Ch. 1 of The Monad Manifesto: Merging Science and Spirituality  (Text only without illustrations of the First Edition 2022.)

The Monad Manifesto

The focused awareness you feel right now reading this page—that spark of consciousness you take for granted—is more mysterious and powerful than anything you will ever read in any book. What is happening in the background in your mind at this moment is more profound than anything I could possibly write in the pages that follow. The truth is we are blissfully ignorant of the sea of awareness in which we are immersed.

We’re like schools of fish swimming in the ocean who have no idea what water is. We follow the meanderings of the crowd and never question the fluid environment of consciousness in which our lives play out. Stop for a moment to step back and observe—not what you are doing but how you are doing it.

Where do your thoughts and feelings come from? Why does reality allow you to have conscious experience? Why does your conscious mind exist at all? Anything you are aware of at a given moment becomes part of your consciousness, yet why is the same moment witnessed by others an independent inner experience for them? Why are our minds separate from one another and not shared like they are in the group mind of birds, dolphins, and wolves or in the hive mentality exhibited by insects?

Even more mystifying, how is it possible for human beings to understand the embedded logic that runs the whole universe? What is in our consciousness that allows our mathematics to give such an amazingly accurate description of the real world? On the other hand, how can we feel or experience things that are not real at all, such as in our imagination and dreams? Where Does Consciousness Come From?

How can a completely physical process in the brain give rise to an inner, self-aware experience of mindful presence in an individual? How is it possible for the boundless awareness and staggering richness of your personal experiences to originate in a 2-pound gelatinous blob of grey matter? This is known as the “hard problem” of consciousness that no one has solved.

Some scientists believe that consciousness arises automatically when the neuronal network in the brain—or for that matter, the number of connections between networked computers—becomes sufficiently complex. Other scientists think consciousness arises from unknown effects of quantum chemistry in the brain or from quantum interactions inside tiny microtubules found at the center of nerve cells. Some think consciousness is not in the brain at all but exists as a primordial force everywhere in the universe. In that view, consciousness emerged from the Big Bang and existed before spacetime. All these questions are part of the fundamental puzzle of consciousness.

However, today—after millennia of trying to solve it—the puzzle of consciousness is beginning to take shape. We have assembled all the pieces and most of them are already in place, and we are just beginning to see the overall picture we have been working on—it’s not like anything we ever expected. Beginning with an intuitive physical science that viewed energy as spirits that influenced matter, we have progressed through the Newtonian view of a materialistic, billiard-ball universe to the relativistic Einstein paradigm in which the universe is an interplay of energy and matter in the continuum of spacetime. Then, with the advent of quantum physics, we discovered undeniable evidence that consciousness is a fundamental force in the shaping of physical reality.

Focusing consciousness on a quantum event determines its outcome. For instance, when we try to observe an electron, we force it to assume a definite position in space, and our consciousness produces the results of the measurement. So, in modern physics, consciousness acts like a creative force in the quantum foam from which the physical world emerges.

Today, we are finally piecing together the emerging metaparadigm of consciousness—the new framework in which future models of reality will develop. What we are discovering is that what we thought were the laws of physics and matter are really the archetypal laws of mind.


The Field of Awareness

Philosophers and scientists have argued about the nature of consciousness for centuries and—despite the startling evidence emerging from quantum physics—they will continue to do so for centuries more. But it really doesn’t matter. Deep in your soul, you probably already know the truth. Like swimming fish who can feel the watery world around them without naming it, each of us can sense the invisible field of awareness in which our conscious life unfolds.

In all human societies there has arisen the sense of a greater presence, a pervasive awareness outside themselves. This hidden presence has been pictured in human minds ever since we became sentient beings, and we have called it by many different names. There seems to be an abiding conscious force in the universe that exists outside our thoughts.

At some time in our lives, most of us have felt the ineffable background of being—an ever-present field of awareness—in which our personal experiences play out. This primordial presence has always been there—it has existed without our participation before space and time began. This background field of awareness is related to the concept of the “ground of being.”

The phrase, which was popularized by the German philosopher Paul Tillich, is a way of thinking about “being” as something in which we are immersed or grounded without having to refer to the idea of a God in heaven directing our lives. Tillich called the ground of being and awareness the Urgrund (“Original Ground”) and argued that it’s the source of the true divine mind beyond human attributes and description. For Tillich, God is Being itself, in the sense of the power of Being to conquer Nonbeing. In his view, if the field of awareness from the divine mind—or the active participation of whatever sustains the universe—suddenly disappeared, all Nature would collapse.

The idea that being and awareness arose from nonbeing out of nothingness—and is holding back the return to nothingness—is a common thread in many traditions. The concept was first expressed in writing 3,500 years ago in Egypt in descriptions of the monistic god the Aten, an abstract solar disk that is the source of all light, consciousness, and being in the universe.

Then, about 2,500 years ago, the Buddhist tradition began developing techniques to reach the state of “pure nothingness” or “original mind” free of all distractions to experience the underlying field of pure being and awareness that was born out of the Void. In the Middle Ages, Christian mystic Meister Eckhart called the ground of being the Istigkeit (“Isness”) or eternal state of being, which—rather than non-being—is at the heart of all things. This ground of being—the primordial field of awareness that surrounds us—is the origin of your conscious mind. So, in reality, the core of what you are lies elsewhere.

Like the universe that surrounds us, your source is in the Oneness beyond the duality of existence. That inseparable awareness from which everything is sourced is a singularity in time and space known as the Monad.


What Is the Monad?

The word “monad” is derived from the Greek monas ("singularity"). The word was used by Pythagoras around 500 BCE to describe the first being or first thing that came into existence—a single, indivisible source acting alone to create reality. The Monad is the one intelligent cause of everything—the absolute source of creation. In science, it is the Singularity before the Big Bang from which our physical universe emerged.

Pythagoras used the circled-dot symbol to designate the Monad—a dimensionless point bounded by the circumference of the circle. The symbol conveys the idea of a brilliant point of light establishing a boundary of light in the darkness. This same symbol became associated with the Sun and the solar metal gold.

Pythagoras developed a cosmology based on the pre-existing Monad that became the dominant metaphysical model of creation for nearly 2,000 years. In Pythagoras’ model, known as the “Tetractys,” the first ten numbers are viewed as points of creation arranged in a triangular pattern in four rows.

The source point with zero dimensions is the Monad or Unity. The next level is the Dyad or Duality, which creates power and movement through the interaction of opposites in one dimension (i.e., a line with two points). The third level (the Triad) represents harmony through the reconciliation of opposites. This level has two dimensions (i.e., a plane defined by a triangle of three points). The fourth level of the Tetrad represents the Four Elements of creation in the physical universe. This level has three dimensions (i.e., a solid tetrahedron defined by four points). The four rows of points in the Tetractys add up to ten, which is a higher order unity called the Dekad.

The Pythagoreans worshipped the Tetractys as the key to the universe. The first century Alexandrian alchemist-prophet Maria Prophetissima became famous for her description of the movement of the divine mind through the pattern of the Tetractys: “One becomes Two, Two becomes Three, and out of the Third comes the One as the Fourth.” Maria’s axiom succinctly captures the mystical mechanism at work in Pythagorean cosmology.

From the dimensionless oneness of the Monad was born the duality of the Dyad through the projection or “speaking” of the logos (“the Word”). The Dyad naturally becomes the Triad by the reconciliation of opposites that creates a new third thing, and out of that is manifested the intended logos of the Monad. In Hermetic literature, the Monad is known as the “One Mind” and is completely separate from the world, while the dyadic level of creative power is referred to as the “Mind of Nature” or simply “Mind the Maker.”

The monadic model of the Pythagoreans has greatly influenced Western philosophy, religion, and science, and similar ideas of the Monad have taken root in Eastern traditions. Throughout the world, even in the most primitive tribal cultures, this primeval pattern of creation is played out in countless myths and rituals.


