From Eden to Hell and Back

How does a shy forest floor vegetarian turn into a mighty hunter, scourge of the savannah? Could it have been the tasting of that forbidden fruit? You know, the one with the knowledge of good and evil? Should we ask the serpent? Or maybe we just ask Alice?

The podcast-Or read it below.

In the last episode i said that the battle between science and religion was staged. It is like politics, once you get above the bickering parties you find the same interests controlling all sides through their family connections, political contributions and outright bribes. Elections are a complete farce. The winning candidate is always under someone’s thumb. Politics is a dirty business wherein the scum rises to the top. Our elected officials are generally the most convincing liars. Enough, already! What does politics have to do with our subject? Well, everything really is connected and a little farther down the road you will be able to see the connection quite clearly, i think.

This is episode four and i still haven’t defined what i’m calling the Forest Goddess. I did point out in episode one, that She is all about communication and that our goosebumps show that our subconscious understands Her language.

I call her a She, because She nurtures, like a womb. However, the Forest Goddess is not a single entity, or even a thing; She is a process. She is action, a flow of purposeful energy, building, supplying and maintaining an extraordinarily efficient community. The forest intends to continue the process of building more forest.

This is a network of entities that pass information back and forth, or round and round, actually. It is like our internet, not just the physical network, but the intelligent nodes that sit at every keyboard and all our other communications methods, like snail mail, art, music and face to face, as well. Every cell in the forest is an intelligent node, that is connected to every other cell, by a nearly infinite web of flowing information. These nodes communicate, sharing events and making choices.

On one level all things are connected in real time. This is the Primary Perception discovered by Cleve Backster, and his experiments dumping brine shrimp into boiling water and recording plant reactions. Trauma disturbs the local field which reverberates throughout the system. This wave triggers feedback, both local and non-local that carries corrective action. As an example we can look at John Cairn’s experiments with lactose intolerant strains of e. coli. Normally e. coli can handle lactose just fine, but this strain had a defective gene, preventing assimilation. He put them in petri dishes with nothing but lactose to eat. They faltered at first, but soon began feeding on the lactose. The bacteria had repaired their own DNA. They had done so without reproduction or any kind of random mutation. The starving cells agitated the system, requesting a solution to their dilemma. They certainly had some sort of interaction with the lactose, trying different modifications of their own genes until they solved the problem.

Bruce Lipton’s experiments with stem cells show the same kind of response to the environment. He put stem cells in a petri dish with calcium and the stem cells made bone. He put them in protein and they became muscle.

The point here is that evolution is not confined to reproduction, natural selection and/or random mutation, it takes place in real time. Adaptation to the environment is fundamental to cellular activity. Do you have any idea how this changes evolutionary theory?

Psychic Cells Communicate across Physical Barrier
Mainstream science wants to pretend that these experiments have never taken place, but more and more evidence proves that communication is fundamental and not a human invention.

This is the spirit world described by shamans from around the world from every indigenous culture. These folks are the experts on consciousness and access to the spirit world. The descriptions of what it is and how it works are consistent around the globe and throughout history. During that same time frame science as changed it’s mind on just about every subject imaginable, several times. Whose got the staying power here?

Science admits it’s ignorance in these matters while giving out degrees in both consciousness and shamanic studies. They claim the  high ground, making themselves out as authorities in fields they admittedly know nothing about. Scientists seem to be blind to such blatant arrogance. I guess that is what makes Sheldon Cooper such a funny character.

What is the spirit world? You know exactly what it is, you deal with it all the time. Your consciousness is your personal slice of the spirit world. Images and thoughts about the physical world.

It is where objects are no longer solid, but virtual representations that you can play with. It is your own virtual reality where you and your imagination can modify and test ideas, concepts and plans before applying them in real life. It is a world of pure information.

That’s what the spirit world is, pure information about the physical. Consciousness is your account in this universal communications network. It is what we use to interface with both the physical and spirit worlds. It is like a database archive and live feed of flowing information that you can access.

Don’t believe it? Okay by me. Not everyone is meant to get this. In fact, throughout most of history, passing this information around could get you killed. I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.

The reason science doesn’t want you to know about the spirit world is that they have replaced it as your guidance system. In the forest system our ancestors were guided by the plants they ate, by way of internal communications. Today it is our culture that guides us, with external communications.

You don’t talk to the Forest Goddess, like you can’t talk to the internet. However, there are many entities that make use of the Forest Goddess network for communication. Some of them will be glad to talk to you.

