Why am I here & now, not there & then?
At the start of this year we took a deep dive into Bernardo's thoughts on time. If I understood (and keep in mind the possibility that I haven't!) Bernardo's view is that time, as we normally conceive of it, is an illusion.
Fundamentally what exists is a web of semantic associations. Archetypal associations of meaning.
For example, consider how 1+1=2 is true independently of any particular instance of it. True, perhaps, even without any example of it - like a platonic ideal that exists without space or time. Nevertheless, to cognise this truth I might need to see one apple, and then one more; perceptions in space and time.
In summary, whilst perception requires space and time, reality and meaning do not.
Why can't I just see everything, all at once?
If you want to see the colour of your eyes, you need a mirror. You need some distance between you and that which you observe. You know what it feels like to have eyes directly, but that is different kind of knowing to observing them from outside.
Similarly, for reality to take a perspective on itself, it must take a vantage point that is distant from itself. But when you are everything, where can you go? You cannot see all of yourself from a distance, because it would not include the point from where you are looking. The remaining option is an illusory internal separation. A dissociation in which one part is experienced from within, whilst observing the other from without, and vice versa.
This unique vantage point is what you are, and what space and time allow. They carve reality up into chunks of perception; universal consciousness observing itself from countless unique vantage points as images on a dashboard of perception.
With the illusion of separation comes the yearning for it to end. To know one's complete self, not at a distance, but from within. But to merge with the whole is for the dissociation coming to an end.
As dissociated alters, we cannot know the web of meaning directly, because to know it would be to merge with it, and thereby end the dissociation.
This is the unresolvable tension of reality - to observe itself is to dissociate. To dissociate is to cut-off from the whole.
At the edge of what space/time can know
If time and space are mere scaffolds of perception, why is the experience I'm having right now this one, and not that one? Why am I here and now, not there and then?
Such questions sit at the edge of what we can know without losing our space/time minds.
Nevertheless, the yearning is as old as time, and perhaps needs a crafty approach. Odysseus strapped himself to the mast of his ship so as to approach the Siren's song whilst others safeguarded their ignorance to prevent the proximity that would bring his dissociation to an end.
We meet this week on Wednesday, and I've chosen questions that poke the edge of what we can know, celebrating the beauty and significance of this yearning.
- Why am I here and now, not there and then? - Sally Campbell
- Why is reality like this and not that? - Robert Ruxandrescu
- How will metacognition evolve next? - Sara
So strap yourselves to your masts, or block your ears with wax and row.
The choice is yours!
With appreciation,
Amir
P.S. Feel free to share reflections in the comments under the zoom link below. In preparation, I recommend the below guided meditation, and the recorded session on Time.
Thought experiment: meaning beyond space and time
Amir Giles
Zoom link for Wed 10th June
6-8pm UK time / 7-9pm CET / 1-3pm EST
