LAROUCHE/BASEMENT DIALOGUE
Mind Is the Principle of the Universe
On Oct. 12, after the release of "Our Extraterrestrial Imperative, Part 2," the LaRouche "Basement Team" of young scientists and political organizers was discussing the issue of the galaxy's spiral arms. Lyndon LaRouche joined the conversation.
LaRouche: The arms are not fixed. When you go to the galactic arms, you're not fixed. Because the whole process itself is undergoing an evolution in the process, so that the successive rate is not in an orderable series.
You have to start from the top; you can't take it piecemeal, and take one slice of it, and try to determine how the whole thing is functioning. So, you're looking at the galactic function.
I think we have to emphasize more emphatically, now that we have this approach, we have to start with the galaxy; the galactic functions are the things we have to deal with as a whole. Not a galactic arm, or this arm, or that arm—because they're changing! You've got a thing like the Crab Nebula that comes in there, which is in a finite time, in terms of our human existence on Earth. And a lot of similar things are happening to change everything in the galaxy; so therefore, you need a function for the galaxy as a whole, not a comparison of arms as such. The only function of looking at the comparison of arms is to find the differences. And we have to start from the galaxy, as we did, in this function: That's the genius of it! We start from the galaxy, we don't try to build up from inside the Solar System into the galaxy. We go the other way around. The best thing we have now is the galaxy. You take the galaxy as a whole, and this entire function, and start from there.
Basement Team: What seems strange about it, is there is so little known, because we're in it; there are a lot of inferences, that something is involved in making—
LaRouche: There are a lot of things. Like the question of the human mind. We're doing a lot of thinking. But practically, nobody knows what the human mind is!
So you know very little about the galaxy. So what?
Basement Team: Okay.
LaRouche: So what?!
Life, Cognition Are Inherent in the Universe
Basement Team: And doesn't it seem to be that the immersion principle here is going to be the best means for investigation? As you just said, in looking at the different processes in living things, and what they turn into. Because I think the key point that was made—and especially, it came across clearly at the end of that video—was that this fact of resonance shows that, therefore, the galaxy as a whole embodies the principle of life. All the observations that everybody's been doing show that here's the galaxy out here—but the point is that all of these things must embody that, and therefore, that can be a guide for looking at it.
LaRouche: The point is, you don't have a separation. You don't have a galaxy in which life comes about as a mushroom or something. The point is, the galaxy itself is organized by these distinctions, including the cognitive. And where's the cognitive in the galaxy? It's us! The problem with that, is that most people don't know what the human mind is. It is defined in common usage as an extrapolation from studies of sense perception, and reactions to it. Which we know is false. Because the human mind is not based on sense perception. So practically all of psychology, as taught, is garbage! It doesn't understand how the human mind functions.
So I think we have to start from the galaxy. We have to say, this idea about life being something like a disease or a mushroom that grew in the galaxy, is nonsense. The point is, the universe depends upon the phase spaces of which it is composed. There never was a lack of any of these spaces.
Basement Team: That's one of the things about the spatial model of the galaxy. Spatially, they'll say, oh, you locate life, and cognition, in a point inside the galaxy, as opposed to thinking of cognition and life itself as something which is part of the boundary condition of the galaxy.
LaRouche: Also the problem is that you get this question of, where is the human mind? Where is the Noösphere? Obviously, the Noösphere always existed; but where does it exist?
From the top down, not the bottom up.
In other words, the Noösphere is not a worm or a fungus, that suddenly has infected the universe. The Noösphere is inherent in the universe, and is the highest aspect of the organization of the universe. What changes is the development of the Noösphere. It is not that the Noösphere is like a fungus which grew onto the Biosphere; and the Biosphere is not a fungus of the Lithosphere.
See, this is where you get all these assumptions.
Assumption number one: That the human mind is predicated on sense perception; that's the primary definition of the human mind. False!
The universe is organized on the basis of principle. You live in a society which is either Aristotelean, or is Sarpian, or is shit! So, it's incompetent. You start from these assumptions, and you say, "We're now going to do an objective study of this 'thing,' which we have now defined. Just like we defined the universe as being based on particles."
It isn't! The universe is not based on particles. The Periodic Table contains a fundamental flaw. And therefore, all our assumptions are wrong!
So therefore, we go to cosmic radiation, but what happens then? We fall into a real soup then, because the question of the Noösphere screws everything up. What we are able to do as human beings, is to tap in to the development of the Noösphere; and the Noösphere runs the universe. Or the principle of the Noösphere runs the universe. And in the universe, the living processes are higher than the non-living processes. Exactly contrary to what the axiomatic hypotheses are.
That's why this business of cosmic radiation is crucial.
First of all, Einstein did not solve the problem of General Relativity; he defined the problem of General Relativity, in a descriptive way. That you put it together, and you have to take account of all of this, the space-time relationship. But the problem with the space-time relationship, is we assume that the thoughts we are using, the arguments we are making, are based on assumptions about the nature of the human mind: They are reductionist.
Basement Team: And they're drawn entirely from observations of the abiotic. There's no other consideration outside that.