Most plants speak softly, and then mostly to your subconscious and the microbes in your gut. However there are plants that blast your senses with foreign forms, sounds and colors. Hallucinations, science calls them, but the shaman knows them as powerful plant spirits.

These plant spirits are for real. Hallucinations are awe inspiring for a reason. For those of you who don’t know the basics of brainwashing, this system goes as follows:

1    Move subject to new environment.
2   Prevent subject from using habitual routines.
3   Introduce trauma and/or stress.
4   Require the performance of new routines related to the desired behavior.

This routine has been used effectively to re-program ordinary citizens into soldiers for centuries. The success of this kind of brainwashing is extremely high. Even as influential as post hypnotic suggestion appears to be in behavior modification, it seems difficult to get someone to do something against their will, like murder. However, citizen soldiers have been murdering by the millions, like zombies. The system works.

Another example of a technique that seems to have been invented by human beings, when in reality these plant spirits have been using this process all along. Seems obvious to me that our ancestors learned brainwashing from them.

1st the hallucinations take the subject to a new environment.
2nd the subject is immobilized
3rd the subject is threatened with death or worse
4th the subject is given duties to perform

This simple four step process is the hallmark of initiations, religious services and modern advertising.

We have a bright red mushroom growing under a towering conifer. The mushroom is the fruit of a fungus that is bound to the root of the tree and furnishes its nutrition. Along comes one of our ancestors who gobbles up this powerful fruit. Within a few minutes he starts feelng funny. Not funny ha ha, but funny peculiar. In the next few hours our hapless human will be transported to hell and back. The fungus puts the human through a hyper brainwashing session, pushing all of the buttons that set up a loyal symbiotic partner. Claiming to be an all powerful god who can bestow fame and fortune on his subjects, the fungus dazzles the newbie with views of far away places and future events. The subject thinks he or she has died and gone to heaven. This fantastic world awaits after death, but the option is given to return to the world of the living a help others gain this wonderful knowledge. Almost everyone agrees to come back to help others.

When the effect wears off, the subject is left a simple directive: tell the world about the experience. In other words, preach the gospel. Oh yeah, and come back and eat some more.

Of course, the subject returns to eat some more. Maybe not as much as the first time. As the relationship progresses, the human finds that the information given by this god checks out. This god teaches things, like how to build fire, make tools and hunt.

As i mentioned before, the forest already has a directive in place to go out and bring back energy. Like the fungus raised by leaf cutter ants, this fungus sent out its partners to find food and bring it back to eat. Whereas the ants bring the food back to the nest, the amanita calls for the food to be brought back as offering to the tree. This is the very beginning of the concept of animal sacrifice and the alter. The humans brought the animal to the tree where it was slaughtered. The blood soaked into the ground, fed the fungus and the tree, while the humans were fed by the carcass. This was the first god and the beginning of religion.

There are several concepts and behaviors we can trace back to this symbiotic relationship. One is social organization. Just as the Lepiotaceae fungus did with the leaf cutters, the amanita organized their humans into a strict hierarchical caste system, with royalty, servants, workers and soldiers.

Besides the “go out, find food and bring it home” routine, the other primary motivation is to seek heaven, paradise in the stars. This works with the hierarchy to keep us climbing up, to get higher than the competition, to seek the penthouse suite. Such social climbing is still very much with us today. And so is the more concrete expression of seeking heaven, space exploration.

You can see what i’m describing here is a very clever deceit carried out by a very intelligent entity. Most folks are never going to believe that fungi are intelligent. That just shows how effective their scam has been. I can guarantee that fungi are intelligent and fully capable of conning humans into self destructive action. I can tell you how to prove it to yourself, beyond a shadow of a doubt. However, the proof is not without its own inherent risk, so i don’t pass this info out to just anybody.

There are some other behaviors encouraged by the amanita that seem counter productive at first. The first is the aforementioned use of fire. Fire is the enemy of the forest, especially one already shrinking. Another behavior, that seems destined to cut off the tribe from the forest, is the act of cutting down these sacred trees for lodge poles, yule logs and such.

And so began the destruction of the forests that we see still going on today. It was just a matter of time until these forest primates forced themselves out onto the savannah. As these humans cut down, burned and otherwise abused their forest home, they also cut down their access to their god. Without host trees, the amanita doesn’t fruit. So very early in this relationship, the concept of god became an abstract idea rather than a real experience.

So we have a branching point. Tribes are forced into new territory, in competition with other tribes in the same fix. There are two scenarios that the tribe can take. They can build themselves a forest-like permanent shelter, so they can continue to bring food to a home, or they can follow the herds of game animals, dragging their home along with them.

