December 7, 1996
Dear Dr.
Hawking:
I was pleased to read your debate with Roger
Penrose called "The Nature of Space and Time" in
the Scientific American from July. I find
your vision interesting but have to admit to being
rather at variance with it on some fundamental
points.
One of the most important areas of divergence from
our perspective in Javanese mystic practice (I am
an anthropologist who studied and then became a
leader in a Javanese kebatinan group) concerns
your assumption regarding the loss of information
following the eventual disappearance of a black
hole. To our knowledge this in not really a
problem due to the continuity of the existing
presence of the being despite its apparent
"evaporation." It has basically what we call,
"gone to the rim," though this term is not overly
descriptive in some senses. It is still here but
has become general in expression rather than
specific or centered being. In fact, this
continuing undistinguished or unformed being is
the source of the mysterious, uniform microwave
background radiation or "noise" that is traced
back incorrectly to the big bang in some senses.
It can be understood if you see consciousness as
associated with being but with the possibility of
having the being in association a general one
rather than a specified form. This in turn is
associated with the surprising number of heavy
elements in the universe in that the information
expressed in this separated presence seeks its own
expression in this way. In essence, I suspect that
this is what Dr. Penrose is arguing concerning the
"spontaneous measurements of quantum states that
introduce information back into the system." This
universe is a tight little ball of confusion, a
strange little pimple infecting existence with the
ill will established and structured here in the
very fabric of the being; there is nothing that
can be done to deny that or to deny its obvious
pathology and utilization in the search for
release from karmic responsibility.
Defining such a horror is surprisingly easy. Think
about it in terms of the absolute within (what we
call batin) and the absolute without (lahir)
meeting in a context dominated by irresponsible
hedonism and escapism: that's where we are.
This "universe" was fabricated to benefit the
greatly evil by making justice depend on linkage
that necessarily wanders through the entire karmic
backlog: the standard little trap for chronic and
unrepentant miscreants that has been sprung so
many times over the "ages". The only sure "joy" in
a place like this is to actively and aggressively
destroy oneself and one another in that ones being
here is hate defined and hate limited in relative
and absolute terms. The creation of beauty depends
on cooperation and few are willing to cooperate
with those they hate which includes themselves.
Quite a nightmare, really.
This "universe" is a zeroless gathering which
means there is no head guaranteeing justice in as
much as they can bear the pain of dispensing it,
which, evidently, is the result of an Iblung
Amuk.
One of mine,
a certain Kangdjeng Ratu Ajunan, Adiling Perkawinan, Perkawinan ing Djiwa, Sri Retna lawan Ratu Pinanditi lawan Batari
lawan Dewi Adil lawan Iblis Agung, Njai Lara Djonggrang Magali Rolfsen,
"Nefernefernefer", "The Black Rose", "Magali, the agony of missing you", "My blysse, my bale, ye han ben bothe", "If
you have involved me in your life just to fool me like you're fooling Maria,
just to betray and hurt me, just to use me, abuse me and throw me away, you will
pay, you lying harlot, you treacherous Delilah! I thought you had to go down to
the red-light district to find a character like yours, Magali. God Almighty!
What species of scum have we here in you? When you are involved, committed,
serving the love for a person of this genus, what on earth do you do?
(not a
happy camper as of October 1, 1997)",
"I love you, I hate you and then I love you more
(most decidedly our song for
some years)", "Most Esteemed Lady,
oops, Her Most Serene Imperial Majesty, Archduchess, AutokrathV and Imperial Regent of the
Archduchy of Cornwall, Ururai, Tugasingratan, BoubastiV
stin Kriti, Per-Nebka, Per-Selket, Per-Sebak, Per-Auset, Abet ent Maati, the
Eternal Clan and Khanate of the Great Fire, also vested as Kangdjeng Ratu Ayunan
within the Dalem Badong in the Kraton Ati Sanubari of the Paku Jagad,
Paku Adil, Paku Wana, Paku Iblis, Paku Bendu, Paku Duka, Paku Bentji and Ratu Adil
of Sadja Kusumaningratan", to whose hand I bow in abject adoration (a mark of obeisance first rendered on
March 7, 1992 in a state of considerable surprise) and hereinafter called Gloria Isma'ili,
had painted herself into a corner in her enthusiasm, got shrouded in
corruption doing work that agreed with my dark fury and stalemated
justice--denied any and all satisfaction--until I was allowed to
incarnate here for the first time by the powers she was defying (who had
never given me justice) to treat the disease and sort the mess out.
Evidently, a good time has not been had by all, which is where I come into the
picture, in that existence has always been an incredible
pain to me but it is in this context and in this context alone that True Justice
(Sedjatining Keadilan) becomes possible.
These
tailspins come from time to time. Her Infinite Majesty, Mahadewi Hecate, is famous
for causing such nosedives to pull out the deeper
beings that are ordinarily denied justice by the
vested zeros, the powers that be, but even she
never got so confused and corrupt and vicious
and vile that she could effectively engender the
general will to allow my incarnation to bring
release from the nightmare she had created. I'm
not notably popular with those that serve the status quo but Gloria has made existence such hell
that even I became a relatively attractive
alternative.
