Our Trippy Universe...

Yes. Now I know why Robert Pirsig's book, (see previous post), had such an impact on my young mind in my formative years. It has the same impact on my old mind today too. It's a mind-twister of a book. It throws you back on first principles. I realize it kind of set the tone for the way I approach the world. You start to question what you know, and why you know what you know. And it affirms the impression that the Universe is a bit of a Mystery. So, even though, you use logic and rationality, and intellect, to try to understand things, you also come across these strange almost mystical ideas:

The Subliminal Self - "the portion of an individual's personality that lies below or beyond the reach of his or her personal awareness."

A Priori Ideas - "An a priori concept is one that can be acquired independently of experience, which may – but need not – involve its being innate, while the acquisition of an a posteriori concept requires experience."

Intuition -  "Intuition is that feeling in your gut when you instinctively know that something you are doing is right or wrong. Or it’s that moment when you sense kindness, or fear, in another’s face. You don’t know why you feel that way; it’s just a hunch."

And you know there is that really weird, all-pervasive thing we all have that we can't really explain why we have, or what it really really made of, and, whether it exists inside us, or outside us, but we know we need it, and are sort of enchanted by it: 

Consciousness - "at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence.  However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguists, and scientists. Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered consciousness. In some explanations, it is synonymous with the mind, and at other times, an aspect of mind. In the past, it was one's "inner life", the world of introspection, of private thought, imagination and volition. Today, it often includes any kind of cognition, experience, feeling or perception. It may be awareness, awareness of awareness, or self-awareness either continuously changing or not. The disparate range of research, notions and speculations raises a curiosity about whether the right questions are being asked."

I am thrown back on my own devices. Universe & Mind. The Map is not the territory. I think Universe = Territory, Mind = Map. 

WTF. Does anyone have a doobie? The great conundrum: Minds trying to Understand Minds. A mirror in a hall of mirrors.

Some folks turn to the great Philosophers for insight: Plato, Socrates, Zeno, Hume, Descarte, Poincare...

I turn to that prodigiously creative and inventive thinker, a last century Wizard & Mage with an finely-tuned musical sensibility, John Lennon. He kind of laid out a framework of a wandering mind trying to understand his mind, and other minds too...

"Tomorrow Never Knows" -  (1966) "Turn off your mind Relax and float down stream, It is not dying, It is not dying..."

"Strawberry Fields Forever" (1967)  - "Always, no, sometimes think it's me, But you know, I know when it's a dream, I think I know, I mean—er—yes, but it's all wrong, That is, I think I disagree..."

"I am the Walrus" (1967) - "I am he as you are he as you are me, And we are all together..."

"God" (1970) - "God is a concept by which we measure our pain..."

"Mind Games"  (1973) - "So keep on playing those mind games together, Faith in the future out of the now, You just can't beat on those mind guerrillas, Absolute elsewhere in the stones of your mind, Yeah we're playing those mind games forever, Projecting our images in space and in time..."