Is the sun inside the Universe? "Yes."
Are the planets inside the Universe? "Yes."
So the Earth is inside the Universe? "Yes."
Are the rocks and oceans inside the Universe? "Yes."
Are the animals and plants inside the Universe? "Yes."
Are YOU inside the Universe? "Yes."
ARE YOU CONSCIOUS?
Your address is the Universe, the Universe is Everything. Your identity is the Universe. You are Everything experiencing a part of itself. The leading edge of 14 billion years of progression into complexity and diversity. lets bring that into the front of our every day awareness. Om.

or to take a more erotic look at it..we were big(gang)banged into existence and are now parts of the universe playing with itself. :]

my construct of the universe is the collection of galaxys and beyond; everything in our reality if you will.

but just because something is in our reality, doesnt mean it is all one with one and other. and more importantly, it doesnt mean that everything in our reality can do the sae thing?

when i walk in to a stadium, i dont point at a chair and tell everyone its a stadium? or look at a player on the field and say "this stadium is great at kicking a ball"

a door handle is part of a car, do you look at a car and think it opens doors? the sum of somethings parts doesnt necessarily have the ability/ functions of its smaller bits.

Well the universe isnt really "everything" but it is composed of everything. the universe is just a word for the whole of something. The body of something. Like you, you have a body that makes up everything that is you. You are self-aware, your arm is part of that body. Is your arm self aware as well? Apart from your own self awareness?

I don't think that atoms are self aware. I think the whole self-aware thing requires an extra thing that we havent been able to measure yet, a soul/spirit/energy. I also believe that not everything has one of these. Like rocks for example.

That's the question. What do you think? What is consciousness? Awareness? Could it not just be a perceived idea, an illusion created by our own chemicals and synapses ? Perhaps the entire universe is completely unconscious?

The universe started as a single point. This means that everything in it, you, me, galaxies billions of light years away, all used to be contained in one single point. Everything began as one, but who's to say the universe is not still located within one point?

I suppose I could be considered a pantheist, as I believe the universe itself is comprised of consciousness.

are you sure?

Who's to say we are conscious, and what does that term mean?

What if any perceived structure/organization in the universe indicating consciousness/self awareness is just a Freudian self rationalization of something that defies tangibility due to its inherent infinite scale?

Occam's razor, is the universe self aware, and conscious indicating intelligence of some sort, or do people choose to see it that way to make its chaotic nature seem more palatable/tangible? Cognitive dissonance in simpler terms.

Well, of course you have to make an assumption based on the evidence to arrive at this conclusion.

Although, I do concede all of the "evidence" for much of human history said the Sun orbits Earth, but we know how that one turned out!

Everything that exists is connected and interdependent, it is through this interdependence that consciousness comes into being. Though I have come to this conceptual understanding through my own inherent experience.

I truly think that it would be difficult to prove this to anyone as with profound knowledge that strikes a chord within you, it is learnt through your own experience rather than it being proved to you...


Much Peace and Happiness

My feeling is that there is a novel form of awareness that permeates everything in physical reality, including us. Everything is made from this sacred awareness. And we as a form of conscious beings are like lens's.

Two uncharged particles in a vacuum are aware of each other via van der Walls interactions.
Two charged particles are aware of each other via charge-charge and charge-dipole interactions.

The concept of a 'self' is nothing more than an ephemeral thought. Can you point to the exact location that the though 'I', 'me', 'mine', or 'self' arose from? Is it real? Is it tangible? Is it permanent? Is it perfectly under your control? Are you certain there is a 'self' to be self aware off? If so where is it located?

Perhaps it would be best to first define 'self' then to define 'self awareness'.

From my vantage point there is only awareness and no such thing as self awareness because I can't find the location of a self at all. Oh sure I have thoughts of 'I', 'me', and 'mine' pop into my head all the time, but then they vanish just as fast. The 'self' I have refereed to my entire life has been a changing entity. Surely I'm not the same self at 38 that I was at 8... What is this self?

If I can't point to the location of the thought and I can't control when it arises then is it really correct to call it 'myself'....doesn't really seem like it is.

Awareness is the fundamental 'particle' of the universe... There is nothing in the universe that lacks basic rudimentary awareness. Nothing.

I agree

I vibe with this mucho <3

Clear Light of the Void

http://itisnotreal.com/awareness-of-the-void.html