http://psychospiritualresearchinstitute.com/JPT/issue1/Realityandconsciousness.h...

Abstract:

The study of spiritual transformation inevitably leads us to reconsider our experience of the nature of reality, consciousness and ultimately existence as a whole.  Reflected in altered states of consciousness, models of a universal ground from which we all emerge and accounts of the paranormal there is much to consider.  In this article I will take a very broad look at common factors across a wide variety of disciplines and traditions that are directly associated with our notions of spiritual transformation.  We'll see, in overview format, that it is possible to extrapolate a parsimonious meta-model  of existence that co-describes consciousness and reality as dualistic orientations or interpretations of a single universal process.   This meta-model can be considered holarchic in nature because it expresses a whole process, complete in itself, and at the same time comprised of an embedded hierarchy of interdependent processes.    It represents a complex dynamical system in which  all aspects are necessarily interrelated.    An interesting aspect of this model is that it utilizes "interrelationship" as the fundamental unit for dynamically modeling both reality and individual consciousness.  Finally, we'll consider the notion of psychospiritual transformation from this perspective.

Introduction: What is Reality?                                        

Typically we think of the term reality as referencing the true nature of existence.   A variety of disciplines have developed that offer alternative means to explore this topic.  They include (among many others) philosophy, physics, astrophysics, metaphysics, psychology, chaos theory and the mystical schools of our great spiritual traditions.  Each of them provides a different perspective, context and method for understanding and discovering this nature.  At the same time, comparison of models rendered by these various perspectives suggests  a common universal process demonstrating a number of common characteristics (Gaynor, 2001).  The two scientific models (below) suggest that existence is a self-directed transformation process occurring within a vacuum or state of nothingness.  Emerging first as a potentially aware energetic field/state of what is essentially light energy, this active state is thought to excite or self-organize into the hierarchical system of increasingly complex forms that make up our universe and create interrelational existence.  The resulting complex dynamical process forms a holarchy, or hierarchical process of processes, expressing increasingly differentiated  forms.  These expressions of interrelational potential include the subatomic, atomic, molecular, organismic geologic, planetary, galactic and cosmic systems...............................