UNITY: KEY TO EXISTENCE
Noel Huntley, Ph.D.
What is our justification for claiming that 'unity' is the key to life, or at least a key to life? Without unity there would not be any existence as we know it. We would have a reality based on infinite mathematical points, infinitesimally small, homogeneously distributed in spacetime. This is in fact how science models our reality. By making the points infinitely small one does not have to consider what is inside them (in other words, the unity). One then only deals with the external interaction of particles, which science handles quite well. But clearly, in reality, particles have a finite size. This means their centres must contain nonlinear hidden variables---the properties of unity. Thus unity must have an additional direction at right angles to our 3D space, penetrating the surface of 3D and manifesting multidimensionality (remember, unity can be any size). If a particle has a finite size (not a mathematical point), to exist it must have extension in time (4D). This is the true quantum and what quantum action means (energy multiplied by time, as one whole).
The reader will no doubt appreciate that the concept 'unity' is used to express many phenomena, and this needs to be clarified. For example, objects, say, furniture has conceptual unity. A chair is a single idea and has a particular function. This is a functional unity and such a concept will exist as a single energy, a quantum state, in the mind. Although this is true unity we need to evaluate unity amongst material structures since our existence is made up of structures. In other words, thought contains single quantum states of energy but can we say the same about our material reality?
The nature of unity clearly has not been understood; the current framework of science can't remotely handle it, though quantum physics has the potential. The problem of understanding the concept 'unity' has its basis in the problem of man's limited viewpoint, or limited consciousness. 'Unity' is normally interpreted on the basis of reductionism, which implies understanding by an analysis into parts, and therefore that the opposite, synthesis of the parts, is a sufficient condition for the understanding of unity. But this arises from the fact that the intellectual ego views life and the universe this way; it manifests within the lower 3D spectrum of frequencies of consciousness based on out-of-phase, fragmented energies (referred to as phase-randomisation in quantum physics). We appear to have a simple 3D linear spacetime existence made up of particles, for example, atoms. But is this really correct? Are there any true unities underlying these structures? Let us list some features of true unity which we shall deal with in this article:
1) Quality (in the sense it is an order within quantity) can be defined on the basis that it always contains unity of its parts, that is, is one whole energy pattern.
2) The hidden level of unity has greater information than the 3D surface, and therefore has greater truth.
3) Unity is causative and substantial, and not just an effect from its grouped parts.
4) Nonlinear and nonlocal effects underlie unity and, in effect, unity is a window, a curvature into higher dimensions and cuts across dimensions (goes inwards, like the geometry of a blackhole or wormhole).
5) The greater the number of elements unified within the unity, or the greater the magnitude of the unity, the higher the frequency of the whole and the smaller the parts which can potentially be projected from the unity into a lower dimension---now representing the unity 'hidden' behind the parts.
6) Unity can be generated by bringing together parts into resonance.
7) Unity has two modes of creation, 1) natural 2) quantum regenerated from any structures (no. 6, above).
8) Unity is not 3D but involves inner and higher dimensions.
9) Unity requires a higher-order logic than current Aristotelian, Boolean, 3D logic.
10) Unity is inherently holographic when interfacing with spacetime.
For clarification purposes, when we use the word unity we are referring to true undivided unity, unless we precede it with 'simulated' or 'composite'. Also terms such as gestalt, holistic, holographic, monadic, undivided whole, refer to this same (true) unity.
Our excessive educational focus on left-brain consciousness and omission of right-brain consciousness means that the educated mind becomes adept at analysis and logic (3D), that is, understanding anything which is amenable to reductionism. This is the nature of the intellect. But the characteristics of the right brain are necessary to appreciate unities underlying the particle level, in such examples as: art and music; the undivided whole within universal entities, such as a planet or galaxy, etc. (recognised by some leading physicists); the resonance and instantaneous connections involved in psychic phenomena; and qualitative aspects of life in general. A purely left-brain thinker can, however, score high with our methods of testing intelligence.
In the organic sciences there has been increasing awareness of the problems of understanding the unity and organising principles of nature, known as morphogenetics, which has forced investigators to introduce some of the features of holism, utilising expressions such as 'higher levels of organisation', and 'emergent software', with the result that we now see references to 'downward causation' and to 'higher integrations'. As an introduction to this manner of thinking let us quote Professor Paul Davis:
There is no compelling reason why the fundamental laws of nature have to refer only to the lowest level of entities, that is, fields and particles. . . there is no reason why new laws may not come into operation at each emergent level in nature's hierarchy of organisation and complexity.
