April 03, 2023
Human consciousness isn't strictly held inside of our brains. It's more like an energy field that extends outward until it reaches the limits of our perception. I'll attempt to explain how this works and the evidence behind it. But first, let's define the universe and explain how we perceive reality to fully extrapolate the theory.
Our universe (reality) has an infinite nature that is demonstrated by atoms, which are the fabric of reality.. Atoms make up the entire universe and they cannot be created or destroyed. Heavy atoms can be split into lighter atoms, but at no point is any mass or energy destroyed or created; it merely changes. Or do they? Mass can also be thought of as gravity or resistance to disorder. According to the laws of conservation of energy and mass, matter cannot be created or destroyed. Thus the universe cannot be created or destroyed.
Now that we know the universe has an infinite nature, what does that mean? It means space and substance go on forever in every direction, including across dimensions. There is a multiverse. Infinite realities exist around us, but our perception is limited to one reality, one path, and it appears to be moving. But, if something is infinite, it is complete and never has to change. Infinity is the sum of all things, a completed picture. Nothing can be added or taken away (or moved) in a completed picture. So our universe doesn't actually move. As Einstein said, time and motion are illusions created by our perception. What we see isn't the truth. It's a simplification of reality.
My theory assumes all realities exist together in a perfect, unmoving picture (overlapping across infinite dimensions), limitless and complete, and we exist inside of it. In this state, the universe doesn't have a beginning or end. It is pure, timeless reality. Past, present, and future exist together in a perfect, unmoving state. Then how do we explain the illusion of time and motion? Does it mean the Big Bang didn't happen? Not at all (I've updated this assumption in my Static Reality Theory). If the Big Bang happened, it was part of a storyline, a snapshot of a point that exists inside the infinite picture. The rest of reality still exists around it.
Humans are limited, so our perception is limited. We are tiny parts inside an infinite whole. Like particles, we move forward in the story of our lives. Our consciousness walks an orderly path (maybe Feynman's path integral). But we are not moving through time and space in a traditional sense. We are actually experiencing a tiny piece of reality one snapshot at a time by changing our focus. How we perceive reality is comparable to stop-motion animation. The faster you experience the different pictures, the faster and smoother they appear to be moving, but they aren't. Our perception is jumping, or blinking, to the next position in the storyline, so we can see the inner workings of a completed picture. The sum of all realities surrounds us, but we only see our path. Our bodies are part of the picture, and our brains function like an antennae, or a conduit of atomic energy, attuned to perceiving a certain reality.
Our consciousness (again like particles) has duality. It seems contradictory. Our thoughts appear to be limitless inside our heads. I can imagine myself zooming through the boundaries of space in seconds. But, we know our thoughts are limited because they began with us and will end with us. Also, the world appears to exist outside of our heads, but when we're looking at a tree in nature, that tree is effecting our inner thoughts without physically touching our brains. This doesn't seem profound because we're used to it. It also implies our consciousness can reach out of our brains like an energy wave, or a field. Our consciousness also causes chemical reactions inside of our brains.
So, is our consciousness an electromagnetic field that expands outside of our heads, or are chemical reactions inside of our head our true consciousness? The answer is, it appears to be both. This phenomena is duality. In particle physics, a particle's duality is demonstrated with the "observation effect." Like our consciousness, particles have a dual nature. They will literally change their behavior when they're being observed. It's like they know they're being watched. For example, electrons act like particles or waves depending on when you measure them. If you shoot electrons through two parallel slits in a wall and they hit the wall behind it, they leave a wave pattern on the wall. But, if you place a camera between the walls to monitor the electrons as they pass through the slits and hit the wall, they shoot straight through like particles and land on the wall in a slit pattern. The simple act of observing them makes them behave differently. This is spooky and profound. (If my explanation doesn't make sense, review the link "observation effect" for a more detailed explanation.)
So, what is making the particles behave differently? It's obviously the observation (our perception), but how does that work? Do the particles sense our presence? Well, considering our reality is one of infinite realities around us, and all energy is connected and controlled by the same energy field, it's not ludicrous to think our thoughts are connected to our environment to the point of being able to change it. Our perception likely has an energy field. Remember, our brains are buzzing with electricity. Our neural networks look like lightning-bolt-shaped antennae, and all reality is connected to the Higgs field. The earth has a gravitational field and so does the sun. It seems natural that our brains also have an energy field. Thus the act of observing can cause reactions in atoms outside of our bodies, providing an explanation of the "observation effect." Let's look inward and deeper to discover what else this energy field can do.
Thoughts and imagination happen inside of our heads. In that sense, imagination is disconnected from the reality that is outside of our heads, but not entirely. Starting at birth, our external experiences are the foundation of our knowledge. We use our senses to measure and understand reality. We aren't born knowing what a tree looks like. We have to experience it first. So, it's safe to say imagination is a reflection of reality, maybe even a limited connection to the infinite realities around us. Ever notice how a dream can feel like a lifetime? Who says it isn't? The energy field of our consciousness may be reaching out to all perceivable realities when we sleep. Sadly, that's something we can't measure.
Like particles, our consciousness follows an orderly path through our static reality, one snapshot at a time. This is why time travel would never work. Like the rest of the universe, we have a natural order, and we perceive reality in one orderly direction. Without this natural order, nothing would make sense. It would be chaos. Substance cannot exist in chaos. Reality is resistance to chaos.
Since we have to follow an orderly path to exist, does it mean we don't have choices or free will? Not at all. In a world of infinite realities, we have infinite choices... to a degree. "Action—the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics declares a physical system randomly follows one of the possible paths." This means we have infinite paths, but only some of them are suitable for us to follow, and our past movements help determine our futures paths. Those suitable paths create a probability amplitude, or a "swim lane" for our reality, allowing us to make choices within our swim lane. These limited choices are a trade off for existence. Order is always predetermined. Nothing can exist without order.
Consciousness is the ability to perceive a story within the swim lane of our reality, and our perception is an energy field that touches all reality around us. Like all things in nature, we have to move forward (or maintain order) to understand our reality. Unlike particles, our lives have complex stories that can experience disorder even while it's perfectly ordered at the atomic level. You can choose to get drunk or eat too much ice cream, but there are always consequences to every action, and they define our future paths. For me, imagination is the most fascinating part of consciousness. It allows us to peek into other perceivable realities, and in a universe of infinite realities, everything you imagine exists somewhere in the multiverse.