Alternating Consciousness. From Perception to Infinities and Back to Free Will

Claus Janew

Mind-Expanding

Can we trace back consciousness, reality, awareness, and free will to a single basic structure without giving up any of them? Can the universe exist in both real and individual ways without being composed of both? This dialogue founds consciousness and freedom of choice on the basis of a new reality concept that also includes the infinite as far as we understand it. Just the simplest distinction contains consciousness. It is not static, but a constant alternation of perspectives. From its entirety and movement, however, there arises a freedom of choice being more than reinterpreted necessity and unpredictability. Although decisions ultimately involve the whole universe, they are also free in varying degrees here and now. The unity and openness of the infinite enables the individual to be creative while this creativity directly and indirectly enters into all other individuals without impeding them. A contrary impression originates only in a narrowed awareness. But even the most conscious and free awareness can neither anticipate all decisions nor extinguish individuality. Their creativity is secured. 

"Great Read. Thank you for putting your work out into a conscious space for all. Much appreciated." 

Marcel P. Londt, PhD, South Africa

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Also in this book:

The Reality of Free Will

The uniqueness of each standpoint, each point of effect, can only be "overcome" by the standpoint changing to other standpoints and returning. In such alternation, which can also appear as constant change, lies the unity of the world. The wholeness of an alternation, however, is a structure of consciousness due to the special relationship between the circumscribing periphery and the infinitesimal center. This process structure brings determinacy and indeterminacy together, unifying them completely. Therefore, everywhere we are dealing with forms of consciousness that have more or less freedom of choice and an increasingly unknown depth. We live in a world of choosing consciousness, or rather awareness. In this respect, our environment expresses a deep truth about ourselves.

"I am impressed by the comprehensiveness of your interdisciplinary approach. There are some major philosophical concepts which you weave very well into a necessary system of reality: potential, the one and the many, alternation, constant change, the reality and uniqueness of oneiric experience and the whole, interdependence, infinity, the mandate of opposites and many more. The combination of these ideas cannot be attributed solely to any other of the established classical and modern thinkers of whom I am aware. I thank you for your enlightenment."

E W Ralph, UK

How to create artificial consciousness

Is there a way to verify or falsify the central thesis of my theory?

Yes, an AI must be constructed so that it comes as close as possible to an ideal infinitesimality-structured state, and also so that this state can be brought about continuously. The continuous transition is necessary in order to be able to calculate an expected distribution of outcomes from the i-structured state from the statistical distribution of outcomes from the non-i-structured state in the event that consciousness does not occur. If the expectation occurs, the theory is falsified. If, on the other hand, “anomalies” occur, they support consciousness in the sense of the theory.

How to create artificial consciousness

I am not an engineer, but I would like to convey the idea of how we can create artificial consciousness with free will using the concept of infinitesimality structure. The basic principle is surprisingly simple and has probably already been realized here and there. We need

How Consciousness Creates Reality. The Full Version

Claus Janew

Profound

The main argument in this book is the undeniable openness of every system to the unknown. And the fundamental question goes: What does this openness produce?

We are a part of the infinite universe and an incorporation of its wholeness. Both for us means an individualized reality, through which the universe expresses itself and on the other hand through which it is built up with. It also means our necessity, importance and indestructibility for the sum of its incorporations. Most connections among ourselves are hardly conscious for us. Meanwhile the infinitesimality structure of all consciousness guarantees not only the logical lack of inconsistency of these connections but also the freedom of choice of every individual.

Our goal by no means can be to decide completely consciously. Responsibility contains spontaneity or rather trust in a meaningful working together of the forces. We increasingly become aware of our role in the entire relationship and we learn to contribute optimally to the value fulfillment of all individuals, ourselves included. Beyond the supposed differences between objective and subjective reality, we at some point of awareness comprehend that we create our reality out of our innermost depths.

"A fabulously good work. Arguments and expositions are coherent. Fascinating!" 

Karin Kuretschka, Germany

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"Claus Janew's undertaking to put down on paper mental processes and procedures that we cannot always analyze, recognize, or follow with our external senses, and especially the depth with which he treats the subject, is simply admirable." 

