Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality abridged to 1/6 of the original version - Translated from German by Nathalie Sequeira Print edition with 25 additional pages: Amazon.com www.free-will.de Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 2 Table of Contents Book Contents Contents of the abridged version Page The relativity of existence Existence is effect (abridged) The relativity of existence 3 The absolute universal continuum (abridged) The absolute universal continuum 5 The unity of the differing (omitted) Some dialectic relationships Essence, relativity, and contrast (omitted) Combinatorics and reciprocity (omitted) Developing systems Irreversible movement (omitted) Higher development (omitted) Hierarchy and wholeness Harmony, coincidence and predetermination (omitted) Interwoven pyramids (omitted) The logics of circumscription The infinitesimal center (abridged) The logics of circumscription 7 Internal pressure and external pull (omitted) Order, chaos and holomovement Enfoldment and unfoldment (abridged) Enfoldment and unfoldment 10 The reality funnel (abridged) The reality funnel 11 The potential for order (omitted) Conscious creativity Activity from the depths (omitted) Consciousness the infinitesimality structure (abridged) Consciousness the infinitesimality structure 12 Our permanent choice (abridged) Our permanent choice 16 The communicating consciousness Projection and creating approximations (abridged) Projection and creating approximations 17 Putting ourselves in another position... (omitted) Selfconsciousness and independence (omitted) Individuality and freedom Messages of the subconscious (omitted) The freedom to unfreedom (abridged) The freedom to unfreedom 20 Giving ideals a chance (abridged) Giving ideals a chance 21 Dynamic consciousness Exchange with the subconscious (abridged) Dynamic consciousness 24 The discovery of the other (abridged) On dynamic existence 25 The creation of reality A question of proof? (abridged) Creation of reality 26 The simultaneity of all events (omitted) Playing with probabilities (abridged) Playing with probabilities 28 Summaries On creativity (omitted) On the perception of creativity (omitted) "Extreme" forms of consciousness and awareness Consciousness units (omitted) All That Is (abridged) All That Is 30 Awareness (abridged) Awareness 32 The extensive directedness Flowing energy (omitted) The indestructibility of the individual (omitted) Freedom, harmony and value fulfillment A feeling for harmony (omitted) Value fulfillment (omitted) The freedom to act out of love (abridged) The freedom to act 35 Conclusion (omitted) Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 3 The present text is a very abridged version of a book I wrote out of the desire to examine the structure of our reality from a standpoint unbiased by established teachings, be they academicscientific, popularesoteric, or religious in nature.1 We will begin with seemingly simple interactions in our daily lives, examine how they originate on a deeper level, come to understand the essentials of consciousness, and finally recognize that we create our reality in its entirety. In the course of this quest, we will uncover little-heeded paths to accessing our subconscious, other individuals, and that which can be understood by the term "God". And the solution to the classical problem of free will constitutes the gist of the concepts thus revealed. You do not need to bring previous philosophical knowledge to the reading of this text, but simply an interest in fundamental interconnections, a certain openness and the willingness to think along. This abridged version, however, comes at a price. Since I had already left out all non-essential points of discussion in the German "long version", in the present text entire topics had to be dropped (c.f. table of contents), along with additional perspectives, arguments, details and in-depth discussion of concepts. The result is a treatise which explains the most fundamental results of my research and their respective central argument, and which, so I hope, serves as a stimulus for a more extensive examination of reality. May it bring you thoughtful pleasure and subtle delight. The relativity of existence The very first question we must necessarily pose is why anything exists at all, instead of there simply being nothing. Doubtlessly, this nothingness would be equivalent to a state in which everything exists. This is because everything could not be differentiated, since the assertion of any difference implies the non-existence of the respective other at the point being regarded. Let us examine this by means of a concrete example: Take a vase and put it on the table before you. You look at the vase and can only identify it as such because it ends somewhere at its top, its bottom, to its left and its right sides. The vase's characteristic form is determined by its limits. But how does a limit become evident? By the fact that beyond it, something else begins, something which, in this case, is different from the vase. We can say that the vase is surrounded by an indispensable halo of other things. You can recognize the vase as well as its surrounding objects because their (mostly reflected) light is received by your eyes and perceived by your consciousness. The surround- 1 Die Erschaffung der Realität (The Creation of Reality). Dresden, Germany: Sumari, 2009. → amazon.de Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 4 ing objects each differ in color, form, and position, that is, they have a manifold effect upon you. If they all had the same effect, we would obtain a nebulous continuum that would still suffice to delimit the vase. It does not make an essential difference whether the vase stands on a table that is set or empty, because nothing affects you as specifically as the vase's form, whether the surrounding objects are differentiated amongst each other or not. The vase does not exist in its surroundings; it is delimited by a halo of its non-existence from which it stands out by way of its characteristic effect. Each thing and each object of its surroundings has such a "shadow" of its own existence. Where these halos overlap, they form an area from which all the regarded objects stand out, and thus, a background of collective non-existence. But even a halo that is common to a group of objects still exists as such, and its own shadow then consists of the various objects themselves. A background of non-existence common to all will always remain hidden. It is a continuum from which all that exists arises. Nonetheless, a relatively continuous and general halo such as a bare wall can come sufficiently close to the characteristics of this background to serve as a perceivable representation of this halo. For simplicity's sake, I will speak of an "imaginary halo" in all cases in which such a diffusely existing halo can represent this hidden, imaginary background. Nothing can exist for you that does not have a specific effect upon you. And without having an effect upon someone else, neither can it exist for them. So if you stand with your back turned towards the vase, it could simply disappear. You can only ascertain whether that "really" happens by asking another person about the vase's state of being while you have turned away.2 This person, let us call him Hans, probably sees the vase and will tell you so. For Hans, the vase exists, and when he tells you so, it also exists for you because you assume (!) that Hans is telling the truth. Now regard the vase again. It exists for both of you and thus has a greater range of existence, since its existence is hardly reduced if one of you does not perceive it, as long as the other reports its existence (only a shadow of a doubt remains that the other may be lying). The vase still exists for both together. Furthermore, an object can exist more intensely depending upon how relevant it is to us; either within a selected spectrum of effects (such as the reflection of light in the form of a vase) or within a broader spectrum including all recognizable influences (e.g. the vase is flying at 80km/h towards our heads). I label this relevance with which the object distinguishes itself from its halo as intensity of existence, to stress the fact that something irrele- 2 Mirrors and similar replacements for the human observer would not change the situation significantly, as you can easily ascertain. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 5 vant also is less. An object will seldom fade into its surroundings as would a veil of mist, such that generally some qualitative difference between the object and its halo will be detectable. However, since the observer unites all the effects upon himor herself, that is, also abstracts from their qualitative differences, an object can not only exist or not exist within the total impression, but also exist more or less. Summing up our reflections, the existence of each thing is relative. It is dependent upon the observer's viewpoint. A particular object, such as the vase, can only exist for a particular observer. Its existence for several observers, in comparison, is only possible if they are connected amongst each other i.e., communicate with each other to establish its existence together. Then, for the observers as a collective entity the object will have a greater range of existence and thus exist more. Even for the single observer its intensity of existence will increase, since it will have a stronger effect upon him by way of the connection with the other observers. Nevertheless, the vase flying at you alone will already exist intensively. When you attempt to dodge out of its way, during which in the worst case you will knock over Hans, he will also not remain unimpressed. Its effect will rub off onto him, so to speak, and thus the vase will gain in range of existence. Within the point of observation that encompasses, i.e. connects, both observers, a larger range of existence usually will signify an increased intensity of existence and vice versa. Then in turn we can compare different points of observation with each other, which will create yet another, comprehensive one. The difference between "realer" and "less real" is thus a difference in range of existence within this broader viewpoint. The absolute universal continuum A modification of existence is achieved by shifting the point of observation according to specific rules which, however, themselves can change with this shift. For example, although we may usually move to another location by driving, as soon as we arrive at an airport we are also presented with the possibility of flying. By following the rules inherent to the shifting of viewpoints, we will arrive at increasingly unknown points of observation. In a coherent infinite universe, we can "go" infinitely far. Somewhere along the line we must then also be capable of arriving at a point of observation at which nothing exists for us. Let us imagine at this point an extremely dense fog that prevents us from recognizing anything in our surroundings, even our own bodies. It also swallows all sound. Then we also switch off our other senses. Finally, we let the dense fog Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 6 penetrate our thoughts and isolate them from each other. They can no longer refer to each other and also become increasingly frayed themselves. We don't even know who we are anymore, we are disconnected from ourselves. There is nothing anymore. Absolute discontinuity, absolute continuity, absolute identity. (Nevertheless you should read on). We seem to be largely disconnected from the infinite diversity of the universe anyway in the sense that we are not in connection with it as such, and as such it does not exist for us. Therefore, it did not take long for us to disengage ourselves from the rest too. The path in the other direction, on the other hand, is infinitely long. It means the increasing existence of all possible things. But since on this path we encounter an infinite variety of experiences, it is far more interesting. However, at its "end", absolute continuity = absolute identity awaits us likewise, as we shall see right away. Let us take a pencil and draw a few solid squares on a blank piece of paper. We have thus created a world, a point of observation. The respective outermost squares mark the limits of our