Science & Technology _|_ Issue 15, 2020
Panpsychism and the Problem of Consciousness
Richard Gault explores a revolution in scientific and philosophical thought
Panpsychism and the Problem of Consciousness
Richard Gault explores a revolution in scientific and philosophical thought
The idea that everything in the world has some form of consciousness is ancient and ubiquitous. But since the seventeenth century, western science has limited consciousness to human beings, and other realms have been regarded as merely ‘matter’, passive and inert. It is a sign of huge change, therefore, that some contemporary philosophers are returning to the idea that consciousness, not matter, is the foundation of the universe. Here, Dr Richard Gault reviews some of the new books emerging from this radical movement, taking in work by Philip Goff, Annaka Harris and Bernado Kastrup. (This is an edited version of a longer article which can be accessed as a PDF here…).
It is early days – or years – but it is already possible to glimpse a significant, possibly epochal difference between this century and the last. The difference concerns consciousness. For much of the 20th century scientists and philosophers generally ignored or dismissed consciousness as a subject unworthy of study. It was a subject that brought a “risk to one’s reputation” as Annaka Harris, the author of a recent popular introduction to the topic, has put it. [1]
Now two decades into a new century, consciousness has gained respectability in academic circles. Serious debate is going on. The outcome could be the most fundamental change in the scientific understanding of reality in a long time – or to be precise, since Galileo in the sixteenth century. Here I want to sketch the debate and show why it is significant. Revolutions are rare, but their effects far reaching.
This article has been largely inspired by the work of the philosopher Philip Goff, whose book Galileo’s Error [2] was published at the end of last year and received widespread attention. The book is Goff’s attempt to convey the new thinking about consciousness to a broader audience, and it is written in an accessible style which keeps things as simple as he can. But it is based upon his earlier, more academic and technical work Consciousness and Fundamental Reality [3], which is one of several important (and weighty) philosophical works on the subject which have appeared over the last five years. In this article, I will also be referring to works by David Chalmers, Thomas Nagel, Annaka Harris and Bernardo Kastrup amongst many others, as well as William Seager, the editor of a remarkable compilation of papers, Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism, [4] which has been published only in the last few months.
Linus talking to Charlie Brown in Peanuts by Schulz
The Big Problem of Consciousness
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Is it not odd that scientists and philosophers should have largely ignored consciousness in recent centuries? After all, as Thomas Nagel reminds us: “The experience of consciousness is both one of the most familiar and one of the most astounding things about the world.” [5, p. 53] Indeed Goff maintains that it is “the only thing we know for certain is real.” [2, p. 4].
Goff uses the pronoun ‘we’ but strictly that should have been ‘I’. Like Descartes – whose “cogito ego sum” (“I think, therefore I am”) became a foundational realisation for the scientific revolution – I know that I am conscious but there is nothing else about reality that a sceptic could not raise plausible doubt about. That includes knowing whether other people also have consciousness. It could be that everyone I meet is actually a very sophisticated A.I. robot or ‘philosophical zombie’ as Goff terms them – beings who are programmed to behave as if they are conscious but are not. The point is that consciousness is personal. I cannot get inside another person’s head to experience and so know their consciousness. And despite all their efforts, neither can any neuroscientist. As Annaka Harris puts it, “… we can’t find reliable external evidence of consciousness, nor can we conclusively point to any specific function it serves. These are both deeply counter-intuitive outcomes…” [1, p. 65]
So consciousness is at one and the same time both the most real of phenomena and the most elusive. According to Goff, its very nature means that “… nothing is harder to incorporate into our scientific picture of the world.” [2, p. 5] But as Charles Schulz had Linus say in the Peanuts cartoon: “No problem is so big or so complicated that it can’t be run away from.” And this is how western science has responded to the question of consciousness – to run away, ignore or deny it.
Goff argues that the blame for this failure or dereliction of duty can be pinpointed at the very beginning of modern science. It was Galileo’s error 400 years ago that has blinded scientists and philosophers to this most quintessential of human properties. The Tuscan genius proposed that two classes of phenomena should be recognised and so distinguished. There are those that can be objectively measured – namely size, shape, location and motion – and those that cannot, that is, sensory phenomena such as colour and taste, which are not amenable to quantification. As Goff explains, science has confined itself to the former. “Galileo took the sensory qualities […] out of the domain of inquiry by reimagining them as forms of consciousness residing in the incorporeal soul.” [2, p. 19] Hence “Galileo’s error was to commit us to a theory of nature which entailed that consciousness was essentially and inevitably mysterious.” [2, pp. 21–22]
Science has progressed since then on the basis of Galileo’s prospectus: measure and mathematise what you can; ignore what you cannot. He can hardly have imagined how successful such a method of enquiry would be. Now scientists can measure and model photons of light, brain neurons firing, galaxies moving billions of light years away. Yet for all that it has achieved science has failed to find a Theory of Everything, cannot account for 96% (yes, 96%!) of the mass and energy of the universe, and cannot ‘incorporate’ consciousness, the most subjectively real of phenomenon.
Philosopher David Chalmers at TEDxSydney in 2011. Photograph: First Light Photography [/]
The Hard Problem
.
What then accounts for consciousness recently becoming a serious subject for scientists and philosophers? One can speculate that the rise of A.I. has provoked questions about whether intelligent machines could also be conscious. Then there has been the advance of neuroscience and the inevitable questioning of what the brain is actually doing, plus the inability of physics to find the foundational elements of matter. But possibly more than anything, Goff maintains, it was simply three little words.
The words were spoken in Arizona in 1994 by David Chalmers, a man whom Goff describes as being at the time ‘the rock star philosopher’. Chalmers rocked (to coin a phrase) the philosophers and scientists who had gathered at the first ‘Science and Consciousness’ conference in Tucson – an event which had itself been inspired by the rapid growth in consciousness studies during the 80s and 90s. Chalmers told these pioneers that they were only studying ‘easy’ problems, such as what happens in the brain when we learn, remember or recognise. But the problem that needs addressing, he said, was ‘The Hard Problem… the problem of experience. When we see, for example, we experience visual sensations: the felt quality of redness, the experience of dark and light, the quality of depth in a visual field”. “Why,” he went on to ask, “should physical processing give rise to a rich inner life at all?” [6, p. 2] According to Goff, “With his simple three-word phrase, Chalmers swept away decades of evasion and forced us to confront the real mystery head-on.” [10, p. 31] (A video of this talk has recently been made available, click here [/].)
And the mystery is: how can a material thing, the brain, be linked to immaterial consciousness? Maybe mind and matter are essentially different but somehow interact, as dualism has it. Or maybe consciousness is actually a material product of a material brain, real but as insubstantial as a shadow compared to what produces it? This is the materialist approach. A third and most radical explanation is offered by panpsychism, which is basically the theory that consciousness pervades everything – the name is derived from the Greek pan meaning all and psyche meaning mind or spirit. This is the theory which is animating the current debates about consciousness and is the one which Goff himself embraces.
There is a possible fourth answer. There are still philosophers, such as Daniel Dennet, who say that there is nothing to be explained. Consciousness can be ignored because it is simply an illusion. However, Galen Strawson has pointed out that: “… this particular denial is the strangest thing that has ever happened in the whole history of human thought, not just the whole history of philosophy”. [7, p. 114] Most philosophers nowadays speedily reject the non-reality of consciousness by remarking that to experience an illusion is itself to have a conscious experience. As Chalmers has said, conscious experience “… is the most central and manifest aspect of our mental lives…. A theory which denies the phenomenon ‘solves’ the problem by ducking the question.” [6, pp. 7–8] So if consciousness is not an illusion, how does contemporary science and philosophy attempt to explain it?
