On Axioms and Awareness
Meaning as Self Delusional Trance
Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four.
Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer.
We shall be left defending, not only the incredible virtues and sanities of human life, but something more incredible still, this huge impossible universe which stares us in the face. We shall fight for visible prodigies as if they were invisible.
- Chesterton's Heretics
On the apex of the formidable Masonic Pyramid, a solitary omniscient eye gazes down upon the mortal realm.
How apt this metaphor for divine intelligence - present on top of a pyramidal hierarchy - focused on a single point.
The Fovea Centralis, a minute indentation nestled within the neurosensory retina, forms the sharpest images near the center of the eye when it is focused on one object.
The representation of the transcendent as a singular eye is Lindy throughout history.
But what is it representing?
Transcendental intelligence in the mind clearly arises out of awareness of the senses. Yet awareness of the mind - like vision - is only capable of singular focus at any one point in time.
What does one focus on at any point in time?
A thought. What’s the basis of a thought? A (kalacakra-esque) worldview, which arises from an axiom.
You see, the most addictive thing in the world is a plausible story. The mind loathes the unknown and would rather cling to half truths than uncertainty.
This premise explains all ancient religions, superstitions, cults and beliefs. Rather a “Here’s how I am more right, more just, more special, more reasonable than you” than the truth of “I don’t know”. But of course, a highly intelligent, moral and reasonable being such as yourself must certainly believe in the only Truth? Your very intelligent mind must be capable of discerning any and all falsehoods?
From first principles
I can be certain of only one thing:
I know nothing. And instinctively I hate it.
There is no better pleasure known to man than to be in possessions of a mental model predictive of reality. A distillation of the infinite possibilities of reality into a few concrete rules. A pantheon of gods condensed into a singular monotheism.
Yet any mental model is false because you cannot capture the infinite in the finite. Or, as Gödel’s uncertainty principle puts it: you cannot prove an axiom with itself.
The Reality you inhabit is one big story, directed, and acted by you. You are the center of perception and reason. And you are the easiest to fool.
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