The trap of philosophical identity

Life is complex and often confusing. We’re scared little animals with consciousnesses, stranded on a planet floating through empty space, with no means of escape. There seems to be no meaning, rhyme or reason to any of this, so we all try and  find our own meaning in the madness. We seek out the patterns, and try to fill our void of understanding with knowledge, philosophies or doctrines like religion. It goes without saying, knowledge is power, however within the hunt for knowledge there is a trap many of us fall into. I like to call this, the trap of philosophical identity.

Once we’ve accumulated an array of ideas that fit neatly together, we often like to group them together into a philosophy or belief system. Some notable examples would be stoicism, solopisism or even buddhism. This is fine for the most part, as it categorises different beliefs and gives us a reference point for various ideas. However, we fall into a trap when we identify ourselves with these philosophies.

People start calling themselves Buddhists, Christians and atheist, amongst other things, to give their beliefs and ideas a sense of identity. An identity, that by it’s very nature is an illusion created by the ego. A false perception of a so called ‘self’ that does not exist. We are nothing more than a collection of cells and brain chemical changes, how can a conditioned object possibly give itself an identity. If you want to gain true knowledge, and form your own truth, then identifying yourself with your beliefs is the biggest hindrance in all your intellectual pursuits.

When you identify yourself with your beliefs, then you narrow you thinking to that one specific belief. Anything that goes against this is dismissed, and you gain a sort of confirmation bias against anything that goes against your said belief. Atheists are terrible for this. They are against religion, yet by identifying themselves as an atheist, they have just traded one belief system for another, atheism. There’s no problem believing or disbelieving in a god, but saying your belief is fact and everyone else is stupid, is ludicrous. Identifying yourself with a certain belief system just hinders you from greater understanding, as you will never look at different perspectives and form your OWN opinion. Rather, just the opinions of a philosophy devised by others.

I suggest rather than following any sort of philosophy, we remain neutral and sceptical of all possibilities. Remain open to new opinions rather than staying stuck in you own stubborn beliefs. You will never learn anything if you form your ideology and leave it at that. New knowledge should be open to interpretation, and not just thrown away because it goes against your beliefs, you may be throwing away something valuable.

So, don’t just read the bible and call it day. Don’t read, a science encyclopaedia and leave it at that. Research every angle of every argument and remain open to change. Place ideas and opinions in different contexts, and accept that you are not your beliefs, rather an ever-changing state of being.

–THE LONELY WEST–

The holy cycle

The universe is strange place, and as science progresses, our understanding of how it works changes year by year. It seems like whenever we have a solid foundation of scientific knowledge about ur world, another theory or finding destroys what we thought we knew. For example, when I was in school, my psychics teacher would tell us that a ‘quark‘ was the smallest fundamental particle in the universe. However, for anyone with an interest in science and the confusing world of quantum physics, you’ll know that this this could very well not be the case. Thanks a lot string theory!

It’s a current belief that as we go smaller and smaller into the particles that make up this reality, we find that on a subatomic level, every piece of matter is made up of vibrational waves of energy. As physics clearly tells us, energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. So if everything in the universe is made up of energy, then what does this tell us about the nature of our existence?

Well, if energy can’t be created or destroyed, then that means nothing in our observable universe can be created or destroyed, even ourselves. But how can that be possible? Nothing is eternal, humans die and physical objects eventually decay. When we die, we are gone, we longer exist, however the basic laws of physics go against this. With this in mind, I hypothesise that everything that exists within our universe, has always been here, and nothing new is ever added to it. Neither, is anything removed from it.

Think about it, all life is energy. When we die, our bodies decay and rot, we are eaten by other animals to keep them alive and reproducing. When them animals die, their bodies decay and the cycle goes on. Nothing ever ceases to exist, it is simply impossible. Rather, like physics tells us, everything that matter makes up, is just transferred into another form. Birth, growth and decay, it’s the cycle of life. This is the bigger picture we are all a part of, everything is one and connected, just in different, transferring and interchangeable forms.

This bigger picture, or cycle, is what I like to think most, if not all religions were getting at when they spoke of a ‘God.’ This ultimate truth of everything being one part of a larger picture, is God. The very essence of everything in our existence, not some almighty creator. I believe that many of the holy scriptures, such as bible, were using metaphors to describe this truth of oneness. However, humans misconstrued this stories and took them too literally, envisioning a creator or all seeing deity.