The Pineal Gland. Nineteenth-century diagram of the brain showing the pineal gland at the centre (region o, green) Image: Professor Dr Carl Ernest Bock, Handbuch der Anatomie des Menschen, Leipzig 1841. From a scan originally published at: Anatomy Atlases [/] (edited)
The Problem with Dualism
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In a certain sense, the most widely held theory is that of dualism. This theory acknowledges the reality of consciousness but regards it as something essentially different from matter. Reality as a whole therefore comprises two things: material things, such as bodies and brains (as well as stars, tables and much else), and immaterial minds or consciousness.
Dualism’s most famous philosophical advocate was Descartes but it has a much longer and wider support. As Goff remarks: “Most cultures and religions we know about have embraced dualism in some form or other… [it] is a very natural way to think about ourselves.’ [2, p. 27] The biologist Rupert Sheldrake, who has challenged many aspects of the western scientific view, concurs: “In practice, most people take a dualist view for granted, as long as they are not called upon to defend it.” [7, pp. 110–11] What needs explaining is the interaction problem. How can something immaterial (mind) bring about change in something material (body)? I think I want to raise my arm and up it goes, but how is that possible?
Descartes thought the pineal gland was the seat of the soul and exercised control of the body from there. That answer has not been persuasive. A more contemporary and sophisticated solution which Goff outlines might be offered by quantum mechanics. In the sub-atomic world, he explains, “… observation seems to make a difference to how the universe behaves.” [2, p. 41] This has encouraged some philosophers, including David Chalmers, to seek the phenomenon of consciousness in ‘quantum dualism’. Though Goff thinks this is “… a fascinating approach that deserves to be explored in detail”, [2, p. 48] he is critical of it. As he explains, quantum dualism ultimately severely limits the role of consciousness to “… far less […] than we intuitively suppose the mind to have.” [2, p. 48] Raising my arm would then be largely a product of non-conscious, physical quantum behaviour, but it would not really be my behaviour as we actually experience it.
Hence the standard objection to dualism is simply that in the 400 years since Descartes formalised it, no satisfactory solution to the mind–body problem has been found. Goff himself rejects dualism by appealing to the wisdom of Ockham’s razor – that, is, the principle of parsimony. There are alternative solutions to the problem of consciousness which regard reality as being one thing rather than two. The best known of these is materialism.
The Surrealist masterpiece “The Treachery of Images” by René Magritte, which pointed out that the full, experienced nature of things cannot be captured within images and words. Photograph: adeevee [/]
The Problem of Materialism
.
According to materialists, we live in a material universe. Everything from the smallest atom to the largest galaxy is made up of matter – or matter and energy, for Einstein showed these to be just two aspects of the one coin. Furthermore, the characteristics and behaviour of matter can in principle be explained in terms of mechanistic, cause–effect relationships between material objects and forces.
As the working assumption, materialism has served science and technology extraordinarily well over the past centuries. We can appreciate, then, that scientists and philosophers would want to explain consciousness in physical terms as a material phenomenon. And even if materialistic science cannot currently explain it, does this mean that in the future it will not be successful? Materialists can appeal to history. Look at Galileo himself. Galileo thought that colour was something immaterial. However, following his advice to measure and model, it relatively quickly became apparent that the yellow of a banana, for example, could be explained in terms of the physical properties of light, of the banana skin, and of the eye. Likewise materialists argue that the idea of consciousness as something categorically distinct from material neurological processes is a flawed – though understandable – misconception. Scientific investigation will eventually and completely dispel this misunderstanding.
It is this belief that Chalmers so radically challenged in his 1994 conference talk. What he called ‘the hard problem’ of consciousness has revealed a fundamental flaw at the heart of materialism. He points out that science can only explain the performance of cognitive functions; there are sophisticated theories available to explain learning, or how the brain processes information and so enables vision, for example. But cognitive science never has, and never can tell us ‘why the performance of [such] functions are accompanied by experience?’ [original italics, 6, p. 20]
Chalmer’s criticism is illustrated and made clearer by Goff when he cites the famous case (in philosophy circles) of ‘Black and White Mary’. In this thought experiment poor Mary has been condemned to be confined to a monochromatic room. All she sees are black and white and shades of grey. She is, however, encouraged to learn all there is to know about colour. She could discourse authoritatively on how a banana radiates yellowness. Then one day Mary is released and so experiences the world of colour. For the first time she actually sees a yellow banana.
The argument is that in seeing it she will know something of yellow that no book had taught her, and could ever have taught her. The conscious experience of yellow is in fact something separate and additional to the material, physical accounts of this colour which she had studied and knew.
It was Nagel who first highlighted that to be consciousness means to have experience: to know what it is like to be seeing colour, or, as he puts it in his seminal paper ‘What is it like to be a bat?”, to truly understand, from the inside, the experience of another being. [5] More recently he has set out another reason to doubt that materialism can explain consciousness – the problem of emergence.
Detail from a fold-out illustration in Rudolph Franz Zallinger, ‘The Road to Homo Sapiens’ in F. Clark Howell’s Early Man (Time-Life Books, 1965)
Given that consciousness exists, where has it come from? How could it have arisen? Materialist science can give authoritative accounts of the history of the universe from the Big Bang to today. Thanks to Darwin, the story of the evolution of life on earth, from the first single cell organisms 3.8 billion years ago to the variety and complexity of life we now have, can be described. However, Nagel points out, nowhere in these accounts is there an explanation of when or how consciousness appeared. Where in the span of 13.5 billion years or the narrower span of four billion years did matter acquire consciousness? “The existence of conscious minds … [is something] a theory of the world … has yet to explain,” he says. “But if we … want to pursue a unified world picture … we will have to leave materialism behind. Conscious subjects and their mental lives are inescapable components of reality not describable by their physical sciences.” [5, pp. 30–31]
If the critiques of Chalmers and Nagel were not enough, there is a third and even more damning criticism. Materialistic science rests on a belief in the reality of something it cannot explain – material itself. Whatever else it can do, materialism cannot tell us what material things actually are. Science as inherited from Galileo is very well able to describe things. The descriptions are necessarily how material things (matter, energy) interact with other things (for example, with measuring instruments or with each other). The descriptions, then, tell us what things do.
But however good such descriptions are – and Galileo would no doubt be amazed at just how good they are at predicting behaviour – they say nothing about what things essentially are. To express it pithily if a little technically: physics describes the extrinsic properties of matter but has nothing to say about its intrinsic, inner nature. Goff illustrates the difference by considering a chess bishop. Knowing what a chess bishop does (it moves diagonally, its extrinsic property) tells us nothing about what it is made of (e.g., wood or plastic, its intrinsic nature). Magritte’s famous ‘non-pipe’ illustrates the same point.
This major lacuna of science was recognised a hundred years ago (around Magritte’s time) by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell and Einstein’s collaborator, the astronomer Arthur Eddington. Drawing on Russell’s book The Philosophy of Matter and the new ideas of their contemporary, Alfred North Whitehead, Eddington argued that the intrinsic nature of matter is consciousness. [8] This leads us neatly on to the third possible way of explaining consciousness: panpsychism.
The Green Man, the ancient symbol of universal life and fertility with a history extending back to Mesopotamian civilisation. This carving is in the Chapter House of Southwell Minster in the UK. Photograph: Ian G Dagnall [/] / Alamy Stock Photo
Panpsychism
.
