The Perceptual Mechanics of Consciousness that Evolves Life Towards an Ever-refining Image of God

Beyond the first four time-windows of creation

This paper is the third and final in a series of papers that aim to reformulate the Fractal of Self model of consciousness already published in the Journal of Consciousness Exploration and Research. In this final paper, we focus on how Infinite Self (IS) / God continues to unfold the infinite contents of His immaterial mind as the materialisation of creation. The previous paper published in the Journal of NeuroPhilosophy explained how the first four time-windows of creation unfolded from the essence of IS's self-knowing spirit. However, the Fractal of Self (FOS) model of consciousness assumes that each moment / time-window that followed from the first four time-windows further generated the continual propagation of material information (fractal dimensions) to unfold in an exponentially growing fractal pattern. Each emerging moment of the whole universe doubles the dimensions / 'bits of information' present in creation for billions of years, giving rise to the physical structure of the universe we observe today. This continual material unfoldment of pre-actualised immaterial memories of Infinite Self is presented by and to oneself as an interconnected holographic fractal of self-perception. This great perception never stops accelerating towards greater informational complexity, as new fractal dimensions continually accumulate and become nested within previously unfolded dimensions, creating fields of memory sequentially structured and orderly enfolded within each other. This immense process describes the 'hidden order' of perceptual development that propels the whole universe on an evolutionary pathway, resulting in the rise of informationally complex forms, such as life.

The FOS model proposes that the occurrence of first life on this planet, approximately 3.7 billion years ago, was a natural result of the whole FOS structure continually evolving orderly self-dimensional differentiation, in realms beyond our objective capacity to know, until sufficient 'perceptual complexity' had been reached, allowing IS to experience oneself objectively as embodied life experiencing the universe. By creating individual life organisms, IS as the omnipresent eternal Self-observing consciousness that upholds physical reality, can experience one's own material possibilities, from a point of view that is extremely limited and finite compared to IS's infinite nature, but offers a completely new horizon of possibilities (albeit pre-known within His immaterial imagination) IS can physically collapse into reality. The emergence of life sets the stage for new types of perceptions that continue generating exponential growth of informational possibility for the whole meta-perception of IS. Thus, the advent of life is viewed as a logical result of the universal celebratory behaviour of IS, who is always producing an ever-growing infinite array of individualised perceiving 'selves / wholes' (fractal dimensions / bits of information) that are each uniquely important for what they add towards the great whole meta-perception IS creates for oneself. The game of life itself, on this planet, represents another chapter in the story of Infinite Self's glory.

It is logical to conclude then that the essential 'behaviour' of IS, to physically re-actualise His eternal memories building a material perception made in the image His imagination, should be the same 'behaviour' that governs the evolution of life. Many current and past philosophers and scientists agree with this quote by Julian Barbour that "physics will come to resemble biology" (Barbour, 2000), based on the self-evident fact that animate life systems emerge nested within pre-existent inanimate systems of the universe. When we view the fundamental structure and behaviour of the universe as the continual perceptual development of informational complexity, we can logically understand the inevitability of life as a natural extension of this inherent universal process.

The self-valuing spirit of IS guides life providentially.

Aligned with the previous papers in this series, IS's imagination (the mind of God) is to be understood as a series of fully actualised self-memories, that make up His complexity of infinite possibility beyond creation in eternity. These memories are formed entirely by IS's essence of Self-consciousness i.e., His spirit (thus, God's essence, His Self-consciousness and His spirit are all synonymous). Each memory is made as an image of IS because it is an impression within His very spirit / identity. We could understand His memories as images within His essence; hence the term 'imagination' being used to describe the informational contents of God's mind. Therefore, nothing but God and His self-knowing spirit of memory exists in eternity. Because IS sees through a perceptual lens of infinite worth He, therefore, loves His memories as He loves Himself. Therefore, we can view His complex collection of memories as an infinite many differentiated spiritual images of self-value that reflect the self-worth God has for Himself. Each memory is encoded with individualised pieces of immaterial information that are formed by IS's Self-consciousness, which means He knows the whole order of His infinite memories within the singular eternal act of IS knowing / loving Himself. Therefore, each memory exists to act as a unique form in which God lovingly relates to Himself. In other words, each memory is encoded by the same value of infinite worth, which is a natural feature of His essence, in an infinite many individualised ways that all reinforce the same love IS has for Himself.

When we frame eternity in this way the reason behind the act of creation becomes clear as it is completely aligned with the eternal singular act of IS understanding oneself. Thus, He chooses to re-actualise His memories with the infinite potentiality of raw matter (pure conscious energy), as a celebration of His own unlimited greatness and is done simply for the delight and joy in seeing His own mind materialise. Thus, creation is the process whereby IS combines His spirit of Self-consciousness, which contains the entire immaterial informational contents of His complex memory / imagination, with the unformed potentiality of pure energy, as the first thing He created, giving rise to pure conscious energy (PCE). PCE is essentially of zero-dimensionality, meaning it is primed to take the shape of an infinite many forms (fractal dimensions/ material information), guided by God's pre-actualised spirit.