That’s going to do it for today. Next time i’ll talk about these two tribal branches and how they separated and recombined into nomads and city states.
***

Evolution as a Quantum Process

We are quanta. We are each individuals and as such we feel separate from that which surrounds us. However the billions of us on the Planet are engaged in an ongoing quantum calculation. It is waves of our human actions that impact the Planet, solving for survival.

A quantum computer has the ability to calculate multiple possibilities simultaneously. For example, to solve a password problem a conventional computer would try all of the possible solutions, one at a time. A quantum computer would try all possible options at once, filtering out the failures and finally settling on one that would be implemented, while the others would act as if they were never even tried.

Seems to me that this is a pretty good description of how our mind works. We consider many options, evaluating them against each other in a virtual space where the actions are simulated. We finally settle on a plan of action and do it. The rejected options act as if they were never tried.

So, each agent in our system is like a quantum bit. Each one is a multifunction unit that contains its own processor, operating system, input/output devices, memory and power supply. The problem we are solving is how to grow, reproduce and disperse among the other quantum bits that form our Universe.

The only way this could work is if the system “knows” what each bit is doing in real time. The system has to be aware of the progress of all of the options being calculated at once. This is the coherent, holographic, quantum field property of the physical Universe.

This is very similar to the idea of multiple universes, except they all exist in a quantum virtual reality, while only one solution is manifest. A quantum calculation processes all possible outcomes at once, assessing probabilities, filtering and sorting, until a solution is reached. Once implemented, the solution becomes input for the next wave of calculations. The system is always trying to predict and validate its future. It does so in waves of repeating cycles.

This happens in our version of consciousness. We humans are constantly predicting our immediate future. We are constantly calculating velocities and trajectories of moving objects around us, while we keep track of our own location and movement. Will that truck arrive before i can cross the street, or not? Other mobile agents in our system are doing the same thing. Neurons are quite capable of acting the same way. They are constantly predicting what their input should be and react when it is not as expected. This pattern of process repeats throughout Natural Systems.

Human beings are agents within the system and act like quantum bits. We are a great example of quantum computation. Take a task force attempting to solve a problem. Each member takes on the solution as a goal. Each member embarks on a search limited by what they see as the best possible solution. All members are in contact and share their ideas. They each choose the possible solution based on their perspective, while being aware of the progress of other possibilities. When a consensus is reached, action follows a single path and the many other possibilities vanish as if they were never considered.

In this model, the quantum process is consciousness in action. Just as we share ideas and reach conclusions, so do our neurons. So do the lactose intolerant cells of e.coli when confronted with only lactose for food. So do stem cells. And so does water, coherent electromagnetic fields, and plasma. All is quantum consciousness, with ours being a subset. Just as our subset produces a single point of consciousness from trillions of cells, so does every other subset up an down the scale. On the one end we have single cells endowed with a sense of self, while species, ecosystems and Gaia herself show the same ability.

What do stem cells, superbugs, dopamine neurons have in common? The common thread is that these cells change their structure in response to incoming information. They adapt to changes in the environment. It doesn’t require generations for natural selection to bring about adaptive change, cells adapt to the environment in real time. Natural selection tests the validity of the adaptive changes, but they originate at the cellular level. In other words, direction, purpose and goal oriented behavior are present and active at the cellular level. This system isn’t guided by blind chance, but specific targeted goals, like growth, reproduction and dispersal.

What is Consciousness?

What is consciousness? That which observes fields of information, matter and energy, and calls them reality. Need it be more complex than that? Fields of information, matter and energy comprise our environment. Our consciousness interprets the environment and acts within it. We watch.

If that isn’t enough of a definition for you, there are more involved version to be found almost everywhere you look. Everyone wants to take a shot at it; we all have one. There is Consciousness Online, Center for Consciousness Studies(U of A), as well as dozens of universities, new age retreats and thousands of blogs that tag themselves as relating to the subject. The variety of descriptions reflects the difficulty of the enterprise. Every individual is describing a unique view of “reality”, that has been learned within a unique context. Every field of study has its own unique viewpoint, (piece of the elephant) that influences their observations. On top of that, each discipline develops a unique jargon to describe what they “see”. I call it the Tower of Babel approach. The more you read, the worse it gets; agreement on this subject is rare.

What this discussion really needs is a common denominator. The inquiry needs to be scaled to a level of functionality, where language and terminology can be used in common.