Simply put, panpsychism is the view that ‘consciousness is fundamental and ubiquitous in nature’. This is how William Seager introduces it in the Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism. However, he goes on to acknowledge that “It is undeniable that panpsychism is intuitively implausible.” [4, p. 1] But is this really the case? Sheldrake remarks that:
Panpsychism is not a new idea. Most people used to believe in it, and many still do. All over the world, traditional people saw the world around them as alive and in some sense conscious or aware: the planets, stars, the earth, plants and animals all had spirits or souls. [7, p. 116]
Panpsychism at first glance seems to be a theory of the world akin to animism and polytheism. Polytheism has of course long been rejected by the monotheistic religions, whilst animism is regarded as a primitive belief by modern westerners – okay in children’s stories but not to be taken any further. It is little wonder that advocates of panpsychism have found it difficult to get a hearing and even now, Harris says, it “still carries the stink of the New Age.” [1, p. 32]
So why should this revolutionary theory now be entertained by mainstream scientists and philosophers? Goff offers two arguments in its support. First off, it seems that there is no alternative. If we acknowledge that matter must have an intrinsic nature, and also accept that consciousness is real, then it has to integrate with the rest of reality. Consciousness as the intrinsic property of matter therefore plugs the hole at the centre of our scientific story. Secondly, we all know an actual example of matter whose intrinsic property is consciousness – our own brains. The simplest hypothesis is therefore that consciousness is also the intrinsic nature of all other matter.
Additionally there is growing empirical support for panpsychism. Consciousness has traditionally been thought to be confined to human beings and animals, but recent research has demonstrated that plants have memory and can exhibit purposeful behaviour. [9] This suggests that they have a form of consciousness (which may trouble vegetarians and vegans, Goff notes as an aside).
As for the so-called inanimate realm, Goff brings the example of quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement is an extraordinary and puzzling phenomenon in which the behaviour of two sub-atomic, quantum particles can be shown to be correlated even though they are so widely separated that no signal can pass between them even at the speed of light (the separation can even be millions of light years). An explanation could be that both particles share a common source of consciousness. There is also the idea that electrons are guided by information (they are ‘in-formed’) and this receptivity to information can be seen as a form of consciousness.
Conceptual illustration of quantum entanglement. Two particles share coherence in quantum state: position, momentum, spin, and polarisation in a way that seems to defy the laws of time and space. Photograph: local_doctor [/] / Shutterstock
There Is Panpsychism and There Is Panpsychism
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However, while all panpsychist philosophers share the belief that consciousness is inseparable from matter, there are differing ideas about how the two integrate. There are two broad sorts of explanation: bottom-up and top-down.
The bottom-up theory is called ‘micropsychism’. It is a theory compatible with the general, analytic methodology of science, referred to as ‘smallism’; that is, “… the view that facts about big things are grounded in facts about little things, e.g., the table exists and is the way it is because the particles making it up are related in certain extremely complicated ways.” [10] So micropsychism tries to explain a larger consciousness such as a brain in terms of the consciousness of its individual neurons. But how is this achieved? This is called the ‘combination problem’ which Goff tells us is “… currently the main focus of the panpsychism research program.” [2, p. 148]
But in some ways, the combination problem is an irrelevance, because there is increasing recognition that in the end, there is actually nothing to combine. For the fact is that the search for the ultimate stuff out of which reality, the physical world, is composed has yielded the surprise that there is none to be found. Matter simply does not exist. As Seager writes: “It turns out that matter is nothing at all like ‘matter’ was supposed to be.” Instead, he goes on:
Our best quantum theory asserts that fundamental reality is composed not of material particles at all but of rather strange universal fields, the temporary excitations of which can appear to our experiments as particle-like apparitions. [4, pp. 4–5]
This leads Chalmers to conclude that: “… there are no fundamental micro-entities to be realised by microsubjects, and there are no fundamental properties possessed by these entities to be realized by microexperiences.” [6, p. 363] The absence of matter would therefore seem to be not only an objection to micropsychism, but also an additional and fundamental objection to all materialist theories of consciousness.
Arp 273 Spiral Galaxy, from the Hubble telescope. Image: NASA [/], ESA [/], Hubble [/]: [apod.nasa.gov – 20 November 2019]
The alternative theory is ‘cosmopsychism’, which is a ‘top-down’ approach in which consciousness does not develop out of basic elements but appears in matter having ‘come down’ from a larger consciousness. This is radical, as it runs counter to the credo of ‘smallism’; rather, explanations are sought in holism. As Goff explained in a recent article:
… a number of scientists and philosophers of science have recently argued that [the] ‘bottom-up’ picture of the Universe is outdated, and that contemporary physics suggests that in fact we live in a ‘top-down’ – or ‘holist’ – Universe, in which complex wholes are more fundamental than their parts. According to holism, the table in front of you does not derive its existence from the sub-atomic particles that compose it; rather, those sub-atomic particles derive their existence from the table. Ultimately, everything that exists derives its existence from the ultimate complex system: the Universe as a whole. [11, p. 148]
So my consciousness has come down from a larger ‘cosmic consciousness’, and is devolved in turn to the components of my brain. But whilst this answers some of the fundamental problems found in other models, it also generates a whole new set of questions. How does cosmic consciousness, a unified whole, devolve? Why would it do so? How are we supposed to grasp the idea of a cosmic consciousness which is somehow conceived as being the sole reality? And if my consciousness is a piece of this cosmic consciousness, why does it feel as if my consciousness is my own, not a part of something very much bigger?
These are the questions that now appear to be central, because cosmopsychism has recently become much more the focus for panpsychist thinkers. Not surprisingly, a number of different models are being proposed. For instance, Itay Shani maintains that:
The absolute can be likened to a vast, dynamically fluctuating ocean … this ocean has two complementary sides: concealed and revealed … its revealed side … appears as what, in common parlance, we identify as physical nature. The concealed side, however, is presumed … to be a vast ocean of consciousness. [12, p. 411]
Bernardo Kastrup likens absolute reality to an ‘oscillating membrane’, [13] while Freya Mathews sees it simply as a field. [14] Goff puts forward a theory in which space–time is not considered to be an empty container within which material objects are located and forces play out; rather space–time is the only reality. So-called objects are therefore ‘massy’ regions of space–time … ‘formless consciousness’ is the intrinsic nature of space–time, while ordinary consciousness is the intrinsic nature of the massy regions. In short: theories are now being explored within the scientific community which would have been unimaginable even ten years ago.
Beech forest in spring. Recent research has begun to reveal the remarkable communal behaviour of plants in general and trees in particular, as summarised in Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees. Photograph: manfredrf [/] / Alamy Stock Photo
Conclusion
.
Right now panpsychism and studies of consciousness remain of interest to a minority of philosophers and scientists within their ivory towers. But ideas filter out. Galileo was once a lone and condemned voice. Goff’s own prediction is that “In twenty years’ time the idea that panpsychism can quickly be dismissed as ‘crazy’ will seem, well, crazy.” [2, p. 172]
Try to imagine that panpsychism has become the normal, commonly accepted way of seeing reality. That is not easy because we have all grown up in a world in which, at best, matter and consciousness are understood to be separate. But if all matter, all of nature, were regarded as having intrinsic worth, then Goff imagines that there would have to be a new covenant with nature. Rather than the exploitive one that Francis Bacon bequeathed us, the commitment would be to caring for the world. The adoption of panpsychism could therefore have a vital role in dealing with environmental crises such as global warming.
Accepting consciousness as the foundation of reality also has very significant implications for epistemology, our understanding of what counts as knowledge. Currently, that generally means knowledge acquired by the methods of science. Acknowledging panpsychism involves understanding that there are limits to what can be known using traditional scientific methods. This in turn suggests that other methods need to be developed or accepted. Some philosophers, such as Mathews and Kastrup, suggest that we could look to the dreaming of Australian aboriginals and other practices of traditional cultures. The idea that consciousness is the ground of reality is also at the heart of the mystical traditions of the world, and the adoption of panpsychism would validate the methods and practices they have employed for millennia. Thus the already familiar techniques of meditation and mindfulness would be better understood and appreciated.
