My Big TOE
AWAKENING – DISCOVERY — INNER WORKINGS
A TRILOGY UNIFYING PHILOSOPHY, PHYSICS, AND METAPHYSICS
Thomas Campbell
Book 1 – Awakening – Abridged Version – Part 1
List of Acronyms, and Foreign Words and Phrases Used Within Book — 1
Acronym Descriptive Name
AUM Absolute Unbounded Manifold
AUO Absolute Unbounded Oneness
Big TOE Big Picture Theory Of Everything
NPMR Nonphysical-Matter Reality
PMR Physical-Matter Reality
TOE Theory Of Everything
Foreign Words and Phrases:
gedanken experiment Thought experiment; a logical experiment performed only in the mind.
BOOK 1: AWAKENING
Introduction to Section 2
What we call mystical is relative to the extent of our knowledge and understanding. If some process, phenomena, or conceptualization appears to lie beyond our potential ability to explain it within the context of PMR (physical-matter reality), we describe it as mystical. Much of what was considered mystical a thousand years ago is considered science today and much of what is considered mystical today will be clearly understood by a future science.
As our current accumulated objective knowledge reaches its limits and begins to dissolve into the seemingly unknowable, what lies beyond our presumed theoretical reach is defined as mystical. Such presumptions well up from our beliefs about objective reality; thus, what appears to be mystical or unknowable from the view of Western culture simply reflects Western cultural beliefs and the limited understanding of contemporary science. Consequently, it is a double dose of ignorance (cultural beliefs and limited scientific knowledge) that defines what appears to be beyond our serious consideration. Think about that the next time you roll your eyes and snicker because you universally associate the concept of mystical with ignorance (other people’s, not yours), foolishness, and unscientific blather.
For an individual, the process is more personal. What may be perceived by an individual to be mystical is relative to the individual’s understanding, knowledge, and ignorance. It is our personal beliefs that determine what we consider to be mystical. Whether individuals know little or much about either PMR or NPMR (nonphysical-matter reality), what lies beyond the reach of his or her personal understanding and knowledge may be: 1) interpreted by that individual as mystical, 2) construed by belief to be something that suits the needs of the individual, 3) regarded as a temporary ignorance of something theoretically knowable, or 4) regarded as a permanent ignorance of something theoretically unknowable. An individual’s conclusions regarding what lies beyond his objective reach are necessarily belief-based unless, of course, the conclusion is that there can be no conclusions. Nevertheless, most of us embrace a multitude of both culturally given and personally derived belief-based conclusions with a degree of certainty that only a deep bone-level ignorance could sustain.
Belief is a conclusion based upon a mystical premise. Scientists might believe that what is unknown must be contained within the PMR data-set and follow ordinary objective causality, but that belief or article of faith simply expresses a more accepted form of mysticism. Mysticism that supports our cultural beliefs is accepted as obvious fact. By definition, such a belief necessarily appears to be the most reasonable assumption that a rational person (within that culture) can make. This is how ordinary mysticism expressed as cultural and personal belief is transmuted into an unquestioned philosophical foundation. We see that the objective causality of Western materialism must necessarily spring from a foundation of mystical assumption. Voila! Faith becomes science, or at least an integral part of the scientific attitude.
The results of this illogical transformation continue in chain reaction. Next, science becomes truth — or at least the sole judge of truth — and is given the job of defining reality. Thus, from the Western perspective, the world of ideas and concepts bifurcates, with science and truth on the one hand and philosophy and conjecture on the other. Though science is important because it produces a marvelous array of useful physical products, philosophy is marginalized because it produces nothing but useless arguments. In the final act of this farce, we see that science, unable to overcome the barrier of its ancient, no longer useful, faith-based paradigms, becomes imprisoned by the limitations of its core beliefs. As science struggles with its self-induced myopia, philosophy tries in vain to mimic science’s illusion of objectivity in order to appear relevant. Does this not remind you of some preposterously convoluted French farce?
Seeing the Big Picture requires more than intellectual capacity. It also requires transcending ingrained belief systems. That is something that many people are not willing or able to do — at least not quickly or easily, if at all.
Academic papers provide a media for communicating something of value only if one is working within the accepted cultural and scientific belief systems. Consequently, significant new knowledge is typically generated by meticulously taking countless tiny steps of ever expanding detail toward some specific goal. Digging out details requires a totally different mental process than discovering Big Picture paradigms. Today, almost all scientists remain focused on prying details from a reality exclusively circumscribed by traditional scientific belief. Fact is: You will never be able to see the Big Picture as long as you focus on individual politically correct pixels.
Because My Big TOE must go beyond traditional belief systems to introduce an entirely new understanding of reality, much of this trilogy must necessarily be spent broadening your perspective.