Biological systems possess a hierarchy of organisation. At each successive level in the hierarchy new concepts, new qualities and new relationships arise, which demand new forms of explanation. (Publication: The Cosmic Blueprint)
In general, there appears to be nothing that is without some kind of unity or order. A hammer has functional unity; its parts are arranged and designed with a unison to fulfill a practical purpose. This structural shape, however, only has conceptual unity, as with the chair mentioned above, created within the mind of the observer. The actual energies of the hammer, the atomic oscillations, are not correlated. Thus the hammer only has functional unity; there is no structural wholeness, except through functional purpose. It has unity within (inside of) its parts of course (atoms). Fractals are also another expression involving unity. Even the topology and patterning on the surface of a rock, or just scattering pebbles on the ground, are not devoid of fractal distributions. Fractals involve wholeness but allow randomness, choice, unpredictability within these unitary boundaries (see Fractal Matrix articles).
We speak of unification in physics and mathematics: Newton unified the mechanics of the solar system with objects on Earth; Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism and light; and Einstein, mass, force, space and time. Furthermore, some physicists have proposed ideas which incorporate effects extending throughout the universe such as Mach's principle and theory of inertia; with a similar version by Sciama presented in his book The Unity of the Universe. Beauty and unity are observed in mathematics, arising from a certain sense of harmony and completion in the way the parts interrelate, and in the case of applied mathematics, in the correlation of equations and physical phenomena.
These are all abstract conceptual unities and not structural as in material reality. Nevertheless it is interesting to note that thought involves energy, and learning connects together ideas. This will be resonance---actual frequencies aligned, in phase. Thus we may find that learning is resonance, quantum regenerating unity; but this is material for another article. (There could still be higher-order energy interconnections though, integrating the correlated data, but this is not of primary interest here since it is in the realm of thought.)
In focussing on structural unity, our main concern, we can divide it into two categories, 1) simulated, or composite unity, and 2) true, undivided unity. Simulated unity (1) is essentially merely parts stuck together by forces (science models the universe as made up of particles held together by forces). Thus the meaning of this false unity is on the same level as the parts. All material things manifest on our spacetime 'surface' this kind of simulated unity, but what is causing natural groupings, without which there would be no existence as we know it. Now as we consider true unity (2) we will find we go beyond the same level as the parts (this can be imagined as inner space). If we, for example, consider a good artwork or painting, the structural parts, the bits of paint, have been placed in special order. The appreciative viewer's 'unconscious' now correlates all these bits simultaneously, quantum regenerating an undivided whole energy pattern, which is of course in the mind and now superimposed over the quantitative level of the paint work. Thus while appreciation is taking place consciousness is experiencing a whole, undivided unity. A qualitative state, which is whole, has been created by putting order into a quantitative state (no. 1, above). Note that although this is conceptual, the aesthetics of 'thought' were generated from a correlation in the ordering of the paint work (not like the hammer concept).
Let us quote Leibniz here, even if only to indicate that nearly all the great philosophers have wrestled with these problems. He did, in fact, make a significant contribution to this debate. His Monadology strikes at the heart of these underlying principles we are addressing, He refers to a monad as,
. . . a simple substance . . . without parts . . . neither extension nor figure, nor divisibility is possible . . . begins or ends all at once.
Compare this with a composite substance, which begins or ends by parts, that is, a collection or aggregate of simple substances. In effect, what Leibniz is stating here is that as we, say, imagine moving our consciousness through a substance we will jump from one monad to another. There is no 3D space within the monad, no extensiveness; no degrees within the monad, no left or right, up or down, or front or back. If the monads are very small (compare quantum), in a group or chain, then extensive continuity will be apparent at this level, since the substance is then quantitative. The small parts now give extension in space. We might spot at this point that unity is basic, and that extensiveness or space (not unity) has to be created.
Taking this further, it can also mean that larger monads of undivided wholeness can coexist with smaller ones forming levels of dimensions of unity---internal fractals provide the basis for this. The magnitude of the jump in moving one's consciousness through the substance depends on the dimensional level that is perceived. Compare William James's similar comments:
Your acquaintance with reality grows literally by buds or drops of perception . . . and on reflection you can divide these into components but, as immediately, they come totally or not at all. [Quoted by A. N. Whitehead in Process and Reality.]
