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Conscious life is the highest integration and expression of the autopoietic cognitive living process. Consciousness is the most complex form of cognition which is distinctly different from any other mode of cognition found in other sentient beings. Consciousness came into existence on this planet about 3000 years ago and human beings achieved consciousness not as a product of nature's evolutionary process but as an autopoietic reorganization of their cognitive systems. Consciousness was a discovery and an engineered invention of human beings. Therefore, no change took place in the physical structure of the brain but only in the structural organization of the mind.
Nature's process of evolution had ultimately brought to human beings what is termed the bicameral mind, and it was in the cognitive breakdown of the bicameral mind that consciousness first originated. The bicameral mind was a highly evolved and intelligent cognitive system that operated with language, percepts, and rudimentary/imaginary concepts, yet with complete automaticity. In the bicameral mind, one hemisphere of the brain, guided by the inherent logic of nature, organized the whole inventory of information from the past in an automatic, non-introspective, and non-self-referential manner, and communicated some of that information to the other hemisphere for decision-making or action.
The bicameral mind invented such life-sustaining tools as language, numbers, the wheel, and the ship in its critical pursuit for survival. It was indeed a remarkably intelligent and ingenious cognitive system, yet there was no fundamental difference between it and the mind of anthropoid apes or porpoises in their automaticity. They differed in terms not of quality (automaticity vs. non-automaticity) but of quantity or degree of intelligence arising from their evolutionary/biological differences. Around 1000 B.C. when human society evolved and became too complex for the bicameral mind to handle, it made its greatest invention, at the cost of its own continuance, in order for the human organism as a whole to survive: that invention was consciousness. Toward the end of the second millennium B.C., the bicameral world saw a dramatic increase in commerce. And the laws of commerce/business began to take over the laws of nature, thereby pushing bicameral men and women to a complete cognitive breakthrough -- to a quantum leap into an entirely new mode of cognition. Through that commerce/business initiated cognitive breakthrough, consciousness was born.
Consciousness is the unicameral mind, as it were. Speaking physically, it is the new unified communication network within the brain whereby two hemispheres function synergistically to create a higher order of operation which is self-referential and introspective. Speaking metaphysically, it is the new integrated inventorying of reality in abstract concepts that organizes myriad facts of experience in accordance with conceptually identified logic. In addition, consciousness is an operative modality of the brain or the mind which is inherently non-automatic. That is, there is nothing in nature that causes consciousness to operate automatically.
Consciousness is the causative factor relative to its own existence. There is nothing in existence that can make an individual conscious but his own act of being conscious. Consciousness exists as an entelechy; when it exists it exists in its full manifestation, and when it exists not it exists not at all. That means consciousness never evolves. It is an individual's very act of being conscious (of something) that brings consciousness into being with its utter totality. Thus, in reality, when one is conscious, he is fully conscious with nothing missing and nowhere to evolve.
In the beginning, however, consciousness sought to operate within the lost matrix of the bicameral mind, that is, consciousness made the entire inventory of brain-stored information emulate the dominant hemisphere of the bicameral mind. Consciousness operating in the emulated bicameral modality is perceptivity-centered consciousness. It is when consciousness developed a sufficiently integrated conceptual knowledge internally that consciousness made the shift from the subjective to the objective and became aware of reality, objective and in essence abstract. Consciousness operating in the context of abstract and objective reality is conceptuality-centered consciousness.
Reality in the final analysis, reality in a fully integrated epistemological context, is abstraction. It is the aggregate of abstract principles that are completely independent of any particular observer and his experience, and as such reality is objective. Furthermore, abstract principles by nature exist independent of time, and as such reality is eternal. And when reality is cognized by consciousness, it exists in the form of concepts. However, since it exists in the form of concepts, consciousness can subjectively create or simulate "reality" without ever objectively conceiving, comprehending, or identifying reality as such. This inherent proclivity of consciousness to create, simulate, or make up "reality" is mysticism. Mysticism is the epistemological disease of consciousness to confine itself in the perceptivity-centered modality (the emulated bicameral modality), in subjectivity, while fabricating or making up non-existing, illusory "realities".
Since consciousness is self-causative, consciousness must generate a continuous integration of energy to sustain its existence in its comprehension of reality. In other words, consciousness must continuously exert effort to fulfill its function as the conceptual integrator of reality. Mysticism is consciousness' default in that effort. It is the self-negation of consciousness by consciousness. No other cognitive mode including the bicameral mind is capable of mysticism, for none other than consciousness is nonautomatic and is the sole source of its own existence. Mysticism is not caused by the lack of consciousness but by the lack of integration. Mysticism is the symptom of man's default in epistemological integrity and the cause of all human suffering.
Perceptivity-centered consciousness is a developmental stage of consciousness in its apprehension of reality. When the integration of knowledge reaches a critical point, consciousness begins to see its perceptual experience in the context of conceptually integrated knowledge and goes beyond its perceptually or subjectively bound experiences to awaken into objectivity. If left free and unhindered, every child as well as humanity as a whole innately transcends the perceptivity-centered modality to advance its knowledge in the objectively defined context of reality.
Conceptuality-centered consciousness is consciousness qua consciousness. Mysticism, unless it is identified and corrected, prevents or truncates forever consciousness' integrating growth into maturity. Consciousness is self-correcting epistemologically and self-controlling cybernetically. If it could identify its internal mysticism, it would self-correct its devastating errors and cure the disease that is mysticism. However, in history, this correction or healing, except for a few rare individuals, did not take place until today. The external force that prevents consciousness from self-correcting is neocheating.