The Principle of Zero Ontology

The dyadic emanation of duality from the Monad is necessary for our existing in time and space. Since the universe sprang from nothing, everything in it must add up to zero for it to remain nothing. Our existence is like walking a tightrope between opposing forces that cancel out each other—matter-antimatter, growth-decay, light-dark, positive-negative, hot-cold, odd-even, male-female, love-hate—the list goes on and on.

This idea is captured in the ouroboros, which is the symbol of a snake or dragon eating its own tail. The ancient monadic icon represents the eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth that drives the universe. The process of self-opposition is also a fundamental property of manifested consciousness.

Opposite pairs of dualities define and complete each other. For example, as soon as we abstract from something beautiful the notion of “beauty,” there arises the recognition of “ugliness” as non-beauty. They are conceptually born from each other. Even ultimates like “being” and “non-being” produce each other in this way. In theoretical physics, this basic balancing principle is known as “Zero Ontology.”

The mathematical parameters that describe matter—such as electric charge and angular momentum—all add up to zero. In fact, all the positive mass-energy in the universe is exactly canceled out by its negative gravitational potential energy. Right now—at this moment and in all of time—there is nothing there. Only our mental impression of this nothingness tells us there is something there.

On the personal level, we are carried away in a raging binary sea of constant choices, swept along by waves of opposing forces. Sometimes we ride the crest of the wave and other times we are caught in its wake, but the overall cycle is zero, whether we are talking about people’s lives or the history of nations. Even our experience of consciousness itself waxes and wanes in a diurnal cycle of wakefulness and sleep.

But it’s in our experience of conscious and unconscious states that we realize the possibility of uniting opposites to return to the wholeness of the One Mind or Monad. The idea of union with the divine source through denial of material attachments and worldly behavior is a common thread in most religions.

This conjunctive state of non-duality became the “Philosopher’s Stone” of Renaissance alchemists, who sought to unite our conscious, analytic mind (the solar “King”) with our unconscious, dreaming and intuitive mind (the lunar “Queen”). The union of the King and Queen was the Sacred Marriage, and the birth of their child was the dawn of a mercurial, androgynous consciousness. Psychologist Carl Jung saw the same process of integration in his patients, and he sought to bring unconscious content to consciousness to restore them to wholeness.


A Brief History of the Monad

The concept of the Monad can be found in many ancient texts. Probably the earliest was “The Great Hymn to the Aten” composed by the pharaoh Akhenaten who ruled Egypt from 1353 to 1335 BCE. It describes the abstract solar disk (“the Aten”) as the one and only god, the dispeller of darkness, the single source of light and mind in the universe, and giver of all life.

The androgynous Aten exists beyond duality in a state of unchanging oneness. Unlike other gods, the Aten has no human traits or weaknesses. It simply exists in the monistic light of pure awareness, and by that existence, causes all else to exist.

One of the most beautiful statements of monadic philosophy ever written was the Tao Te Ching (“Book of the Way”) by the Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu (c. 550 BCE). It describes the Tao as the single absolute principle underlying reality, combining within itself the dualistic principles of yin and yang.

The Tao is not something that should be worshipped but rather sensed in the feeling of being alive—as the field of awareness underlying the natural order of things. The source of the Tao is eternally nameless because it can’t be grasped by the human mind. But it can be defined from what it’s not—any of the countless named things that are its manifestations. So, if it can be named, it’s not the Tao.

Also in the Tao Te Ching, we find a basic statement of the principle of divine emanations that was the central framework of the Pythagorean cosmology. Lao Tsu wrote: "From the Tao comes One, from One comes Two, from Two comes Three, and from Three comes the ten thousand things."

A new understanding of monadic reality was introduced around 520 BCE, when the Indian ascetic Gosala Makkhaliputta popularized the Jainist theory of the Jiva ("Life Monad"), which is an everlasting subtle substance each person possesses that originates with the greater Monad or godhead.

Jivas are personal monads that are infinite in number but bound to the cycle of rebirth, in which they continually adapt to new physical bodies. Jivas that attain liberation from bodily existence rise to source Monad, where they remain forever in an immobile state of perfect knowledge and bliss.

The mythic figure of the Egyptian sage known as Hermes Trismegistus became the vehicle for centuries of monadic philosophizing. Hundreds of influential texts were written in the name of Hermes beginning around 100 BCE. The 17 texts of the tremendously influential Corpus Hermeticum date from 200-300 CE were attributed to him, and scores of pseudepigrapha texts produced by “Hermes Trismegistus” were written well into the 11th century CE.

In some Hermetic diagrams, the circular Monad is shown projecting the logos of creation in three emanations of light. All the pure archetypes of the One Mind—everything from “Α to Ω” (“Alpha to Omega,” the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet)—are projected in the first emanation. They are carried in the divine command of Fiat Lux (“Let there be Light”) into the blackness of the Void in the second emanation. Finally, in the third emanation, the light filters into the manifested world as Mind the Maker (or Mind of Nature).

Hermes described the Monad as “an intelligent sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere," and in some books, he states that the Monad can uniquely beget another monad or groups of monads. Texts attributed to Hermes describe the Monad as the “One Mind” that projects reality into the chaotic blackness of the cosmic abyss known as the “One Thing.”

The Monad became the supreme being of Gnosticism, a religious movement that originated among Jewish and Christian sects in the 1st century CE. Some of the venerative titles they gave the Monad were “The Absolute,” “Before the Beginning,” and “The Depth of Profundity.” The Gnostic Monad is above and beyond everything and exists in a state of “infinite incorruption” expressed in its pure light into which no eye can look.

The Christian gnostic Valentinus (c. 100-170 CE) described the Monad as the source of the Pleroma, the spiritual cornucopia of infinite fullness from which the universe sprung. The Gnostics’ version of the dyadic emanation from the Monad (or “Mind the Maker”) was the Demiurge, the divine force in Nature responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. For Gnostics, the unforgiving god of the Old Testament (Yahweh) was the Demiurge not the Monad.

The Gnostics were condemned by Neoplatonist Greek philosophers for their theocratic treatment of the Monad, and they replaced it with a more abstract view of the first Being. The Pythagorean idea that the universe comes from emanations of consciousness and that the physical world is a reflection of eternal forms (archetypes) had greatly influenced Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek thinkers.

In their philosophies, the Monad was their term for the first point of consciousness, the One Mind of creation. The influential Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus (205-270 CE) described the Monad as an indivisible whole without attributes that can’t be any existing thing and is beyond human ability to conceive of it. For Plotinus, the Monad is an unchangeable perfect Oneness that is in no way diminished by all the created things that emanate from it.

According to the Alexandrian scholar Iamblichus (250-325 CE), the ineffable Monad is outside time and space but is the source of “Sole Eternal Reason” (the logos) that creates the universe. He described the Monad as the realm of original thought, while the Dyad is the domain of objects and the results of thought. Iamblichus added many emanations of intermediate beings to Plotinus’s monadic system.

The last major Greek philosopher, Proclus (412-485 CE), further expanded on Plotinus’ model by adding a layer of archetypes between the Monad outside the universe, and the dyadic Mind the Maker directly involved in creation. For him, the archetypal thoughts or ideals exist at the head of causation before their physical expression. Proclus also clarified the workings at the Triad level of emanation by establishing a threefold pattern of forces that structure all levels between the Monad and material reality.

During the Dark Ages in Europe, attempts to reach a deeper understanding of the Monad moved to the Arabian lands. Islamic scholar Al-Kindi (801-873) clarified the operation of the Dyad in monadic philosophy. He taught that the first act of the Monad was the creation of the “First Intellect,” which acted as an intermediary demiurge through which all things came into creation.

