The Hidden Rhythm of Evolution – Addendum 7 & 8
by Jose Diez Faixat
Addendum 7: Entropic-Syntropic Evolution
Following one of his surprising mathematical discoveries, Carl F. Gauss stated: “Now that I have the solution, I just need to find the logical process that leads to it.” In the present investigation, we find ourselves in a situation similar to that of Gauss. Throughout these pages, we have shown that, far from being a mere product of chance and meaningless, evolution follows a very precise rhythm of unfolding and folding between an original pole, basically of energy, and a final pole, basically of consciousness. How is this possible? What mechanism causes things to happen this way? So far, we have mainly limited ourselves to recounting some facts and to revealing the surprising pattern that links them. In this addendum, we will try to provide the key to explaining this mysterious behaviour of the evolutionary universe. As we will soon see, the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics will provide us with the final clue.
Let us first delve a little into history to grasp the profound implications of the matter at hand. In the 1850s, the physicist and mathematician Rudolf Clausius established the concept of a thermodynamic system and postulated the thesis that in any energy transformation process, a small amount of energy is gradually dissipated across the system boundary. Energy thus gradually and irreversibly passes from a state of high potential and availability to a state of low potential and unavailability. Clausius coined the term “entropy” to refer to the physical magnitude that measures that amount of energy that is not reusable to do work and which is inexorably lost in the environment. The universe as a whole —which is an isolated system— tends to progressively distribute energy uniformly, increase its degree of homogeneity and disorder, and maximize entropy, and is therefore condemned to thermal death when it finally reaches the state of thermodynamic equilibrium. In this respect, the physicist Arthur Eddington affirmed that “entropy is the arrow of time”, as it forces physical events to move in a certain temporal direction, the one that is familiar to us, i.e. from the past to the future.
At the same time as Clausius was developing the science of thermodynamics, Charles Darwin was expounding the theory of evolution. Controversy was served! While according to the second law of thermodynamics the processes of energy transformation inevitably tend towards dissipation, uniformity, disorder and homogeneity, it turns out that, at the same time, the processes of biological evolution move in exactly the opposite direction, i.e. towards order, differentiation, complexity and organization. Could it be that evolution does not follow the principles of thermodynamics? The response from the currently dominant scientific paradigm is limited to clarifying that the second law is only applicable to closed and isolated systems, that complex systems are open —that is, they exchange matter and energy with their environments—, and that, although they decrease the entropy in their interior —generating order among their components—, they do so at the cost of increasing it around them., Note that this answer only indicates that there is no contradiction between the second law of thermodynamics and the appearance of complex systems, but it does not explain this appearance at all, nor does it explain their subsequent maintenance without degradation, and even less so, their progressive development towards higher levels of complexity and organization. Not to mention, of course, the harmonic rhythm in which this surprising display of creativity takes place, as we have seen in our research.
Given that classical thermodynamics has not been able to explain the creative dynamics of life, there have been numerous authors over the course of more than a century who have attempted to provide an answer, from very different perspectives, to the dilemma thus posed. Let us recall, for instance, the “élan vital” of the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941), the “entelechy” of the German biologist Hans Driesch (1867-1941), the “synchronicity” of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961), the “Omega point” of the French palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), the “negative entropy” of the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), the “negentropy” of the French physicist Léon Brillouin (1889-1969), the “general plan” of the Hungarian physicist-chemist Michael Polanyi (1891-1976), the “principle of syntropy” of the Hungarian physiologist Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893-1986), the “syntropy” of the American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 -1983), the “higher laws” of the Hungarian physicist Eugene Wigner (1902-1955), the “biotonic laws” of the German physicist Walter Elsässer (1904-1991), the “chreode” of the British biologist Conrad Waddington (1905-1975), the “stratified stability” of the Polish mathematician Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974), the “retrocausality” of the physicist French Olivier Costa de Beauregard (1911-2007), the “holomovement” of the American physicist David Bohm (1917-1992), the “dissipative structures” of the Russian chemist Ilya Prigogine (1917-2003), the “attractor” of the American mathematician Edward Lorenz (1917-2008), the “theory of catastrophes” of the French mathematician René Thom (1923-2002), the “fractal geometry” of the Polish mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot (1924-2010), the “Akashic field” of the Hungarian systems theorist Ervin Laszlo (1932), the “anthropic principle” of the Australian physicist Brandon Carter (1942), the “morphogenetic fields” of the British biochemist Rupert Sheldrake (1942), the “Feigenbaum numbers” of the American mathematician Mitchell Feigenbaum (1944-2019), the “self-organized criticality” of the Danish physicist Per Bak (1948-2002), the “Eros” of the American integral philosopher Ken Wilber (1949) and so on. Yes; it would seem that there really is something more than entropy in this evolutionary universe.
Our research is clearly in tune with many of the proposals mentioned above, some of which are even very close to solving the issue raised at the beginning of this addendum. Let us recap the question: What mechanism in nature is capable of causing evolution, in counterbalance to the second principle of thermodynamics, to follow a very precise divergent-convergent spiral pattern between an original pole of energy and a final pole of consciousness? As we have stated, the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics may provide us with the long-awaited answer. Let us now look at some approaches that point in this direction.
In 1940, the Italian mathematician Luigi Fantappiè (1901-1956) sought to find a unified theory of the physical and biological world that would explain the emergence of complex and organized forms in a universe dominated by entropy. He thought that the solution to this enigma had to be found in the fundamental principles of physics, in the very structure of the equations that combine quantum mechanics and special relativity. A key equation in this field is the d’Alembert operator, which, in the relativistic Klein-Gordon generalization of the Schrödinger wave equation, admits two types of solutions: divergent waves, described by the so-called “retarded potentials”, that branch from the original emitting source, and convergent waves, described by the “advanced potentials”, that converge at a future point that acts as an absorber or attractor. On analyzing the mathematical properties of these two solutions, Fantappiè found that, while the positive solution moves forward in time and tends towards dissipation, disorder and homogeneity, the negative solution moves backward in time and tends towards concentration, order and complexity. He thus understood that the first solution actually follows the law of entropy —from the Greek en = divergent, and tropos = tendency— while the second obeys a symmetric law that he called syntropy —from the Greek syn = convergent, and tropos = tendency—. Observing that the properties of the law of syntropy were exactly those characteristics of living beings, Fantappiè concluded that the increase in complexity in the evolutionary process is a consequence of the advanced —retrocausal— waves that emanate from attractors located in the future and go backwards in time. That is why, he stated, “advanced waves are the essence of life itself”. Life is caused by the future.
We insist that, far from being a mere product of speculation, these retrocausal waves appear in a rigorous mathematical way when the fundamental equations of special relativity and quantum mechanics are studied jointly. What is truly surprising is that the researchers who made their theoretical discoveries later refused to accept their real existence, not for scientific reasons, but simply because of the preconception that the final causes were impossible. However, Luigi Fantappiè refused to eliminate half of the solutions of the fundamental equations of the universe and consistently argued that life is subject to a double causality: efficient causality and final causality. He thus proposed replacing the mechanistic and deterministic model of the universe with a new, entropic-syntropic model, in which the expansive forces (entropy) and the cohesive forces (syntropy) worked together, so that the unfolding of phenomena was not only a function of the initial conditions, but also depended on a final attractor.
One of Fantappiè’s main students, the physicist Giuseppe Arcidiacono (1927-1998), together with his twin brother Salvatore (1927-1998), a chemist by profession, re-examined the unitary theory of the physical and biological world of their mentor in order to clarify the separation established between entropic and syntropic phenomena. They proposed a new version of the theory in which they argued that there are actually no “pure” entropic or syntropic events, but that there exist both entropic and syntropic components acting together, in all phenomena, whether physical or biological. The result is an entropic-syntropic model of the universe with a “cybernetic structure” that makes it possible to establish a link between Fantappiè’s unitary theory and the most recent research on systems theory, chaos and complexity.
