The universe is filled with intricate secrets to discover and explore. Some can leave you visually hypnotized for hours or lost in thought for years. We are constantly discovering just how awe-inspiring it is. A very subjective concept is spirituality and the soul. Here are some ideas to help you visualise that idea, that will get you pondering…
Flatten Reality
To explain something as esoteric as the soul, spirit, consciousness or whatever you want to call it we first have to simplify the universe by several dimensions. A photo is the light aspect of our dimension compressed into 2D. Audio can be represented by a wave (line scribbling up and down going from left to right) on 2 dimensions (paper) and can be analyzed to hear it (however you’re adding more dimensions of time and sound to listen aswell as multiple other variables).
Imagining the soul we can think of flattening the universe onto a 2D plain* and on that plain there are pinpricks of light being cast onto it. The bits of light can change in size and luminosity. Everything in the universe; people, plants, animals, even stars & planets would be represented by overlapping pinpricks of varying light. Everything has it’s own level of connection to the universe. The human soul has the ability to be aware that it’s the universe looking back at itself, perhaps having the highest level of connection with it. Enabling it to enjoy and take part in the cosmic dance of creation. This could be shown by a fully bright prick of light, where as the earth could be seen as a much larger less intense bit of light filled with trillions of smaller bits of light.
*This plane may be spherical, taurus, a mobius strip or continually expanding depending on what our universe is actually shaped like; however that’s beyond the point for now.
Note:
This is just to help you visualise it. there’d be millions of bits of light representing all of the insects, blades of grass and everything else. Many tiny bits of light could be clustered together to represent something like an ants nest. A main takeaway is that the brightest dot would be humans as we are more self conscious and aware of the universe than anything else, allowing us to be more connected to our self’s.
Plain Expanded
Diving deeper into this idea, we can see that souls could differ in intensity. The brighter you shine, the more you can have an impact on the plain (brighter doesn’t always mean good). Your light has a colour aspect to it and despite all being born pure we often adopt the colours of the people/influences around us. You may have a variety of colours or be in a place where your true colour has been lost, and you’ve adopted the colour of a nearby light that is shining more intensely. Even though Stalin & Hitler had terrible colours their intensity was increased through their actions and thereby affecting millions of people, either changing colours or extinguishing flames altogether. One way of viewing the colour is that it’s your freewill/decisions and the light intensity is the universe responding to that. Here you can see the difference in souls as all dogs would have similar colours (plants even more so) however humans would differ greatly.
Behind the Plain
With this perspective representing the soul, we can now more easily analyze its different characteristics. We can use this to expand upon the spiritual dimension. Just as an audio file can tell you about the instruments being used or a photo can tell you about the camera. Behind the plain of paper would be layers of cardboard and in the cardboard is where the holes are carved in. The cardboard has different levels to it representing different aspects of your soul i.e. Chakras or 6 Sefirot**. These levels are what colour and shape your soul. Each layer may have varying thickness or circumference, which can restrict the amount of light coming through. For example, a rock might have many layers blocked because it’s less connected to the universe. However, it could have an exceptionally large hole on that layer if it’s an asteroid. Remember our physical body is represented by the little speck on the plain, so our soul would be the light that fills up the hole. Moments of enlightenment to the universe, are when you look through your soul and see we’re all one and from the same source. This is when you may feel inner joy or experience connectivity. Finally away from the cardboard is a light source where all the light is coming from, shining through the cardboard and onto the plain.
**6 because Malkhut would be the paper and the Chomah/Binah the light & Kesser the light source (Da’at could relate to the light energy)
Here we can see how both are intertwined with each other, not being able to be seperated without the hole universe ceasing to exist.
Now Render it
To understand this model in our reality we need to bring it up a dimension, turning the 2D universe into 3D. Doing this all the 3 dimensional things (including the paper) would cease to exist as we’d need to introduce a 4th dimension such as time for it to be represented. All the light shining would become solid, so that all the holes in the cardboard would become solid as well as the distance between the cardboard and the light source. Now you’d be left with a hollow spikey ball, which was previously invisible light (visibility being the dimension we added). Our whole universe would merely be the tip of the spikes on that ball. The spikes would be each individual soul. The ball itself can be portrayed as the spiritual domain; spirit world, world of angels, universal consciousness or whatever your culture/TV show calls it.
Spiritual Domain – Shows our possible potential and how we’re connected.
There’s a saying that hell is; getting to the end of your life and see the person you could’ve become, this could be seen as looking into the spiritual domain.
