A CONVERSATION ABOUT REALITY AND UNREALITY

( Quotation marks are used to emphasize the mind's concentration on particular systems or basic elements.)

One day a man said to his friend: "I am moving away to another city, but one day I will see you again. I don't know where or when." The friend knows about his friend's promise to see him again, but all he knows about his system, "I know where or when," is that it is equal to "nothing." "Nothingness" blots out the knowledge of "when" and "where" in the mind of the friend being left. Therefore, as far as the "when" and "where" are concerned, the friend being left knows only "nothing."

This means that the friend being left is "not conscious" of the "when" and "where," but is only conscious of "the idea of nothing" which has blotted out this system. In addition, when a consciousness possesses only an "idea of nothing" about a particular narrow system such as, "I know when or where," then the "idea of nothing" has a backward effect on consciousness so that it has "no consciousness" of this system. This condition is true on a huge scale to the same extent that it is true on a narrow scale. That is, if a consciousness has "no consciousness" of a small system, then this condition is the same on a small scale as it would be if it were conscious of absolutely nothing. On a huge scale of nonconsciousness, there exists no consciousness of any system. The mind is in a brain-dead coma or actually dead.

Then, the friend who is moving asks the friend being left: "You have no consciousness of when or where you will see me again, do you?" His answer must be, "yes."

If this conversation were expanded to apply to our universe before man's consciousness existed, one should understand that in this nonconscious universe there could be no where or when. This universe could only be an absolute nothingness or chaos which exists nowhere and at no time. Absolutely nothing could happen in this nonconscious universe, not even the "idea of nothing."

The friend being left then says to his friend: "But I know I will see you again." His friend replies: "You know no such thing. You may believe or imagine that you will see me again, but for a host of reasons, you may never see me again." The friend being left then replies: "But I do know that you will know when and where you are." His friend responds: "You don't know that either. I may be dead tomorrow." His friend replies: "But even if you are dead, I know that your grave will have a when and where." His friend responds: "You will have no consciousness of that either unless someone tells you." His friend replies: "But even if you don't know when and where you are, and I don't know when and where you are; nevertheless, you must be somewhere and at some time." His friend responds: "But is it logical for you to assume that you and I can be conscious of the fact that you and I both can have no consciousness of when and where I am, but that something unknown can determine when and where I am?" His friend replies: "To be honest, no."

For these reasons, those who contend that our nonconscious universe could eventually produce life, can have no certain knowledge that this is true. This only happens in their imagined universe, and their imagined universe is a conscious one.

The upshot of these arguments is that our universe must have had a universal Consciousness that determined, and still determines, all of the "whens" and "wheres," as well as the creation of life, prior to the existence of man's finite consciousness.