Without knowledge of Fantappiè’s work, the Italian experimental psychologist Ulisse Di Corpo (1959) independently formulated the theory of syntropy in 1977 from a slightly different starting point. Instead of starting from the d’Alembert operator of the wave equation of quantum mechanics, as Fantappiè had done, he began by working with the original and complete energy-momentum-mass equation of Einstein’s special relativity: E2 = p2 c2 + m2 c4, where E is energy, p is momentum, m is mass, and c is the constant for the speed of light. As this is a second-degree equation, it always has two solutions: one positive and one negative. The positive solution describes energy that diverges forward in time from a past source, while the negative solution describes energy that diverges backward in time from a future source. At the time, this second solution was considered unacceptable because it implied retrocausality, i.e. the effect took place before its cause. Einstein managed to solve this problem by considering that momentum, p, is practically equal to zero, because the speed of physical bodies is extremely small compared to the speed of light. In this way, the complex Einstein equation of energy-momentum-mass was simplified into the now famous equation E=mc2, which has only one positive solution.
However, in 1924, the Austrian theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli discovered the spin of electrons. Spin is an angular momentum, a rotation of the electron on itself at a speed close to the speed of light. Thus, in this case, momentum, p, cannot be considered equal to zero and therefore the energy-momentum-mass formula must be used in its full version. For this reason, in 1928, when combining Einstein’s special relativity with quantum mechanics, the British theoretical physicist Paul Dirac applied the complete energy-momentum-mass equation to the study of electrons and once again encountered the unwanted dual solution —positive and negative— in the form of electrons and their antiparticles. The Dirac equation thus leads to a universe made of matter moving forward in time and antimatter moving backward in time. The antiparticle of the electron, predicted theoretically by Dirac, was observed experimentally in 1932 by the American physicist Carl Anderson —by photographing the traces of cosmic rays in a cloud chamber— and was given the name positron. Anderson thereby became the first person to empirically prove the existence of the negative energy solution and waves that propagate backward in time, from the future to the past. The negative solution was thus no longer an impossible mathematical absurdity, but became empirical evidence. We now know that each subatomic particle has a corresponding antiparticle that flows in the opposite direction of time, from the future to the past: antielectrons, antiprotons, antineutrons and so on.
The meeting between Ulisse Di Corpo and the cognitive psychologist Antonella Vannini, in 2001, relaunched research on the entropic-syntropic theory. [Some of the information contained in this addendum is taken from the Syntropy Journal digital publication —http://www.sintropia.it/journal/index.htm— edited by Ulisse and Antonella since 2005]. At the time, Fantappiè was not able to devise a way to reveal the existence of future causes in the laboratory. In recent decades, however, a growing number of studies —by Dean Radin, Dick Bierman, James Spottiswoode, Patrizio Tressoldi, among others— have demonstrated the existence of prior reactions to stimuli in the parameters of skin conductance or cardiac frequency. For her part, in her doctoral work, Vannini managed to carry out four experiments using heart rate measurements to study Fantappiè’s proposal regarding retrocausality and António Damasio’s learning effect. The hypothesis on which she worked was very simple: if life is supported by syntropy, the parameters of the vital systems that support life, such as the autonomic nervous system, should show retrocausal activations. Her thesis provided ingenious methodologies and positive experimental results that succeeded in turning syntropy studies from a mere hypothesis into a sound scientific theory supported by rigorous mathematics and abundant experimental evidence.
Around 1940, the American theoretical physicists John A. Wheeler (1911-2008) and Richard Feynman (1918-1988) proposed what is known as “absorber theory”, which is an interpretation of electrodynamics that derives from the assumption that the solutions of the electromagnetic field equations must be invariant under time inversion symmetry. It is hence a symmetric theory in time. In general, Maxwell’s equations and the equations of electromagnetic waves have two possible solutions: a retarded solution —moving forward in time— and an advanced solution —moving backward in time—. In principle, there is no apparent reason for the breaking of time reversal symmetry, pointing to a preferential direction of time. Nonetheless, advanced solutions are normally ruled out in the interpretation of electromagnetic waves. In absorber theory, however, charged particles are considered both as emitters and absorbers, and the emission process is related to the absorption process in the following way: both the retarded waves that travel from the emitter to the absorber and the advanced waves that travel from the absorber to the emitter are taken into consideration; the sum of the two, however, results in causal waves, although retrocausal solutions are not ruled out a priori.
From the start, the traditional interpretation of quantum mechanics —the Copenhagen interpretation— has shown a fierce reluctance to accept negative solutions as actually existing, i.e. those that move backwards in time, which naturally follow on from the fundamental equations. Diverse research over the last century has shown, over and over again, the major difficulties of this standard interpretation in assuming certain empirically contrasted phenomena, such as non-locality, entanglement and retrocausality. This led the American physicist John G. Cramer (1934) to propose an alternative interpretation in 1986, which he called the Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (TIQM). Inspired by Wheeler and Feynman’s “absorber theory”, the transactional interpretation describes quantum interactions in terms of a standing wave formed by interference between retarded (forward in time) and advanced (backward in time) waves. It is a “pure” interpretation of quantum mechanics, in the sense that it does not add anything ad hoc, but simply provides a physical referent for a part of the mathematical formalism used in standard textbooks —advanced waves— that the traditional interpretation has repeatedly eliminated. Its predictions are therefore the same as those of the Copenhagen interpretation, but nevertheless it avoids many of its problems and solves, in a simple and elegant way, all the great quantum mysteries, such as the EPR paradox, Schrödinger’s cat, Wigner’s friend, Wheeler’s retarded solution, etc. This model thus provides a clear visual picture that explains, without any artifice, the puzzling experimental results that appear daily in quantum physics laboratories around the world. According to the astrophysicist and science writer John Gribbin, Cramer’s interpretation of quantum mechanics “provides the best complete picture of how the world works at the quantum level”, and, “hopefully, it will replace the Copenhagen interpretation as the standard way of thinking about quantum physics for the next generation of scientists”.
This transactional model may be summarized as follows. The emitter produces a retarded wave of “offer”, forward in time, which travels towards the absorber, causing the absorber to produce an advanced wave of “confirmation”, backward in time, which travels back to the emitter. The interaction is repeated cyclically until the net exchange of energy, momentum, angular momentum and other conserved quantities satisfies the quantum boundary conditions of the system, at which point the transaction is definitively completed and the real quantum event, the “collapse of the wave function”, occurs. Of course, the “pseudo-temporal” sequence in this account is only a semantic convenience to describe a process that is actually timeless, given that, according to the laws of relativity, time does not pass at all from the point of view of waves, because, as they travel at the speed of light, their moment of departure and their moment of arrival are one and the same moment. An observer unaware of these internal mechanisms of nature would perceive only the completed transaction, which could be reinterpreted as the passage of a single retarded photon —i.e. positive energy— traveling at the speed of light from an emitter to an absorber. In a more simplified version, we could say that the emitter produces an “offer” wave that travels to the absorber, that the absorber then returns a “confirmation” wave to the emitter, and that the transaction is finally completed with a “handshake” —a standing wave— through space-time, via which a bidirectional contract is sealed between past and future. As Cramer states “This universe (…) advances in time at the quantum level through a chain of handshakes between the past and the future (…) The future goes back to make an accommodation with the past that allows a quantum event to happen, to become reality. Each quantum event emerges into reality as a result of a feedback loop between the past and the future. These are allowed time-shaped loops that give rise to the universe”.
Extending the work of John Cramer, the American physicist and philosopher of science Ruth E. Kastner (1955) has developed a new Transactional Interpretation, called Relativist Transactional Interpretation (RTI) or Possibilist Transactional Interpretation (PTI), which holds that quantum wave functions do not move in the physical universe, but exist as “possibilities” in Hilbert’s multidimensional space, from which transactions emerge in the “real” universe. Kastner proposes considering the outgoing offer waves and the many incoming confirmation waves as “possible” transactions, existing outside of space-time, of which only one becomes empirically “real”. She suggests defining them with the term “potentia” —with which Aristotle called the ability to be something in the future—, in tune with the statement by the German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg: “Elementary atoms or particles are not real in themselves; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities, and not so much a world of things or of facts or data”. In this sense, Kastner states that offer and confirmation waves are sub-empirical and pre-space-time “possibilities”, i.e. they have not yet appeared in space-time, and therefore calls them “incipient transactions”.