All natural entities, such as an atom, cell, tree, planet, solar system, etc. have their parts held together by an underlying unity, which has dominant information (no. 2, above). This wouldn't of course apply to an artificial construct such as a car.
The idea of an existence made up of parts only, which are held together by external force, as is modelled by modern science, is absurd. Even if the entities held together, there could be no control of the parts. This would have to be achieved from a higher level of organisation (unity), which has, as one of its mechanisms, the ability to monitor all parts simultaneously. A cell, for instance, will have its master control at the underlying level of unity of the whole cell. Unity is thus a causative level (no. 3, above) but in quantum regeneration the lower level creates (and selects) the higher integration, then the higher level feeds back information in a causative role.
Now both Leibniz's monads and quantum states possess nonlocal attributes. This may be unity connecting 3D separate parts over considerable distance. This feature of acausal connections between nonlocal events manifests in Bohm's unbroken wholeness and implicate order, Stapp's process theory, Bell's theorem, superluminal information transfer theory, and further would be expected to underlie Jung's synchronicity and Sheldrake's morphogenetic fields---there are different orders of quantum wholeness (different degrees of correlation or span superimposed in spacetime).
The 'nonlocality' of particles or events, that is, the instantaneous connection between them (Bell's theorem, etc.) clearly has extensive 'hidden variables'. We obviously have some attribute in the nature of unity which is very different from the composite whole. It is this unity that opens up (nonlinearly) connections, windows, across the linear strata, bringing the lower into contact with the higher (no. 4, above). Thus all natural entities could be considered organic---for instance, molecules or a galaxy---and we would have to redefine life.
Before we give further attention to this quantum state of undivided wholeness let us classify and put aside the composite state. Composite unity is merely a collection of parts which are in a group and identifiable as separate from other entities or states and to which we merely assign unifying concepts, such as the chair. Thus composite (or simulated) unity does not have true structural unity but will have conceptual unity assigned by means of a label or its function.
We can now evaluate the validity of the second class of unity (true unity)---a type which cannot be analysed from a consideration of its 'parts'. In experimental psychology the term 'gestalt' has been used to express certain kinds of unity in which the material or visual parts (in 3D) are present. Thus in this sense 'gestalt' is more suitable for 3D material reality than such terms as monad, undivided whole or quantum, since it (the gestalt) usually implies or encompasses the presence of 3D parts. But the relationship between the parts and the whole (as with all true unities) is such that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This means that the whole is not just the parts, and it exists on a higher level of organisation. It is independent of the parts and is, at a higher level, equivalent to the quantum states of undivided wholes. There must be a special relationship though between the whole and the parts---which is one of resonance---otherwise the whole will disconnect. Furthermore, the greater the whole the higher the frequency of its oscillation. A star system entity will have a higher frequency than its individual planets, and a planet, higher frequency than an atom, etc. A possible physics reason for this is that the larger wholes have a greater 'area' (also volume) of intersection with a subsequent greater pressure and therefore rate. Or spiritually, a solar system is in a more evolved condition than a planet, which correlates with higher frequency.
There is a special physics principle in the relationship of integration to differentiation, not yet recognised and won't be until our current 'one level' physics evolves into a multidimensional physics to accommodate the real universe (no. 5, above). The greater the integration, the greater the differentiation inherent within the integration (unity). For instance, a global government today would have no true integration (due to the obvious corruption and negativity) and the distorted differentiation factor would result in reduced rights for the individuals (the parts). If our civilisation was completely sane the integration would have wholeness and the smallest parts, such as individuals, now with a correct and powerful holographic relation with the whole, would have full respect and rights. Another example in piano playing (or any skill) is that the student is taught to achieve independence of fingers. However, the independence will be as good as the 'dependence'--- the integration of the amount of movement which can be spanned as one whole (see articles on skill and book).
With natural entities, planet, atom, cell, the whole will be primary (and come first) but the reverse process also applies (no. 6, above). The fundamental interconnectivity (unified field) already exists but quantum regeneration makes a specific selection of unity from the lower level.
The laser is a good example of this. It produces coherence (creating resonance) of rays of light, and quantum regenerates a higher frequency oscillation (in an inner/higher space level) from whence the power of the laser arises (this has not been recognised in current science). Thus a unitary (vortex) oscillation is regenerated within the inner or higher virtual states, of which the rays of light in 3D are now sub-harmonics (no. 7, above).
