18 The Holographic Universe

Consciousness exists in many phases and forms, and each of these has built its proper substantial vehicles, however not (only) of physical matter – but of different phases of the root of all matter – mūlaprakṛiti – which is in its essence and origin not different from life and consciousness.

Nowadays modern science knows that particles are mere appearances, not realities on their own behalf. They are focal points of interfering energies; and from an occult point of view all these energies are but spectra of the One Life-Consciousness-Substance. One could perhaps imagine the consciousness-substance complexes a ‘hologram’, which as long as it exists is eternally moving and changing and applies to all types of vibrations or waves in all phases of substance in the universe of which mind, feeling, brain, spiritual intuition, wisdom and knowledge are some of the diverse aspects. The hologram is one, universal. There is no second for our universe. However that does not imply that the focal points within that hologram are exclusively dependent our perception. It is difficult to decide whether there is any place in the universe where there is no perception present. Perception always takes place through a perceptive organ (direct or via a technical extension), and such an organ always belongs to a conscious being, directing itself towards a focal point.

We indeed are that hologram, and our focal points, called egos. We have several egos, hierarchically positioned. The various egos or centers of consciousness we can call ‘spiritual’, ‘mental’, ‘animal’, ‘personal’, ‘astral’, either of a higher, almost divine nature, down to the basest beastly passionate centers of consciousness or points of focus. They are projections from and in that same hologram. Consciousness is not merely in the brain or in any creature’s ego, but is universal, and experiences, whether perceived by our personal focal point of consciousness or not, are just interferences.

Another fundamental teaching of Theosophy and (undogmatized) ancient (occult) systems of thought is that everything is in motion and is changing. Everything moves and within motion accelerates or decelerates. The Buddha laid great emphasis on the anātma (anattā) doctrine, saying the there is no unchanging Self or soul or consciousness of any being in the universe. We all, all our centers of consciousness, our high and low egos form a ‘web’ wherein every knot is connected directly with every other knot, within its own and within all other dimensions. Thus, one thought of us at this very moment reverberates in the remotest star (as well as in the closest atom), and vice versa, between all living beings. Only within the experience of time the direction of cause and effect is unilateral.

Is there a causal relation between consciousness and the composition of material structures resulting in complexity? And if so is the direction of cause and effect unilateral or reciprocal?

Causality is in occultism expressed as karma (using different terms of course) – an absolute, consciousness-connected and universal tendency or working or natural law. Karma is complex, and connects everything with everything (to use a common expression, because no ‘thing’ in the universe ever has an existence on its own behalf) because it plays in all phases of consciousness up to and beyond the divine. Every action (including mental and emotional inner action) of every living being (soul) involves consciousness, life and substance and leads to its proper and just1 result. It is due to karma that eternal change and diversity exist in the universe, and it applies to the tiniest indivisible conscious or ‘consciousness atom’, to forces in Nature’s forces, to Mind and Intellect as well to highest divinity in the visible and invisible cycles of existence.

This implies that from a religio-philosophical point of view theories in which concepts like ‘absolute chance’ and ‘absolute unpredictability’ and ‘probability’ are presupposed, have no real, ultimate value. Such concepts merely express our present ignorance about deeper levels of causalistic order. It is rather an absurdity; because when the link between cause and effect would be interrupted or collapsed, ‘good’ can turn into ‘bad’ and nothing can be predicted. Such a system, at least in some interpretations would lead (and has led already) to regarding the universe as a unpredictable and lawless mixture of matter – except on the macrocosmic level of the laws of predominance of the known physical forces. In my view, any system that tries to explain the existence of consciousness, life as an emergent product of physical matter instead of a phenomenon working through matter will fail. It is a waste of time. Karma, connecting all layers of the universe, seems to be the only explanation for order and logical causality in the universe, and for the existence of the intuitive fact of justice.