Kastner calls for a new metaphysical category to describe those “not quite real possibilities” which, far from being mere abstractions, constitute a higher-dimensional world whose structure is described by the mathematics of quantum theory. She raises the need to consider such “possibilities” as part of a reality that encompasses much more than what is contained in space-time. In fact, space-time events, the events of the concrete world that we experience around us with our five senses, are products that emerge from the transaction processes —timeless and non-local— that take place in the quantum realm. The “iceberg” metaphor used by Freud to describe the human subconscious can equally be applied to Kastner’s “ontological realm of possibility” or “quantumland”. “Quantumland” refers to the mass of the iceberg that exists beyond our sight, while the tip, the space-time appearance, is only a small part of everything that is the physical universe. Although they take place outside of space-time, quantum processes constitute a fundamental part of that universe.
At the beginning of this addendum, we wondered how it was possible for evolution to follow such a precise unfolding and folding rhythm between the original and final poles, as has been shown throughout this research. And we asked the question: Is there some natural mechanism capable of causing things to happen in such an unexpected way? We thus suggest that we may find the long-awaited answer in the so-called Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. For this reason, in the previous paragraphs we have summarized the basic points of Luigi Fantappiè’s entropic-syntropic theory, on the one hand, and of John Cramer’s transactional interpretation, on the other. Next, we shall recall some fundamental ideas of our “non-dual evolution” to then consider how Fantappiè and Cramer’s proposals provide us with the definitive key to explaining the mysterious evolutionary pattern.
As we have previously seen, all manifested reality inexorably appears in the form of dualities —there is no object without a subject, no energy without consciousness, or outside without inside— and, as all opposites are mutually dependent, we can understand them as polar manifestations of a reality that transcends them and that is “prior” to said dualization. We hence proposed that the original quantum void posed by physicists and the final mystical void experienced by contemplatives are no other than one and the same Void, perceived by physicists objectively and by contemplatives subjectively, but which, in itself, is neither objective nor subjective, but “prior” to this dual perspective. Finally, we clarified that this Emptiness does not refer to a distant metaphysical reality, but to the simple and pure Self-evidence of each present instant, which encompasses in itself all the manifestations of energy and consciousness that are observed in the space-time universe. According to this perspective, ultimate reality is hence not solely energy, as the materialists claim, nor solely consciousness, as the spiritualists claim, but the ineffable non-duality of these two apparent facets. The universe, dear reader, is made up of the simple and evident Presence that you are in this precise timeless moment that is Now and always Now.
We have also stated that, as there is no separation between subject and object in this absolute Self-evidence, and therefore it is not “something” that can be seen by “someone”, in order to manifest itself relatively before itself it needs to be polarized in appearance as subject and object, in the same way that 0 can dualize into +1 and –1 without changing its intrinsic value. For this reason, we proposed that, in its attempt to see itself, Self-evidence apparently dualizes as an original pole (basically of energy) and a final pole (basically of consciousness), thus generating, in the same primordial moment, an illusory distance between the two, which, on vibrating —like the guitar string in our hypothesis— gives rise to a whole range of harmonics, which are precisely the “potential levels of stratified stability” (Bronowski) that will be successively updated through the cycles of the evolution that we have studied, covering the entire spectrum of reality from the most basic strata —of enormous energy and little consciousness— to the highest —of little energy and enormous consciousness—.
It is also important to understand that everything happens in the absolute Now and that time is simply an imaginary construction with which our minds order the emergence of successive relative instants. For this reason, when we use the terms “past” or “future”, we are not talking about distant situations, but are only referring to partial aspects of the immutable timeless Now that contains in itself the totality of “time”. We stated a moment ago that the unmanifested Emptiness is apparently polarized as subject and object so as to perceive itself subject-objectively in infinite ways. Via this ploy, Self-evidence can delve into the furthermost corners of its own infinity —fleetingly identifying its absolute Here-Now with any relative point-instant of pixelated space-time—, in order to contemplate itself from a certain perspective from there —at any level of the spectrum of energy-consciousness—, immediately returning to its original fullness. The time dimension is thus purely imaginary. Everything actually happens from moment to moment. This departure and return instant after instant between the non-dual foundation and its finite and fleeting manifestation in space-time allows the potential levels of stability of the energy-consciousness spectrum to be actualized in the relative world of forms, i.e. the entire hierarchy of standing waves —musical harmonics— generated at the same original instant. For an integral understanding of the universe, we will thus have to refer to three different, although dynamically interrelated, facets: non-dual absolute reality —the simple and timeless Self-evidence without form—, potential relative reality —the potential spectrum of energy-consciousness generated in the original polarization— and space-time relative reality —the actualization moment after moment of the successive potential levels of stratified stability—.
In Figure 15 we have once again represented the complete pattern of the unfolding-folding process between the original pole of energy —A— and the final pole of consciousness —Ω—, as it manifests itself in global evolution and in the individual development of the human being. Let us recall that this trajectory can locate its “fundamental sound” at any level of the energy-consciousness spectrum, as we stated previously in figure 7. Precisely, in this graph we see that the inflection point —P— of the trajectory takes place on the border between the “material” and the “vital” levels in the case of human phylogeny, and between the “mental” and the “soul” levels in the case of our ontogeny. As we have stated in the previous paragraph, given that each point-instant of the relative world is born and returns, moment after moment, from and towards its timeless foundation, we can also affirm that this complete unfolding-folding trajectory similarly reflects the whole life of each moment —what Ken Wilber calls microgeny—, which can be focused on any level of the energy-consciousness spectrum, from the most physical to the most spiritual planes.
At the bottom of Fig. 15, we highlight the resonance between our evolutionary scheme —the unfolding-folding fractal pattern between pole A and pole Ω— and the proposals of Fantappiè —regarding the entropic-syntropic (divergent-convergent) dynamics between the original source and the final attractor— and Cramer —regarding the “handshakes” of retarded “offer” waves and advanced “confirmation” waves between emitters and absorbers. Herein lies the answer to the question we posed at the beginning of this addendum as to what natural mechanism can cause the evolutionary pattern to unfold in such an unexpected way. The entropic-syntropic theory and the transactional interpretation make it clear to us that all the events of the space-time universe arise, moment after moment, via the simultaneous and coordinated action of flows from the actualized “past” and the potential “future”, and, ultimately, from the original emitter and final absorber. In this sense, we could complement Einstein’s phrase about “God does not play dice with the universe”, stating that he does, but that he only counts the winning moves. That is, of all the potential offer waves from the past, only those that are in resonance with the confirmation waves from the future are updated in space-time. This, in turn, brings to mind Teilhard de Chardin’s idea about “the preferential utilization of chance”.
This approach greatly clarifies the so-called “anthropic principle”, which suggests that we live in a carefully adjusted universe, i.e. in a universe that seems to have been meticulously arranged to allow the existence of life and mind, because, if any of the basic physical constants had been different, the appearance of life as we know it would not have been possible. If, as we see here, all the events of the universe arise from the interaction and consensus between the past and the future, it is completely natural that, without having to resort to any external designer, the first events of the universal process were already fully coordinated and adjusted to future events. How could it be otherwise! In the same way, with respect to our divergent-convergent pattern, we must state that all the successive levels of the evolutionary ladder —which, as we saw in our research, unfold at the rate set by the second harmonic— are defined, like all quantum interactions, by standing waves formed by interference between retarded (forward in time) and advanced (backward in time) waves, which is precisely the core of Cramer and Kastner’s transactional interpretation!
From the perspective of the mechanistic paradigm, our proposal regarding a fractal pattern of unfolding-folding between the original and final poles in the evolutionary process is complete nonsense. However, as we have just seen, from the syntropic and transactional perspective, this pattern is precisely the most natural, coherent expression with respect to the intrinsic simultaneously causal and retrocausal mechanism of the universe. Materialism has tried to understand the world by dispensing with half of it and has failed in its attempt to explain life, mind or consciousness. It has sufficed to take reality in its entirety in order to shine light on all areas of the panorama. Isn’t it time to change the paradigm?
