Those moments in life when we are confronted with a new concept or idea can be life altering, seemingly setting the mind free to roam a new and undiscovered country or even knocking the world completely off its hinges.

Sometimes that can happen even with just a new word or concept for something we’ve had an inkling of all along.

In some cases, it is more like getting hit in the head with a brick and realizing that this strange and wonderous idea has been staring us in the face for so long we have actually gotten in the habit of ignoring it.

In its time, evolution was one of those occasions. Even today, recognition of the existence of the mind is also one of those occasions.

Coming forward to speak about the evolution of a new, mental context for existence, we have the option of latching onto the concept of the Noosphere, or we can cling to older conceptions like the Spirit, the Astral Plane, or any permutation of the Afterlife.

We also have the option to proceed in terms of philosophy, literature, legend, myth and dreams.

Finally, we could simply focus upon the singular and individual mind each of us possesses, and consider all the factors that contribute to a mind’s creation and evolution.

Like most of the great mysteries, we find ourselves starting out right in the midst of it, so any contemplation of what might progress from here we need to begin by looking for any indication of progression contributing to where we are.

We can, without upsetting any of the popular assumptions about the nature and significance of the mind, begin by observing the mind as we experience it in our selves.

Fortunately, the mind is somewhat predisposed to self-examination.

A mind has one distinct and notable boundary, or context from which it is excluded. We call this exclusion “Reality” and each of us contains our own reality.

The sphere of “Reality” is unique in imposing severe limits upon the mind’s influence. The prevailing belief is that the existence of the mind is grounded in and based upon a foundation in Reality.

It is worthy of note, however, that outside the sphere of reality contained in the mind, the mind is entirely without limits except those that it imposes upon itself.

The scope of the mind is limited only by its own imagination, and that imagination can be stimulated to degrees that defy reality. The compass of the mind ranges from the real, through the ideal to the utterly surreal.

Freed from the limits of mass, matter, energy, entropy, time, space and dimension, the mind creates what it needs from whatever it can conceive of and all that is has evolved to encompass.

The powers of the mind are awesome and beguiling and if we did not have something to ground us and focus our minds we would lose ourselves in endless musing and eternal dreams.

The anchor and lens our minds are provided with are the body and brain, rooted in that sphere of reality that is so vexing to the unfettered mind.

We have long been fond of thinking of the world, this reality we are grounded in, as a creation.

The questions and arguments about who created the world, or how, or why, are really less important than the fact that this world serves a vital and essential purpose for our minds, thus giving us an undeniable motivation to create it for ourselves.

Like many good ideas, it no longer matters whose idea it was in the first place, now that so many of us are caught up in realizing that idea. It is more useful to consider what it actually is and how it ultimately affects us.

The first and most important thing about reality is that it provides us with a place where we can encounter each other objectively.

In our own minds, we are alone; our sense of self is derived from our awareness, and in the mind all things are within our awareness. An undeniable truth, even if it makes us feel crazy to say it or think it is “All the people in my mind are me.”

Here in Reality, that is not necessarily the case.

Here in reality, there are walls.

Limits.

The limits we experience provide us with structure and support us, providing reliable definitions for our selves and for our thoughts and feelings.

The limits give us perspective.

With enough perspective, we can ask ourselves what we are and examine the physical and mental aspects of our existence, and contemplate what might happen if our existence is sparked in the brain, the culmination of billions of years of evolution.

Alternatively, we can ask what might happen if this dream we woke up inside of is followed by another dream, a better dream like Reality but more Ideal.

We can wonder if Reality is truly as inert as it seems, a wasteland in which life is miraculously improbably, or if it is just a demonstration of how hard it is for billions of souls to share an idea like one world in common.

The experience we each have of life begins as a dream in which we are alone.

From this dream, we wake up into a dream where we are at least alone together.

Some of us have examined the idea of the Noosphere, and the question that we are really examining is what would happen if we started dreaming as one.

While that question is distracting and absorbing in turns, the implications of Reality are that the Noosphere has been here all along, and creation or construct we embody its evolution.

Whatever bridge is to come, telepathy or neural-networking, Gaia or the Matrix, the best protocol for both is sharing a dream.

Originally posted on Helium.