by Kenneth Harper Finton

Before we can have a world, we need events. To have events we need an observer. To have an observation we need awareness of an object or an event. The essential quality for observation or interaction is to have awareness of an object. Observers are generally thought of as being people, but they can also be a system. An observer is a person or a system that observes. An interaction is an observation. It is part of the cognitive universe.

Alertness is triggered by perceptive awareness. Awareness is the first cause because it is responsible for recognizing objects and events. Objects and events exist in time and space. In the two-dimensional plane, objects are flat, like drawings. They can barely be distinguished from their backgrounds. Awareness, certainly, appears in three-dimensional realities, as the third dimension is conceptual; three dimensions must be seen from above, conceptually. A flat circle becomes a sphere in the conceptual mind.

Life is awareness, and awareness is life. Perception comes in myriad forms and degrees. It is present in all living things. It is present as prehension and in inanimate things. When organized, awareness becomes consciousness. All things are formed from the eternal and non-material perceptive awareness, which has always been present, as the eternal now is ever-present. Existence is in the now. Consciousness is in the now. Awareness is in the now. This has always been so, even before time, before the universe. This is where the concept of the cognizant universe is most evident. If there was an evolutionary path through the birthing of elements in stars, there had to be an observer. The observer is cognizant of the event. Observations combine to create data.

When a change occurs in the dimensional universe, it is recorded physically by changes in the matter of the universe. [Rock hits a rock, and forms a crater. Cut your toe, feel the pain, see the injury.] Every event occurs at a specific point in time and space. Spacetime is a recording device in which every event, no matter how large or small, is recorded.

“Time”  is a concept. The reality is called “duration”. Duration is not a measure of time, but of change. Change is movement.  Without movement, there is no change. The universe and its parts are in constant motion, so there is always change as our lives pass through the now.  So what is passing through the now? It is our conscious and unconscious awareness. Our awareness is conceptual, while our physical reality is manifest. The human experience is primarily in the mind and consciousness. The past only exists as physical traces. The future consists of indefinite possibilities that only exist if they are orchestrated by conscious experience.

Matter behaves like both a particle and a wave. Spacetime is a recording device, as all events occur within it. Matter is the temporal recording medium of physical change. Events are physically coded and stored, forming our mental experiences. The process of thought and alert awareness constantly creates our consciousness and renews our experience in the present moment.