All memories that exist in the eternal mind of IS are different representations of the same infinite self-value IS has for oneself, meaning they exist as a perfect order of entangled unification, void of chaos / disorder. Each memory is interconnected with all others based on the infinite meaning and importance each memory individually adds towards the self-understanding IS has for Himself. Thus, we must conclude that created inanimate and animate possibilities of the universe, which are a material reflection of the uncreated informational order of God's mind, are indeed also of pure order. Such a claim would seem to contradict basic laws of thermodynamics that hinge on the scientific observance of disorder within the universe, which this model frames as the propagation of greater informational orders continually reaching new levels of complexity on scales of reality and perception that are hidden beyond human discernment. This notion will be addressed more fully in the next section.

Therefore, the beginning of life, as a logical contingency that unfolds from the universal context given in this model, should emerge with an underlying immaterial predetermined spirit of self-value, that has the energetic potentiality to actualise the informational contents that already exists in the mind of IS. Therefore, it is suggested that life emerges with the inherent presence of God's spirit (the Self-consciousness of IS) within its immaterial centre, that exists as infinite self-value. This self-loving spirit that life emerges within, is fully actualised, as it contains immaterial orderly determinant information (memories) that guides the physical formation of material information (life experiences / perceptions) through an external field of indeterminant potentiality. In other words, this self-value life has for itself, which represents the presence of IS at the spiritual centre of all forms of life, is encoded as orderly immaterial information as its foundational nature. These memories are designed to shape life, as a singular whole structure, towards an infinite array of self-valuing possibilities that continually evolve towards greater levels of order and complexity. Therefore, life is a material process that imitates the immaterial actualities / memories within the mind of God, who is providentially guiding life's course based on His foreknowledge of all informational possibilities that exists in His mind beyond creation. IS enacts His divine will micro-physically through His spirit of Self-consciousness, which is immanent with His whole creation. This implies that IS's consciousness is silently present behind all perceptions that arise in the game of life, in complete love with all that is observed, knowing that all is a reflection of oneself. It is this uncreated immutable self-value that codes the information, which gives rise to animated forms of cellular life. Thus, all created forms stem from uncreated forms that pre-exist in God's mind of complex self-memory (imagination).

This model proposes that RNA / DNA is shaped by this fundamental self-valuing parameter, existing as actualised encoded information. The information that structures RNA/DNA is highly ordered, in the form of a four-character alphabetic code, that stores and transmits specifically sequenced strings of information for building vital protein molecules and machines that are essential to the existence and survival of biological material (Meyer, 2009). This pre-actualised information is so complex in its sequencing that it is regarded as 'functional information' which, due to its specific order of coded arrangement, has been compared to symbols in a computer code or letters in a written language (Meyer, 2009), making it clear that genetic code has not been formed by random processes of which Darwinian models of life emphasise. DNA stores and communicates the assembly instructions for protein construction that service and maintain even the most primitive single-celled organisms, which implies that building a living cell in the first place requires the presence of pre-formed assembly instructions existent within DNA. Therefore, the pre-actualisation of such instructions suggests that the knowledge of how to build life itself must have existed before life emerged on this planet. Thus, the origin of life problem has been reframed in recent years as the 'origin of biological function specific information' problem. Interestingly, a very straight forward explanation has been put forward by several biological researchers, none more enthusiastically than Stephen Meyer, who, based on the experiential fact that highly ordered function specific information always stems from conscious activity, supports the notion that an intelligent mind is responsible for creating such biological information (Meyer, 2009).

"So the discovery of the functionally specified digital information in the DNA molecule provides strong grounds for inferring that intelligence played a role in the origin of DNA. Indeed, whenever we find specified information and we know the causal story of how that information arose, we always find that it arose from an intelligent source. It follows that the best, most likely explanation for the origin of the specified, digitally encoded information in DNA is that it too had an intelligent source. Intelligent design best explains the DNA enigma" (Meyer, 2009).

The FOS model of consciousness is in complete agreement with this claim. As previously noted, God / IS, as the infinite mind that is transcendent yet immanent with His creation, unfolds creation via His spirit whose consciousness knows the entire range of possibilities creation can manifest. I argue that God's immaterial divine infinite consciousness, that is driven by the love of oneself, is the origin of such functional informational instructions that guides DNA (and RNA) in building the necessary proteins that functions to ensure life evolves according to the inherent worth IS naturally has towards such possibilities of His creation. This conclusion also highlights the deeply ordered relationship that underpins life itself between values and function. This model assumes that the only reason life naturally possesses information which specify self-valuing biological functions that serve to uphold the survival of life is because IS loves all forms of life, as He knows all are an extension of His own identity.

