INFORMATION AS THE VEHICLE OF REALITY BY PETER CANOVA

Scientists are starting to come around to something I’ve been saying for years—information is the foundation of reality as we experience it, so today we’re going to discuss information theory.

A Different Concept of Information

Before we begin, I need to shift your conceptions about information. The common belief concerning information is the conveyance of facts, opinions, or ideas by various means. The information I’m speaking about is the conveyance of the basic building blocks of reality through information encoded in light energy. This cosmic “DNA” forms both the visible world and unseen dimensions of existence. The concept presented here is my educated and intuited belief supported by some evolving theories in science. I’ll funnel all the data down to show why this is important and how you can use this knowledge.

The Theory

The foundation of all existence is a single Master Consciousness that expresses itself through an Intelligent Energy that forms and permeates creation. Intelligence implies intentionality.

Intention implies direction. Direction must be conveyed by information. Summarized, a Source Consciousness expresses its intentions through the vehicle of intelligence-carrying energy that contains directive information. This information forms reality in the same manner that the information-encoded DNA gives form to physical bodies.

This concept can be stated as a mathematical equation S       E=h, where (S) is the Source Consciousness that gives rise to (E) energy and (h) is a constant meaning that the energy is constant, universal, and infinite. But another component exists that can add to the equation— frequency. Frequency is variable energy levels. It’s the rate of vibration that differentiates the constant energy into a variety of forms giving rise to the multiplicity of the things we experience.

Variations on a Theme

You may have heard of Variations on a Theme in classical music. Variations of a theme are a compositional music form. It’s based on the idea of a central melodic theme that is repeated but with changes in its melody, harmony, and rhythm called variations. Well, the same condition is present in the world of quantum energy. Essentially, reality consists of variations on the constant theme of the central Source Energy. Higher and lower states of energy exist to form reality, otherwise, everything would be one non-differentiated state of the raw Source Energy. In other words, no individuality or multiplicity of objects would exist.

So, we can add to our basic equation like this, S       E=hf. The (f) represents the introduction of different frequencies of vibration modulating the basic Source Energy state. This formula says that the Source Energy breaks itself into photons or units of light of various energy states called quanta. Quantum physics, which is basically the study of the light energy that makes up our reality, derives its name from this. Without light energy, we would have no means to perceive physical reality or to exist at all since the atoms of our bodies are built from the actions of photons or light energy. Each photon has an energy signature proportional to its particular frequency.

Interestingly, this formula is a mathematical rendering of ancient mystical concepts of reality, particularly those of the Gnostics that I cover in my book, Quantum Spirituality (see petercanova.com.) The Gnostics related that God formed the creation by a series of stepping down or limitations of its Source Energy into smaller constituent parts. It was done by a play of frequencies or vibrations, literally variations of the Source Energy. This process was also described in ancient texts as the One Consciousness dispersing itself into other points of consciousness or spiritual beings that played a co-creative role in the creation.

A great analogy describing this event formed the cosmological basis of the works of JRR Tolkien. Tolkien’s cosmogony was strikingly Gnostic. In the Silmarillion, Eru, the One, (the Source Energy) plans a great symphony to create the universe. He steps down his energetic vibration to emanate lesser frequencies or intelligent centers of conscious beings called the Ainur. Each of these added its own vibration to the symphony of creation orchestrated by Eru.

This is similar to the Christian concept of the angelic choir surrounding God. We’re going to come back to this analogy subsequently to demonstrate an interesting twist concerning the creation.

Information is Energy, but also Physical Matter

Gnostics and Tolkien aside for now, we’ll stick to the scientific angle for the moment. Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up. Science is starting to demonstrate that information is physical and that it might well be the fifth and most fundamental form of matter alongside solids, liquids, gas, and plasma. What’s the basis for believing this and how can information be physical? After all, isn’t information something abstract rather than concrete? The answer is that information is energetically conveyed, but like all other quantum processes concerning energy, it can be expressed as actual matter. Let’s look at a few examples.