Ingomar Doering, United States

"Again and again I open it, reread passages, chapters, and follow your thoughts, smile, thank you inwardly that you wrote it, spent years finding words and ways for it, and realize in everything the perfect solution..." 

C. I. M., Germany

How Consciousness Creates Reality

Claus Janew

Most Read

This is the abridged version of the book of the same title, written out of the desire to examine the structure of our reality from a standpoint unbiased by established teachings, be they academic-scientific, popular-esoteric, or religious in nature. It begins with seemingly simple interactions in our daily lives, examines how they originate on a deeper level, comes to understand the essentials of consciousness, and finally recognizes that we create our reality in its entirety. In the course of this quest, the reader will uncover little-heeded paths to accessing the subconscious, other individuals, and that which can be understood by the term "God". And the solution to the classical problem of free will constitutes the gist of the concepts thus revealed. 

"There is no book that explains consciousness in such a clear way as it is given in this book."
Rajagopalan Madasami, India

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Omnipresent Consciousness and Free Will

This article is not an attempt to explain consciousness in terms of quantum physics or neurobiology. Instead, I would like to place the concept of “consciousness” on a broader foundation. I will therefore start from everyday reality, from precisely the point where we experience ourselves as conscious beings. I will define the concept so broadly that the question of whether only humans possess consciousness or whether a thermostat does as well is resolved; the difference is considerable, but not fundamental: every effect consists in the perception of consciousness. Accordingly, I will address its freedom of choice, which I consider the most important source of creativity. The problem of a truly conscious decision does not disappear by mixing determination with a dash of chance. Both must merge into a higher unity. It will then become clear that a certain degree of freedom of choice is just as ubiquitous as consciousness – an inherent part of reality itself. 

Dynamic Existence

What is real? What is creation?

Everything is in motion. "Inertness" arises from (approximative) repetition, that is, through rotation or an alternation that delineates a focus of consciousness. This focus of consciousness, in turn, must also move/alternate (the two differ only in continuity). If its alternation seems to go too far - physically, psychically or intellectually - it reaches into the subconscious. In this way, interconnection is established by the alternation of the focus of consciousness. Therefore, in a world in which everything is interconnected, all focuses must reciprocally transition into each other. "Reality" is a common "goal", a focus which all participants can switch into and which is conscious to them as such, as a potential one. Its "degree of reality" is the probability of its fully becoming conscious (or more simply: its current degree of consciousness). Thus, a reality is created when all participants increase its probability or, respectively, their consciousness of it.

Laws of Form:  Why Spencer-Brown is missing the point

Radical constructivism - a hollow shell?

On focus dynamic

Awareness Meditation Template (World Formula)

From zero to infinity and from free will to anything and vice versa. The metaphysical "world formula."

Click here to view the PDF slides. The center and the unfamiliar symbol are both clickable.

The Original German version is here.

Nonarguments

Nonarguments raised by some researchers against my book How Consciousness Creates Reality. The Full Version or its German original, and my responses to them:

1. "It is not written in a modern 'scientific' format."

Correct. It is written in a free style, as in the time when great discoveries were made in philosophy.

 

Alternation and Approximation: Notes on the Foundations of Consciousness

This is a collection of unpublished reflections on the structural conditions underlying consciousness, agency, and perception. Central is the concept of infinitesimality structure, a theoretical framework that aims to reconcile determinacy and indeterminacy in decision-making processes and perceptual experience. Building on my major work, How Consciousness Creates Reality – The Full Version, I assume that consciousness emerges through dynamic processes of condensation, approximation, and alternation.

Subconscious - Free or Not?

If we combine the results of Consciousness I and Consciousness II as well as Awareness I and Awareness II, the following picture emerges:

• We are aware of what exists for us in the circumscribing alternation of perspectives as their common approximation.
• When perspectives slip away from the approximation, we can still be aware of them. They exist as such in constant alternation.
• Everything that exists dynamically (i.e., alternately) transitions in a funnel-like manner from the most conscious "opening" through a perspectively "narrowing" stem into an awareness that we can call subconscious.
• This subconscious ultimately extends to All That Is.