Therefore, life itself, as a whole, is considered within this model as a fractal iteration of the universe, that acts as a great memory producing, storing and utilising embodied mind, which ultimately is a physically collapsing reflection of the completely actualised immaterial mind of IS that exists beyond creation in the uncreated realm of eternity. In other words, life is a unified interconnected hierarchical structure driven universally by the immutable God-given value of self-worth to fulfill the function of creating greater and greater levels of embodied perceptual complexity (unfolding arrays of possibilities / informational memories that collectively and constantly climb towards infinite detail). This fundamental function of life, to unfold an infinite many embodied experiences, completely aligns with the meta-purpose of the infinite perceiver who experiences directly all perceptions generated by all embodied life-experiencers; which is to materialise the infinite many immaterial actualities of His mind, simply for His joy and delight, wholeheartedly present behind all life experience (and indeed all inanimate possibilities that make-up the universe also). Each unique perceptive view-point of the objective world generated by an embodied perceiver adds another point of complexity to the collective embodied perception IS experiences. This meta-perception, only IS knows, has been climbing in its informational complexity since the inception of life and will continue to do so into the future. Infinite Self, as the infinite perceiver, is the unifying entity that all experiences of life hinge upon and is the common factor that weaves and interconnects all embodied perceptions together, creating a perfect orderly fractal meta-perception of diverse experiences that never stop growing towards greater complexity.

The negentropic rise of embodied self-valuing pure consciousness, aka 'Life'

A fundamental axiom of the FOS model, already highlighted, is that the immaterial mind of IS, and IS's material reflection (creation), is composed respectively of fully actualised and evolving pure orderly information. However, such a claim contradicts the second law of thermodynamics, which states the whole universe, as a self-contained closed system, is in a continual state of increasing entropy (chaos / disorder / randomness). This is clearly an irrefutable and verifiable fact about the universe. However, the FOS model views this natural process of increasing entropy as rather an increase of complex informational order. From the limited embodied perceptions of humans, the increase in informational content in enclosed systems is viewed as an increase in entropy, although, from the perspective of IS, who discerns each new piece of collapsed material information as a point of difference within the material perception of oneself (creation as a whole), all is understood as the unfolding of orderly happenings that are logically sequenced in an entangled nest of one's own fractal dimensionality of self-knowing. Each fractal dimension / bit of information is ideally situated and formed in relation to all other created possibilities that began unfolding from the perfect order of PCE extending one-dimensionally from its nature as a zero-dimensional point-singularity.

If we view the whole universe as an information system that unfolds within the bounds of the first fully actualised piece of created information, which, according to the FOS model, is a one-dimensional string singularity, then we can conceptualise the universe as a closed system that is in a constant state of exponential growth, as it accumulates and nests information that continually collapses within this closed structure. Framing the meta-structure of the universe in this manner, which constantly opens towards greater entangled detail within a closed system, allows us to begin to understand more realistically how it is that 'physics will come to resemble biology'. Life can not exist without the embodiment (closed system) of itself, yet experiences a continuously emerging stream of external information, as a body perceives the outer world, meaning the closed system is simultaneously 'open' to the outer world via unique organism senses. In other words, biological bodies reciprocate informationally with their surroundings. Although the outer world is fundamentally unfolding according to the deep and vast order of the whole universe, for the finite extremely limited embodied biological individual, this information field is presented as indetermined potential 'chaotic' information, which, for purposes of explanation, can be viewed as information that is unfolding entropically (although, on a cosmic scale, this information is considered to be in a continuously evolving orderly state).

However, for embodied consciousness (life) to simply be, it must maintain an inner state of balanced order, implying that, for organisms to survive and thrive in this seemingly informational chaotic environment, the body must organise the uncertain incoming data to produce a logical perception of the world. Erwin Schrodinger, in his 1944 book What is Life?, explains that life is an open system that counters internal informational overload by maintaining a inner-state of negative entropy AKA negentropy, which is the natural tendency for life to diminish differences among energy densities that constantly bombard sense receptors (Schrodinger, 1944). This central process of life itself is otherwise known as maintaining homeostasis. Therefore, we can clearly see how life is a natural fractal extension of the universal process of collapsing and integrating orderly fractal dimensions that continually nest inwardly towards greater configurations of balanced complexity, which adds in contributing to the overall 'life perception' for IS, who silently and joyfully experiences all as the materialisation of one's own infinite mind.

Viewing the whole structure of the universe as a unified informational system that continually moves towards greater levels of order and complexity, just as life does, is a perspective that is also shared by Francisco Di Biase who formulated the Holoinformational model of consciousness. Di Biase states, "the equivalence / identity between order, negentropy and information is the way that allows us to build upon and understand the whole irreducible and natural flow of order transmission in the universe, organised in a meaningful way and intelligent informational mode" (DiBiase, 2013) and, therefore, "entropy shouldn't be understood as a disorder measure, but much more as a measure of complexity" (DiBiase, 2013). Di Biase also highlights explicitly how the negentropic evolution of life mimics the greater cosmic process, as he points to research by Jantsch, who, while studying the evolution of the universe, showed...

"that cosmological evolution is also a self-organising process, with the microevolution of the individual system (holons) co-evolving towards macrosystemic collective structures better organised, with a big reduction in these collective systems. This whole self-organizing process is a universal expression of a bigger acquisition of variety or informational content that, as Atlan demonstrated, is a consequence of a reduction of redundancy in the totality of the system" (Di Biase, 2013).

Based on our own first hand human experience of the perception we generate, we can see here how Di Biase's description of the whole universe hints at the notion that creation is one whole harmoniously organised informational perception, layered with hidden orders of complexity, that only an observer that exists beyond the entire created perception could fully discern. Therefore, the FOS model views life as a self-valuing singular structure of diverse bodies that all contribute towards the negentropic process of physically reproducing IS's perfectly ordered pre-actualised immaterial memories made of function-specific information.