Addendum 8: The evolutionary dance of Emptiness
“Time is a moving image of eternity that progresses in a circle” (Plato)
“The now that passes produces time, the now that remains produces eternity” (Boethius)
In this addendum we are going to recapitulate and develop some of the fundamental points that have been appearing throughout these pages. We trust that, by presenting them in a unified way, we will be able, in the end, to outline a truly comprehensive panorama of the creative dynamics of reality, capable of clarifying, with simplicity and without artifice, many of the great questions that humanity has asked itself since always and to which materialistic science has not been able to respond.
In a previous addendum we have stated that, in order to achieve a truly integral understanding of everything exposed throughout our research, it is absolutely necessary to refer to at least three different facets of the All-One: A) non-dual absolute reality, B) potential relative reality and C) spatiotemporal relative reality. Next, we will try to specify the meaning of each of these expressions.
- A) Non-dual absolute reality
All manifested reality appears, inexorably, in the form of dualities. It is not possible to find subject without object, inside without outside, origin without end… Nor vice versa. Therefore, since all opposites are mutually dependent, we can understand them as polar manifestations of a reality that transcends them and that is “prior” to that dualization.
Physicists speak of infinite potential energy in the original quantum void, and sages speak of infinite transparent consciousness in the final mystical void. Our proposal —in tune with the great non-dual wisdom traditions— is that these two voids are the same and unique Emptiness, perceived objectively by physicists and subjectively by contemplatives, but which, in itself, is not neither objective nor subjective, but “prior” to that dual perspective. Since in that Emptiness there is no separation between subject and object, it is not possible to see it in any way, because it is not “something” that can be seen by “someone”, but, obviously, it is not “nothing” either, because, in fact, all the entities of the universe —objective or subjective— are nothing other than partial and relative forms of that non-dual Void. Although, strictly speaking, it is therefore not possible to make any statement about essential Emptiness, as an approximation we will suggest that it is, in an undifferentiated way, potential energy and pure consciousness, that is, non-dual lucid-light or luminous-lucidity.
Positivist science will never be able to access this intrinsically ineffable Void, since the mere attempt to describe it objectively places the researcher “outside” of its non-dual scope. However, paradoxically, the Void we are talking about, far from being a distant, mysterious or unknown reality, is the closest, most intimate and obvious experience of our existence. Is there something more unquestionable than the Certainty-of-Being itself?… Is it that, dear reader, do you doubt for a single moment of your own reality?… Well, it turns out that this simple and pure ever present Self-Evidence that you are in your essence —prior to the slightest identification with any concrete form— is, precisely, the non-dual Emptiness that constitutes and comprehends all worlds. That simple Self-Evidence is the only substance of the universe as a whole and of each and every one of the entities that compose it!
The universe is not made only of energy —as the materialist monists claim—, nor just of consciousness —as the idealist monists claim—, but of the “prior” non-dual Emptiness that includes and transcends both facets. This statement clearly coincides with Baruch Spinoza’s idea that the entire universe is made of a single substance —which he called “God” or “Nature”— which appears under two attributes: extension (matter) and thought (mind). Or, in the same way, with Friedrich Schelling’s approach that the supreme principle must be an absolute that is at the same time object and subject, nature and spirit, that is, the unity, identity or indifference of both aspects. Perspectives similar to these are currently beginning to be suggested with increasing insistence, in many different fields of research, under the names of “dual-aspect monism” and “neutral monism.” Thus, in the words of the German physicist Harald Atmanspacher: “dual aspect approaches consider the mental and physical domains of reality as aspects, or manifestations, of an underlying undivided reality in which the mental and the physical do not exist as separate domains. In such framework, the distinction between mind and matter results from an epistemic split that separates aspects of underlying reality.”
We propose, therefore, that the non-dual Emptiness, devoid in itself of any particular qualification or determination, is, at the same time, the ultimate essence of all existence, the pure, undifferentiated and formless matrix that sustains all worlds. There is no specific characteristic, concrete appearance or distinctive feature in it, but it is not a mere absence or absolute negation, but rather a state of unlimited, omnipresent and indestructible openness that “makes” the entire universe of finitude. A diaphanous, lucid and luminous realm that generates, sustains and embraces the entire universe of particularities. An infinite and limitless spaciousness, eternally self-evident, from which all the phenomena that take place in space-time arise, are in and return to.
The ultimate Void is a non-state in which nothing concrete can be perceived, but which is pregnant with everything that exists. Its absolute simplicity is infinite potentiality of all things. Where there is nothing, there is a place for everything. It is not, therefore, an impotent nothingness, but rather, on the contrary, it can make everything out of itself, remaining in its intimate bosom as eternal Emptiness. All things come from it, are in it, and return to it, but behind these fleeting forms, it remains immutable in its timeless stillness, now, in the beginning, and forever. Beyond the change. Beyond birth and death. Ever present in his infinite game of dual appearances. Eternally empty and clear. Timelessly self-evident.
- B) Potential relative reality
Since non-dual Self-Evidence is completely devoid of the slightest separation between subject and object, it cannot formally perceive itself in any way. Therefore, if it wants to contemplate itself, it has no choice but to dualize… at least in appearance. The artifice is simple. Just as 0 can unfold as + 1 and – 1 without changing its value at all, fundamental Emptiness can unfold as object —an original pole, basically of energy— and subject —a final pole, basically of consciousness—, fully maintaining its empty essence. Between both poles, in this way, a wide spectrum of balances is generated between both polar facets, which covers the entire range from the most basic states —of enormous energy and little consciousness— to the highest —of little energy and enormous consciousness. When this illusory distance of energy-consciousness generated between both poles enters into vibration —like a guitar string— a characteristic fundamental sound and all its unlimited range of harmonic sounds (standing waves) are instantly produced. This means that, let’s take a good look, from the very originary moment the entire spectrum of energy-consciousness is already fully present in an intertwined and resonant way.
As we have seen throughout our research, the successive second harmonics that arise with the vibration of the original “string” of energy-consciousness —the successive notes of the Pythagorean circle (spiral) of fifths— are precisely the potential levels of stratified stability that will be actualized, one after the other, along the successive evolutionary rungs that we have analyzed, and that will unfold rhythmically the complete spectrum of manifestation, from the most basic levels —of enormous energy and little consciousness— to the most high —of little energy and enormous consciousness. (It is suggestive to point out the parallelism between the hypothesis that we are exposing and the “string theory” currently proposed in theoretical physics, although in our case the field of application is not simply reduced to the world of microphysics, but rather covers the entire spectrum of reality. It is difficult to try to elaborate a “theory of everything” if practically the entire manifested evolutionary reality is marginalized!).
We would like to highlight here the hypothesis raised by the pharmacologist Dirk Meijer and the researcher Hans Geesink about a mathematical algorithm for coherent quantum frequencies that generate stability in both animated and non-animated systems. In their own words: “Interestingly, we found that the origin of the particular biological algorithm can be mathematically approached by a selected “tempered Pythagorean” reference acoustic scale. The algorithm expresses one-dimensional wave equations known for vibrating strings. The origin of the biological algorithm was condensed in a mathematical expression, in which all frequencies have ratios of 1:2 and closely approach ratios of 2:3.” This 2:3 ratio is precisely the “second harmonic” that, as we have seen in our research, generates the evolutionary stability levels!
Returning to our discourse, when fundamental Emptiness unfolds as an objective pole (basically of energy) and a subjective pole (basically of consciousness), a bidirectional tension is automatically produced between both extremes: an expansive and entropic current coming from the initial pole of “energy-(consciousness)” and a contractive and syntropic current coming from the final pole of “consciousness-(energy)”. Both flows travel, in opposite directions, the entire spectrum of potential levels of stability —standing waves— in which both polar facets are balanced in different proportions. Moment after moment, these ascending and descending flows resonate with each other at a certain level —standing wave— of the energy-consciousness spectrum, “collapsing”, thus, in a concrete event.