Neocheating is the deliberate manipulation of mysticism in others. It is the poison-feeding of mysticism in others. Mysticism came into existence 3000 years ago with the birth of consciousness, and with it came its symbiotic neocheating. However, it was not until Plato formulated his philosophy that a systematic and conceptual framework was supplied in which to carry on neocheating. It was Plato who not only rationalized mysticism but also capitalized on it to create a brilliantly fabricated, yet devastatingly destructive philosophical system that provided the conceptual tools of neocheating for millennia to come. Through Plato and his philosophy, the whole matrix of neocheating was set, the spell of mysticism was deliberately cast upon humanity, and the reign of master neocheaters became firmly established in the course of history.
Platonistic philosophy begins by accepting the primacy of consciousness, that is, by reversing the relationship of consciousness to existence. It assumes that reality must conform to the content of consciousness, not the other way around, based upon the premise that the presence of any concept in consciousness proves the existence of a corresponding referent in reality. Plato thus validates de jure self-made realities while invalidating de facto reality as such.
According to Plato, the content of "true" reality is a set of universals or Forms that represent that which is in common among various groups of particulars in this world. He repeatedly insists that the Forms are what is "really" real. The particulars they subsume, the concrete objects that constitute this world, are not. Although he asserts that the Forms are immutable, timeless, intellectually apprehensible, and capable of precise definition at the end of a piece of "pure ratiocination" because they are independently existing entities in "reality", he never once elucidates in a rational context how that apprehension or definition can be achieved.
Although epistemo-contextually integrated reality is abstraction in the final analysis, yielding to crystallization in the form of concepts through the process of appropriation by consciousness, it is in the final analysis that reality is abstraction and through the process of appropriation by consciousness that reality is crystallized -- apprehended and defined -- in the form of concepts. Existence exists and exists independently of consciousness. Consciousness does not and cannot create reality; it is metaphysically passive. Consciousness exists to identify reality or existence and in the very fact that consciousness must exist to be conscious of reality or existence, the primacy of existence to consciousness is evident.
The primacy of existence and the ultimacy of reality is the alpha and the omega of all valid conceptual knowledge. Knowledge is the explication of existence (explicandum) into reality (explicans). Existence is reality involved metaphysically and reality is existence involved epistemologically. Existence is what is given to consciousness metaphysically while reality is what is revealed to consciousness by consciousness epistemologically. Existence and reality are in essence synonymous, and as existence exists independently of consciousness, so does reality. Therefore, no knowledge of reality can ever be achieved by merely fabricating concepts without regard to existence, as Plato suggested.
Plato, by inverting the epistemological structure of the conscious cognitive process, by reversing the metaphysical relationship between reality (existence) and consciousness, succeeded, in effect, in giving the perceptivity-centered modality the highest and the ultimate cognitive status, while also providing mysticism a completely justified (and even dignified) "full-time job" in the inner workings of human awareness. Through Plato such false concepts as "God", "gods", or "the eternal soul", which has no metaphysically verifiable cognitive content, gained a well-justified philosophical foundation, for, according to him, anything that anyone could make up in his mind should exist because "that's the way it is".
Throughout his long career, Plato carried within him an intense political ambition and need to control others. His philosophy is largely a manifestation of that ambition and need. He played his politics and tried to control others not through an ordinary political channel but through the channel of philosophy. He tried to control others not physically but intellectually, for once people accepted his philosophy, then it was simpler and easier to control them physically. Although Plato died before he could witness his "dream" come true, the neocheaters throughout the world used his philosophy to bring his dream to fruition. Thus, as Plato's dream evolved into reality, a long and tragic nightmare unfolded.
Coinciding with the rise of the Romans around 200 B.C., the Western world saw the proliferation of religious/political master neocheaters along with the systematic application of their neocheating strategies. Their proliferation marked the decline of Greek culture and the fall of its highest intellectual manifestation -- Aristotelian philosophy. Aristotelian philosophy is the first complete system of philosophy ever developed on the basis of the primacy of existence. Aristotle evolved the system of logic -- the principle of noncontradictory identification -- only by means of which objective reality is identified and verified authentically. Aristotle also developed the first ethical philosophy based on the supremacy of a conscious human individual. Aristotelian philosophy indeed is the fountainhead of all knowledge and the antithesis of Platonistic philosophy.
It was Aristotle, not Plato, who epitomized the mind of the Greeks. It was Aristotelian philosophy, not Platonistic philosophy, which was the epitome of Greek consciousness and its intellectual achievements. Therefore, the fall of Aristotelian philosophy around 200 B.C. meant a rise of Platonistic philosophy or Platonistic-oriented philosophies, and a beginning of a dark intellectual obscurantism.
Although this intellectual obscurantism was finally broken during the Renaissance by the resurgence of Aristotelian philosophy and the newly discovered power of the zero, its roots had never been eradicated until the discovery of Neo-Tech by Frank R. Wallace in the late 20th century. Aristotelian philosophy laid the foundation for all life enhancing discoveries and values culminating in the discovery of Neo-Tech. Aristotelian philosophy fulfilled its function and destiny as the fountainhead of knowledge and antithesis of Platonism in the discovery and development of Neo-Tech.
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