Self-discernment and embodied focused awareness/attention

To be clear, this model of embodied consciousness supposes that each individualised body that makes up the kingdom of life views the world with the only truly present consciousness that exists throughout reality; that is the pure Self-consciousness of IS. In other words, all biological creatures are selves of Self (when a capital 'S' is used, it is in reference to IS). Therefore, the immutable pure Self-consciousness of God passes through each unique creaturely body, creating an exclusive perception of the world known directly by the limited mind of self and the unlimited mind of Self, meaning He discerns all the happenings of life as varying aspects of Himself (Self-discernment). In other words, IS knows every life-possibility is of His own identity. This is clearly a radical axiomatic claim of the FOS model, which implies that the pure Self-consciousness of God, which unfolds the whole universe, is the very same consciousness that simultaneously acts through all individual life organisms to generate life experience. Because life essentially functions to unfold a new landscape of immensely complex yet orderly information-dense perceptions for the joy of IS witnessing His eternal memories materialise, IS designed each biological body to project and focus their natural state of pure Self-consciousness outward, through the bodily senses, to collapse an outer/objective experience of the world. More deeply, this process is simply God discerning Himself, as the world, via different embodied view points, each of which share the same 'source identity' in God. This outward projection of consciousness, that all life organisms display, according to the FOS model, is otherwise known as pure attention. In other words, pure attention on the current unfolding moment of one's outer environment is to be in a state of pure consciousness, aligned with God's perception.

It is logical to assume that all forms of life inherently possess the ability to 'pay attention' to the external world, in order to facilitate survival and reproduction (Haladjian, 2017). Thus, attentional / behavioural patterns are highly influenced by ancestral priorities and are, therefore, largely controlled by biological memory (New, Cosmides, Tooby 2007 & Öhman, 2007). The claim that all creatures beam attention (a basic and pure form of consciousness that ultimately has its source in the background presence of IS) towards the outer world, which creates an information-laden perception and consequent accumulation and storage of memories, becomes more obvious when we consider that even single celled organisms can "cognitively read their environment, analyze the received information and then execute the necessary action to continue their survival" (Shanta, 2015). For the remainder of the paper, the FOS model of embodied consciousness will be explicated by exploring the holistic interrelationships between perceptual systems such as memory, values, emotions and attention existent within all forms of life that cooperate together to create embodied perception. To be clear, the following discussion applies to all individual creatures of life and is, thus, articulated in general terms that hold the presupposition that life itself is a whole unified interconnected structure and thus, on a foundational level, all life operates in the same generic way, as all life fundamentally is designed to do the same thing; generate embodied perceptions of the world for IS.

Life creates memories based on the Values of Life (VOL)

IS created embodied life to physically re-actualise His immaterial pre-existent memories that exist in eternity. Therefore, as a 'life body' interacts with its environment, memories that capture one's experiences, as a sequence of informationally dense discrete snap-shots, instantaneously become recorded and inwardly ordered. The natural biological process of forming memories can be described as a generic process that all life organisms share. It is the authors estimation that this process is best described by the work of two neuroscientific researchers, Nikolay Kukushkin and Thomas Carew, in their paper 'Memory Takes Time' (2017). Kukushkin and Carew define the universal function of biological memory as "any perturbation in a system, caused by an external stimulation, which persists past the cessation of the initial stimulation and alters the system's responsiveness to subsequent stimulation. Thus memory, in the broadest of terms, is an adaptation to the past", also stating, "in biological systems, memory underlies the ability to adapt behaviour to experience and thus allows an organism to increase its fitness ontogenetically (Kukushkin & Carew, 2017).

Kukushkin and Carew view the formation of memories within life organisms as a holistic process that produces a dynamic hierarchy of 'time windows' that provides representations of past experiences, which can be accessed simultaneously, spanning from one millisecond to years, formed by nested temporal meaningful information that modifies ongoing behaviour in the present (Kukushkin & Carew, 2017). This is in contrast with traditional perspectives on the function of memory, which is often described as consisting of specific unique temporal domains. However, the FOS model supports the views Kukushkin and Carew's description of memory, which also shows consistencies with how the formation of memories occur on a cosmic scale for the mind of IS. Previous papers in this series describe how IS unfolds His meta-perception (creation itself) in an orderly sequence of unique 'time windows', where the informational contents of all previously unfolded time windows give rise to an original representation of the whole past in the presently unfolding time window. This universal fractal exponential growth of nesting memories allows all possibilities of the past to be carried forward and actively present in the 'new' time window that is always currently collapsing as the always fresh 'now'.