Renowned Islamic scientist and philosopher Al-Farabi (872-950) equated the Monad with Aristotle’s idea of the “First Cause.” He taught that the First Cause is in a state of eternal self-contemplation, which creates a reflection in a new level (or emanation) of Intellect. This “Second Intellect” thinks about itself while contemplating the First Cause, and in this way, brings a new emanation of intellect into being. The cascade of self-reflective secondary intelligences emanating from the First Cause continues until the tenth intellect, beneath which is the material world.

The Persian genius Ibn Sina (980-1037), known as Avicenna in the West, believed the Monad was a logically necessary entity that can’t not exist at the head of creation. In Ibn Sina’s model, the infinite mind of the Monad interacts with the human brain to create intellect and self-awareness in individuals. Part of this “I am” experience is the realization that we each have a permanent soul—an immaterial substance—independent of the body because it can only be perceived intellectually.

The influential Islamic scholar Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), who wrote over 800 books, created a cosmological model of the Monad that become the dominant view in much of the Muslim world. He taught that all things belong to just one entity—the Monad. “We are through it,” he wrote, “but it is not through us.” We remain with our own root, which is in nonexistence—yet even things which don’t exist are part of the Monad.

The first rays of light of the European rebirth known as the Renaissance began to shine in the writings of the the medieval genius Albertus Magnus (1193-1280). His student, the Dominican friar Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), popularized the works of Aristotle and wrote a monumental compendium of philosophy called Summa Theologica (“Summary of Theology”).

In his Summa, Aquinas emphasized the absolute monadic nature of the divine, saying that it’s an unchanging unity beyond what we consider infinity that “subsists on the act of being; its essence is the same as its existence.” Aquinas believed the true home of an individual’s soul is in the monadic godhead, although our soul is temporarily united in time and space to a body and is what animates it.

The concept of a monadic universe—the Unus Mundus (Latin, “One World”)—was popularized by the Belgian philosopher, physician, and alchemist Gerhard Dorn (1530-1584). For Dorn, the Unus Mundus is an underlying monadic reality from which everything emerges and to which everything returns. He taught that the final stage of personal transformation was the experience of the Unus Mundus beyond duality in which all psychological and spiritual divisions are healed, and one’s soul unites with the World Soul.

During the Renaissance, there was a resurgence of the Pythagorean teachings that emphasized the Monad as the fount of all possible existence. The renowned British mathematician-philosopher John Dee (1527-1608) believed understanding the Monad was the key to the mysteries of the universe. He summarized his revelatory work in one of the most influential books of the Renaissance, the Monas Hieroglyphica (“Hieroglyphic Monad,” 1564).

In his book, Dee developed a symbolic glyph that embodied the power of the Monad, and he then presented a geometric proof to unveil its mysteries. The proof began with Pythagoras’ symbol of the Monad, and then Dee proceeded systematically to reveal its archetypal powers using the seven planetary ciphers (used by astrologers and alchemists of his time) in their proper dynamic relationship. The resulting glyph was considered a magical key to understanding the universe. We will explore the sacred construction of this cipher in detail in Chapter 7 (Monad Meditations).

Italian mathematician Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) expanded on the Pythagorean teachings in his De Monade: Numero et Figura (“On the Monad: Number and Figure,” 1591). He described three fundamental types of monads: the Greater Monad (God), spiritual monads (souls), and physical monads (atoms). He viewed the universe as an infinite living presence that shared a common monadic consciousness on all levels of being. This book was one of the reasons Bruno was burned alive for blasphemy by the Catholic Church.

The great German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz based his whole system of metaphysical science on the Monad. For him, the Monad exists as an infinite number of holographic monads—atoms of consciousness that make up the universe but lack spatial extension and are therefore immaterial or mental in nature.

His book Monadology (1714) became the basis of both philosophy and science during the Age of Enlightenment in the sixteenth century, and it continues to influence and inspire modern thinkers. His system established a logical connection between “atoms of consciousness” and physical reality.

In his Monadology, Leibnitz explained that monads are indivisible and therefore can’t be created or destroyed. The soul-like monads are the basic units of awareness embedded in the fabric of consciousness in time and space. They have their own subjective perceptions and appetites that form the invisible basis of the physical world.

Monads at the lowest level are unconscious, unaware, and without memory, but they possess the potential to become conscious. On higher levels, monadic perceptions are pure conscious observations originating within individual monads, which remain uninformed by outside influences or objective reality. Monads can only be changed within themselves, but they have access to all the infinite forms possible within the greater Monad.

The famous German philosopher Johann von Goethe (1749-1832 viewed monads as indestructible atoms of soul present since the birth of the universe. He believed they varied in their levels of consciousness and willpower. For Geothe, the human soul is an individual monad that could conceivably enter a new monadic state on a higher level of awareness after death.

Another German philosopher, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), defined human reason as the faculty of knowing archetypal logical principles that originate outside the senses and normal understanding. In his Monadologia Physica (“Monadology of Physics,” 1756), he argues that monads are the ultimate principles of all bodies and states that understanding them can unite metaphysics and mathematics.

British Nobel Laureate, mathematician, and philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) expanded on Kant’s ideas in a new viewpoint now known as “Russellian Monism,” in which a single source or set of properties underlies both consciousness and the physical universe. Russell wanted to create a new physics by focusing on precisely what classical physicists were trained to ignore: the underlying cause or source of physical reality. 
Russellian Monism proposes specific properties of whatever is responsible for the dynamic structures described by physicists and suggest that those same properties are also part of consciousness itself.

With the dawning of the 20th century, researchers in quantum mechanics and astrophysics pieced together a whole new vision of physical reality in which consciousness played a central role. Einstein had shown that energy and matter are equivalent in his famous equation E=mc2, and if that little “c” stood for “consciousness” instead of the speed of light, the ultimate science of the future would have been born. But the universe seems very reluctant to share that final secret, and physicists are still working to quantify consciousness in their equations.

Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), Nobel prize-winning pioneer in quantum physics, believed the apparent multiplicity of minds in the world is an illusion and there is only One Mind—a singularity in consciousness—that expresses itself in a myriad of ways. “The total number of minds in the universe is one,” he said, “and consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings.”

Other noted scientists have worked to clarify and update monadic science. The father of automation, German scientist Konrad Zuse (1910-1995) proposed that the whole universe is a monadic “Cellular Automaton” running on a computational structure (or program) composed of a vast array of data cells.

American astrophysicist Gregory Matloff (b. 1945) believes the universe is one monadic “proto-consciousness field” and has collected evidence that the stars and entire cosmos may be self-aware.

Georges Lemaître (1894-1966) was a Belgian mathematician and astronomer who proposed that the universe exploded from a monadic singularity or primeval atom to create space, time, and matter. Lemaître’s “Big Bang Theory” became the prevailing cosmological model of the universe. It explains the complete 13.8-billion-year evolution of the universe and numerous other scientific puzzles, including the large-scale structure of the universe and the continuing expansion of galaxies.

Scientists are just beginning to document the mysterious connection between the Monad and Nothingness—what philosophers have referred to as the Abyss, the Void, the No Ground, or Zero State.

In 1995, American Canadian theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss (b. 1954) theorized that most of the total energy-density of the universe is embedded in the hidden energy of empty space—and his theory was confirmed three years later. Krauss then created a model in which the universe originates from "nothing" through certain arrangements of relativistic quantum fields in empty space. His model seems to agree with experimental observations, such as the energy density and shape of the universe. Scientists in the emerging field of consciousness studies have made great strides in penetrating the puzzle of mind in the universe.

Bernard Haisch (b. 1948) is a renowned German-born American astrophysicist who believes modern science and traditional spiritual traditions are describing the same fundamental single reality. In 2006, he proposed that consciousness is produced and transmitted through empty space in the quantum vacuum. The same universal vacuum from which the universe originated in the Big Bang singularity is also the source of all consciousness.

In 2004, Italian neuroscientist Giulio Tononi (b. 1960) developed a mathematical theory of consciousness called “Integrated Information Theory.” The model links consciousness to “integrated information,” a mathematical function that can determine the level of consciousness of any system from rocks to robots, from plants to humans. The tool seems to support the idea of monistic panpsychism, the view that all created things are associated with some amount of consciousness.

