INNER DUALITY
A something becomes a real something whenever it is raised above the level of nothingness by duality. A something is a real something when it becomes an object of consciousness. Reality can not exist outside of duality because consciousness is that necessary power that raises whatever it causes to be real above the level of nothingness in order to make it useful.
There are really only two possible powers in any universe; that of duality and that of nothingness. The laws of physics, the supposed laws of evolution, and mathematics, possess no powers within themselves to raise themselves above the level of nothingness in a consciousless universe. Such laws can only be useful to consciousness. Duality is the power of creativity, and nothingness is the power of negation.
A person who asserts that he can imagine a consciousless universe which possesses a reality separate from duality, forgets that he has already created this universe in his imagination, thus providing it with an inner duality that, at least, lends it a fictional reality. A truly consciousless universe is impossible to imagine and this fact is precisely the point. If a consciousless universe can not be imagined, then that same impossibility would mean that it could never evolve its own imagination. Duality is necessary for the existence of reality.
For these reasons, the world of inner duality is as necessarily real as is that of outer duality. Ideas, thoughts, and feelings are raised above the level of nothingness in inner duality, just as are objects in outer duality.
Creativity in imagination is just as real as is creativity in action. All ideas, thoughts, and feelings are useful and real to some degree. They simply must be put into correct combinations. This constitutes much of the processes of inner duality. Incorrect combinations are wholly or partly useless because of the negative effects of nothingness.
Thus, a structure of reality exists in inner duality just as it does in outer duality. Many powers of the mind are known in inner duality as certainly as objects are known in outer duality. Thus, such words as: "imagination", "intuition", "belief", "will", "ability", "memory", "recognition" and many others, denote not only ways of being conscious, but are names of certain powers of the mind of which one can be conscious. The fact that these powers can be named is proof enough that one can be conscious of them.
Powers of mind and feelings that are felt but have not been named because of their faintness to consciousness, are also real but less useful. Named feelings and ideas are easily added to, or subtracted from, combinations by the creative imagination. Thus, the ideas of the powers of the mind prove to be useful in the creative processes of inner duality, including the idea of "imagination" itself. In this way, the structure of inner reality proves to be just as real as does the structure of outer duality.
Since inner duality is just as real as outer duality, then experience is not limited to sense experience. Ideas and feelings are more than nothing in the mind, as are sensations. The major differences are that many ideas and feelings are not derived from sensory experience, and ideas and feelings are separated in time and not in space.
Many ideas are abstracted from sensory experience, but many others are either directly given to the mind or are names for the powers of the mind. Many universal ideas are abstracted from sense experience such as: "extension", "roundness", "solidity", and "color". Other universal ideas are directly given to the mind such as: "love", "beauty", "truth", and "hate". Then, there are the ideas of the powers of the mind itself.
The given ideas are not innate. They are given to particular minds at appropriate times and in accordance with the inherited, or acquired, potentiality of an individual mind to receive them. They come directly to the mind from the infinite.
For example, a certain individual may have little sense of beauty because his mind has inherited from his genes merely a small ability to enjoy beauty. Another person of this type may possess a highly developed sense of beauty because he has chosen to develop it. As he exposes himself to more beauty, he acquires an ever deeper appreciation of it as it is given from the infinite. Another person who possesses great talent to enjoy beauty may not appreciate it because he chooses to ignore his talent. This same process is true of all given ideas. In other words, the set of simple true ideas given to the mind are different for each individual according to his talents, liberties, and interests.
The given ideas can not have been derived from sensory experience. Systems seldom do more than they were designed to do. The sensory system was solely designed to relate a person to the world for the purposes of acquiring basic needs for the life of the body and for safety. Creativity goes far beyond this process. Creativity involves an interrelatedness of knowledge of given ideas, powers of mind, and sensory experience.
Consider for example. A small boy stands on a short, wooden pier that juts into a small lagoon almost entirely enclosed by thick trees and underbrush. A tinny channel opens to a gleaming, white beach and vast ocean on the opposite end of the green lagoon. The boy has just walked onto the pier, and this is the first time in his life that he has experienced such a scene.
His first impression is merely that of the water, the colors, and the shapes. But then, as he takes in the totality of the scene; the stillness of the cool water of the lagoon and the coziness of the mass of greenery coupled with the vastness of the blue ocean and the whitecaps crashing onto the brilliant beach beyond, he suddenly becomes aware of something quite new. A feeling has been added to him.
