Western science has had remarkable success in explaining the functioning of the material world, but when it comes to the inner world of the mind, it has very little to say. And when it comes to consciousness itself, science falls curiously silent. There is nothing in physics, chemistry, biology, or any other science that can account for our having an interior world. In a strange way, scientists would be much happier if minds did not exist. Yet without minds there would be no science.
This ever-present paradox may be pushing Western science into what Thomas Kuhn called a paradigm shift--a fundamental change in worldview.
This process begins when the prevalent paradigm encounters an anomaly -- an observation that the current worldview can't explain. As far as the today's scientific paradigm is concerned, consciousness is certainly one big anomaly. It is the most obvious fact of life: the fact that we are aware and experience an internal world of images, sensations, thoughts, and feelings. Yet there is nothing more difficult to explain. It is easier to explain how the universe evolved from the Big Bang to human beings than it is to explain why any of us should ever have a single inner experience. How does all that electro-chemical activity in the physical matter of the brain ever give rise to conscious experience? Why doesn't it all just go on in the dark?
The initial response to an anomaly is often simply to ignore it. This is indeed how the scientific world has responded to the anomaly of consciousness. And for seemingly sound reasons.
First, consciousness cannot be observed in the way that material objects can. It cannot be weighed, measured, or otherwise pinned down. Second, science has sought to arrive at universal objective truths that are independent of any particular observer's viewpoint or state of mind. To this end they have deliberately avoided subjective considerations. And third, there seemed no need to consider it; the functioning of the universe could be explained without having to explore the troublesome subject of consciousness.
However, developments in several fields are now showing that consciousness cannot be so easily sidelined. Quantum physics suggests that, at the atomic level, the act of observation affects the reality that is observed. In medicine, a person's state of mind can have significant effects on the body's ability to heal itself. And as neurophysiologists deepen their understanding of brain function questions about the nature of consciousness naturally raise their head.
When the anomaly can no longer be ignored, the common reaction is to attempt to explain it within the current paradigm. Some believe that a deeper understanding of brain chemistry will provide the answers; perhaps consciousness resides in the action of neuropeptides. Others look to quantum physics; the minute microtubules found inside nerve cells could create quantum effects that might somehow contribute to consciousness. Some explore computing theory and believe that consciousness emerges from the complexity of the brain's processing. Others find sources of hope in chaos theory.
Yet whatever ideas are put forward, one thorny question remains: How can something as immaterial as consciousness ever arise from something as unconscious as matter?
If the anomaly persists, despite all attempts to explain it, then maybe the fundamental assumptions of the prevailing worldview need to be questioned. This is what Copernicus did when confronted with the perplexing motion of the planets. He challenged the geocentric worldview, showing that if the sun, not the earth, was at the center, then the movements of the planets began to make sense. But people don't easily let go of cherished assumptions. Even when, 70 years later, the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler confirmed Copernicus's proposal, the establishment was loath to accept the new model. Only when Newton formulated his laws of motion, providing a mathematical explanation of the planets' paths, did the new paradigm start gaining wider acceptance.
The continued failure of our attempts to account for consciousness suggests that we too should question our basic assumptions. The current scientific worldview holds that the material world--the world of space, time and matter -- is the primary reality. It is therefore assumed that the internal world of mind must somehow emerge from the world of matter. But if this assumption is getting us nowhere, perhaps we should consider alternatives.
One alternative that is gaining increasing attention is the view that the capacity for experience is not itself a product of the brain. This is not to say that the brain is not responsible for what we experience -- there is ample evidence for a strong correlation between what goes on in the brain and what goes on in the mind -- only that the brain is not responsible for experience itself. Instead, the capacity for consciousness is an inherent quality of life itself.
In this model, consciousness is like the light in a film projector. The film needs the light in order for an image to appear, but it does not create the light. In a similar way, the brain creates the images, thoughts, feelings and other experiences of which we are aware, but awareness itself is already present.