Your college professor has information he wants to convey to his class. He can write it down so the information is now conveyed physically by the arrangement of molecules of ink on paper. Okay, now he keeps the information in his head for a lecture. How is that physical? The electrochemical transmission of information through the synapses or neural network of the professor is a physical process. The thought energy is conveyed on a quantum molecular basis as are the sound waves when the information is spoken or recorded.

Now consider similar processes to the human brain for conveying information such as a computer and the internet or information highway. Both computers and the internet convey information through binary strings of numbers (sequences of 0s or 1s) conveyed by electrons registering through transistors. So, 010100011010 is an example of such a string that conveys the bits of information that underly the text or images you get from the internet or retrieve from your computer. The physical process behind this information is a flow of electrons in various binary (two-digit) sequences. The information your computer retrieves from the internet is actually packets of photons delivered in binary code arrangements by fiber optics.

INFORMATION AS THE VEHICLE OF REALITY BY PETER CANOVA

Quantum Information

If photons, which are force-carrying particles of light energy, are capable of conveying physical information, it’s not a stretch to think that light energy contains the informational blueprint that forms the universe. Einstein’s E=mc² tells us that matter and energy are interchangeable, that is, matter comes from energy and can resolve back into energy. Matter moving back into energy is the basis of the atom bomb. Energy slowed in vibration is the basis for matter.

Photons can spin in two directions only, sometimes referred as left and right spin, sometimes up and down. The descriptive terminology is irrelevant. What’s notable is that the actions of the photons are binary, just like the binary 0-1 strings used to convey bits of information via electronic devices. Patterns of information could be carried at the quantum energetic level into matter through the actions of the light photons with their different binary spin combinations representing bits of information. If sub-atomic particles can carry information on a physical level, why is it implausible that they carry information at their base energy level?

Scientists know that fundamental reality is an energy field and that particles or matter derive from this field or quantum energy wave. What we’ve just learned tells us that the energy field may well be composed of infinite information that forms the building blocks of reality when manifested as particles of matter in binary algorithms. We experience an energetic projection of what appears as our physical universe just as quantum electronic information populates images on our TV screens. This indicates what many scientists have noted, namely that the operations of the universe resemble a giant computer. The question then becomes who is programming the software? Let’s see.

The Rise of Information Theory

A 2017 article in New Scientist by Anil Ananthaswamy observed that physics suggests

information is more fundamental than matter, energy, space, and time. This is the recognition of a belief that has developed among scientists over several decades. To avoid confusion, I should mention that the term, “information theory,” has a loosely related historical meaning. In the 1940s, Claude Shannon developed a body of work labeled information theory that had to do with information imparted by radio and telecommunications transmissions.

The modern quantum theory of information explores the idea that energy and the subatomic particles it produces are encoded with the directive information that forms creation much as DNA contains the information that guides the formation of organic physical forms.

A 2017 article by Phil Perry in Big Think nicely summarizes quantum information theory:

“To look at information theory from a quantum viewpoint, the positions of particles, their movement, how they behave, and all of their properties, give us information about them and the physical forces behind them. Every aspect of a particle can be expressed as information, and put into binary code. And so subatomic particles may be the bits that the universe is processing, as a giant supercomputer.”

The eminent physicist, John Wheeler, elaborated on the way the whole thing works. Wheeler claimed that the universe operated in three parts: He said: “Everything is Particles,” “Everything is Fields,” and “Everything is information” in that order and he was quite correct. Quantum physics recognizes that particles of matter come from the quantum energy field or the quantum wave. Wheeler is saying that in turn, the quantum field itself is composed of information and, therefore, information is fundamental to reality in-forming space, time, and matter. Wheeler used the term, “It from bit.” This means that each sub- atomic particle is a bit of information forming the appearance of the creation and physical reality similar to the way binary computer bits create appearances on your screen.