Suddenly, he becomes overwhelmed by the awesomeness and beauty of the encompassing scene before him. He realizes that these transcendent feelings have been added to him and not to the aspects of the scene itself. He realizes that his inner feeling of beauty is as real as the scene itself. At first, he noticed merely the sensory impressions, the mere aspects of the scene. Then a split second later, he felt those senses of awe and beauty that were added to him. From where did these senses of awe and beauty come?
Sensory experience conveys mere aspects. Transcendent ideas and feelings are added to consciousness when needed and according to the ability of a particular mind to receive them. Therefore, there are two types of experience for humans; that is, outer duality and inner duality which are interrelated.
Given ideas and feelings are impressions on the mind as surely as are sense impressions. Transcendent ideas and feelings are simply different types of experiences than are sense experiences. Whatever becomes impressed on a mind, whether forceful or faint, is an experience. Consciousness of the powers of the mind demonstrates the ability of the mind to experience aspects of itself. At times, inner experiences can be more forceful than outer experiences.
All simple ideas are necessarily real. Therefore, ideas, sensory experiences, feelings, and powers of the mind are merely different simple true ideas that name different kinds of experiences.
Finite minds never create new simple true ideas. Finite minds can merely discover and give names to objects, feelings, powers of mind, and ideas not previously known or only faintly known.
Finite minds can create true and false systems of true ideas but not the ideas themselves. True combinations prove their truthfulness by their usefulness. False combinations prove their falsity by their uselessness to the extent that they effect nothing.
However, finite minds can neither create nor destroy a single simple true idea from its infinite atomic structure that is given. Finite minds can know but merely a small part of the infinite set of simple true ideas that are eternal.
Those who suppose that they can create new ideas should examine the historical process. In history, they will discover that single new ideas are not created, but that systems are constantly invented to discover or make better use of single true ideas already in real or potential existence. Thus, systems were invented to discover atoms that were already there in potential existence. The Wright brothers invented a flying machine but flying itself was already real. Systems of law have been invented that proscribe certain actions that were already real. Man can create systems of ideas but not the ideas themselves. Those are eternal.
The fact that finite minds can neither create nor destroy simple true ideas becomes an argument for the fact that transcendent ideas and feelings can not be derived from sensory experience. Ideas derived from sensory experience are limited to sensations. Therefore, transcendent ideas, already in existence, must be given to finite minds.
Healthy finite minds are born pre-tuned to receive the simple true ideas either as given or as derived from sensations. The ability to have sensations can be given or withheld. One can be born deaf or blind. Should one’s ability to hear or see be restored by an operation or other means, we say that he has been given back his sight or hearing.
To say that one has a right or wrong idea is standard usage. Actually, one can never have a wrong idea except as a product of a false combination. Wrong ideas, by themselves, simply have no real or potential existence. Right ideas have real or potential existence which can be given to, or discovered by, finite minds.
That simple true ideas can neither be created nor destroyed is a fact derived from inductive reasoning. Every true idea in history has been either given or discovered. Every true and false combination has been a combination of simple true ideas. In some mysterious way, nothingness adheres to certain combinations of simple true ideas causing the combination, but not the ideas themselves, to be false.
Certain logical positivists assert that any sentence that is not about matters of fact, meaning verified by sense experience, is meaningless. A sentence can be meaningless if it consists of a combination of simple true ideas to which a certain amount of nothingness adheres. Ordinarily however, the meanings of sentences adhere to the simple true ideas that compose them. In everyday conversations we use many words that have no relation to sense experience such as: "believe", "think", "beautiful", "remember", or "substance", and yet, we all seem to be able to understand each other quite well. This can only be possible because we all possess, to some degree, an experiential knowledge of at least a part of the atomic structure of simple true ideas.
The fact that simple true ideas are given does not mean that finite minds do not have to work. Finite minds must exert effort to discover potential true ideas, to combine them into true combinations, and to test existing combinations to find any possible falsity within them. This is the process of history. Those who fail to exert their minds are called ignorant or shallow. Those who continually exert their minds are called learned and wise.
Consider the artist called a painter. The painter creates, with color and form, a scene that objectifies feelings that he can not describe in words. He hopes that if he succeeds in his creation he will evoke within the viewer glimpses of those same feelings. Now, even feelings which can not be named or described are simple true impressions. If, when the viewer sees the painting, he notices faint feelings he has never felt before, then he may judge the painting to be a good work of art, by which he really means that it is a true combination because of its effectiveness in bringing out hidden feelings within him.
