From Nothing to Next Level: Unlocking Human Potential
How We Evolve by Embracing Our Origins and Expanding Awareness
The Beginning Of Human Being
How did we become human in the first place? I am not sure whether you are religious, spiritual, agnostic, or atheist. Regardless, you probably have some beliefs about where we come from. I am not interested in challenging your beliefs. That’s what’s great about philosophy and the thought experiments it allows us to play with—there is no need for your own beliefs to feel threatened.
I want to take you on a brief journey through my philosophy as to the origins of humanity. My belief is that if we are going to talk about getting to our next level, it’s useful to have some context of why it matters. Try not to let your beliefs get in the way of this discussion; just see if you can follow my logic.
To me, the very nature of existence demands we humans work to evolve ourselves and better the world. But where does existence even start, and why would a single human going about their life have any impact or matter at all?
In the beginning, what was there? Most people would say something can’t come from nothing. But if there was something that made humans, then that something couldn’t have come from nothing either. And if that something can’t come from nothing, then where did the original something come from? It’s a bit of a conundrum, isn’t it? We quickly get into a cyclical argument where the “something can’t come from nothing” logic breaks down.
So did we come from something or nothing? If we came from something, where did that something come from? If we come from nothing, how is that even possible?
What do we call that original something or nothing? The thing from which all other things have emerged. You can call that source God if you wish, universal consciousness if you prefer, or anything else that suits you. I am agnostic and have come to refer to this unknowable thing simply as “Source.”
Here is the way I see it. We arise from this “Source;” all that was, all that is, all that ever will be. To understand humans, we need to explore the attributes of this Source. If possible, we want to know how it behaves and what are its properties. We need to understand how nothing might give rise to something and how that something generated all other somethings.
How Nothing Becomes Something
Try to envision nothingness. What exactly is no thing? And how could that possibly lead to some thing?
One way to think of nothing is as empty space. And this is where we can start playing with the concept of nothing. If I have a cup with nothing in it, it’s easy to imagine it being filled by something. In fact, the empty space in a cup is impossible to understand without the idea of something filling the cup. Just the thought of nothing immediately demands the consideration of something, does it not?
Emptiness may contain nothing, but it is also simultaneously a potential holding space for something. That recognition seems to make something and nothing not opposites but different manifestations of the same thing. It’s like the idea of vapor, water, and ice—different expressions of the same element. Or the concept of night and day. You can’t have one without the other.
Here is another way to look at it. The number zero represents the absence of a thing, but it also is a space for a thing. It is the missing of a number and a holding place for all numbers simultaneously. Again, nothing and something seem eerily linked in some way. Perhaps even the same thing; different sides of the same coin.
When empty space (nothingness) is added to more empty space (more nothingness), the end result is still nothing, but now somehow a more expansive nothing. It is a greater holding place for a potential something. It’s more potential, more possibility.
It’s like when you add zero to zero. You get zero. But that “new zero” is somehow different than the two zeros that generated it. It is more than the original zeros because it was derived from two zeros, not just one. It is both nothing in its literal interpretation, but also somehow different by virtue of how it was derived.
At this point, you might think I have gone crazy and are saying to yourself, “Jade, what’s the point of this ridiculous thought experiment?” Here is what I am trying to convey.
Remember the question of what makes us humans different? And how we have this ability to imagine into existence things that have never before existed? What I am explaining above is an extension of that idea. We humans seem to behave a lot like Source. Source is able to create new potential out of nothing. We can do the same. We are able to integrate different attributes, making more from the sum of parts. Source does this also. We express these same behaviors of Source.
It is inclusive (to be the source it must encompass all things). It is integrated (if it is the source it must allow for all things simultaneously). That would mean it is both expanding and contracting, evolving and degrading, growing and shrinking, life and death, light and dark. All of this points to its balanced and flowing nature. Taoism captures this essence with the expression of Yin and Yang. If Source is all things and all things flow from it, then we can conceptualize it as the place where all potential springs. Source generates potential and it does it out of the possibility nothingness provides.
