"What's this 'as above, so below' business you keep talking about?" Zac asked.
"Oh, that's from The Kybalion. It's a book written in the early 1900s as a study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece. Basically, there was a dude called Hermes Trismegistus, who lived ages ago in Ancient Egypt. People called him the Master of Masters because he was so wise. They traveled from all over the place to hear him. Apparently, you can find Hermetic Philosophy echoing throughout other mythologies — in India, Europe, the Middle East. I actually don't know much about religion, so I can't speak to that. But what I can speak to is the poignant wisdom in The Kybalion.
Of course, the book is shrouded in mysterious, occult language. It's almost like Conversations With God, with its reference to spirit and all that. But if you look past the mention of spirit and see it for what it really is — mythology and metaphor — the teachings line up with everything we've covered tonight."
I opened up the notes on my phone and found a snippet of text. "There are seven Hermetic principles, and this is the first one: The Principle of Mentalism. Just listen to these two quotes..."
Under, and back of, the Universe of Time, Space and Change, is ever to be found The Substantial Reality — the Fundamental Truth.
Three Initiates
I looked up at Zac. We had stopped in the middle of the path again. "Listen to that again. 'Under, and back of, the Universe of Time, Space and Change…' What does that remind you of?"
"The holographic film," Zac said.
"Exactly. And remember — the holographic film is a metaphor for the existence of a lower dimension, which is what the Hermetics called The All. Keep in mind these guys are old-as-fuck. Like, this Hermes dude lived thousands of years ago. Anyway, here's another quote about The All."
That which is the Fundamental Truth — the Substantial Reality — is beyond true naming, but the Wise Men call it The All.
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"So," I said, "we've established that the Hermetics use The All to refer to the lower dimension. And according to the trail of empirical evidence, science also suggests that The All exists. It also suggests that The All is a neural network. In fact, we've arrived there from first principles without postulating the existence of anything other than my own consciousness. Now, listen to what these ancient Hermetics had to say about the universe so long ago…"
But, what indeed is the Universe, if it be not The All, not yet created by The All having separated itself into fragments? What else can it be — of what else can it be made? This is the great question. Let us examine it carefully. We find here that the “Principle of Correspondence” comes to our aid here. The old Hermetic axiom, “As above, so below,” may be pressed into service at this point. Let us endeavour to get a glimpse of the workings on higher planes by examining those on our own. The Principle of Correspondence must apply to this as well as to other problems.
Let us see! On his own plane of being, how does Man create? Well, first, he may create by making something out of outside materials. But this will not do, for there are no materials outside of The All with which it may create. Well, then, secondly, Man pro‑creates or reproduces his kind by the process of begetting, which is self‑multiplication accomplished by transferring a portion of his substance to his offspring. But this will not do, because The All cannot transfer or subtract a portion of itself, nor can it reproduce or multiply itself — in the first place there would be a taking away, and in the second case a multiplication or addition to The All, both thoughts being an absurdity. Is there no third way in which man creates? Yes, there is — he creates mentally! And in so doing he uses no outside materials, nor does he reproduce himself, and yet his Spirit pervades the Mental Creation.
Three Initiates
I paused again. "Okay, so we skipped the beginning. They basically said that The All is infinite, absolute, eternal, and unchangeable, and they gave reasons for that. Then it follows that anything finite, changeable, fleeting, and conditioned cannot be The All. Therefore, if you postulate the existence of The All — the lower dimension — they are applying reason to figure out how The All can create something that is not The All. Our reality is finite and changeable and, therefore, not The All. Does that kind of make sense?"
Zac nodded.
"Then they say that there are three ways to create. Firstly, you can combine outside materials — like combining wood and nails to create furniture. However, if you are The All, you can't do that because nothing is outside of you. You are everything.
The second option is to multiply yourself, and humans do that by having babies. But you can't multiply yourself if you are The All because you are already everything. So the only other way to create is mentally. Anyway, I'll continue."
Following the Principle of Correspondence, we are justified in considering that The All creates the Universe mentally, in a manner akin to the process whereby Man creates Mental Images. And, here is where the report of Reason tallies precisely with the report of the Illumined, as shown by their teachings and writings. Such are the teachings of the Wise Men. Such was the Teaching of Hermes.
The All can create in no other way except mentally, without either using material (and there is none to use), or else reproducing itself (which is also impossible). There is no escape from this conclusion of the Reason, which, as we have said, agrees with the highest teachings of the Illumined. Just as you, student, may create a Universe of your own in your mentality, so does The All create Universes in its own Mentality. But your Universe is the mental creation of a Finite Mind, whereas that of The All is the creation of an Infinite. The two are similar in kind, but infinitely different in degree. We shall examine more closely into the process of creation and manifestation, as we proceed. But this is the point to fix in your minds at this stage: The universe, and all it contains, is a mental creation of The All. Verily, indeed, All is Mind!
“The All creates in its Infinite Mind countless Universes, which exist for aeons of Time — and yet, to The All, the creation, development, decline and death of a million Universes is as the time of the twinkling of an eye.” — The Kybalion.
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"Wow," Zac said. "That whole thing is pretty much the same essence as Conversations With God, but just articulated differently."
"Yeah," I agreed. "It becomes a lot easier to solve a big mystery when you know what you're looking for. As soon as you realize that reality and consciousness are the same thing, you know you are looking for holographic patterns. If you can establish the base of your logic tree at first principles, it helps you sift through massive amounts of disparate data and find the signal in the noise.