Such practices can reveal not only knowledge of what things are, but also unveil answers to questions of morality. Goff gives the example of what mysticism can offer. The mystical experience of directly encountering the universal consciousness which we all share makes nonsense of selfish conduct, he argues. He concludes Galileo’s Error with the words:
Panpsychism offers a way of ‘re-enchanting’ the universe … [it] can help humans once again … feel that they have a place in the universe. At home in the cosmos, we might begin to dream about – and perhaps make real – a better world. [2, p. 217]
I cannot quarrel with the dream; instead I say, “Amen to that.”
Cartoon by Simon Blackwood
This piece is an edited version of a longer, fully annotated article: for the full version click here…
Dr Richard Gault gained a Ph.D from Strathclyde University in Scotland. Now retired, his career spanned teaching and research in universities in Scotland, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. His interests came to focus on the history and philosophy of science and technology. He has had a long association with Beshara and the Chisholme Institute where he served as principal from 2015–17. He currently lives with his Dutch wife in Harderwijk in the Netherlands.
Image Sources (click to close)
Banner: In some scientific models now being explored, the source of the universe is understood to be like a vast, fluctuating ocean of consciousness, within which material things exist as ‘massy regions’. Photograph: Leonid Ikan/Shutterstock
First insert: A climber plant in Costa Rica, near Orosi, February 2004, growing in a spiral whose form can be described by the Fibonnci series. Photograph: Dirk van der Made via Wikimedia Commons.
Other Sources (click to open)
’[1] ANNAKA HARRIS: Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind, (Harper, 2019).
[2] PHILIP GOFF: Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness, (Penguin Random House, 2019).
[3] PHILIP GOFF: Consciousness and Fundamental Reality, (OUP, 2017).
[4] WILLIAM E. SEAGER (ed.): Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism, (Routledge, 2020).
[5] THOMAS NAGEL: Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False, (OUP, 2012).
[6] DAVID CHALMERS: ‘Facing up to the Hard Problem of Consciousness’ in Journal of Consciousness Studies 2, no. 3 (1995), pp. 200–19; available via the following link: http://www.cogprints.org/316/1/consciousnesshtml
[7] RUPERT SHELDRAKE: The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry, (Hodder & Stoughton, 2012).
[8] A. S. EDDINGTON: The Nature of the Physical World (orig. pub. 1928, facsimile reprint by Kessinger Publishing, 2010).
[9] PETER WOHLLEBEN: The Hidden Life of Trees, (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2016.
See also: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/12/peter-wohlleben-man-who-believes-trees-talk-to-each-other
[10] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panpsychism/#MicrVersCosm
[11] PHILIP GOFF: ‘Cosmopsychism, Micropsychism and the Grounding Relation’ in [4] SEAGER, pp. 144–56.
[12] ITAY SHANI: ‘Cosmopsychism: A Holistic Approach to the Metaphysics of Experience’ in Philosophical Papers, 44:3, pp. 389–437.
[13] BERNARDO KASTRUP: Why Materialism Is Baloney, (Iff Books/John Hunt Publishing, 2014)
[14] FREYA MATHEWS: ‘Living Cosmos Panpsychism’ in [4] SEAGER, pp. 131–43.
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READERS’ COMMENTS
When we suddenly turn around because someone was “looking” at us. We did not hear any calling but the person “viewing” us was, not by a conscious decision or a conscious act, but by his/her need to contact us. How? By sending that need (by our energy) into the field/aura of the looked upon person, so, by disturbing their field of energy, all at a very subtle and subliminal, almost, level, we attract their attention. Essentially, the one person connecting to another using their field energy to interfere (to get attention) into the field energy of another person. Thus, we are all joined (part – though not apart – of the whole consciousness of all things, human, stone and wind. Letting our consciousness ease we let our sense be in the place where it actually is: a total holistic consciousness all over and immanent.
Sheldrake, in the book cited in my article, looks at this phenomenon: ‘Most people have had seemingly telepathic or precognitive experiences. Most have felt they were being looked at from behind, and have turned round, or they have made others turn by staring at them ….’ (p.221). Ervin Laszlo does too (Science and the Akashik Field, Inner traditions, Rochester, Vermont, 2007, particularly pp. 51-7). Neither explicitly explains such a phenomenon in terms of panpsychism but rather, as you do, in terms of participation in a shared field. However, evidence of transpersonal communication could be cited as further empirical support for panpsychism. Strangely none of the contributors to Seager appear to mention work being done in transpersonal psychology.
Are abstract paintings pictures of consciousness?
The answer to your question is no and yes, though the simplest answer is no.
Consciousness itself cannot be pictured although it is that which gives rise to all pictures. Likewise I don’t think a fundamental property like mass can be pictured – we can only represent it by symbols or point to things which display mass.
An abstract painting, like all paintings, is linked to consciousness in two ways. In the most widely accepted way, extrinsically: the form it displays is the product of its artist’s consciousness. Additionally, and in common with all else according to panpsychism, intrinsically: the inner nature of its material features is consciousness.
However, you cannot hold up an abstract painting and say that this is a picture of consciousness in the same way you could point to a realistic painting (or photograph) of me and say that this is what Richard Gault looks like, it is a picture of him.
On the other hand and as already implied, according to panpsychist theories, everything is consciousness revealing itself. Trees, stars, you, me, the Mona Lisa, Mondrian’s coloured shapes, all are ‘pictures’ of consciousness, each ‘taken’ from a different angle.
BTW: I also wanted to mention the descriptions of cosmic consciousness given by Shani (‘a dynamically fluctuating ocean’) and Kastrup. The latter includes many images in his book, such as a whirlpool, a vortex, a doughnut. However, these descriptions are intended to be understood as metaphors: ‘consciousness is like…’, rather than ‘consciousness is…’. They are not pictures of consciousness.
For a clearer, concise and much more straight-forward explanation of consciousness and duality/non-duality, visit Leo Gura’s website or youtube channel, http://www.actualized.org
Pranaam to the author !!!Absolutely delightful, and insightful article for us to read and contemplate on. Resounds and reverberates with all core ideas about the Atman (universal
consciousness) from Vedic literature. It’s heartening to read those ideas which were arrived at by minds thousands of years ago in India is finding it’s place into modern thinking!!
With gratitude .Namaskar.
Many grateful thanks from a non- scientist such as myself for such a clear fascinating introductory exposition of issues surrounding Panpsychism – a topic that I’ve only recently begun to investigate more deeply via practice of yoga. Very inspiring article in itself and plan to check your magazine on a regular basis.
Very enlightening article. It seems the article endorses all that Vedanta or Adwaita has to say. I listen to Swami Sarwapriyananda and was an echo of all that he says if only i understand correctly.
Quantum physics and panpsychism may ultimately provide an explanation of mental causation through a currently unknown effect. If we can imagine that the world is full of mental beings we can envision that a quantum probability wave surrounds each subject thus making it causally relevant. If an electron has a hidden intrinsic mental aspect then an electron field surrounding an electron’s mind is recognized by current physics but a distinct quantum field attached to an animal’s mind may provide its own kind of downward causation by influencing the quantum jumps at lower levels.
see: https://philpapers.org/rec/SLESA
and: https://philpapers.org/rec/SLEPAR
7 years ago I found compelling
physical evidence supporting panpsychism. In 25 year’s tree planting in the Scottish Highlands I’d seen a lot of wind sculpted Bog Pine but nothing quite like this. Fully formed depictions of animals, frozen flames, landscapes and symbols to name but a few of the themes represented were spontaneously wind hewn a few hundred years ago then preserved in the peat. Hoping they didn’t just disintegrate whilst seasoning I explored their remarkable properties and contemplated their significance. Many exhibit what I call ‘infinite Rorschach’ due to the pull they exert on folks minds and the infinitely morphing visuals. In recent year’s I’ve been pairing them up with suitable plinths only to discover yet another bombshell…physical proof of synchronicity! Recently I posted my first exhibition on Instagram @wildskye23 . My question is who best to get in contact with to further study this phenomenon as it appears to bridge philosophy, psychology, parapsychology and physics? I do intend to try and sell them but feel they should at least get 3D mapped beforehand. Also there’s a lot more material besides the 30 sculptures in the exhibition.
