Why can Reality not be Limited?

[Scholar]

Quote

GOD is the only possible metaphysical object that can create itself. This self-creation is made possible by the logic of INFINITY. INFINITY is a special object unlike any other. INFINITY can create itself by virtue of being so unlimited that it doesn't posses the limit of ordinary objects of being unable to create themselves. A finite object cannot create itself, but an infinite object can because what would stop it? What stops a finite object is that it needs to get energy from outside itself to create itself. But an infinite object does not have an outside and has infinite energy, thereby circumventing the ordinary prohibition on self-creation. Nothing else can create GOD but GOD. If GOD creating itself seems like a logical impossibility to you, just realize that logical possibility first has to be created by GOD before it can apply to GOD. So GOD is prior to the limits of logic. And yes, INFINITY is a paradoxical object. That's not an error. Just like you must learn to think differently to think about quantum mechanics, you must learn to think differently to think about INFINITY. That doesn't make INFINITY unreal or some kind of irrational dogma. INFINITY has a kind of meta-logic which is different from the finite logic which applies to finite objects.

I had pretty much this same realization around 10 years ago, I remember how I was arguing in a physics forum about whether true random events can take place, and somehow it lead me into a rabbit hole of contemplating whether or not the universe had to be infinite. I remember this was after I played Bioshock Infinite, which inspired me to think about the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Physics.

The way I was thinking about this then was the following:

If only this universe exists, then there has to be something that limits reality such that only this universe can exist. If that is the case, then there must be a reason for why that limitation exists and so forth. This lead to an infinite regress of causes. And then I asked myself a simple question: Why would there even be anything that limits reality? How could that even possibly be the case? What could possibly restrict reality itself? Whatever that limitation would be, would be part of reality, so then, what would have caused that limitation to exist, and why was reality limited in such a way that it would only allow for that particular limitation to exist?

I realized then that even if this universe was not a multiverse, there would have to exist infinite universes anyways, and also infinite multiverses. Not because physics says so, but because reality says so.

Now, when I contemplate such questions, it's not merely a rational intellectual inquiry. When I ask these questions, it truly feels like I am in contact with the substance of existence and am investigating it directly. Like I am looking at reality. And at that point, there is just an intuitive grasp of the impossibility of absolute limitation. When I contemplate these things I get this unique kind of ecstasy. It's hard to describe but it's incredibly intense. Once I am in that state I can just sit and write through the whole night as if I was in a feverdream. Nothing else in life ever felt that intensely meaningful, it really creates emotions that I sometimes think some people never get to experience. It would always frustrate me that others would not see these things, like this is the nature of reality, this is everything, this is the most important thing, but people will simply not grasp it, they did not care at all. They seem to hardly be able to engage with these questions. When I engage with these questions, it feels like I am touching the actual substance of what I am contemplating. I literally start shaking from excitement. Now I feel like this is almost a shamanistic state that I enter, I can put music on and it's just insane. It's orgasm level of intensity, for hours. Tingles of excitement in the brain and whole body.

I remember for weeks I would tell my parents this, like some maniac "Reality has to be infinite, don't you understand?! It has to be infinite, it literally cannot be any other way!". It wasn't some neat interesting tidbit of information for me, it was like I had unlocked the greatest mystery in existence.

The question of infinity made me also question why anything existed at all, and what if there genuinely never existed anything at all. I could focus my attention on this to such a degree that I was truly dumbfounded that anything existed at all. We take it for so granted. When I realized the genuine possibility of nothing existing, nothing having ever existed and never going to exist, to such a degree that there would not ever even be anything aware of there nothing existing. There is a point where you just grasp Totality, absolutely everything. And then you imagine it gone, and you realize it's death, and it terrifies you. It causes a primal fear that I have never encountered other than when I have contemplated this deeply. Your mind has to be intensely focused and you have to be in a very specific and precise frame of mind to be able to genuinely grasp these things. But the fear was so intense that I would always stop the contemplation, I would even not want to contemplate it again for a long time to not have to feel that feeling.