Energy and Consciousness

Now think on a simple fact. When you gaze upon a nighttime sky, you see millions of stars. What you are seeing are photons (sub-atomic particles) of light radiating from those stars registering on the rods and cones of your eyes and processed by your brain. So, it’s the information inherent in those particles that makes the experience of seeing stars detectable to you. The reality is that you’re seeing those stars as they were hundreds of thousands of years ago because that’s how long it takes for their light energy to reach Earth. Herein lies a hint that the transmission of information-encoded light may be the very basis of space and time.

Perception of any physical object operates the same as seeing stars. It is the photons of light energy emitted from various objects in a particular informational array that allows us to perceive them as objects. Without light energy, no physical reality could exist.

So, here is a key question. The conveyance of information implies transmission and reception, but who is transmitting and who is receiving? The receiving part is easy. We are the receivers, but hold on, we may also be transmitters too. Read on.

Physics and Metaphysics

The problem with science is that it limits itself to what is observable and testable. This is all well and good for everyday applied applications. However, when exploring the outer edges of mysteries like the origins of life, the universe, space, time, matter, and consciousness, strict adherence to the scientific method can become a limitation or even a liability. Here’s why— nobody knows what occurred on the other side of the Big Bang. Using the scientific method from this side of creation to probe the mysteries of the other side as in who or what is transmitting the information that formed us is futile. Well, not completely, perhaps.

Whatever lies at the bottom of the information trail does leave footprints in our dimension and science can trace those footprints to a certain degree like having a partial map that shows 10 miles of a 100-mile trail. Where physics and science end, however, metaphysics and intuited wisdom begin. My study of ancient texts as well as my own vivid personal experience has proved to me that intuited information from experienced sages or other sources is every bit as valid, if not more so, than scientific probings limited by materialistic parameters.

Regardless, logic based on scientific understanding can still support my contentions. If science acknowledges that information is the basis of the created or apparent universe then a few things must follow. Information means instruction capable of organizing form, which indicates intention, which indicates intelligence. Codes and programs do not write themselves absent a programmer, nor are they written absent a purpose pointing toward an intelligent force behind the transmission of information. Second, if the human mind is the receiver of this information, this establishes a relationship between the receiver and the transmitter. Just as electronic signals can be traced to their source, so should the human mind under proper circumstances be able to trace back some connection to its transmitting source.

This back-tracking experience is called by several terms—higher consciousness, the presence of God, enlightenment, the shamanic experience—the label doesn’t matter. It’s a contemplative reverse-engineering process of the mind. In terms of communication terminology, it’s about eliminating the background noise to achieve a clear channel connection.

INFORMATION AS THE VEHICLE OF REALITY BY PETER CANOVA

The Mystic Angle

Hopefully, I’ve established some credibility in your minds as to the validity of mystically derived wisdom because this is what I will use to try and complete the last portion of the jigsaw puzzle with the missing pieces that science does not possess. I rely primarily on the Gnostic texts, a compilation of Judeo-Christian and pagan wisdom that I find astonishingly scientific to the point of predicting the major theories of quantum physics over two thousand years ago. My book, Quantum Spirituality covers this remarkable story in depth.

The Gnostics, the Hindus, and other ancient traditions identify the foundation of creation as a single Supreme Consciousness. You can call this God, the Source, the One, or any name that suits you, it doesn’t matter, it’s all the same intelligence.

The Source Consciousness is the embodiment of universal intelligent energy. The creation, consisting of the visible and invisible or the material and spiritual, is said to be a thought in the mind of the Source. Indeed, several eminent scientists have echoed the words of astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington:

“The universe is of the nature of a thought or sensation in a universal Mind … the stuff of the world is mind-stuff.”

The Source-Mind is the energetic quantum field that forms the matrix of creative possibilities including realities both physical and non-physical.

