Jonathan Pageau's talk presents a framework for understanding reality based on symbolism, drawing heavily from the creation narrative in Genesis.
We are witnessing the end of materialism or physicalism.
This is evidenced in physics by the problem of the observer and in broader thought by concepts like complexity theory and emergence. Materialism, which separated mind and body, is reaching its limits as we realise the significance of the viewer, the interpreter, and consciousness itself.
Evolutionary thinking also encounters this issue when trying to explain the motivations of the humans doing the interpreting. This has opened the door to questions of emergence, qualia, and crucially, attention.
The world is infinitely complex, and our ability to encounter it relies on pattern recognition. This isn't just psychological but a cosmological argument: reality itself is structured through patterns that exist at multiple levels.
This brings back the relevance of concepts like intelligence and consciousness in understanding reality, echoing ancient thinkers like Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle's ideas of potentiality and actuality resonate with our daily experience. Furthermore, teleology, or purpose, is re-emerging as significant, even within evolutionary thinking, as the recognition of a cup relies on understanding its purpose. Science itself is embedded within social systems and hierarchies of purpose.
This understanding leads to the idea that ritual is not only sensible but inevitable. Everything we do is patterned and directed towards a purpose.
Unity through Multiplicity
Even simple acts like drinking water are ritualised. Human interactions are also deeply ritualised, relying on patterns like call and response. This pattern scales up to social interactions, where shared purpose and identity are maintained through ritual. A team, for example, is bound by a common purpose and identity manifested in rituals like the rules of the game and shared symbols, including something akin to worship or reverence towards what binds them together.
Knowing an identity also necessitates judging what is inside and outside the group based on its reason for existing, its _logos_. The failure to maintain this distinction can lead to the dissolution of the group.
This pattern is a cosmological argument about how reality works, based on the necessity of intelligence for reality to unfold.
This idea is surfacing even in science, with concepts like the strong anthropic principle suggesting that consciousness or intelligence is essential for discerning and participating in patterns. This participation is not passive but an active, embodied relationship with the world.
Consequently, intelligent perception, the perception of embodied intelligence, becomes the primary mode of engagement and interpretation.
This challenges the purely abstract, scientific approach that seeks to stand outside and analyse. We are participants _within_ stories, communities, and images, and these are fundamental to our existence.
Embodied Reality
This proposition is radical, implying that the full truth of these ideas requires us to dive in and embody them, while being aware of the inherent problems of this pattern, such as exclusion.
Exclusion is a necessary aspect of any group because it cannot be the totality of everything. However, there are ways to manage exclusion to avoid self-destruction or chaos.
The First Chapter of Genesis
A demonstration of how the world manifests through intelligence and consciousness.
- In the beginning, God, representing the head or principle, creates heaven and earth.
- Earth is described as formless and empty, associated with darkness and the deep (waters).
- Heaven is spirit, wind, breath, and speech – the unseen.
- This initial separation establishes two basic principles: spirit and potential, or actuality and potential, a universal dichotomy.
- The creation of light is the first act, associated with heaven and spirit, while darkness is linked to the void. The separation of light and darkness into day and night marks the first day.
- On the second day, God creates a vault (sky) to separate waters above from waters below, introducing a secondary heaven and the beginning of a fractal pattern. Augustine considered everything visible in the sky as part of the "earth," a secondary heaven pointing to the truly invisible patterns. The regular patterns of reality are evident in the heavens (sun, moon, stars), while the earthly patterns are more irregular.
- The third day sees the gathering of waters to one place and the appearance of dry ground (land) and seas. God then creates vegetation that bears seed, highlighting the pattern of identity (seed) and variability (plant). This fractal process continues, with identity and potentiality repeating at different levels.
- On the fourth day, lights in the sky (sun, moon, stars) are created as signs to mark time and to govern day and night, demonstrating the same light/dark pattern even in the heavens. The pattern is fractal all the way through.
- The fifth day is marked by the creation of living creatures in the sea and birds in the sky. The seemingly strange pairing of birds and fish on the same day makes sense when understood as a repetition of the heaven/earth (above/below) pattern. Even within the sea, there is a separation between fish (eatable, encounterable) and sea monsters (dangerous).
This challenges a purely scientific reading of Genesis, as the creation of vegetation before the sun and moon is logical within a pattern of reality focused on potentiality and its resolution.
#### The bottom aspects of the pattern often appear first, as a potential or puzzle calling for an answer from above (meaning, light). This mirrors our experience of encountering something unknown and then identifying and judging it.
- The sixth day involves the creation of land animals, categorised as livestock (closer to human intelligence), wild animals (in the chaos), and creatures that move along the ground (hidden in darkness) – continuing the same hierarchical pattern of meaning and identification.
Finally, humankind is created in God's image and likeness to rule over all other creatures. This rule is not necessarily negative but reflects the idea that intelligence is the locus where reality is encountered, identified, and judged.
Humankind, as an image of God, participates in the same creative acts at a lower level: casting light, identifying, and judging.
This places humankind at the centre, where these patterns converge. Humankind is blessed to be fruitful, increase, fill the earth, and subdue it – again, in the sense of identifying and making it participate in a pattern of meaning.
Importantly, humans are created male and female, suggesting an initial androgyny and that humankind itself is a microcosm of the heaven and earth duality.
Connecting to Genesis 2, note the different emphasis where humankind appears at the outset, before other creations. This narrative describes God forming man from the dust of the ground and breathing life into him.
This act of gathering potential (dust) and imbuing it with purpose (breath) is the fundamental process by which we encounter everything in reality.
The world presents itself as indefinite potential, and intelligence gathers this potential into forms, imbuing them with meaning and purpose, thus creating a living world. The Genesis description is not just a scientific account but one that includes the necessary role of intelligence and our embodied being in understanding reality.
Unlike Science - this offers a cosmic vision that includes the viewer in the understanding of the world.
This pattern of heaven and earth can be further understood with associated concepts: father/mother, spirit/body, light/darkness, quality/quantity, identity/variability.
The logos or speech descends from heaven (father) and connects with earth (mother), often symbolised by a mountain or pyramid as the meeting point.
There are also centrifugal (dispersing towards multiplicity) and centripetal (moving towards identity) forces at play in our attention and in all embodied entities, akin to Jung's _coagula solve_ in alchemy.
This basic pattern is reflected in various structures: a temple with the holy of holies at the top representing divine descent and levels of quantification moving outwards; a church with the altar as the high point and the dispersal of sacraments to the faithful; and the ancient Greek understanding of their world with a central _omphalos_ receiving oracles, surrounded by Greeks, known strangers, barbarians, and then monsters at the periphery.
This is not just a subjective experience but scales up to social structures and reflects a cosmic pattern.
Ascension of Christ illustrates the principle above and multiplicity below; Baptism depicting Christ joining heaven and earth by descending into the waters of chaos with the Spirit above and sea monsters below; a personal "image of everything" capturing the biblical narrative as this pattern; and the Last Judgment as the ultimate manifestation of this pattern with the Father above, the Logos descending, and the separation of salvation and damnation below, involving the ascent of souls guided by angels and hindered by demons.