viewpoint. Now, we can erase all the squares, one after the other, and all of the last one except a dot, with which we reduce the volume of our viewpoint to zero. That is the point at which nothing exists anymore. Instead, we can also add more and more squares, which in this example only differ by nature of their location. The original volume will become continuously filled with squares, have no more points of reference except its edges, and extend infinitely to take up further squares.3 In the end, there are no points of reference anymore in this infinity, that is, all is identical. Although this identity is never reached, it is tended towards. A similar situation is to be found in reality at large. In a diversified and coherent world, an expansion we follow will also lead to the expansion of the connections with other things and thereby to their expansion, which in turn will include yet other things, and so on. Thus, a thriving economic enterprise will also expand its cooperation with its partners and contribute to their growth. Furthermore, the business will find new partners and involve them in the same way. In an infinite world, there is no reason for any insuperable limit to this process. Even if only one of the infinitely many paths exhibits infinite expansion, this still suffices to conclude that the imaginary halo will be completely filled, because this one path will then incorporate all other paths. It will reach anything whatever, even the most improbable, since in infinity anything is possible, inside as well as out. Therefore, this infinitely distant point of observation is an absolute continuum. It is hidden behind the existent and evident behind its respective halo, where it awaits realization. We do not know the whole journey, but we know its destination the absolute identity of all the existent and therewith simultaneously non-existent. 3 Outlines of squares would also be filled as soon as they begin to overlap. They would not restrict infinity in any way. Infinitely thin lines, however, would not result in a single existing square. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 7 In itself this identity is meaningless and resembles an infinitesimal (infinitely small) point without differences. It can only exist for a discrete (relatively discontinuous) real world; in "reaching" it, it immediately reflects upon some sort of separation. Since absolute identity now lies in every direction (see above), it is present, in final consequence, in every random point of our world. In view of its derivation, I would like to call this point the absolute universal continuum. The infinite path of its approximation describes what is meant by it, but there are, as already suggested, also shorter paths. A point in itself is always the same. Only the paths leading to it are different, which is why it can only attain specific meaning with these paths. And this meaning is of capital importance, as we will yet see. Already do we anticipate a connection between the infinitely large and the infinitely small. To this point we have discussed the effect of the surroundings upon the observer. Conversely, every observer is not only an object for others he affects other observers -, but in addition himself consists of objects that refer to one another, and thus exists on his own by embodying the entirety of his inner interactions. He is a point of observation. If he interactively incorporates his surroundings, he only extends this point of observation. The selfexistence of the observer is at its least within him. Pure self-existence of another thing naturally is equivalent to its non-existence, that is, it dissolves in the imaginary, because pure self-existence can be anything random. The "imaginary" thus is a mass of self-existent things, "pure being", independently of an external observer. And the relativity of existence describes the transition to it. The logics of circumscription Wherein exactly does the entirety of an existing object consist? Obviously not only in the object itself, but it rather also encompasses the object's relationship to its halo, an interaction. To perceive something, you must constantly oscillate between it and something else, by which you notice a change in what you just observed and inscribe this into one predominant, more or less distinct differentiation one that delimits the object of your attention. For example, we can only distinguish a car in comparison with its surroundings. But the car also interacts with its environment independently of you as an observer. It draws in air and emits exhaust gases, it stands or rolls on the ground, is steered and reacts to that, and so on. Without this exchange with its nearer and more distant (gas station, oil rig, manufacturing factory) environment it would not be a car or at least not this car. A variety of Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 8 interactions and other objects is manifested in this object, it cannot be traced back to one particular thing.4 However, we never discern its entire underlying diversity. What we respectively designate as a car typical build, rolling means of transportation, stinking gas consumer thus can only be a successive approximation of that totality which is embodied within it. After all, this approximation itself does not appear as a formless mass, but is composed of many different parts, such as seats, wheels, and motor. It is only in their characteristic combination that we discern its essential core. While we oscillate back and forth between the parts, correlate them comparatively or trace their interrelations, the back and forth movements circumscribe a car. Without these lateral movements, only an undifferentiated, infinitesimal "effect" would remain. There is no "car in itself", because it consists only of its details. Nonetheless it is more than them, namely, their entirety. What does the "more" of this entirety mean? New functions (driving, transportation, etc.), that only pertain to the whole car and not to its fragments? Certainly. But they themselves are also a circumscription. Even every single function such as "driving" circumscribes and is itself circumscribed. It represents a mutual effect. It would be a contradiction in itself to try to reduce the car to any one side (or one step further to the sum of all sides or the oscillation between them). As soon as we attempt to pinpoint one aspect of the whole, we lose hold of the others, which are then missing, and thus we constantly vacillate between several moments a relatively self-contained process. It is exactly upon this reciprocity and not upon a "substance" that the relative stability of the perceived is based. A distillate of the complicated oscillations emerges that is naturally sufficient as such, as an approximation of the complete object. If, however, we are satisfied with neither this approximation nor with the constant vacillation between parts and functions, all we can do is to relinquish one (or a number of) sides (the "contradiction in itself" leads to separation), or, is the vehicle to remain intact, to penetrate the interwoven circumscribing circles to thus discover that more comprehensive structure which leads to them. For instance, we can open the hood, scrutinize the construction plans or study the process of production. Surely this deeper structure also holds an approximation, if a more detailed one. Actually, it contains yet more oscillation than the initially regarded surface. But relative to this surface it can appear to be more static, as the far-off assembly of motor and dynamo may seem more static than the spinning fanbelt under our nose. 4 At first, we regarded the existence of an object as independent of the structure of its halo (however not of its own structure). Here, now, we also take into account its diversified non-existence in the surrounding objects, which not only exist differingly, but also relatively independently. These surrounding objects first differ amongst each other, and only become relevant to the object when they are interconnected within it. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 9 The deepest level we can arrive at is the absolute universal continuum. One the one hand, we may regard it as the fully unfolded secret that ultimately connects everything. On the other, we find its absolute identity at every infinitesimal point of the real world, as established in the previous chapter. On the one hand, every circumscription is an individual embodiment of the universal Whole. On the other, it delineates one specific center point. When we concentrically and increasingly narrow down a specific circumscription, it becomes increasingly diffuse, all the way to that infinitely small point which corresponds to the infinitesimal, undifferentiated "effect" we would "perceive" without lateral, reciprocal movements (the car "in itself"). And since we always only recognize a limited relationship of reciprocity, to us its infinitesimal center for the time being is coextensive with the universal continuum. Until now, we have almost exclusively spoken of the absolute universal continuum expanding infinitely behind each discrete object. Here, however, we see it completely within the "tangible" proximity of the center point. How does that go together? Well, to reach the universal continuum, we must go an infinitely long way upon which the diversity perceived grows into the infinite. But it is exactly the infinity of this distance that allows this diversity to overlap into a simple appearance that we can grasp in our delimited world. If we limit ourselves to a particular point of observation, the diversity of an interrelation decreases towards the middle, so that we do not recognize its underlying wealth. The diversity that we can still perceive melts, things converge. Looking into the circumscription, the ultimate meeting point and ultimate detail is central infinitesimality. It is only when we allow ourselves to penetrate into expanded points of observation, that is, when we dive down into the center, that we unfold the things that are in identity there and tend divergingly, so to speak, towards the absolute.5 We can realize it only through infinite development. Nevertheless, limited objects, observers, or points of observation together with their center points anticipate it as a whole. Although the absolute universal continuum in itself has no meaning, but only exists in its reflection, it attains an individual meaning in these specific viewpoints. Although any further unfoldment of hidden structures modifies this meaning, it continues to contain the universal continuum in the form of newly circumscribed infinitesimal points, as well as in the indestructible imaginary halo. We simply cannot rid ourselves of the ident ity of the continuum. Especially of its infinitesimality we can say that it reaches through everything that can potentially be unfolded in infinite depth. And its effect is just as incessant. We will soon discuss this. 5 What that means exactly in existential terms will become clear when we discuss dynamic existence. