Mind Model of the Trinity

This is part of an essay I co-wrote with my brother almost a year ago. It's a model of the Trinity that's helped me-though the Trinity still remains in large part a mystery. At least it's not a nonsensical mystery. So what follows is my portion of the essay, and the link to the larger essay (which includes my brother's part).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D3PmOLVlCflxmhatVDEJTQHBuJrP769uTxvaYONvA2E/edit?usp=sharing

George did a fantastic job of bringing up the relevant texts and Biblically explaining the Trinity. I think this video also gives a very solid, simple explanation of the Trinity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gCv-FAjgps&list=PL1mr9ZTZb3TWpnOJV09MuEAwbbQNCS6Qf&index=1

The purpose of this essay is to clearly explain a concept of the Trinity that has been beneficial to me. I will rely strongly on the Bible, Edwards, and the concept of God as the immaterial Mind that sustains all things.

First, we start with God as an immaterial Mind. He is not His creation. He is not a man (Numbers 23:19), nor is He like any created things.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." (Exodus 20:4)

This text can only mean that it is improper to worship created things because the created order is a shadow of the glory of God. God must not be in the "likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth, or that is in the water under the earth", otherwise this commandment would be rather confusing. This also must mean that even the spiritual beings in heaven do not fully resemble God; while they and us may be in His likeness, He is not in our likeness. He transcends it. Even when God reveals Himself in glory, only He will fully understand the mode of His own existence. This is where we must ground our discussion of the Trinity. We will not be able to posit an exhaustive model, because only God has exhaustive knowledge of Himself. Nevertheless, I'll give it my best shot :)

Now, according to the best theories of science (Bord Guth Velinkin, the Big Bang), all multiverse systems/ universes would have had to have a beginning. This means that matter itself would have had to have a beginning. We can deduce that all things that begin to exist must have a cause. If nothing existed before the created order, and the created order came into existence without a cause for no reason, then it becomes inexplicable why anything doesn't pop into existence without a cause. Why just universes? Why not two headed monkeys? Why not George? However, if matter had a beginning, then clearly it could not have been caused by something material (i.e matter causing matter). It follows then that the cause must be immaterial. If this cause is indeed God (which, I would argue elsewhere that strong evidence points in this direction), then it follows that God Himself must ultimately be immaterial (or of a substance that is non-material, a different kind of material then any material of the created order. Look up the essence/energy distinction in God). Here is where I conceive of God as Ultimate reality, the one reality in which all reality is founded. God is a Mind that exists, and is necessary for anything else to exist. I conceive of God therefore as the Divine consciousness that is self aware, supremely powerful, the source of all goodness (what Plato called "The Good"), etc.

The basic concept of the Trinity can be summarized as such:
There is but one being of God.
There are Three Persons of God.
Each Person is fully God.

Let's examine the terms "being" and "Person". "Being" is what I am. I am a human being-a human flesh with bones, organs, blood, and a lot of other things I don't want to think about over dinner. It's my "stuff", my substance. Personage is who I am. It is my self-aware self, my center of consciousness so to speak. So there exists one being of God, yet three Persons of God.

I will repost that video link here. I will assume the stuff mentioned in the video in continuing. It's only three minutes, yet really really awesome! The dude has other stuff on his channel about the Trinity that might be helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gCv-FAjgps&list=PL1mr9ZTZb3TWpnOJV09MuEAwbbQNCS6Qf&index=1

So, according to the concept of God as a Mind, God would be an eternally existing Mind with no "parts" so to speak, but rather as one undivided essence (or being) with three "points". In other words, God would be one Mind with three centers of consciousness. Within God's Mind, there would be three self-conscious selves. There are three "points" in God's mind where information is being processed-three selves who are self aware of themselves and each other.
The Father would be the source of the Godhead, pouring out His essence into the Son. The Father, in His eternal contemplation of His own perfections, beholds the radiance of His glory in His Son. All of God the Father's perfections are being reflected back to Him as He beholds the Person of the Son. The Spirit personifies the divine love existing between Father and Son. (I would look at Jonathan Edwards' essay on the Trinity for a fuller, more detailed explanation of this)
The Father's thoughts, then, aren't really independent of the Son's or the Spirit's, and vice versa. At any given moment, the Persons of the Trinity, being that they share the being of God, share a common Mind, know each others' thoughts in the most intimate way possible and yet are distinct centers of information (thought) processing for this mind. This implies that at any given moment, the Persons of the Trinity know what each other are thinking, feeling, and experiencing. It would also imply that the thoughts of the Persons, while distinct (as Christ has a will subservient to the will of the Father), are always in accord and are fully known in the Godhead. We can model the Trinity like this:  