All That Is – What is Awareness? (II)

If every perspective is individual and if structures arise only from circumscribing alternations, then alternation cannot be limited to the Awareness (I) of a human being. Rather, every point of view, every place of effect must alternate and arise from alternations. (Ultimately, it is the alternation of infinitely small points of an I-structure - defined in What is Consciousness? (I)).

This consequence entails others:

1. We must basically be able to put ourselves into the individual awareness of other humans (and even non-humans). Indeed, we empathize with others; otherwise we could not communicate with them. We at least repeatedly approximate their points of view and thus converse with persons who are similar to them. If we were to put ourselves completely in their position, our consciousness would quickly be overwhelmed and would have to repress most of it into the subconscious.
2. Changing a point of view is changing the whole reality (a rearrangement of the Reality Funnel), namely from a foreseen, probable reality to an even more probable one, the present reality. As one reality takes precedence, the others fall into their subordinate position. They become or remain potential, just as the one that now takes precedence was before. But they do not disappear: They are still aware standpoints 

The Reality Funnel - What is Consciousness? (II)

In What is Consciousness? (I) we considered the formation of i-structures through circumscription, and in What is Awareness? (I) the alternation of perspective as such. But basically both are one and the same.

Circumscribing movement - consciousness - is of course an alternation of individual points of view. And the perception of an alternation - awareness - also circumscribes a constant center. The difference between emphasized circumscription and emphasized alternation lies in the density of the circumscribed central area. If the circumscribing alternation (for example, between facades) forms an object (a house), the content-dense center symbolizes its unity ("being inside"). If the alternation is perceived more as such, the object character is thin ("Is it several houses or one?").

The maximum of unity is in the intuitive center point, while the maximum of alternation is in the alternation itself. That is, the alternation is authoritative and the circumscription is derived. (Without facades, there is no interior.)

What is Awareness? (I)

The uniqueness of each standpoint, each point of view, can obviously only be "overcome" by changing the standpoint to other standpoints. And returning. In such alternation alone, which can also appear as constant change, lies the unity of the world.

The grasping of this dynamic unity goes beyond mere consciousness, because Consciousness (I) always tends to circumscribing condensation, i.e. to the formation of symbolic, quasi-static objects. In contrast, the change to other points of view - other individual attitudes - is naturally more open. The perception of this alternation is what I call awareness.

How is Freedom of Choice Possible?

The question of whether we can freely choose among several possibilities, without imagining this freedom or confusing it with chance, leads us to the truth about our responsibility. For if we had to answer for something that came from us but was not decided by us, it would be no more than the responsibility of a cloud for its rain.

To find the answer, let us consider the simple choice between two continuations of our day, for example, whether to go to the cinema or to the theater. Actually, we like both equally, although sometimes we feel more like one than the other. Today, however, we really don't care; we could just as well flip a coin. But we don't - that would be too cheap. We think. We put ourselves into the cinema, then into the theater, then back into the present, and so on. In this way we circumscribe the entirety of the decision situation, the present being its center. Strictly speaking, this center is infinitely small, right in the middle of the whole circumscription with all its details. That is, in us.

What is Consciousness? (I)

Whatever consciousness "is" - it must have structure. Even emptiness can only be defined in contrast to fullness and non-duality versus duality (as the word says). Or it is simply "Mu". And that would be the end of this paper - and everything else.

I suggest that we take some time with this and try to start from a consciousness that is as concrete as possible, from a conscious object, say a water glass. We perceive something that we distinguish from ourselves. We also distinguish it from its environment (table, cupboard, room) and determine it in comparison with other known things (table, cup, plate) to what it "is". That is, we circumscribe its existence by comparison. Likewise, it stabilizes itself through external and internal interactions (pouring and drinking, molecular attraction and repulsion).

Individuality and Reality

Your individuality is much more than a little peculiarity. It is a view that nothing and no one has but you. Otherwise it/he/she would be you. Also, you will have changed your perspective - yourself - in the next moment, and you cannot turn back time.