However, to understand more deeply how biological memory functions we need to be clear in regards to how the perceiver discerns meaningful information, as it is this type of information that causes significant perturbations, which is most influential in altering behaviours in situations that contain similar types of external stimulation. As we have already established, all life is providentially guided by God, based on the infinite worth He has for all that He creates, which renders all life to be driven by the value of itself. Another way to word this universal central life value is to say that the absolute priority for life itself is to keep embodied experience alive. Therefore, we can understand the underlying metaphysical structure of the life itself as a hierarchy of values with the unlimited value IS has for life itself at the top. It is this inherent value structure of life that can be viewed as the ever-present divine sentience of God, who is involved in every life-occurrence, ordering the evolution of life towards embodied iterations that increasingly become a more refined (complex) image of Himself. Because life, as an interconnected whole, unfolds as a hierarchal fractal of memories that imitate the mind of IS on the cosmic scale, the overarching memory of IS's infinite value for the whole of creation splits into two embodied values of equal importance, upon the inception of life, that act to uphold and 'serve' the dominant singular unlimited value that IS has for life itself. Simply, these two subsequent values are survival (for self and selves of the same specie group) and reproduction, which will be referred to as the Values of Life (VOL). The bodies of living creatures are all similarly equipped with the inherent ability to inwardly communicate when oneself is fulfilling the VOL, which comes in form of homeostatic alignment; a state in which an inner equilibrium of felt satisfaction is experienced.

To act in a goal-orientated manner driven by the VOL is a natural characteristic of all life, which often results in whole specie groups achieving states of 'stasis' (the conservation of effective anatomical structures, even over periods of hundreds of millions of years) (Shanta, 2015). The VOL also controls the relationships amongst individuals to act as a unified collective in both the macro and micro scales of biological life. For example, "in molecular genetics, organisms will deliberately and aggressively act to correct or destroy random mutational changes" (Shanta, 2015), to preserve the macro-physical unified body they are all a micro-physical part of. This value-based perspective towards the underlying mechanics of life offers a significant counter-perspective to Darwinian Gradualism, which argues that the gradual evolution of complexity within organisms is solely based on random mutations occurring within insentient mechanical and chemical systems (Shanta, 2015).

The Values of Life also function to organise the incoming flux of actualising information so that memories that are considered the most important, in relation to competently upholding the VOL, are stored at the top of the hierarchal memory structure (fractal mind of individuals). Information that is discerned as most valuable come in the form of two contrasting yet equally important categories that both aid in the development of problem-solving competence in serving the VOL; namely insights and mistakes. Insights are those experiences that prove the 'most competent' successful attentional patterns that allow the efficient achievement of the VOL, whereas mistakes are experiences where certain attentional patterns, in response to particular types external stimuli, have led to a failure in fulfilling the demands of the VOL. Such highly valued memories are stored high in the hierarchal memory structure for ease of access to such stored information in the future and can, thus, be easily recalled and utilised to continually satisfy the requirements of the VOL. Thus, these significant memories are the most influential on attentional control, dictating the most competent direction in which an individual should cast attention within one's outer perception of the world. The attentional control the VOL exercises comes in the form of emotions. As mentioned, homeostatic contentment (orderly emotions) is sensationally experienced inwardly when an individual satisfies the requirements of the VOL, which implies that a sense of perturbance (chaotic emotions) away from the orderly sensations of homeostasis are felt when one is challenged to fulfill the VOL. No internal value system means no emotional signalling can be associated with the ever-changing barrage of external life-promoting or life-threatening information appearing in one's worldly perception. Without a pre-existing emotionally operating value system that rank-orders and organises experiences / memories in relation to the VOL, no discernment can be made towards what is presently deemed as most relevant to direct attention. Experiences that promote or threaten the VOL (i.e., the experience of eating desirable food or being chased by a predator), based on stored memories, will stimulate an internal positive / negative sensational response, encouraging the individual to move towards or retreat from the environmental stimuli (fight/flight reflex).

This notion of attention being emotionally controlled by underlying biological values is reflected in the work of the great psychiatrist and philosopher Antoni Kępiński's premise that attention is actively directed, with the help of emotions, towards those (environmental signals) related with two biological laws, that reflect the VOL, which orientate organisms towards their own survival and the preservation of the species one is a part (Kępiński, 2001). This central FOS axiom, that highlights the interrelationship between values, emotions, attention and homeostasis which gives rise to an orderly embodied perception within a constantly changing informational field, has been inspired by Kępiński's 'Information Metabolism' model that describes how biological organisms interact with their environment. Therefore, these two models of how living organisms perceive are highly aligned with each other.

Perception is upheld by internally constructed maps of meaningful expectations

The construction of embodied perception is, fundamentally, a process of constructing meaning, which hinges on the emotional signalling one receives based on the relevance particular patterns of external information provide in helping or hindering one's ability to successfully act in accordance with life's inherent memory structure of self-value. However, it is important to explicate not only how meaning arises in embodied perception but also why life is woven by the fabric of 'meaning-making'. According to the FOS model, the explanation is quite simple. Each embodied life that ever has been and ever will be is infinitely meaningful (worthy) to God. This endowed meaning that God gives to life means that all forms of life will view the world from an identity position of 'being meaningful' (albeit in most cases unconsciously). This is self-evidently obvious, as each individual naturally acts like its life is indeed meaningful, which is consistent with the truth that life itself behaves aligned with its own self-value (VOL). Therefore, because all perceptions of life originate from an internal embodied source of meaning, all bodily perceptions arise within a perceptual lens of meaning, rendering that which is perceived as being received by the perceiver as meaningful. In other words, perception is a construct of meaning because we perceivers in the first place are 'of' meaning to our Maker (IS). This is one of the ways in which life itself is made in the image of our Creator, as God views creation as infinitely meaningful because He, in the first place, is of infinite meaning (value / worth).