The devil is concealed in trifles
The solution of a task is its accurate information, but how to formulate a clairvoyance problem – ability to predict the future? Any such attempt has to be considered as a lottery where the probability of guessing is easily calculated as multiplication of probabilities of possible events. It isn’t a lot of the events which probability interests so to go to the fortuneteller – let their no more than ten and for a month forward. Then probability of casual hit one of three hundred . It is possible to crumble all this on small squares and to force a parrot them to pull out, process apparently accidental t and not trust. Several respectable a magic sphere (a flask with water a stopper down), the twilight (some flavored candles), eyes with huge pupils (on an atropine drop in everyone). It increases service time – let till 15 minutes, but even more than a price and acquits itself. At the eight-hour working day it is 32 clients a day, in such conditions the theory of probability allows one exact hit of times in nine days, two in a row – time in nine years, three – time in 2812, and the age of the fortuneteller any more doesn’t suffice. On the date of exact work there is no age of the Universe already, long-term work of the Bulgarian prophetess Vanga calls into question any more age – the Universe system. But then either the grandmother, or the Universe, or both are arranged at a little differently, than we think, as explains possibility of their coexistence .
The grandmother – the type of Homo Sapiens, an origin – doubtful, i.e. all bases to apply on noble , what and busy , Both theories are based on absence of proofs at an adverse party, we will combine them – da Bog created the person from a monkey, without having left marks almost thus. Claiming that is created by God just like it, and any monkeys – as are approved by others. Let’s appropriate divine opportunities and we will try to repeat it. First, we will remove puberty of years to thirteen – almost half-lives for those times and that it is admissible to reproduction only the most successful copies, the others we will feed to lions, crocodiles and in general all wishing – hunting was in those days game bilateral – not all were lucky to live to a funeral. Thereby hide intermediate results that would later become the main argument in favor of God’s creation. Secondly, we will allow murder of the rival on a female what earlier never reached. For an insurance we introduce self-destruct losers – suicide unrequited love. Now we will reduce a reproduction interval, in combination with a puberty delay it will reduce a family to two accurately divided generations and blocks incest, stopping a species in development. The last stroke – elimination of the first generation at the time of lifting of the third – we will clean from life successful, viable, but the samples which have fulfilled a cycle. For this purpose we will enter the accelerated aging which could be considered as not corrected process, if not a progeria – an illness at which children die of aging that does obvious artificiality of this process. Now step back and look at what happened, and get something reverse to natural selection – directional selection, based on – internal competition, striking out at the earliest opportunity a little less successful copies. . Created constantly operating, by anything outwardly unprovoked, senseless system bring to perfection idiotic outside particular purpose, of representatives of any kind. Taking for a basis monkey not wolf – ass, we came to the same result, except that the other number moves. The only difference the unconscious desire to sing the chorus under the full moon or the ability to sleep standing up.
System based on the principles of the Olympic and even worse – the losers go first, then the winners, is bound to be guaranteed safe from unplanned loss. In lower mammals it is done simple – at the time of premature death the animal inform all members of the group and thus starts the mechanism of herd population recovery – increases the number of newborns. . Effect was discovered H.S. a couple of thousand years ago, explained – Almighty God accepts the killing of animals as a gift into your account and meets the same, increasing the litter. Developed a procedure for of use of effect – the temple with steps (so closer to Him, suddenly will not notice), the altar (do not throw the dog), eye in the sky (accept Yours faithfully). Remains of equipment in good condition so far dig up. Given the rapidly maturing and prolific, this decision was the best – a closed feedback group has stabilized by the number of time and become immortal. For H.S. this is not enough – the game is very limited staff and loss of player requires immediate payment on pain of losing the game. . Given the artificially program ‘Old Age’, the loss is compensated prolongation life remaining, the effect is well reflected in one formulation of death – ordered to live long. The problem is solved in four stages
– Diagnosis of his own death
– Send a message to all members of this group
– Reception of a message to each recipient
– Run the program ‘Old Age’ in the opposite
It all boils down to purely technical problems whose solutions are implemented so commonplace that do not cause even curiosity. But first a few minor considerations about the emergence, development and exploitation of the idea of God. . Obligatory condition is familiarization with the idea of presence of a small ocean yacht – just so you can see flying flock of penguins under water surrounded by a friendly and slightly hungry flocks of killer whales. . Clearly perceptible at spherical layers constructions outside – old males, then young males – old females – young females – young. Such construction of most appropriately for seasonal migrations – the outer layer bear the greatest loss, the least valuable and will be easily compensated for the next journey of the inner layers. A permanent group of orcas jury has recognized organization such cruises optimal for both sides – of a different kind group is eaten away instantly and interest is not represented due to lack of. The idea to buy off the least valuable material has not bypassed HS and is reflected in the instructions rescue on the water – ‘women and children primarily’. Software of such behavior is genetically laid down, depending on the age of the subconscious are introduced various parts of the program – from the unconscious ability to hide under her mother’s skirt to perceived need to go against the tank with his bare hands and a wild the hope that these in the tank will simply die from laughter. Program be bound personal death, meaninglessness of life at all as the game where you can only lose, has put before the mind problem of incompatibility of life and de And then the conscious and subconscious recognized the need to creating and maintaining the illusion of immortality as a basic element of the illusion of meaning in life. Feature input into consciousness HS abstract concepts such as ‘good and the Ugly’ is the impossibility of entering them just a declaration – the notion to be born as a result. For this purpose the method of the Red Cap – certain qualities are assigned to certain persons – trustful Red Riding Hood, a strange mother, brave hunters, cruel Grey Wolf, a good grandmother. All this is equivalent costumes, Little Red Riding Hood – Little Red Riding Hood, hunters – a hat with a feather, grandmother – a nightcap, the gray wolf – teeth with room for growth. The plot is well known, at the end of the performance the child can audibly tell what is good and what is bad. Illusion of immortality, it was decided to build on the same principle – to create a performance, where death would be represented by no more than an intermediate finish. Get acquainted with the one of the more successful productions.
Venue: earth, sky
Characters: God, the Son of God, God’s critters.
Story – the son of God appears in the standard way on the ground, briefly describes the people about the afterlife in daddy’s execution – the horrors of hell, purgatory, paradise life benefits, acquaints interested in the rules of the ten items falling thither, some of them – a personal example, so that exactly there and falls. Introduced the characters demonstrates on changeable parameters of the soul, are classified as virtues or vices – honesty and mendacity and courage and cowardice, selflessness and betrayal, predicts appropriate remuneration – hell or heaven. Performance is perfectly fancy-dress – from a loincloth, a crown of thorns and sandals barefoot to a fine white toga, huge white wings barefoot on a white cloud with a harp in hands. Brilliant musical score was awarded to separate album exit ‘Jesus Christ – Superstar’. Convincing actors in major and supporting roles in, was remembered the old man with a beard in the final act, meeting his son in an aperture of clouds. . Impressively put the scene in the second act of healing – the audience are torn to the scene with their sores and drop into the orchestra. Memorable final scene – this trudging lonely figure with a huge cross on the back (symbol of redemption of human sins), the darkening clouds (a symbol of God’s wrath), distant peals of thunder of a scene (the symbol a hell), the ray of the sun, rests on the top of the mountain (the symbol of soul salvation ), raging crowd (symbol unwise the flock of God. Crowned by the picture fallen from the fire grate harp (the symbol of the Lord the Will an unpredictable), and the hall sounds a horrific inevitability its theme of Last Judgment in the performance of pipe an orchestra miraculously survived the attempts to break into the spectators scene in the second act.
