Symbols — Part One
"Okay," I said. "Let's break this idea down and connect the dots with Jung's work. If you remember back to the video we watched about neural networks, you know neural nets consist of three main components. The observer is the neural network itself. The observed is the raw data that is fed into the neural network. When the observer observes the observed, meaning is produced. The observer takes in raw information and recognizes the underlying idea that the symbol is conveying. For example, if you show the numeral 3 to any educated human, they'll immediately understand that this symbol represents the idea of counting three 'things.'"
the observer observes the symbol 3, the symbol communicates the idea of counting three things."Multiple symbols can represent the same idea. To communicate an idea to someone, you need to select the symbol appropriate to their specific neural network. Using our previous example, when the symbol cat interacts with an English speaker's neural network, that word is understood to represent the idea of a four-legged feline. If you want to communicate the same idea to a Spanish speaker, you need to use the symbol gato."
cat for English speakers, and gato for Spanish speakers"But what if I wanted to communicate a more esoteric idea? What if I wanted to communicate the idea of fear? Most humans have been taught to fear snakes. Snakes are associated with death, and death represents the ultimate venture into the unknown; into chaos; into entropy; into fear. If I was God, and I wanted to communicate the idea of fear to humanity, I would have to use a symbol. Since most humans fear snakes, a snake is an appropriate way to communicate the idea of fear to the masses.
Of course, not everyone fears snakes. When a herpetologist observes a snake, that snake would represent excitement and fascination, because she loves reptiles. But, in general, collective groups share and inherit many beliefs — like the symbol 3 representing the idea of three things. The more a belief is repeated, the more it is 'encoded' into the blueprint of that group."
snake symbol."Now I'll read another short passage from Conversations With God."
It is this creation of duality between love and its opposite which humans refer to in their various mythologies as the birth of evil, the fall of Adam, the rebellion of Satan, and so forth.
Just as you have chosen to personify pure love as the character you call God, so have you chosen to personify abject fear as the character you call the devil.
Some on Earth have established rather elaborate mythologies around this event, complete with scenarios of battles and war, angelic soldiers and devilish warriors, the forces of good and evil, of light and dark.
This mythology has been mankind’s early attempt to understand, and tell others in a way they could understand, a cosmic occurrence of which the human soul is deeply aware, but of which the mind can barely conceive.
Neale Donald Walsch
"If all souls are aware of the ultimate Truth, and they wanted to communicate that wisdom to our rational minds, how would they do it?" I asked.
"They'd have to use symbols," Zac answered.