The Source, according to the Eastern Hindu and Western Gnostic traditions, emanated or projected other points of consciousness. Religious traditions would speak of these as angelic spiritual beings while the Gnostic description of them was deeper. They were centers of conscious energy described as archetypal ideals in the Jungian and Platonic sense that guide human experience. They were given names like Truth, Justice, Love, or Wisdom, clearly attributes or aspects of the divine or Source Mind. They were distinct beings, however, knowing themselves to be themselves but also knowing themselves to be part of God or the Source.

We can account for this dispersal of consciousness, information, and energy by using the analogy of a power grid. The Source is analogous to a raw electrical power source. The projected beings are like relay stations. For the electric power in a grid to be distributed and utilized, it must be stepped down or limited in energy for lower-voltage everyday uses. This comports with the ancient descriptions that the archetypal beings vibrated at lower frequencies or levels of consciousness from the Source.

Gnostic cosmogony pictured a series of parallel dimensions characterized by varying levels of consciousness or frequency each associated with the spiritual beings described above. When these all worked together in harmony, creation vibrated at a high, non-physical level of reality. Think back to Tolkien’s creation story. Eru, the One, led a divine symphony of creation with each of the heavenly beings contributing. But one of them sought to create his own composition and created discord instead, a breaking of the divine harmony that carried into Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings.

This is parallel to the Gnostic creation story where one of the archetypal beings broke the unity of the Source to create on her own, ultimately leading to a fall of spirit consciousness that led to the formation of the material dimension. Human beings are embodiments of the fallen, low- frequency spiritual consciousness but still contain a connection with the Source.

The Full Picture

Now we can put the full picture of science and spiritual wisdom together with all the pieces of the puzzle. The Mind of the Source creates the quantum field or matrix of creation within which are algorithms of information encoded in virtual or actual sub-atomic particles. This information exists in potential but can materialize as local conditions in the quantum field. Think of these as

pockets or dimensions like blips or cul-de-sacs within the smooth infinity of the quantum field. Our material world would be one of these dimensions.

What part do human beings play in this? You may remember in the Matrix movie where they depicted something like the picture above, a flow of binary algorithms that created the matrix the characters perceived as reality. Well, remember, everything is a manifestation of One Consciousness. Conscious energy in physical form is still consciousness albeit very diluted. We are still relays in that power grid system reduced to low-level frequencies that produce the dense manifestations of gross materiality.

This means we participate in the creation of reality at some level with varying degrees of frequency. The human brain shown in the graphic above is the receiver that arranges and decodes the algorithms of the sub-atomic particles into the appearance of physical objects.

This makes us both the receivers and the transmitters of reality-forming information. Getting back to the Tolkien-Gnostic vision of the fall of spirit, the theme is that we used our creative powers to mess with the master plan, a story echoed in many religious and spiritual traditions. The Source created a river of life. The multitude of conscious spirit beings was meant to help guide the course of the river within the parameters of the One. Instead, some of them jumped into the river and kind of polluted it, redirecting it with their own desires, and voila, here we are in the material world so low on the ladder of consciousness, so wrapped up in expressing our individuality that most of us have forgotten our origin and purpose.

The good news is that armed with this knowledge, we can raise our frequencies by tracing back the energy to our Source. This is where study, meditation, and contemplation come into play as important tools to experience the guiding benefits of higher consciousness which in turn helps us navigate life with far better end results. When several sources indicate the same thing, where there’s smoke there’s usually fire. Hopefully, the confluence of science and mysticism pointing in the same direction inspires you to realize that the mysteries of life can be better understood.

There is a payoff to spiritual pursuits grounded in both subjectively and objectively derived information. No matter your mindset, raising your conscious awareness of how reality operates affords you a decided edge in life.

Give it a try.

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Peter Canova is an international businessman who, after a series of life-changing spiritual experiences, began writing on spirituality and consciousness. He is the author of the 25x award-winning First Souls Trilogy and has contributed to the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series. His latest book is Quantum Spirituality. https://petercanova.com/