Another example of small quantum states linking to form one whole quantum state is the Bose-Einstein condensate phenomenon. This is considered to be a macroscopic system; for example, it explains superfluidity at very low temperatures in which thousands of atoms will behave like one big atom.
A very different example would be the 'dictyostelium' biological manifestation. Tiny organisms found in forests suddenly change phase from independent activity to collaboration. Tens of thousands gather together and move to an elevated level, such as high on a plant to create a toadstool-like shape with thin stem about 1-2mm long (enabling a gust of wind to blow the top spore and scatter the micro-organisms into fresh foraging grounds). Thus the single whole entity will be more than the sum of the parts but will, characteristically, have a (quantum regenerated) unity underlying the group (referred to as emergent software).
We are now in a better position to classify these unities:
1) Conceptual and functional unity (conceptually (mentally) whole quantum states and which label structure that can have either true unity or composite unity)
2) Structural unity, which divides into
(a) simulated or composite
(b) undivided, which gives us(i) natural (whole is first cause---'top down')
(ii) quantum regenerated (from parts by resonance---'bottom up')
Modern quantum theory interpretations already corroborate these attributes of gestalt unity. For example, according to physicist Sarfatti, the wave function---which is considered representing a real wave---of a pair of photons is at a 'higher level of reality' than the wave function of the separate photons. And the degree of coherence (or order) of photon pairs at the higher level of reality is greater than the sum of separate coherences at the lower level. In other words, there is order within order, as proposed by David Bohm and David Peat. [Science, Order and Creativity]
Now the basis of this coherence or phase correlation of separate quantum entities is a feature called 'phase entanglement.' The quantum waves representing any particles coming together become entangled. These quantum waves are said to occur in 'configuration space.' Configuration space consists of three dimensions for each quantum or particle, and for this reason quantum waves are considered to be fictitious since even, for example, two electrons would require six dimensions. Now since the two photons are represented by a single wave in configuration space, no matter what their separation in real space, an action on one seems to instantly effect the wave function of the other, and subsequently its physical behaviour. Schrodinger referred to this as the chief feature of quantum theory. Einstein questioned this since the instantaneous nonlocal effects contradicted his relativity, which demands that nothing can exceed the velocity of light.
The results of Bell's theorem, and Clauser's and Aspect's experiments appear to be the final statement on this and have borne out the validity of nonlocal effects; that separated particles are inherently related by phase correlation of some of their waves, with the implication that all particles in the universe are interconnected. This undivided whole aspect of quantum theory, phase entanglement, instantly joins every particle with every other. Henry Stapp wrote of Bell's theorem: 'Bell's theorem is the most profound discovery of science'.
Returning to the example of art. A good work of art, say, a painting, has aesthetic functional unity. Although the physical artwork is structurally patterned it is not structurally correlated energy-wise at the 3D level. Thus the painting as a physical whole does not truly qualify for structural unity. The structure is arranged to generate a functional unity but which is structural on a higher level of energy. That is, objectively the physical level energies on the canvass are not frequency-correlated but this structure is designed by ordering lines, shapes and colours, to be correlated within the perceiving mind, which makes the unity one of a functional type, utilising structure. The important point is that the mental/aesthetic quantum state in the mind, which is the understanding of the artwork, has true unity.
In music there is no reception of musical effects from merely sounds, which occur in present time. The listener must correlate the sound in time---as one whole. There is a certain span in time of the attention. Visual art is correlation in space but music is correlation in time. But a further difference is that whereas paint has mass and the separate bits of mass (atoms, molecules) are not set in phase (only the functional aspect), sound in music can be entirely organised and coherent; thus structure and function become the same. In either case of art and music, however, the observer must quantum regenerate the higher-order unity, which existed in the mind of the artist and music composer at the time of the creation.
We use the term regeneration since the inner and higher space is already there to be connected up to by forming polarities with exchange of energies, and to be programmed with information. Aesthetics of art and music, or verbal concepts of language, come first (before the technical expression), but they are on another inner, hidden level and are more than the sum or chains of the parts---the actual words or bits of paint. In general, we are constantly breaking down concepts, ideas (as a producer) for material and practical applications, and separately, as a consumer and recipient, we build them up to regenerate the concepts of the producer.
Let us return to Leibniz and his Monadology. He asks the crucial question:
How are we to interpret the relation of whole and parts so that the continuity or complete unity of the whole shall not be in conflict with the definiteness or real diversity of the parts?