In an early Christian scripture, it was said that ‘Jesus’ quoted this, as an explanation of where God is…

“I am the light which is over all things”

“I am all”

“From me came forth, and to me all attained”

“Split a piece of wood, I am there”

“Lift up the stone, and I am there”

If one was to take this quote literally, you would bring forth the assumption that our creator ‘God,’ is everywhere at once. However, I feel that the word God itself has grown shallow and meaningless throughout time. As stated, if you dismiss all preconceptions of the word God, and take it as this cycle, or bigger picture I’m speaking of, the quote resonates with this theory. It tells us of an overall essence of all life and things, that is everything and everywhere at once. Not a concious being, rather a unity of everything.

It’s worth saying now, that thinking for yourself is one of the most valuable skills you can have. You can take what you’ve read here however you want, but please don;t form your opinions based on a single book, belief system or blog post. Look at every side of the coin from every perspective, and form your own truth. Because most of the time, you’ll find a deeper truth, hidden within what you once thought was the ultimate truth.

–THE LONELY WEST–

What is god? Consciousness and the observer effect

I’m an atheist. As an atheist there is nothing worse than a Christian who relentlessly tries to force their beliefs upon you. As someone who prides himself in (hopefully) not being an asshole, there’s nothing worse than an atheist doing the same thing.

It’s easy to discredit someone beliefs just because they seem ludicrous to you. But, you’ll never learn anything if you stay stuck in the mental prison of your own stubborn ideology. Truth be told, I used to be one of those atheist who preached about the narrow-mindedness of religious types which ironically makes you more narrow minded. This is because, like I said, you get trapped in your own beliefs and don’t accept any other opinions. Well, I’ve been given this some thought and although I remain an atheist you really can’t blame people for believing in a higher power.

I mean the universe makes no sense but complete sense at the same time. Back in the day, we didn’t have science. A higher being or deity seemed the only logical explanation for the reality in which we perceive. Of cause, as we evolved we began finding patterns. That’s all science is. The study of regularly occurring patterns. Humans like patterns because they help us make sense of seemingly chaotic events beyond our control. We like control. It eats away at us when we can’t categorise, analyse and neatly label things in the world. This is what science is for. Science found that our universe is governed by certain laws. These laws neatly fit into various equations and calculations which when worked out again and again always give the same result. Gravity, velocity or density it can all be calculated. It’s almost like a computer program with physics equations as it’s code.

With all this seamlessly perfect data we can extract from our universe, it becomes apparent that it is very possible there could well be a creator. Our world is intelligently designed as if someone meant it all to fit together and consistently work again and again. It’s insane when you think that, every small calculation of these laws is so neatly perfect that out universe just works. I mean, take one piece of the code away and it all just falls apart. So, if there is a creator or what us humans refer to as “God” what is it. What is god?

Well, when people think of god I personally think that they are going about the completely wrong way. When you envision God you will normally picture some almighty deity in the sky that must be worshipped. In my opinion, this approach is lazy and disregards science. A way of simply filling in the gaps we don’t understand. The idea that we have to worship this creator also seems silly. A fallacy I personally think has been carried through the ages. A way of invoking fear in large populations so they don’t “Sin.” So what is the other way of looking at God? Well first lets take away the label of God as that already puts an image of a deity in peoples mind. The belief that we have a creator dictates that something is consciously aware of the universe in which it creates. The idea that our reality was created by conscious thought rather than pure randomness.

The Double Slit Experiment

This is where it gets mind-bendingly difficult to fully comprehend, so I will try and break it down into it’s simplest and most relevant form. In a nutshell, the double slit experiment was a study conducted in which scientist fired electrons through two tiny slits. Quantum physics dictates that the particle should act as… Well, a particle and when they collide with the wall, land as two bands in correspondence with the slits. The issue was, this did not happen. As you can see above the particles did not create two bands, rather they acted as a wave would. Completely unlike how we know particles to work, which obviously completely BAFFLED scientists. To get a better idea of what was happening they decided to use a small device to examine exactly which slits the electrons went through. Keep in mind this is on a quantum level, so up until this point nobody was observing the electrons. Rather, they were just seeing the end result. When they actually observed these particles. Well… this is when things got really strange. When scientists observed the particles, they began acting like particles again and produced two bands based of their collision with the wall. They tried again and again, observing and not observing, each time producing the same results. What does this mean? Well, it basically means the particles may be aware that they were being watched. As if they acted as we expect them too when we actually observed them. This is crazy when you think that our whole universe is made up of matter. Various particles that make up EVERYTHING we perceive, those of which their number we couldn’t even fathom. So if the variables of particles change based on our observations… Could this mean we are architects of our own reality?

