I have written at length about the Void. What I think it is. Where it can be found. What it signifies. I believe it is true. I believe that in the sense that I think we all return to a state utterly devoid of being just like the one we arose from. But does that make it an absolute truth? I don't think so.
Is there a place where the Void exists? Yes, in a subjective human mind. That gleaming surface of consciousness that reflects back to us the objects presented to our awareness. We can experience something of it by emptying our mind of thoughts and sensations. We achieve something like it when we are sleeping dreamlessly. The act of trying to "remember" what happened before you were born is a thought similar to it. We all confront it at death. Even those of us with faith, for faith is always a leap into darkness. But even the most mystical experience of Void-ness does not give one the ability to pinpoint a location for the Void. We just know it's up here *points to head* somewhere and *waves arms around* out there in the sense that we can't ultimately know the true nature of anything. But "up here" and "out there" are filled with matter and energy, so they are not really a true representation of the Void.
If we can't measure it, dissect it, examine it, how can we say it absolutely exists? It just awaits us in moments of untainted consciousness and in death. The only way to truly experience it in an absolute sense is to die and that makes it something that can't be reported upon in an absolute sense. To not be anymore is an impossibility since the matter and energy that composed us will always exist in some form or another. And yet, the thing that makes us aware of that existence does the impossible: it goes completely away.
It is simple enough to understand that something that is impossible can't be absolutely true. It is less simple to understand that something that is impossible happens anyway despite it not being absolutely true. Our bodies arose from the same matter that made up the world of the dinosaurs and the same stuff that made up the bodies of the solar system before they had fully formed into their present shapes and sizes and energy levels. But we entered this world completely without prior experiences in our consciousness. And when we leave, all those experiences are no longer gazed upon by the faculties of our memory or our awareness. So those experiences as they subjectively happened to us and as we subjectively recalled them are lost forever. Something that is not matter, something that is not energy, something that appears from nothing, something that goes back to nothing, impossible truths that can't possibly be Absolute Truth.
Mystical nihilism, heathenry, chaos magic, theistic Satanism, endless music and books and a passion for the poles of the human experience
Just to clear up one of my thoughts... when I say it is impossible and thus can't be absolutely true and that it happens anyway even though it is not absolutely true means this: We cannot experience being dead. But it still happens. We can't say anything about what it's like because there's no subject anymore, no "I" to tell what it's like. And since there isn't energy or matter in the universe of total lack of consciousness, then it can't possibly exist in the universe we all know and experience. This makes it not absolutely true and impossible. But... it happens. We die. We do not experience or know anything of being dead. We can only anticipate it by the fact that there was a time before we were born as well. But that time had no absolute truth either. For we were not there to know or experience any of that truth. Impossible... but happens anyway. The ultimate thing that is not absolutely true is the only thing we have to look forward to when we are gone.
ReplyDeleteClearing up another possible problem with my post. I refer to something not being absolutely true and then say that is because there is no subject to experience it and know it. Absolutely true implies OBJECTIVELY true, not subjectively. But all truth is experienced in a subjective manner. People who think in absolutes are doing so subjectively. This is why I think an absolute truth is even more impossible than a Void forming the basis for our existence. The fact that there are objective truths does not make them absolutely true FOR US because we cannot experience them in an objective way. We are creatures of subjective truth and objective truth is something we can never completely grasp. So, we take all our truths on faith in a fashion, even mathematical truths. The fact is that a human brain can dream up a seemingly insoluble math problem, but almost no one will even know what it's supposed to represent. It has no subjective correlation for them so they can't know anything about it's absolute truth or untruth. And if it can't be solved or if it appears to be impossible to solve, it is clearly falling into a place where the lack of a subjective understanding of it prevents us from even being able to tell if it contains any objective truth. 2+2=4 seems simple on the surface but if you take that 4 and turn it into 4 particles and then force those particles to behave as waves instead of particles, can you truly say you have 4 particles? Of course not. Do you have 4 waves? What constitutes a wave? If it's behaving sometimes like a wave and sometimes like a particle, what are you even counting? Is there some absolute smallest bit of matter in the universe like string theory suggests that behaves in some sort of absolute manner that will not change on us and can be seen in a purely objective light to everyone who contemplates it? 2+2=4 is no longer as simple as it was when one was counting 4 cats or 4 can openers. Objective truth breaks down whenever a subjective mind tries to grasp it, so it can't be absolutely true for that subject. Hopefully, this clears up why I talked about absolute truth and then brought up subjective truths instead of objective truths.
ReplyDelete"its absolute truth or untruth" not "it's absolute truth or untruth." Curse these comments for not being able to edit them.
ReplyDelete