Physical World – Would only be represented by the very edge of the spikes. Even where the spikes aren’t touching there’d still be a proportional amount of light coming through depending on the thickness of the cardboard
Soul levels – Is textured depending on the person circumstances, where they are spiritually and even physically. As even a rock, tree or animal would be represented there and only the bits that touching the surface could be seen as a human soul.
Using the Model
Enlighten Moments Explained
When someone opens their there connection sufficiently enough making the light more bright. You’re essentially relating to the lower end of the spike connecting with the ball rather than an individual spike. You peer into the universe (spiritually) and see the oneness of it all. This is what was meant by buddhas description of a droplet falling into the ocean, how you can be so insignificant and then feel so vast or being an individual wave and realising you’re the ocean. It’s essentially the state of pure bliss usually fluctuating in inticity so the deepest connection could only happen for a fleeting moment. However the impact can last a lifetime and perhaps several if you include all the souls you help illuminate. This is a lot more common today as we are standing on the shoulders of giants or better stated our collective mind has roots from the masters.
Enlightened – Connected Moments
When you accept the interconnectivity of everything you’ll have moments looking back at your own life where it’ll make sense and the constellation of your life will light up. You’ll realise, it wasn’t just you or your parents that got you where you are, it was the whole universe conspiring with you. This can happen when you become a parent, have a near death experience, or go through a midlife crisis, and you take a look at your life from a new perspective. Hindsight is a powerful tool to look at the universe which can show you things previously overlooked (just don’t get lost in the past). Once your constellation has been lit, it starts becoming easier to experience the flow of life and appreciate it.
Polytheism
This concept can be overlaid onto a variety of cultures and beliefs. For instance when Egypt, Norse, Romans & Greeks were describing their gods, they might be explaining only one of the levels of the cardboard, or specific bit of light coming through: The god of war or love would represent a slice of the cardboard because those are internal elements. The sun or thunder god would be represented by a part of light on the plain because they represent physical elements.
Karma, The Dao & Stoicism
Even the nature of the universe can be physically represented in this depiction. In Eastern traditions referred to as the Dao or karma there is a natural flow; a push-pull of the universe. This is expressed from the 2 sides of the model – the light source being yan and the cardboard and paper representing yin. It’s impossible to have one without the other or the universe couldn’t exist. Karmic forces can be shown; if one bit of light changes it technically affects the rest of them in some way. Just as a single droplet, in a spider’s web reflects all the others. The middle way or the Dao is represented by the light between the light source and paper***, it contains our our potential and individual spirit we have. Aiming to let the light flow with least light resistance possible could be related to a monk’s theology or seen as a practicing Stoic.
***In the model a dimension higher It is the spikes of the ball and the ball itself.
Duality
People who believe in a good force, and bad force, are stuck seeing one side as positive and the other negative. Although just as there’s no ‘good’ side of a battery we can see this isn’t the case. The ‘bad force’ can be seen as the cardboard & paper, shaping our universe and giving it physical texture, whilst the ‘good force’ can be portrayed as what’s casting light through it. However this idea misses the light in the middle which helps portray such concepts of free will and morality. The dualistic idea of the spiritual being separate from the physical disconnects the light from the cardboard and puts them in two non connected realms. Here we can clearly see that’s not the case. The light also being more like water so any movement on the cardboard would ripple through the rest of the light. Both cardboard and light work together in the creation of our universe.
Trinity
Hinduism has this concept with Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva (the creator, preserver and destroyer). In Christianity it is represented by the Father, Holy Ghost & Son, respectively. In this graph it’s represented as the light source, the light and the cardboard. This is just a way of separating our experience to try and make it more conceivable. Another interesting way of looking at it is the big three questions: Where’d we come from? Why are we here? Where do we go?. We need to understand that it’s all one thing; our universe is merely a cloth over an almost imperceptible giant ‘thing’, and it’s all one.
The Big G
If it’s all been somewhat comprehensible till now that’s because we’ve been discussing the spiritual part of our reality and it should almost make intuitive sense. Where it gets a bit teeth clenching is when G-d is brought into the picture. A lot of the time people will discuss, G-d as the light source separating themselves from Him****. The next step is when the whole system is referred to as such, which is a very Buddhist perspective. Although this still misses a vital part. There existed something on the 3D model that was already in the 4th. Something that had to create the 3D model in the first place. G-d includes that aspect as well. This is where this post concludes, as words struggle to do it justice. We have to remember when pondering such topics we are finite creatures peering into the infinite.
****Him refers to the spiritual aspect of G-d, thus when we pray or talk about esoteric concepts it’s him. When we refer to the physical attributes it’s her i.e. Mother Earth/Gaia or the whole universe
Further Investigation
Here’s a really interesting TED talk about the mystery of our universe from a very logical perspective.
