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Psychology: Introduction

We describe interactions between particles by state vectors in Hilbert spaces which are tensor products of the elementary spaces of the particles involved. The 'wave function of the universe" is represented by a state vector in a Hilbert space constructed by the tensor products of tensor products ... of all the possible observable subsets of interacting particles in the observable network.

History tells us that there was once a set of interacting particles called Kurt Goedel, and that the observable behaviour of this person (including his published writings) can (in quantum theory) be described by vectors and transformations in the tensor product of Hilbert spaces that lies behind

the 'persona" (mask) Kurt Goedel as he appeared in human history. The Hilbert world that lies behind this persona might be taken to correspond to the 'soul' of Kurt Goedel. [This soul is in communication with the rest of the universe through the transfinite network described by quantum field theory. ]

spirit: 1. the principle of conscious life, originally identified with the breath; the vital principle in man, animating the body or mediating between body and soul. 2. the incorporeal part of man : present in spirit though absent in body. 3. the soul as separable from the body at death. 4. conscious incorporeal being, as opposed to matter: the world of spirit. 5. a supernatural, incorporeal being ... . 8. an inspiring or animating principle such as pervades and tempers thought, feeling or action: a spirit of reform. 9. the divine influence as an agency working in the heart of man. 10. (in biblical use) a divine inspiring or animating being or influence. 11. the third person of the Trinity: Holy Spirit. 12. the Spirit, God. 13. the soul or heart as the seat of feelings or sentiments, or as prompting to action: to break a person's spirit. ... (Middle English, from Latin, spiritus breathing) (Delbridge)

Psychology is the study of the human psyche or spirit. We may look at life from two points of view: one, from the outside, is the point of view taken by biology. We learn about the world around us through our five senses, often extended by instruments. The other is from the inside, my private experience of life, my spiritual world.

There are thousands of words to describe private experiences, and the body language we have adapted from our more animal past provides a broad channel between private and public experience.

'Spirit' encompasses here all my conscious internal processes (feelings, sensations) all the things I mind. Mind is my means of self control. Mind and spirit are the controllers of life. Having looked at cybernetics in the transfinite domain in the previous chapter (cybernetics) we are now ready to model the feature of spirit. If I am spiritual and the universe is spiritual (even divine) I can link my experience to the experience of god.

We all experience the activities of spirit. Three such spring to mind.

First, I can change my mind, and there seems no limit to how much I can change it. Changing my mind is an example of movement, that is of creation. It gives new meaning to old symbols, like the word mind itself. It reveals new methods of dealing with the problems of life.

States of mind are symbols, and have all the properties of symbols. They are definite as well as fluid. We will die for them. There was a time when I would have died for my Catholic belief. There was a time when I would have gone to war to fight the 'communist menace'. Now I have changed my mind about Catholicism and the situation in Viet Nam, but that does not mean I was uncertain then.

States of mind flow into one another, and they do this mysteriously. I often go to bed disappointed because I can not get something work. I often wake in morning with nothing to do but act on the new scheme that has grown in me overnight.

The story of Archimedes captures the universal experience of mental creation. He filled his head with the problem of Hiero's crown and then went to the baths where all manner of relaxing pleasures were available. There (we hear) he discovered Archimedes Principle, realised that an adulterated crown would show a bigger fractional change in weight than pure gold when weighed in and out of water, and ran down the street yelling eureka (I have found it). (Lonergan, 27)

If the universe is mind, it too can change, and it does. The most wonderful things are made out of the simplest materials. A rainforest can grow on sandstone, nourished only by air and water and windblown dust.

Second, individual spirits can blend seamlessly. They say a camel is an animal designed by a committee. This is not so, but the point of the joke is that committees cannot get things together. This is false, as you will know if you have been on a good committee. When the communication is good, a human organisation works as one mind, like a good football team or a healthy person.

Third, spirit is the source of technology or art. The desire to survive, inherited through trillions of generations of life, charges us to act for our salvation and propagation. Art is the means we use for getting ideas from one mind to another. Technology is the means we use to control our environment. To possess a technology is to know how to bring something into existence, be it light bulbs, christmas cakes or peaceful cities.

This site assumes that religion is the art of making peace, the technology of peace. It is the protocol for the union of minds. Although the ancient religions often claim to have been specially revealed to us by some alien intelligence, we assume religions are in fact our own creation, devised by communities of spirit seeking peaceful coexistence.

Through art and technology spirit extends us, giving us more space, more material, more information and more energy to enhance our lives. Spirit evolves. We can see this evolution in the tools that we use, ranging from stone age simplicity to complex modern corporations (nations, churches, businesses) that involve millions of people. The evolution of spirit is, in abstract theory, identical to the evolution of life.

Western tradition creates a gulf between matter and spirit, as it does between body and soul, god and universe, person and planet. The transfinite network seems able to model the union of all the spiritual features of the universe.

Whether this is so will be for you to judge as this chapter of the site develops.

(revised 10 December, 2000)

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