As you can evidently see, it is in crises like
these that the real structural (the universal
mutual definition that constitutes us all) and
volitional (bad faith of one kind or another)
problems and diseases of being can come forth in a
cosmic paroxism that inexorably demands attention
in its agony and can thus finally be treated by
allowing those of us at the "bottom" of being to
come forth. We open existential nightmares have no
stake in any beings that currently stand for
consideration and are bent on taking all of
existence through justice on to a being which is
not even remotely visible from this plane. The
bullyboy tyrants that this place is rife with
often pretend to our attitudes and feelings and,
in their destructive orgy, they express our
disgust with the mess hereabouts, though obviously
without much interest in doing anything but having
a good time wrecking whatever is at their mercy
and propping themselves up on the pain. We have
burning love and vicious hate; in their imitation
of divine being, they have only indifference and
scorn. There have been a few notable exceptions
who have actually expressed something on the order
of responsible leadership here, always with the
yawning agony of the absence of a zero at the head
rather confusing things. Just look at human
history, our iniquitous treatment of one another
and those that make us up and define our world,
and try to deny the obvious. Just try! It all
looks like a bit of a farce in this light, does it
not? Happily and unhappily I have now absorbed the
agony so we are free of this conundrum in that
this pocket of pus is now openly grounded and a
zero established. Nuff said.
A second area of discord concerns the eventual
"end" of the universe: nothing ends: what exists,
exists and carries on whether it wishes to or not,
changing in its associations based on its
developing relationship with the rest of us. The
burps of the big bangs and the swallows of the big
crunches are an apparently endless series of
adjustments or reshufflings in relative
disposition based on the often (if not always)
convoluted search for a satisfactory general state
and are evidently, in this sense, just expressions
of the fundamentally irreducible nature of
existence.
Obviously physics and mysticism share much
although the body of substantiating evidence that
we mystics use is fundamentally experiential,
based on our openness to and study of Reality --
we constantly relate to and from the Totality of
Existence, which is our vision of the divine, in
defining our own experience -- to a degree that I
suppose is denied to physicists in general. We
explore Reality with our consciousness and in
association with the consciousness of being,
something we have evidently found to exist whether
it sounds like magic or not. As I wrote in "Open
and Closed Psychology: How Different Can We Be?"
which is Part I of The Book of Being, a
work I suspect you might enjoy:
A way to highlight the nature of differences in
perspective is to use the Javanese notion of
understanding. They hold that the body is an
instrument that receives information about
itself and the world. It is a complex and subtle
receptor and can exhibit varying degrees of
sensitivity. The Javanese purport that the less
perceptual breadth, the less of existence
referenced in an observation. Conversely, the
greater the sensitivity of a response, the more
that an understanding based on it will be true,
reflective of what is observed and reliable. Of
the levels of understanding, only the least
receptive, narrowest and, consequently, the most
contextually independent is based on thought (ngerti).
We never get farther away from the world or one
another than when we relate based on our
thoughts. From ngerti, the levels of
understanding become more profound and
increasingly present, passing through mounting
contextual sensitivity in ngakoni and
ngrumangsani and then finally standing in
the present in nglengganani, where the
understanding and that which is understood join
in rasa murni or "open reception".
The Western sciences espouse objectivity, but
this objectivity is attained and maintained by
limiting input, by training the academic to
relate from the experientially isolated realm of
thought. It can be creative but is rigid at the
same time, a posture established by controlling
what is received rather than being based on
"open reception". They hold that open reception
is a universal human capacity that we all start
out in when we are born, but that you must train
before you can actualize it as you get older.
The Western sciences are based on thought and it
might be said that the worldliness and
materialism of Western society are connected
with the mechanical, statistical and impersonal
universe science reveals as well as the
isolation from direct experience the emphasis on
thought presupposes.
But if this is the science of the thought mode
of understanding, what is the science that
arises from non-judgmental receptivity and how
does life appear from that perspective? How does
such a perspective influence the view of other
people, society, the world and the universe? How
different are the different points of view?
Our basic posture arises in union with Empedocles, whose vision of the forces at work is also in line with our own.
I shall tell of a double (process): at one time it increased so as to be a single one out of many; at another time again it grew apart so as to be many out of one. . . And these (elements) never cease their continuous exchange, sometimes uniting under the influence of love, so that all become one, at other times again each moving apart through the hostile force of hate. . . At one time it increased so as to be a single one out of many; at another time it grew apart so as to be many out of one--fire and water and earth and the boundless height of air, and also execrable hate apart from these, of equal weight in all directions, and love in their midst, their equal in length and breadth.
Evidently, for us, "science" (whether yours or ours) must be concerned with the proper description and understanding of the fact of being and it is not enough to simply provide predictions that agree with data on some superficial plane.
Yours truly,
David
Gordon Howe, Ph.D.