Also, your website (https://www.lifeismiraculous.org) is awesome. Echoes of Bertrand Tolle and Alan Watts. Thanks for publishing it and putting it in your profile!
The easiest way to experience some of the feelings you get from tripping is, in fact, meditation. The LSD mostly just forces you to be more honest with yourself by smashing barriers you would normally dismantle through allowing your mind to rest.
Granted, I've never experienced anything like eg a blurring of the sense of self with meditation. Theoretically it's possible. Maybe I'm just too content with myself to pursue it.
Your Operating System | Eukaryotic Transcription
Phototransduction: How we see photons
How hearing works: auditory hair cells
Summary of my conversation with Claude.
# The Universe from Every Point: Scale and Consciousness
Our conversation has revealed two profound conceptual frameworks that offer unique perspectives on reality, consciousness, and our place in the cosmos.
## The Scale Numberline
Imagine standing on the surface of your skin. This boundary serves as "point zero" on a vast bidirectional scale. In one direction stretches all that exists within—cells, molecules, atoms, subatomic particles, quantum fields—extending down to the Planck scale (10^-35 meters). In the opposite direction extends everything outside—our environment, planet, solar system, galaxy, galactic clusters—out to the observable universe (10^26 meters).
What makes this concept particularly compelling is imagining that every point in the universe can serve as its own "zero" on such a scale. Each location, no matter how seemingly insignificant, can be the reference point from which both the infinitesimally small and the immeasurably vast are contemplated. This framework relates to fiber bundles in mathematics, where each point in a base space carries its own associated "fiber"—in this case, a bidirectional scale line.
When we place ourselves on this cosmic scale, we appear to vanish into mathematical insignificance—just a tiny blip on a numberline of inconceivable magnitude. The human experience becomes merely a point when viewing the entire spectrum. Yet paradoxically, we're the observers capable of conceptualizing this entire scale.
## The Observer Gradient Numberline
The second framework involves consciousness and observation. At each point in space-time, we can conceptualize a spectrum of awareness ranging from the most elemental form—the feeling of having "just awakened from the void"—to complete cosmic awareness encompassing all of existence.
This relates to everyday experiences that suddenly strike us as profound. Watching something as simple as a short video can sometimes trigger a sense of freshly emerging into existence, reminiscent of Feynman's observation that "to create an apple pie, you must first invent the universe." Each experience isn't merely happening within the universe but represents the entire cosmic order converging to create that specific configuration of consciousness.
This observer gradient suggests different degrees of integration with reality—from the most basic awareness to complete cosmic comprehension. Like the scale numberline, this framework could be conceptualized as existing at every point in the universe, with each location harboring its own potential spectrum of awareness.
## The Intersection
These two conceptual frameworks share a parallel structure. Both posit that each point in the universe can be the center of its own framework. Both involve spectrums extending in opposite directions from a central reference point. Together, they suggest a universe where every location is simultaneously the center of its own physical scale and its own consciousness gradient.
This perspective resonates with various philosophical traditions while finding mathematical expression in structures like fiber bundles—where each point carries its own unique fiber representing either scales of physical reality or gradients of conscious observation.
These frameworks invite us to reconsider our place in the cosmos—not as insignificant specks, but as unique vantage points from which the entire universe, across all scales and states of awareness, can be accessed and contemplated.
Interesting. The main benefit I've gotten from psychedelics (mostly mushrooms) is that all of life / reality is impossibly miraculous -- even, paradoxically, when it seems dreadfully boring. And also that I've somehow always known this, even when it feels like I've forgotten. It's always right there, just waiting (begging) to be noticed. It's the ultimate cosmic joke.