I am you

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I am you; how would you like being me?

This sure doesn't make sense, but what in the universe does?

A huge part of our life is nothing but a trivial act of making sense. Sense of things we don't understand, of phenomenon we fear and of reasons of existence. It is when we question our very own purpose of existence that we realize that not all questions may have answers and not all answers are absolute. This is to say that answers lead to greater questions and this comes back a full circle. However, we can still try to make sense of certain things. Curiosity, after all, is probably what got our species to where it is.

Humans have long since asked the purpose of life and their place in this universe. Silly that we are, we still can't fully understand what "life" really is. In our pursuit of making sense of everything around, we missed out on what is within. Making sense of "making sense", in other words, "consciousness". Consciousness is defined as a state or quality of awareness, or, of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. Simply put, consciousness is a state of experience. Experience of self and otherwise. But where does this quality of "experiencing" come from?

In recent years, many bright minds have taken it on themselves to answer one of humanities greatest questions. "What is consciousness?", "What causes it?" and "How do we know if something is conscious?".
Yes, we have learned a lot about how different conscious states of mind correspond to different brain activity; No, we still have no idea what causes it. This objective approach is only a science of co-relation and not that of explanation. One hypothesis is that consciousness is nothing but the level of information integration in a system. Knowing that everything in the universe is made of information, it goes to say that even particles have a certain level of consciousness (though low). In this model, robots are conscious, your T.V is conscious and so is that beam of light on which you pulled that shade.

This, though being one of the leading theories in the scientific community, just doesn't feel right and there is a reason to it. Science by its very nature is objective and using objective measures to explain a concept that is purely subjective is like having an opinion on the internet; you can do/have it, but it doesn't solve the core problem.

Now the core problem is to answer questions like "what causes someone to experience self and what we may call outside self?" and "What is this film that plays in our minds consisting visuals, sound, smell, touch, thoughts, dreams, emotions, etc?". To get around the problem, we may need somewhat a metaphysical approach. This might not answer all the questions yet, but sure gives us some extraordinary insights into the universe.
Consider this, consciousness is a stream of information with an unknown origin and the brain is simply receiving or processing this information. Think of it this way; Our brain is like a radio that is tuned into a particular channel with a fixed frequency. This frequency is what we may call our everyday reality.
This can be easily confused with the concept of a simulated universe (Like the movie 'Matrix') but it is not. Do we live in a simulation?, That is a topic for another time.

In an attempt to break down the conscious stream hypothesis, let me tell you my model of what consciousness is to me. Consciousness is a single entity. An entity which exists across space and time. Every conscious being is a different instance of the same entity. What this entity might be, is beyond comprehension. When your brain is tuned into a certain frequency you experience objective reality but it can very well be tuned to other frequencies. Frequencies that change your reality.

One of the known ways of tuning into other frequencies may be psychedelics. Psychedelics, as we know induce altered states of mind and these altered states correspond to different realities. The ancients used it as a means to communicate to higher beings. Looking into the trip reports of people all around the world, you can surely draw a pattern within their hallucinations. Say on a DMT breakthrough; almost always the person reports contact with what one may call "DMT beings". Descriptions of these beings from totally unrelated people are shockingly similar. It seems that these psychoactive substances slightly change the reception frequency much like the turn on the knob of a radio. Different altered states are different channels of the radio. Psilocybin trip is a channel and so might be someone suffering from schizophrenia. Astral projection could also be an alternate reality. Descriptions of the astral plane are again very similar. Attaining Nirvana could also be explained by this theory and so can other unexplained phenomenons. Take for instance the unexplained circumstance of people acquiring abilities post a head injury/trauma. Cases where people could play instruments they have never learnt and speak in tongues they have never heard. How can one's brain be equipped with new information past a trauma? The chances of random rewiring of neurons resulting in extra-ordinary skills is pretty remote. The theory could make sense or sound completely stupid depending on what your model/definition of reality is.

Now, when I say consciousness is a single entity and every conscious being is a different instance of the same, I say so with no tangible evidence. But neither does any other theories out there. This is only a model that comes to 'my' mind when 'I' think of the topic. The idea though stems from an interesting postulate put forth by John Wheeler over a telephone call in the spring of 1940. It came to be known as the "One Electron Universe" theory which essentially states that every electron in the universe is just the one electron traveling back and forth in time. This was postulated to explain why every electron is identical and the only problem with the theory is that it can neither be proved nor disproved. It also brings in a solid explanation to a phenomenon nicknamed "spooky action at a distance" by Sir Albert Einstein.

If the One Electron Universe theory is to be true, it implies that every electron in every atom in every object is the one same electron. Everything is one (bet I've heard that somewhere).
I often feel the universe favors Zeros(0), Ones(1) and Infinity much like our latest quantum computers using qubits (0, 1 and both), almost makes you suspect something funny. Also, did I mention humans happen to be made of mass which in turn is made of atoms containing "electrons"?
Knowing this information one could possibly feel connected to everything around. Maybe have a different perspective to the world, or feel motivated to explore the mystery of a conscious mind. I for one would write a blog about it with an opening line that would now make sense.