Rather than looking at consciousness from our human perspective, we need to look at how reality and consciousness relate to biological systems in general. Rather than concentrating on the complex internal details, let’s look at how the process functions at this higher level. At this level, the functionality of mobile species is simple: they move, eat, grow, expel waste and reproduce. We don’t care what goes on in their heads, just that they function within the environmental system they inhabit. However, we can note that the ability of an agent to be aware of its surroundings, is essential to three out the five functions. In its simplest form, awareness involves the processing of information. Here we can find some common ground.

The studies of complex systems, quantum mechanics, cybernetics, cellular biology, single celled organisms, chaos theory, fractals, holography, bioelectrics and information technologies share some common conceptual underpinnings. They are all explorations into information processing. There are many rules and laws that are consistent across these fields of study. They share common formulae for the construction of networks, for example.

The language developed by information technologies is known and understood across all languages, national and cultural boundaries. It was developed with functionality as it’s goal, and information processing and distribution it’s primary functions. Biological systems exhibit nearly identical patterns of functionality.

We find the same patterns of process in action in cells where DNA finds, copies and transfers genetic information. The universal rules and laws governing robust digital networks, outlined by Information Technologies offers the foundation for a common language to discuss consciousness, biological life and the material universe, as well.

The second common denominator is that consciousness, cellular activity, quantum mechanics, atomic structure are characterized by fields. Just as our consciousness is the result of waves of firing neurons(fields), matter is the result of waves of atomic particles interacting through fields of force(energy).

From plasma experiments, to growing tips of plants, to firing neurons, it is fields, processing information, that guide interactions. Consciousness is just such a field, processing input and directing actions. Looking at it in this light, all biological processes cycle through a phase of pure information, on the way to a phase of pure matter. Once it is seen as a fundamental function of biological systems, rather than an exclusive attribute of human evolution, consciousness reveals itself.

cheers,
jim

Directed Mutation

“In 1988, geneticist John Cairns published what has since become a revolutionary paper entitled On the Origin Of Mutants (Nature 335:142, 1988). Cairns recognized that gene mutations were not solely the result of random chemical events as is currently perceived. Cairns placed bacteria, possessing a defective gene for the enzyme lactase, in Petri dishes that contained only lactose as a food source. The mutant bacteria were not able to metabolize the substrate. After a short period, the stressed, non-replicating bacteria began to thrive and proliferate. Upon examination, it was found that the bacteria specifically mutated the unresponsive lactase gene and repaired its function. Cairn’s research revealed that, in response to environmental stresses, organisms can actively induce genetic mutations in selected genes in an effort to survive. These mutations would represent mechanical “adaptations” that are induced by the organism’s response to life experiences.”

The video is here:
Adaptive Mutation

Immediately, the bureaucracy of science went to work. Cairns called it, Directed Mutation. That terminology was unacceptable to his peers. A paper to put this new information in proper scientific context was soon published.

Copyright 1998 by the Genetics Society of America
Adaptive Mutation: Has the Unicorn Landed?
Patricia L. Foster

In the second paragraph…

“Early in the project, we established that the mutational process was not “directed” toward specific targets (i.e., there was no reverse information flow) (Foster and Cairns 1992), and we renamed the phenomenon “adaptive mutation” (Foster 1993). We then pursued the alternative hypothesis that during selection a random mutational process affecting the whole genome might occur; the process would be adaptive if the variants (or the cells bearing them) were transient unless or until a variant arose that allowed the cell to grow (Cairns et al. 1988; Stahl 1988; Boe 1990; Hall 1990). Although less efficient than a directed mechanism, “trial and error” would have equivalent implications. With such a mechanism, a population could increase its genetic variability under stress yet maintain its genes more or less intact.”

So, right from the start they had adopted Crick’s “Central Dogma”, as a given: “there was no reverse information flow”. The truth is, they never even looked at the flow of information. Just as in the laws of thermodynamics, where energy doesn’t come out of nowhere, neither does information. Information is the result of process, and follows pathways that ALWAYS loop back to their source.

Anyway, “We then pursued the alternative hypothesis…” This is how they do it in science. They fudge their results with the unlimited power of “jargonese”. But it is language that gives them away. Words like, selection and adaptation infer that choices are made. In fact, the details of these experiments show that information is being processed. Information processes(like choosing) are firmly in the domain of intelligence.

Mutations, changes in DNA sequences, follow the same pattern of information processing as would a team of scientists trying to solve the same problem. The inability to metabolize lactose would be met by several proposed solutions, with only the best one, selected. In it’s simplest form, analyzing a situation, proposing options and processing one to a successful outcome, is very intelligent action. To ignore that possibility because of preconceived bias, is not very smart.