That which is true of one viewer will often be true of others, and so a painting that successfully evokes hidden feelings will sometimes attain great value as a work of art. In this way, works of art often expand the simple impressions, and by extension the knowledge, of simple true ideas for all who participate in art’s creation and appreciation. This process also explains why those who possess the most experience as to what works of art best evoke hidden feelings, are often those consulted as to what are the best works of art.
A set of simple true ideas that reveal much about how consciousness relates to its set of simple true ideas is the use of the negative in such words as: "no", "not", "nothing", "never", and similar words. These words denote the idea of nothing to consciousness. Note that neither the idea of nothing nor the idea of the infinite can have been derived from sense experience.
What does one mean when one says that something is "not conceivable" or "not answerable" or "not considered"? The idea of nothing is useful to consciousness only in relation to other simple true ideas. When there exists no consciousness of simple true ideas, then nonconsciousness, which equals absolute nothingness, obtains. Absolute nothingness expunges duality, and therefore, reality. If no duality were to exist, then all potential objects and all potential consciousnesses would be equal to absolute nothingness. In such a case, the power of absolute nothingness would continuously prevail, making reality impossible. For these reasons, duality had been given the idea of nothingness to override absolute nothingness in order to establish reality.
What one means by "not conceivable" or "not answerable" or "not considered" is not that these simple true ideas are negated by the idea of nothingness. The idea of nothingness never negates simple true ideas. Simple true ideas can be expunged only if duality itself is expunged.
When one asserts that "conceive" or "answer" or "consider" is not, he simply means that these simple true ideas are temporarily hidden in the simple true idea of nothing. One means that these ideas are not included in whatever combination or relation of ideas that he is considering at the moment. One means that he is not concentrating on those ideas that he says are not.
What does one mean when he says that "something is nothing". If he refers to a false combination such as a "mermaid", he means that it is non-existent in the world. However, if he refers to a simple true idea such as a "feeling" that he has at some time felt, then he can not expunge the fact that he had this "feeling" by calling it nothing. By calling it nothing, he means that at that moment he does not consider it. He attempts to hide his "feeling" behind the idea of nothingness. He attempts to reverse the process by which his consciousness separates simple true ideas from nothing by considering his "feeling" to be inseparable from nothing.
Note that when one says that a "mermaid" does not exist, he does not refer directly to absolute nothingness. One refers to a false combination which he then hides in the idea of nothingness. This falsity equates with the idea of nothingness which substitutes for absolute nothingness.
Absolute nothingness can never be directly referred to. Potential reality can be known only to the extent that it affects duality, which effect can be very slight. However, where there is no duality, absolute nothingness equates with non-consciousness.
For this reason, any universe devoid of duality is a consciousless universe that lacks that necessary determiner that alone can make it real. Thus duality is revealed as the only power in the universe that can bring reality out of nothingness or hide reality in the idea of nothingness. Only duality can overcome absolute nothingness in order to create reality.
In order to refer indirectly to absolute nothingness one must first from a false combination and then hide one’s consciousness of it in the idea of nothingness. In this way, one may, perhaps, catch a glimpse of non-existence. Ideas or objects that are completely unknown to an unknower can not be known to be either existent or non-existent. This means that if anything exists independent of being an object to duality, then there can be no difference between its existence and its non-existence. When existence equals non-existence, this is absolute nothingness.
The negative effects of absolute nothingness can be indirectly observed in the use of double negatives. For instance, what is meant by such a phrase as "not inconceivable"? One simply means that one simple true idea of nothingness is used to hide another idea of nothingness causing the useful idea "conceive" to appear. Only duality can use nothingness in order to cause something to appear. Otherwise, not only the idea "conceive", but all other ideas and objects constantly remain swallowed by, equal to, and wasted on, absolute nothingness.
What is meant by such a phrase as "is nothing but"? Consider the phrase: "The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth". This phrase means that all ideas which might interfere with one’s telling the truth are to be hidden in the idea of nothingness so that only the truth will come out.