All that we have discovered about the correlations between the brain and experience still holds true. This is usually the case with a paradigm shift; the new includes the old. But it also resolves the anomaly that the old could not explain. In this case, we no longer need scratch our heads wondering how the brain generates the capacity for experience.
This proposal is so contrary to the current paradigm, that die-hard materialists easily ridicule and dismiss it. But we should not forget the bishops of Galileo's time who refused to look through his telescope because they knew his discovery was impossible.
Dr. Larry Dossey: Is Consciousness the Center of the Universe?
Brain Energy Use Key To Understanding Consciousness
YouTube - How does the brain generate consciousness? Baroness ...
What is the geometry of the space time of your mind? Does the human mind cease after death? In this part of the series Sky Shields elaborates the distinction between a mere series of notes and a principle of Bachian counterpoint, as a part of Lyndon LaRouche's unique concept of economic time reversal and the principle of mind.
http://larouchepac.com/node/18639
Bio Dark-Matter & Extraordinary Materialism
Where matter exists, chemistry also exists. Axion-like particles parallel to electrons may be universal constituents of the biosphere and yield axion chemistry, involving monopoles also in the place of electric charges. Animals will have axions parallel to protons also. Humans will have axions parallel to neutrons as a third component.The interaction of the "dark" and "light" chemical bonds can produce extremely low (ELF) photons."Magnetricty" from plants, animals and humans, will differ by an order of magnitude acros the taxa.
Evidences: *Biophoton energies much lower than the lowest known bio/chemical energies
*Emission rates are 10 times more in plants than humans *Negligibly small magnetic fields in plants, measurable in animals and significant in humans *Predict an emission rate ratio close to experimental data *A rational physical explanation of magnetically induced paranormal phenomena.
Corollay: Artificially induced paranormal events may occur in a resonant magnetic field that causes dissociation of "light"/"dark" chemical bonds. At death the "dark body" is left at a relatively negative energy state (-E=mC^2). Philip Benjamin, PhD
*Dark Chemistry .. WorldComp'10 Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Vol II, *DARK CHEMISTRY & PARANORMAL PHENOMENA, International Journal of Applied Science & Computations, Vol. 17, No. 1 2010 *Dark Matter & Dark Chemistry NeuroQuantology 2007, Vol 5 # 3. 4. *Dark Chemistry or Psychic Spin Pixel? NeuroQuantology, 2007, Vol. 5 # 2. 5.Mind Matter, Noetic Journal Vol 4 # 4, 2003 [Nobelist Sir Eccles Cent. Ed].
( To be read in conjunction with parts 1 to 10)
I looked up at the Sun, absorbed the heat energy, and allowed the electric charges to take control over me and further contort the atoms inside me and allow myself to writhe and twist, and pull myself to another configuration; similar to the first … In short I had duplicated myself …. And then quadruplicated … and so on``.
The rest is history.
Hopefully the degree of consciousness increased with each tenure.
All this is wild imagination of course.
Perhaps hundreds of us should write our autobiographies (from the big bang itself) and then statisticians should Endeavour to draw some conclusions from them.
But this universe of ours though nearly 14 billion years old is still considered in its infancy and there is ample time ( provided we can survive the next few centuries and escape from self destruction) to get at the truth regarding consciousness. In the end Western Science itself will start investigating the ideas of Eastern mysticism and convergence will ensue.
(To be concluded in part 12)
``What is life and Mind and Matter`` by Erwin Schrodinger – an important book to understand mind and consciousness, the oneness of mind, as well as the equation `Atman = Brahman` of the Upanishads.
``Five ages of the Universe`` by Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin,``Cosmology``by Edward Harrison` and ``Stardust`` by John Gribbin - Important books to understand cosmology of the big bang and the Supernova.
(List is incomplete)
(To be read in conjunction with parts 1 to 5)
A few billion years later I found myself to be a member of a massive star about to collapse in a Supernova. About a dozen pages were required to describe this unique experience in a dying star. The first symptoms started about a million years before the end with the ignition of the Helium, this was followed by burning of the Carbon about 10000 years before collapse time. Next came the formation of Iron just few days prior to collapse, staggering rate of Nucleosynthesis ensued, the star became like an onion with the heaviest elements near its centre.