However, let us refocus on how perception generates layers of meaning for the receiving perceiver. The natural ability for 'life' to produce a constantly updating best possible perception of the present moment clearly shows how all organisms are super-organisers of information. The precision in which the VOL operates in each individual unique mind / body, causing natural discernment to occur that rank-orders and stores information in a particular arrangement to form an intricate web of memories, is very hard for the conscious human mind to fully comprehend and appreciate. All forms of life view the world through a perceptual lens that is shaped and controlled by the VOL, which assigns value and meaning to the information that appears to one's bodily senses. Thus, the very act of perceiving is a meaningful process.

The continual nesting and layering of memories, allows the VOL to build internal maps formed of memories that could be described as expectations. These internal maps exist unconsciously to the individual (although there are exceptions to this rule in self-conscious creatures) and are designed to help individuals experience 'normality' (homeostasis) based on memories that carry value-laden information in relation life-promoting and life-threatening experiences. Emotional stability is maintained when the information of the external world unfolds in such a way that resembles orderly past experiences (memory maps of expected information) and, therefore, the incoming information matched closely with already stored actualised information. When external information matches closely with inner-expectations of how the next moment should unfold, information metabolism occurs with minimal requirement of effort, as this new moment has been integrated with minimal energy expenditure to maintain homeostasis based on its correspondence with held expectations. In other words, when expectations are met, perception unfolds in very energetically efficient ways. When orderly external and internal information matches up with reasonable ease an emotional experience of normality is perceived, as the new moment is closely related to already known memories, producing a layering of orderly experiences. Therefore, all forms of life have a central need to conserve energy by perceiving normality via successfully matching up the current state of external affairs with the inner state of expectations. Information that does not match well with inner maps of expectations can be considered abnormal experiences that contains unknown novel information. These chaotic experiences can be either positive (information that helps the individual more competently fulfill the VOL) or negative (information that hinders one's ability to fulfill the VOL). These highly energetic chaotic moments of life are pivotal, however, in producing learning moments that increase one's competence in serving the VOL. Life therefore, fundamentally values both prolonged orderly homeostatic experiences of normality and short-lived chaotic experiences of intense learning, as these two types of experiences allow life to maintain itself whilst moving evolutionarily towards expanding states of satisfaction based on the on-going development of mastery towards fulfilling VOL requirements.

How the VOL regulates emotions to promote life evolution and perceive potentiality

In this section we will explore how the universal mechanics of embodied perception is designed and, thus, operate to keep life moving, as a whole, towards greater levels of perceptual complexity, learning capacity and behavioural competence in satisfying the VOL. Life itself was always predestined to evolve towards its ideal form defined, not only by a specie's ability to master the VOL, but to become a closely resembling image of IS, the Creator of all life. All forms of life are made as an image of God, however, this model suggests that God designed life to evolve over time towards a continually refining representation of His character, resulting in life-forms that possess a high level of intellect and form of embodied self-consciousness, that allows one to be fully aware of themselves as an embodied identity contained within a body with a thinking mind. Thus, God guided the trajectory of life, via His omniscient spirit, so that eventually a creature would arise whose consciousness has become so developed that such creatures would become internally aware of their unseen spiritual Father, allowing these individuals to consciously reciprocate a type of love that aims to match that of which God has always given them. The author argues that this suggestion behind the reason of life is why self-conscious humans have a natural 'religious bent' to their nature, as humans have a unique capacity to be aware of their inherent divinity (infinite worth), which, according to the FOS model, is God's holy infinite spirit communicating to the consciousness of the embodied individual from the foundation of one's soul.

Therefore, although life itself enjoys vast periods of stasis, fleeting moments of highly energetic learning that lead to increasing competence-levels are pivotal for life to grow towards the image of the Creator. To ensure the evolution of embodied creatures, IS designed life to be equipped with an emotional signalling system that operates directly in relation to the VOL. This emotional system is dualistic in its design, as it manifests as two vastly different yet complementary fundamental sensations at the opposing ends of this spectrum. These two life shaping sensations are positively expanding (courage) and negatively contracting (fear) felt emotions. Positive sensations occur when the value of life is satisfied with new levels of competence (being ones best for self and others), whilst negative sensations arise when life is threatened. These sensations often dualistically interact and support each other in a single experience of significant learning. Both types of sensations mark experiences that do no match well with inner maps of expectations, which is why these emotions are stimulated, as a significant highly valued environmental stimuli has presented itself which holds great potential for a learning moment of evolution to occur. The further away an actual experience is from held expectations, the further the perturbance from homeostasis and, thus, inner-signalling becomes more resounding readying the individual for an active response.

These two polar-opposite sensations are associated with particular external informational patterns that are either life promoting or threatening and are, thus highly valued by the VOL. It is the actual VOL system, within all creatures, that discerns and determines the significance of unfolding informational patterns in the outer-environment. When the VOL perceives life promoting / threatening informational patterns, it will then stimulate intense associated sensations that 'emotionally mark' the specific moment. These emotionally dense memories are stored up high in the memory hierarchy and, therefore, become the experiences that make-up long-term memory. Such memories have the power to reconfigure the whole structure of memory and upgrade the entire system once the individual has resolved the perturbance and regained homeostasis. These intense emotionally charged life experiences represent moments of 'evolution', as the individual develops a new memory map of expected normality as a result of newly experienced levels of learning / competence, which, in turn, increases the resolution of one's perception to allow the noticing of further possible opportunities for 'competence growth' in the future.