British consciousness researcher Philip Goff (b. 1977) argues that theories in which consciousness arises from physical processes (Materialism) and theories in which consciousness is separate from the body (Dualism), both face insurmountable difficulties. Instead, he suggests a form of panpsychism, the view that consciousness is an intrinsic part of the universe. One possibility is that the basic constituents of physical reality (electrons and quarks) have very simple forms of experience, and the evolution of the brain is related the total awareness of its cells.

Norwegian researcher Hedda Hassel Mørch (b. 1989) believes the physical sciences reveal the structure but not the true nature of the physical world. Her research focuses on “Neutral Monism,” which is an umbrella term for a popular class of theories that reject the dichotomy of mind and matter and suggest that the fundamental nature of reality is neither mental nor physical—in other words, it’s something "neutral."


Limits of Knowledge in a Monadic Universe

The work of physicists and mathematicians in the early twentieth century introduced a startling new paradigm that suggested the human mind will never be able to achieve complete and ultimate knowledge of the universe. It’s not that we don’t have precise enough instruments to measure the magnitudes of subatomic particles.

The blurring of exact knowledge of the smallest particles of matter is a fundamental property of the universe. It’s as if Nature does not want us to know everything about this ultimate level of reality—if we get too close, a cosmic trickster appears to blur, confuse, and invalidate our progress.

The phenomenon confirms what philosophers and intuitive scientists have been telling us for centuries: there appears to be something else out there, some pervasive yet separate form of consciousness behind all reality that does not want to be fully known.

One of the first indicators that something strange was happening came in 1905, when German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein published his theory of Special Relativity, which showed how events that occur at the same time for one observer could happen at different times for another observer, and that people traveling at different velocities in the universe would age at different speeds relative to each other. Einstein concluded that space and time are not separate but equivalent to each other and united them in a single continuum called “spacetime.”

As noted above, he also proved the equivalence of energy and matter in his revolutionary equation of E=mc2. Finally, in his theory of General Relativity (1915), he showed that gravity is caused by the curving or warping of space itself not by any outside force. Einstein not only discovered the basic equivalence of time-space and energy-matter, but he also described a new paradigm in which the fundamental constants of Nature were relative to the conscious awareness of an observer.

Then in 1925, German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg proved that exact measurement and precise knowledge in quantum physics is not possible. Specifically, he showed that the position and momentum of an atomic particle can’t both be known exactly. He demonstrated that just the act of consciously observing one magnitude of a particle—whether it be its mass, momentum, velocity, or position—causes the other magnitudes to blur. This basic tenet of quantum physics became known as the “Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.”

Just six years after Heisenberg formulated his Uncertainty Principle in physics, Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel did the same thing in mathematics with his two famous Incompleteness Theorems. Before Gödel, mathematicians believed everything that is true in the universe could be proven using mathematics, which is built on a set of basic axioms that are accepted as true and need no proof. Gödel showed that it’s impossible to create axioms that are complete and consistent without contradictions. His two theorems state that any formal system of logic—from basic arithmetic to advanced computer programming—will be either incomplete or inconsistent.

Gödel suggested the only way to understand the whole universe is from a mind completely outside yet part of the universe—a perfect description of the Monad. He was the first to suggest there was a deep epistemological problem inherent in the way we understand reality.

In fact, the deeper modern physicists look into the nature of reality, the more active the trickster component becomes. For example, a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics is that atomic particles can behave like waves, as demonstrated in the classic double-slit experiment in which quantum particles passing through one slit create waves that cancel-out or boost different waves of particles passing through the other slit. Their interaction creates a characteristic interference pattern—like that produced from two rocks tossed into a pond at the same time. The tricky thing, however, is that the interference pattern still occurs even if only a single particle is fired. The lone particle somehow passes through both slits at once and interferes with itself. That is what physicists call “superposition.”

Trickier still, if we try to focus our awareness to carefully observe which slit the particle goes through, the result invariably shows that it went through only the one we measured, and the ghostly interference pattern immediately disappears. The very act of searching for verifiable data seems to collapse the superposition. Physicists can’t say exactly what a superposition is without looking at it, but if they try to look at it, it disappears.

We also see the cosmic trickster in the paradoxical phenomenon of quantum entanglement, in which two or more quantum particles created at the same time share the exact same behavior and physical characteristics even when separated by great distances. Scientists have shown that the interaction between entangled particles takes place at faster than the speed of light. Albert Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance" and admitted the proven phenomenon was incompatible with his theory of relativity. Once again, trying to observe an entangled particle results in an immediate and irreversible collapse of the particle’s quantum wave function which causes it and all other particles entangled with it to revert to normal behavior again.


What the Monad Feels Like

Beyond the enigmatic theories of scientists and the scholarly arguments of philosophers, there remains the elusive mystery of the Monad. Its truth is everpresent and everlasting, and its being is not changed by anyone trying to understand it. The truth is we don’t have to comprehend it—we only have to acknowledge it and allow our minds to resonate in its universal truths.

The whole point of this manifesto is that, while the Monad is beyond our understanding, human beings can sense its presence in the world. It’s like the sustaining yet invisible air we breathe—the Monad is simply the wholeness in which we find ourselves. It has always been there—we are part of it, and it’s part of us. The monadic field of awareness is the existential stage on which we live our lives both physically and mentally. The shining awareness we share with it is our own being.

In fact, the unitary state of consciousness is the natural state of consciousness. The daily confusion and struggle—the diminished awareness we call normal—is the aberration. While the monadic splendor of the cosmos seems far removed from everyday human existence, each of us is its dynamic reflection—a perfect hologram of the greater Monad—and our little inner world can be a portal to that greater reality.


The Personal Monad

We can sense the Monad because we are reflections of it. Each of us exists in a personal monad bounded by the limits of our own being. We live in our own little worlds in which we are aware of our own awareness—the singular point of consciousness with which you identify and around which you build your entire life. This state feels secure and peaceful in an almost autistic sense—our own inner nonverbal world versus an outside world of chaotic chatter and social challenges.

From the perspective of the personal monad, it seems as if we can’t even be sure the external world is real at all. From an individual’s viewpoint, other minds can’t be fully known and might not even exist outside us. This philosophical position, known as “solipsism,” emphasizes that only one's mind is sure to exist and anything outside one's own mind is unsure.

This feeling is part of the nature of the personal monad—an atom of consciousness isolated in the infinite latticework of awareness that is the universe. While the “Being” of the greater Monad is absolutely pristine awareness, the “being” within our personal monad is distorted by our unintegrated personalities. Personal consciousness moves back and forth between the clarity of pure being and the distractions, distortions, and delusions of the individual psyche. Each one of us is a self-aware unit of consciousness existing in a universe where consciousness is the fundamental part of existence.

This field of monadic consciousness exists without structure or memory but condenses into a temporary structure in the personal monad, which then experiences its own history and expresses its own personality. Each personal monad is a unique soullike entity whose properties are a function of its perceptions and appetites. We can know the greater Monad intimately—wordlessly within ourselves—because our minds reflect its essence. The more we feel and explore our own consciousness, the closer we come to experiencing the Monad reality directly.

“There is the Monad in man—the Divine Spark within each of us—which is verily a fragment of God, an atom of the Deity,” declared theosophist C.W. Leadbeater. “For each monad is literally a part of the godhead, apparently temporarily separated from it, while it is enclosed in the veils of matter—though in truth never for one moment really separated.”

This concept is beautifully elaborated in the Buddhist metaphor of Indra’s Net. The realm of the first god Indra is a vast net that stretches infinitely in all directions. In each knot, where the lines of the net cross, is a single perfect, shining jewel. Each jewel reflects the light of every other jewel, and the reflected images carry the image of all the other jewels. In other words, whatever affects one jewel (or monad) effects them all in a holographic symphony of consciousness.