Two minutes left:
Stupendous struggle against gravitation collapse
Creation of Neutrinos in Phenomenally huge numbers (Probably of the order of 10^57)
Escape of Neutrinos through the star into space leaking energy into space thus not permitting energy to support the star against collapse
THE LAST SECOND:
In less than a second density near the centre increased tenfold to about 100 Billion Tons/Cub.m. That’s about 50000 Billion human beings cramped in a normal size room.
I couldn’t bear it any more. I guess it was too damn overcrowded.
We had to revolt and we did just that, we revolted and crashed out. What else was there to do?
(To be continued )
Was this an industry?
Yes it was… an industry to manufacture the elements destined to become the raw materials for future rocks, trees, buildings, tables, chairs, books, birds and animals, you and me. Nowhere else you’ll find them except as products of Supernova.
It was an important stage of the Anthropic Principle
And I became an atom of Carbon
At the precise moment in the aftermath of the Supernova that I became an atom of Carbon a certain quantum of awareness crept in and became an integral part of me being the information content of about 3 Billion years of experience( culminating in the Supernova), coupled with this awareness was a property comprising of a special characteristics being the desire/tendency to grow and BOND with other elements and this process of growing and bonding running into Billions of years culminated in the formation of a molecular unit comprising of the four elements viz, Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen in a precise mix (developed during the years) under a precise environment at a precise temperature.
Once formed this molecular unit became indestructible.
It was all knowledge.
( To be continued )
Perhaps I had interacted with the omnipresent mind, omnipresent in time and space. With that interaction having taken place I seemed to know everything, except that I did not know that I knew everything. I could not tell the world that I am at such and such a place for I could not think, for that capacity I needed to have a consciousness of a different kind, to attain this consciousness I needed a body, a body with a brain. To find that body I travelled billions of miles and for millions of years in search of a certain biochemistry that could possibly give me what I wanted.
I have it now and I can say it with the same confidence as Descartes did when he said: `I think therefore I am`, but the quantum of knowledge that I seem to possess is infinitesimally insignificant in comparison to that of the mind within me and is just a measure of the interactions of the world on me in my present tenure of consciousness.
Next THE BODY:
( To be continued )
We certainly don't. :)
Matter is our brain. The energy comes from beyond the mind. The brain is just an instrument of observation which passes on it's input to the mind which, in the simplist of terms, decides what to do with the input. The decision making process is guided by the four aspects of mind, ie; the Manas; outer mind; registers likes and dislikes; Chitta; the memory; perceives beauty, rhythm, timing; Buddhi; intellect, discriminates the value of impressions from the Manas and Chitta; Ahankar; the ego identity, executes the findings of the Buddhi. The energy is Soul and Shabdha which is consciousness undifferentiated. The creator and sustainer of life as we know it.
http://donttouchtheplate.com
AmritDev Singh
Where can I read about this theory? You've told me where it says consciousness doesn't come from (the brain) but you've told me nothing about where this new theory says it does come from.
"We no longer need to scratch our heads wondering how the brain generates the capacity for experience."
Don't we? Have you told us something about what does generate the capacity for experience? If so, I must have missed it. I know it's only a short article, but you could surely say something of substance that we can think about.
The book "Biocentrism" by Robert Lanza. Proposes a theory that consciousness is necessary for the universe to exist as we know it. This guy has serious scientific credentials. I wrote an article about this on my blog, which gives the short version:
http://weilerpsiblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/biocentrism-a-consciousness-centric-view-of-the-universe/
"The Quantum Enigma" by Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner
http://quantumenigma.com/ These two physicists look at the evidence for consciousness in physics.
I also wrote an article on my blog outlining the case for the primacy of consciousness in the universe.
http://weilerpsiblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/consciousness-is-part-of-reality-not-a-trick-of-evolution/
I should note here that I have no scientific credentials whatsoever and I use data from parapsychological experiments to prove my points. It's valid science, but many people get kind of weird about it.
