EvF -
The reason why I think everything is conscious is very hard to explain fully. If I tried, I'd come off as even crazier than I already do, and after the effort it would take and the responses that I'd get, I just don't think it's worth the energy. But I'm going to try anyway, just for you, and I'll only respond to you. Get ready for some weird stuff, but it's the only way I know how to put it. I'm obviously not proving anything, I'm just explaining what you're asking me to explain, ie why I believe what I do about consciousness, why is everything conscious. It would be best if you read what I'm going to say as though it were one of those zen puzzles, designed to (hopefully0 make you go "aha" rather than any kind of scientific explanation.
I exist, I'm conscious. Everything about me and everything about what I do, feel, think, believe, perceive, boils down to me and my consciousness / awareness. That's the common denominator. In terms of my experience and existence, I'm the centre of the universe. That means that everything that I'm aware of, is "happening" to me. I see everything with my eyes, no one else's. If I'm aware, then there is something to be aware of. There's a conscious-er and a conscious-ed. I'm both, because the conscious-ed only exists while I, the conscious-er, exist. That's my experience, as a conscious-er. I am everything about me, I'm everything I see, if I cease, it ceases, that's my experience as a conscious-er. Things either exist, or they don't. If they exist, they exist absolutely, they can't partly exist. A house exists, and it's made of bricks. The bricks are the house and the house is the bricks, collectively. Without the bricks, there's no house, and without the house, the bricks aren't bricks, they're just whatever they're made of, in whatever shape they're in. A brick is only a brick when it is being a brick and fulfilling the purpose of a brick. Everything is interdependent, therefore part of a whole. Nothing exists in isolation, there are relationships, and awareness. Just as I am aware of a brick, the brick is aware of me, and of itself, otherwise, neither of us would exist. Existence is tied in with awareness of one's existence. You can't exist without knowing it. There has to be a knower, and so if walk away from a brick, the brick still exists. So everything is conscious. And if god is the source of everything, and god is conscious of itself and its own manifestation, then all things are the same consciousness. Yes, there is one consciousness, and yes, there are many consciousnesses. Simultaneously. Each consciousness is an aspect, an angle, of the whole consciousness. We are the experience and manifestation of god. We are god. My consciousness is what god experiences through me, and yours is what god experiences through you. Add up the consciousness of every thing + any (potential) thing, and you get the whole consciousness. Why is god's consciousness spread out this way, among everything that exists plus everything that could exist? Because it is experiencing itself. How? By manifesting itself, out of every/nothingness, and every thing is that manifestation.
If evidence means reason (motive) to believe, then that's my evidence. You may not share that evidence. I can't give you your evidence (reason (motive) to believe), I can only tell you mine. I feel convinced by my reasoning, and my feeling that this is how it is likewise feeds my reasoning. It's a cycle. You have your cycle too.
So, going back to the question posed in the title of this thread : What would make one change their beliefs / disbeliefs? Their own personal cycle of reasoning-emotion would have to change.
The reason why I think everything is conscious is very hard to explain fully. If I tried, I'd come off as even crazier than I already do, and after the effort it would take and the responses that I'd get, I just don't think it's worth the energy. But I'm going to try anyway, just for you, and I'll only respond to you. Get ready for some weird stuff, but it's the only way I know how to put it. I'm obviously not proving anything, I'm just explaining what you're asking me to explain, ie why I believe what I do about consciousness, why is everything conscious. It would be best if you read what I'm going to say as though it were one of those zen puzzles, designed to (hopefully0 make you go "aha" rather than any kind of scientific explanation.
I exist, I'm conscious. Everything about me and everything about what I do, feel, think, believe, perceive, boils down to me and my consciousness / awareness. That's the common denominator. In terms of my experience and existence, I'm the centre of the universe. That means that everything that I'm aware of, is "happening" to me. I see everything with my eyes, no one else's. If I'm aware, then there is something to be aware of. There's a conscious-er and a conscious-ed. I'm both, because the conscious-ed only exists while I, the conscious-er, exist. That's my experience, as a conscious-er. I am everything about me, I'm everything I see, if I cease, it ceases, that's my experience as a conscious-er. Things either exist, or they don't. If they exist, they exist absolutely, they can't partly exist. A house exists, and it's made of bricks. The bricks are the house and the house is the bricks, collectively. Without the bricks, there's no house, and without the house, the bricks aren't bricks, they're just whatever they're made of, in whatever shape they're in. A brick is only a brick when it is being a brick and fulfilling the purpose of a brick. Everything is interdependent, therefore part of a whole. Nothing exists in isolation, there are relationships, and awareness. Just as I am aware of a brick, the brick is aware of me, and of itself, otherwise, neither of us would exist. Existence is tied in with awareness of one's existence. You can't exist without knowing it. There has to be a knower, and so if walk away from a brick, the brick still exists. So everything is conscious. And if god is the source of everything, and god is conscious of itself and its own manifestation, then all things are the same consciousness. Yes, there is one consciousness, and yes, there are many consciousnesses. Simultaneously. Each consciousness is an aspect, an angle, of the whole consciousness. We are the experience and manifestation of god. We are god. My consciousness is what god experiences through me, and yours is what god experiences through you. Add up the consciousness of every thing + any (potential) thing, and you get the whole consciousness. Why is god's consciousness spread out this way, among everything that exists plus everything that could exist? Because it is experiencing itself. How? By manifesting itself, out of every/nothingness, and every thing is that manifestation.
If evidence means reason (motive) to believe, then that's my evidence. You may not share that evidence. I can't give you your evidence (reason (motive) to believe), I can only tell you mine. I feel convinced by my reasoning, and my feeling that this is how it is likewise feeds my reasoning. It's a cycle. You have your cycle too.
So, going back to the question posed in the title of this thread : What would make one change their beliefs / disbeliefs? Their own personal cycle of reasoning-emotion would have to change.
