Gestalt Universal Consciousness Philosophy?

Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a philosophy of mind of the Berlin School of experimental psychology. Gestalt psychology is an attempt to understand the laws behind the ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. The central principle of gestalt psychology is that the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies. This principle maintains that when the human mind (perceptual system) forms a percept or "gestalt", the whole has a reality of its own, independent of the parts. The original famous phrase of Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka, "The whole is other than the sum of the parts" is often incorrectly translated as "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" (... Wikipedia)

My personal philosophy describes the entirety of existence as a singular entity, "above" or "beyond" which is a singular consciousness, perhaps reflecting upon itself, I don't know; the scope of such a thing is beyond my level of understanding. It stems from Big Bang theory, in that all matter and energy (and thus all constituents) of our universe existed in a clump of some sort at the "beginning." Break us down to the fundamental levels and every thing is exactly the same thing. I find it arrogant that we assume because our bits organized in a way that we can become arrogant we find ourselves special. It doesn't add up to me that we are, aside from mathematically rare, especially considering life on any other parts of our universe. And that's a huge place; we can't mathematically define the size of the universe, but we can mathematically derive the probability of life developing, so us being absolutely alone doesn't work for me.

So coming from there, everything exists as it should. The fermions that are this laptop came together as this laptop and "experience" being this laptop. And all that stems from that; the light hitting the keys from my dim incandescent bulb, which exists to experience the mouldy air in my dank, cigarette-smoke filled cellar, and all of the other tropes associated with a conspiracy theory forum, so that the "overconsciousness" can know what it is to have experiences those things. And when I die, or the furnace filters get the tar from the smoke trapped in them and dumped in a month or so, or the laptop goes to the recycling dude, then our constituent parts get transmuted into whatever form the future holds, and continue to experience existence from their truly individual perspectives.

Reason for post, however, was not share that with y'all for the sake of sharing, but rather to ask the collective knowledge if there are any existing philosophies or modern metaphysical ideas that share a same line of thought? It's been a while since I've gone on a comparative religious reading streak, and I'm afraid I don't really know where to start without picking at random bits and probably getting burn out before reaching anything useful.

Thanks!

a reply to: Apoplexic

Have you read The Bhagavad Gita? Or The Upanishads?

I wonder if you are scratching-an-itch....or are starting a quest...


the gestalt reply would be ---- > both


thanks for the thread

a reply to: Apoplexic

I would suggest studying some Carl Jung and Quantum Field Theory side by side. Your mind will produce the differential philosophy, similar to the way binaural differential frequencies are perceived.

The Soul is imagined first, then the particularity of objects,
External and internal, as one knows, so one remembers.
As a rope, not perceived distinctly in dark, is erroneously imagined,
As snake, as a streak of water, so is the Soul (Atman) erroneously imagined.
As when the rope is distinctly perceived, and the erroneous imagination withdrawn,
Only the rope remains, without a second, so when distinctly perceived, the Atman.
When he as Pranas (living beings), as all the diverse objects appears to us,
Then it is all mere Maya (illlusion), with which the Brahman (Supreme Soul) deceives himself.

Gaudapada, Hindu Mandukya Upanishad


Its an interesting phrase "as one knows, so one remembers". It hints that even our now is a memory from the past. Perhaps it seems reality to us because its a more recent memory. But I drift.

Judiasm also has similar concepts but hidden in symbolism. You need to delve into Kabbalah to unravel it.

Buddhism concentrates on unravelling the I so we can understand the whole,

I would greatly appreciate a direction to where to begin with Hinduism. I recall trying to read something back in my college days, one of the big works, but it was very daunting, and I needed several tangents into ancient culture to grasp many of the terms used regularly throughout; I'm certain there's a "better" translation out there now, wherein the idioms of the book are rephrased into 'Murican terms I can grasp, but I still wouldn't know what to start with.