When the electrons were unaware of observation they acted as a wave. Does this not dictate that the model of a wave could be their true form? If you begin reading about string theory, you will start to realise it is becoming apparent that the fundamental form of matter in our universe is countless amounts of vibrational waves.

It’s getting pretty deep now but hear me out.

Every thought you create produces a wave. That’s why they are called brain waves. Observation is formed by thought. You perceive something and your mind acknowledges it’s existence. If this is the case, than could it not be possible that we are creating our own reality whilst we live it. Our collective perception is dictating how the universe plays out and how the laws are set. Darting back to the initial question, what is God ?

Well… Maybe WE are God.

I’ll let you all collect your blown minds and you can be on your way.

–THE LONELY WEST–

What is going on… Seriously

What is the meaning of life? An often cliche’ question that has boggled the minds of philosophers and scientists alike. Many people across the ages have yearned to know the answer this. Well, to be fair you can’t blame them. All this talk about politics, the weather and all the other pointless shit, nobodies looking at the big picture. Look at it this way. We’re on this gigantic rock of dirt. Hurdling through space. Next to a gigantic ball of fire. If you just think about that for a moment, it really begs the question… WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!”

Right now you are a fleshy blood vessel made up of microscopic cells and even smaller particles. Among your other millions of fleshy vessels you are held down by a force called gravity. A force that cannot been seen smelled or even touched. Every single variable and possibility ever so suspiciously perfect and seemingly thought out.

Within this vessel we call our bodies we have a brain. An organ that uses chemicals and electrical signals to help us perceive reality. As you sit here reading this article your brain is interpreting these series of pixels which make up the English language. Set out on a black box with a screen made up of small LED lights and circuitry. Your black box networked to millions of others, seamlessly connecting through a series of 1’s and 0’s flying across a virtual world within our own.

Maybe, after you read this you’ll decide to call a friend and go round theirs (tell them about how good my blog is.) You will pick up a box and the vibrations of your vocal chords will be received into this box. This information will oscillate in a wave  to your friend miles away into his little box. If this isn’t strange enough, next you’ll get into a box with wheels attached to it. With this you will fly across time and space and reach your friend who lives in an even bigger box made of bricks

Don’t tell me you know what is going on because in the grand scheme of things… reality is bat shit insane. We have just grown accustomed to it and well… we just accept it for what it is. I mean, if somebody looked at our universe from a completely unbiased standpoint it would blow their mind. Imagine being outside of our reality and just observing the way we live. Millions of tiny mammals running around. Completing medial tasks for other people in order to get pieces of paper  that can be used to acquire items and services. Life is just the most insane drug trip conceivable.

“Whoa Trippy man”

How can we expect to find meaning in all of this when we don’t even have the faintest clue of whats going on. We don’t even know if this world is real or how the universe even keeps itself together so neatly and perfectly. In my opinion, there is no meaning to life. Meaning itself is a concept created by humans. A way of trying to understanding this crazy nonsensical existence. You can attach whatever human concepts you like to reality to make you feel better and less alone. But… At the end of the day, meaning is a man made concept. I’m sure the real truth is something impossible for us to even comprehend.

Overall, I find it truly fascinating how the universe is so precisely and put together. It really is beautiful. The way we can put together mathematical equations and everything just seems to add up. However… It doesn’t always add up. Everything is not what it seems and I think our reality is much more complex than we could ever conceive. No amount of science or technology is going to explain everything, So just enjoy what you are presented with. There’s nothing else you can do. Take a step back  from the drudgery of the rat race. Just for a moment. Breath in the oxygen, and appreciate the true beauty of the chaotic and random world we find ourselves living in. Because when you look at it the right way. Even chaos can be beautiful.

“Just to remind you how insignificant you really are.”

–THE LONELY CROWDED WEST–