Although no monad acts directly on any other, they work in a divinely preestablished harmony, so that the appearance of causal connection is maintained. In a similar pattern, each of us has a greater monad (or central mind) with reflecting subordinate monads everywhere in our body. These reflecting inner monads are like pools of consciousness or intelligence that independently govern the organs and circulation of lifeforce in the body. Therefore, the purity of our conscious intent is reflected in every cell in our bodies, just like in Indra’s Net.

In this way, we are independent reflections or copies of the one true reality. The monadic structure in our consciousness mirrors the cosmic structure of the greater Monad, therefore each of us is directly connected to the profound mystery of existence. We are eternal and indestructible in the sense that we are dynamic reflections of something outside time and space. The cosmic forces of consciousness and being itself come together in the personal monad, and it’s within our own being that we sense the greater reality beyond words.

Most of us never think of the nature of our own “being.” Plato taught that Being originates beyond the physical world and is patterned in abstract Forms that transcend time and space. It is only in your individually true, pure state of being that you can find the monadic source of all Being.

There are ways of tuning your mind to open to your own being, but it cannot automatically be found at the knee of any guru or in the community of any church. Nor can it be written in any book or held by any organization.


The Monadic Substance

The paradoxical idea that we are perpetually perishing in spacetime yet exist in a state of perpetual being beyond duality in the Monad is the philosophical conundrum with which we are faced. That is why, for some philosophers, reality is best conceptualized as a third “substance” that exists both physically and mentally. This viewpoint—known as Substance Monism—proposes that only one kind of stuff makes up our reality, and that all existing things (whether they be of mind or matter) can be explained in terms of this single reality or substance.

This idea can be traced back to Hermetic authors in the first few centuries CE who referred to the mental aspect of the universe as the “One Mind” and the physical aspect as the “One Thing.” But these opposites are united in a single essence or energy known as the “One” that was the source of both. The concept was also echoed in the ubiquitous Renaissance dictums, “All Is One” and Unus Mundus (“the One World”).

That singular source was sometimes referred to as the Tertium Quid (“third thing”), which is an unknown third element that is a combination of two known ones. Many people report experiencing this “third thing” as a subtle body or tangible energy field.

The Stoics, an influential school of Greek philosophy that flourished between 300 BCE and 300 CE, created a monistic physics based on a material conscious substance that permeates all of Nature and is composed of both mind and matter. In Stoic physics, the entire cosmos is a conscious living thing that enlivens, animates, and directs it by its presence throughout. They viewed the passive component of this substance as ordinary matter, which was acted on by the aggressive cosmic Mind or Universal Reason (the logos), which was carried in the fiery pneuma (“breath”) or divine Word.


Experiencing the Monad

While the Monad is fundamentally unknowable and unmanageable, people do report sensing it or even experiencing it firsthand. These states of consciousness must be experienced directly to be understood, since they seem to transcend logic and unite feeling and knowledge in a sense of illumination and complete certainty.

“The experiencer feels as if their own will were in abeyance,” noted American philosopher William James (1842-1910), “and indeed sometimes as if they were grasped and held by a superior power.” We review dozens of cases of personal encounters with the Monad in Chapter 6 (Monadic Experiences).

In general, experiences of monadic awareness share some of the following seven characteristics:

1. It begins with an experience of luminosity, such as glowing objects or boundless light.
2. It takes place in a state of limitless Oneness or non-duality in which subject-object dichotomy (“I” versus “other”) is transcended.
3. There is sense of a whole original self, soul, or default state of being that is your “home” or where you originally came from.
4. It’s “beyond thoughts” (or exhibits the inability to have thoughts), and one realizes that there is still “something there” beyond thinking and worldly experiences.
5. You become pure centerless awareness in a state of thought-free objectivity, in which there is complete knowledge or direct gnosis of reality.
6. The overall feeling is one of infinite security and bliss in which there is no fear or experience of time.
7. In describing the experience, it remains paradoxical and ineffable.

Researchers classify monadic experiences into the two categories of “introvertive” or “extrovertive.” An extrovertive experience is one that is directed outward or is focused on an independent external reality. It seems to take place outside an individual’s mind in a state of universal or cosmic consciousness. The extroverted experience of the Monad is the most widely reported mystical state of consciousness and is found in all cultures throughout history.

British philosopher Walter Terrence Stace defined it as a “universal monistic extrovertive experience that looks outward through the senses to apprehend the One or the Oneness of all in or through the multiplicity of the world, apprehending the One as an inner life or consciousness of the world. The Oneness is experienced as a sacred objective reality, in a feeling of bliss and joy.”

In his classifications of mystical experiences, British philosopher Robert Charles Zaehner listed the extrovertive experience of the Monad as the most common category reported. He defined it as a “monistic experience of an undifferentiated unity transcending space and time.” He classified experiences in which there is an encounter with God or one’s idea of god, as “theistic monistic experiences.” An introvertive experience, on the other hand, is one in which the attention is directed inward, focusing on one’s inner world and centered inside one’s own consciousness.

An introverted monadic experience takes place in the personal or lesser monad that is the inner core of our being. Stace defined this kind of experience as a “universal monistic introvertive experience that looks inward into the mind to achieve pure consciousness.” He called it a state of “unitary consciousness”—a deeply personal state of consciousness beyond words that does not have an external source of contemplation. Zaehner identified a type of introvertive monadic experience he named “panenhenic” (“all-in-one”), which is the experience of the oneness of Nature with oneself included.

In his book The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy (1993), researcher Robert Forman called the introvertive experience of the lesser monad a “Pure Conscious Event” (“PCE”). According to Forman, a PCE consists of an “emptying out” by a person of all experiential content and phenomenological qualities—such as concepts, thoughts, sensory perception, and fantasy images—but the subject remains in a state of “pure wakeful consciousness—an empty consciousness from which one need not awake.”


Consciousness and Our Image of Reality

Generally, personal experiences of the Monad begin with and continue in an expanse of warm, brilliant light. This pervasive light is the monadic ground of being—perhaps the pure awareness of the Monad itself. A similar background of light is reported in experiences within the personal monad, except whatever we are experiencing takes place in the light of our personal awareness.

The source of the light is the Monad projecting itself into the darkness of the Abyss. It is also the source of the information—the divine thoughts or archetypes—carried in our consciousness. The dyadic mechanism that brings these to realization in physical incarnation is the Mind of Nature or lifeforce.

Maybe we should—in our metaphysical musings—actually expect physical counterparts to mental phenomena in the brain and organs of the body. Life will always find a way to fulfill the light of the Monad in matter. Light and consciousness seem to be intrinsically bound together. When we perceive something, what we actually experience is an image in the mind. Our brains are constantly interpreting the world and changing input data into coherent impressions and images.

The truth is only raw data is really “out there,” and the re-constructed image becomes our reality. When we look out into the world, we are not seeing reality—we are seeing images arising in the mind. Yet modern physics tells us that there is really nothing “out there” to begin with. Everything in the universe sums up to zero. In that case, the only thing that remains are our mental images of this nothingness. So, in a way, the whole world is all in our minds, and our mental image of what is there is more real that the thing itself. Monadic awareness is all there really is, and we share in the infinite field of pure awareness that emanates from the cosmic Monad.

The Light of True Imagination The creative light of the Monad is the most powerful force in the universe, yet because it existed before the divine “Word” was spoken—before the birth of logos or reason in our universe—it’s eternally outside our understanding. Only in the reflection of the Monad’s light in the awareness we experience within our own being, can we get an inkling of the power and force of that light in creating reality.

The creative light of the Monad is the most powerful force in the universe, yet because it existed before the divine “Word” was spoken—before the birth of logos or reason in our universe—it’s eternally outside our understanding. Only in the reflection of the Monad’s light in the awareness we experience within our own being, can we get an inkling of the power and force of that light in creating everyday reality. The light of our personal consciousness—our imagination and the active image of reality we hold in our minds—is the most important thing we possess.

