Small is Big is Small: The Fractal Nature of Reality

Everything we find in nature is a fractal, fitting into bigger and bigger replicas of itself, endless patterns, projected all around us like a hologram.  The mandala is a classic example of a fractal conceptualization of reality.

There is mimicry from one system to the next, such as a solar system being a mini-galaxy, and life composed of smaller life down to the molecules; atoms seem to act like solar systems; yet it's all just energy.

Which Mask Did You Put on Today?

We're all fake, at least some of the time.

For some of us, we become what others want us to become and we have no idea we're doing it.

Like a chameleon, we camouflage our personality to avoid attracting the type of attention that would kill us socially, personally, or emotionally.

What's Your Social Template? Everyone's Doing It!

It seems to me that human reactions are largely programmed.

Behavior in certain situations demonstrates social engineering, or maybe it's just an artifact of our species.

When someone dies, friends and family mourn, remember, laugh, cry, wear black, dig a hole, and so forth--and people say catch phrases like "sorry for your loss", which is absurd and meaningless.

Yet people on their way to a funeral sometimes seem exasperated at having to get dressed up and waste time around dead bodies and sad people.  Why go?  The dead person certainly doesn't seem to give a shit if you're there or not.

Maybe it's more about what other people will think regarding someone not showing up to a funeral?

Are We Born Prisoners?

Life is a prison.


I'm not talking about the fact of being alive--a creature that moves, consumes, and reproduces--but rather about the life as a human being in the social construct of human beings.

Our values, beliefs, traditions, and so on all imprison us in a particular way of thinking and feeling.

It's All a Bunch of Nonsense, I tell you!

It's just all nonsense sometimes.

What is life?  What's the point, really?  We're born, raised, grow up, and then repeat the process (or continue it) by having offspring.

We accumulate material goods by indentured servitude (i.e. work) and if we don't, we can't live in a material world.

There is no escaping this system.

Breaking the Spell - Why Thoughts and Dreams are the Real

This is not real; there is no truth found in life.  

We gaze at pictures, speaking as if the still images were alive and the people trapped within a paper prison; we see a reflection in a mirror, window, or water and can't help but notice ourselves, but it's not us at all--it's just an image of something else.

Free Will is Absurd - What You Don't Choose

Let's start from the beginning.

I'm working with what is apparent based on experience--our perception of reality, existence, as it appears to us in life.

None of us requested to be born; we certainly didn't get a say in who our parents would be or the circumstances of our birth.  Genetically, we inherit an awful lot of behaviors, traits, physical and mental attributes, and all sorts of other stuff which pre-disposes us to be a certain way.

Free will?  I don't remember casting my vote for this!

The Earth-bound Eye Inside Each of Us

Who or what is it that sees the picture light forms in our eyes?

How does this entity access memories of people, places, and things and connect events together?

Why does this wet muscle-machine respond when I simply desire to do something?

Consciousness is there, looking out from behind those eyes. 

All in One in All: The Essential Unity of Energy

Everything is fundamentally energy.

We exist and experience a world quite the opposite: one of discrete objects, cause and effect, time and motion, and all the forces that break energy into the complexity of existence and being.

Yet, fundamentally, it's all just the same pool of energy.

We are a vortex of energy, arranged and assembled according to a blueprint, that clings together for a time and dissolves back into the ether from whence it came.  When our vortex contacts another, electric fields interact and that interaction is interpreted and used to construct a picture of "reality".

Still, it's all just energy.

Why do we so strongly believe this fragmented picture of unity is more real than the notion it's all an energy field in flux?  What is the function or capacity that allows us to believe that we are separate?


Everything is energy; comes from energy; lives from energy; dies into energy.


Before we existed, before anything tangible existed, all was energy--when the cosmos slept in the womb of thought.  When the cosmos reaches it's destination, for everything moves in circles, everything transforms to energy.

The Illusionary Realm of Thought - Can You Sense It?

Mind and body work together as car and driver, Creator and created--one without the other, well, that's staring into the abyss.

Thought is something never experienced by the senses but yet existing.

Solipsism Re-Visited: Philosophical Musings on YouTube

The following YouTube video was recently uploaded and deals with the philosophical topic of Solipsism.

Take a look, share your thoughts, argue with me, whatever it takes to get you to think.  :)

Birth and Death, a Cycle Without Meaning

Photo courtesy of lonerwolf.com

The cosmic wheel turns, grinding down generations into the fodder for new life.  With every new breath there is a last gasp; each pair of eyes which opens portends another pair closing.  We think nothing of geological change, the erosion of layers and reshaping of land over millions of years, nor do we give a second thought to the nano-life of insects.

The unending cycle guarantees life, in the material sense, cannot offer any meaning.

Your Mind is Not a Machine in the Skull

Mind is a separate entity, independent of the body, and having its own self-contained systems, language, abilities, and requirements.  Many folks speak of their mind, spirit, heart, or body as separate from "I" which is experiencing or using these instruments, but few would claim any certainty that these components exist in and of themselves.

The general view is that humans are an entity comprised of all these pieces and we throw it in a box labeled "me" without considering how complex, and unconscious, is the human condition.


What do we think the Mind is, really?

God Doesn't Exist: Faith is Delusional!

God isn't real, you maniacs.  Believing in something imaginary is generally a clear indication of delusion.  There are several simple, reasonable, and rational ways to demonstrate delusional thinking in relation to God and faith.  If we cannot explain why we believe what we believe, how can we be sure our faith is well-founded?  It requires faith to believe you have a reason to believe in God.

Care to continue with the controversial discussion?  You might be surprised how it ends.

Proof of Mind: Is it Physical, Spiritual, or Something Else?

Our experience of Mind differs from the content of our mind.  In dreams, fantasies, and every manner of imaginative thought, there are no limits we need observe, no restrictions on physical action, and the rules can change every time we wish it so.  The mind represents a different world; when we speak of it, we speak as if we are our thoughts, yet we persist in a physical interaction and believe the material world is much more important than our thought-world.

Is there proof of the mind as a separate entity?

Building Belief in Solitude

Our own view of the world is all we have, all we know, and the only thing that reminds us we exist at all.  This appears to me as an obvious fact, but one which I'm always willing to explore other possibilities.  I must go on alone because there is no other way to go on.

All that we experience, we experience alone: we are conceived in darkness, alone, and we die into darkness, alone.  I shall say that all we have is our own thought, our self, to keep us company.

Being a Solipsist

As of this moment, whatever time may be, I cannot escape solipsism.  The obvious fact of it gnaws at me day and night, night and day, until I no longer have the will to fight it.  Well, that's a bit dramatic, but it's essentially true.  Solipsism is nigh impossible to prove or disprove, though both of those are really the same thing anyway.

Let's discuss solipsism, what it means, and how life changes if you look too closely.

Duality Trap

We cannot think except in pairs.  Something and nothing both gives and takes meaning from itself.  When an idea is introduced, it is understood in relation to something else; yet, if this something else is also an idea, then which idea is real?

Let's explore some of these duality traps on today's discourse with the Socratic Ape.

A Socratic Process

I am the Socratic Ape.

Ask the scary questions, then ask some more until ignorance becomes apparent or frustration prevents further inquiry.  This is my socratic process; this is the expression of my desire to understand why anything exists at all.

There is no subject unworthy, no theme that is taboo, and even nothingness is something to explore.  Join me, if you wish, as I trod the path to gibbering madness.

As an intro, here's an article I wrote about consciousness.