Directed or adaptive, doesn’t make much difference; a mutation that successfully accomplished a targeted goal, certainly cannot be seen as a random process. There was no cell division, no opportunity for random errors to participate, no natural selection at play, only reorganization of process in order to adapt to an environmental situation. The attempt to “explain away” the implications with mountains of jargonese shows that they just don’t get it. They assume from the start that, “…there was no reverse information flow”, just as did Crick and Watson. This is where the information processing model exposes the blind spot of central dogma. There is no reverse flow of information, but it loops back through the system, where choices are made about what information completes the circuit. It walks and quacks like a very smart duck.

Darwin’s Computer

Just think how different the theory of evolution might be if Charles Darwin had used a computer. It’s not that he needed to crunch a lot of numbers to check out his theory, it is just that he was operating without the benefit of many basic concepts that the computer represents. For one, he had no concept of a code driven system. He had no idea that his theory of evolution depended on such a system to function. Nor did he have any concept of DNA, the heart of that system. If he had understood just those two concepts out of the many that have come to light since, his book Origin of the Species probably would have been very different.

If he, or any of those individuals who helped define the theory in it’s first one hundred years, had understood that biophotons are emitted by DNA in living cells, if they had been aware of Cleve Backster’s experiments with living cells and their ability to communicate over great distances, or modern quantum physics, or holistic/holographic principles, or Gaia, or information theory, our present version theory of evolution might be entirely different.

The Digital Revolution

You know how it works; once a document has been converted to a string of code(digitized), the code can be modified, resulting in corresponding changes in future copies of that document. You use your computer to read or modify the document by changing the code. That is great for documents, but it was found that the same principle applied to any manufactured object. In an assembly line run by digital computers, changes in code can be reflected in immediate changes in the manufactured product. That’s a big deal.

Furthermore, the digitized virtual object can be tested in a virtual environment and improved without having to build one. Many other things can be done with this virtual object, like ordering materials and designing the packaging or calculating shipping weight/cost, without ever having a real object. Computers have revolutionized the manufacturing process. It is easy to take that for granted these days, but just a few years ago, people used their brains to do the very same thing. Yes, believe it or not, people would build virtual models in their heads and test them to see how they would do.

Besides just the discovery of the DNA molecule itself, the big deal was to realize that DNA also functions like a string of code. Changes in the DNA result in corresponding changes in the bio-manufactured product.

Code Driven System

Once you understand the basics of a code driven system, it is obvious that random mutation cannot be the source of change in biological organisms. That is, the changing of one bit by random mutation compromises the code, maybe even breaks it. Coherent change can only occur when a viable string of code is added or replaced. It is like in a written language, the changing of a letter here and there doesn’t usually affect the meaning except in cases where changing one letter actually changes one word into another. Even then, the new word must fit into the old context to work. So these single errors are easily spotted and corrected and the overall meaning remains intact. In order to significantly change the meaning of a passage, many letters and words must be changed or rearranged. It is the same with DNA code; random mutation breaks the code, meaningful change happens when larger strings of code are added or replaced.

It has already been established that genetic material is fairly mobile in the environment. Fragments of genetic code are carried around by viruses and such. So we have a proven mechanism that can easily replace random mutation as the source of change in evolution. Well, it’s not easy, is it?.

This is not a new theory. The old theory is known as panspermia. A more modern version, Cosmic Ancestry contends that spore born organisms carry bits of DNA that are incorporated into the DNA of other species to produce change. Dr. Fred Hoyle has been telling us for years that spores are well adapted to travel in space. So, DNA arriving from space and being incorporated into terrestrial DNA could explain a lot of things that don’t presently make a lot of sense.

This would account for the some of the strange findings of the Human Genome Project like finding identical strings of DNA in humans and coral, for example. If the DNA evolves in place, identical strings of code in these two totally different animals doesn’t seem very likely. But it makes sense if genetic material moves around like packets in a network. Time to update our thinking in this area.

What’s holding up the paradigm shift? Once one starts down this path, it becomes a slippery slope that threatens to collapse the whole of western science. Recent discoveries in bio-electrics and quantum physics back up what the mystics, seers and sages(not to mention witchdoctors, hippies and new age cult leaders) have said all along… that the universe we live in is intelligent, willful and has a memory, as do all of the creatures that inhabit it with us.

If Darwin had used a computer, we could just go back into his original document and update the parts that need it and we would all have the new paradigm on our desktop. But alas, our document handling is still evolving.

cheers,
jim