Is Matter to Space what Thought is to Consciousness? (Short Read)

Is this where science and spirituality converge?

These excerpts come from “Thought as a System” by David Bohm (Book Summary):

Thought Ripple on Stream of Consciousness

Science + Spirituality: Is Matter to Space what Thought is to Consciousness? (David Bohm Short Excerpt)

Science: Matter is a Small Ripple on Space

“In modern physics, one of the things they say is that empty space is full of energy, a vast amount of energy. Each wave in empty space has a certain minimum energy, even when it’s empty, and if you add up all the waves it would be infinite. But if you add up waves down to a certain length called the Planck length (ten to the minus thirty-three centimeters—a very short distance—beyond which we might expect the present laws of physics not to hold) the total energy in a cubic centimeter would be more than the energy of all the matter in the universe.”

“Even when we talk of things being ‘here’, they are really small ripples on some vast energy which is circulating. The only reason that this energy doesn’t show up is because matter and light go right through it without deflecting. What we experience as empty space may be the fullness. It may be that the ground of existence is in the empty space—which is really full. Matter is a small variation of it.”

“The idea is that space is mostly full, and that matter is a small ripple on it. You can make a very strong case for that according to modern physics.”

Spirituality: Thought is a Small Ripple on Consciousness

“Similarly, we could say that whatever is behind the mind—the consciousness, or whatever you want to call it—is a vast stream and on the surface are ripples which are thought. This seems to be an analogy … Maybe mind is another ‘side’ of that same thing—that which we call energy on one side is mind on the other side. That is, energy is pervaded with a kind of intelligence, out of which perhaps insight comes, or deeper perceptions of truth.”

“Being in this mode of consciousness we are now in, this ripple (thought) seems to be everything. It is represented to be everything and therefore perceived as everything.”

“We say thought is a representation, it’s a form … A representation is always a form; but that form then becomes, apparently, a part of ‘what is’. Now, everybody can see that a representation is hardly more than a ripple; it doesn’t have much substance—anybody can see that. But when it fuses with perception, then it seems to have all the substance.”

“Thought takes itself as very big. But maybe it’s just a ripple on the stream. And the stream is the stream of consciousness. So the stream of consciousness has to be aware of itself. But that’s no great thing because consciousness is simply allowed to be aware. The question is: can the stream of consciousness be proprioceptively aware of this ripple that it is producing, just as it is aware of how it moves the body?”

How this projects a “self”:

“What we ‘see’ is a self; but what we actually have is a whole lot of thoughts going on in consciousness. Against the backdrop of consciousness we are projecting a self.”

“Everything we know is a form, which we sort of project onto the background of consciousness … It can be projected correctly or incorrectly; it’s not that every form is as good as every other.”

“I’m suggesting that if you try to touch the self, it will be the same difficulty as trying to touch the rainbow. We have a representation of the self, which is really arising in a process. We don’t know this process very well; but the attempt to treat the self as an object is just not going to mean anything. So instead, suppose we say that this self is unknown. Its origin, its ground is unknown. And it is constantly revealing itself, through each person or through nature or through various other ways.”

A final watch-out:

“I’m suggesting that there is available on awareness, a stream of consciousness, which is more fundamental, which I imaged as being in the depth of the ocean. But awareness, too, may be confused with the operation of the system, because the system can make a representation of awareness and then take the representation to be that fundamental consciousness itself.”

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