Nobel-prize-winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli believed the ultimate goal of physics was to merge mind and matter into one unified theory of the universe. In working on this problem, he entered into a fruitful collaboration with psychologist Carl Jung to produce the “Jung-Pauli Conjecture,” a new theory that unites mind and matter in a single underlying psychophysical reality.

The key to their theory was to trace the principles of physics to their archetypal roots. They found that when one analyses the pre-conscious steps from which these principles emerge, they are revealed not by logic but through archetypal images. In other words, the foundation of reality is built on images of light not words. Pauli called for the creation of a new kind of physics in which the natural laws of matter are treated as the physical manifestation of pre-existing symbolic images.


Synchromythism

It’s not hard to see the power of mental imagery—the light of consciousness—in our everyday lives. Most of the motivating ideas in our life are a combination of a thought plus an image of its completion. This process is so ingrained in our minds that the image does not even have to be true. The boundaries of our whole inner world (or personal monad) are determined by where we put our attention and what visions of reality we accept. There is a curious phenomenon I’ve dubbed “synchromythism,” for lack of a better word.

A synchromythic event occurs when a myth, legend, exaggeration, false belief, prank, or outright lie causes synchronous changes in an individual’s mind and in the culture as a whole. Myth is more potent than history, and even recent history is constantly being revised in the retelling. On the personal level, all the little lies we tell create a false persona in the world—we become what we pretend to be. Synchromythism is especially obvious on social media, where political lies, propaganda, gossip, and fake news spread faster than truth does and take on a life of their own.

The synchromythic spread of religions is another example. Which came first, the gods or our image of what we think god should be? It has been estimated that humans have created nearly 12,000 gods in the past 5,000 years, which resulted in serious repercussions in our social hierarchy, the structures we built, the governments we created, and the wars we fought.

Undoubtedly, the synchromythic image and its ability to unite individuals in a single mythic vision is one of the most potent forces in human civilization.


The Consciousness Revolution

We are on the threshold of a revolution in worldview more profound than any that has occurred so far in human history. The reverberations will reach deep into our culture—transforming our science, philosophy, religions, and social behavior. It will expand our consciousness as individuals and has the potential to free our minds from the dark dungeons of a materialistic civilization.

The stumbling block is that we just can’t let go of the Newtonian perspective that everything is mechanical. Some researchers still hold on to a mechanistic model in which consciousness arises from a bunch of relay-like nerve responses in the brain’s complex neural network. When the number of switches reaches a certain value, consciousness just happens.

There are about 100 billion neurons in the human brain with 100 trillion possible connections or “switches.” This is the basis of the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) hypothesis, first proposed by futurist Ray Kurzweil (b. 1948) in 2005. He predicted a “singularity” will occur when the processing powers of computers overtake the abilities of the human brain in about 2045. At that point, supposedly, computers will become conscious and could even form a Skynet-like conspiracy to destroy humans.

Theories like these are part of what I call the “Robbie the Robot” model of consciousness. The iconic robot originated as a character in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet and later appeared in several other films and over 40 television shows. He had a transparent dome for a head, inside of which was an array of relay switches and other gizmos that clicked and whirred when he was processing information.

Whether or not we are born robots or become them later, the original fluid awareness we bring into the world is funneled into a narrow stream of social expectations and behavior. Caught in an endless loop of worldly programming, we become noisy Robbie the Robots clicking out thought after thought—a digital stream of reiterative distractions from what is real.

But that is as far as the comparison between humans and computers goes. Boxes of interconnected switches cannot become conscious. Computers process information digitally in time-separated signals or periodic “glimpses” at reality. The digital view of the world is inherently dualistic and breaks everything down into the choice of “yes” or “no” (the binary bits “1” and “0”). On the other hand, the human mind interprets the world in a single continuous stream of data known as analog processing. “Analog” literally means “to compare or evaluate information.”

In his famous paper “Minds, Machines, and Gödel” (1959), British logician John Randolph Lucas demonstrated that there will always be mathematical formulas that can be proved by the human mind but not by computers. In his book, Neural Networks and Analog Computation: Beyond the Turing Limit (1998), American computer scientist Hava Siegelmann showed that the human brain, which he defined as “any sufficiently complex analogue recurrent neural network” (such as the human brain) is more powerful than any digital computer or “Turing machine.”

A Turing machine is an abstract model of digital computation devised by British mathematician Alan Turing to help define the limitations of computers and what can be computed. To construct a Turing machine, you need a ticker tape (or punch cards) consisting of cells that can be written on and a scanner or “head” that can read from the tape and write on it. You also need a table of rules (the programming) that tells the head what to do when it reads data from the tape.

Given any computer program, a Turing machine can be constructed that simulates its operation, and if a machine is a Turing machine, then it is inherently limited only to the computation of rational numbers (numbers that can be written as a ratio of two integers). It has been proven that all digital computers are Turing machines and can therefore only compute with rational numbers. Even quantum computers, with infinite parallel processing capabilities, are still Turing machines and limited by Turing machine constraints.

Computers are machines that can solve practical problems and plot future actions, but they can never imagine what it would feel like to have achieved something. Humans are designed to perceive deeper than data processing and to exist fully in the present moment and not in some future projection of data and desires.

Human awareness goes deeper than algorithms, and our perceptions reach beyond the binary world. Our whole existence—our very souls—exist in the silent subtleties between the lines of linear logic. If we are really just selfish mechanical automatons, then why are we willing to risk our lives or even sacrifice ourselves for others?

Altruism, which is the unselfish regard or devotion to the welfare of others, is a basic human instinct not exhibited by any machines. Because we share the field of awareness with other humans and animals, we respond empathetically to the suffering of others and try to help.


Observing Your Own Consciousness

Becoming an objective observer of your own consciousness will reveal some fundamental truths. The very fact that you can observe yourself observing yourself suggests there is a deeper presence or witness to your personal reality. It means you are more than a biological computer scanning a page, and there is much more to your awareness than just synapses and nerve bundles. In your own introspective experiences of everyday life, your consciousness is always singular.

There is only one “you” and that is the one that is conscious. Like the greater Monad, we are all singularities in time and space—dimensionless points existing within the circle of our being. In modern consciousness studies, the idea of “singularity” is one of the defining aspects of consciousness. The fact that living beings can become self-aware and participate in their own evolution is an ontological mystery that can never be explained through a strictly materialistic viewpoint. In fact, no physical theory can ever predict or explain why we have individual minds or unique self-aware conscious experiences different from others. Only the concepts like the individual atom of consciousness—the singularity of the personal monad—can explain that.

But in today’s world, the virtual protocols of artificial intelligence—entities without bodies or any real presence in the world—judge human awareness and define it in terms of finite programming. Yet artificial intelligence can never qualify as “sentient” because it’s not capable of sensing the metaphysical background reality in which it exists.

We can all sense the presence of consciousness within us and its connection to information in the world around us. Awakening to this feeling of oneness everywhere is part of our spiritual maturation. We experience this sense of cosmic oneness because the Monad is the fundamental reality of the universe. We all have wordless access to multiple levels of interlaced awareness that extend from our own subconscious minds to the plethoric blackness of space, from the hyperconscious seed that exists in each of us to the ineffable brilliance at the Source of creation.

It could be that the brain does not produce consciousness in individuals, but instead, acts like a “receiver” that picks up the background field of universal consciousness and transmits it into our being. If the brain is damaged or deformed, the signal is weakened or distorted—just like a broken radio. In any case, the complexity of the interconnections that open within and beyond the brain to resonate with a monadic intelligence beyond digital dualism.

This constant communication with our Source is driven by the primal statements of creation—the archetypal symbols carried in subconscious images as posited in the Jung-Pauli Conjecture. In the emerging monadic view of the universe, consciousness and information (or the logos) form the ground of existence in holistic harmony with energy and matter, as shown in the diagram at left.

