I can imagine spheres, living attractors surrounded by barriers of energy that move under their own impetus through space and down to planetary surfaces. Being able to radiate fractal patterns, they would be able to adopt any external form they chose. We might call them UFOs. Who knows, such a being might bounce into a field and generate a fractal crop circle just for fun. So perhaps, coming soon, to a corn field near you ...

Chaos and Attractors

Scientists use a branch of mathematics called Chaos Theory to model dynamic systems like the weather and financial markets. These so-called non-linear systems are notoriously difficult to model mathematically. You can predict the conditions needed for tornadoes to form but you cannot anticipate their precise trajectory. If you stretch a piece of metal until it breaks, the relationship between the applied force and the extension of the metal is directly proportional - until the metal fractures. We call this a linear relationship.

However, if you hang a pendulum from another pendulum and set the whole arrangement swinging, the resulting motion is non-linear and unpredictable. In fact, it swings wildly. The double-jointed pendulum is visibly chaotic. When a pendulum comes to rest, the point where it ends up is a point attractor. Other types of attractor appear to underlie natural phenomena. Mathematicians call these by the generic name of strange attractors.

Chaos in the mathematical sense does not imply randomness. Chaos theory tells us that complex systems obey simple rules. Such systems are often sensitive to initial conditions. The term butterfly effect expresses the idea that very small changes can result in large-scale movements. We can apply these ideas to abstract systems like sociological structures and, in my opinion, historical events. For example, the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 sparked the First World War. The incident did not cause the war but it signalled its opening. The final state of a chaotic system is its strange attractor. In this example, the attractor is World War One.

I contend that what we call Nature is really mathematics. Theosophy and similar esoteric systems relate to very high level mathematical and geometric processes. The chakras and the aura belong to a higher dimensional layer in which mathematical computations translate into spatial information in the manner of a computer's operating system like Microsoft 'Windows'. They represent a kind of cosmic blueprint on which consciousness drapes the material form in the same way a DVD player turns a set of dots on a disc into a theatrical experience on a television screen. The patterns of existence sketch themselves out against the space-time backdrop in a manner akin to ray tracing, a technique that allows computers to create realistic special effects in movies. The esoteric ray is something greater as theosophists well know but I believe the principle is valid as a metaphor. A strange attractor is a mathematical object that programs these rays in delineating a physical entity in material form. Each object places itself according to its nature and state of being in relation to all things - it expresses the idea of what it is in the totality of all time and space.

The mechanism that draws all things where they need to be - literally and metaphorically - is strange attraction. The system we call orthodox science deals with the material universe that is comprised of information. Science appears not to comprehend the conceptual domain that interlinks the material worlds in the higher dimensions or planes of consciousness. Spirit or the infinite is the essence of meaning. The material world is the arena in which concepts place themselves into context with each other. Information is a by-product of concepts or systems interacting. Ultimately all the systems that make up the universe interconnect and information is like breath, it flows in and out and is the medium of exchange. I cannot escape the conclusion that strange attraction works backwards across time. Think how film makers feel compelled to tell stories in flashback. The present justifies itself by creating the illusion of the linear past. This is how the finite mind takes its circumstances for granted and maintains a belief in its separation from the oneness.

Fractals

Strange attractors relate to the idea of fractals. Fractals are endlessly repeating forms, mathematically generated, that have the property of looking similar no matter what level of magnification you use. It is my contention that the physical universe is modelled mathematically from fractals and strange attractors - all things including stars, planets, biological organisms and of course, us. The most famous fractal is the Mandelbrot fractal that I suspect has some bearing on the form of the aura. This fractal is one of the most intricate objects known. My purpose here is not to explain how fractals and strange attractors work but to infer principles from them that I believe underlie the nature of our existence.

It is not uncommon to see similarities in the outline of the Mandelbrot fractal in the details of religious art -especially images of the Buddha and the Madonna and Child and of course, angels. I conclude from this that the Mandelbrot fractal or something similar is the basis on which living creatures project themselves materially into patterns of space-time. I believe that all living creatures are fractals and have the property of strange attraction. This concept goes beyond simply geometry to encompass the forces that shape events and history, the abstractions of daily existence. Each entity in the universe is an expression of a single, unique idea. The other factor that makes existence possible is our relationship to the number one, the only concept that combines the essence of being or individuality with its infinite counterpart, oneness or love. All existence in this conceptual domain is an exploration of the meaning of one and oneness, in other words, individuality and spirituality or unit and unity. Therefore, the number one, experiences all things in all times in one moment. That is too much for the finite mind so we draw the experience out in time in order to handle it in manageable chunks.