For convenience, we agree on "common" objects that are supposedly perceived by everyone, although everyone is looking at things from his or her own point of view. If you see me rolling a pen across the table to you, you may think it is the same pen that I see. But I see something completely different from what you see. There is not the slightest concord between my perception and yours. Otherwise, I would be sitting in your place, having your thoughts, memories, and feelings, and connecting them to a shape that is rolling toward me.

Radical constructivism - a hollow shell?

Radical constructivism was initially formulated by Ernst von Glasersfeld. 

Radical constructivists do not speak of creating reality, but of constructing reality. What is the difference?

"Creating reality" ultimately means creating everything, without exception. "Constructing reality" means interpreting external "disturbances" and thus shaping effects.

Thus the constructivist has the lesser claim, but at the price of inconsistency. He cannot avoid including an external cause of effect that essentially determines his construction. In principle, however, he cannot and does not want to know by what this obviously pre-structured effect is exerted. What is important is only what is useful in the context of one's own life, whereby "usefulness" is equally constructed and thus co-determined by this external something, and so on.

Instead, he might well admit that there is an external reality, the effect of which he is only further constructing. But he would not be saying anything essentially new. And once he admits its pre-structuring, he might as well go on to ask what else there is to "pre-recognize". And with that, he abolishes the radicality of constructivism.

Reality and creation in a nutshell (dynamic existence)

Everything is in motion. "Inertness" arises from (approximative) repetition, that is, through rotation or an alternation that delineates a focus of consciousness.

This focus of consciousness, in turn, must also move/alternate (the two differ only in continuity). If its alternation seems to go too far - physically, psychically or intellectually - it reaches into the subconscious.

In this way, interconnection is established by the alternation of the focus of consciousness. Therefore, in a world in which everything is interconnected, all focuses must reciprocally transition into each other.

"Reality" is a common "goal", a focus which all participants can switch into and which is conscious to them as such, as a potential one. Its "degree of reality" is the probability of its fully becoming conscious (or more simply: its current degree of consciousness).

Thus, a reality is created when all participants increase its probability or, respectively, their consciousness of it.

• Perception of dynamic existence is awareness.
• Awareness is infinitesimality-structured.

Focus dynamic

Excerpts from the summarizing chapters of my book How Consciousness Creates Reality – The Full Version. This topic is developed and explained with many examples in the regular chapters of the book and also to a certain extent in its abridged version How Consciousness Creates Reality.

The perception of any object is a unique whole, the summit of an individual maximized in a vanishingly small center, and it is only through the transition into its own until then subconscious that an individual reaches another whole (another object). The transition can entail an effect after all, something of the preceding object, and the way back, a retroaction. In this way, a new individual, a new summit, is circumscribed – one that is conscious of the two earlier ones differently, or not at all.

On the four quadrants (perspectives) of consciousness by Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber's system of four quadrants is a workable concept for organizing worldviews, I think. However, the reduction from second person to first person plural ignores the essential quality of dialogue: When I say "you," I do not mean "we," nor do I mean "I" or "he." These are merely aspects of the "you". The main point is the change of perspective as such that creates the dialogue, the perception of another individual as itself and thus the second person view. I change my point of view to the other's point of view (at least partly) and come back to a new own point of view, and so on. Since this change underlies all the other quadrant views (you are only "he" when I am mainly I), it could be the middle quadrant or the big one that underlies/encompasses the others.

Definition of the infinitesimality structure

Multitude cannot exist without oneness, and oneness cannot exist without being determined by multitude.

Oneness, however, means identity, and identity, in its final consequence, through all "stages," is a zero point. On the other hand, this infinitesimal center needs to be circumscribed by details. So, despite the details' identity in oneness, they as individuals have to find their way into circumscription. And as individuals, they contain infinitesimal centers by themselves, etc. Therefore, the circumscription of such a center is a changing between single points.

This means that an existing structure includes both extremes: absolute identity and absolute separation. Their unity must also be constituted by change – now between the common point of identity and separateness. Both are nothing at all without this change, by which they are determined only. The unity built that way of oneness and multitude in turn has its infinitesimal center of identity...

The same is valid for every area on every scale. A continuum of this kind is the precondition of permanent objects. Through the omnipresent change between the extremes of identity and separation, any point is immediately joined with each other, as well as continuously mediated and also apart from the others.