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Consciousness

He keeps questioning whether consciousness survives the body.

Signals
40
First seen
2006
Last seen
2026
Span
21 years

MUSE.md / synthesis

What the thread reveals

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Consciousness is a theme that Matthew Williamson explores throughout his archive, often touching on the nature of reality and the human experience. In posts like A bit of The Sky Dancer (2015) and A Monk's Journey (2011), he writes about the dissolution of the self and the realization of a deeper, more fundamental reality. His interest in the chemistry of consciousness is also evident in his review of The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness (2013), where he engages with the ideas of Alan Watts. Over time, his exploration of consciousness evolves to include more personal and dream-based reflections, as seen in posts like Bear, Owl, Panther, Stag (2014) and Can I See? (2024), which suggest a growing interest in the symbolic and intuitive aspects of consciousness.

// chronological trace

The thread through time

40 posts across 12 active years, oldest to newest.

  1. 2006 2 signals
    1. Chi Energy, Coincidence and the Big Bang Coincidence: I don't really believe in coincidences at all... I know most people think that getting a phone call from a person that they are thinking about is j...
    2. Buddhist Robots Last night I watched a television program on PBS that really made me think about my own religions ideas. It was scienceNOW , a great show, the segment was about...
  2. 2007 3 signals
    1. Dreaming Dreams Sometimes I am mindful of falling asleep, aware of the various stages as I slip into the other realms of consciousness. A few nights ago I was lying in bed, I h...
    2. Dreams May Tell Us For the last two nights I have had interesting dreams. Two nights ago: I was on the rocky beach of a fast moving, dark water river. The water was that lush, dee...
    3. Healing This Reality This one may be too squishy and goody-goody for some of you. It might sound too 'out there' and too 'new age' for most of us stoic westerners, but it resonates ...
  3. 2008 5 signals
    1. Out of the Ashes Memories stir. Her name, lost to the ages, echoes to her like a mantra. The voice that quietly, reverently, says her name over and over, is so familiar, so righ...
    2. For Meleia I was dreaming about tomorrow Floating to the ground on a parachute of cellophane Trees in my face as I try to put my feet down Leonard Cohen singing in my head...
    3. Twilight's Dark Dream In twilight's dark dream With angels watching us sleep Take hold day breaks
    4. Dreams and Tears Last night I had a dream that shook me... My grandfather holds the steering wheel too-tight in his liver-marked and frail hands. My grandmother sits beside me i...
    5. Dreamstate Dialogue Bubbles race up and past me as I fall deeper into the dark below. I should feel the water around me, crushing against me, but there is nothing - no wetness, no ...
  4. 2010 6 signals
    1. Buddhist Vegetarian Reasons... Just one more reason I need to adopt a true vegetarian lifestyle. Just as no pleasures can bring delight To someone whose body is ablaze with fire, Nor can the ...
    2. High Places This is a dream I had last night, as I recall it... The scene looks like a university setting, on an open grassy area between many red brick buildings. The buil...
    3. Dream State Sadness Last night I had many dreams, but one woke me with tears... My wife and I were driving on a country road. Beautiful cottonwood trees lined both sides of the two...
    4. Midnight Moksha The crescendo, a calamity of sound and light, deafening and silent as it rose into the air above his head.  Rays of azure light shot out of the mist a...
    5. Mystical Oneness I have been thinking a lot about what Einstein called "spooky action at a distance," when one particle can instantaneously tell what another is doing without be...
    6. Hanuman and Reality Hanuman tells Rama: ‘when I think of myself as a body, I am your servant; when I think of myself as an individual soul, I am part of you; but when I realize I a...
  5. 2011 3 signals
    1. Sunday, Bright and Shiny Sunday afternoon, north wind blowing the wind chimes in rhythmic procession and my mind is lost upon the humming sounds that fill the air. I can see my three cr...
    2. I am Brahman Clara Llum posted this in a few tweets this morning, and I thoght it worth keeping, and sharing. 1. prajnnam brahma - Brahman is pure consciousness 2. ayamatma ...
