Learning

The process of working on my PhD and this dissertation has taken me into the depths of both my mind and my being. The act of researching material that points so clearly towards a dynamically interconnected Universe where the boundaries of our inner and outer worlds are so subtle is bound to be psycho-active. The process of reading, reflecting and writing has impacted profoundly my sense of who I am and my experience of my relationship to the world around me. The bigger and more beautiful the picture that emerges from my mind, the more crystalline and grounded is my experience of life.

Each new discovery of course opens new doors, as explored in the Further Research section below. At the same time I do feel a wholeness and completion around this volution thesis. This new philosophical argument about the holographic and trans-linear dynamics of life feels right and as well as adding up rationally. As ever, this step will be a foundation for the next steps.

Further Research

There are two main questions that still play around in my mind related to this thesis. They are connected through the idea of perspective. The first is about our place in the volution of our Universe, and the second relates to our perspective of our Universe itself.

One of the questions I came across regularly in my literature review and general material in this domain is how it is that the universe has actually unfolded with just the right conditions to create life as we experience it, and that we seem to be right in the middle of the scale. Here are some quotes to illustrate this:

We human beings literally stand midway on the scale between the nuclear and Galactic realms. (Laszlo & Currivan 2008, 111)

The measures of physical constants or relationships between forces need to be exactly what they are otherwise our Universe would have been snuffed out before it even got going; dying at its first challenge of creating balances between energy and matter or perishing before the first stars were formed. (Currivan 2017, 85)

As we continue our journey of exploration of our perfect Universe and ultimately what it means to be human, the number N also ensures that we are poised midway in size between a molecule and a star; held in the benevolent balance of these cosmic forces which have shaped us. (Currivan 2017, 87)

Mankind is poised midway between the gods and beasts. (Plotinus in Wilber 1982, 162)

Figure 44 illustrates the point:

Figure 44. The Cosmic Uroboros. (Source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2014/12/31/yes-center-universe-one-sense/#.WPCi8VOGNTY)

This perspective that this is such a miracle has never sat comfortably with me, not because it is not true that the parameters that need to be in place for life to have evolved this way are very specific, but more because it seems obvious if one looks at it from a consciousness perspective. Given all the evidence quoted above that our inner and outer worlds co-arise, surely at any moment we are at the very centre of our own volutionary process, held in the creative tension field of our own seed-potential envelop. Our apparent past and future will be equally balanced as they are the equivalent of the branches and roots of a tree that grow out simultaneously to ensure the tree is balanced. The further we look into space the deeper we will be able to look into matter and vice-versa. It is as if our awareness expands in all directions of time and space from our own centre. As individuals we are a holographic aspect, microcosmic co-creators, me and we reflected as one. Therefore the idea that one often hears that it is such a miracle that we are who and what we are now, seems to me to be an inadequate way of thinking about it. It seems obvious that everything has come together in a perfect relationship for us to be who and where we are now - or else we wouldn’t be here… That notion is calling me to contemplate it further.

Another question that has arisen for me is about the relative perspective of what a closed and open system is. Our current perspective as described above in the volution thesis is that all systems are open up to the level of our Universe which is a closed system so all energy-matter is conserved on a physicalized level. It seemed strange to me that this wasn’t a fractal and as I reflected on it, I came to the conclusion that it might have to with our relative perspective. Currently, the boundary within which we can make sense of our reality is our own Universe. We have not yet developed a perspective of what it would be like to sit outside of our Universe and look at it in relationship to other universes, for example. The inquiry that I still hold is whether our understanding of our Universe as a closed system is related to our perspective of having our Universe as our chosen macro-boundary for now and that if we were able to conceive if it as part of a bigger whole, whether our understanding would change to it being an open system, with our closed system criteria shifting to the next biggest whole that we could conceive of (a multi-verse, for example).

Next Steps

The next steps I see myself taking in relationship to this thesis involve both the inner and outer journey. My experience of writing this has been like an inquiry, an opening through which insights have poured. It feels almost like a channeling process. I know that if someone asked me to sit down and explain to them in detail the volution theory that it wouldn’t come across very coherent. I need to go back and read what “I” have written carefully and enable it to really resonate with my system as a whole and enter my full being. I know it holds significant implications for my work in the world and those will start to manifest themselves as I enable this concept to drop deeper into my awareness.

Part of that process is also putting it out there in the world for people to engage with, question, deepen and further explore. I will put the final dissertation on the www.volutiontheory.net site where I have been posting latest versions as well as on the Academia platform. I will also be exploring how to make a book of it that would be accessible to a wide readership.

Ultimately I trust that this process I have been through, and will continue to go through, is of service to life as a whole as we become more conscious of our wholeness, uniqueness and our interconnectedness all at the same time.

So be it.