Manifestations of the Unseen
Manifestations of the Unseen
By Seb Janiak
This doctrinal photographic study which began in 2012 is intended as a work of research which aims to reconcile the real with the beautiful, and the seductions of the imagination with the rigor of the analysis. However, it will be forever incomplete due to the elusive nature and the limitations of matter. It might seem paradoxical to use the powers of this latter to reveal invisible forces, the source of which is immaterial and timeless. In reality, everything is connected. At no single time and in no single place is the information chain ever broken.
The nature of Reality: the seen and the unseen
Laws of information govern the physical (phenomenal) deployment of Being. The visual representation of a magnetic field, a vibrational resonance or the action of a morphogenetic field is merely the ultimate step in a long process of information processing. Because at the start of everything, there is a double premise : the visible is a manifestation of the Unseen, and the Spirit creates matter and not the reverse.
This crystallization of acausal information, outside of space and time in our material universe, leads to a major conclusion: that of negative entropy. Matter at the quantum level shows that without the input of external information, it is doomed to entropy, to returning to chaos.
Yet to speak of acausal information which is outside space-time would appear to imply an opposition with matter. Now this is not at all the case: in physics, a vacuum is void of energy or matter, but full of information. Energy is the same “nature” as matter, as Einstein demonstrated, but, as we understand it our present state of knowledge, information is of a different nature. What we can say is that matter and energy are reduced to the state of information in their interaction with the consciousness of an observer.
Matter / energy should be seen as an extension of what is invisible and not as its opposite. Via quantum physics, this extension changes dimensions and becomes subject to space-time and its physical laws, as Albert Einstein pointed out when he stated “Space and time are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.”
Matter and the Universe
The different states of matter, which are the manifestations of physical forces produced by the crystallization of information transmitted by quantum pathways, all finish up, in one way or another, by organizing themselves around a pattern and a framework. But this framework is just an illusion. So this paradox should constantly be restated: that matter is an illusion. At the level of the infinitely small, matter no longer exists as such, it corresponds to vibrations.
Consequently, our universe has all the characteristics of a gigantic holographic construction. We may speculate that the source of our space-time is thus of quantum origin. As for the quantum entanglement, it is the “glue” of space-time, which would explain gravity. Such a universe (reality) is also the work of a collective consciousness immersed in an information field. Philippe Guillemant rightly pointed this out in his book “The Physics of consciousness.” He writes that: “Consciousness now clearly appears as the update function of space-time, multiplied throughout the universe by all living systems, which we implicitly assume to all possess consciousness in varying degrees (including the planets themselves). “The author goes on to explain: “Our sense of time and space are only the consequence of our reading a piece of acausal information, outside of space-time. Space-time and matter are a manifestation of this information. (…) Time thus becomes simply the expression of the speed at which the information is processed by consciousness. Time is therefore not absolute and independent, but simply a temporality of consciousness at work which reads and processes the information which makes up the universe, so as to transform it from the state of information to that of phenomenon.”
We may add that the concept of “maya” in Hinduism implies that matter and our universe are only an illusion which is subject to wave-particle duality and to vacuity. By “vacuity”, we mean the inconsistency of phenomena, their constant changefulness and their transience. There exists, in this sense, a form of causal interdependence. Our universe, our bodies, and matter are in constant transformation. Hence the famous formula: “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed “. Light, magnetism, vibrations, morphic fields and the shape waves intermingle, interact and participate in the communication and the dissemination of acausal information.
Cells, humanity, planets, the world or the Universe are only octaves of the same immutable Unit. This is also what is symbolized by the Cross: an infinite elevation of strata of multidimensional consciousnesses. Or if you prefer: the elevation of the soul, the consciousness and matter to a state of non-matter beyond space and time, which is both acausal and omnipotent.
In view of the visible organization of matter and the active forces which are manifested in it, the fact of an intelligence behind these phenomena is obvious and chance has nothing to do with it. This is what the materialistic vision which permeates all the strata and the whole hierarchy of science and the consumer society cannot “see”. The soul and all things spiritual have been cast out for over a century now. For the materialistic man, life and consciousness are the result of the slow evolution of matter … Man is thus said to be at the top of the pyramid of life, as if a piece of granite could, with the help of much-touted chance and time, be transformed into a giraffe or an orchid! This cannot be so! It is the spirit which creates matter and not the reverse. The word “spirit” being used here in the sense of “information”.
Nothingness and the void
In this connection, we might recall the words of the prologue of St John’s Gospel, translated as follows: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All was done by him; and without him was made nothing that exists.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men “
The description in this prologue suggests that the Light / Word (or quantum vibration carrying information) pre-existed; and that it was prior to any other creation-manifestation. This finding allows us to equate light with the Principle which is both immutable by nature and without duality and which, by definition, has neither beginning nor end, unlike the manifestation of it.
As for the Kabbalists, they give the name “Ain Soph” to the Absolute which is unmanifested beyond thought, the Word, the atom or sound, beyond everything that has a shape, a number, a weight or duration. However, it still remains difficult, if not impossible, to answer the fundamental question asked by Leibniz: “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
With this study of the manifestations of the unseen, I understand why it is so difficult to answer this question. More specifically, it is clear to me that the words “nothing” and “empty” are misunderstandings. Nothingness does not exist. The void does not exist.
In the beginning, there is “something”, which is uncreated, infinite and completely undifferentiated. The simplest thing a priori would be to call this state “nothingness”. But we must understand that this “nothingness” is both an absolute void (since it contains no “thing”) and at the same time a commencement totally charged with potentialities. At the outset of creation, from “nothingness” there emerges “something”. The uncreated withdraws to some extent and relativizes its absolute nature, so that creation can take place. The veil of existence is thus traversed.