The idea of nothingness is useful to duality in many ways. Nothingness is useful as a tool to improve concentration. When one is closely concentrating on some task, one often hides his environment in nothingness in order to concentrate better. In ones’ field of vision, one may notice that one has a point of highest concentration, and that whatever lies toward the corners of the eyes is but vaguely seen. Ones peripheral vision partly hides the vaguely seen in nothingness in order to aid the concentration of directed vision.
While the idea of nothingness is useful to duality, absolute nothingness can not be an idea, since one can have no idea of it. For this reason, in duality, the idea of nothingness is always substituted for absolute nothingness.
Absolute nothingness can never be directly experienced. The mind of a person in a coma experiences nothing, and not even nothing. Coma is as close as one can come to experiencing absolute nothingness.
In coma, a person protects himself from continuous trauma by reducing his duality toward absolute nothingness except for a somatic consciousness of breathing and heartbeat. One makes everything unknown and duality disappears. Reality disappears. In this state, energy needed to operate duality is redirected toward rest and healing which processes are hidden in the idea of nothingness.
Consciousness can become weary just as muscles can. When this occurs, duality is suspended and consciousness takes rest in sleep.
When dreaming, one creates an inner fantasy world in which anything can happen. Consciousness runs free in an unconcentrated manner, and in this way, many false and true combinations are created. Many useful combinations of ideas have come from dreams.
Here a good question arises. If one is, to a certain extent, withdrawn from reality when in coma or asleep. Would one be killed by a real or potentially real bullet? The answer is that the bullet can be real only to the extent that it affects duality. A person in coma can not know that the bullet in the gun is real but the person who loaded it does know it. If one keeps in mind that he should not confuse what the loader knows with what the person in a coma knows, he can understand that to the one in a coma, the bullet in the gun is neither existent nor non-existent. As long as it does not affect the person in a coma, the bullet’s existence remains equal to its non-existence. If the bullet should be fired into the brain of the one in a coma, then the bullet would become real only to the extent that it stopped his somatic heartbeat and breathing. In such a case, the reality of the bullet would be exactly equal to the stoppage of somatic heartbeat and breathing.
What happens to reality in cases of amnesia or multiple personality disorder? Such are the powers of the idea of nothingness, that some persons can actually hide their past lives or even whole personalities within their ideas of nothingness for reasons such as avoidance of pain or brain injury.
A neurotic person hides past trauma in the idea of nothingness in an attempt to avoid constant misery. However, even though hidden, the pain manifests itself in other ways such as depression or aberrant behavior. When used in this way, the idea of nothingness becomes the subconscious mind.
This is the idea of nothingness as the operant unconscious mind. The unconscious mind forgets nothing. Constantly, the unconscious mind works on solving problems. The unconscious mind possesses far greater powers than does the conscious mind. Certain idiot savants can unconsciously compute huge numbers faster than can a computer. Great discoveries have come from dreams or from a sudden intuitive insight. As will be shown later in this philosophy, the great powers of the unconscious mind demonstrates a direct connection of the conscious mind to an Infinite Mind.
Kant attempted to unite empiricism and rationalism by adding the forms of intuition and the categories of understanding. However, he failed to realize that reality constitutes every single experience in inner and outer duality no matter how faint it may be. He also failed to realize that if the thing-in-itself can not be known, its existence or non-existence matters not a whit to reality.
Further, he also failed to realize that negation comes in two forms. The first is absolute nothingness which is equal to nonconsciousness. In nonconsciousness, no idea or object can be raised above the level of nothingness or separated by the idea of nothingness. All objects, ideas, laws of nature, events, and causes and effects, bleed into each other and become equal to absolute nothingness. The noumenon is not real and does not matter in the least. That which matters can only matter to duality.
The second form of negation is the idea of nothingness which manifests itself in outer form as space-time being the moving revelation of the present. The idea of nothingness in inner duality is that which separates ideas and feelings in time only. The idea of nothingness also limits the past to separate memories and the future to separate possibilities.
Space-time in outer form makes sensory experience possible. Time in inner form makes combinations and memory possible. The idea of nothingness separates objects, ideas, and moments of time. The idea of nothingness in mathematics is the simple true idea called zero. The idea of space is a simple, given experience; that is, a simple true idea. The idea of time is a simple given experience; that is, a simple true idea.