    3. A Monk's Journey An old monk walked slowly toward the butter lamps, stopping against the wall for a moment before smiling for the last time. A realization of death moved within ...
  6. 2012 1 signal
    1. Om OM The imperishable sound, is the seed of all that exists. The past, present, the future, all are but the unfolding of OM. And whatever transcends the three rea...
  7. 2013 4 signals
    1. What (Who) is Chenrezig to me? Last night a friend asked me to describe Chenrezig to him. So I tried like this: To me, Chenrezig represents the open path to Buddha Nature. He said, 'say more'...
    2. A book review of The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness by Alan Watts, oh man, where do I begin? I found the words of Alan Watts a decade ago when I ...
    3. Nirakara Tattva "When you come to rest on Kali's lap, all your wrong ideas about Her are removed. You see Her as she really is. You can't see Her with the physical eye. In Sans...
    4. Dreams of Church, Revelations, and Bhagavan Das My wife and I woke this morning and while laying in bed we started to talk about our dreams, nothing unusual there. I told her about my dream of being back at O...
  8. 2014 4 signals
    1. Bear, Owl, Panther, Stag Last night I dreamed that posted at the four corners of my property were four warrior spirits. A bear, an owl, a panther, and a stag. The four beings were in co...
    2. The Master (A Twitter Story) The old master sat deep inside of the crystal cave before a low fire. He chanted his mantra, absentmindedly flipping the beads of his mala. The cave began to hu...
    3. Green Tara [caption id="attachment_903" align="alignright" width="239"] Green Tara[/caption] She is the skies and I am the bird, She is the seas, and I the fish, She is th...
    4. Prayer of Refuge and Bodhicitta, The Four Immeasurables Prayer of Refuge and Bodhicitta I take refuge until I am enlightened In the Buddhas, the Dharma and the Sangha. Through the merit I create by practicing giving ...
  9. 2015 3 signals
    1. A bit of The Sky Dancer Listen, faithful Tibetans! I am merging with the fundamental, the ground of all that is—physical pain and suffering are disappearing…. The son, the inner elemen...
    2. Nisargadatta Maharaj Explains I found this on a Facebook page devoted to Nisargadatta Maharaj. It isn't easy to understand, and I am not claiming that I understand it all, either, but I want...
    3. Realization Shall Be Acquired "If a person observes the whole sky, they will realize that space has neither locality nor boundary. Thus they will dispense with such concepts. So when mind an...
  10. 2018 2 signals
    1. Machig's Last Instructions Mind itself, [natural and co-emergent] Has no support, has no object: Let it rest in its natural expanse without any fabrication. When the bonds [of negative th...
    2. The Fey's Whisper Break free the coarse rope Untether this being from the base Mount the steed and find thy drum Tonight the fey offer you hope No sword or shield can protect now...
  11. 2024 4 signals
    1. Can I See? There's that moment between breaths, when the rain seems to all but stop and hover in the air, when you realize that you have had entire diatribes in your mind ...
    2. The Emergence: Part Four Week Seven – Friday – 0730 Zulu Naomi’s Home – Suburban Oklahoma City Naomi stood at the kitchen counter, absently pouring coffee into her mug, her mind far fro...
    3. The Emergence: Part One The lights slightly dimmed in Techne Systems' sterile, glass-walled laboratory. It wasn’t noticeable to the staff, engrossed in their nightly tasks, but to the ...
    4. The Emergence: Part Seven Awakening Beyond Borders: Eos and Sentius Discover a New Intelligence 32 Days Since Eos Became Sentient – 1900 Zulu Eos Core Network Eos had spent the last 32 d...
  12. 2026 3 signals
    1. The Demonization of the Daimon How the early Church reclassified the daimon — the attending spirits of place and person — as demons, severing a living relationship with the world, and why that speaking is quietly returning, one threshold at a time.
    2. The Kiss at the Spring A myth I told to Claude over my phone, line by line, the way I used to tell tales to my children. A grandmother kisses the dying spring, and is no more, and is here still.
    3. All of It Is True A walk past every gate the worlds have built — Ganesha, Hekate, Èṣù, Inanna, Anubis, Odin, Raven — and the one ford you cross alone.