Theories that treat consciousness as a by-product of physical processes don’t take into account the fundamental role consciousness plays in the creation of cosmic reality outside the human brain and machines. In fact, the equations of modern physics still work perfectly well if we accept the hypothesis that there is only consciousness in the universe. All we have to do is change our perspective about what the laws of physics are describing.

We assumed the mathematical laws we found embedded in Nature described the operations of matter. However, we are beginning to realize that these same laws actually govern the functioning of mind. These mathematical archetypes originated in our minds and are entirely mental in their essence, yet we projected them into the physical world assuming they were somehow “out there.” But they were always inside us, part of the consciousness we share with the universe. The emerging worldview is that consciousness is more fundamental than matter, energy, space, or time.

The idea that everything is physical and that dead matter just clutters up our existence is a ludicrous fairytale. We are creatures of thought not materiality, and where we came from is more like a thought than a place. The physical world is an extension—or better stated—a condensation of consciousness.

The idea that consciousness is a fundamental quality of the universe provides elegant solutions to difficult problems that cannot be solved with the standard scientific model. The “hard problem” of how consciousness emerges from dead matter becomes irrelevant if we accept the fact that the universe itself is conscious. The new question is how does consciousness take on the appearance of physical objects? In other words, how does the light of mind or its subconscious image become manifested?


The Ghost in the Machine

Right now, the question you must ask yourself is: Are you a machine or are you the “ghost” in the machine? That is to say, can the essence of your being be reduced to a schematic? Or are you something subtler? How you answer that will determine how balanced you are in life—your most basic attitudes and behavior will be changed by this belief. The outcome of the battle of machine versus psyche will determine if you have a soul.

The phrase “the ghost in the machine” was first used in criticism of French philosopher René Descartes's idea of mind-body dualism in which the mind and body are distinct and separable. For Descartes, mental phenomena were non-physical and might continue outside the body.

In his mode; of the dualism of mind and body, information is passed through the sensory organs to the pineal gland at the center of the brain and from there to the indwelling spirit or soul, which is the “ghost” in the machine. The great mind-body debate raged on for centuries and continues to this day between the two opposing schools of physicalist Materialism and mentalist Idealism.

The seeds of a solution to the problem of mind-body dualism began to emerge during the Enlightenment in the writings of Spanish philosopher Baruch Spinoza and Scottish philosopher David Hume. They suggested there was a single source substance to reality that is neither physical nor mental. This position is known as “Neutral Monism,” and it explains the brain-mind problem in terms of something more basic.

This primordial substance or field is both trans-physical and trans-mental, but those aspects merge in sentient beings to give a sense of psychophysical presence. The American psychologist William James used the term “pure experience” to describe the underlying source behind mental and physical reality. Pure experience describes a state of uncategorized awareness that has the potential to become thoughts or things. In this view, the essence of the personal monad is the pre-conscious mind in its purest state—free of thought.

The Austrian physicist Ernst Mach, known for his studies in the speed of sound, believed the source of reality are “neutral elements,” which are neither mental or physical but can enter into relationships that can be classed as either psychological or physical. But the unclassified neutral elements are the basic reality.

Nobel-prize winning physicist Roger Penrose believes that consciousness transcends formal logic, and any algorithmically deterministic systems, such as computers, cannot have intelligent awareness or mathematical insight beyond logic. Together with British mathematician John Lucas, he formulated the Penrose-Lucas Argument based on the pioneering work of Austrian logician Kurt Gödel. Gödel proved that every theory capable of proving basic arithmetical operations either fails to be consistent or is incomplete.

“The inescapable conclusion seems to be,” commented Penrose, “that mathematicians are not using a knowably sound calculation procedure in order to ascertain mathematical truth. We deduce that mathematical understanding—the means whereby mathematicians arrive at their conclusions with respect to mathematical truth—cannot be reduced to just blind calculation!”

The rapidly evolving discipline of consciousness studies is an interdisciplinary effort by physicists, mathematicians, psychologists, philosophers, theologists, computer scientists, biologists, neuroscientists, linguists, and other scholars to understand human consciousness. Currently, they are divided into two camps: the Dualism and the Monism. Dualists believe in the opposing Cartesian duality of mind and matter. Physical Monists believe mind arises from matter, while Idealist Monists say that mind is dominate over the physical world. Neutral Monists posit a third substance that is the source of both mind and matter.

As we noted earlier, British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell believed that whatever is responsible for the dynamic physical structures described by physicists are also part of consciousness itself. This third substance was the source of both mind and matter. His ideas on this kind of neutral monism spawned two additional philosophical movements. “Russellian Panpsychism” holds that consciousness is the fundamental, omnipresent feature of reality, while “Russellian Panprotopsychism” says that each object in the universe has either a mind or an unconscious soul and that all physical interactions involve some form of consciousness.


Freedom of Consciousness

The primary demand of this manifesto is for a new Freedom of Consciousness beyond our political definition of free speech—not just freedom to speak but freedom to imagine openly and experiment with reality on an individual basis. Your individual search for truth and clarity does not require anyone’s permission or approval. No one knows what you do in your own mind nor controls how you fashion your personal monad. The only test at this level is your own sense of what is real and what is true. That modern psychiatry is attempting to define normalcy through continuously expanding taxonomic catalogs of mental illnesses is a disturbing trend. Truly free, mercurial consciousness cannot be classified nor contained.

Since it’s not possible to know the Monad directly, we must look into its reflection within us. If consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings, as Schrödinger believed, then the fact that we share the infinite light and awareness of the universe is the path that will raise us up. The piece of consciousness we are given—the atom of awareness that we are—is our opportunity to transform reality. From our personal monad we can create an entirely new incarnation that will spread holographically to other minds and support the One Mind holding back the darkness of the Nothingness.

On the cultural level, we are desperately in need of a synthesis of ideas, a merging of scientific, psychological, and religious viewpoints in a single comprehensive vision that recognizes our crucial role in fashioning reality. There is no quick fix—it is more than just spiritualizing science or intellectualizing religion. As a species, we need to face the existential challenge of knowing what is real without regard to how we define ourselves within social and national borders.

On the personal level, it requires facing our cosmic predicament head-on. The refocusing of our attention exposes habitual patterns of thought and knee-jerk assumptions and judgements. The addictive urge to accumulate money and possessions is replaced with a greater need to focus on the reality hidden beyond everyday things.

Racial and social biases are replaced by the startling realization that we are not our physical bodies—we are our minds, and that is the only way to judge each other. How ridiculous to judge each other on our language or the shades of our skin. We all began as pure atoms of consciousness bound together in an infinite tapestry of being. Let that essence of light shine through you and encourage it in everyone you meet. That light is our common bond and only worth.

As we approach a true understanding of the nature of consciousness and our place in the universe, the first thing we realize is that the picture we create of reality is not just a static snapshot made up of words and expectations of what is there. The true view of reality can only be seen in the living light of pure awareness. Without that light there is nothing but darkness.

The absolute and unchanging reality of the Monad exists prior to all states and is therefore not a “thing” or piece of information we can ever know about. It can only be realized indirectly through the reflection of its light within us, through an immediate and intimate experience of it as a living presence within us. Only our moment-to-moment consciousness can be enriched by the universal field of awareness that is the Monad, the eternal presence that is both part of and prior to Being itself.

Our language is the programming that limits our experience of the greater Monad. Our minds are trapped in a prison of words, a finite vocabulary that defines our mental space within the dominant paradigm of society. Embedded in the vocabulary are mechanistic patterns that limit our choices and restrict the ways in which we can respond to the world.

But the intelligence of the primal creator transcends any mass psychosis we fall into. The archetypal basis of reality streaming forth in the living consciousness of the Monad is reflected within each personal monad in the light of our minds and imagination. In religious terms, it is as if God is speaking to us in powerful symbolic images beyond the limits of our language, and we just ignore Him. It doesn’t matter if you can’t see the images in your mind’s eye; the archetypal forces are always there in the deepest parts of the consciousness shaping your reality.

