Chapter 22
How Consciousness “Dies”
How Consciousness Grows; How it “Dies”: Reality, and Oblivion
“But my story is about what it was like when I was alone, and of course when I was alone there was none of the Matter you see now. Well, there was other matter, which likewise was subject to entropy, but that did not ‘exist’ in the sense matter does now – but that comes later in My story. The point is that for the purpose of My story, matter was not a factor. There was only My Consciousness.
“It is important for you to understand the war ahead. It is not a war between living bodies made of flesh, though humans will think it is. It is a war between living ideas made of Spirit.
“Humans will be told by Beelzebub that it is physical things which will drive their choices for or against Me. Beelzebub will tell them their choice is between their physical needs, and Me. You need to understand, so that you may teach them, that the real choice is not made on the basis of what happens in the physical world. The real choice is spiritual. It is made by naked Consciousness, apart from the physical world. What happens ‘outside’ does not drive what is decided ‘inside’, but the other way around.”
VerseScout: Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
“To help you understand this Truth, I want to explain how similar Choices lay before Me, when there was no physical universe, and no Beelzebub. I have described the entropy of matter [the inevitability that matter, left to itself, will “wind down”] only to illustrate for you the nature of Entropy. Now I will explain how Entropy operates in Consciousness, when Consciousness exists alone. I want to explain the factors that influence consciousness either to grow, or to wither.”
This was starting to get complicated and exciting at the same time. It was getting complicated enough that I grew concerned I might lose the train of thought, but this train suddenly seemed one of the most important rides of my life.
“But let me explain what I mean by ‘growth’ or ‘shrinkage’ of consciousness.
“Consciousness is always active. It cannot cease. There can be no oblivion for Consciousness. It can come close, however; it can rest, between periods of intense concentration. It can relax.
“But Consciousness must always focus on something. It cannot focus on nothing.
“But Consciousness has another choice, for its focus, besides Creativity: an undisciplined succession of half-formed, chaotic impressions.
“‘Creativity’ works towards a desirable result. (Desirable, that is, to the one creating.) It is a healthy growth in the Womb of Imagination, bringing the Seed of a general idea into the full maturity of a desired result.
“Undisciplined imagination, on the other hand, begins with all the same desires, all the same motives and incentives, but never nurtures them sufficiently in the Womb before it attempts to ‘give them birth’, or implement them. What it creates is thus not complete and perfect.
“That is why, for example, you must teach men to spend daily time in prayer, meditation, and study before attempting their work for the day.
“Imperfect creation always has enough of the appearance of being satisfying to persuade Consciousness that it is ‘good enough’, requiring no more exhausting concentration. But imperfect creation always has ‘fatal flaws’ which turn satisfaction into disappointment, if not utter terror.
“I did not create anything imperfectly. But I foresaw the possibility that I could, if at any time I shrank from the intensity of concentration necessary for what I was doing. The ugly consequences I foresaw of such carelessness kept me alert to do all my resting between periods of creativity, and not during.
“Creativity is the work of Love. Love sacrifices itself for the benefit of someone or something besides itself. One cannot benefit another without creativity. Creativity works to conquer the challenges of Reality. The work of Love is to conquer such challenges for the benefit of another.
VerseScout: 1 Corinthians 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own…
“By contrast, the retreat toward Oblivion is the work of hate. It is the attempt to Escape Reality. It is a retreat from the horrors of a half-formed creation – such as a life lived full of errors. Such horrors present Consciousness with only two choices: one must either face the challenges and conquer them, or turn and flee.
“Well actually the choice to flee reality, in fear, is possible for souls, but it was never my choice. It was never possible for me to fear anything because there was never anything outside of Me that might threaten Me, or even apply pressure upon Me. I faced no deadlines. There was no problem I could not eventually solve. Even if there had been problems beyond me, it wouldn’t have mattered, because I simply would not have brought into existence any Universe infected with such problems.
“But angels and men are capable of fear, if they depart from me, since then their resources will be too meager for the challenges they face. I created souls that way, dependent upon one another, to create incentives for them to Love. Of course perfect love casts out fear, since if they love me, which means to obey My Commandments, then their problems will be small, and their resources for overcoming them infinite. Not only that, but love focuses one’s consciousness not so much on one’s own problems as on the problems of others.”
VerseScout: 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. 5:1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
“Even though I have never fled from a problem out of fear, I have laid aside problems temporarily, in order to rest. Creativity requires effort. It can be exhausting. It can even be painful. Like right now, I am really tired, so tired that starting a few minutes ago, I began resting from my work. I actually need to rest.
