The world comes in layers
We were taught in school that the world consists of matter, plants, animals, and humans. Why investigate any further if we are already at the top?
Reality may be a bit more complicated. We move from one level to the next by adding something important. We are suspended between the infinitely small atoms and the vastness of the universe. This is not a very comfortable place to be for someone who pretends to dominate the universe.
9-Glass ceiling
QUESTION6.com
We,The People, are not happy
Level 1: Matter:
Matter is our raw material. Physicists began with a list of 60 elements. Today, they probably have around 100 basic elements, to which we should add all possible combinations of different atoms. At this level, there is no life, no feelings, no movement. Nothing but eternity!
Fortunately, there is more to Planet Earth than matter.
Level 2: Plants:
You create plants by adding something to matter. Plants absorb energy from the sun to grow, produce seeds, and reproduce. They also predigest the minerals in the soil. This transformation is necessary before the animals can absorb the minerals. How do the plants know that it is their responsibility to prepare the absorption of minerals by the animals? Without plants, there would not be food for animals and humans. Who is organizing this choreography? Did our teacher hide something about the plants?
Level 3: Animals:
You reach the level of animals by adding movement to the plants. Animals move by changing the shape of their bodies: some walk, some fly, some swim, and some run. This is how we know that they are alive. That requires brain, nerves, and muscles to change the shape of their body. We assume that there is life when we see movement. This is our criterion of life. That does not mean that everything that moves is alive. There is a lot of movement in the electrons of an atom. We should have asked the teacher where he put the limits of life.
Level 4: Human beings:
They are made of matter. They have their own shape. They are moving. They also think. That does not mean that animals cannot think. The main difference is that human thinking is more developed.
We move from one level to the next
by adding something important.
Level 5:
What could be above the level of human beings?
It is tempting to assume that there is nothing between God and us. Reality may be different.
Click on list of angels. You will find many levels above us that you didn’t expect. We named them Angels, Archangels, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, and many others. What we know for sure is that the world around us consists of many separate layers, and there could be many layers above us. We should expect to find as much difference between us and the next level above us as there is between animals and us. We are on the 4th rung of a tall ladder with many more rungs above.
What could the levels above us be made of? You may notice that what we add becomes less physical as we move up from one level to the next. The level above humans could be entirely immaterial.
What is most important in our lives are ideas, love, feelings, and consciousness. They do not have a shape or a weight. Could the level above us be made of energy? Heat? Consciousness? Love? Freedom? Could it be a level of souls without a body?
When searching for life on other planets, we look for a body. We search for water because here on Earth, bodies are made of 80% water. We limit our investigation to levels below human existence. We should not use the sky as a screen on which we project our own film. We stand at the crossroads between material and immaterial worlds. We have a body and a soul. The time has come to break free from the limits of the physical realm and reach the next level beyond humankind.
The glass ceiling
For the last 300 000 years, we, the Homo sapiens, believed that “reality” was limited to our planet Earth, our solar system, our galaxy, and anything we could see in the sky. We thought the universe was confined to what we were aware of. Modern science is pushing us out of our comfort zone. We were looking at only 5% and assumed that there was nothing else. The media did not run big headlines saying, “Give me my 95% or give me death.”
How can we find our way to the level above us?
First extrapolation:
We start with the three levels below us: matter, plants, and animals. We assume that they are the first three steps of a staircase and add one more step.
-
Everything begins with matter. It is our base. It is our raw material.
-
We move from the level of matter to the level of plants by adding the ability to grow, to take a particular shape, to make seeds, and to reproduce.
-
We move from plants to animals by adding the ability to move. That may require nerves, muscles, and a brain to use them.
-
We move from animals to humans by adding the ability to think.
You will notice that what we are adding becomes less and less material as we move to higher levels. We started by adding something that has a shape, such as seeds. The next step was adding a modification of the previous shape. The last step was adding something immaterial that has no shape. We continue to utilize the possibilities of the earlier levels and introduce a new one. What we are brings a complete transformation.
To reach the next step above us,
we must add something immaterial.
Second extrapolation:
To control one level, we need access to the level above it.
-
How can you explain that water in the ground can defy gravity, rise into the air, and take a specific shape? You need access to the level of the plants to understand what happens to matter.
-
How can you explain that fruit trees can reproduce? You need bees and their pollination. You need access to the level of animals to understand the level of the plants.
-
The cow does not know what will happen after her death. The farmer does.
To dominate the human level, we need to access the level above us.
We can infer from our two extrapolations that understanding the purpose of our life on Earth requires access to a higher level beyond humanity. That would require something beyond human thinking in the first extrapolation.
Getting access to the level above us
requires something that we don’t have.
This is our glass ceiling.
There is hope.