This is precisely what we have been discussing. The solution is the higher-dimensional holograph with its hierarchy of levels of increasing degrees of unity with instantaneous connection between them---in other words, the parts and the whole are on different levels. Leibniz continues,
To say that the whole is continuous or really one, seems to mean that, if it is divisible at all, it is infinitely divisible. If it were not infinitely divisible it would . . . be discontinuous.
This is also consistent with quantum theory in that the whole wave function does not contain parts but possesses, as a potential, infinite probabilities. A further development of Leibniz's thinking is as follows:
In some sense each part must contain the whole within itself; each unit must include an infinite manifold . . . [the whole] in some way passes into it [the part] and expresses itself through it . . . the conception of substance is essentially intensive rather than extensive.
And we have the hidden variables and inner space. The higher-dimensional holograph is the only mechanism which can satisfy all these conditions (see articles on learning patterns (skills) and the holographic universe). This means within the state of unity, each of an infinity of points and subwholes are connected to the whole---all parts are inherently interrelated (no. 8, above).
Now the most fundamental component to the structuralisation of existence is contained within this very puzzle of observation which Leibniz offers. In its simplest form (and has been discussed in other articles) it is a triad of two separate parts which can be poles, say, A and B, and a third one C, placed 'above' or in inner space, that integrates A and B and is more than the sum and unity of A and B. This triad ABC could be considered a fundamental element of the universal computer system (and will exist on all scales of quantum wholeness). There must always be an overriding single quantum state (C) to monitor the parts, otherwise A and B will not be properly aligned and no order can be achieved. The latter is precisely what happens when distortions, mutations, disharmony or negativity arises---the third factor C is cut off. Elements A and B now have no guidance, no reality of one another, and could destroy one another, depending on the context.
Finally we mustn't forget another relationship of unity to its parts, what we call polarity, duality, such as positive and negative. The unity is inherent in the combined opposites. Opposites can have different degrees, and thus a statement like something is 'bad' or 'good', is limited in truth. Language fails but, for example, we could use the term 'goodness' to avoid the judgement of 'good' or 'bad', of which either one invokes the other. Using one of these words is meaningless without implying the other, whereas degrees of goodness covers the gradient from one to the other (see articles on context). Even the unbalanced condition of victim or perpetrator (either one is an imbalance) can only be resolved by unifying these poles, both of which exist within each of the victim and perpetrator (see article on meaning of beyond duality).
This polarity mechanism appears to have correspondence with the much smaller quantum involved in particle/antiparticle annihilation in which only the 3D aspect disappears. The particle and antiparticle (opposites) are seeking equilibrium and in achieving this the 3D particle components are unified on a higher level. The aim of Eastern philosophy is to attain a state of mind operating at the equilibrium point, or unity, of these energies---a non-dual state. Note that the ego structure is based on these 3D energies and automatically attracts a corresponding reality (a reality of opposites and polarities), individually and collectively. The individual is an interactive agent in the selection of our world.
Polarity, such as positive/negative, particle/antiparticle, is an example in which unity is primary and originates the split into a duality; you can't have one side without the other. One can arrive at the conclusion that the higher-dimensional harmonic energies split into two opposite components---the 3D polarities. In doing so, a dimension is created of out-of-phase energies of the parts, but all of which are dual since the division process from, say, 4D to 3D creates both the polarity and the uncorrelated energies (or randomisation as it is called in quantum physics). (See article on the meaning of beyond duality for a more detailed discussion of polarity.)
The reality we observe is the resultant of infinite whole (quantum) states, flickering on and off (oscillating in and out of our 3D) from small to large, separate, or nested within one another, forming groups within groups, and we have the basis for the fractal laws. Finally, we should find that infinity is inherent within unity, and that unity might be considered one of the mysteries of life, except that it has been degraded to composite or representational unity. It requires a higher-order logic: internal, nonlinear multidimensional logic, to integrate and give reality to material existence with its myriad separate parts (no. 9, above).
As we have implied, 'unity' is inherently holographic (no. 10, above). Pure unity expressed objectively would be a mathematical point. However, when interfacing with spacetime properties it must express holographically---each part of the interface region from the minute to the whole is infinitely duplicated (but limited in expression by finite size (of particles/waves)---the 'coarseness' or 'graininess'). Hence the known holographic property.
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