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 10 Enfoldment and unfoldment If we take our analysis of the relationships we have discerned to lesser depths, we arrive at what David Bohm called the "implicate order", the hidden relationship of all things to all others. We have seen how an object enfolds its varied background, how it emerges from the overlapping or entwining of highly intricate interrelationships. We observe a circumscribed entity, whose hidden richness we can unfold by "looking more closely". On the other hand, that complicated order enfolds itself into different forms (sub-entities). We observe various objects. The implicate order of the background thus unfolds their diversity, an explicate order. After the hidden has unfolded into the visible, the explicate must in turn influence the implicate, since the effects of the explicate forms must, in a world of ultimately all-sided reciprocity, finally also reach the implicate order. For example, the unfolded effect of a car type upon its buyers influences the manufacturing enfolded therein, and even before buying it, we relate the car to its manufacturer (brand, nationality, etc.). On the whole, we are dealing with a permanent reciprocal transition from one order to another, whereby each side (on the one, the production or construction plan, and on the other, the produced vehicle) is maintained by this dynamic: the construction plan by positive test reports, and the vehicle by the fulfillment of its planned use. Each side enfolds (contains, encodes, processes) the other in a certain way and unfolds it again in a modified form. It is a movement of wholeness (holomovement). The exchange between enfolded and unfolded order of course is not always visible and can take the most varied paths. In quantum physics it operates according to Bohm much more directly than in classical interrelations. Generally speaking, however, it is clear that each part is also connected to the all-encompassing whole, even when this does not appear to be the case in unfolded forms of movement. Like the implicate order itself, the transmitters of effect also are hidden at some point on the way towards it. After all, even every transmission itself must enfold the background "crossways", that is, the implicate order surrounds the real objects. It unfolds their interrelation as a whole. Because as a result of its fundamental ability to unfold, the limit of the observable stands for the rest of the Universe. The hidden proximity of its ultimately universal (!!!) diversity establishes the proximity of a hidden complexity independently of the number of known intermediate steps in which it enfolds. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 11 The reality funnel An unfolding circumscription "raises" an object from the infinitesimal. It gives it a meaning by interrelating its inner properties amongst each other and with the external. The relationship between this reciprocity and its infinitesimal center welds the object into a single entity that in consequence also enfolds itself as such and co-determines the next unfoldment. The interrelation between center and periphery thus basically is an interrelationship of depth and surface. It is the holomovement of enfoldment and unfoldment that itself is partially unfolded (fanned out). While diversity reaches its maximum at the outer edge of a sort of crater or funnel that it forms in circumscription, it is reduced towards the middle and further outside. The uppermost edge circumscribes the center, towards which we "slide" into the depths of the hidden, and from which the funnel shape arises.6 Although we infer an enfolded structure towards the center, its larger depth remains hidden to us, since what we can recognize there is but a continuation of the known. In implementing this ever-narrowing speculation, we asymptotically approximate a zero point, that is, we delineate border lines that rapidly come closer to each other (the funnel's stem), which will only meet exactly in the infinite the place where we also assume the universal continuum to be. Nonetheless, there can only be one identity of the absolute (!) universal continuum. That means that every object must also be connected through its inside (center) with the outside (halo)! This unity is not yet realized (not "posited", were it up to Hegel). But it is in the process of so becoming by means of the holomovement, which is merged into the circumscription by interrelating external objects, that is, the existing halo, and which encompasses their enfoldment/unfoldment into/from the hidden depths of the whole.7 Altogether the individual "breathes in" his interrelated surroundings and spreads himself into them through his (re- )actions. This movement forms a complete funnel and holds its middle asymptotically open towards the infinite depths, whereby this infinitude ultimately is the same as the one we could tend towards outside the circumscription. All the internal comes together with itself by means of all the external and vice versa. 6 Furthermore, the oscillation between depth and surface circumscribes its own enfoldment and unfoldment. 7 If we are consistent and include the existing halo in the circumscription, this imaginary background lies within the existent. In some respects, the halo can be regarded as the "space" of all infinitesimal points. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 12 The edge of the crater symbolizes the most visible circumscription, while the existent halo falls off outwards and conceals the imaginary background. Inside, the circumscribed whole condenses until it reaches the infinitesimal center of the funnel, which in the depths of the increasingly enfolded collapses with the absolute universal continuum. The latter envelops the point of observation as "vision". Consciousness the infinitesimality structure Let us now turn to the processes that lead to the decision between diverse possible paths of development of a system. Firstly, they have to do with the reality funnel's "horizontal" level, with the circumscription of a whole by means of its structure. Like holomovement, the circumscription of an object be it complex or simple is oscillation. It traces the relationships to other objects and thus also the tendencies to reinforce some of these relationships and to establish new relationships in those directions. It does this on the outside, in contact with the surroundings, as well as on the inside, since even inner circumscription (of the center) delineates pre-stages to relationships that can be further unfolded. What, then, does "conscious" mean? The fundamental trait of being conscious is the interaction with something that is perceived, for example the discussed vase, which therewith circulates in a consciousness loop. This loop extends beyond the observer when he holds the vase in his hands then he interrelates with an external object or remains exclusively within the observer when he gives the vase away. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 13 An infinitesimal effect, however, would disappear in the same instant as it "affects". It could hardly become conscious. This means that on the one hand a conscious effect must circulate in the form of a circumscribed whole. The image of an object is stored. On the other hand, that preserving repetition circumscribes the entity of perceiving part and its object: it establishes a point of observation. We visualize tendencies between which we are to decide in the same way. Imagine you are a hunter who is chasing a bunch of poachers (somehow I find chasing these more pleasant!). All of a sudden, the track forks, and you must decide between one of the two paths. In your mind, you jump back and forth between the left and the right track. You are aware of both paths, which themselves are sufficiently circumscribed, in an overall reciprocal relation. This reciprocity describes the framework of the possibilities that are relevant to you in that moment. Your consciousness loop of course only allows a choice between the one or the other track. Even though the oscillation delimits itself with respect to its undifferentiated surroundings, it still requires a further definition, a de-cision. This definition within the yet undetermined dissolves the loop by realizing one alternative more strongly, and by leading to new possibilities with the continuation of your path. In this, a conscious choice must spring from the entity of the reciprocal relations itself. It must entirely unite the indeterminacy of the alternative to be chosen with the determinacy of the decision and not only mix known doubts with unknown certainty, with which basically everything would be predetermined. Total unity is given as long as we do not divide the reciprocal relationships into single parts. Furthermore, such a division is not even possible if we want to comprehend its full meaning. We call such comprehension intuitive. The relation of reciprocity already is totality namely, the indivisible unity of the alternative sides with the clearly circumscribed and thus determined, but neutral core at its middle. At the same time, however, it differentiates all these parts in the structure of its totality. That is why we prefer to speak, instead of a total unity, of an infinitesimal unity that is only total at respectively one point of the whole: at the center of the respectively analyzed relationship, such as here in the middle between the core of the whole and its periphery. And it is, finally, from this that the impulse arises: this one path is the correct one and none other. We have not only intuitively taken in the situation, but also chosen freely. Consciousness is the infinitesimal unity of the concrete reciprocity loop with its neutrality at its center. It is consciously creative. Its free choices determine that which will be subsequently realized from the imaginary halo. But just as the universal continuum limits equivalence by reflecting upon a limited world, the impartial core of consciousness does this in a Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 14 more strict way: only with relatively determined structural changes can it practice freedom, implement decisions. Its informality, which in itself is diffuse, thus gives itself a framework of probable lines of action. This once again explains why we do not ascribe choice to the core alone, which in itself is meaningless, but rather to its infinitesimal unity with the reciprocity of the alternatives. Only this has something to chose from. And it encompasses a relative separation of the possibilities. Furthermore, coincidental influences and meaningful interconnections are also involved in the decision process. Like the hunter's logical considerations, they lead up to the moment of choice and there become identical with their unity. The decision is not arbitrary for the hunter it has a meaning within his wider context without being strictly determined by it. Its permanent share in the infinitesimal unity can still lead to completely unexpected solutions: all of a sudden, we realize that we could pursue the poachers in a completely different way through the air! But we must resort to one of the known aids to do this. We begin to deliberate the quickest way to engage a helicopter a surprising third path that arises from the unison with the enfolded total context. It is of utmost importance for everything beyond this point that we understand the connection between the structure of consciousness and infinitesimality that we just introduced: Let us use the movement of an object from one place to another as a simple model. An object transitions into one that lies beside it. If this did not occur in infinitely small steps, the movement would occur in leaps. David Bohm advocated this latter view. In his opinion, the holomovement into and out of the depths closes all the gaps between perceived moments of movement, which enfold themselves into the hidden order, only to unfold again a bit further on.8 In a similar way, single pictures at the movies appear as moving figures as they are projected one after the other. But how do we correlate the unfolded moments of movement in such a way that they appear to us as one movement? We compare the different frames and perceive the unbroken entity of their reciprocity. We recognize one changing scene. An optical illusion? Fine. But then, this illusion is so universal that we can no longer designate it as such. Because if we look "behind" the apparent continuity of movement, we will only find further "illusory movements" in our case, the spreading of the light waves from the projection lamp, the film winding through the projector, the movement of electrons in the electrical cord, etc.9 It is of no use to further divide these movements into discrete steps 8 David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Routledge 1983, p. 200ff. 9 Please excuse the old-fashioned technology. It simply is more vivid. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 15 (even if we refer to quantum mechanics), because only wholes, which as such present structure, can have an effect. Otherwise they will remain infinitesimal. However, their structure contains infinitesimal centers, each part includes its own infinitesimality. We obtain a transition to the infinitely small at each point of the (holo-)movement. More exactly put, the unity of structure and infinitesimality repeats itself at every point all the way down to its own infinitesimality.10 All non-infinitesimal objects which can be further unfolded thus also remain connected to each other infinitesimally not only by way of the identity of their centers, but because of the presence of such centers at every point of their transition. This total better: infinitesimal unit of infinitesimality and non-infinitesimality is what I mean by infinitesimality structure. We can expand the reality funnel yet further, fan out the diversity overlapped into one relatively simple image, whereby we bring new objects to light. In the movie example, we would penetrate into the film's production company, then into the life of the director, of the actors, the targeted audience, etc. The existing infinitesimality structure expands to a greater diversity which of course also has its own infinitesimality structure. Infinite expansion finally leads us to the infinitesimality structure of the absolute universal continuum that point of reflection that all reality funnels already contain in individualized form. What does that mean? The infinitesimality structure of the infinite universe the absolute unity (!!!) of all coarse, fine and direct connections is included in every limited object or consciousness, where it plays an individual role. There, it is but less unfolded, relatively diffuse. It is more infinitesimal. Only at the extreme end of the respective funnel's stem does it merge into one central infinitesimal point. That is, the potential structure of the universal continuum is compacted into every concrete circumscription! Our permanent choice But of what significance is the ubiquity of infinitesimality structure to the freedom of choice? Since nothing exists without characteristic tendencies which reciprocally refer to each other, nothing is without selective consciousness. Every one of these consciousnesses, be it that of a human, a plant, or a growing crystal, in turn is interrelated in an infinitesimalitystructured way with all others. Accordingly, their decisions must also be interconnected: 10 Zeno's paradox, by which infinitely small steps cannot result in any movement, is obsolete. Movement is a dimension that is not reducible (to moments). Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 16 every partial consciousness makes its choices in mediated and direct connection with the respectively broader consciousness of its viewpoint. Although the relative separateness of the spheres of consciousness is sometimes large (within their entirety) and the point of observation always restricted (there may be few or improbable alternatives to choose from), the more all parts unfold, the more detailed does the connection between mediation and direct unity become, while the overall consciousness grows beyond its previous bounds. It projects an increasingly complex network of nested reality or consciousness funnels that was compressed asymptotically within it. It is in this way that we become ever more conscious of the cultural and ecological interconnections of the world, and increase our possibilities of choice. We become more consciously responsible. However, whether we regard relatively separate or detailedly mediated spheres, the existent whole also means their unmediated connection. That is, the direct contact of any random circumscription with all others and to the absolute universal continuum is and remains given. Any decision we make should therefore immediately have an effect upon the decisions of all other consciousnesses; this will be noticeable, of course, only in those that are part of our current point of observation. In an infinitesimality-structured world, such decisions are made in every moment. Because since all preliminary "endpoints" of a change are circumscribed by others, they always contain various possible continuations. But "who" is deciding what the next step will be? And who could change the course of the sun? Here, we should remind ourselves that every situation not only includes the regarded object, but also the observer, the entire point of observation. Its entire consciousness participates in the permanent choice. Nevertheless the essentials can be predetermined. The sun inevitably sets. But whereby? Actually, only through the decision of a consciousness that has given rise to the situation. And that consciousness is enclosed consciously or unconsciously in each of the consciousness funnels involved. Every moment of a change realizes a choice of the whole, but limitedly unfolded, universe. In the deepest depths, it is our will that the sun sets. While we originally spoke of effects and interactions, we are now only dealing with different forms of consciousness. Of course consciousness means more than the fundamental ability to make a free choice. It communicates with others, feels and fosters individual intentions. It is in ceaseless exchange with its subconscious, without the which it is unthinkable. How does it attune the creation of its reality to other individuals and "God"? What personal use can we distil from these cognitions? This and more will be the subject of the next chapters. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 17 Projection and the creation of approximations Normally, we believe that the objects around us can also be seen by others. We have ascribed a determined range of existence to the vase on the table, which would mean that it exists for a certain amount of observers. Nevertheless, we begin to doubt whether every observer really sees the same vase. We perceive an object by including it in our consciousness. But this consciousness evidently differs from all others. It contains a completely individual combination of opinions, preferences, and memories, which it here relates to a vase, such that we become conscious of this vase in a different way than Hans standing right beside us. One observer may be a passionate collector, and the other a flower fanatic. And nevertheless, both say they see one and the same vase at yonder place. So, do their vases have something in common after all? No, strictly speaking, they don't! Since every detail relates to a particular whole, it is identical with none of the details of another whole. The different consciousnesses of both admirers only meet in the infinitely minute that is really accorded to both but no longer represents a vase.11 How then do they succeed in agreeing upon one, only this one and no other vase? Of course, one communicates, makes a deal: you tell me what you see and I tell you what I see, and then you correct me and I correct you, etc. In so doing, each includes a bit of the other's viewpoint in their own, creates a new consciousness with this information, upon which the other in turn creates a new consciousness including the information from the first common consciousness, and so on. Of course, the observers now no longer perceive their original object. Instead, they have created an overall consciousness of both viewpoints, with which they are interwoven unto the infinitesimal. They circumscribe its wholeness, in which a common approximation of their individual vases now circulates. This is that vase with a determined range of existence. You can verify this construction of reality by means of a simple experiment: ask someone from your family to point at a random object. All those present should then follow the associations this object brings up. Exchange your impressions, observing all the while how you integrate the others' references, and how through this an object that is common to all crystallizes. This is not that which every single one of you now perceives, but it is the particular object contained within the new overall consciousness of the observers. Further differentiations, that is, new references, arise constantly, which can be adjusted equally constantly. The resulting approximation is the common - "objective" reality of the communicating individuals. 11 This example is taken from Jane Roberts, The Seth Material. Prentice-Hall 1970, Chapter 10. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 18 Of course we do not always have to start at zero. We already have internalized certain ideas and rules about approximations and their formation. (Almost) everyone knows "what" a vase is or "how" to speak. But if you also know someone who always understands what you say differently, it will be clear to you what we are talking of here. One question we have already answered in a different form remains: how can a single observer perceive something unified if such perception requires communication? You know it: his consciousness, his inner communication, circumscribes the object as an entity which continues to circulate as such within it. If a consciousness did not consist of interrelating partial consciousnesses down into the infinitely small -, there would be no expanded, let alone structured objects of contemplation. Accordingly, collective approximations are formed like circumscribed entities. At first, no individually perceived object exists for another consciousness. It is infinitesimal, nonexistent. Only by means of communication, that is, reciprocity between different consciousnesses, is an approximated object acceptable to each side brought forth from the imaginary halo and individual knowledge. Nonetheless, that which we want to see, for example flowers in the vase, already existed before in a similar form for other observers. Mother had already put such flowers in that vase (in her vase). Even that upon which we are not focused is available in principle, it can at some time be brought up from somewhere else where it must exist, since everything exists for someone. Only the decision in favor of a particular communication is made by each consciousness in association with its central zero point. The ensuing projection arises (via holomovement) from the world of its respective un-/subconscious.12 Despite our choice, then, we project objects which have existed long since as approximated from another perspective. To establish this, however, means that we were already conscious of these approximations before their projection. Because to what extent an object exists beyond our own world is measured by means of its more comprehensive range of existence, which we paradoxically must know. How is that possible? Let us imagine a cave whose dark interior we want to explore archaeologically. We light a torch and step over the border of our current viewpoint into another, the interior of the cave, where we become aware of several prehistoric paintings. Eventually, we return to the outside, but keep the cave entry in view. Now, the artifacts are again steeped in darkness. However, we know with relative certainty, that these target objects (still) exist (more precisely, that they will still exist when we go back to them) and keep the beginning of the path to 12 ...whereby that which is to be projected from there is altered and other free decisions take part in this, such that the exact form of the projected remains unknown until the very end. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 19 them in our consciousness. When we enter into the cave anew, this time nothing wholly unknown emerges. Nonetheless, we will perceive the pictures slightly differently, alas, perhaps they even have been damaged in the meantime. Before we stepped into the cave for the first time, we were not conscious of its content as part of the enfolded universe. After we had unfolded it, it became subconscious through its re-enfoldment a subtle difference that emphasizes the dynamic existence of the object. That means that it alternates between potential and actual existence, by which the potential is confirmed through its repeated realization and at the same time is preserved as such. This alone entitles us to assert that an object will also distinguish itself from the sea of randomness, even when we are not observing it. In this case, we are observing the circumscribing oscillation between existence and non-existence, which condenses in a real potential. While shifting our viewpoint creates things that may already exist similarly for others, the potential connects us with them and is therefore itself perceived as their approximation that is, as incomplete. Real dynamic existence is not, as you know, the only possibility of delineating a potential. With respect to worlds that are not yet accessible, we are dependent upon inferences or extrapolations whose continued validity we assume on unknown ground. The confirming side of the circumscription is itself still potential here, only verified in relation to known phenomena. This is the way we go about when we infer an implicate order from explicit movements. And it is in the same way that we come to the assumption that our subconscious extends into the infinite, potentially unfoldable universe. To sum up briefly, new objects are created through the interplay of three processes: the decision to create, the exchange with other consciousnesses, and their ascent from the subconscious. The freedom to unfreedom We had seen that consciousness' freedom of decision grows with an increase in its complexity. Firstly, simply because it can then process more alternatives. Inner impulses also have more opportunities of becoming conscious in reciprocity loops, to transmute into selectable/rejectable suggestions.13 Increased sensibility means a heightened changeability of the reciprocal relationships and thus additionally increases the possibilities available within a determined span of time. Even if the consciousness should constantly decide in 13 By impulses I mean the subconsciousness' signals or impetuses to act, which arise within our more comprehensive holomovement. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 20 favor of similar alternatives or even of passivity, more infinitesimal relationships, more partial consciousnesses and their combinations, are introduced into this choice. More points of decision, as it were, "moments of freedom", are involved. We may object that a locked-up human being will hardly have more possibilities of freeing himself than a locked-up ape. But the abstract partial consciousness of its imprisonment is not much more complex than the ape's. Thus, by basing our judgment on this specific circumstance, we compare two evenly matched focuses of consciousness whose potential is barely different. We only confirm our own premise. However, if we broaden our viewpoint, the human immediately has more possibilities of choice than the ape: he can sing, talk to himself, ponder over the preconditions of freedom, etc. Thus, it is important how much complexity becomes conscious. If something exists as a relatively simple interrelation, such as, perhaps, a thermostat, then it will show a relatively determined (or random) behavior, irrespective of its origins. At this point, it should be becoming clear to us that our focus of consciousness is the apex of an individual hierarchy which expands infinitely far into all other, for us mostly subconscious, hierarchies. Although we tend to view our subconscious from a (neuro-) physiological perspective, it would be foolish to restrict ourselves to our limited physics all the way down to the infinite depths. Instead, physics will expand into unknown directions like everything else. Therefore, we must not assume that our subconscious works largely as we know it to from our conscious reality. Doubtlessly, however, it disposes of consciousness, or rather consists of such. The infinite depths remain hidden from us above all because they are too encompassing, too complex for our current consciousness. Since we experience a restricted version of that reality, however, our potential, our leeway for making decisions, originally must have been broader. That again would mean that our current limitation basically is a voluntary, our voluntary one if we identify ourselves with our entire hierarchy. Our more comprehensive consciousness "forgets" itself in our chosen embodiment to experience its unique viewpoint, just as the boss sometimes restricts himself to his game of golf. If he, on the contrary, removed the restrictions of the player and constantly thought of his office and clients, his swings would hardly resemble a respectable ball game anymore. While, after all, the golf player can still interrupt his game whenever he likes (albeit he will also try to avoid that of his own accord!), the freedom consciousness of the more encompassing individual must decrease "from top to bottom" to guarantee its chosen overall structure of individuality. The singularity of every level contributes to this. Thus, especially conscious access to more complex levels remains restricted. A mouse would find it difficult to bear if it all of a sudden were gifted with the understanding of a human at best perhaps Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 21 it could come to grips with a reduced version. Its mouse-ness contains the level of freedom it simply has at its disposal. The same is true of our human-ness. Like the mouse, we are not conscious of anything much higher that we could turn into. But we know that it must be there, because we exist as we are. It is upon this subconsciousness and its choice, then, that the relative intransigence of our current reality, but also our Self's capability of resistance, is based. Only sometimes do we feel the larger meaning of our experiences, that interrelation to a higher being which slips off into vagueness. However, this deep consciousness (down to the absolute point of reflection) ultimately encloses the more restricted focuses and the alternatives at their disposal. This consciousness chooses the same alternatives out of its oneness with the same core. Indeed, the infinitesimality structure of every consciousness unconsciously merges into that of the most comprehensive consciousness. Therefore, even the simplest of decisions still corresponds to a decision of the broadest and thus also to that of every other consciousness (just like the golf player's stroke corresponds to the end of his work day and the chauffeur's uniform). Giving ideals a chance In this context, let us hear how a deterministically inclined reporter interviews an undaunted philosopher about his memoirs: Determinist: If you were 16 years old once more, would you do everything the same way again? Optimist: No, I don't believe so. Determinist: But you couldn't remember the consequences of your actions. Everything would be exactly as it was then. How then could you know that some decisions were wrong? Optimist: I wouldn't know. But perhaps I would decide differently this time. Determinist: You mean, you would take another path by chance? Optimist: If everything were exactly equal to my situation back then, even the dice could not fall differently, right? Determinist: Right. So once again: based upon what facts would you decide differently? Optimist: Based upon my freedom of choice. Determinist: Purely arbitrarily, that is practically randomly? Optimist: Not "purely": I would take all known facts into account and then decide. Determinist: But the facts were known to you back then too. Why should you evaluate them differently this time round? Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 22 Optimist: Perhaps now I have other motives. Determinist: No, no. Everything is exactly as back then. You are the same person. Optimist: Possibly my subconscious has already decided differently, so that I feel pushed into another direction. Determinist: Then your subconscious chooses arbitrarily? Optimist: Yes and no. It also feels deeper impulses. Perhaps it will follow them, perhaps not. Determinist: But where then do you draw the line between arbitrariness and unconscious determination? Optimist: There is no line. Both arise from the same source. Determinist: And what is that? Optimist: The infinite. Determinist: Aha. In the end, then, someone infinitely distant decides. And who, please, should that be? Optimist: He is sitting right in front of you. We have described the transition from consciousness to the subconscious as a funnel whose walls symbolize the limits of the currently conscious, narrow down ever more and meet in the infinite depths. We can expand the range of the conscious permanently or only temporarily (dynamically), stretch the funnel or make a bulge in its stem, but none of all this will remove the funnel form. Let us now reap the fruits of our analyses: Higher complexity, that is, greater freedom of decision, allows our deeper beings (in our subconscious but there, unfolded depths) to find unity over things that appear to us as rigid circumstances or insoluble conflicts. In a more comprehensive frame of reference, the ape and the prisoner are in agreement with their guard. In the infinite depths, this voluntary attunement even merges into the identities of the sides and therewith into absolute freedom. The one's decision finally is that of the other. Since every individual embodies the entire hierarchy, even the most limited of beings preserves a certain measure of free will and feeling of harmony with the larger whole. The infinitesimal connection of every random consciousness with the infinite reaches through all that is less or rather potentially conscious to it and meets it there. The decisions of all that is conscious and subconscious converge in the increasing depth of the funnel stem. They converge in the hierarchy of each single individual. In the dimension perpendicular to this, that of peripheral reciprocity, this identity becomes directly effective. Our limited consciousness itself decides. And, taking both (horizontal and vertical) dimensions into account, inner impulses and absolute identity flow together in their conscious effect. We perceive subconscious determination with a partial freedom of choice. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 23 Stated more simply, three things interact in decision making: the interrelation of the alternatives, inner impulses and "the" infinitely small center point. All this is enfolded down to the infinitesimal by holomovement, but is also unfolded. In its latter form, the alternatives are meaningful to the person making the choices because deciding between them is his action. He relates the upcoming to himself. In this process, the choosing self represents an enfolded form of the whole relating to the unfolded outer world. Inner impulses always lie closer to this enfolded form. They follow personal ideals from the same complex depths, and consciousness aligns itself with them (or their distortion).14 The relationship between ideal and alternatives thereby embodies the significance of the latter for the chooser. Meaning and impulse(s) unite themselves infinitesimally with the center of consciousness and thus will lead to a free, but not wholly arbitrary decision. The subconscious structures certainly do not all have the same weight for us, given we can differentiate between them (dynamically). On the other hand, their effects merge in our deeper being, which has a significantly larger overview than we do. We should therefore first trust its impulses. In each of them, our personal result of all the subconscious communications is expressed and assigns us an individual role within the overall movement of the universe. We can misunderstand them or reject them, but in so doing will probably not be doing ourselves a favor in the long run. Most people do know subliminally why they are in their current situation in life. I am certain that, after some attentive and honest self-observation, they will feel that somehow it all fits in. Even if you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation you cannot escape from, you may assume that you have chosen this situation yourself. However unconsciously a situation or action may come into being, the individual that experiences them as infinite hierarchy is fully responsible for both. Every currently limited aspect of consciousness, of course, can only take this responsibility upon itself partially, to the extent that its larger being has endowed it with consciousness and free will. It can, however, additionally restrict its degree of freedom or strive to expand it it still determines what happens within its own flexible framework. In this way, it has the opportunity to make use of its "destiny" in the best possible way in the interest of the purpose for which it wanted to experience it and be it only to supersede it. 14 An ideal is not a fourth basic factor, but rather an alternative to an impulse when the ideal deviates from it. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 24 Dynamic consciousness Something subconscious, as for example the cave paintings, naturally does not have to be more complex than what is currently conscious. If for example we (re-)cognize a vase, we already anticipate some of its uses: we can see it with or without flowers, on the shelf, as a present, and so on. We alternate between different points of observation that circumscribe the vase without having all of them present simultaneously. Additionally, we imagine how others see the vase, we partially immerse ourselves in their viewpoints.15 Every one of the successive situations also when we handle the vase is unique, individual. In each, all previously created ones sink back into the subconscious, while their reproducibility is maintained. The current consciousness thus moves through its subconscious. Sometimes, it emerges approximately at a point that has already been passed, in between however it discovers hitherto unknown reality settings. We can regard this shift of focus as a descending opening of the consciousness funnel, as a wandering bulge in the funnel stem. Finally, the bulge's, that is, the focus's movements are more or less consolidated into one object, one consciousness. If we bring back conscious impressions from other settings, such that all viewpoints experienced during a dynamic cycle merge into a new, quasi-static state of consciousness, we focus in the usual way we have hitherto discussed. I qualify the result as "quasi-static" because an absolute standstill is not possible effect/existence means change. A state only becomes static through the circumscribing movement of the focus, whereby the dynamic and the static unite in an infinitesimality-structured way. We recognize a (also spirally) circumscribed entity. At this point it literally jumps to the eye that consciousness is nothing but its own dynamic. The circumscription of its whole consists in the constant alternation between the conscious and the subconscious! Through the permanent (approximatively) cyclic change in focus of consciousness, the subconscious is lifted to the level of the conscious without giving up its potentiality. Since every phase of change represents its own focus, it is not even possible that one focus be formed from all these! Instead, their unity consists in the infinitesimality-structured entity of one overall and many single focuses. Let us attempt, once more, to understand the shaping of form by means of our example. When we look at a vase, we consolidate the possibilities of its use into one object without 15 We can also immerse ourselves completely. To do this, we start from what we know about the other, and then dive into our inner self. We have set a destination and the intention to arrive exactly at that destination. Then we open our inner being and with it the paths to other realities. If we succeed, we feel how we slip into the other's viewpoint, the other consciousness. If you think closely about how you normally put yourself into other situations, this method will not seem so very unfamiliar to you. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 25 forgetting their singularity. The flow from situation to situation is contained in the vase without becoming static. The same is true of your current attitude towards life. The psyche fluctuates from moment to moment. If, in contrast I said "an object is the sum (or the integral) of its functions", that would be an inadmissible simplification. It is a unity of individuals. Nonetheless, we must differentiate between the quasi-static and the interaction with those focuses that remain subconscious. Of these, not more than a presentiment of their existence and the possibility of accessing them is preserved at our level. Regarded from our perspective, the path to them leads us into the ever less conscious, the ultimately all-implying whirlpool. On our way, we meet old habits of thought and programmed beliefs such as "I am only a tiny cog in the works", or "There is no happiness for me". We can still become conscious of such beliefs with relative ease, and send them back into the subconscious in a modified form, from where they restructure our (explicit) reality anew, as if by magic. Furthermore, we encounter processes we ignore, but which lead to such appearances as the vase, a car or a cup of coffee. We can also call these into consciousness, as soon as we wish to, without problems to a certain extent. However, we can visualize more complex processes, such as that of climate change or "merely" that of speaking, at best fragmentarily, but cannot grasp them as a whole. The conscious and subconscious in these cases must cooperate as such. On dynamic existence All the same, even a suppressed dynamic must be consolidated quasi-statically to have a discernible meaning for in every moment limited consciousness. We already know it: the oscillation between the evident and hidden circumscribes a potential form of existence, such as the stone age cave paintings, but also every other object. Its range of existence results from the observer's dynamic, who in each of his own moments of movement perceives a different side of the object, connects all these views into one, only potentially complete object, and in turn "appends" this one to each partial version. Thus, for instance, he can assert that his house still exists in an intact form, even though he is only admiring the front view, or is dreaming of his home 1000km away. While he jogged around his estate, he circumscribed it dynamically. Now, he consolidates what he saw on his way. Of that, he quasi-statically circumscribes an image a partial version. The same is true if in future, instead of running himself, he sends his son Hans to the back. The ensuing exchange of reports, yelled over the roof, describes a dynamic observation. Each bundles these into one quasi-static image to which he ascribes a potential reality. That not only means that dynamic must exist, but that existence always also is dynamic! When an object, circumscribed by real and potential viewpoints, exists less than another (as described in the first chapter), its approximation condenses more in the potential than in the immediately Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 26 existing sphere. One's own home, 1000km away, is thus not as strongly present as one's current vacation residence. Creation of reality Communicating individuals act, as argued previously, in a fundamentally self-determining way. Thus, together we develop a world of common approximations that is relatively independent of our own existence within it. Collective reality is more stable than each individual that contributes to it.16 For this reason, each individual that wants to act within a common reality must subordinate itself more or less to its norms. Its movements are subject to laws. The emergence of these laws also reaches far back. All consciousness was and is, as described, already interwoven subconsciously. Just as ours reaches into the conscious environment, our much more vast subconscious permeates the environment's subconscious part. Conscious creativity must conform to these interconnections and adapt to already existing forms. For example, a consciousness that submits itself to the physical level of existence cannot create anything that infringes against the physical conservation of energy, and must make use of the materials it finds on this level (especially the brain). All the individuals involved continue to contribute to the formation of reality but now in a coordinated fashion. Suband half-consciously, a relatively stable frame of creativity has emerged, an agreement on what is possible that excludes everything beyond these boundaries. Existent approximations, dynamically anticipatable forms, and individual decisions unite to form a moderately modified reality. With an increase in the complexity of consciousness, its influence upon this creational process increases, but is then again qualified by the increasing complexity of creations. In the end, the common outer world (such as the forest we walk through) as well as the most intimate surroundings (such as the handkerchief in our pocket) are both to a high degree products of the coordinating subconsciousness, upon which the free will of the single consciousness has but limited influence. On the other hand, we should not underestimate this influence. Everything was at some point consciously or subconsciously chosen, and every hierarchy of consciousness (every infinite individual) in turn chooses from this set of available resources. The possibilities on each single level of course are restricted, but by no means null. Much of what was decided on a subconscious level can be discarded as soon as it has become conscious. And every conscious choice is followed by a modification of unconsciously created reality. As complete individuals, we encounter what we want to expect. 16 As a whole, collective reality of course is also individual. It is only collective within the dynamic of alternation between viewpoints. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 27 By firmly believing that something we yearn for (or fear) will occur, the interrelation that is therewith built up will automatically bring forth adequate impulses that are integrated into our holomovement.17 We encounter corresponding answers in the guise of outer events. If we meet up with resistance, we will often note that it is an inner one born from strong impulses or hardened beliefs and transposed symbolism (such as physical dirt for psychically felt "dirt"). We really should leave some of those as they are we have chosen them on a deeper level with greater insight -, we could, however, easily redesign others. When we have altered encumbering beliefs and transpositions, we must guide the subconscious without making it more conscious than necessary. Like a trapeze artist before his leap, we concentrate upon our destination and we will get there of ourselves. For example, we vividly imagine the I coinciding with our deeper impulses that we would like to be (including its feelings) over and over again, and we will develop into this being together with all its necessary "circumstances". The deeper our (undisputed) conviction is, the more probably will it come to be. Every law unfolds inseparably with the conditions and events under which or for which it is valid, since it is defined by them. But in line with what we said above, "laws of nature" must also be created similarly to those of social co-existence, albeit much less consciously. Accordingly, they are broken or bent much less frequently. Nevertheless, we do not simply discover them, but always play a part in forming them too. It is only reasonable that our subconsciously chosen reality should offer us a scope of experience that allows us to develop further. With the advancement of our development, then, this scope of experience must also shift. For instance, we often only learn from extreme situations that sometimes may even call our current existence into question. It is to be hoped we will yet do so in the face of the impending climate change, re-emerging epidemics and the danger of nuclear terrorist attacks. Such situations, which contradict the drive to self-preservation, are unfolded unconsciously even though they are evoked by conscious decisions. Consequently, if we at least acted correctly now, it could happen that the surroundings came to our assistance of themselves out of their inner being. After first attempts at environmentally conscious action, global warming had already begun to slow, and new natural causes for it were constantly made out (cold currents from the deep seas, a higher consumption of carbon dioxide in vegetation, and others). Even if the tendency points in another direction at the moment, we 17 Belief is a unity of reciprocity (consciousness) and impulse, the spiral aspect of the infinitesimalitystructured interconnection with the subconscious. If we also take the freedom of decision that is woven into the funnel stem into account, we obtain a dynamic consciousness that ever chooses its beliefs anew. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 28 could discover, after more consistent action, that certain catastrophe once more will fail to come - "for very real reasons". It will only affect us if we capitulate to its "lawfulness".18 Playing with probabilities What actually forces us to make choices? Could we not pursue all possibilities that present themselves, realize all of them simultaneously? The hunter at the crossing has already noticed that he could follow both tracks by helicopter. But that is something else than to haste after the poachers on the ground. To really follow all paths, the hunter would have to "split" himself. He would have to create three clones of himself of which he would be the original or whole self. The three clones would not necessarily have to be as diversified as their creator, it would suffice for them to pursue their hunting task and stay in "radio contact" with the whole self. But they would have to split themselves repeatedly to make sure they didn't miss out on a single opportunity. And in the face of the explosive amount of possibilities offered at each crossway, the whole self's capability of differentiation would rapidly become overtaxed. Multiple probable (that is, at least tentatively dynamically experienced) paths thus embody different possibilities of self-restriction. By "definitively" taking one of these, we focus our consciousness upon this one and move away from the consciousness of the previous potential. We want to pursue one of the probable realities and the self that condenses in it. This of course only makes sense if the whole self and with it also the clones not chosen remain intact, if they, in the end, contribute towards our total experience (as we to theirs). Once they have been made conscious, we cannot eradicate them, but at best conceal them.19 The consciousness of each alternative continues to operate autonomously. If we notice that we are on the wrong track, we can go back or put ourselves onto another by way of a shortcut. It remains at our disposal for another while. One of the other clones has followed it and perhaps has sent us that impulse which leads us to the certainty that we are going wrong. In consequence, we again decide in favor of this other after our previous adventures only similar alternative, while we still send yet another clone along the wrong track (perhaps it may turn out to be right after all, since there we may encounter the love of 18 Admittedly, most of the processes involved in global warming are not "truly unbending" laws of nature such as the first law of thermodynamics (a form of the law of the conservation of energy, which as a pure abstraction is meaningless and moreover a circular argument). Since however the "inner energy" of a system has already been linked to its "rest mass" ("conversion of mass into energy"), psychokinetic exper iments once again point towards the fact that every concrete law becomes relative as soon as we begin to outgrow its "unconditional" range of validity. 19 The new potential of a clone must of course not be smaller than that of its creator. It is only smaller within the context of the old possibilities. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 29 our lives!). In the end, we have combined our current (experience of) reality with the one that has continued to evolve subconsciously for us. When the choosing self changes his individual reality (in whichever way), this means a rearrangement of probabilities, which continue to affect each other. This rearrangement affects him (infinitesimality structure!) down to the infinity of his hierarchy of consciousness, which extends into all other individuals. With this, his decision also calls forth a modified weighting of possibilities in the others in turn also into the infinite. Not only one new self is created, but rather all individuals are created anew, unique compositions of consciousness, each of which grasps the whole universe in a new way and is grasped by all other individuals in a new way. The individually chosen probabilities knit themselves together to a new collective reality in which we then find ourselves. Let us examine this participation a bit more closely: in a universe of infinitesimalitystructured processes of choice that does not exclude any form of existence, every possibility becomes real. Our free decisions affect other individuals, but to what extent they restructure their reality also depends upon their free decisions. That means that each of two communicating individuals can decide in favor of a world in which the other exists such as it is not in the other's predominant reality. If you decide to win over your opponent, that is what will happen. Nonetheless, he can also decide in favor of his own victory and will experience that. In your reality, however, he has agreed to lose as you have in his. The probability of your defeat remains dynamically existent, just as in this the probability of your victory (both have a broader range of existence than the illusion of one individual). The same is true collectively. And herein lies our greatest opportunity! It is not necessary to fight against all other individuals the community we yearn for is already there, it most probably is even close by: in a subconscious world, everyone has decided in favor of it. It thus is entirely sufficient that we endorse this reality personally to make it prevalent for us. We will experience it as soon as we want to! If we want to live in a clean environment, we decide in favor of such a one, act accordingly, and are certain that all others are in agreement with us. If however we are not clear within ourselves on the conditions under which we wish to allow this reality to appear, then we will not experience it. And if we counteract basic needs of other individuals, we not only are wasting our energy and ultimately admit our impotence -, but also are certainly not acting in accordance with our original ideal. A creation thus consists in deciding in favor of a particular hierarchy of probabilities, we choose the mountain peak and therewith the order of rank of the other existing possibilities. Within this open hierarchy, we find every reality (some however at an infinite distance). The interrelations of all conscious and subconscious possibilities peak in the individual decision of one consciousness that in turn affects all other individuals consciously and subconsciousClaus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 30 ly. In this way, the decisions of all individuals in favor of respectively subjective entities connect into a unanimous decision in favor of their common approximation. A collective reality is created, including a hierarchy of collective possibilities (which, strictly speaking, can only be perceived by all of them together and in turn is again individual a part of the dynamic infinitesimality structure of unique totalities). Since, then, the infinitesimality structure of each (sub-)conscious encloses all possibilities, all decisions, each individual creation at the same time is an immediate act of the hidden infinity of All That Is. As we had already ascertained, the choice of the one is the choice of the other. With that, however, "God's" power of creation is inherent to every individual. All That Is As we recall, even the (funnel) center of every single infinite individual has a reflecting effect. By the absolute point of reflection described in the second chapter, however, I mean the divergent collapsing of all individual worlds in the universal continuum, which immediately also supersedes the universal continuum, but results in a neutral exchange between all worlds without transition. Here, the individual worlds as such are infinitesimally united with the absolute universal continuum. It is also true of this state of reflection that it is only of significance to real (also noninfinitesimal) worlds. It includes the individuality of each world dynamically and thus is always to be found within a real consciousness. Its only difference to the reality of this consciousness lies in the fact that it is not bound to it, but only displays a particular form of All That Is. Each of these specific forms is individual enough to make a subconsciousness and therewith creativity possible. While All That Is extends dynamically from the simplest part icle to the infinitely distant universal continuum, it surprises itself in each form with its own power of creation. As a being that is meaningful as a whole, it embodies the most complex of possible consciousnesses. Some would certainly denominate it as "God", but it is a god who is constantly recreating himself. Let us look at this the other way around. We have spoken of the freedom of a consciousness to put itself in the position of others. This freedom must increase with the consciousness' complexity, because the greater the complexity we are conscious of, the more access points do we have to the subconscious. And by means of wide-ranging wanderings of our focus of consciousness, we in turn grasp a yet more complex reality. We can thus ascribe maximal freedom to the most complex of structures of consciousness, that is, to All That Is. It is an infinitely complex structure at the brink of collapsing into identity. Accordingly, it must have the freedom to decide to limit itself in any of its ramifications. It is even nearly Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 31 impossible that it would not make use of this potential (it would be extremely improbable). All That Is, after all, means that even the simplest structures are integrated into it as such a necessarily dynamic claim. We had ascertained that for a dynamic complexity to gain real significance it must be quasi-statically synthesized. On the other hand, it should remain dynamic and not condense in an object of the moment. If at all, then rather in the form of a real effective potential, a "funnel of possibilities" that exists as such. Thus, it is not only when listening to a melody or watching a film, but also in real life, that variations are conjured up, each of which we can focus upon while we perceive others subdued in the form of their background or halo. We mentally move between these probabilities and realize their superimposition in a respectively individual manner. Even the imaginary halo, in which the variations become subconscious, is included in our perception of evident objects. The subtle deviations, the potential inherent to the current situation becomes ever more indistinct towards the back (or the bottom or the inside), but still refers to our consciousness. We are aware of the conscious and subconscious context from which we choose our reality. Throughout this, the range of focus dynamic is not limited in itself, but merely in our consciousness. If we cannot put ourselves onto a particular level, that does not mean the end of the journey (towards the inside there is also no reason for a definitive limit). We are only incapable of deciphering that focus at our level of consciousness. Therefore, it may seem that our focus re-emerges without having accomplished anything we awake from a "dreamless" phase. But we sense "there was something there", or, "there is something there". Our consciousness is inevitably connected to all others, and its dynamic in the widest sense is that of All That Is the movement of one consciousness in different focuses and from individual to individual. The omnipresence of this dynamic requires an infinite velocity the instant alternation between all realities, whereby our limited consciousness, as well as its corresponding experience of a "slower" fluctuation, only becomes possible by skipping several phases. This slower fluctuation nonetheless is a part of the experience of All That Is. In an infinitely high oscillation frequency, all other frequencies are contained. And because this oscillation at the same time is an oscillation between frequencies, they are all included as such. Awareness The absolutely free consciousness of All That Is thus is not characterized by its momentary reality, but alone through its unrestricted potential to assume any state whatsoever. There is only one absolutely free consciousness. And its potential consists of restricted Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 32 focuses of consciousness to which its highly complex dynamic remains largely subconscious. Just as little can the most free of consciousnesses be conscious of all individual viewpoints simultaneously. Thus it also cannot know its potential in detail. It can, however, be conscious of its potential as such, as dynamic freedom in itself. This infinitesimal unity between its momentary (quasi-static) focus of consciousness and its open dynamic is its awareness. But wherein does our awareness lie? In principle, our awareness cannot differ from that of All That Is. We are a branch of the absolute state of reflection whose permanent creation is an equally dynamic process as the universal reflection itself. Thus, the universal awareness in an individually modified form is also inherent to every restricted consciousness, that is, the connection to the infinite potential is open. It can therefore perceive this potential. Why, then, does it hardly make use of it? The same question reworded would be: why does the universal continuum's absolute state of reflection even divide itself up? It is division per se, an individual whose reality consists in its dynamic. And each of its phases involves an individual consciousness of itself. It thus not only consists of its awareness of its individual hierarchy, but precisely this awareness also contains a consciousness of its own (topmost) position. With this consciousness (in a certain sense, an additional reflection) it seems that we exclude ourselves from the universal dynamic. Depending on the chosen degree of self-consciousness, the channel of awareness becomes tighter or wider (of course, we are dealing with the funnel stem of consciousness). It cannot be completely closed... In short, awareness means consciousness/subconsciousness as a dynamically (infinitesimality-)structured whole.  