6. Consciousness, Existence and Time
The Theory of Universal Awareness acknowledges that there is a fundamental relationship between (i) our conscious experience; (ii) what, for us, 'exists' in the world; and (iii) how we experience time. Allow me to explain.
We can represent our awareness of what is happening externally (sights and sounds in particular) and internally (thoughts, images, feelings etc.) as a series of conscious experiences. Psychologists and philosophers use the term 'the specious present' to refer to each of these experiences, but the Theory of Universal Awareness uses the term 'discrete conscious event' (DCE). Each DCE occurs at a moment in time that we experience as 'now'. Thus, we could refer to a DCE as a 'now experience'. (In terms of what was stated in previous posts, we may say that DCEs are momentary 'mental maps'.
Indeed, we are only ever conscious of what is happening 'now'. We are conscious of what happened in the past only through memories, explicit and implicit, that we experience in our 'now moments'. And we are conscious of the future (or what might be in the future), only in the form of anticipatory thoughts, again explicit and implicit and only in our 'now moments'.
Going further, it can be said that each DCE that you experience defines for youevents that are happening in the present and therefore exist. Previous DCEs define for you events that are in the past and no longer exist. And DCEs yet to be experience define for you what events in the future and have yet to exist.
From this you may understand what I meant when I said earlier that there is a fundamental relationship between consciousness, existence, and time
It may help to think about these matters by considering that DCEs are analogous to the frames of an old-fashioned film passing through a projector. The frame that is currently being projected onto the screen displays events that exist now in the film (cf. your current DCE). Previously projected frames displayed what no longer exists in the film (cf. DCEs you experienced in the past). And frames waiting to be projected display what has yet to exist in the film. Like many analogies it is far from perfect, but I believe it is sufficient for our purposes.
Imagine a short section of film showing a single scene-say, a car chase. Each frame contains visual and auditory information that is meaningfully related to the frame immediately before it and the one that follows. As the projector advances through the strip, these individual images combine into a continuous, intelligible sequence of the unfolding events. Not unlike the sequences of DCEs that we experience in our conscious life.
I find this way of thinking very useful when thinking about profound psychological and philosophical questions such as how we experience time, and whether we can say we are 'the same person' over time. Things to think about for next time.
Note: At present, it's not possible for you to post your comments on my blog directly. But I welcome them via my email address, and I'll only upload them under 'Comments' if that is your wish (and with the usual stipulations about offensiveness, etc.)