In the absence of experience, including the idea of nothingness, nonconsciousness prevails. Nonconsciousness equals absolute nothingness. Under such conditions, space-time collapses into potential reality. Space can not separate anything. Time can not be divided into past, present, and future. This is the necessary job of duality in inner and outer experience. Thus, a consciousless universe can merely possess a condition similar to that of a virtual particle; that is, its existence remains constantly equal to its non-existence. Space and time can attain real existence solely as objects in duality that creates the present.
One may object that he can imagine a consciousless universe as having time and space, but as soon as he imagines it, he has arrived too late. His imagination has already raised this universe to a present fictional reality. Of course, he lacks the power to give it outer reality, but he must use the two simple true ideas "space" and "time" in order to be able to imagine it. This makes the imagination of a consciousless universe impossible because as soon as one imagines it, it becomes no longer consciousless.
"Space" and "time" are necessary simple true ideas in duality. These are universal simple true ideas because they must apply as space-time in outer duality and as time alone in inner duality.
There are other general simple true ideas. These are the rules by which duality orders the world and itself. Most of them are given to inner experience. Many of them are not derived from sense experience, but are geared to sense experience. Duality’s consciousness of its powers of mind fall into this category. They are given to the mind, just as is sense experience, but they do not develop properly except in relation to sense experience. Duality is so constituted, that inner duality must be properly geared to outer duality in order for all simple true ideas to develop properly.
Some of the general simple true ideas are "substance," "causality," "create," "ability," "beauty", "roundness," and many others. The fact that one may have but one idea about a particular object or idea; for example, a "something" or a "substance" does not make these ideas unreal. That an object or an idea has "substance" constitutes an inner experience that is as real as any outer experience. The fact that one may not be able to define exactly what "substance" means does not make it any less real. Perhaps "substance" is a general term for all simple true ideas.
Everyone has had the experience of hearing a joke and laughing because it was "funny." Yet, when one thinks about it, he realizes that he is baffled as to why the joke was "funny." One possible explanation is that humor often touches a host of simple true feelings that lie at the borders of finite duality in inner experience similar to the way that sub-atomic particles lie at the borders of outer experience. Because of this, the mind can barely feel them and yet, these fleeting feelings influence the mind just enough to make a joke "funny" for inexplicable reasons. In any event, if a joke is "funny", then that is a reality whether explainable or not.
"Causality" is a general simple true ideas that perhaps pertains to all cause and effects relationships. "Judgements" (another general simple true idea) about particular cause and effect events may be true or false combinations; but, as always, the simple true ideas that compose such combinations are real.
For example, a forest ranger may observe a "smoky" "cloud" on the horizon and report a "forest" "fire". Later, his judgement was found to be a false combination because there was no "fire." The "smoky" "cloud" was merely that. That the forest ranger made a false judgment which was a false combination in no way diminishes the fact that the true simple ideas "smoky," "cloud" and "fire" are themselves real. The first two were real in outer duality. The last one was real in inner duality. The nothingness in the false judgment is that which was unreal; that is, not the idea of nothingness but absolute nothingness for which the idea of nothingness substitutes. Thus appearances are always real in their simplest forms, but true and false judgments can be, and are often, made.
"Roundness" is another general simple true idea. In sensory experience, a round object can be immediately seen or felt to be "round," this is a simple true experience in outer duality. In inner duality, "roundness" is an abstract idea. Whether "roundness" has been given to duality or whether duality has been given the ability to abstract this idea from sensory experience is an unimportant question. The important point is that round objects and "roundness" are both real, both being simple true ideas in outer and inner duality.
"Reality" is a general simple true idea that applies to all experiences in inner and outer duality. There is no other "reality". That law or power that can cause duality to emerge from a consciousless universe should be discoverable and should be describable in mathematical terms as is the theory of relativity. "Accident," being neither a law nor a power, simply can not get the job done. In fact, "accident" is a simple true idea that denotes the destructive effects of certain kinds of false combinations.
"Falsity" is a general simple true idea that applies to the useless effects of all incorrect combinations. "Falsity" arises because of the weaknesses and limitations of finite duality as capable of knowing or discovering merely a fraction of these simple true ideas. In weak, finite minds, absolute nothingness can hide behind the idea of nothing, thus causing false combinations. All forms of "falsity" equal the destructive effects of absolute nothingness. Thus all systems of ideas in science, technology, politics, religion, art, mathematics, or any other system containing some degree of ineffectiveness, are, to the extent that they are ineffective, productive of "nothing" useful.
