I have described hard determinism as, the mathematic laws of physics given meaning through the cause and effect continuum. I have recently been focusing on the word, continuum. I’ve described the brain from the point of our finite reality as an incomprehensibly intricate, physics-based, storage-retrieval system. The continuum is this: experience causes data to be stored. The continuum pauses at this point in static readiness. In time, in response to experience, the brain uses this data to create causes. These causes create effects, which then create causes, which then create more effects, and as such, the continuum continues. Experiential information comes in, is stored, and somewhere down the line, in response to experiential effects, the information is used to create experience; comes in, goes out; comes in, goes out.
If the continuum is essential to existential experience, if a continuum is a natural universal coming and going, an unwieldy natural energy with unstoppable momentum, a restless force, how does this relate to the awareness aspect of human experience, to consciousness? Is consciousness a dead-end dynamic? Experience is observed, the storage process is observed (memory) and the creation of experience is observed, but to what purpose? Consciousness being an after-the-fact dynamic, a person is aware of all the activity, but can do nothing with all of this awareness.
I sense some loose ends flapping in the wind. The desire to involve consciousness in the causal brain dynamic is overpowering. Let's take a close look at it. An external event causes an effect impacting the individual. This effect registers within the brain causing the brain to store data; an effect, which then causes interaction with other pieces of stored data, (which is itself an incredible complexity of cause and effect events) which then culminates in an effect. Not capable of being aware of an event before or even simultaneously, the individual is aware of the event after it happens. The person is conscious of events, post-event. It would demand brain function for consciousness to participate in the causal brain dynamic. But since our consciousness is only aware of brain function after the brain function event, conscious awareness is always one click behind. Brain activity which produces observable behavior and internal thought behavior is the consequence of the independent, conscious-free interaction of stored data. To involve conscious awareness in the causal brain dynamic would demand pre-requisite brain activity which still places conscious awareness one ornery click behind. Regardless of intuitive attractiveness; regardless of how much we want our consciousness of brain activity to control brain activity, our conscious awareness is always one click or more behind; conscious awareness just can't get its foot in the door.
Observational information stops at the point of observing. Awareness is unable to express itself. An individual is aware of brain activity, but is helpless to do anything about it; like a DVD player with an input and no output! Consciousness would be a purposeless dead-end; a proverbial black hole!. From my experience, the concept of purposelessness in relationship to our functioning universe is in the very least, suspect; a red flag suggesting our knowledge-base is deficient; there is a gold nugget to be found.
Is conscious awareness a purposeless dead-end? Multiple dimensions have been fantasized about by fiction writers. The wild imaginations of science fiction authors have created preposterous vignettes. String Theory makes these preposterous fantasies possible; possible, not probable. That there are other dimensions existing all around us, however, is a very real possibility, if not a certainty.
Back to our continuum: Suppose consciousness does not dead-end with awareness, with observation, with our conscious awareness of experience. Is it possible that our consciousness is simply a doorway into another dimension; that the experiential continuum passes through our consciousness and is then stored in a dimension we are not physically conscious of, and for purposes of which we know not? Could this arena operate independent of our limited physical reality? If this dimension functions independent of our physical reality, could not this other dimension continue functioning even when the physical reality is no more; after a person is no longer alive physically? Could this other dimension be the arena of the soul?
It could be…
If it is, then, once the physical aspect of our reality is stripped away, all that would remain would be the awareness continuum. With the physical portion of our reality no longer torquing us every which way, distorting our ability to glean Truth, Wisdom and Beauty from our experiential reality, contorting our ability to Love unconditionally; with the mass of all these chains and shackles removed, is it possible we will be able to clearly understand our experience and the experience of others and that understanding then impact how we relate in this hither to unknown dimension?
It is possible…
If so, our physical experience has a purpose beyond mere physical consequence. Whether that experience is a black-top highway or a dusty gravel road, each unique individualized set of physical experiences is preparing us for, or at least influencing this other dimension, a dimension where Knowledge gleaned in the physical dimension produces Understanding, and this Understanding then produces Unconditional Acceptance and this Unconditional Acceptance produces the pinnacle existential reality of human development, Unconditional Love; a dimension with such variety and so much color and life that no two flowers will be the same and none will ever cease their blooming.
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