Customer Reviews

The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness: A Physical Basis for Immaterialism

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book leads beyond the basic immateriality of the universe as posited by particle physics and quantum mechanics. His thesis is that consciousness is the basis of everything and he has an interesting theory of dimensionality in its various ramifications. Most of the books on modern physics do not explore any theory of consciousness at all, so this one is a refreshing and interesting change. I recommend it highly to all those
interested in philosophy and physics.

This book has pride of place on my shelf. As a neurochemist with 30 years experience in the sciences I have always been interested in consciousness and its relationship to reality. This book tackles this subject head on, and wins me over!

The book will not be easy reading for everyone. Those without a background in this area may find certain passages heavy going. Knowledge or physics is not assumed. However, without some background knowledge of the philosophy of the New Physics, some of the statements in this book have to be taken on faith. Still the book is about consciousness and how its dimensional structure is created, not theoretical physics.

The message in the book is simple and is one that has been stated in many other books. What distinguishes this book from many others is that it discards the usual waffle and mystic lingo and concentrates on a simple description of how consciousness evolves to create a dimensional view of reality. From this view comes our concept of space, time and matter... all products of awareness.

You may find this book difficult to understand if you have not read other books on the subject, or if you take conscious experience or reality at "face value". As a neurobiologist, I am well aware how the brain is able to build its own view of reality. Try reading some of the works of Douglas E. Harding first before reading this book, if you feel that would help. At any rate, the book is short, so there is little to be lost by reading it.

Every scientist should read this book. Reading it should make them ask the question, "what does it mean to discover some new scientific fact?"

Being well trained in Quantum Relativity some years ago, I am no stranger to Quantum Physics nor Relativity. Consciousness was always a main topic for me as well. I found this book to be consistent with science and philosophy. It is a well presented argument for what the title implies, a structure of consciousness. However; it leaves the age old difficult problem of what consciousness is unaddressed. Perhaps rightly so. Anyone who would profess to know what consciousness is, would be a fool or a liar in my opinion. The "hard" problem of consciousness remains the "hard" problem. However, how it functions without referring to what it is, is well described in this book.

Many without a good background in quantum theory and relativity would find the scientific explanations perhaps too difficult to understand or appreciate. But, if you want an explanation of how consciousness works, and you are willing to understand the physics of it, I recommend this book.

I have also studied and tried many things in this world, and oddly enough, the author's conclusions are quit similar to some of Scientology's main anxioms. This may sound surprising to many, however, truth comes from many sources, not one.

The origin of consciousness and mankind, remain what they are, our great mystery. To fool oneself into believing one knows all, is just that, foolishness. Let that be my words of wisdom to scientists and scientologists alike. However, if you accept what physics has discovered and accept that you are a conscious being (perhaps spirit if I may use the word), you will find the explanations very interesting, bordering upon "the truth".

A very interesting book. Written by a layman and there are three quotes of recommendation by spiritual leaders on the back. This right away intrigued me, as it reminds me of other authors of physics who recognize the religious or spiritual nature of science. In this book, Avery relates how our senses appear as separate dimensions, dimensions that share the same area of consciousness or interactions with light infiltrating all in a different way in itself.

I found interesting is Avery's explanation of the quantum jump or leap to a far distance. In that it can only land at certain particular points, leaving a tunnel of space to question where this particle was traveling at what time? But only the locational points can be observed. What Avery does not point out is the idea I have read by David Bohm, and I'm sure a lot of others, that there may be no traveling at all, no tunnel, but a non-locality, a space-free, time-free dimension where the quantum jump, or illusionary jump, takes place.

The interesting thing here is the dimensions spoken of remind me of Rupert Sheldrake's morphic fields. Although there are large amounts of different fields, while the dimensions here spoken of are 6 and in addition, the is not about formative causation in morphic resonance. So is dimensions, touch, taste, sight, hear, think, and this observer consciousness, which Avery believes to be another dimension. "Trying to see or hear life is very much like a single cell trying to "feel" sound or light. Life in observers can be experienced only when experience is not limited to perception." p. 98. And then he finds that all of these 6 dimensions, to be recognized at once, have to all enter this "one" consciousness" to be shared by all of us, the collective. The paradox here is the collective in just one consciousness. Now it stands to reason, logically, that solipsism is the only logical answer. Solipsism is the belief that you, you reading this, is the only reality, real and only one consciousness, the rest are created by your mind and imagination. Your reality is only you . . no you, no reality, no consciousness.

With this problem of solipsism, Avery comes up with an interesting answer for his paradigm. It is that the collective, that is, all the people, are evolving, as in evolutionary growth, into a society that shares all of its information, creating a one schematic for information patterning, a one collective screen or perception (not a perceptional or subjective experience as much as a collective objective) to pattern and order the informational facts. In turn, this will be the answer to quantum interpretation of all consciousness as one.