I read the 7 principles of Biocentrism in the first link. I think it is always necessary to keep an open mind about absolutely everything, but I haven't so far seen anything there that looks like a predictive theory. A nice metaphor, maybe.
It reminds me a little of the Gaia hypothesis that the earth is a single living organism. A nice idea, but what is its utility? Does it make any falsifiable predictions?
If I wanted to, I could come up with a theory that the entire universe is an illusion inside my own mind. But if that illusion always behaves, in every way, like the thing we like to call the "real" world, then my theory is irrelevant. If there's no possible test to determine whether my theory is true then it's meaningless.
And I'm wary of some of his conclusions from quantum theory. Like the second law of thermodynamics, It's the sort of theory from which people often draw far reaching philosophical consequences, simply because they chime with their own personal ideas about the nature and purpose of life, without much justification from the actual experimental evidence. He looks to be in danger of doing that.
Still, I will read some more in-depth information from the man himself.
I am gate crashing and entering the scene here in this August Company ( Peter Russell and the respondents), knowing full well that any statements made by me have only a limited chance of acceptance considering that even PR has not been spared by some. To begin with I`ll play safe and say something that has a very high probability of coming true, viz: The two books `` From Science to God`` and ``Waking up in time``written by Peter Russell will be on my shelf within three weeks from now.
I have a few things to say here on this enormously intriguing subject of `Mind and consciousness`, but the trouble is, I am not smart enough to be able to manage to say what is intended in < 250 words. These many words are barely enough to introduce myself and to appreciate that this is a great article written by PR, and among the many I have read and responded to on this site, it takes the cake in terms of how interesting it is to me. If ever PR has plans to visit India, i`ll surely travel a few thousand miles to say Hello and pay my respects.
And so to surmount the hurdle caused by `word restrictions` I`ll go on replying to myself (as I have done many times in my earlier responses to blogs) till I have said what I had to say and conclude by saying `it could not be avoided`.
(To be continued)
To begin with the subject is of extraordinary complexity, the quantum of uncertainty in our knowledge of it is fantabulous and it is this aspect which gives me confidence in believing that I may not be out of place here.
My view of consciousness: It is made up of three ingredients viz The Mind, The Soul, and The Body. Let’s discuss all three
First - THE MIND: I`ll venture to say that it is everywhere and it is omnipresent. It is in our bodies, it is outside our bodies, it is in all open spaces, and it is in all elements including in their constituent parts and gives them awareness. We all know that in the `Double slit experiment` the electron knows if it is under observation of an intelligent observer, and decides whether to be a part of a wave or a particle depending on this knowledge, which is reflected in the pattern that gets formed on the detector screen. And If this experiment is a `Delayed choice experiment` then our electron even knows if and when it is going to be observed in the future and its past action is dependent in that case on a future observation. The Quantum of awareness in the said element is a measure of the information content of its past experience of billions of years of its journeys through stars and supernovas.
(To be continued)
This mind of ours has a peculiar characteristic, that it can effectively come out of time and space, and travel instantaneously to far off coordinates of time and space. This might even explain the phenomena of quantum entanglement. Perhaps it travels at no more than speed of light, but measures the distance between two points – however far apart- as nil, thus following Einstein`s Special relativity, and also explaining its omnipresence.
Perhaps it carries the quantum particles as a retarded wave going into the future and coming back – after due entanglement and shaking of hands, not to mention the collapsing of wave functions – into the past as an advanced wave, both actions according to the Wheeler Feynman emitter - absorber theory, and each journey at speed of light, but positive and negative, thus taking no time at all, and explaining the `collapse of the wave function phenomena` ( You might refer to John Cramer`s paper on the `Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics`).
Which means that this mind of ours is omnipresence not only in space but also in time. Later in a separate part I`ll explain this feature by means of a thought experiment (or as they say a`Gedanken` experiment).
(To be continued)
The actual conservative neuroscientific/philosophical paradigm about consciousness is the following;
Consciousness (as we describe it) is an emergent property of systems.