Creativity requires Intensity of Concentration
“Complicated problems simply cannot be approached leisurely. Complicated systems involving the interaction of many parts must be held in the mind, by the power of concentration, all at the same time, so the mind can study how the parts will interact. Your musical composers understand this principle: it is not enough to leisurely hear, in your mind, just one musical part at a time to see how pretty it sounds. All the parts must be heard, in your mind, at the same time, so you can determine how to alter which parts to make them more harmonious with the whole.”
God pointed to me. “Ask Comunicus to explain how writing in a diary requires him to hold enough of the ideas he is going to write, in his mind all at the same time, for him to be able to choose with which idea to begin.
“If it were possible to create by visualizing but one part of the whole at a time, then one might take much longer and complete the work more leisurely. But whether the creative project is a symphony, or a shelter which Adam might choose to build, or a living being, or a universe, it is not possible.
“I created the universe in 6 days rather than in 6 trillion years, not because I was in a hurry, or was careless, or would not have liked to take longer, but because once I achieved the intensity of concentration required to foresee all the possible interactions of all creation, that’s how long it took.
“The other reason it is necessary to move quickly, with sufficient concentration to plan to the end of a project rather than planning only one step at a time, is that complicated projects have so many interactions that they must be all constructed together.
“For example, if Adam were to build a house with six rooms, he could not build just one room and then leisurely put off planning and building his second room for a few years, because all the rooms hold each other up. A design for a one-room house must be different than a design for a room which is part of a larger building.
“Suppose I had taken a billion years to create animals, after I created plants.”
We grinned. God was alluding to the fantasy of the demons, that the universe which they have just observed God creating, actually took millions and millions of years of evolving all by itself!
“How, then, would flowers have pollinated themselves? How would certain plant seeds have been distributed?
“And suppose there had been millions of years between the third day, when I created plants, and the fourth day, when I created the Sun?! The plants would have all died the first week, without waiting for even one year to pass!
“And suppose there had been millions of years between the fifth day, when I created fish and birds, and the sixth day, when I created land animals and man! They were designed with endless interactions! They cannot thrive without each other! Before fish and birds could exist for long without land animals, they would have to be designed differently.
“Of course the souls I create will need more time than I took, to create their projects and inventions, since additional time will be required to develop their powers of concentration until they can hold their entire projects in their minds all at once. Souls who turn from me, as did your fallen brothers, will have additional distractions from their concentration such as doubt, temptation, and lust, requiring even greater time to overcome.
“Therefore the more complicated the system to be created, the more intensity of concentration is required to master the challenges.
“So the effort required by creativity is a significant reason consciousness may choose to retreat towards oblivion, and thus to wither. The required effort may limit how long consciousness is willing to concentrate on difficult problems.”
I asked, “Is that why the demons say they wish for oblivion, because their problems were so difficult that concentrating on them wore them out?”
God answered, “Partly. Of course their problems suddenly mushroomed after they refused My help in solving them! Because of my own experience with the possibilities of Consciousness, I created them with natural incentives to love, by giving them problems which are easily met through My help, but which are overwhelming without Me, because only with Me…well, let me continue my story.
Oblivion is Not Nice
“Of course, when I was alone, I did not have the benefit which humans have, of problems to coax Me into a relationship of Love with someone able to help Me. But there was another factor that drove me back to the exhausting problems challenging me, and that was the emptiness of oblivion.”
But God had said there was no such thing as oblivion! Of course, even if it were impossible for any soul, nothing would be impossible for Him.
“No, I never reached absolute oblivion. As I said before, Consciousness cannot. Consciousness can only come close enough to not be able to stand the boredom, the utter loneliness, and to return, screaming with restless frenzy, to complexity.
“As I said before, Consciousness must focus on something. The less it has to focus on, the more it is like a fish out of water, vainly flapping its fins in air too light for its fins to push against.
“But as I said before, there is an alternative, to returning to complex problems: imaginary problems. The mind which still refuses to return to real problems will suffer hallucinations and nightmares and paranoia as imaginary problems rush in to fill the vacuum. That is the condition of your brothers, who have made themselves demons. The problems I created for them help force them to peek out of their imaginations a bit, towards reality, sparing them, somewhat, from the worse Hell that awaits them in their own imaginations.
“They complain ‘why don’t you just leave me alone?’ I cannot, because I love them. I cannot stand by and do nothing while they mire themselves in imaginary, but pure, terror!”
I asked the obvious question: “But what could possibly motivate any soul to fill his consciousness with living nightmares when he could just as easily concentrate on overcoming all his challenges?”
Laziness
God’s answer was simple. “A mental vacuum is a simpler response, to challenges, than overcoming them. Though ultimately far more painful, as a mental vacuum cleaner sucks in the Living Nightmares around it, a mental vacuum initially requires less exertion.”
Was that it? Did the choices between good and evil boil down to spiritual laziness?
VerseScout: Proverbs 26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit [eyes] than seven men that can render a reason.