"As human civilization evolves, direct perceptual experience becomes less a part of consciousness as a whole. We learn more about the world through other people, and observational experience becomes increasingly important. We talk, read books, watch moves, and gain information through electronic technology. We use the telephone, listen to radio, and watch the world on television. Observers become more important than objects. Experience through others becomes less distant; potential perception becomes a form of actual experience. You or I do not have to be there to experience what is happening in the world. We experience Asia, Africa, and the far side of the moon without ever perceiving it. Individual experience becomes more and more absorbed in collective experience, the perspective of actual perception is factored out along with that of potential perception. The quantum screen appears more and more like a point on a six-dimensional matrix. We each see ourselves individually as small parts of a greater collective whole." p100

"Western civilization has built an expanding universe within the human mind. The world of science is human imagination, carefully contained in an explosion of space and time, balanced by mass. Science creates what it discovers. At a small corner and to the side is the life process, a cross section of life itself. The great weakness in science is that it is contained at all and cannot see itself as such. it cannot go outside without getting cold." p. 104

The essence of the book revolves around the idea that was part of all inner teachings of spiritual traditions and is now part of the quantum physics - that the universe is composed out of intelligent energy, and that therefore physical reality is also composed out of energy, which appears solid to physical senses only because our senses register particular vibrations as solid. From this worldview, a thought of a table is just as real as the table - the only difference is that they vibrate at different frequencies and are thus said to exist in different dimensions.

I found this book incredibly interesting...as well as linguistically arduous. Avery has a daedal idea of consciousness and dimensionality. His unique views have definitely impacted my hardcore empirical, materialistic philosophy persona. I highly recommend this book to those who are well read in the subject already and semantically sound.

Though I did not understand his entire argument (and will undoubtedly have to read it again and again to reach some sort of "complete" understanding), I found this read worth every second I gave it! My only complaints would be his lack of clarity at times...it was difficult to visualize his argument, but with effort, is possible.

...Awesome, awesome ideas...wow

This is a small book and it goes straight to the point - no beating around the bush. It will help you to grasp the process of thoughts transforming into material reality and the fact that the only difference between a thought and a tangible thing is a difference in vibration (dimension).

If you only read through the book, all that you will have left is a little bit more of intellectual understanding - but don't stop there. Armed with understanding about the fact that your thoughts influence the energy, which expresses as matter, create your own experiments, use your mind to intend specific outcomes and create the experiences in your life you'd like to have.

The understanding from this book will open new doors for you, making you aware of the fact that some things which might have seemed impossible before are possible, if you invest your thoughts to create them.

This short, carefully written, and tightly argued monogram offers an exciting and revolutionary if not an entirely compelling hypothesis: that human consciousness is the only reality.

Drawing on the latest findings in Quantum Mechanics and Relativity theory, Avery builds, brick-by-conceptual brick, a strong case that the narrowness of the scientific paradigm must inevitably give way to a broader more inclusive one that accounts for the non-scientific, the experiential and subjective, as well as the "so called" objective world.

The crux of Avery's thesis lies in what he sees as the difference between "objective" and "subjective" reality; viz. that one is dimensionally dependent, while the other is not. Our reliance on dimensionality to organize our perceptions leads us to believe that there is a world "out there" when in fact there is not.

Our brain, whose consciousness is at the center of both scientific and experiential existence, has learned to associate the "image" (potential built into the context of sensory information and its dimensionality in particular) with objective experience. The reports we get back from both perception and conception is that reality has a non-conscious texture and feel to it.

But it is the expectations that dimensionality gives that tricks us into believing that the sea of cross confirming sensory inputs is "real" and has a life of its own, leaving the impression of material texture. These ephemeral mental imprints or "images" are not only larger than the sum of their parts, but are all there is to reality itself.

This is heady stuff but exquisitely elaborated and defended. It deserves serious reflection from everyone interested in the phenomenology and ontology of our existence.

Five Stars

I wanted to like this book, based on the book's description, since I am intrigued by off-beat solutions to such 'standard' problems. However, I found it quite incoherent.
The book intersperses a few smidges of science history (double-slit experiment, equation for special relativity, etc.) with (what I found to be) mostly unclear and poorly structured 'arguments'. When I got to the section on "Light as an Intercellullar Medium" I was glad the end of the book was near.
As someone used to reading philosophy and quantum mechanics I usually feel at home with complex, mind-bending arguments. But, sadly, here I can find no coherence to the words on the pages.

I have read more than 20 books on this topic, and this is the best.

It is the best analysis of consciousness I have encountered.

A must read.