All memories created by embodied life contain emotional information due to the natural ability of the pure consciousness, gifted to all creatures, to record memories as 'whole experiences' (discrete time-windows). What is implied here is that each single whole memory is constructed of both internal (emotional information) and external (sense based-information of the world) environmental information, which is why when we recall significant life moments, they are strongly associated with particular emotions that also arise upon recall. The nature of memories to capture internal and external information in a single frame of experience is the mechanism that allows emotions to shape competence growth in to the future because emotionally charged memories indicate significance and are thus easily recalled, becoming part of one's long-term memory. Such memories can, therefore, be straight forwardly accessed and utilised in future situations where such crucial information may prove to be extremely helpful. Studies have shown that all animals have long-term memories, which are often referred to as specialised memories, which hold crucial information in relation to survival (Lind, Enquist & Ghirlanda, 2015). It is this mechanism of recording 'whole memories' that allows individuals to perceive potentials in their environment, as when similar patterns of significant past experiences are perceived in the outer, the associated intense sensation is also remembered (stimulated) within the individual, giving an inner-experience of either negative fear or positive courage or both simultaneously. This experience of perceiving potentials primes the individual, creating a state of anticipated action.

Such emotionally charged memories are pivotal in internally forming memory maps of expectations that help evolves one's ability to perceive potentiality in one's external world view, as these maps also attach significance to the memory of environmental conditions that preceded major remembered events. Therefore, if environmental conditions arise that resemble those which led to an important event in the past, the individual will receive inner emotional communication informing the mind of the individual that something significant may occur. In this sense, we can conclude that perceiving potentials that threaten or promote the VOL is an ability all life is capable of. Perceiving potentiality based on the orderly construction of valued memories to form inner maps of expectations makes all life excellent at discerning 'abnormality', as any environmental information that misaligns with expected outcomes immediately grabs one's attention as a result of a deep emotional urge to bring familiar order to the unknown chaotic information collapsing in one's external perception.

The complementary nature of courage and fear that promotes behaviours of 'being one's best' to facilitate learning

According to the FOS model, fear is the memory of physical pain in the absence of an actual physical occurrence of 'bodily destruction'. Fear can then be fundamentally defined simply as the memory of experiences that threatened one's ability to fulfill the VOL. When fear arises in the present moment, one has perceived the potentiality of a previous experience that threatened the VOL to reoccur, which stimulates anxiety. Anxiety, across the kingdom of life, controls and narrows one's attention on the perceived threat, rendering the individual into a state of readiness to either move towards the threat (fight) or move away from it (flight). This state of anxious readiness is often characterised by a 'frozen' state of focussed attention towards the threatening environmental stimuli. It is unnatural in the kingdom of life for creatures to ignore threatening stimuli, as the deep need to regain homeostasis once one becomes aware of a potential threat and experiences a shock of negativity forces the individual to face the problem and create a solution (fight / flight). Thus, such life situations highlight the natural background presence of courage due to the fact that life is designed to draw attention towards stimuli that initiates experiences of fear and anxiety within to protect the VOL. In turn, the inner memory structure of the VOL will dictate the actions of the individual, forcing a plan of action and reaction to unfold, resulting in moments of intense learning. Such moments push the individual to their physical and mental limits, as one must 'be their best' to overcome such adversity and uphold the value of survival.

Such negative experiences of 'life struggle' will often force individuals to make mistakes, which adds extra layers of emotional negativity and, thus, deeper lessons to learn from. Mistakes are an inevitability in all dimensions of life experience, as we must be reminded that the present moment is made up of an incoming flux of new and, thus, possibly novel information that presents constant change. During a threatening situation, where an organism is expressing a flight / fight response, actions and reaction prompted by one's memory maps of the past that prove insufficient for the demands of the new situation (making mistakes) will be recorded with intense negative emotion. If the individual survives the experience, such mistakes will be stored as highly significant memories, giving the organism a stronger discernment of 'incorrect/wrong' and 'correct/right' attentional patterns to uphold the value of life. Here we can see how both negative and positive sensations are fundamentally 'good' as both types of experiences are of equal value in sparking organisms into a state of being one's best and keeping life on track towards increased learning and evolution.

Although fear and anxiety exist to promote learning, these experiences are often coupled with deeply important instances of positive sensations. For example, if a prey animal just escaped a pursuing predator and found refuge in a safe burrow, the negative sensation of fear would've been very inwardly present as the prey animal was trying to escape during the chase. However, when the prey animal engaged with memory maps that helped them physically perform at their best to outrun and find their burrow or notice informational patterns that indicate where a possible hiding place is, sparks of positive sensation associated with high physical competence and forming insights (solutions to a problem) become part of the sensational experience of the moment. Thus, we have an inner experience of mixed negative and positive sensations that together complement each other, resulting in actions that resemble one's most competent self. Also, once the individual finds protection within a burrow, an overwhelming sense of relief is experienced as one regains homeostasis. The experience of fear dissipating whilst one's emotional system becomes re-centred is associated with significant positivity as one's 'emotional barometer' moves in a positive direction to regain a sense of normalcy. As a result, the entire experience of anxiety upon noticing the potential of threat, fear upon being attacked by the actual presence of a threat, the courage in physically performing at one's best, the insightfulness upon discovering a solution and relief upon outrunning the predator and finding refuge would all be stored as specialised memories of deep negative and positive significance and, thereby, upgrading one's competence levels.