(Readers interested in this point can consult the suggestive works on the “participatory anthropic principle” by John Wheeler, on “creative evolution” by Amit Goswami, or on “biocentrism” by Robert Lanza, and thus verify the similarities and the differences between these interpretations of quantum mechanics and what we are exposing here).
The proposal that we are developing is clearly in tune, obviously, with the syntropic theory of the mathematician Luigi Fantappiè. This theory affirms that the increase in complexity in the evolutionary process is a consequence of advanced waves that emanate from attractors located in the future and that go backwards in time. Thus, he proposes going from a mechanistic and deterministic model of the universe to a new model, entropic-syntropic, in which the expansive forces (entropy) and the cohesive forces (syntropy) work together, so that the unfolding of the phenomena is no longer only a function of the initial conditions, but also depends on a final attractor. This theory was later updated by the physicist Giuseppe Arcidiacono and by his twin brother Salvatore, a chemist by profession, developing an entropic-syntropic model of the universe with a “cybernetic structure”, which makes it possible to establish a link between Fantappiè’s unitary theory and the latest research on systems theory, chaos, and complexity. Currently, psychologists Ulisse Di Corpo and Antonella Vannini have relaunched research on entropic-syntropic theory, carrying out laboratory experiments with convincing results and thus managing to convert the syntropy hypothesis into a solid scientific theory supported by rigorous mathematics and abundant experimental evidence.
In clear resonance with all this, our approach is likewise very similar to the Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics —proposed by John Cramer and inspired by the “absorber theory” by John Wheeler and Richard Feynman—, which describes the quantum interactions in terms of a standing wave formed by the interference between retarded (forward in time) and advanced (backward in time) waves. We can summarize this transactional model as follows: The emitter produces a retarded “offer” wave, forward in time, which travels towards the absorber, which causes the absorber to produce an advanced “confirmation” wave, backwards in time, which travels back to the emitter. The interaction is repeated cyclically until, finally, the transaction is completed with a “handshake” —a standing wave— through space-time, sealing a two-way contract between the past and the future, and produces the actual quantum event, the “collapse of the wave function”. The “pseudo-temporal” sequence of this story is, of course, just a semantic convenience to describe a process that is, in truth, timeless. We will return to this matter later.
Physicist and philosopher Ruth Kastner, extending the work of John Cramer, has developed a new Transactional Interpretation, called Relativistic (RTI) or Possibilistic (PTI), which holds that quantum wave functions do not move so much in the physical universe, but rather that they exist as “possibilities” in the multidimensional Hilbert space, from which transactions in the “real” universe emerge. Kastner proposes to regard the outgoing supply waves and the many incoming confirmation waves as “possible” transactions, existing outside space-time, only one of which becomes empirically “real”. He suggests defining them with the term “potentia” —with which Aristotle called the ability to be something in the future—, in line with the statement of the German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg: “Atoms or elementary particles are not real in themselves; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities, and not so much a world of things or facts or data”. In this sense, she Kastner says that the waves of offer and confirmation are sub-empirical and pre-spatio-temporal “possibilities” —that is, they have not yet appeared in space-time— and, therefore, she calls them “incipient transactions”.
Kastner calls for a new metaphysical category to describe those “not quite real possibilities”, which, far from being mere abstractions, constitute a world of higher dimensions whose structure is described by the mathematics of quantum theory. She raises the need to consider such “possibilities” as part of a reality that encompasses much more than what is contained in space-time. In fact, spatiotemporal events are products that emerge from the transaction processes—timeless and non-local—that take place in the quantum realm. The metaphor of the “iceberg” used by Freud to describe the human subconscious can be equally applied to the “ontological realm of possibilities” or “quantum earth” that Kastner posits. The “quantumland” refers to the mass of the iceberg that exists below our sight, while the tip, the space-time appearance, is only a small part of all that is the physical universe. Quantum processes, even if they take place outside of space-time, are a fundamental part of that universe.
Kastner’s approach to an “ontological realm of possibilities” from which the concrete spatiotemporal world emerges fully coincides with our proposal of a potential relative reality of harmonic sounds that is rhythmically actualized along the successive steps of the evolutionary ladder. In the same way, there is a clear resonance between this idea and the postulate of the physicist David Bohm about a fundamental reality —the “implicate order”—, in which matter and spirit are unified, which unfolds, instant after instant, like the manifested universe —the “explicate order”—.
Starting from the surprising data of quantum physics, Bohm proposes the existence, at a very deep level, of an intrinsic order that, beyond space and time, involves the entire cosmic reality of relationships. This intrinsic order would be projected at each instant into the manifest order, which, in turn, would be injected or introjected again, at each instant, into the intrinsic order. Bohm calls this continuous unfolding and folding between the implicate order and the explicate order “holomovement”, which constitutes the basic dynamic phenomenon from which all events of manifested reality in space-time emanate. There is no “thing” in the universe. Everything is “process”. What we call things, objects or entities are mere abstractions of what is relatively stable in the processes of movement and transformation. In the implicate order, reality is ordered according to a hierarchy in which each particular level of time has its level of eternity. What is fundamental in the implicate order is the simultaneous presence of a sequence of many degrees of involvement, while, on the contrary, in the explicate order all these degrees are present in an extended and manifest way.
Concepts such as “non-local reality”, “entanglement” or “non-separability”, so frequent among scholars of the quantum world, point in the same direction. From the mental experiment proposed by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen in 1935 —the so-called “EPR paradox”—, from the theorem proposed by John Bell in 1964 —the so-called “Bell inequalities”— and from the real experiment carried out by Alain Aspect in 1982 —and many others in later years— it became evident, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the existence of events that violated the “locality principle” —the assumption that two objects far apart cannot influence each other each other instantly— confirming, thus, the dreaded “spooky action at a distance” that Einstein feared. From then on, quantum mechanics rejects the locality principle due to the so-called “quantum entanglement”. Entanglement is a phenomenon in which the quantum states of two or more objects must be described by a single state that involves all objects in the system, even when the objects are spatially separated. A set of entangled particles cannot be defined as if they were separate individual particles, but must be defined as a single wave function for the entire system. Since the entire cosmos was fully united at the time of the Big Bang, it could well be defined by a single wave function in which the entire range of possibilities would already be present in an overlapping manner from its origin. At a quantum level, therefore, a unified vision of universal reality begins to emerge, in which, beyond space and time, all possibilities —potentialities— are present from the very initial moment. The spatio-temporal universe, from this perspective, would be nothing more than the gradual actualizing, instant after instant, of those original potentialities in a broken down manner.
This approach to a unified potential reality, beyond space and time, has not only been developed by researchers in the objective world of energy, but also by researchers in the subjective world of consciousness. Thus, for example, the psychiatrist Carl Jung took up the medieval expression “unus mundus” —one world— to suggest the existence of a unified underlying reality from which everything emerges and to which everything returns. He asserted that it was extraordinarily likely that mind and matter were but two different and complementary aspects of that transcendental unus mundus. Jung, together with the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, revealed that the concepts of “archetype” and “synchronicity” reinforced precisely the existence of that underlying unit.
Jung observed that the deeper layers of the psyche lose their individuality —become more collective— and that in this “collective unconscious” there are primordial dynamic patterns, which he called “archetypes.” These archetypes are, in themselves, empty elements, virtualities, ideas in the Platonic sense, innate tendencies, models devoid of content from which individual variations are formed. An archetype possesses, in principle, an invariable significant nucleus that determines its mode of manifestation, but the way in which it is expressed in each case does not depend only on it, but also on the material of the phenomenal world with which it counts to make itself visible. The archetypes are not properly psychic elements, nor are they material, but rather psychophysical realities belonging to the field of the “psychoid”, prior to an eventual separation into those two domains that we perceive to be divided in our daily reality. The archetypes would form part of that unus mundus which, according to scholastic philosophy, potentially contained matter and spirit and, therefore, could be understood as a kingdom of “spiritual matter” or “material spirit”.