It is a property of Nature/Reality with a broad range of level.
A spectrum like property of Nature/Reality itself.
Human consciousness is the most advance type of consciousness that we know for now.
(Future technologies or discoveries can change this last fact)
Explanation of consciousness as an emergent property by the use of a robust analogy;
In the following analogy, Water represent Consciousness & Hydrogen(H), Oxygen(O) represent the brain chemistry.
The liquid property of water (H2O) between 0 and 100 Celsius is an emergent property of the new structure (system) of the molecule H2O. Neither Hydrogen(H) or Oxygen(O) or any combination of separate properties of H & O give rise to the properties of H2O(water) being liquid between 0 and 100 Celsius.
The actual general public & religious paradigm about consciousness is still the old (out of date) schism dualistic view of matter (brain) & spirit (mind), very separate world.
These old paradigms will eventually evolve to newer ones.
The general public & religious paradigms are always following behind the scientific/philosophical paradigm and it is the natural way of how society change with time.
This commentary is an open one, part of the dialectic process of this article.
Thank you for reading it & be part of the discussion.
Have a good day.
Namaste.
I just had a look at your website, and in particular read a bit of the introduction to your concept of "Life as Energy".
I like the style of the website. I just wonder, though, about the use of the word "energy". Why do you choose to go with that particular word to describe the essence of life? Do you think there's a danger that it could get mixed up with the standard scientific definition of the word "energy"? i.e. the thing that we measure in Joules.
Maybe there should be a whole new word for the thing you're trying to describe?
Thanks for your comments! My work looks at the use of something called a conceptual metaphor in the making of all kinds of scientific concepts (mostly in physics). For example, we sometimes make time equivalent to a flowing substance, similarly, heat is made equivalent to a strange substance that's diffusing between hot and cold objects. In physics these kinds of metaphors are used all the time to structure and work with an idea and taken very seriously. For instance, the whole key idea of potential energy is often understood in terms of a model of a ball on a hilly landscape, and this is used to work with totally unrelated things like interacting magnets and atoms. This use of these conceptual metaphors to create a workable concept is called imaginative rationality.
It just so happens that the axiomatic idea of energy and its basic characteristics really parallel what this property of life does, so my work starts out considering energy as a great conceptual metaphor for life, and goes from there to show just how sophisticated a parallel there is between the physical idea of energy and that of life.
So, while I agree that it could be very useful (and possibly even essential) to define a whole new word and way for the essence of life, that's why I've gone for calling life an energy in my book. It was necessary to help get the mind outside of the current biological thinking habits...
Television characters are small pictorial representations of big real things that reside in a different place.
Do you think that my consciousness is a big real thing that exists in another place? Something analogous to a TV studio?
It is referred to as our Higher Self or Supra-Consciousness. Hence we are connected 'here' and 'there.'
Through this means we can experience the ineffable LOVE that we are and that God IS while still in the physical though stepped down. If not stepped down we, as physical, could not withstand it.
Like an electrical energy plant it steps downn through wires. The wires hooked up to our home is stepped down to 110. It is then we can use that power to be used comfortably. Even so, we are always connected to the SOURCE of the power plant generating electricty even though we may not know its locatiion.
And like many getting their power from the same power plant and connected, we are all connected to God and each other through collective consciousness. And our spirits, of course!
The world that you know is an incredibly sophisticated hologram. This giant hologram is created from light. The light is everywhere. There is no place that this light is not. All the holographic characters are imbued with the concept that they are real and they identify with the body they call theirs. They are imbued with personality and, some, with intelligence. They are so convinced that they are real that they believe that they are all that is real. Some even believe that consciousness is a result of electrical and chemical activity in their holographic brains. They only find out that they were mistaken after the body ceases to function and they again, eventually, realize that they were always light and could never have been anything else. The terms light and consiousness are interchangeable in this example. This may be a poor explanation of a very complex process. See, http://1ness4u.wordpress.com/ for more in depth discussions of this.