More recently, though still several years ago, I tried tracking through the Wikipedia sidebars related to it, but that's not exactly a navigational tool as much as it is just a list of related topics, and I'd still end up reading about pottery kilns because I had to track that far off course just to get what some singular term stood for.

And from what I can vaguely pull out at this whim, these are some of the oldest extant religious texts, and they predate the civilization they're from; whereas studying Judaism, say, you can then track back to Ancient Judaism and the precursor religions of the area and put together where they drew X theology or Y event. A study of Hinduism might as well be a study of the politics and culture at the time, and that makes it difficult to distinguish what is supposed to be part of a religion, and what is part of the organizational control of the populace.

Might be a good idea to go trawling back over this very forum- I've already found some gems in the archives- I'd link ya but half the fun is in the search

a reply to: Apoplexic


Begin with basic physics. Learn how physics uses the language of mathmatics to describe reality.

Then aquire at least a solid laymans understanding of the quantum field theory and the string theories. I suggest watching 'The Double Slit Experiment, by Doctor Quantum' on youtube. Thats a good little video to tickle anyones interest enough for them to want to look a bit deeper into the rabbit hole of the quantum world. It's pretty cool stuff.

From there progress into 11D Super gravity, M Theory and of course, Unified Field Theory. Which is the forefront of physics and the best mathmatical description we have to describe 'reality'.

You will soon see that 'reality' is described exactly as you believe it to be. A "universal consciousness" is the sole source of all energy in the universe, and beyond. A "Unified Field" that seems to produce the very wavelenths of energy that make up the strings to form photons, nuetrinos, quarks and electrons.

Mathmatically, it is all things. It is everything and everything is it. It is all that is, and all that is is it.

From Zoroastrans, the yogas, Buddhists and Hindis. And pretty much every other in between. This idea has been around for thousands of years.

Physics agrees, there seems to be a Unified Field underpinning the creation of all energy in the multiverse. Just like the yogis say there is. The maths is still incomplete. The theory still doesn't explain gravity.

But this is just my two cents. If you were looking for some real mind-opening 'elightenment' to start your spirtual quest, the Unified Field Theory is certainly an 'enlightening' reality to come to terms with. And it does shine a modern day understanding on all of those ancient belief systems. They really do say the exact same thing that we're seeing today in the physics labs across the world.

a reply to: Breakthestreak

You provide info that is potentially misleading- to date, no one has produced a solid, verifiable, mathematical Theory which unifies all fields.

There is, however, a theory of it existing. Much philosophy done in this regards as well. But no maths yet.

Yes agree. I started reading about Hinduism in books written by Paramahansa Yogananda who wrote specifically to western audience on the basics of Hinduism without all the ritualistic noise that impacts its veracity.

But in the end I didn't feel confident that Hinduism was the path for me. Buddhism as a a philophysy binds better with my gut feelings. So hopefully a Hindu can provide better advice.

a reply to: Apoplexic

Try yoga philosophy, anything authentic will resonate deeply with your own ideas from what you have described in your OP. Beware of the ‘new age’ nonsense that latches on to true yoga though.

A good place to start would be this author Yogi Ramacharaka.

a reply to: Breakthestreak

Ayup; I generally stop at "breakthroughs" come about in the last decade, and probably go down that reading line once every 3-5 years for a month or two as a refresher; too much happens too quickly these days, that I prefer it to be replicated and peer reviewed several times before I take it as something verifiable, even for my non-scientific uses. In particular when it comes to anything "Dark," since I find that to be just a convenient method of ignoring the holes in the math in favor of trying to make the math work, rather than assuming (like we used to) that the math itself is wrong. I have extreme problems with the use of zero in non-computing math, including how physicists estimate a particle's behavior in a "true vacuum," as I feel a zero function has no true meaning; everything always has been, so then it can not not be. A place in the universe with absolutely nothing in it wouldn't, by definition, be part of the universe, and it seems kind of silly to say "something can not exist, but we pretend it does for math." And yeah, that's very over-simplified, but it's my morning now and Calculus was always my weakest subject.