Transcending old paradigms and belief systems is as inherently difficult a process to facilitate as it is to undergo.
The concept that there may be a natural practical limit to the extent of our knowledge — a limit beyond which our perception cannot penetrate — is based upon the notion that we are only a very small part of a much greater reality. This humbling thought runs counter to the significance and self-importance we humans place upon ourselves. If our experience is limited to a small part of a larger reality, it is only reasonable to assume that beyond the limit of our possible knowing there may well exist a host of phenomena, interactions, relationships, and ordered happenings upon which our reality and existence profoundly depends, but of which we cannot directly perceive. Allowing the outside theoretical possibility that our beloved PMR may be a local reality (a subset of something larger) is the first step toward comprehending a bigger picture.
This possibility breaks the conventional paradigm of PMR being all there is and replaces it with a more expansive paradigm that forms a logical superset — the limited little picture concept is fully contained within a more general bigger picture concept. If the larger and more general paradigm provides a better and more concise understanding of the available data as well as produces valuable new knowledge, approaches, and processes, then the more general conceptualization is also a more accurate, productive, and truer representation of the whole. An improved reality paradigm is one that broadens and deepens the available solution space relative to existing data and problems in a way that is practical and useful.
We cannot be aware of what is beyond our awareness. However, we can be open to learning new things, and in the process, expand the scope of our awareness — and therefore our reality — to its outer limits.
open minded skepticism is the only approach that retains the possibility of success
The biggest picture must cover everything — everything objective, everything subjective, everything normal, and everything paranormal. Mind and matter, consciousness and concrete, all the true data and the facts of existence (the personal as well as the scientific) must be accounted for, compatible with, and contained within this single Big TOE — if it is a comprehensive and correct Big TOE.
Trust me, unless you have invested many years of experience in this area, what you are about to read will greatly challenge the elasticity of your mind.
People generally believe that they know almost everything that is knowable, that the final few things to be figured out will constitute small steps compared to the distance already come. For example, scientists toward the end of the nineteenth century often lamented the obvious fact that everything important (in science and technology) had been discovered. Little more than a century later, that claim is laughable. By definition, it is clear that you cannot be aware of what you do not know. Yet, we almost always let our egos trick us into believing that we are much less ignorant than we actually are. It is often said there is nothing as outrageous or strange as the truth. The truth of that statement, clearly demonstrated by modern physics, demands an open minded approach.
Hopefully My Big TOE will stimulate you to consider some important things in an entirely new and beneficial way. Take from it whatever you can. The picture and perspective may be very big and initially the credibility (for those who do not know me) may be very thin, but if you feel your way through it with your intuition as well as think your way through it with your intellect (all the while collecting and applying the data of your experience), it might just make some sense to you.
Appreciating and understanding the Big Picture is always the first step in focusing and directing the effective investment of the resources you have at your command. The point and purpose of this work is to offer an expanded view of reality and of your relationship to that reality that is useful and helpful to you in a direct and practical way. In My Big TOE, you will find a reality model that provides a unique perspective which can be profitably applied to your professional and personal life.
If My Big TOE entices those who are open minded and intrepid explorers to explore the far reaches of their reality on their own, I would be delighted. To be optimally effective, my discovery must lead to your discovery. I must not only help you to objectively understand the nature of your reality, but must also help you discover it in personal terms. In the end, if these books have no effect other than to cause you to reassess your beliefs, concepts, knowledge, and attitudes, regardless of what the outcome of that assessment is, my effort will have been worthwhile. Have at it. Good luck on your journey — may you find value of lasting significance.
Section 2
Mysticism Demystified: The Foundations of Reality
Our beginnings appear mystical to us because of the limitations of our logic and because of the limitations that our belief-based perspectives impose upon our minds. If you raise science, as well as your vision and understanding, to the next higher level of causality — to the super system that contains PMR as a subsystem — the ever-present mysticism will recede to the outer edges of your newly acquired knowledge.
If your picture (worldview or understanding of reality) is significantly bigger than your neighbor’s picture, your neighbor may see you as a mystic. Indeed, you will always appear to be a mystic from a viewpoint that is greatly limited in its understanding regardless of how rational, complete, or scientific your understanding is. A mystic appears to be animated by unknowable interactions that lie beyond rational understanding. Perhaps your dog thinks that you are a powerful irrational mystic. If your neighbor also finds you to be a particularly good, loving, wise, productive, successful, and capable person, he should try to understand what you seem to understand. If, on the other hand, you appear arrogant, condescending, manipulating, or begin proselytizing and asking for donations, he would do well to keep his door locked and avoid you. The quality of your being expresses the correctness of your understanding. Think about that a moment. What does the quality of your being say about the correctness of your understanding?