The existence of this fundamental psychophysical reality can also be demonstrated through the phenomena of “synchronicity”, in which coincidences or concordances appear —beyond mere chance— between a psychic event and another physical one without there being a causal relationship between them. These surprising phenomena would be easily explainable if both the observer and the concurrent event proceeded, ultimately, from the same source, from an underlying unity common to both, from the fundamental unus mundus. The simultaneous expressions in the domains of the psyche and matter that take place in synchronicities suggest the existence of a single psychophysical whole that we observe through two different pathways. This whole appears as material, if it is observed from the outside, and as psychic, if it is observed from the inside, but in itself it is neither psychic nor material, but entirely transcendent. The hypothesis of a deep potential matrix, beyond any type of division in these two domains that we perceive as separated in everyday reality, thus builds a bridge between the physical world and the mental world. Synchronistic phenomena are understood, then, as double and spontaneous manifestations of that unknown foundation that is the basis of matter and mind, of energy and consciousness.
Resonating with the idea that we have raised to equate our “potential relative reality” with Bohm’s “implicate order”, with Kastner’s “quantumland” or with Jung’s “unus mundus“, the psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz affirmed that it was possible to apply Bohm’s terminology to Jung’s ideas in such a way that archetypes could be seen as dynamic and unobservable structures of the implicate or infolded order. Or, in the same vein, the psychiatrist Stanislav Grof has proposed that “in an extended version of the holonomic theory, archetypes could be understood as sui generis phenomena, as cosmic principles intertwined with the fabric of the implicate order.”
Starting from these suggestive parallels, and considering synchronicity phenomena as double and spontaneous manifestations —material and psychic— of a unified underlying reality, one might suspect that archetypes could play a key role in the process of evolution, since it is characterized —as the paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin stated— by the tendency of matter over time to acquire more complex forms of organization and, simultaneously, by the increase in the level of consciousness in those organisms. Jung himself, glimpsing this possibility, affirmed: “One cannot imagine how much chance and how many risks were necessary during thousands of years to make a man out of a lemur. In the midst of this random chaos, there were probably synchronistic phenomena in action, which, in the face of the known laws of nature and with their help, allowed us to build, in archetypal moments, syntheses that appear to us as extraordinary.”
For Jung, synchronistic events appear when some archetypes are deeply involved in a lived situation. These archetypes are then constellated in the psyche, while very strong affective and emotional dynamics are unleashed. This circumstance can be observed, above all, in very serious crisis situations, and is well known by psychotherapists. In the words of the biologist Hansueli Etter: “If we transpose these observations analogically to the level of phylogeny, we can say that archetypal situations are effectively constellated when a collective and biological crisis imminently threatens a given species or several species. At those particular moments, synchronistic events must be very numerous (that is, mutations or gene redistributions must take place within populations), so that they offer the species the possibility of superior development. It seems to me that in those events considered until now as fortuitous, we must see synchronistic phenomena.”
- C) Spatio-temporal relative reality
In a previous addendum we have outlined the basic characteristics of toroidal dynamics through which the potential reality of the unmanifested foundation is actualized and unfolds in the world of forms. This process is very similar to the “holomovement” proposed by Bohm between the “implicate order” and the “explicate order”. The departure and return, instant after instant, from and towards the non-dual foundation, through its finite and fleeting manifestation in space-time, allows to actualize, one after another, the successive potential levels of stability of the spectrum of energy-consciousness —that is, the entire hierarchy of “harmonics” generated at the same original moment—, starting with the most basic ones —prioritarily energy— and ending with the highest ones —prioritarily consciousness—. At each turn, the particular potential of a certain level of the spectrum is projected at a specific point-instant of pixelated space-time, it integrates with the aspects that have already emerged in previous heights, and immediately, that specific information is introjected into the field of collective memory that is generated in the foundation. When this entity has deployed the full potential of the stratum in which it basically operates and has integrated it with everything that has emerged in the preceding stages, having reached a specific level of complexity, it can resonate with the next “harmonic” of the spectrum of energy-consciousness, and thus ascend to a new rung of the long ladder of evolution. And so on.
This intrinsically creative recursive dynamic between the “potential reality” and the “actualized reality” is mediated by that unified field of memory that, step by step, is gestating at fundamental level. All the information collected at any point-instant of the manifested world is immediately introjected into the basic field of collective memory, which, in this way, increases, moment by moment, its potential. According to our approach, with the original polarization of the fundamental non-dual Emptiness, as an objective pole —basically of energy— and a subjective pole —basically of consciousness—, a vast spectrum of balances of energy-consciousness is automatically generated between both polar facets, which runs the gamut from the most basic states —of enormous energy and little consciousness— to the highest —of little energy and enormous consciousness. “Before” the emergence of the manifested universe, this potential spectrum had a basically archetypal character —in our research we have talked about the chromatic range, the pythagorean circle (spiral) of fifths, the series of chakras…—, but from the moment the original Big Bang singularity occurs, the toroidal dance between potential reality and manifested reality begins —between the implicate order and the explicate order—, in which the game of projections and introjections that we have just discussed. It is precisely this toroidal game that, instant after instant, converts the original archetypal levels of the spectrum of energy-consciousness into fields of collective memory that are more and more solidified with each turn of the dance. This is the reason why, at present, the behavior of the most basic levels of the spectrum of energy-consciousness in the manifested universe —the material levels— is very predictable, and why, consequently, we can describe the physical laws of nature quite accurately. On the contrary, the highest levels of the potential spectrum have not yet been barely actualized in space-time and, therefore, today they still maintain their character of archetypal lightness and are difficult to describe.
Before continuing with our exposition, we would like to refer at this point to the work of other researchers who also propose the existence of a field of collective memory at the foundation of reality, with great similarities to the one we are proposing here.
For example, systems philosopher Ervin Laszlo postulates the idea of an information field as the substance of the cosmos. Using the Sanskrit term Akasha —with which the Hindu tradition designated the foundation that underlies all things and becomes all things— Laszlo calls this field of information the “akashic field”. The Akasha —he affirms— is a dimension in the universe that not only underlies all the things that exist in it, but also generates and interconnects them, conserving the information they have generated. It is the matrix of reality, the network of the world, the memory of the cosmos. Akashic cosmology conceives of the universe as an integral system that evolves in the interaction of two dimensions: a hidden or akashic dimension and an observable or manifest dimension. According to this model, the hidden dimension “in-forms” the manifest dimension, and this, in turn, “de-forms” the hidden dimension, modifying its information potential. This two-way interaction between the two dimensions constitutes a continuous loop of action and reaction, creating progressive coherence in the manifest dimension, and accumulating increasing information potential in the hidden dimension, all of which, according to Laszlo, may explain why our universe, against all odds, is well configured to form galaxies and sentient life forms, and why evolution is an informed, not a random, process.
For his part, the biochemist Rupert Shedrake proposes a dynamic similar to Bohm’s holomovement in which implicated and non-local morphogenetic fields channel the collective memory of forms and behaviors to subsequent generations. Sheldrake places special emphasis on the idea that the explained order, in a way, enriches the implicate —time enriches eternity—, because the finite contributes to the global order by re-injecting its contributions back into the whole. Each moment is a projection of the whole, but that moment is introjected back into the whole. The next moment implies, in part, a re-projection of that introjection, and so on. In this way, as each instant contains a projection of the re-injection of the previous instants —which constitutes a certain form of memory—, it resembles its predecessors, but it is also different from them. According to this concept of projection and introjection, all of the entities in the universe are contributing to the deepest intrinsic nature, because we participate in the introjection of the manifest order into the implicate order, thus creating a higher order that, instant after instant, shapes evolutionary dynamics.
Similarly, the theoretical physicist Nassim Haramein posits a fundamental domain of information from which everything arises and to which everything returns. Non-local intercommunication, beyond any frame of space and time, is possible thanks to the unified spatial memory network formed by microwormholes of the basic holographic information field on the Planck scale. Memory and the recursive processes of feedback and feedforward information from the quantum vacuum —or holofield— enable learning and evolutionary behavior. The flow of dynamic information to and from that field can be the generative source of organized matter, of self-organizing biological systems, and ultimately of self-aware entities. Haramein asserts, in summary, that we live in a highly intertwined and interconnected universe where a fundamental field of information, shared across all scales, drives evolutionary mechanisms in which the environment influences the individual and the individual influences the environment, into a non-local interconnected whole: a universe that is ultimately One.