Proverbs 6:6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. 9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: 11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth [wanders], and thy want as an armed man.
Proverbs 13:4 The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
Proverbs 20:4 The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.
God’s Blueprints of the Future
God pulled out his Blueprints. We craned our necks to see. They were titled “Future possibilities”. They contained detailed instructions for us, for what to do in every possible future situation on Earth.
God opened up one of the Possibilities. It was called “Games of Chance”. What we saw gave terrible new meaning to the happy word “games”! We saw crowds of hate-filled, frozen-hearted people crowding around for the “chance” to take, from their neighbors, their very food, and other essential needs, and to call it “winning”!
Men gathered around a table. One man threw something on it with symbols written on its sides. The men had agreed beforehand that the side facing up when the thing quit rolling would determine which men would voluntarily give, to one among them, all they possessed!
It seemed like a game, and yet the certainty of disaster for most of the men present was so great. Only one or two of the men could possibly be bettered by the process, and yet all the men present expected to be that one or two who would take from the others!
What despair, what hatred, filled every heart! The material things they expected to “win” came at the price of a seared heart, cold enough to stumble over the financial corpses of others to claim them! Cold enough to pray for the “right” to ruin all the rest, which they considered the grandest possible experience on earth! Some even said they had no interest in Heaven because this ecstasy wasn’t allowed there!
Of great interest to us was the contract which bound these lost souls to this corner of Hell. Ordinarily when one man took all the possessions of an entire group, he would be considered a criminal, and would be punished by the authority of the laws of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But in this case, every man present had voluntarily agreed that should the device stop rolling with a certain symbol facing up, then he would voluntarily give all he possessed to another man! Each man present had voluntarily agreed to become a crime victim, and to honor the criminal as “fortunate” and probably even “wise”!
We calculated that all the “gamblers” could have simply earned more than they hoped to receive by “gambling”. ALL could have been rich. But instead they chose to meet their needs by a process which could only “help” one, and which would deaden the hearts of all!
I couldn’t help myself. I jumped right into the blueprints. I just had to know.
I approached one of the gamblers. He turned to me and bragged, “I won $100 last night! This is real swell entertainment!”
“How much more have you won, than you have lost, over the past year?” I couldn’t help asking.
“How much more have I won?” he answered less enthusiastically.
“Yes.”
“Oh, maybe $250.” Liar Lights flashed overhead. “Or maybe I lost a few thousand. I don’t remember how much I lost. Ask me how much I won!”
“Which was more entertaining?”
“Winning”, he laughed.
“When you lose a few hundred dollars, do you find that entertaining?” I really wanted to understand.
“Well, I guess sure, the food and music are good.”
“If you knew, the next time you are thinking of going, that you will definitely lose that much again, will you still go for all that entertainment?”
“Well, uh, I guess not.”
“Is losing an experience you would wish upon your wife, your children, or your friends?”
“No. I want them all to win!” What love he thought he had for them!
“How about strangers? The folks that stock your groceries, service your car, smile at you on the sidewalk, teach your children, who might marry your daughters, would you support a system that absolutely guarantees that most of them will lose?”
The man froze. The whole scene froze; every person in the room like stone. I understood then that I had brought the man to a point of clear decision between Love and Hate. These blueprints did not predict how men would decide. They just gave us directions how to reach points of decision, and then they stopped.
As we marveled at this Possibility, wondering if it might ever actually be, God spoke. “This illustrates the Sluggard Principle. These potential men actually believe they are meeting their needs by this activity, don’t they? Show them the evidence that their activity will ruin them, and they will angrily oppose you. They will tell you they are being responsible, because this is a way they can meet their needs. See? It may not be a very good way for them to meet their needs, but it is definitely a simpler way.”
Simpler? Those men spent more time and concentration studying imaginary formulas in their vain pursuit of “winning” than hard-working men earning top salaries! Simpler? These men worked harder, for the hope of not having to “work”, than if they had simply found honest work!
“No”, God answered our unspoken questions, “Not simpler, if you count the long hours of intense study, the health-wrenching concentration, the fortunes lost forever, the talent wasted from lack of attention, or the hearts seared beyond feeling.
“But they only count a couple of minutes before and after they ‘win’ something, and if you count only that, then you can see how the miniscule intelligence and effort required to ‘win’ is definitely an easier, simpler means of acquiring money than honest work!
“Simplicity. Failure is simpler than success. Despair is simpler than hope. Living nightmares are simpler than hard work!
“Sin is simpler than obedience. Hell is simpler than Heaven.
“Definitely not happier. But simpler.”
I stared at Hell. I watched our fallen brothers place their hope in absurd activities undeserving of any confidence whatsoever.
Chapter \: the Deadly Simple Life