LaRouche: Exactly. The universe is organized as a process of development. The principle of mind exists in the universe. It exists from the beginning of the universe—whatever the beginning is, whatever the beginning means. Life, similarly, inferior to cognition, also lives in the universe, as a distinct phase, which is distinct from human creativity. And on the lowest level, you have the Lithosphere.
As long as you get this crazy model, you're always assuming backwards: You're assuming that the Lithosphere is primary; that somehow you've got to figure out how the sawdust grew into something-or-other as a Biosphere; and then the Biosphere spun off the Noösphere. Crap! It's the principles of the Noösphere that run the universe! So, the Noösphere was there in the beginning. Where is it located? Hmm ...
The Cycle of the Galaxy
And the first step to get rid of this crap, is to get at cosmic radiation. Because at least you're getting onto some kind of a sensible basis. And the cycle is, the minimal cycle of the cycle of the galaxy. That's your minimal cycle.
So now, you have a minimal cycle which is galactic; and then your primary standpoint is the Noösphere. Now, the Noösphere implies that there are principles which are comparable to the actual noëtic powers of the human mind, ontologically. And that these powers actually run the universe, as an ordinary system.
What's wrong? First of all, you have Aristotle, a piece of shit. And a lot of people believe in Aristotle: They retain their shit. It takes over when they die. They have all these assumptions, which are wrong. And they're based on, first of all, the denial of the fact that creativity is an inherent part of the universe. What we call creativity, noësis, is an inherent part of the universe. And the universe is run from the top down, according to a self-developing principle of noësis. And this principle of noësis takes various forms.
So, the minimal thing is, we start from the cycle of the galaxy, our galaxy. Now, that's a completely different order of magnitude than our Solar System. Our Solar System is a turd on the march of the galaxy! It's a brief instance, it's a whiff; it's a little thing—whhittt!—inside the galaxy. So your galactic process, the galactic cycle—which is not a uniform cycle, not a reductionist, uniform cycle—is a developmental process. Obviously, the galaxy undergoes evolution. We just weren't there to observe it!
The first thing is, don't try to solve the problem by arbitrary—you know, "I've got the idea and this is the solution." You'll never get there. You'll never get it! You have to start from the very obvious things. You start from the universal principle of noësis, existing in the universe, as the highest form of organization in the universe. We as human beings are capable of reflecting that principle of noësis, which is true creativity. Which has nothing to do with sense perception. Sense perception is just instrumentation of something that functions. And get rid of this idea of space and time.
The Problem with the Periodic Table
We already have all kinds of hints that there's a different time-scale for living processes, as opposed to nonliving, as opposed to noëtic processes. And the problem is, we have a pasted-together sense of General Relativity, not an actual one. And the reason is, we don't have a focus on the actual principle of noësis. We can know what it is, but not if you believe in Aristotle, or you believe in Liberalism. Because these very assumptions stand in the way of our understanding this stuff. And I think the way to do it, is to insult the process, by concentrating on cosmic radiation. And take the cosmic radiation definition of General Relativity, not a pasted-together definition.
The problem is, we're still doing this thing. We're still trying to build up the universe, in its noëtic features, from dirt! Or pre-dirt. And the problem with the Periodic Table is it does that. It builds in this assumption that dirt is the basis for the Solar System. And it's not. Because the reality of the universe, is noësis. The reality of human ability to change the universe, is noësis. Noësis does not exist in sense perception; there's no way you could demonstrate noësis in sense perception, except as a footprint, left behind by noësis.
Basement Team: If you start with dirt, all you end up with is a golem.
LaRouche: Something like that. No, the point is, the principle of creativity runs the universe. The universe is noëtic. The fact that we can efficiently, by creativity, that we can change the universe by our actions on it—that we can change the organization of the universe—indicates that the character of the universe is a change, from the top down, from a principle of creativity which happens to coincide with what noësis is, in terms of the human mind. Okay, from the top down, get rid of the particle system. Because you are assuming the existence of a little piece of dirt. And why do you do that? Because you're an Aristotelean, or an asshole, or something like that. So, you assume the little piece of dirt.
Now, you create space. How do you create space? Does it exist? Evidence says no. Evidence says the whole system is organized on the basis of cosmic radiation. So where's the room for dirt? Where's the empty space? There is no empty space!
So therefore, our thinking is corrupted by this idea of a Periodic Table based on dirt! Particles of dirt.
How do you get rid of this? We already have the means to get rid of it: cosmic radiation, with its singularities. There is no empty space. So you don't have space-time to worry about. It doesn't exist in that form. And that's where the problem has been. Whereas, the answer to this lies in an understanding of the nature of the creative powers of the human mind. The human mind is not based on sense perception. The human being requires sense perception, but we can actually create artificial senses. We have other kinds of things besides sense perception. We can create them! We can create experiments which will define them. The point is, is to break with this crap.
The Question of the Human Mind
And that has to do with what's wrong with the world today. We have an economic system: You take us out of it—I mean us, me, us—out of the system, and the world is finished, civilization is finished for a long time to come. Right now. Because there is nothing else on this planet that's going to prevent it from crashing. There's no government in the world, presently operating government, which has the capacity to ensure the survival of civilization past the immediate days and weeks ahead. Not possible.