Awareness can merely be delimited by thought; feeling it comes considerably closer to its essence. Thought, feeling and the yet deeper are united in it.  Awareness is not a quasi-static approximation. Instead of circumscribing a condensate, it covers the entire distance into infinity. All That Is extends through everything in the opposite direction.  Awareness is the natural reality of the subconscious, since it only exists dynamically. In this, it remains individualized down to the deepest depths, since it integrates all other focuses in a unique way. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 33 Hierarchy can only exist in the comparison of one-sided entities. In contrast, here we are speaking of the infinitesimality-structured unity of all-sided infinity and individuality so to speak of an "individual all-sidedness" or "all-sided individuality". Please try to grasp the difference, the openness as compared to a mere consciousness, intuitively with "pure" logic we almost invariably end up on slippery ground. Stated more simply, awareness connects the consciousness with the complete individual that encompasses all other individuals. Since awareness is conscious, it is influenced by the realized part of the individual. And every change in this awareness means a change in the awareness of all other individuals but also the other way around, since they are all contained in each other. Ultimately, every individual influences all others to the same extent. This is true independently of their conscious relationships to each other. In a conscious comparison with others, an awareness can be more one-sided or more allsided, depending upon how generally all-sidedly complex it is in its conscious part. The wealth of its deeper sense of potential must be correlated, that is, be loosely connected to the complexity of its perception. A cockroach is less fully aware of its flexibility than a human. (On the other hand, humans sometimes restrict their awareness to such an extent that in comparison it makes the cockroach appear to act with the intuitive far-sightedness of a genius. Like in a dream, it acts based upon millions of years of experience, without being conscious thereof in detail). An expansion of awareness thus means the expansion of the conscious complexity and/or of the palpable potential. Every little child already has an astounding awareness at its disposal and releases it in playing with reality. By way of its spontaneous actions, it unfolds from its being the natural flow of information and energy that aligns itself with an equally spontaneously "given" environment. This environment does not appear as "solid" as that of a grown-up by far; in play it can, for example, transform itself from a race track into a train station and finally into a horse stable. The child alternatingly enters into the personalities of its dolls and lets them communicate with each other. In the course of this, the difference between outside and inside disappears, in every doll a ramification of the child's self condenses (this actually began with the dolls' production to satisfy a demand, continued with their choice in the shop, etc.). Has the constant flow from one focus to another dried up in the adult? Occasionally, we also catch ourselves in mental role play. However, we distinguish neatly between "fantasy" and "reality". Yet we could just as quickly alternate between the real viewpoints of our fellow creatures, if we would only open ourselves to this potential. We would experience our reality, our self, in the most multifarious way, integrate these experiences in an encompassing awareness and throw all communicative blockades overboard. While we followed visible reality, we would also perceive alternatives behind it and gather Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 34 wisdom from the interrelations with them. The feeling of community arising in this way would ultimately be capable of uniting dreamlike with physically orientated focuses, and thus take relationships between agents and situations into account that otherwise are completely lost on us. Closely connected to the concept of awareness is that of timelessness. The observed potential, all the changing viewpoints, do not necessarily represent a future reality. Put differently: the reality to which the potential points is past to the same extent. The dynamic of the focus of consciousness is cyclic, even though consciousness always develops in a certain direction.20 Timelessness describes the experience of a present without past and future, since it already contains both. It designates the present experience of change, the infinitesimal unity of rest and movement, the identification with the individual infinitesimality structure that dynamically includes All That Is. People experienced in meditation describe states of so-called "pure consciousness", in which the flow of object-bound occurrences comes to a standstill and only their own encompassing Being is sensed. I think this is an awareness of a deeper dynamic of focus, that even in the meditating consciousness is only unfolded to that symbol-less presence. By maintaining this core of individuality conscious after the meditation, the psychophysical world appears in a clearer light. The individual is more consciously aware of its inherent reality than one who represses its deeper states. Thus, it can fearlessly head towards new experiences. The freedom to act "No one has free will..., if they are not in harmony with the universe, since that would mean they are outside of the Universe", says esoteric philosophy.21 But every experience is individual, and to change my individual world freely all I actually need to consider is the capacity of my consciousness. With corresponding resolve, I can imagine anything I am capable of grasping, even, for instance, that I live in a dark forest full of witches and goblins, or on a glowing cloud amidst a host of angels. The range of existence of the changes I call forth is irrelevant on condition that I also ascertain it individually: the angels react to my presence and confirm the reality of their world to me in every respect. 20 The infinity of this development in finite terms means irreversibility even though awareness always synthesizes all possible points of the way. 21 Translated from Gottfried von Purucker, Mit der Wissenschaft hinter die Schleier der Natur. Esoterische Philosophie 1988, p.168. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 35 Only when I reach limits with my intentions (within my conscious scope) do I begin to let go of other things that refuse to go along with my changes of reality. My self-consciousness is focused upon that part of reality that I have control over, while everything else becomes the outside that surrounds me. This outer part now enters my consciousness as something independent and forces me to differentiate between passive and active free will, of which the latter brings forth effects with a greater range of existence. The other individuals act more or less autonomously, and therefore I can only practice active free will optimally in harmony with their decisions by putting them to good use instead of repressing them. They will then multiply my potential as they would that of a sensitive marketing expert, or of a president elected by the people, instead of restricting it.22 Subconsciously, of course, everyone influences everyone else all the time, but does not determine them (neither their ideas, nor their actions). In a more comprehensive sense, the creativity of one is also our creativity, through it our individuality is expressed too. Let us recall: our own freedom essentially consists in the possibility of limiting ourselves to keep things in perspective. That means that the other's independence is a component of our own. We have chosen our current limits and at the same time created the possibility of encountering other aspects of our all-encompassing dynamic from a unique "outside" viewpoint. Our and their free decisions connect to form a new, respectively individually experienced reality. On the conscious level, we choose based upon inner and outer information, impressions and meanings as infinitesimality structure. These decisions affect other individuals internally and externally, are included in their subjective processes of decision, from where we are faced with them in new forms. Meanwhile, subconscious aspects of all sides tend to communicate more unrestrainedly. Their more complex communication does not immediately lead to a common nature and does not necessarily take place between essential beings, but within the sphere of limited consciousness the result unfolds to discrete partial decisions. Their possible restrictions thus spring from subconscious freedom. At the same time, decisions be they conscious or subconscious are based upon the interlaced identity of all moments of choice, which is but taken into account in increasingly varied ways with increasing complexity (or subconsciousness).23 This identity, which permeates all levels of consciousness, guarantees a deep harmony between even the most autonomous of decisions. Our own fulfillment must therefore also integrate the others' freedom of choice, by simply respecting it and trusting it as we would our own spontaneity. It is exactly the free creativity of every other consciousness arising from its own unique experi- 22 This is nothing but the described attunement of individual hierarchies of probabilities from the perspective of each of them. 23 This identity of course is also first constituted in this way, but then is infinitely compressed within the funnel of every (partial) consciousness. Claus Janew How Consciousness Creates Reality 36 ence that makes our own creativity possible and inspired. Therein lies the purpose of a multi-parted Creation. Freedom of decision can only lead to disharmony between individuals with a limited awareness. If our resolutions are not to collide with those of other (self-)consciousnesses, and thus perhaps to become only passively effective, they must harmonize with them on those levels of the decision process we are barely aware of. Otherwise, at least one side will feel repressed (or rather will realize itself in another probable world in which we will find ourselves disadvantaged) and will in this way diminish the hierarchy of our values and their fulfillment. Not even God can bring peace to our world if we do not want it. He incorporates our individual freedom as such, that is, without neutralizing it. Because of this, His decisions, if they are to become actively effective, must be attuned to the decisions of his limitedly aware creatures. And if their decisions do not harmonize amongst each other, even He will have to be patient. Active freedom for whomever it may be consists in the multitude of small changes that it can effectuate. The expansion of our awareness to other value hierarchies, however, opens up the prospect of making use of our common potential with an effectiveness that was out of the question as long as we held on to self-restricting beliefs. * * *