This may sound like philosophical wordplay, but guess what happens when physicists isolate empty space in a lab? They discover that particles spontaneously and sporadically come in and out of that space. In other words, is it possible that nothing can, and indeed does, give rise to something? This realization may be the greatest contribution science has made up to this point in the understanding of where we humans and all other aspects of this universe come from.
In fact, without the conscious machinery we use to observe the world, can we say anything exists at all? We like to imagine the universe as this vast container of space, matter, and time that we humans showed up in one day. But what if we create the universe simply by observing it? What if we are the source of Source? If you are familiar with the theory of biocentrism, you have likely been exposed to that idea.
So are we a part of this “Source Potential,” simply a reflection of it or the cause of it? We humans are individual mini-potentials ourselves. Our ability to reason, our capacity for choice, our creative efforts, conscious intention, to integrate or separate, to shrink or grow, to evolve ourselves, others, and the world—these are tools we use to move from Source to Potential, to Being, to Human Being, and finally to Next Level Human Being. In this way, we are both participants and co-creators of Source. Source is in us, and we are in Source.
That is what makes us special. Coming to terms with this power allows us to grow ourselves and evolve the world. When we are in alignment with Source, we are enhanced, and the world expands too. When we are out of flow with Source, we become degraded, and the world also contracts in response.
Even a close reading of Genesis seems to suggest that before “God” could create, it had to first become aware of itself. Consider the opening lines: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
The earth was “without form” and “void”? In other words, in the beginning, there was nothingness. And then it almost seems like God suddenly pops into existence and notices himself. In the dark depths of all that nothingness—he witnesses his reflection moving on the water. Out of that awareness came the word. And from the word came creation.
In our beginning, we are also nothing. That nothing represents the empty space (i.e., potential and possibility) for something. In that emptiness, we develop an awareness and a will to create something. We become conscious of our potential.
From there, we have two choices. We can bring to bear our individual, imaginative, and integrative senses and create beautiful new possibilities for ourselves and the world. When we do this, we become part of the positive expansion and enhancement of the world, the universe, and Source itself. We grow, and we contribute to the growth of all else.
Or we can channel our efforts away from creation and towards destruction. We can choose to ignore our inclusive creative drives and tear things apart instead. When we do this, we degrade ourselves, the world devolves, the universe contracts, and Source constricts. It begins moving away from something and back towards nothing.
As expressions of Source, the way we live can result in a self-expanding, virtuous cycle of creative possibility or a self-perpetuating degradation of creative potential. We are participants and influencers of this ebb and flow. Unlike any other animal, we are aware of this fact and capable of doing something about it. But this is a power we must develop. It is as if we can be gods or devils—like we are able to generate either heaven or hell from the choices and actions we take.
When an individual is born, we can say they exist. But they are still dependent in a sense. They must rely on a caretaker. A child is not capable of supporting itself. Even as they grow, they must transition into a mature individual capable of being responsible for themselves.
In this sense, we humans are not nothing. But at the same time, we are not fully something either. We are emerging in a sense. We are somewhere between the Source from which we are derived (nothing) and the purpose we can choose to create (something). We are a “purpose potential.”
We humans are essentially focused universal awareness, a piece of a whole. A single cell in the universal body of Source. While we live in these bodies, we can choose to integrate others, or we can deviate from them.
Out of that understanding, there can only be three things we can do if we want to integrate, grow, and expand. I call them the Three Imperatives. Three reasons we are here. They are to learn, to teach, and to love. Striving toward anything but these three things degrades ourselves, others, and the world. It shrinks rather than expands Source.
Learning turns our potential into awareness. Teaching (sharing, contributing, giving) turns awareness into purpose. Loving (considering, integrating, creating, generating, releasing) uses purpose to evolve Source, which then flows back to us. And the cycle repeats. In this way, Source gives us life, and we give life back to Source.
Learning grows us, teaching enhances others, and loving evolves the world.
This is the work of a Next Level Human. The potential to contribute in such a way begins with awareness. First, we are nothing, then we are Source. From there, we become potential. With focused awareness, we become conscious Human Beings. When we use our powers for good, to grow our awareness and evolve others, we become Next Level Human Beings.