Richard Botelho's Blog - Posts Tagged "new-age"
The Full Extent
The following is the Introduction from my upcoming book The Full Extent: An Inquiry into Reality and Destiny.
"I remember being in my early thirties when I first discovered Quantum Mechanics, the study of matter and energy at the atomic and subatomic levels. The article in my old Encyclopedia started with the words (paraphrasing) “you will not believe what follows, but it is proven without exception.” They had me there. Naturally a skeptic, I always required proof. The only thing I took on faith was God. So I began my inquiry with dubious curiosity.
What was written was incomprehensible. Matter and energy a product of Consciousness, particles behaving as waves and waves behaving as particles, nothing real until observed, the past, present, and future occurring at once, things connected regardless of the distance, everything behaving counterintuitively and illogically. Fascination? Sure, but a larger realization soon followed: since everything is made of atoms, the quantum is a gateway to truth. Little did I realize I had stumbled upon the greatest question of our age, how quantum bizarreness forms the physical world we witness with a foundation that is literally unreal.
So I read on.
What I learned is that reality is layered and often at odds with itself, an enigma beyond comparison, eluding definitive description and confident comprehension. Moreover, we are only beginning to understand the relationship between the micro (Quantum Mechanical) and the macro (Classical Physical) worlds. The former forms the latter, the small composing the large, but the quantum follows radically different laws, possessing nonsensical and even baffling properties, its nature incompatible with common sense experience. We see reality as independently actual, when experiment after experiment proves reality is a product of Mind.
Thus, Consciousness is the ground of all being. Mind preceded the universe. Consciousness existed prior to the Big Bang, before history even began, before anything else existed, including time. That is the truth. Believing otherwise is like believing the world is flat or the sun revolves around the Earth. False beliefs are an impediment to our advance, adherence to inaccurate foundations deleterious to society and causative of our current stagnation.
That last statement is controversial considering historical advances in science and more specifically information technology. After all, we have smartphones, computers, artificial intelligence, the internet, and advanced spacecraft. Nevertheless, the low hanging fruit has been plucked from the tree and true scientific breakthroughs are sorely lacking. For those who doubt this, consider just a few examples of our lack of progress: educational spending produces ever diminishing returns; few cures for diseases exist; ground and air transportation are antiquated; we have no colonies on the moon; time travel and teleportation are fantasies; academic disciplines show little improvement; wealth inequality is rampant; no protection exists against nuclear or biological weapons. In short, unresolved age old problems abound as science and technology fail to provide solutions.
As a result, this work contains much criticism of science and its consequent philosophy, scientific materialism. Criticism is not condemnation. Science has forwarded humanity in astounding ways, improving the lives of billions of people. Yet, as we will see, science has become ideological and obdurate, resistant to unconventional facts and obfuscatory of truth. Hence, our criticism is necessary and valid.
To extend ourselves we must decipher the true nature of existence. Prioritization of the physical realm has its limitations, whereas the immaterial realm is filled with endless opportunity. Intimations of truth surround us; many challenge the status quo, while others are so unbelievable they make us question our own cognitive processes. Yet, understand we must. For, as we will discover in this investigation, if Mind, and by extension Spirit, is truly the basis of reality then we must embrace both regardless of conventional interpretations or dogmatic objections. An understanding of reality is to be wonderstruck, certain to rearrange individual priorities and hopefully societal ones, as the truth enlightens us into an era of unparalleled opportunity.
The structure of this book will be to introduce one incredibly compelling experiment, investigate the primacy of Consciousness, consider the course of Spirit, review the management of destiny, position the human future, and demonstrate the progression of the universe to its teleological end. During our exploration, we will consider the opinions of various experts and integrate their findings into a synthetic whole; where appropriate, we will also apply some basic logic and mathematical formulations for further consideration of our concepts. We must note some of our references are intentionally exterior to traditional science since its dogma represents a single, exclusionary worldview. This study cites and appreciates many unconventional thinkers since their courage forwards our wisdom and advances our future.
Therefore, we can think of this work as an architecture for subsequent explorations since it relies on many contradistinct opinions while incorporating established scientific truths. We must expand our perspectives to breakthrough societal stagnation. This is the great directive of our time. From our investigations, we will develop a megatheory of reality, no doubt highly speculative in nature, but nevertheless grounded in empirical observations and confirmable facts. We also will see a new paradigm emerging, one challenging the past and forwarding our species into a spiritualistic reality full of purpose and creativity.
