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Among all the lofty goals that Elon Musk has embarked upon in our lifetime, from solar to space to electric, the one that stands out is to make the human species multi-planetary. And the reason he states for embarking upon this is “to preserve the light of human consciousness,” which has always made me wonder what this actually means.

In the Buddhist view, consciousness cannot be grasped or explained by the human mind. However, a rough analogy for consciousness would be a vast, shoreless ocean with universes being small waves, appearing and disappearing. So, becoming a multi-planetary or multi-galactic species would mean that we would still be within the realm of this ephemeral universe, which is at a certain point in its lifetime (just like a wave), rising and falling.

Few enlightened beings among us have experienced this Consciousness and they say that the observer or the network of observers are responsible for the objective phenomenon around us. If there is no one to observe, the objective reality or the universe does not exist.

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From the famous cat experiment conducted by the Austrian scientist Erwin Schrödinger, if we do not observe the cat inside the box with the radioactive material, it can be in any state of being alive or dead. But once it is observed by opening the box, we determine the final state of the cat. This is a significant lesson from the quantum world. Great emphasis is placed on the observer who determines the final state of the reality we observe, whether it’s the moon, sun, or everyday objects such as toothbrushes or cars. If we do not observe, it does not exist; this is the core idea. The act of observation itself creates the final reality or else, it remains in a state of superposition or multiple realities (the cat being dead and alive at the same time, for example).

The famous Indian spiritual teacher of 20th century, J Krishnamurthy went beyond this notion of the Observer and said “Observer is the Observed”. That means, when we Observe our life from moment to moment without the use of our accumulated memory, there remains pure Awareness, the Observer becomes the Observed. The act of observation itself creates division and conflict that create this universe.

The bottom line is, the Observer or the network of Observers is necessary for the universe to exist. Consciousness is needed for the act of Observation. The lack of Observer means that there would be no solidified reality, everything is in a state un-formed.

Elon Musk lofty goal of inter-planetary or inter-galactic travel to expand human Consciousness and to understand the nature of the universe is a great idea. However it might not be necessary because the answer lies closer than we think, its within us. The outer world is a reflection of our inner sub-conscious mind. More on this in another blog…