glend:
Paramahansa Yogananda

surfer_soul:
Yogi Ramacharaka

I'll be sure to check both of these out. As far as most New Age stuff goes, I read it as far as the marketing parts they always throw in, or when it's clear that it's just an amalgam of older, completely unrelated ideas mashed together to, again, sell something. It's like reading a conspiracy theory forum

And I'll trace their roots back, which typically provides a real, useful start, or did anyway until I found it usually went back to Gardner, Levi, et al. who then just modeled things off the same old sources. It's unfortunate we burned Alexandria or there might actually be old sources, but it is what it is.

Thanks again folks!

a reply to: Apoplexic

I think this is something along the lines you are asking for. I found it very interesting and useful

a reply to: Apoplexic
Have you heard of Non duality or the old name Advaita Vendanta?

Peter Brown points directly.
He posts every one of his meetings on audio on his website.theopendoorway.org...

Doesnt gestalt psychology actually equal the idea of a zeitgeist?

Picture this one holy thing and you have it,

Whatever you imagine is true to some extant..

Picture a pictureless philosophy!

Picture a perfect atrophy.. but nothing can weaken the zeitgeist but weakness itself..

The perfect tried and true categorical imperative!

Morals and truths are real.. and communicated via zeitgeist/gestalt methods!

So what is more of an inkblot but art and truth

And that is versus chaos and falsehood..

Even hate and vengeance have their place in gestalt methods.. but people are usaully judged for their artistic appeal!

a reply to: Apoplexic

We are ALL* fractals or parts of the WHOLE*

Fractals are A product of seperation.. division.. into and out of the meaning of nature.. its easy to get lost in fractals(imagery asvwell).. because they are art.. but the reason why they appear is clear.. they are a swirfull situlation.. on the by product of calculus and its imperatives..

originally posted by: Boundless1
Fractals are A product of seperation.. division..

Yet they the fractals appear to all be similar in design & connected parts of a lager whole...
Like the various ethnicities, genders, races, and religions of mankind for example all equaling the one or whole species of mankind.

Cool, man, I agree..

The eternal recurrence cant ultimately be dissociated from..

Thus we have reflections and mirrors.. which are explained imediately and independantly exist. And the knowledge of the source is oneness!

Its like tearing the fabric of the cosmos can only be so deep..

a reply to: glend


Why do people think these pithy statements of the Upanishads amount to anything more than metaphysical speculation? Why are social facts and social realities not treated as relevant? Do all religious/spiritual systems believe the same thing? Aren't there variations in numbers and emphasis on different things? Isn't there contradiction?

Powerful spiritual experiences exist. No one who is sane will doubt that. But we also need to keep track of all the various statements and claims, and by doing so acknowledge the human capacity for error: for asserting a specific thing to be the case, but end up being wrong.

For instance, I'm very much of the opinion that early-life brain development gone awry can not be "fixed" later on in life; we can become better and better at being kind and loving, but we can never really realize the value of the Earth and world we live upon when our first and most basic interactions with the world around us was so torn by breakdowns in recognition.

Adults who think and reflect and philosophize - do so from such poor semiotic conditions - from a bad and destroyed background world , that no wonder we end up settling - so many of us - on the same basic 'perennial tradition': we all grew through the same cities, through the same tensions, and in order to calm our hearts and souls, we claimed that the outside "wasn't" real, but just a reflection of our inside.

Projection - a basic concept at the heart of psychology - beckons us to consider a third person perspective on why we believe what we believe.

Mystics often have this nihilism about them; all is 'good' - therefore, nothing is real. The world of another, the world they experience, may be blissful; their earthly existence, rather than being painful and experienced negatively, is quite fun and enjoyable to them: there is no feeling of 'this is not real'. It's real; on fact, studying the objective relations between things is the most surefire way of realizing how our thinking has been affected, and therefore, provides relief from the nihilistic spirituality that dissociates the ego-mind from the world and relationships of the people around it.