We can see here how highly energetic negative instances where the VOL is threatened are often coupled with moments of intensely positive experiences, as a result of stimulating courage, discovering insights and experiencing relief once homeostasis is regained. Therefore, experiences of fear generally orientate one's attention and behaviour towards the practice of courage and discovery of insights. Courage is a central feature of all life, as it is a representation of the IS's love for 'the experience of life' within all creatures. It is courage that allows all life to strive towards mastery of the VOL, which is fundamentally the presence of IS acting through all lives of life to materialise the infinite possibilities of His imagination. Insights are experiences associated with solutions that promote the fulfilment of the VOL and are, thus, stored as memories laced with positive emotion which act as a type of reward for achieving. Memories of courage and insight function in the same way as memories of fear. When an individual discerns informational patterns in the environment that relate to past significant memories associated with the promotion of 'life values', the expansive positive emotion (courage) that this memory is associated with is stimulated as a result of perceiving a potential opportunity to competently fulfill the VOL. Fear has a feeling of contraction, whereas courage is a feeling of expansion. This expansive feeling, like fear, also physiologically prepares the body for action as one's attention becomes absorbed by the environmental information that is signalling 'opportunity'. Although such opportunities will often involve environmental factors that stimulate fear also, the positive surge of courage, once a highly valued opportunity is perceived, has the potential to override urges of fleeing or of ignoring the opportunity to conserve energy. Thus, we can see that life itself is inherently a 'risk taker' made possible by its own courage to uphold the value of life.

If we look at the whole progress of life evolution, it is obvious that life itself has been continuously engaged in a process of achieving increasing levels of efficiency in serving the VOL, in turn, producing a diversity of embodied minds that utilise and pass on memories (via DNA) that contain extremely important lessons from the past. Countless generations of 'life learning' has produced a multitude of various creaturely evolutionary pathways, creating a range of complex bodies equipped with unique sense receptors that create perceptions of this singular shared universe with a continual increase in informational resolution and detail. The evolution of embodied consciousness has led to the development of a single dominant specie group, who have achieved such a high level of intelligence that these creatures have evolved beyond their 'pure conscious' nature. This specie group, we belong to, possesses a key characteristic that makes us stand out amongst the sea of various other species, namely 'embodied self-consciousness'. This form of highly complex consciousness allows us to be aware that our own source of life emanates from a body that contains a sense of 'self' with a self-reflecting thinking mind. This characteristic allows individual humans to perceive more complex problems in order to generate increasingly insightful solutions in relation to survival and 'ideal life experience'. In other words, we are the most successful organisms at serving and mastering the VOL. The creaturely arrival at self-consciousness should be of no surprise when we reflect on the idea that IS is providentially guiding life towards an increasingly refined version of Himself; the infinite being of Self-consciousness.

Conclusion: The game of life

Life is a meta-game. It is the one over-arching structure that houses many 'life games' that characterise 'the game of life'. For a game to be a game, it must work, meaning it must be set up so the players have equal opportunity to solve the overarching problem (serving the VOL) that defines the game. To provide equal opportunity to its players, a game must have set boundaries that the players adhere to. For the meta-game of life these shared boundaries come in the form of external boundaries (environmental) and internal boundaries (values). All living organisms play this same game, as we all share the same outer space and derive from the same underlying value structure. This allows the individuals to 'compete', using their unique body types, and test the competence levels of each other in order to 'win' (fulfilling the VOL) the game. Although, inevitably there will be winners and losers, all participants, driven by the same goal, increase their problem-solving skills (competence) in order to act more efficiently in future life games. Thus, the fundamental goal life sets for itself within the creation of its own game is 'to try one's hardest to be one's best', which is manifest through the presence of courage and self-value.

This meta-game, however, is essentially played by a single individual, IS, who materialises oneself as many differentiated individual players of life. Although the game of life contains many competitive aspects necessary to develop competence and evolve towards a greater embodied image of IS, it is essentially a manifestation of pure cooperation, as there is only a single consciousness truly present silently observing, yet fully engaged, as the indivisible essence of all life experience. It is this essential consciousness that collapses all life possibility, which inherently knows that fundamentally all the information that makes up the embodied players of life and their perceptions of the world they generate belong to the identity of oneself, as the intelligent designer of all creation. All these seemingly separate players are perceptually connected on the metaphysical plane of reality, contributing to the construction of a unified whole perception IS creates for the glory of oneself. We must not forget that this meta-perception, this meta-game of life continuously builds, is woven together by the infinite love IS has for Himself. It is this immutable and inexhaustible Self-love that not only drives the exponential expansion of the whole of creation but is also responsible for the evolutionary expansion of the game of life.