Consciousness and acausal information interpenetrate everything from the densest to the least dense matter. Once this is admitted, why not call everything into question and establish a parallel between this notion of nothingness and void — which are neither nothingness nor void — with the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism and its principle of undecidability. Namely: neither nothing nor no nothing, nor nothing and no nothing, nor neither no nothing nor nor nothing.
The photographic approach
Capturing this manifestation of the unseen is essential, even if it represents only a temporary end, which is in constant transcendental evolution. Within this framework, the photographic approach is only one option for the analysis and understanding of phenomena. And actually, the set-up as such is already present in creation.
Much of the thinking behind this is concerned first with understanding the physical principle indicative of a given force (magnetism, electromagnetism, gravity, resonance, morphogenic fields, shape waves and consciousness). In addition, the construction of the machine or set-up depends on the choice of the indicating medium selected as the one best suited for achieving an accurate, sublimated visual transcription: ferrofluid, photon, vibrational patterns, sensitive crystallization, or mechanical waves.
This research allowed me to come within touching distance of the manifestations of intelligence and an acausal consciousness, and to establish a form of communication, even if the capture of these moments is just one step among many others in the continuity of information transmission.
In this sense and in the photographic approach to manifestations of the unseen, aesthetics is in no way gratuitous. It imposes itself of its own accord, insofar as nature can only express itself through beauty, and chaos exists only in appearance. This is even truer when the scale of the study concerns the microcosm. Given, of course, that studying the microcosm also comes down, by analogy, to studying the macrocosm: the absolute is everywhere; everything is in everything and vice versa.
Methodology
My work makes use only of the manifestation of unseen forces. Of course, photography is unable to see what is invisible in the way that physicists do. Nevertheless, the imaging of the manifestation of these unseen forces undergoes no digital transformation in my photographs. There are no changes made to the colors and no retouching or special effects applied to the image in post-production. I only allow myself the techniques which have been used in analogue photography since 1850. Namely, making adjustments to contrast and exposure, and using superimposition.
Each finished work is hence an original shot, which has been neither retouched nor modified by special effects. A source of neutral white light and its 7 base colors were used on all the clichés, either directly or in reflection (photographic mapping). A light filtered through a diffraction grating was developed for the “Résonance” series, to be able to study the diffraction of light in a droplet of water.
For the “Magnetic Radiation” series, it was the use of a ferrofluid liquid which was the obvious choice. This liquid laden with ferric nanoparticles enables us to visualize a magnetic field as it curves to follow the force lines of the magnetic field generated by powerful magnets. The set-up was designed so as to modulate the power and the spacing of several magnetic fields in parallel or in opposition, or both at the same time. Since the liquid is jet black, it is only possible to illuminate it by reflection from its environment.
For the “Photon” series, the work was more complex. The problem being that the photon is not only a form of continuity but also an intermediate state between matter and the Divine. The vibratory nature of light brings us back to the wave-particle duality. Furthermore, in physics, wave-particle duality or wave-corpuscle duality is a principle whereby all objects in the microscopic universe simultaneously exhibit the properties of waves and particles. The set-up therefore had to enable the solar radiation to be channeled towards the lens. The use of a prism was the obvious choice: it alone enables invisible white light to be decomposed into seven primary colors. The challenge was to create an “afocal” light which would not be subject to the depth of field. To achieve this, a specific search for special focusing settings enabled me to capture the radiation of sharply-defined, non-diffuse photons.
About the force of gravity and the “Bulles d’air” and “Liquid” series, the perpetual struggle of the forces in action (those of gravity and fluid dynamics) between two fluids — one liquid and one gas — poses the question of pure form. The revealing of this struggle proves that what we actually see can be seen only via its environment. Form itself does not exist as such without the universe which surrounds it, without the knowledge / information which gives it shape, as the adage “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form” reminds us. It is always useful to quote what follows in the text: “In absolute terms, the world has no real or concrete existence. The relative aspect is the world of phenomena, and the absolute aspect is emptiness. (…)Phenomena occur in a process of interdependence between causes and conditions, but nothing exists in itself or by itself. The direct contemplation of absolute truth transcends all intellectual concepts and all duality between subject and object.”
Given that vacuity does not empty things of their content since it is their true nature, I again used here the technique of lighting by reflection from the environment. The bubbles in the first series are generated by an air bell system in a water-filled aquarium. For the second series, a different liquid was used, together with a valve system connected to a compressed air canister. The viscosity of the liquid acts to slow down the changes in the pressure forces involved. Each bubble is thus compressed beneath the one above.
The study of sound waves and Resonance focused on water, in the shape of droplets of 2 cm in diameter or a film of water, both subjected to standing waves, at various frequencies, which were generated by a frequency generator. As the frequency rises, the surface of the water drop or of the standing water begins to resonate with it, forming symmetrical patterns. Each frequency produces a precise figure which becomes increasingly well-defined as the frequency rises. A particular technological innovation enabled me to maintain the spherical appearance of the droplet and to lend it the dynamics of weightlessness during the entire phase of the study.
As for the study of Morphogenic fields or morphic fields, their information transfer actions inside living organisms are manifested via sensitive crystallization and the “dried droplet” method developed by the University of Frankfurt. Sensitive crystallization uses copper chloride mixed with a living organic substance (liquid or solid). The mixture in various proportions crystallizes in a Petri dish placed in an oven, to reveal a unique structure which is indicative of information. The patterns and shapes produced, and the dynamics of the crystallization are not due to chance, nor can they be reduced to the simple chemical and physical reactions which take place in the crystals: they are instead the crystallization of information from the morphogenic field which surrounds living materials, be they biological, organic or inorganic in nature.