Who is the knower?

Is a question shared by many spiritual traditions. You may see the tree, but who is 'aware' of the tree. You are not only your thoughts, you are also the witness to them.

But perhaps this seeming quandary is because we are judging the information realm of the mind by the same standards and metaphors as the physical realm outside of our senses.

For if we look more carefully at the information processes that lead us to consciousness. The encoding of muscle and sensory scripts into memory. All the way up to our simulations of reality - space and time; form and behavior. Then we might see some interesting properties emerge.

For instance...


The concept of continuity

In physical reality, space and time seem to be continuous. but if you encode reality as information, the representations become discontinuous. Consider the analogy of a 2d movie, where scenes and timelines can be cut and paste at will.

Within the mind, the representations of both time and space seem to become discontinuous - this is a significant feature of consciousness. It's perhaps why we can jump forward in space and time (to say catch a ball), and jump back - (to 'know' from where it came).

The concept of polarization

In reality, you cannot be here and there at the same time. Here and there; now and then, are concepts that seem to be constrained by the laws of nature. Cause and effect etc. (Apart perhaps for superposition in quantum mechanics).

However, when aspects of this continuous space-time (the 3d world) are encoded as information. For example through living in the physical world, and acquiring memories from our muscles and senses. The concept of polarization emerges as an interesting consequence of the encoding process.

For the mind, access to the 3d physical world is through our bodies. A localized observer point in space-time. Through which the 2 dimensional pattern streams of our muscles and senses must pass. Linking the external space-time continuum with our inner simulation of the same.

But this 'window'  also represents an anchor or binding channel between the inner and outer worlds. And also as the point in space time where our inner simulation is polarized into an observer and the observed. It is through this 'window' that our inner model is programmed by reality. And it is through this window that our muscle actions extend into the outside world.

Now in reality, there may be a garden, and in our subconscious mind, we may have a representation of a garden. But unless that memory is polarized, it surely cannot be made conscious. Since we cannot be 'aware' of being 'here' and 'there' at the same time.

We can imagine the garden from any one perspective (i.e. polarized) - but not from all perspectives at once. We can imagine that perspective at any time - but not all times at once.

Now in reality, the garden exists at all perspectives at once. You cannot polarize reality. Only the mind can do that - once reality is expressed as information. By limiting (or collapsing) all perspectives to just one, through the concept of the 'observer'.

The observer side of the equation being all known perspectives and times held within the subconscious. The observed side being the specific perspective of space and time 'collapsed' out of that potential into current conscious awareness.

The concept of the 4th dimension

The fact that we can simulate a 3d reality to any perspective in space time, and witness that 3d simulation from an observer perspective, implies that the mind has an ability to step outside of the 3d frame of reference it is in. The way you need to step outside of a picture in order to see it. In this case, you step out from the 2 dimensional picture up into the 3rd dimension to observe the picture below.

And so perhaps also, we may need to step 'up' outside of our 3d simulation, into a 4th spatial dimension (represented by information), in order to witness, or observe, the 3rd dimension 'below'.

So who is the knower?

If we first consider the possibility of the unconscious mind as being this non-polarized 4th dimensional platform. An 'invisible' reservoir of all that we 'know'. All the forms and behaviors; the stories and beliefs; the values and emotions. Then perhaps that very unconscious mind (our own personal universe) is the very witness to the conscious thoughts that emerge from it. That polarize out of its own self (out of its almost infinite potential). And that marvels at the miracles it sees. That collapses the inner 4th dimensional universe down to a unique observer perspective of our common awareness within the 3rd.

Which memories become polarized, and at what time and perspective, perhaps forming what we experience as our ongoing stream of awareness. And the polarization trails themselves forming memory tracks. Our episodic perception of history and time.

The polarization (into the observer and the observed) might even be guided by the framework of our personal aesthetics. The pre-configured heritage of our genes & ancestors. It seems to me, if the genetic code can use the machinery of the cell to deliver the precise physical form of our bodies. Then memory imprints of our aesthetics might seem equally possible. Both mind and body pre-configured and unique. Ready to discover, encode and reflect upon an emerging 3d reality.

And of non-duality - the experience of spirit

In the process of quieting the mind of thoughts. Of not polarizing any memories from the subconscious. A realization may emerge that yes, indeed, in its non polarized form, we really are everything. Like the physical garden existing in infinite time and perspective. So the mental garden - before polarized into consciousness, too exists in 'infinite' time and perspective. The inner garden, never so much disappears as temporarily goes out of 'sight'.

And is this not the kind of perception the mystics describe. That as the mind stills, we become at one with all that is.

Or more accurately - At one with all that we know.