We are crucial. There's nobody else doing this! And the reason is these things: reductionism, behaviorism, Aristoteleanism, or belief in the eternal blessings of shit. Those are the three things that exist, and they're all foolishness.
So, we have to do two things: understand what the principle of mind is, which people don't think about; they assume that they've got an explanation and that's good enough. Or they get their psychologist, who's probably a nut anyway, to explain what the mind is.
So, our handle is these two things: We have to settle the question of the definition of mind, per se. Not mind as derived from sense perception, but mind per se. The mind means not just human beings; it means a principle that runs the universe. It's the principle of creativity that runs the universe.
Basement Team: We discussed before, that it's like the field-singularity question: then you get the singularity of the human individual—that's cognition. But that doesn't mean that the singularity is all there is.
LaRouche: That's how we know the singularity, because we are it, if we are intelligent. We know it because we experience it. We experience our ability to alter the universe. That's the singularity.
Now, our behavior is simply a question of how well we reflect that singularity. And the best way to go at this real thing, is to break people's testicles! Which is good for them! It gives them a greater sense of fluidity.
But these two things: the question of mind. Define the mind, as a principle, which does not depend upon sense perception, but which reaches out and arranges to find sense-perceptual capabilities per se. Which is the thing about harmonics.
And then, look at the universe from the standpoint of mind, which is what Einstein was trying to get to, and came up to a convergence upon, but never reached.
So, if you take the question of mind, and combine that with this conception of relativity, of true General Relativity—true General Relativity exists only in this domain. Only in the domain of a universal process, which is a form of cosmic process, with no empty space in it. And the human mind, the creative powers of the human mind. That's all we know! That's all that we're sure of. Everything else is arbitrary.
And when you think about the minds that I'm dealing with in economics, there's not a nation on this planet, whose present government is capable of organizing the survival of the human species! And you want to respect that kind of opinion? You want to follow that kind of opinion? You want to appeal to acceptance by that kind of opinion?
If you take my organization, and you wipe it off the planet, this planet's going into a Dark Age, and nothing will prevent it. You want to go by that? You want to go by that kind of leadership? That kind of thing? It's when we get too damn humble that we're going to lose the planet.
But the things, to me, are obvious, and have been obvious. The solution to the questions which are obvious, is not so easily found. But the questions are there. It's the people who ignore the questions that get us into trouble. And therefore, this fear of offending somebody who's got a sexual fantasy about the Periodic Table! That's what the problem is.
So take these new things. Eliminate this idea, this commonly accepted idea, this crap: The mind is not just the mind of man; the mind that's a superior mind is the mind of the universe, the mind that organizes the universe. The principle of universal anti-entropy, of which the human mind is a reflection. And no animal that we know of has any such reflection. Only the human being.
But the human being belongs, therefore, to a different phase-space, because it does have this capability, which is not something that grew like a mushroom out of the human head. But it's an expression of a higher principle of the universe, which we, as human beings, incorporate. And we have to nourish it. And don't be like these stupid politicians that we have to deal with all the time, and these stupid professors: people who want to kiss ass in order to be accepted, and they'd get a mouthful of things they wouldn't like.
So, we've got it, we've got it, these two things: mind and cosmic radiation. Pose everything in these terms. That mind is the principle of the universe, the highest principle of the universe, because it's an ordering principle, the highest ordering principle. And the human mind is the most important phenomenon in the universe, because it reflects that highest quality. If you allow it to.
Break the Shibboleths
And the whole problem is breaking the shibboleths. The shibboleth is [whining voice], "Talk to people in terms they can understand." No! It's useless to talk to them in terms they understand, because they will continue to be utterly, hopelessly ignorant! Talk to them in terms they don't yet understand, and tell them they can be freed of stupidity. They will no longer vote for things like Obama!
We're on the edge right now. What we have done brings us to the edge, not of answers, but of questions. So follow the questions! Treat the questions as answers.
We've got it! The way this thing came together, the second phase of this, from this weekend's publication ["Our Exterrestrial Imperative, 2]: That's a breakthrough! It's a breakthrough because it's the first explicit statement we've made on this issue of the organization of the universe. We start from the galaxy, from the galactic standpoint and we say, now we measure, first of all, from the galactic standpoint. We are not measuring something like a clock—tick, tick, tick. We're measuring something which is a process of change. We don't know how many galactic arms there were last time the count was run. We don't know any such things. We know this, and we know it imperfectly.
And I know what the human mind is, which most of our politicians don't know. That's my advantage. They have not yet gone in and taken out a license to operate the mind. They drive a car, but they don't have a license to operate the mind. You see what they do with a car! Crash!
Basement Team: Look how they treat nations: They don't know how to drive a nation either!
LaRouche: That's true. But we do. But we do it by starting with our ignorance, by defining our ignorance. Defining what we don't know. And that makes a good driver.
"Oh! You mean there are roads? That's why the car crashed."
Mind, and cosmic radiation. We're there. We now have a galactic basis for finding it. We've stated it publicly, we stuck our neck out. It's out there. We'll start from there. But recognize the principle of mind, as the principle of the universe.