Emergence

The infinite makes sense of it all and it does so from living organisms like us through the medium of consciousness. Without being aware of it, we transform vast quantities of information into meaning simply by experiencing and understanding ourselves, our roles and our feelings, etc. Without the abstractions like emotion, joy and pain, there would be no meaning. It would all be just numbers making patterns. The interplay of forces that link events across space and time happen in the higher dimensions of existence where the state of separation we experience here ceases. However, this does give us the illusion of individuality and lets us make our mistakes and thereby evolve and grow, all the time merging our essence with the universal oneness. The key word is relationship. We are manifestations of the number one defined by our relationship with all things throughout all time. Conclusions draw concepts into existence. An entity is a conceived idea that originates its own space and time and we call the process emergence. The time line of the individual is a quantum unit in the landscape of eternity. If we could go back in time as they do in science fiction to try to destroy somebody by killing their ancestors to prevent them from being born, we could not succeed. History is not linear; it is quantised. Each entity inhabits a bubble of time in an ever- expanding foam. What we are and what we do defines us.

All sorts of tunnels and linkages join events across time through the phenomena of resonance and entanglement. Quantum physics is simply the science of one. Time is a landscape and from the infinite perspective all things happen at once. We journey across the landscape navigating our way by making our choices in life. A person exists when their life is implicated in the essence of everything else that is not them. Emergence is spontaneous. We create ourselves by implication but it is the number one that 'anoints us' when it gives us the nod to exist. This is the true 'Immaculate Conception'; to be raised from nothingness to infinity on the fulcrum of the 'Holy One'.

Attraction and Time

Individuals conceive themselves through strange attraction by drawing their appropriate parents into the circumstances that will open a doorway into the time-space continuum. The strange attractor that draws us through time is the conclusion of things in our lives, the moment of death. The 'destiny that shapes our ends' is the same one that triggers our conception. We have only one moment of temporal existence, it is the alpha and the omega, the one moment we repeat throughout our lives and that we carry ultimately into eternity. There are no accidents, no mistakes. When an aeroplane crashes the event attractor brings together all the players in the drama. This is not a justification for fatalism and inaction. It is a paradox. The underlying principle behind everything is love. A change of heart can change the world.

The lessons we learn from life do not come after it but while it is happening. We cannot see the silver lining under the dark cloud but our infinite self is aware of it and learns the lessons, not in spite of our limitations but because of them. Treasure your imperfections for they are the greatest gifts you have. The infinite cannot experience itself directly so it becomes 'you'. You are a finite concept that represents the negation of your own infinite essence. In this way, the infinite discovers what it is by experiencing what it is not, the shadow and not the light. The idea of individuality is a negation of the idea of oneness, the infinite aspect of the number one. This paradox allows love to co-exist with suffering and accounts for why bad things happen.

Large-scale and small-scale events are strange attractors that draw the circumstances they need to exist into material form. A country is a place but a nation is an idea. Nations with all their traits of character and personality are attractors that draw their populations into existence and shape their histories. Likewise, a world attractor exists to draw us towards oneness. 'One world, one nation' is conceivable but not perhaps in the current climate. All living creatures have centres of consciousness or chakras joined by lines of localised conductivity called meridians. They are really functioning strange attractors that shape our bodies and our experiences inside them. Evolution is not a random pressure but a mechanism based on attraction with some undisclosed final state awaiting fulfilment.

Possible Consequences?

Astronomers have observed super-massive black holes at the centres of galaxies having masses billions of times greater than our sun. If these ideas are correct, then matter creates space. The black hole generates the time frame for the galaxy and provides it with space, structure and dynamics though the mechanism of strange attraction and fractals. Possibly there is an even more massive black hole or star at the centre of the universe or a distributed network of them.

I will finish by speculating (perhaps wildly) on the end goal of planetary life. The desire of the number one within each finite entity is to integrate the vehicle of consciousness into a whole, single being. In this state we would no longer be a collection of cells and molecules that are not really ‘us’. We make our bodies of material concepts (atoms, molecules, etc.) that we 'borrow' from the universe. If this idea is correct, all living creatures have the potential to become integrated, whole beings (enlightened and ascended). I can imagine spheres, living attractors surrounded by barriers of energy that move under their own impetus through space and down to planetary surfaces. Being able to radiate fractal patterns, they would be able to adopt any external form they chose. We might call them UFOs. Who knows, such a being might bounce into a field and generate a fractal crop circle just for fun. So perhaps, coming soon, to a corn field near you ...

The Theosophical Society 2006
reproduced from 'Insight' Spring 2006, The Journal of The Theosophical Society in England