I just finished The Physics of Consciousness by Ivan Antic.
This book was a very interesting discussion of consciousness as the fundamental energy of everything. Antic discussed how the human mind can modify reality through intentions; how such energy can be stolen by people who are aware of this reality from those who are unaware; and how to use the dimensions of nature (air->fire->water->earth) to communicate with the akasha or universal quantum field and thus change reality.
The example is given of a stone in your hand and the thought of the stone in your mind. The thought and the stone are the same, separated by your mind only. This philosophy is the basis of the development of the siddhis.
This foundational truth of reality and our God-like power has been hidden by those who rule the world; they would have the public think up is down and black is white and give up their power to live in a dream like illusion.
He continues into brief explanations of monads (souls) along with the branching over-souls which connect us back to the great divine. As well as debunking Darwinian evolution, claiming only a momentarily creation from higher dimensions. His conclusions sometimes stretched my credulity but his arguments were decently well developed.
The last third of the book my attention waned a lot as he repeatedly insisted that humans were the pinnacle of existence and the whole point of creation and absolutely perfect yada yada yada. But rather than creating a logic path he just kept on repeating the statement. "In case you missed it.... Humans are #1" but he never really proved this aside from simply declaring it to be so.
Having not been a whale, elephant, alien, whatever... I don't know how they think and perceive consciousness. I cannot see how Antic would be able to disprove consciousness in other areas of God's creation, especially given how much attention was paid at the beginning to explaining how consciousness is the foundation of everything.
Overall an easy read and excellent summary of a lot of dense philosophy, especially from Buddhist schools. I appreciated the footnotes and citations although they were not in standard formatting.
#philosophy #consciousness #psychonaut #bookstr
