observations as scientific evidence and try and explain those.

In the spiritual universes it appears things cannot be under conscious control from the material. It does make sense though, when thinking of how things exist and happen in totally different realities and different universes. It could even be that scientific methods don't apply at all in some spiritual realities.

There is indeed a spiritual world. Remote and barely touched.
 

Reality and Realities

I present a few plausible examples as motivation:

The physical universe- Nature. That is, those things that can be directly or indirectly experienced through the senses i.e. sight, hearing, touch etc. or by scientific instruments, and that could be physically manipulated and changed, and thus can be physically experimented on. Science and knowledge in general, in turn exist as more abstract.

Next then, truths that can be known only by thought and through deduction- logic and mathematics. These realities of reason should correctly fall under spiritual truth. A world of divine revelation is also a purely spiritual universe.

Of course we all live in a reality and I feel that each one is unique and distinct. Each person's is of severely restricted experience so that our own individual realities are extremely confined.

The discussion was totally unscientific and purely qualitative. What does one interpret as a Reality? Conditions would have to be imposed on an entity in order to qualify. In other words some characteristics and laws which would have to be obeyed. It has to be consistent.
 

Study of Realities

The popular notion of a so-called parallel universe to me seems quite bizarre and the concept is meaningless. This sort of thing is not what I have in mind at all since it would be impossible for either one to know of the other. I feel there has to be an observed effect or some kind of consequence from either reality, at least from one side.

The philosopher Aristotle of Ancient Greece formulated as Axioms for formal Logic, “The Laws of Thought” in three basic principles: The Law of Identity, the Law of Contradiction and the Law of the Excluded Middle.

Speculating: I propose the possibility of a formal theory of “Realities”.

Any formal study in logic or mathematics has to be built on (a few) assumptions, as basic truths or axioms. For such a theory I now present some possible (suggested) axioms and necessary properties.

A Reality—
-exists as truth
  -is based on logic
-is a distinct entity
  -is unique
-exists by itself
  -is independent

-may be subject to another
-each/every is governed by logic

Any true contradiction does not exist—
  -A Reality cannot contradict itself
  -Realities cannot contradict each other

By a contradiction is meant any true statement of which the negation is also true. Reality which is unchanging does not possess time. Where change and time do exist, the causality laws governing the change e.g. the flow or motion, do not change with time. Altering the past in any way is prohibited.

The physical Evolution with Time of a universe (or space) in a changing reality is how the reality develops and unfolds itself, it is the actual change, the motion or flow with time.
 

Pre-established Harmony

The laws of evolution in harmony are pre-determined and pre-existing as eternal truths. They manifest as scientific laws governing the existence and evolution of all realities.

A divine pre-existing harmony explains the consistency of science with mathematics, of the conformity of the material universe to the spiritual, the agreement between the body and spirit and the soul, of Earth and Heaven. All things of Creation follow ultimately the same laws and they evolve in perfect harmony.

As a mathematical theory classical causality (Poincarè) exists in one space only, it is in one reality, one universe. Whereas the concept of Empathy or dual causality (N Sauer), in principle could explain such dual and multiple evolutions of different spaces, or different universes.

Pre-established harmony is the immaculate Synchronisation of the All.
 

Chlorophyll and Sunlight

“The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
   Drives my green age ;
“The force that drives the water through the rocks
    Drives my red blood ”
   —Dylan Thomas