The play is over – introduced by file, call it religion ‘G. Construct a system moral orientations, no less real than axis of the Earth, and optionally their conventionality does not demand special evidence. Small enough ocean yacht – just so you can see a flying flock of penguins under water surrounded the friendly and lightly a hungry flocks of orcas. Clearly identified spherical layers, layer by layer from inside – old males – young males are – older adult females – young females – Young, Conveniently hiding behind silly ,masquerading veil their blood tenderly pushing out the weak and tasty to the massacre, the pack crosses the ocean. Such an arrangement ideally for seasonal migrations – outer layer having the greatest loss will be easily compensated from the inner layers. A permanent group of orcas jury recognized an organization such cruises optimal for both sides – a different kind of group is eaten away instantly and interest is not represented due to lack of. The idea to buy off the weakest has not bypassed HS and is reflected in the instructions ‘rescue of drowning – the handiwork of drowning’. Software of such behavior is genetically mortgaged, depending on age into the subconscious are introduced various parts of the program, ranging from skill cover herself backs and ending with of Comrade conscious determination to save his skin at any cost. Software resolution of violent death at any moment, the meaninglessness of life in general, as a bargaining chip in the game ‘might is right’ unveiled the incompatibility issue of life and death. And then the conscious and subconscious recognized the need to creating and maintaining the illusion of immortality as a basic element of the illusion of meaning in life. . Feature input into the consciousness of abstract concepts such as ‘good, evil’ is the impossibility of putting them just a declaration – a concept to be born as a result, this method is used for Little Red Riding Hood. Illusion of immortality, it was decided to construct on the same principle – to create a spectacle, where death would be represented by no more than an intermediate finish. We formulate idea of the play (hereinafter – ideas ‘A’), it originated as a program error ‘B’, when instead of the team ‘against a tank with bare hands’ was the team of ‘with a knife under her mother’s skirt. Not a lot to this it is necessary – the place on the map with a temperate climate, where children one would let out on the street as sheep that without counting every evening. . But nobody ever sees construction herds a minute of danger Young out – so you can only follow in the cemetery. Only having got in process of unnatural selection to higher stages of development, you can afford this game and do not die in this. The idea of ’A’ arose as concomitant and exists as a stray to the idea of ’G’, could not exist on their own occupied by endless internal and external conflicts. Deprived of fresh genetic revenues stopped developing, fixing this on institution of elders, the idea strongly looks like mafia godfather to the head, which in fact is. Perfectly adapted to survive the expense of others, even the idea of their god idea borrowed from ‘G ‘by entering several amendments to the Ten Commandments, which perform and was not going. First amendment – God is great, and the second – the world is divided into faithful and unfaithful, and the third – two faithful, He and you, the fourth – incorrect must be destroyed in order to get there into his kingdom, the fifth – errors are excluded, you are only an instrument in his hand, the sixth-tenth – God is great. The idea of ”kill, until they kill you,” was supported by the masses, but did not find the author. Spectacle has not been put, the file is entered multiple (at least five times a day) declaring of amendments 1.6 – 10 ass to the sky. Any other religion is on the line linking G and A of religion with its origin at G, Its task – to keep the unity of the flock of God on the way to indifferent what purpose, erase the religion in the human soul is only possible together with the soul. But the most terrible and preposterous – religion at the junction of A and G, when are combined incompatible genetic programs, result – the religion of “neither A nor G” – a strongly pronounced piety in conjunction with the complete lack of principle, parasitizes the expense of natural resources or representatives of G. It is curious that a violent confrontation A and G is meaningless in principle –; A; will always lag behind in technical equipment, G. never go to the complete destruction of ’A’ – women and children are untouchable by the rules. G, and guarantee survival for .A. – conflict A. and. G, having begun, endless. Discrepancies in individual programs demanded little current correction. Optimal form of such corrections have been recognized mass worship in specialized buildings, structure which demonstrates the closeness to Him height and symbols of faith on the top. Most accurately B.’s religion as basic is shown in standard agonal visions, surprisingly indifferent to officially professed religion.
A standard scenario journey to nowhere in three parts of.
At a time when the activities of the organism becomes incompatible with life, Of body suddenly stands out her immortal part – soul, and with dignity, although somewhat fastidiously, observes his material part in an absurd position under the machine, popped up from nowhere, or under unshaded lamp, And these people are wearing gloves, suddenly stopped to fuss, and a voice – “we lost him.” Whom – it? This bag of bones guts out? But it is not needed, and easily waving his either ears, or wings, forward along the tube to light. But first a little formality before a long journey – a look back and suddenly there, in the back, a huge screen and a private life on it in great detail, and in the middle of the screen separately – selected episodes and the best performers. Picture at the sides is obligatory, consistent and uncontrollable, manage central screen – we have the right to enter any recollection. . In reality we are a video game console of the multiscreen, computer and transmitter. Any man in the center of the screen is identified and receives a message about the death of the addressee, sometimes indicating the circumstances e , if the brain is dying man had time see them. None of the participants aware of the fact of reception and transmission of information – plays transmitter buttons on the remote, receiver for a split second loses consciousness. Sensation as if for a moment you turned off, And terrified by the endless black void find yourself in light with a with shaking hands and wild the desire to hide in a corner and seize for someone’s feet and screaming mother, mother!! But this exception is allocated for receiving special state – sleep. Son has several functions, one of them – Filtering day memory. In the filtration process of memory was accidentally discovered communication system using the gravitational strings. The message is accepted, written down, output of information will be effected in the consciousness like a dream, rem sleep only trailers roll off this system, well, how many people will remember you, dying and loving?, therefore sleep are formed purely training factors and are not retained in the minds of, all this for a few prophetic dreams that are will never be forgotten . Readiness of the brain to obtain information is due optimal in the morning, that determines the critical solutions an organism – births, deaths, and, oddly enough – executions. Still two interesting factors – language and communication speed. . External communication speed is limited by the vocal cords and the speed of sound in air. Speed of telepathic communication and lot more limited by the speed of thinking, which in principle is not understood – we observe is not thinking but its results. Subconscious is preparing several technically equivalent options, providing consciousness right to decide, taking into account the moral factors, if any. . Actual speed is observed in two cases – the critical situations, crisis situations this makes illusion of time dilation an effort of will, and in the dream – when the plot clearly does not fit into the external time. To transmit information uses a built language of the brain – non-national, common to all warm blooded mammalian that is caused common origin. Existing of languages spoken only external reflection of internal different degree of accuracy and numerous attempts speak only about their imperfections. So the message is accepted, entered the conscious mind a prophetic dream, but this is optional. Required is to run in the opposite direction of the program ‘Old Age’, which was organized of the body building program method closing the eyes on own mistakes. Now it has the right to open the eyes and make major repairs an organism – a mere trifle for her we had built almost nothing. Ultimately it will add 5-7 years of life each addressee, and sum overlaps the years lost by the sender. Such is simple little feedback system is not more complicated locomotive.
Part Three – flying in complete darkness to something blindingly bright, but not blinding. . Sometimes this subject is made out as traveling in a tunnel or flight in tube, ahead – desired cloudlet with harp, but first – a meeting with native and close the dead. They are not dead – have simply left off somewhere, because is no death, has a small picnic on the riverbank, white tablecloth on the grass, dim down to the sun through the morning mist. Hi guys, I’m so bored all the time, catch up someone on the street to look into in the face and apologize. Fine, it’s over, and we are together forever. Whence crackling and smell of burning skin, burning sensation in the chest, face masked through a luminous mist, strange words – heart launched breathing on their own? Lord, who allowed them to take me out of here? And how much easier to live now, knowing all. And as far as all of this fairy tale, it is better not to know.