Returning to the exposition of our proposal, we are going to try to describe, below, the mechanism through which the potential reality is actualized in and as the manifested reality, which will give us the essential clues to outline the nature of this manifestation. As we have explained, with the original dualization of non-dual Emptiness in the form of an objective pole (basically of energy) and a subjective pole (basically of consciousness), an integral, simultaneous and entangled spectrum of energy-consciousness automatically appears between the two extremes in different balances, which constitutes the potential relative reality or basic archetype that, later, will manifest as actualized relative reality or evolutionary universe. The tension generated between both extremes after the original polarization creates an expansive and entropic current coming from the pole of energy and a contractive and syntropic current coming from the pole of consciousness, which travel, in opposite directions, the entire spectrum of potential levels of stability, standing waves or musical harmonics that we have talked about. The initial instant of the universal manifestation —Big Bang— took place when the ascending and descending flows resonated with each other at the most basic level of the energy-consciousness spectrum and, with this “handshake” between them, the “collapse of the wave function” of the first potential archetype —or musical harmonic— was produced in the world of forms. Since then, the toroidal game of projections and introjections, instant after instant, has gradually unfolded in the explicate order the successive potential levels of stratified stability of the implicate order in which the ascending and descending flows have been resonating. This iterative dynamic, as we have seen, has been converting the original archetypal levels of the energy-consciousness spectrum into morphogenetic fields of collective memory that are more and more solidified with each turn of the dance, beginning with the most basic rungs of the evolutionary ladder. The highest rungs still maintain their primeval archetypal lightness.
It is important to remark, here, that the fertile interaction between the primary poles of energy and consciousness, through the ascending —entropic— and descending —syntropic— flows, does not take place in the manifest world, but in the underlying potential reality, more beyond space and time. It’s an instant interaction. Not temporary. Sometimes, when describing this bidirectional dynamic, one speaks incorrectly of a flow that advances in time and a flow that goes back in time, but it would be more accurate to think, rather, of a transaction between different depths of a single eternal Now, which encompasses in itself the totality of “time”. When this transaction “collapses” in a fleeting now, the memory of past moments and the expectation of future moments makes us conceive the image of a time line. But it’s just an image. The manifested universe arises and disappears, instant after instant, from and to the underlying, entangled and unified potential reality, which is always Now. Given that the toroidal game of projections and introjections between the potential and manifested realms of reality unfolds, gradually, more and more complex forms each time —due to the fact that they integrate a greater number of levels of the stratified field of collective memory that is developing—, we can glimpse in the universal process a clear “arrow of time” that is oriented, precisely, towards the creation of progressively complex organisms and with increasing levels of consciousness. But that does not mean that there really is a real time line, only that this is our imaginary way of ordering the partial data —the frames of the world film— that we successively capture. Well, as the physicist Erwin Schrödinger affirmed: “the fact that something propagates in space or that something happens in a well-defined time of ‘before and after’ is not a quality of the world that we perceive, but belongs to the perceiving mind that (somehow in his current situation) he finds himself unable to register anything that is offered to him if it is not according to this spatio-temporal scheme.”
It seems that the world that we are beginning to glimpse lacks the solidity that we naively assumed, and that, in reality, it is more like a surprising and gigantic evolutionary hologram. Let’s see. A hologram is a type of three-dimensional representation that is produced when a laser ray splits into two distinct rays. One of them is bounced off the object to be photographed, and then the second ray, coming directly from the source, is allowed to collide with the reflected light from the first, producing an interference pattern that is recorded on a plate. When a light passes through this plate, a three-dimensional image of the original object automatically emerges that lacks the slightest substance. It is pure appearance. Another surprising fact is that, unlike what happens with normal photographs, each part of a holographic plate contains the complete information of the whole. Thus, if a holographic plate is broken into pieces, each piece, no matter how small, can be used to reconstruct the complete image of the photographed object, with greater or lesser definition. Each part contains the whole!
According to our approach, the gestation process of the universal manifestation begins with the original bifurcation of the non-dual Lucid-Light —“a laser ray is divided into two different rays”— into an objective pole (basically of energy) and a pole subjective (basically of consciousness), with the consequent interaction between the ascending and descending flows that are generated between them. Let us remember that, due to the toroidal dynamics of projections and introjections, the most basic levels have developed very solid morphogenetic memory fields, while the highest levels still maintain their original archetypal lightness. For this reason, the upward flow crosses very defined morphogenetic fields —“one of them is bounced against the object to be photographed”—, while the downward flow comes directly from the subjective pole —“the second ray comes directly from the font“—. When both flows resonate and interact with each other, the transaction is sealed with a handshake or standing wave —“the second ray (…) is allowed to collide with the reflected light of the first, producing an interference pattern that is recorded on a plate”—, and the potential collective memory collapses into a specific, punctual and fleeting formal image —“a three-dimensional image of the original object automatically arises that lacks the slightest substantiality”.
Our research has revealed the complete parallelism between the phylogenetic and ontogenetic processes of the human being. Both global evolution and individual development take place in the same time frame, with an identical pattern of unfolding and folding between the original and final poles, and going through exactly the same stages or levels of stability. Each individual life recapitulates, then, the entire global trajectory traveled by their ancestors —“each part of a holographic plate contains the complete information of the totality”—. Everything seems to suggest that the universal manifestation has holographic characteristics and that the “whole” and the “parts” are mere reflections of a common underlying foundation. Bearing in mind that a characteristic of holograms is that the smaller the size of the piece of plate used, the blurrier the reconstructed image is —definition is lost, but the integrity of the image is maintained—, we could well propose that the more complex is a given organism —the more levels of manifestation it has integrated— the greater the degree of clarity and definition of the total original image. If this approach is valid, an atom, a molecule, a cell, a mammal, a primate, or a human being, each one of them possesses, in its innermost depths, free access to the totality of the unified field of collective memory of the cosmos, although, depending on their specific characteristics —depending on their respective capacities to capture and express that plenitude that underlies and surrounds them—, it only connects with certain facets of that field.
According to everything exposed up to here, the exclusive protagonist of the creative dance of the universe is the simple non-dual Self-Evidence always present, the ultimate identity of everything and everyone, the only unquestionable reality of existence. This pure Certainty-of-Being, obvious but invisible, needs to unfold polarly as subject and object in order to be able to see itself, partially, in infinite ways. As we have explained, the fertile interaction between the bidirectional flows that are generated between both poles is reflected —collapses— in an endless number of subject-objective, finite and fleeting holographic images, with which Self-Evidence identifies, instant after instant, being able, in this way, to contemplate with progressive clarity in the world of forms his own original invisible face.
The non-dual absolute Reality —Self-Evidence— is timeless. Potential relative reality —the implicate order, the archetypal unus mundus—, that is, the entirety of the polar, entangled and unitary spectrum of energy-consciousness occurs in an eternal Now, encompassing the entirety of “time.” The manifested relative reality, the space-time holographic image, is born and dies every moment. The entirety of the world of appearances is being created now… and now… and now… In summary, the timeless Self-Evidence is projected through the integral Here-Now of the potential archetype, identifies with each and every one of the point-instant of pixelated space-time, it contemplates itself from a certain perspective, and immediately returns to its original plenitude… from which, in truth, it had never left.
There are no independent objects. There are no separate subjects. Everything in the manifest world is subject-objective. Ultimately, everything is an expression of the basic interaction between the original poles of energy and consciousness in which the ever-present fundamental Self-Evidence bifurcates. The universe has no particular shape. Everything is relational. The presumed objective perceived world is just an image generated by identification with a particular subjective form. There are colors because there are eyes. There are sounds because there are ears. Everything that you are perceiving, dear reader, in yourself and in your environment at this moment, is just a spontaneous and fleeting image that arises from the interaction between the Subject pole —in “you”— and the Object pole —in “everything your environment”—, in which the Self-Evidence that you truly are branches off, from instant to instant, to contemplate Itself in infinite ways. Everything is happening by itself. Eternally. You can relax. Enjoy the dance!