The different levels are not sealed. There is some communication between them like there is a link between the body and the soul of humans. The best example is heat. It lacks shape, color, size, or weight. It belongs to the immaterial domain above us. However, it manifests itself in many aspects of our lives. Without heat, planet Earth would just be an icy rock. Heat belongs to the immaterial world. Not only does it manifest itself in our physical domain, but it can move from one object to another without getting attached to any of them.
Another example of links between different levels is love.
We find love implemented in different ways at different levels. We start with “the love of the spheres’ at the highest level. It is the love of the universe. The next level is love embodied in a couple. At a lower level, love is reduced to sexual attraction. It seems that love adapts itself to what can be assimilated at each level.
Another example is thinking.
-Humans are not the only ones capable of thinking. The lion chasing a zebra must assess how fast, how long, and which way the zebra might run to escape. The lion might make smarter decisions than we do, even with our computers and GPS.
-The molds seem to have access to a limited yet powerful way of thinking.
Each of us already has something coming from a higher level.
It seems that Mother Nature is trying to help. At every level, she placed a stepping stone pointing us in the right direction.
Each level displays a simpler implementation of the level above. Many animals are capable of some thinking. Love and thinking could be the way Mother Nature is trying to help humans to reach a higher level.
There is a current going through humanity.
There is a flow moving upward from matter to higher levels. This flow begins with the energy that plants absorb from the sun. It is transmitted to humans through our food and reaches our brain and our soul. This cycle starts from a level above us and returns to that level. It may be the stepping stone that will help us get access to a higher level.
To sleep or not to sleep
Our life is based on the idea
that a good night’s sleep is important,
but what happens during that time does not matter.
Go figure!
While falling asleep, we experience “HYPNAGOGIA”. It is a period when we are both half awake and half asleep. We are partially conscious and partially unconscious.
Thomas Edison was using this “just before period” to make inventions. He’d get into his armchair with a steel ball in his hand and try to fall asleep. As his muscles relaxed, the ball would fall, waking him up. This is how he came up with ideas for solving problems. Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali also practiced similar methods.
Strange things can come out when you stir up the human subconscious, including dreams and hallucinations. Instead of forcing your entry into such a state, you can limit yourself to paying attention to what happens normally during this period of transition. Use but don’t abuse.
As we wake up, we go through “HYPNOPOMPIA”. It would be the most enjoyable part of the day if the alarm clock didn’t ruin it.
These two transition periods offer an opportunity to improve communication between wakefulness and sleep. They act as a bridge between our limited consciousness and full awareness. It is the way to escape Plato’s cave that we were looking for.
We can amplify:
We know that we can go to bed with a problem and wake up with a solution. We carried our problem through our Hypnagogia. We solved it at night. The solution made it through our hypnopompic.
The process reminds us of the beginning of our agriculture. We observed a natural process and amplified it. Progress can be slow at first. We might wake up with ideas that we quickly forget, just like we easily forget our dreams. If we wake up with some ideas, we should jot them down right away. After breakfast, it's too late. We will never be able to remember them.
We also have to act on them. Ideas come like mail in your mailbox. Acting on them empties your mailbox and prepares it for the next morning.
It’s a question of persistence. The first ideas that you receive may come like separate pieces of a puzzle. They don’t match. It takes time before new pieces fit with old ones. You are unplugging a channel that was never used. The more you try, the easier it becomes. You are developing senses that have been ignored.
Carl Jung goes even further. He suggests that it is when we are asleep that we have complete use of our brain. It is true that, during our sleep, our brain is not overwhelmed with information from our sense organs. As the sun disappears, we have an opportunity to see the stars. We can put aside our ‘body channel’ and focus on our “soul channel” to relate to our environment. That would explain Jung’s idea that it is when we are asleep that we are fully awake.
He who looks inside wakes up,
He who looks outside dreams
Carl Jung
The nature around us is far more complex than anything the human brain could grasp. We recognized that our perception of the world was limited by the information received through our senses. We are now discovering the limitations of our consciousness. We are discovering that what is essential to our life is also our jail.
What is sleeping?
We know that every evening, we leave our body in bed, much like we leave the car in the garage, and the driver is set free. The body is kept at the right temperature, away from any noise. We want to prevent any signals from the sense organs from reaching the brain. This is strange. What our life is based on during the day becomes an obstacle at night!
Scientists have experiments showing that there is always some activity occurring in the brain. There is life, but this life does not use our sense organs. Scientists also have good reasons to believe that our brain utilizes 20% of the energy obtained from our food. How do we use all that energy without moving our bodies? What kind of thinking can consume so much energy?
If the body doesn’t use all that energy, it could be utilized by the soul. During the day, our soul is immersed in the physical body. Our lives are controlled by signals from our sense organs. At night, our soul is free from the sense organs. Instead of seeing each other’s bodies, we might have direct access to each other’s souls. Every morning, the soul returns to her body, gets dressed, and goes to work!
Under those conditions, the body would be nothing more than a tool used to gather energy from the material world and transfer it to the soul.