A standard scenario journey to nowhere in three parts of. View outside and from within.
The moment when the activities of the body becomes incompatible with life, consciousness suspended from the body, all obtained information used to create a virtual reality, Introduced into the mind as a remote observation of the body of the soul – his own death rather watch from the sidelines. The next program number – farewell to relatives on TV, but only after the diagnosis’ own death. Farewell process takes time, and though even there is no obstacle guillotine, the diagnosis is advanced. This is noticeable in cases where the real possibility of instantaneous mechanical destruction, head-on collision on a slippery road or swimming in the gale, in such cases, the program ignores the of formality and leaving the consciousness of body control runs immediately with the second act – on the background suddenly stopped the truck or stiffened of waves unfolds a huge screen on which own life, in the minutest detail, etc. supra. Part Three – the flight to light – no more than mandatory for each tale happy ending and another does not make sense. The dream of immortality, as embodied in the idea of God leading off us through life like a carrot before a donkey nose, whether from vanity, whether from unsayable in life, she goes on stage in all the splendor of the software. To begin with – the light in the hall for a single spectator and let it be a grass by the river, dim the sun through the morning mist. Add the viewers – hi guys, I’ve always known that you are not dead, have simply left somewhere, and on the stage – ‘Jesus Christ – Superstar’. Admission is free. The program – boat rides on the Styx, for those who want – just walks on water, skid of the cross up the hill, dinner for thirteen persons in the head remains the a strange piece of the phrase ‘thrice will indeed deliver not yet the cock, simulator ‘treadmill’ and the old Jew on it, barely moving his feet, under the glass – pouch in the blood plate – ‘Thirty pieces of silver’, a complimentary souvenir – a crown of thorns, a life-size, near the crowd – in the opening clouds barefoot old man in a white sheet, some reason without touching the ground feet, hugging her son, behind the scenes, after numerous dangling of wings of all sizes, but one color, a huge screen on all wall.. Video game ‘Ask me’ instruction – 1. mentally ask question. 2. Tell or say the magic word ‘please’. 3. Answer on the screen. In contrast to Part Two, demonstrating only personal memories, indifferent to the game characters and does not distinguish between past and future, time it has no. Life of any person can view from birth to death, the fact that he was not born yet, does not matter. At this show is over, then – nothing, except that the defibrillator. If the output of the soul from the body worked out and no doubt, that back in the director’s staging copy does not exist, and although the script was first published two thousand years ago, the changes in him not been amended, therefore the soul suddenly without any preparation, turns out his own body with a tube in his throat and breast fuming. Virtual reality attraction embarrassingly to the psyche, but at different soil grain will germinate in different ways — At normal rise a true Christian, wise will give birth prophet, poky spew of the false prophet. One more effect – a game number two, that is included on outstripping the diagnosis was calculated as disposable – only capable of brain death to stop her. Enough to look at all, just to remember once he had seen a man to a game automatically and uncontrolledly fully realized. Result – correction of the human organism for the main program, received from father and mother. Two dozen such memories by hundred forty minutes at intervals of a day or two enough to bring the body back on 5-7 years ago. The resulting use of the game has several names – witch, healer, psychic who in fact, we have a programming error – it was enough to introduce Forced stop, and not rely on the accuracy of diagnosis. There are a number of diseases – epilepsy, heart valve defects, prostate adenoma, uterine fibroids, melanoma, and others for which there is no other treatments – surgical does not count, the consequences are often worse than the disease itself. Access to healing provides only own death, but there are witches born – they are made by another recipe. The only way to identify a healer – check-encephalography fast sleep phase in a patient in advance uncoordinated point in time, while the distance is irrelevant. Sensations of the patient in this case are similar to the sensations the fetus in the womb – There organism builds, rebuilds here, and even himself in the stomach with leg beat. All this is obvious and verifiable interest represents only indifferent to distance communication method ‘brain – the brain’, Here for the first time over the past million years as a carrier of information for gravitational interaction. In spite of number of advantages, the method does not find application in view of apparent shortcomings, and if the brain is struggling with them by closing the eyes, it is technically impossible to organize this procedure. Explore some of the properties of gravitation.
The universe as illusion
Let’s define speed of distribution of gravitation. The gravitational interaction is carried out on a line connecting the centers of mass – let it be gravitational string. What the properties their? Move the mass of a variety of gravitational strings we choose two strictly forward and backward through the direction of motion. First compressed, second be stretched, are formed two zones – compression and rarefaction, and each tends to return the mass to its starting point. Having displaced mass, you need to hold it up to the moment when the waves of compression and rarefaction not disperse throughout the length of the string gravitational. But in an infinite a flat Universe it does nothing – for any finite speed of gravity is infinite retention time. We close the universe. Compression and rarefaction waves absorb each other, remained the retention time – time of wave motion in a circle. Suppose that retention time zero. Then the inertial mass is instantaneous gravitational reaction of a closed universe. Einstein proved it more elegant. If the gravitation is the curvature of space, the infinite line is closed – moving along it, we will return to the starting point, but back to the starting point possible only in a starting time, duration of the motion is zero – that is gravitation is spread outside speed, outside of time. Newton’s idea, Mach’s principle, the proof of Einstein – all have long known, but some consequences are little interest .So: Inert mass is the instantaneous gravitational reaction of a closed universe
-but if space is closed, the time also closed
– but then the universe has no beginning and no end
– but then the lifetime of the universe is zero
– but then the universe has an infinite set lives
– but they are not necessarily identical
– but then it at everyone the set of interactions.
– but then, perhaps, there exists at least one set of interactions that closes the time and space at infinity – and all of this in parallel, i.e. summed.
– but then it begins a movie – if the sum of the infinite set virtual-lethal U. in the amount is zero plus dark mass, an infinite set of identical, virtual immortals-V, create the illusion of a real U. Namely illusion – any attempt to understand the structure of the microcosm gives the opposite effect, because on the one hand reduces the density of the real V, and the other makes visible the process of bringing to zero amounts of virtual – appears interactions that do not have any right to exist. Great idea to of knowing the world generates phantoms – and what to do now? It is curious that a closed space is reflected the principle of equivalence, closed time – the uncertainty principle, both naked fixation – the devil knows why, but it is no coincidence are heavy and inert mass, and any attempt to understand the structure of U. generates strictly opposite result. Both obvious artificiality-than justified their continued presence?
A gravitational string can be represented as a single photon after circumcision fourth coordinate – time, longitudinal wave, launched on this line goes both ways in time and in terms of the HS is a timeless nonvolatile of data storage device. Every day is completely written in short-term memory and almost no different from the previous one, but why should upload memory copies? More economical to take the averaged on days option and then write only day difference film demagnetize for repeated use. . The venture was a success partially – the erasure process some reason led to rewrite information on the gravitational string, and this basket of garbage proved to be bottomless, nonvolatile and always with you. Brain unexpected for itself released from responsibilities the storekeeper in a landfill, leaving himself a card file on all of the information system find the desired strings, to make copies of and issuing it in the consciousness. Sharply grew capabilities of the brain – was made possible finally to invent name the animals, to raise his eyes – and to see the stars, to group them into constellations and give the names of animals ascribe born under the constellation properties animal in the title and send it to everyone on the Internet calculated on computer horoscope – no animal is comes to similar idiocy. In the operation of the external memory has surfaced side effect – bilateral use of single strings, in the future on the effect was established communication ‘brain-brain’, but first brain threw a tantrum – in memory unexpectedly appeared information that was not appear in the card index. When malfunctions card files on personal, and a dual lines into consciousness appear the timeless information – personal script of death in all the details and the exact date, seen in a dream – yet the most terrible. Every person after switching the external memory wears in itself all the information obtained in the future, together with the illusion its gradual accumulation – that is the fear of being. Illusion rests only on extremely precise work card file, blocking entry into consciousness the unregistered information. Failure of this system makes the brain indifferent to the sources – now any string is considered as a personal [for capturing the string necessary look into the eyes] and possible to log in into someone else’s brain and in a quiet voice – ‘What are you going next? Cause of death? – from such life and die, if you will ask stupid questions. ‘The problem of clairvoyance is that the information impossible to use – all attempts to change the course of events already included in the course of events, and therefore meaningless. Had explored three ways to solve problems
– method of closing at her eyes
– self-destruction [a massive breakthrough a timeless formation provoked the depression and suicide]
– predictors to the stake with the original motivation – undesirable events are specially made
Approved by all – and long live the dream of universal education of the population of telepathy!