Absolute nothingness negates the usefulness of all potential experiences that do not have a direct effect upon duality. Anything which could affect duality but which does not, possesses a potential existence to the extent that it might affect duality, but is equal to absolute nothingness to the extent that it might not affect duality.
"Reality" remains always equal to that which is known or experienced by duality. Thus, duality is at constant war with absolute nothingness when duality attempts to expand its reality.
To aid itself in this struggle, duality transforms absolute nothingness into the idea of nothingness in order to make it useful. Space, in outer duality, and the mathematical zero, in inner duality, are two such uses. Despite this, absolute nothingness often hides behind the idea of nothingness within false combinations. When this happens, duality encounters sin, inefficiency, superstition, ignorance, uselessness, and even errors in arithmetic, to name a few effects.
Reality adheres to experience which is more than nothing and useful. Unreality adheres to non-experience which is equal to nothingness and useless. Thus the "substance" of a table; that is, the simple true ideas that the table comprises, are carried away within the dualities of those who leave the table when they leave the room. If all these dualities should completely forget the table and it should never be observed again, then the table in the room collapses to a potential existence which is equal to absolute nothingness. When the table is remembered or once again observed, duality raises it above potential existence again to real existence. Of what use is a completely forgotten and unobserved table? It is useless. It is equal to nothingness.
"Appearance" is the same as reality that comprises simple true ideas and true combinations. Unreality never appears because it adheres to the idea of nothingness that hides absolute nothingness inherent in all false combinations. Yet, false combinations always comprise simple true ideas. Therefore, "appearance" is always real.
For example, a mailman who happens to be new to a particular route, encounters a barking dog. He assumes that the "barking" "dog" is "ferocious" so he kicks at it. The owner emerges from the house and assures the mailman that the dog’s bark is worse than its bite; that is, that the dog is "not" "ferocious". The simple true ideas used in both combinations are real. However, because of his ignorance of the dog, the mailman assumes a false combination; that is, that the "barking’ "dog" is "ferocious." The owner, having a better knowledge of the dog, assures the mailman of the true combination; that is: This "barking" "dog" is "not" "ferocious." "Ferocity" is not false, being a simple true idea. The "falsity" is in the mistaken application of the idea "ferocious" to the "barking" "dog." This "falsity" does not appear, being an absolute nothingness inherent in the mailman’s false combination. The owner uses the idea of nothingness in the simple true idea "not" to hide the simple true idea "ferocious." In this way, the owner uses the idea of nothingness to negate the absolute nothingness inherent in the mailman’s false combination, thus revealing the true combination; that is: The "barking" "dog" is "not" "ferocious."
The mailman assumed a false combination because of his ignorance. The owner corrected it because of his greater knowledge. This example constitutes a simple illustration of the process of history. In the past, ignorance caused many more false combinations, but as history has proceeded toward greater knowledge, falsity has tended to be eliminated as more true combinations have been created and discovered. Other false combinations caused by superstition, inefficiency, lethargy, and simply the weakness of finite minds that make mistakes such as errors in arithmetic, continue to persist, as does ignorance. Those false combinations called "sin," persist unchanged since the beginning of the human race.
Consider another example. A Siberian has seen nothing in his life but white swans on the ponds in his area. One day he observes a black swan. He is startled, but upon closer examination to make sure that the black swan has not been dyed black he is forced to conclude that black swans are rare but real. However, this event does not deter him from his conviction that green swans are not real because neither he nor anyone he knows has ever seen one. For him, green swans remain equal to absolute nothingness, but black swans are now real. Green swans will probably always remain a false combination because they, unlike black swans, possess no potential existence. Before being observed by the Siberian, black swans had potential existence for him. The Siberian can still assume, as do we all, that if green swans exist, they exist for unnatural reasons such as green dye. These green swans are merely false combinations. Nevertheless, the simple true ideas composing all of these combinations are real; that is, "white," "black," "green," and "swan."
Consider another example. Most people consider sensory objects to be real, but they consider abstract ideas to be unreal. However, abstract ideas cause impressions on minds as surely as do sensory objects. The substance of an abstract idea is its objectivity, its more than nothingness to inner consciousness. A number is as real as an abstract idea, as it is as an observed measurement of a sensory quantity. Many true and useful combinations have involved the use of abstract ideas. Proving an abstract mathematical theorem is one such use.