So, the Persons of the Trinity are distinct, yet they exist as one God, one Mind. They have distinct thoughts and emotions, yet the thoughts and emotions that they do have are never independent of each other. Nor are the Persons of the Trinity ever in conflict; rather, since God is one, the Persons of the Trinity act as one in all that they do. When one Person of the Trinity experiences something, this experience is never exclusive to one Person of the Trinity. I imagine then that in the Cross of Christ, when Jesus bore the wrath of God, there must have been both unimaginable joy (as God's purpose was being fulfilled) and incomprehensible pain in the being of God. The Persons would each be having distinct, distinguishable experiences, yet the experience would be fully known throughout the Godhead.

The Persons of the Trinity are also fully God individually, and fully God collectively. I don't pretend to understand this mystery-however, while difficult to understand, this isn't impossible in theory. Consider H20. In order for hydrogen to bond with oxygen, it needs to fill it's shell of two electrons. Oxygen only has six, and wants to have eight. Therefore, one electron from oxygen and one electron from hydrogen is put in a "pool", and the same oxygen molecule does the same thing with a different hydrogen atom. The oxygen then draws on that pool of two electrons from one, and two electrons from another, and, having donated two electrons in total to the pools (leaving it with four), it draws on the two pools to reach 8 electrons. However, each hydrogen also draws on the respective pool to have two electrons. For all intents and purposes, it's as though the hydrogen is sharing the two electrons fully. Obviously, this is not a perfect analogy. However, it's not impossible to conceive that within the being of God, three points in the essence (substance) share the essence completely and fully, while still being distinct. To be sure, the Persons are not "separate individuals" in the sense that they exist separately. Rather, they exist as one, not in personage, but in being. They share a common essence; without any one Person, there would be no God, even though the Father is the source of the Godhead. This is because the Father shares and pours out His full essence into the other Persons of the Trinity.
Finally, it's important to remember that the Persons of the Trinity are always present in each other. When we behold Jesus, we behold the Father. This is not because Jesus IS the Father; this is because the Father is perfectly present in Jesus. Jesus does whatever He sees the Father doing-in Him, we see perfectly what the Father is like. The only way we can have communion with Jesus is by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Spirit, God the Father and Jesus Christ are present. Yet the Holy Spirit is not identical to the Father or the Son-rather, He is the active agent of both Persons, and brings us into communion with the triune God.
So to summarize, God is a singular mind with three centers of self-consciousness. These three centers process information, have emotions, feel, experience-yet are not independent of each other, and are simultaneously aware of themselves (fully aware) and of each other (fully). The Persons have perfect, shared knowledge, since God is one. They are distinct and unique in function, yet are remarkably united in action, thought, purpose, and feelings. For example, the Father or the Spirit did not become incarnate; the Son did. However, the Father and the Spirit were working in and through, and were present in the Son throughout the incarnation. They were fully aware of the Son's feelings, doings, thoughts, deeds, and experiences. And Father, Son, and Spirit were always in accord in all things. Likewise, the Son and the Spirit are present in the Father, and the Father and Son are present in the Holy Spirit. God is therefore a unity, but complex in that unity. Yet, being that His Mind is One, so the Persons of the Trinity, while having distinct thoughts, they do not think separately and have "separate" thoughts. They always have thoughts, intents, and feelings that are in agreement and fully known in the Godhead.
When we behold God-incarnate, we cannot do that without God the Spirit. And we can never approach God-incarnate in spirit and in truth without glorifying and drawing near to the throne of God the Father. "Whoever has the Son has the Father." (1 John 2:23) The Father and Son must always be central to our worship, with complete dependence on the Holy Spirit to worship with proper affections. Therefore, aware of the tri-unity of our great God, we rejoice in the Father who has given us the Son, the radiance of His perfections. And let's do this in the power of the Spirit, and remember that true worship is Trinitarian, because the true God is triune. Of course, one can never solve all the mysteries of the Trinity. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God". A finite creature like myself could never hope to produce an exhaustive explanation of the nature of God. However, I hope this helped, and I hope the Spirit works through this :)