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Psychospherical Postulates
by Philip H. Farber
The Psychosphere is the Internet understood on the level of its entirety. The Psychosphere is the sum of all the machines, connections, and humans that are linked together in the 'net.
Postulate #1: Every experience you have online affects you and changes you to a greater or lesser degree. (Just as in "regular" space, every impression that you take in changes you to some extent. In the case of more powerful impressions, or ones that you resonate with, or ones that persuade, induce, explain, etc., the action on your consciousness is obvious. In the case of more subtle experiences, it is less so, but equally lasting on your consciousness. For instance, if you are in a chat room and someone posts something relatively insignificant, then you are changed by the wait for it to scroll by, the necessity of having to ignore it, or by a change or confirmation of your general impression of the chat room. These small changes may be cumulative, or may have only a small impact, but a change in your consciousness occurs nonetheless. Also, note the kinds of indirect changes that occur -- if you are bored by something, you may communicate unconsciously to others, by leaving a particular area or changing the subject -- if you are angered by something, you may hold that in your own consciousness as muscular tension or other activity, which will continue to change your own consciousness for a period of time, thus affecting your subsequent actions. Likewise, if you are pleased or aroused or happy about something you encounter online, that attitude, muscular release, change in consciousness continues. And, likewise, you respond on subtle or unconscious levels to the subtle cues of others in this regard.)
Postulate #2: Every action that you make in cyberspace affects the Psychosphere indefinitely. (Other elements of the Psychosphere are affected by your actions as you are by theirs, as in Postulate #1. The change in consciousness, however small or large, radiates out from your action. If your actions or words project happiness, then that happiness spreads in ripples from that point of action.)
Postulate #3: The memory of the Psychosphere is held in your nervous system and body, and the nervous systems and bodies of all other elements of the collective, as well as in the digital memory of the computers. (Your own responses and changes in consciousness and physicality, as described in #1 and #2, remain as a resource to the group consciousness, for better or worse. If you are upset by something online, the Psychosphere will remember that upset for the time that you are experiencing, no matter how long, and ripples will extend from that point and be "remembered" in the consciousness/physicality of those who encounter the ripples. The ripples themselves become archives of memory, spreading indefinitely, however dilute, through the Psychosphere.)
Postulate #4: Deliberately changing your own consciousness and making consciously-chosen actions in relation to the Psychosphere can change the consciousness of the collective. (Any "change in conformity with Will" will affect the Psychosphere just as any other action, as in #1, #2, and #3.)
Postulate #5: Acting in harmony or conformity with your own True Will will have the effect of harmonizing or purifying the general consciousness of the Psychosphere. (In our bodies, a cell that is operating in conformity with its own True Will, its genetic code and determined function in the body, will tend to support and increase the comfort, effectiveness, and general health of the whole. A cell that deviates from its True Will will inhibit the health and action of the whole, and, indeed, may itself be considered a disease. Likewise, the elements of the Psychosphere -- us -- operating according to our True Will, in harmony with ourselves, will support the health and comfort of the Psychosphere as a whole.)
© copyright 1997 Philip H. Farber. All rights reserved.