The reflexive universe: Evolution of Consciousness by Arthur M. Young

Author:Arthur M. Young
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, pdf
Publisher: Anodos Foundation
Published: 2015-12-28T05:00:00+00:00

1 Light

7 ?

Level

II

2 Particles

6 Animals

Level III

3 Atoms

5 Plants

Level IV

4 Molecules

It will be recalled that level I is outside time. Level II exists in time, but has no beginning or ending: its energy is transformable, but indestructible; so likewise the fundamental particles. Level III covers forms: its entities can be constructed and taken apart. Their existence, in time as well as space, is finite. Since the sixth or animal principle is at level II, it is not finite; like energy, it may change form, but cannot cease to exist.

What does this mean? Surely an animal’s existence is finite. It is born, it dies. That is according to existing conceptions, but not according to the theory we are presenting. Based on what we can deduce about the levels, the animal principle (as distinguished from the cellular body of the animal) must continue to exist after the cellular organism dies.

This implies that the animal principle is quite distinct from the cellular organization with which we normally identify it.

Animal death is abrupt and distinct. The cellular organism may still be there for a time afterwards and may even remain alive in the sense that cells continue to grow (hair and fingernails continue to grow after death); but from the moment after death the animal (animating principle) is gone. The death of a plant is quite different. It is impossible to say when it occurs, if indeed it does. When a tree is cut down, the stump will sprout and with some species produce a tree again. Flowers blossom in a vase of water; fruits ripen after being picked; seeds may germinate even after thousands of years.

But we cannot say that the seed is immortal, for it can be destroyed, a consequence of the fact that it is composite. The animal principle, on the contrary, being at level II, is not composite; it cannot be destroyed.

This gives support to the existence of something which could be referred to as an “animal soul” (interestingly, the word animus means

“animating spirit”) which not only survives the death of the animal, but has existed throughout the history of the species. Such an entity would account for instinct by providing an indefinitely long period for learning and an explanation of its inheritance in the young animals.

But because all animals of the same species have the same instincts, we can say that these animals have the same soul, that is, a group soul.

In other words, there is presumably a group soul for polar bears, a group soul for wrens, a group soul for the wasp that buries its eggs in larvae, and a group soul for bees. Instinct can accordingly be regarded as a fixed pattern of activity inherited by the species collectively from behavior learned earlier in its history.

It is our business to fill in the blanks which the theory affords, to apply to theory. Here is a case in point. The theory anticipates something analogous to energy at the sixth stage which, like the energy of science, is conserved.

If

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