So let us begin."
"I remember being in my early thirties when I first discovered Quantum Mechanics, the study of matter and energy at the atomic and subatomic levels. The article in my old Encyclopedia started with the words (paraphrasing) “you will not believe what follows, but it is proven without exception.” They had me there. Naturally a skeptic, I always required proof. The only thing I took on faith was God. So I began my inquiry with dubious curiosity.
What was written was incomprehensible. Matter and energy a product of Consciousness, particles behaving as waves and waves behaving as particles, nothing real until observed, the past, present, and future occurring at once, things connected regardless of the distance, everything behaving counterintuitively and illogically. Fascination? Sure, but a larger realization soon followed: since everything is made of atoms, the quantum is a gateway to truth. Little did I realize I had stumbled upon the greatest question of our age, how quantum bizarreness forms the physical world we witness with a foundation that is literally unreal.
So I read on.
What I learned is that reality is layered and often at odds with itself, an enigma beyond comparison, eluding definitive description and confident comprehension. Moreover, we are only beginning to understand the relationship between the micro (Quantum Mechanical) and the macro (Classical Physical) worlds. The former forms the latter, the small composing the large, but the quantum follows radically different laws, possessing nonsensical and even baffling properties, its nature incompatible with common sense experience. We see reality as independently actual, when experiment after experiment proves reality is a product of Mind.
Thus, Consciousness is the ground of all being. Mind preceded the universe. Consciousness existed prior to the Big Bang, before history even began, before anything else existed, including time. That is the truth. Believing otherwise is like believing the world is flat or the sun revolves around the Earth. False beliefs are an impediment to our advance, adherence to inaccurate foundations deleterious to society and causative of our current stagnation.
That last statement is controversial considering historical advances in science and more specifically information technology. After all, we have smartphones, computers, artificial intelligence, the internet, and advanced spacecraft. Nevertheless, the low hanging fruit has been plucked from the tree and true scientific breakthroughs are sorely lacking. For those who doubt this, consider just a few examples of our lack of progress: educational spending produces ever diminishing returns; few cures for diseases exist; ground and air transportation are antiquated; we have no colonies on the moon; time travel and teleportation are fantasies; academic disciplines show little improvement; wealth inequality is rampant; no protection exists against nuclear or biological weapons. In short, unresolved age old problems abound as science and technology fail to provide solutions.
As a result, this work contains much criticism of science and its consequent philosophy, scientific materialism. Criticism is not condemnation. Science has forwarded humanity in astounding ways, improving the lives of billions of people. Yet, as we will see, science has become ideological and obdurate, resistant to unconventional facts and obfuscatory of truth. Hence, our criticism is necessary and valid.
To extend ourselves we must decipher the true nature of existence. Prioritization of the physical realm has its limitations, whereas the immaterial realm is filled with endless opportunity. Intimations of truth surround us; many challenge the status quo, while others are so unbelievable they make us question our own cognitive processes. Yet, understand we must. For, as we will discover in this investigation, if Mind, and by extension Spirit, is truly the basis of reality then we must embrace both regardless of conventional interpretations or dogmatic objections. An understanding of reality is to be wonderstruck, certain to rearrange individual priorities and hopefully societal ones, as the truth enlightens us into an era of unparalleled opportunity.
The structure of this book will be to introduce one incredibly compelling experiment, investigate the primacy of Consciousness, consider the course of Spirit, review the management of destiny, position the human future, and demonstrate the progression of the universe to its teleological end. During our exploration, we will consider the opinions of various experts and integrate their findings into a synthetic whole; where appropriate, we will also apply some basic logic and mathematical formulations for further consideration of our concepts. We must note some of our references are intentionally exterior to traditional science since its dogma represents a single, exclusionary worldview. This study cites and appreciates many unconventional thinkers since their courage forwards our wisdom and advances our future.
Therefore, we can think of this work as an architecture for subsequent explorations since it relies on many contradistinct opinions while incorporating established scientific truths. We must expand our perspectives to breakthrough societal stagnation. This is the great directive of our time. From our investigations, we will develop a megatheory of reality, no doubt highly speculative in nature, but nevertheless grounded in empirical observations and confirmable facts. We also will see a new paradigm emerging, one challenging the past and forwarding our species into a spiritualistic reality full of purpose and creativity.
So let us begin."
