It’s easy to overlook the underlying order and patterns that persist in a world in chaos. What’s holding it all together.
Fractals are integral to nature and our world.
The term fractal was coined by the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot in 1975. In his seminal work The Fractal Geometry of Nature, he defines a fractal as “a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole.” Kyle Pierce
The whole then, contained (at least approximately) within the part.
Fractals are related to holons and holarchies and holograms as this concise essay by Vishnu Datta, illustrates - poetically I think.
Creation is arted/crafted — from nebulae to quarks — in unbelievable perfection of design. Our Universe is omni-directional, inter-connected, inter-penetrating and ultra-holographic. Awe and wonder become understatements, could we move beyond our identity with body, our insularity of ego and our limitations around perception.
The theory of a holographic universe has been around for decades and continues to advance. A tangential offshoot of it (and there are many) is the idea that if our reality is holographic in nature it means we live in an illusion.
Personally - and I claim no authority on the subject - that may come down to how we define reality and illusion. Old definitions don’t always translate or migrate easily into new conceptual models.
Can our experienced reality here be both an illusion and real? I think that’s closer to it. Not an either/or.
All of the above has to do with light waves and particles but also images, mirrors and their reflections. The tools of conjurers and magicians then, are the fundamental constituents of this world. (Perhaps our reality-conjurers know this and use it to our disadvantage?)
One underlying lesson is that even when it feels and looks like the world is fully fragmented - everything is still quite connected. When we see separation and disconnection, we are not seeing the world as it really is.
Reassuring I think.
And we know this. We are held in ways we can’t see but still intuit. When we pray, what are we doing but feeling into that intelligence present throughout creation - acknowledging its goodness and communing with it; even receiving sustenance from it.
We know so much more than we know we know. (Probably because we are parts that contain the whole)
Sometimes when going through substack an image of a kaleidoscope comes to mind; each post acting as a unique ‘shard’ in a complex emerging pattern, which - with the smallest of nudging - shifts and changes into a new pattern. (And of course those changing and beautiful kaleidoscopic images are based on mirrors, reflection and light.)
How we frame and shape our view of the world and each other, is so connected to what we choose to take in, both on screens and off.
Opting to read this author, and pass on that one is a little like turning a built-in perception-kaleidoscope. One’s view will shift and alter creating a new impression, a new internal image of the world. On and one.
We are constantly re-positioning ourselves this way- mostly without noticing. Perhaps we are each following an inner map we came equip with?
My personal use of Substack has changed over the months and now years.
Authors that - not long ago - I would read everything they put out, I might only gloss over or pass on altogether now. Not because what they are offering is not worthy content. I’m just in a different place. (The world view and images emerging for me now require different inputs.)
Writers who only recently inspired me, or assisted in catalyzing understanding, might frustrate me in - what I see - as their unwillingness to move beyond a bias or maybe they’ve bumped into a sacred cow they can’t seem to move around it. (Those ‘cows’ can be big and stubborn.)
That’s happening a lot.
Other writers, during my voracious info-gathering stage, might have triggered impatience in me with their slower gait or what they paid attention to - but now have suddenly become my go-to’s.
It’s a wonder, the ways we wander.
All of us are being stretched and expanded. These are extraordinary times. How we navigate upheaval, what we do with our time, the willingness VS the resistance to change, will be different for all of us.
We readers and writers of Substack, meet up - sometimes over and over in this virtual community - and then we may wander in different directions, hit a metaphorical fork in the road and explore fully different paths. We discover new writers and lose contact with others.
No matter. New views and vistas - new kaleidoscopic images - are just being created. (Only to be undone, and recreated again.)
There is no straight line to waking out of this illusion-non-illusion.
If it’s true that we are individuated parts or fragments of the Source of this creation - and I accept that - then as parts we each contain the whole. One thing that means is no matter what path we’re on, no one can actually, really, get lost.
Not in the deepest sense.
So, wander and wonder away.
Thanks for reading.
Buy me a cuppa: //ko-fi.com/kathleen87247
You are singing my song as usual, Kathleen. Like you, I've drifted from a number of Substackers, not because they're not solid writers or providing solid information, but because I feel myself yearning for a different kind of truth -- something that sustains me and opens the door to the new world that is inevitably coming. YOU are one of those writers that I believe are tapped into that kind of truth. Thank you for continuing to stay in a state of wonder and writing so beautifully from it!
Who knows if this is a hologram or not.
I prefer to follow trends in reality that we can see. Right now, I'm seeing that humanity is starting to learn how to think for themselves when it comes to bigger issues (that they used to defer to other groups).
It's a good sign, even if we see some go off the deep end in another scam. They'll figure it out eventually!
What I do know is that the more I stay in touch with my body and physical senses, I am more in touch with reality.
Yes, reality can be a simulation or subset of something higher. However, it's not the reality that our bodies and minds can interact with.
I've read a lot of psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience books that gave me clues here and there over the years picking up bits of wisdom here and there.
The latest book, The Experience Machine by Andy Clark, gave me an interesting way to understand our inner feedback/ consciousness.
It's there to predict things for us to better survive. It's an internal map of reality that we use to navigate life. But the map is not the territory!
This quote makes a lot more sense now that I understand that our conscious mind is a part of a two way dance with reality.
“Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence.” - Robert Anton Wilson