Have you ever experienced certain phenomena functioning differently from their normal state of nature?
Have you ever sensed something abnormal, paranormal, peculiar, strange, odd, or weird, within reality?
If the answer is "no", then you'll probably be sceptical towards this post.
If the answer is "yes", then you might be interested in the contents of this post.
First, a bit of background information.
In a recent post on one of his other blogs, Linguistic Labyrinth, titled, "Truth", this author writes about his understanding of what this thing we call truth really is, describing such subject with and without the human experience. It occurred to the author that without human interaction, phenomena seems to function in a certain way, while when including the human perspective, reality, and phenomena, work differently.
A segment from the mentioned post explains this further:
Experience and observation are human perspectives, even if we do not acknowledge the psyche (or mind) of the individual experiencing something or observing it, it requires including the human component to what is a fact, and therefore, what is true.
This suggests that it is impossible to understand reality without the observation, perspective, and the human mind. After all, if no one is paying attention to a phenomenon, how can it be known?
This next section acknowledges the importance and significance of the human factor in the acquisition of reality through scientific investigation:
This brings us to the famous double slit experiment, where a laser was pointed toward two slits on a board, emitting light towards the two slits, which had a screen in front of it, so that scientists could see what resulted with the light going through the slits. The reason this is a famous experiment is that light does not have a definitive behaviour, and in fact, has two natures, or what is called "the duality of light." Basically, this experiment demonstrates that light can behave as both a particle or as a wave, depending on whether it is being observed or not. When the light was unobserved, it behaved like a wave, while when it was observed, it behaved like a particle.
So, when humans interact with phenomena, merely by observing it, phenomena behaves differently than when it is left unobserved. Such information seems to be true for humans, who are in their normal states of being, perceiving reality in the ordinary sense. Having stated these things, a question arises: what would a human perceive of reality if such human is in an altered state of consciousness?
If reality changes with human interaction, what would happen if the human factor of perception is altered? Would reality also behave differently once again?
Due to certain observations, this author thinks this is true.
Having experimented with cannabis, this author has had experiences with altered states of consciousness. The psychoactive chemical of THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) in the marijuana plant, has certain effects on the body, such as: an altered perception of time; a relaxation of the central nervous system; a change in short term memory; an increase in heart rate; an increase in focus; and can also cause eyes to become red. There can be other effects which different individuals can experience, but these are the author's personal experiences when having taken this substance.
With that in mind, one can understand that reality is perceived differently in the altered state than from "normal" consciousness. So, this brings us back to the question: can such a change in perception also alter the surrounding phenomena?
Well, one event will be described in order to illustrate such hypothesis.
A few years ago, after having smoked a joint (a mix of cannabis and tobacco rolled in a cigarette), this author went to his room to listen to music. Music sounds much better while high, and one can understand it properly, than when under normal states of consciousness.
Anyway, this author decided to put on a CD that, back then, he had recently purchased. The CD was an album by musician DJ Spooky, called Riddim Warfare (1998), which may be significant in the scheme of things, or, simply, just a coincidence.
This will be clarified later.
Once he had inserted the CD into his 3-piece Panasonic silver stereo, he went to his desk, and started using the PC, whilst he listened to DJ Spooky's album. Several tracks played on the stereo, and everything sounded normal, until he heard a continuous beat lasting for an abnormal amount of time. At first, he thought that this was part of the song, but when this beat didn't cease, he realised that something strange must have been occurring.
He got out of his desk chair, and walked toward the stereo. To his surprise, when he looked at the display on the stereo, which measures the amount of time that the song had been playing for, he noticed that it was exactly at 3 minutes and 14 seconds—the number Pi.
Why was this significant?
Well, because after this incident, the CD player didn't work correctly. The disc kept skipping and played irregularly—just like the random digits of the number Pi.
This was the "spooky" thing that occurred while listening to DJ "Spooky", as mentioned earlier.
Unfortunately, no footage of this event was captured. However, a bit of video was recorded afterwards:
Now, one might see this and think nothing of it, because one probably has had experiences with technology malfunctioning, like millennials having had disc skipping in their CD players back in the day.
This may be the normal reaction, and it's understandable.
However, this author believes that everything happens for a reason, and that even accidents, have a definitive cause. In other words, what exactly made the disc skip?
With the information given about human perception and reality, the only logical conclusion is that it was due to the author's altered state of consciousness that somehow "made" the CD to skip.
Something changed the workings of the stereo due to the change of the perceiver, just like the behaviour of light when observed versus when unobserved.
But what do you think?
Does this sound logical?
Or is this "jumping the gun"?
Feel free to comment your opinion.
This will be all for now.
Until next time.