Undiscovered objects and ideas possess a potential reality, but remain equal to nothing until discovered. Until powerful telescopes discovered galaxies outside our own, such galaxies remained equal to nothing. If telescopes had never been invented, galaxies would always be equal to nothing. When new abstract ideas such as numbers were discovered, they became more than nothing and therefore real. The fact that abstract ideas have no "solidity" makes no difference whatsoever to their reality. Duality makes abstract ideas real by causing them to be more than nothing. Duality is that necessary power that transcends nothingness and causes reality.
Simple false ideas never have real or potential existence because they are never "there" to be discovered. They can only be created as products of false combinations. In 1887, the aether that was supposed to fill space was discovered to be nonexistent. Nowadays, the idea of "aether" is just another word for nothing.
Consider another example. A scientist sits at a table and notices that is has "solidity," "shape," and "color." He then places an extremely powerful microscope on the table through which he observes its sub-atomic particles. He observes "neutrons," "protons," "electrons," "gluons" and "space." Now, he sees the reality of the table differently. Which view is the true reality of the table?
The answer is that the table has two levels of reality. At the macroscopic level, the simple true ideas are "solidity," "shape" and "color." At the microscopic level, the simple true ideas are "protons," "electrons," and "space." The simple true ideas at each level do not diminish each other. Before the sub-atomic reality was discovered, its simple true idea; that is, the particles, had only potential existence. The undiscovered particles did have reality at the macroscopic level, but their reality was limited to their effects at that level; that is, "solidity," "shape," and "color." After discovery, the sub-atomic particles attained real existence in their own right.
No false particles can be discovered at the microscopic level. Always, false particles can be merely products of false theories about the sub-atomic level. In other words, false particles never have potential existence. Therefore, only the real can be discovered.
Appearance is always reality. Unreality never appears, and yet, somehow, it is always "there" hiding behind the idea of nothingness inherent in all false combinations. Yet, absolute nothingness, which is the same as unreality, is never really "there" at any time or place.
In fact, one can observe nothing except the real. For example, from a great distance a square lighthouse may appear to be round. The weakness of the mind of the observer plus the excessive distance cause a false combination in the observer called an optical illusion. Yet, all that he observes, including the "roundness," is real in its own right. If he walks closer to the lighthouse, he will see that it is "square" and "not" "round." He hides the simple true idea "round," as it applies to the lighthouse, in the idea of nothingness when the true combination appears. At all times, all that he observes is real including the idea of nothingness in inner duality, but the absolute nothingness inherent in the optical illusion never appears.
The entire history of mankind has been a process whereby absolute nothingness is being constantly eliminated from false combinations so that true combinations may appear. Yet, at all times, only reality can be observed in inner and outer duality. The only exception to this process is in the spiritual realm where man needs a revelation from God to be able to discern truth from falsity.
Up to this point, sensory experiences, feelings, and impressions have been posited as ideas. Actually, sensory experiences, feelings, and impressions are immediate to duality whether named or not. Ideas are always names; that is, ideas belong to language. Ideas are the names of sensory experiences, feelings, and impressions. Ideas make the recall and communication of impressions much more easily accomplished. Ideas make detailed memory possible. Without ideas; sensory experiences, feelings, and impressions would certainly be possible, as they are in animals, but complicated thought, communication, and the creations of combinations would be impossible.
A study of the general simple true idea called a "hunch" can show how unnamed feelings and impressions often resolve themselves into ideas in inner duality. A "hunch" can be described as a flood of unnamed feelings and impressions within a duality that culminates in a particular conclusion. If, upon further investigation, one discovers that his "hunch" was correct, then he can be sure that his feelings and impressions constituted a true combination. Should the opposite obtain, then he can be sure that he created a false combination. However, in either case, a "hunch" is an unconscious but true and real process by which fleeting feelings and impressions are often transformed into ideas.
The unconscious mind constitutes the most powerful use of the idea of nothingness. Most of what the mind knows remains constantly concealed by the idea of nothingness. Nevertheless, behind the curtain (so to speak) of the idea of nothingness, powerful mental processes of combinations and recombinations remain continuously in process. Often, dramatic discoveries and inventions come from dreams, intuition, or "hunches" as a result of this process. Uncanny abilities, such as those displayed by idiot savants, result from this process. Probably, much of ESP and miracle healing result from this process. The use of the idea of nothingness as the unconscious mind lies within the vast area of "spirit" which will be explored next.
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