 

Of course, back then I didn't know anything about philosophy or spirituality. All I knew was I was interested in physics because I was interested in the nature of reality. I was never interested in the math though, only grasping what reality actually is. And strangely it never felt conceptual. It always felt like I was investigating existence itself, I just never had the words to describe it. Or rather, it is conceptual, but it is the Conceptual with a capital C. Of course, the answers can only be found in the mind.

All roads lead to God, I suppose. It's just so funny how obvious it is if you just realize how impossible everything is. From colors, to evolution, to anything else in existence. If you can just see infinite in the mundane, you would know immediately. There would be no question at all. This is existence, this is reality, and it is infinite, you have to be blind not to see it.

[effortlesslumen]

Its infinite but it tricks it self to only  perceive a limited amount. So the most obvious explanation is conciousness is the factor  that limits reality but is also the factor that makes it limitless. So you could say there is a limit but a imaginary one.  The first time i contemplated infinite exsistence some years ago, was when  i started drawing cycles on a piece of paper wondering  what was before  our current reality of this universe and what exsistence could lie outside of it, quickly realising there is no end to it. Of course this was only the start but even something simple like this, what someone might  call stupid, started  a process  into bigger realization. 

I also had a dream shortly after this of an extraterrestial asking me "Whats a universe?" In a manner that questioned even our definition or imagination and telescope images of this entire structure we are trying to depict in physics. Which further engaged me in this question.

Edited July 17, 2023 by effortlesslumen

[tuku747]

Imagine yourself in a void; an infinite ocean of White Light.

You Are This Light, at every point. Here, There, Everywhere.

The Light is moving because You Are Moving. You Are The Light.

Wiggling Around, left and right, back and forth, you're using your infinite intelligence to weave all of Creation.

How far you can clearly see or understand is a factor of how much you've managed to still the waters of Light.

[OldManCorcoran]

There's a sort of weird difference between infinity and limited, and time vs timelessness, when compared to traditional views.

People who have experienced timelessness or boundlessness on psychedelic drugs probably understand.

Because a traditional idea of timeless would be like Bernard's Watch (old British kid's show lol) where time freezes and nothing moves. Actual timelessness is more to do with a sort of undercurrent which is inherently changeless. Time takes place within it... Timelessness or eternity isn't time freezing or lasting a super long time, but it's devoid of it. So moments still pass, people "stuck in eternity" on a bad trip aren't literally experiencing a jaunt, things still change... When I was caught in such a state I used a large digital clock beside me as reference to remind myself time was in fact moving and the drug would soon wear off.

And it's the same with infinite vs limited.

You have a field of vision right now, and try to find the exact border of where it ends and where non existence begins. You can put your fingers into your peripheral and find out that way, but I don't mean that. Your fingers are part of the image and world. I mean the actual boundary and size of the entire mental picture in your head.

And you will see "spacelessness" there. It's just an absence of boundary or size. You can't measure your mental image, you can measure distance inside the mental image using rulers or other techniques, to say you have a 180 degree field of view or whatever. Or map the precise point your view cuts off. But you can't actually measure or assign spatial size to the mental image itself.

If you see how both of those work, then being unlimited is like that I think... So whereas timeless is NOT freezing time or just "a really long time" but recognition of something IN which time appears, and sizelessness does not mean tiny or huge but recognition of the ABSENCE of any spatial dimension at all... Infinity is recognizing what limitation and boundary appears IN, where it in itself is not anything at all.

I think it's like that. I know timelessness and sizelessness are like that first hand, and those are just specific types of limitation.

[Hojo]

When I was a kid I used to think the earth was an atom inside an atom inside an atom. Little did I know that I was the atom looking inside itself and inside is infinite atoms 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Hojo

[Leo Gura]

Yes, you can use your mind to get in contact with Infinity. Infinity can have a lot of strange implications.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Leo Gura