Before finishing this addendum, we would like to underline that this non-dual worldview that we are proposing —which, needless to say, clashes head-on with the materialist paradigm still in force— is capable of resolving, simply and without artifice, some of the essential enigmas to which conventional science has not been able to give a convincing answer. Let’s briefly review some of them.
—The hard problem of consciousness. The cognitive philosopher David Chalmers introduced the concept of the “hard problem” of consciousness to refer to the great difficulty of explaining, from materialistic parameters, how it is possible that an —objective— physical brain, which only processes electrical or chemical signals, can give rise to qualia or conscious subjective experiences. From the non-dual perspective from which we are developing our research, on the contrary, the “hard problem” does not even arise, since, far from assuming that the objective world produces subjective experiences —as materialist monism does— or that subjective experiences give rise to the objective world —as idealistic monism does—, we defend that both energy and consciousness are nothing more than the polar expression of the same and unique underlying reality in which both facets are eternally undifferentiated.
—The mind-body problem. Closely related to the hard problem of consciousness, the mind-body problem refers to the difficulty of explaining the interaction between “inner” mental states and “outer” bodily states. How can the mind act on the brain, as evidenced, for example, in the so-called “placebo effect”? From the scheme that we are proposing, there is no such problem, since, ultimately, the “external” world and the “internal” world —energy and consciousness— are non-dual. All levels of the spectrum of manifested reality are nothing more than different balances between these two polar facets of a single fundamental reality, and therefore any interaction between them is nothing more than mere movements between different densities of the same substance.
—The problem of downward causality. Materialist reductionism has sought to explain complex organisms from their simplest component elements —that is, through “ascending causation”— and, for this reason, “descending causation” —exercised by the emergent properties of wholes on the properties of their lower-level constituents—, that researchers of complex systems have revealed in numerous realms of reality, has been accused of conceptual and metaphysical incoherence. According to our approach, far from there being incompatibility between both types of causality, all manifested reality arises precisely from the interaction and resonance between ascending entropic flows and descending syntropic flows, thereby simultaneously transcending the partial perspectives of reductionism and holism, integrating them into an all-encompassing non-dual vision.
—The problem of fine-tuned universe. This problem, like that of the anthropic principle, has arisen when it has been verified that the universe seems to have been meticulously adjusted to allow the existence of life and mind, since, if any of the basic physical constants had been slightly different, the appearance of life as we know it would not have been possible. According to the materialist perspective, therefore, we inhabit an extremely improbable universe. From our perspective, on the contrary, since all events in the universe arise from the interaction and consensus between the flows coming from the original pole of energy —from the “past”— and from the final pole of consciousness —from the “future”—, it is completely natural that, without having to resort to any external designer, already the first events of the universal process were fully coordinated and adjusted to future events. How could it be otherwise!
—The problem of parapsychological experiences. Parapsychology studies different paranormal psychic phenomena that do not seem to have a scientific explanation, nor do they fit within the framework of currently accepted physical laws, such as telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, extrasensory perception, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences or synchronicity phenomena. All this, obviously, as it is difficult to fit within the narrow framework of the current materialist paradigm, is rejected outright by a large part of the scientific community, which considers parapsychology as a mere pseudoscience. On the contrary, since the framework of our proposal is much broader, it is very likely that some of these phenomena can be easily located within it. Specifically, in the field of what we have called “potential relative reality” —Kastner’s quantumland, Bohm’s implicate order, Jung’s archetypal world, Sheldrake’s morphogenetic fields, Laszlo’s akashic field or Haramein’s unified spatial memory network— perhaps easy explanations can be found for many of the parapsychological experiences discussed.
—The root problem of science without consciousness. Materialistic science has usually flatly rejected the claims of spiritual traditions in the name of reason. Perhaps, in principle, this attitude made a lot of sense, within the pretense of finding natural explanations for the phenomena of the world, without resorting to magical divine interventions. But, in fact, this rejection led to the unfortunate and impoverishing marginalization of an immense field of deep and rigorous investigations into the inner world, developed over many centuries in many different cultures. It is surprising to verify the enormous coherence of these experiential investigations, as has been revealed in the so-called “perennial philosophy”. We would like to highlight here, in a very special way, the non-dual schools that are present in all the great wisdom traditions: in philosophical Taoism, in Hinduism —Advaita Vedānta, Kashmiri Shaivism—, in Mahāyāna Buddhism —chan, zen—, in vajrayāna Buddhism —mahāmudrā, dzogchen—, in Judaism —kabbalah—, in Christianity —Rhenish and Castilian mysticism—, in Islam —sufism—… In all these schools we can find abundant and luminous references about of the fundamental realm that we have called “absolute non-dual reality”. It seems that the time has come to break the narrow limits of the materialist paradigm and begin to propose larger worldviews, capable of integrating, without prejudice, all the facets —interior and exterior, individual and collective— in which the unfathomable Emptiness unfolds. Perhaps, in the end, we will discover that reality—our true reality—is much more fascinating than we could ever have imagined.
Bibliography
ARCIDIACONO, GIUSEPPE and SALVATORE: Sintropia, entropia, informazione. Di Renzo Editore. Roma, 1991.
ARCIDIACONO, SALVATORE: L’evoluzione dopo Darwin. La teoria sintropica dell’evoluzione. Di Renzo Editore. Roma, 1992.
COSTA DE BEAUREGARD, OLIVIER: Irreversibilità, entropia, informazione. Di Renzo Editore. Roma, 1994.
CRAMER, JOHN G.: The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 58: 647-688, 1986.
CRAMER, JOHN G.: The Quantum Handshake – Entanglement, Nonlocality, and Transactions. Springer, 2016.
DI CORPO, U. and VANNINI, A.: The Evolution of Life. According to the law of syntropy. In Syntropy Journal, 2011. [ http://www.sintropia.it/journal/english/2011-eng-1-2.pdf ]
DI CORPO, U. and VANNINI, A.: Syntropy, Cosmology and Life. In Syntropy Journal, 2012 (1). [ http://www.sintropia.it/journal/english/2012-eng-1-6.pdf ]
FANTAPPIÈ, LUIGI: Sull’interpretazione dei potenziali anticipati della meccanica ondulatoria e su un Principio di finalità che ne discende, Rend. Acc. d’ltalia, serie 7.a, vol. 4°, fasc. 1–5, 1942.
FANTAPPIÈ, LUIGI (1942): Principi di una teoria unitaria del mondo fisico e biológico. Di Renzo Editore. Roma, 1993.
FANTAPPIÈ, LUIGI: Conferenze scelte. Di Renzo Editore. Roma, 1993.
GRIBBIN, JOHN: Schrödinger’s Kittens and the Search for Reality. Back Bay Books, 1996.
KASTNER, RUTH E.: The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: The Reality of Possibility. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 2012.
KASTNER, RUTH E.: Understanding Our Unseen Reality: Solving Quantum Riddles. Imperial College Press, 2015.
KASTNER, RUTH E.: Adventures in Quantumland: Exploring Our Unseen Reality. World Scientific Publishing Europe Ltd., 2019.
SZENT-GYORGYI, ALBERT: Drive in Living Matter to Perfect Itself. Synthesis 1, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 14-26, 1977.
TEILHARD DE CHARDIN, PIERRE: El fenómeno humano. Taurus Ed. Madrid, 1959.
VANNINI, ANTONELLA: From mechanical to life causation. In Syntropy Journal, 2005 (1). [ http://www.sintropia.it/journal/english/2005-eng-1-2.pdf ]
VANNINI, A. and DI CORPO, U.: Quantum Physics, Advanced Waves and Consciousness. Journal of Cosmology, 2011. [ http://journalofcosmology.com/Consciousness101.html ]
WHEELER, JOHN A. and FEYNMAN, ROBERT P.: Interaction with the Absorber as the Mechanism of Radiation. Review of Modern Physics; 17: 157-161, 1945.
WHEELER, JOHN A. and FEYNMAN, ROBERT P.: Classical Electrodynamics in Terms of Direct Interparticle Action. Reviews of Modern Physics 21 (July): 425-433, 1949.
Recent Comments