The same holographic ideas have been echoing throughout mythologies for millennia. Now that artificial intelligence is taking off, we're finally able to conceptualize consciousness as a purely mathematical structure. Previously, we assumed some kind of spiritual or supernatural component to it, but we don't need to assume anything supernatural anymore. In fact, we barely need to assume anything at all. That's what's so funny — this whole riddle is extremely counter-intuitive, but also extremely simple.
Now check out this section. Holographic principles are written all over it…"
“While All is in The All, it is equally true that The All is in All. To him who truly understands this truth hath come great knowledge.” — The Kybalion. [...]
The Hermetic Teachings are to the effect that The All is Imminent in (“remaining within; inherent; abiding within”) its Universe, and in every part, particle, unit, or combination, within the Universe. This statement is usually illustrated by the Teachers by a reference to the Principle of Correspondence. The Teacher instructs the student to form a Mental Image of something, a person, an idea, something having a mental form, the favorite example being that of the author or dramatist forming an idea of his characters; or a painter or sculptor forming an image of an ideal that he wishes to express by his art. In each case, the student will find that while the image has its existence, and being, solely within his own mind, yet he, the student, author, dramatist, painter, or sculptor, is, in a sense, immanent in; remaining within; or abiding within, the mental image also. In other words, the entire virtue, life, spirit, of reality in the mental image is derived from the “immanent mind” of the thinker. Consider this for a moment, until the idea is grasped.
Three Initiates
"See," I said. "It's like a snake eating its tail or a Sierpiński triangle enfolding itself into each fragment of itself. It's a holographic pattern."
"That's pretty cool. So what are the other Hermetic principles? You've only covered the Principle of Mentalism."
"Oh yeah," I said. "Well, the second is the Principle of Correspondence."
“As above, so below; as below, so above.”
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I looked up at Zac as the wind rustled the trees beside us. "I love this one because it concisely illustrates why physicists are looking in the wrong place for their coveted 'theory of everything.'"
"What do you mean?" Zac asked.
"Well, if the universe is a conscious system, and physical matter is solidified consciousness, then we are all just an idea in the mind of a higher intelligence. But when we dream, the people, objects, and places in our dreams are just ideas in the mind of a higher intelligence. That higher intelligence is us!
So imagine you are a physicist inside my dream, looking out into the cosmos and trying to understand its inner workings. You run around studying everything outside of you, discovering the physical laws that describe how the world works. But you wouldn't be able to unify all those laws into one cohesive 'theory of everything' until you notice the fundamental Truth: that the outer world is a holographic echo of the inner worlds that dwell within your own consciousness. Therefore, any physicist who wants to find a 'theory of everything' needs to look into neuroscience. They need to understand how consciousness works. When they do, they will understand how the universe works. As above, so below. As within, so without. Everything inside of you, and everything outside of you, are the same thing. Neuroscience and physics are different sides to the same coin.
Anyway, the third Hermetic principle is..."
“Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”
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Zac smiled to himself. "The Hermetics suggested that thousands of years ago? That's pretty profound. We didn't even find out about atoms until relatively recently, let alone that everything was vibrating."
"Yes," I said. "But think about why everything moves. If nothing ever moved, there would be no change. Without change, there would be no space or time. Therefore, movement is necessary for space and time to emerge from a lower dimension. 'This' has to move relative to 'that,' to create the illusion of these extra dimensions."
"I don't get it," Zac said.
"Think about playing a computer game. In a game, rapidly-changing frames of information create the illusion of space and time. If everything in the game were stationary, space and time would cease to exist because there would be no more relativity. It would be like being frozen on a single frame of the game. So, you see, it makes perfect sense that everything is moving relative to everything else. If it weren't, there would be no space or time for any observer. And remember — everything is an observer, not just humans. Does that make sense?"
Zac nodded, and I continued. "Next, we have the Principle of Polarity. This is similar to what we read in Conversations With God. God split himself into holographic fragments so he could be this relative to that. Hot relative to cold. Kind relative to cruel."
“Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half‑truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.”
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"Then you've got the Principle of Rhythm…"
“Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum‑swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.”
Three Initiates
"Then the Principle of Cause and Effect…"
Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.
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"I love that — chance is but a name for a Law not recognized," I said. "And finally, we have the Principle of Gender. This is a kind of yin-yang thing…"
Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.
Three Initiates
"And that's it," I said. "They're the seven Hermetic principles. The book actually talks a lot about energy transmutation, which is basically their version of energy conservation. It talks about the process of creation too."
"The process of creation?" Zac asked.
"Yeah. Like, how thoughts turn into physical matter. How we are creating our own reality, both individually and collectively."
Zac recoiled a bit. "I know we've talked about this, but it still sounds a bit woo."
"Zac!" I yelled incredulously. "There is nothing woo about it. I've just spent the entire evening using the scientific method to demonstrate that there is nothing woo about anything I've said. I haven't even used these books in my argument — they've just been a philosophical supplement to the empirical evidence. The philosophy helps us not only understand what is happening, but also why it might be happening that way. It just helps us formulate new questions and perspectives.
Just because something is counter-intuitive, doesn't mean it's woo. In fact, before this night ends, I will show you how to translate the metaphors in these philosophical texts into math. I'll then demonstrate how that math offers a natural explanation for the creative process, and plenty of other physical phenomena. There is nothing woo about any of this."
"Okay, okay." Zac held his hands up in surrender.
"Besides," I said, "you were the one asking how to manipulate the outcome underneath the magical floorboard. I told you you could manipulate reality like a computer game, and I wasn't lying."
"Bring it!" Zac grinned. "I want to learn how to click my fingers and materialize billions of dollars from thin air. I'll make it raaaaain!"
I rolled my eyes. "That won't happen. The prediction error would be off the charts."
"The prediction error?"
"Nevermind," I sighed. "I'll explain it later. I need to cover entropy first."