This volcanic substratum of molten Tertium Quid (the “third thing” uniting mind and matter) is where our fate lies, where our purest motivation and most genuine behavior come from. Unless we connect with it and cultivate the pregnant silence beyond language, we will continue to exist as lost souls attacking each other in a distorted literal view of reality all over the planet—like crazed animals. The deep spiritual realizations that we all share represent genuine information about reality that is being ignored by our leaders and institutions.

We live in times of great crisis, a turning point in the evolution of our planet, civilization, and species. Human consciousness is at the root of this global challenge, and our current beliefs, values, decisions, and actions are what will shape our destiny. Our primary focus now must be to acknowledge the universal primacy of consciousness and free the human mind from outdated mindsets, self-centered attitudes, manipulative lies, and the materialistic values that are driving us insane.


The Sword of Insurgent Light

How can each one of us know something so deeply but not live it? Why do we abandon subjective truths for the shared lies and illusions of community? The fragile intimation of something greater we experience in fleeting moments of clarity is quickly buried in the onslaught of thoughts and emotions we endure becoming “productive” members of society.

Our personal stream of consciousness is made up of random thoughts, glib nonsense, and emotional peaks of regret, guilt, missed opportunities, anger and frustration—all from the friction of living in a neurotic society. It’s time for us—as independent creatures of spacetime—to throw off the shackles of social inhibition and start conversing freely about the basic truths we all feel. Once our intimations of the fundamental reality are shared openly, they become evidence of a priori truths that can’t be ignored.

Nothing will change the political, spiritual, and physical environment of this planet faster than the realization that we exist in an ocean of universal awareness and pure being. Although many people sense the background of pure awareness that permeates the universe, few speak of it openly. Humankind has not evolved to the point where such subtleties are the subject of sociable conversations. These deeper truths are relegated to the obscure treatises of mystics, opportunistic gurus and religious sects, or dispassionate ontological debates between scholars. Even scientists who see these deeper truths seeping through their quantum calculations, ignore them to work on the practical applications the military-industrial complex is looking for. In this frantic world, few of us experience, pure, uncluttered awareness.

But the point is that when you let go of worldly concerns and break the chain of thoughts, there is something wondrous waiting there. That inextricable monadic force of consciousness permeates the universe and is the fabric of our reality.

To repeat: The very fact that we are capable of sensing a presence or field of awareness beyond thought differentiates us from any machine or artificial intelligence. It’s human beings alone who can raise the questions of being and experience the threat of nonbeing. It’s human beings alone who can sense the infinite ground of their own being and apprehend being itself. It’s human beings alone who can learn to navigate the ocean of consciousness in which they exist.

The ground of being can never be virtual, and computers will never be able to feel it. It can never be programmed or retold in any way—it must be lived. Yet, who but children live this way? Our adulteration retrains our being to focus on biological and social imperatives, and we just don’t think about it anymore. The only way we can navigate the archetypal ground of being is through the unfettered light of our own consciousness. Only there can we connect with the deeper reality of archetypal forces constantly unfolding around us.

Scientists have proven that consciousness is our reality. We have witnessed it appear from nowhere at the quantum border that separates mind from matter, and we have recorded our personal awareness effecting the outcome of experiments at this level. Yet even scientists ignore it to focus on careers and applied paydirt projects.


Value and Meaning in the Universe

According to Plato, the first archetypal Form emanating from the Monad is the “Good.” In fact, it is the only “objectively real” Form, and it exists independently beyond space and time. All the other Forms are subjective entities that range from higher to lower Forms and culminate in material objects and mental images. So, in Plato’s view, the ultimate intention of the logos or purpose of creation is to manifest the Good. Virtue is simply the quality of embodying the Good. That metaphysical core of virtuousness in the world—the Good—is one of the first things we sense in life, and it becomes the core around which we build our lives as children.

The sense of abiding goodness is our comfort and refuge when we are young, and it becomes the source of our morality as we grow older. Although the emerging intellect in children changes their focus to the outside world of decisions and ambition, that monadic memory of integrity is still there in most of us.

An environment of “pure virtuous integrity” or “perfect goodness” is reported in many personal experiences of the Monad, and experiencing it is the goal of many spiritual and meditative traditions from around the world. The question is—is virtuousness (or the regard for value and meaning) a basic part of monadic consciousness as it is in human consciousness?

In his book Value and Existence (1979), Canadian philosopher John Andrew Leslie writes: “No physical theory will be adequate to explain the universe. To solve this mystery, we must go beyond materialism and consider that there is something very different going on. Value is the animating force behind reality. If so, a universe capable of supporting value-sensitive minds would be a metaphysical necessity.”

“Existence itself,” notes mathematician Alfred North Whitehead, “is the upholding of value and integrity.” In his view, the greater Monad and personal monads work together to fulfill the world. The perfect Monad exists as eternally unrealized possibilities, and it requires conscious entities (personal monads) in the physical world to manifest them.

“Somehow,” as Nobel laurate Roger Penrose expressed it, “our consciousness is the reason the universe is here.” Consciousness is the vehicle of all value, integrity, and meaning in the universe. Without conscious beings, nothing exists to bear witness to reality.

Physicist John Wheeler argued that the universe exists because we give it meaning. “The observer gives the world the power to come into being,” he espoused, “through the very act of giving meaning to that world. No consciousness: no communicating community to establish meaning—then no universe.” So, is meaning—the sense of value and purpose—what the universe wants from us?

“A universe of great value versus one of mere existence?” asks British consciousness researcher Philip Goff. “The animating force of reality may be mysteriously connected to its value or good.” Goff proposes a new theory of reality called “Cosmopsychism,” in which the universe itself is a singular, monadic consciousness that is refracted into individual minds in the created world. All entities and objects, including conscious minds and experiences of value and meaning, are aspects of this cosmopsychic presence.


Living In a Monadic Universe

All our different body shapes and shades of skin—all our nations, cultures, and religions—are simply the logos in the lifeforce attempting to fulfill the teleologic vision of the Monad in time and space. That concept may be difficult to comprehend in the luxuriant diversity and social opportunities on planet Earth.

But it will be much easier to feel in the vast silent emptiness of space to which we are heading. At some point, we will—as a species—look back at our planet and see just a blue dot floating in the timeless mystery of creation. Perhaps then—when the permeate awareness of outer space is all there is—we will all awaken to the singular source of consciousness that is our reality.

In the meantime, it is up to each of us to build a critical mass of enlightenment in our suffering civilization. Stop ignoring the subtleties of existence because they are beyond your comprehension! That fearful mystery is the direction of our growth—both as individuals and as a civilization. Confronting the mystery directly frees us from the tyranny of the boxed-in borders of language and the shackles of social conformity.

The light and purpose of the Monad is reflected in each one of us—it is the root of our personal integrity. The problem comes when that microcosm of our personal monad becomes salted and frozen in time. At that moment, the mercurial quintessence that enlivens us fails to shine due to the inherent assumptions of our restrictive language and whatever dominant paradigm drives society.

Can you escape the prison of language into the light of unfiltered awareness? Are you able to free your imagination to process the symbolic images that are the silent words of the archetypal mind? The ultimate truth of our being is reflected in each of us, but do we acknowledge that in our relationships? How will you fight for your inner reality? The challenge of our time is learning to alchemize our minds to let consciousness flow freely again, to achieve faultless integrity and shine with inner light—even in the most stubborn darkness.

Within the secure bounds of our personal monad, we can—each one of us—build something true to the monadic light that is beyond both mind and matter. From this living stellar substance—awareness itself—we can build something beautiful and lasting like a shining star within. The cornerstone that the builders of our civilization rejected is not buried out in the world. The Stone is hidden within each of us waiting to fulfill its destiny. And that is where it was meant to be, because the truth is—the universe transforms from within.