Sheldrake's Morphogenic Field - Innovation (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, November 16, 2016, 12:10 (2927 days ago) @ BBella

Dhw: I don’t identify levels with fields. For me a spider field will contain a spider level of consciousness and whatever other immaterial attributes it may have.

BBELLA: I was thinking different levels as in consciousness, subconsciousness, etc. But human consciousness may just be complex instead of having levels. After all, levels is only a label.

Very true. I took up your use of the word, but I would hate to have to measure a spider’s IQ! Different kinds of intelligence would certainly be more appropriate.

BBELLA: Certain people (shamans, medicine men, etc) say they can observe even more levels than we see.
Dhw: Do they observe levels of consciousness in the abstract, or levels of consciousness within beings (and perhaps objects)?
BBELLA: That's a good question. Ive read a number of books on the subject but it's been quite sometime ago. If I remember correctly, they see/sense consciousness in everything. Some see it more than others. I will look more into that question and possibly have a better answer.

Sense/consciousness in everything takes us back to the interesting subject of panpsychism. I’d be very surprised if shamans were able to see consciousness that is NOT associated with beings/objects.

Dhw: Our physical life is impossible without breathing, without heartbeats, without blood circulation etc. Do “souls” have sex with one another? It has to be a different form of life, and I suspect what they mean by “never stopped living” is that they never stopped being themselves. Perhaps you or David know of NDEs that entail bodily experiences. But again see below…
BBELLA: I was expressing what those who have experienced NDE's or OBE's have said; they felt fully alive in every sense of the word, meaning; feeling as if nothing is missing in their "life".

I wonder if feeling fully alive does mean “nothing missing”. I seem to remember reading that some patients feel a sense of sheer freedom, almost as if a burden has been removed. The cares of earthly life no longer matter. If so, something is missing, but it’s not missed!

Dhw: We would have to add senses if we were to communicate with and experience the new world we enter. That is why I say we lose one form of life and enter another.

BBELLA: Maybe it is as if we enter another reality or memory field that is equipped with it's own senses. Like when the Coachman Rat entered the human memory field - he suddenly had senses he knew nothing about and was able to quickly pick up on how to use his new found sense from the human memory field. But when he went back to his own rat memory field, altho he retained the memory of being in the human memory field, he was not equipped to use what he knew. Some reports of NDE's and OBE's say they are not only able to fly and/or move through walls here in this world, they are able to sense many things about this world around them that humans are "normally" unable to see or sense. When they return back into this reality, they retain those memories, and even some are able to continue to sense similar things, even some say their sense have been heightened. But, they are no longer able flow thru walls or fly, because the human body is not normally equipped with those abilities.

That ties in with freedom from earthly constraints: we lose one form of life and enter another. If consciousness and identity survive the death of the body, I don’t see how it could be any other way!