Knowledge of future creates the illusion of predestination and meaninglessness of life, will deprives kills the soul, making creation of God in a trembling creature. Billions transceivers model HS with the dream of communicating outside of space and time – what a cruel joke on the part of the Creator.
Thus grandmother and U. are created strikeouts intermediate results is created the false impression that both – nowhere. There is an unhealthy desire to dump their appearance on the Global Mind, aliens or God. Leading idea of God, now called the Big Bang.
Divine origin of the soul
For the evolution of life enough puddles of water for of development – the ocean and palm trees on the shore, but why should this fantastic brain redundancy model H. S.? – to sit on a palm tree and to eat bananas mind and conscience are not needed. Existence in the medium earth – water – air gave growing volume vital information with limited memory and what to do? Brain has established the archiver. It turned out that the compression of vast amounts of information brings out basic laws of nature. Then the archiver found chains of events in heaven and on the ground – movement of the sun, the Moon stars, eclipses, seasons, floods, and took advantage of it. Sometimes successfully. It remains to remove the processed information and unexpectedly erasure process found to be reversible. Brain has built on this external memory, copied there all is that could. The vacated place was taken the archiver. It became clear that such a memory the archiver does not need. Having remained out of work, the archiver suddenly change their actions on the reverse – pieces of what was once was something, began to collect something that has never been – has shifted from science to art, started to compose. Sometimes successfully. Enormous range of `art` determined precisely its aimlessness. The strange alliance of daffy archiver and boundless memory spawned rational soul. You can create multiple of planets with perfect climate around the yellow star, populate every creature on the pair and after millions of years to discover at best the beautiful landscape. . Mind – play of chance, should fall out four consecutive cards
– Installation archiver
– External memory as accidental find
– All on an external storage device
– Archiver with reverse logic to free space
And a little place for the soul.
Likelihood of this combination is so tiny that undeniably divine origin of the soul.
Now we have enough puzzles to combine picture ‘Grandma Wanga predicts doom submarine “Kursk” eight years before the maiden voyage’. Picture easily assembled from four fragments
– Communications system on the gravitational strings a side effect of external memory
– blocked card index not distinguishing his and others
– Habit women to dig into someone else’s linen
– Closed universe.
A psychic healer
– Feedback system within the species HS in order to stabilize composition
– Permanent access to healing by diagnosis ‘own death’
– Availability a brain in his head, the game is not obvious, admission due to massive resuscitation receive thousands, units used, it does not having
– Closed universe.
Telepathy
– communication system on the gravitational strings a side effect of external memory
– sided a blocked card file
– Information goes in parallel with the time synchronization that to avoid the timeless information
– Closed universe.
Participation in one picture does not guarantee participation in the other. Each access is tragedy and the occasion most of condolence – pressure of side effects aside madhouse not decorate life. Attempts to create an untenable situation and to provoke access can lead to unpredictable consequences and is not recommended.
The massive use of brilliantly secretive system of absolute ties within each instance of HS can only be regarded as an open mockery of communication systems, invented by HS. Externally he has only a development of the ideas of fire and drum — spraying modulated energy in the hope that one of the recipients will be the only one to whom it is intended, assured effect – heating of the Universe. Now you can assemble kit of absolute communications external use – within the Earth in this particular need does not exist, although maybe be, there are fans communicate through ball. The only problem – access to timeless information is solved synchronization unit and a ban on the intervention up to self-destruct with the user. As everyone the boy having seen feminine panties dreams of elastic band for a slingshot, so of course someone be interested how to aim and push that to the survivors do not want to compare in the future force. As everyone the boy having seen feminine panties dreams of elastic band for a slingshot, so of course someone be interested how to aim and push that to the survivors do not want to compare in the future force. We recommend an absolute psychological weapon – To do this communication unit being upgraded by pulling out of synchronization with the replacement unit to unit setting arbitrary time and connect s to the Internet. Now you can conduct a dialogue with itself across time – to begin with drop in fifty years ahead and ask for video information of the death of the main rivals. Nothing pleases in life as a spectacle own funeral, even the sight of his beloved wife, in her wedding dress, coming out of church hand in hand with some man. But the emergence of a quality information will interest not only the deceased, in the chain of manufacturers will be found a weak link and policy responses will be no less pleasant. This will simplify the procedure for issuing documents – birth certificate, school certificate, diploma institute the death certificate and place in the cemetery will give out simultaneously. But is it worth contrive exchange such of courtesies only because at someone feminine panties induce an unhealthy reaction?
Attempt to collect medical and diagnostic system also fails. For purposeful and observed treatment healer brain and the brain of the patient organize the exchange of information, to simulate this process it is impossible even theoretically.
An interesting application would be communication with other civilizations – we are only one of the options intellectual matter, but just as a tribe in the jungle represents only ethnographic interest – songs, dance sand customs and our civilization is no more than an occasion to compare. Attempt to slip with help of others stage of development produces the opposite result, then still have walk this path alone, contact start with songs, dances and hopes for the crumbs from someone else’s table. Else our smart kids two hundred years through intercept the communication lines and start to the game with us – as not to disgrace in front of extraneous civilization that exit to large driveway with space poster ‘Give something! ‘. And we will philosophize under a cap, confident in own Universal importance, remembering as everything began with a parrot on the market, pulling from the polished box accurately cut small squares with destiny.
Abridged version
How little it takes to get a feel like a giant – just go out to the pier, reset into the water ends of the yacht and push her, realizing that not rusty a vessel and creaking pier – push apart Universe. The universe is infinite, but only because the ends are closed and there is no speed to serve its gravity, and it is not necessary – for the universe without end – interaction without speed. Take a a virtual photon minus the time – as a result of gravitational string without any notions of time and space, it is the perfect toy for the occasion. Information in any form is primarily a free parcel in time, any long-range – the transmission of information, the gravitational string is no exception. Brain grabbed it, and the first thing he did – parcels to myself, has turned nonvolatile external memory. Focus has long been known – using all the received information, the brain is not able to contain it, and he does not contain, handing it in to the timeless storage. But gravitational string attached two points, but then the second point is also someone’s brain? Then your memory gets a co-owner and not necessarily that HS and it is not always tactful. Therefore, if favorite dog sees off you on a couple of fillings to the dentist in a low strange howl from whom random passers automatically remove hats, and in the sky suddenly start to soar vultures can rest easy – afterwards anesthesia mouth will close with eyes.
Availability a co-owner creates another interesting effect – the absolute connection between them. The minimum distance at which the connection starts working – circumference of the universe and the death of one of the owners is no reason to stop it. Us stayed sheer nonsense – do the same external use, too everything just if evolution found it possible to embed it in every warm-blooded. But why so strange combination of absolute communication and the fine conspiracy, what horror is behind a free access to timeless information if refusal of it became optimum option? Here a problem without a solution.
Premise one for me is “Everything is real.” We cannot even imagine anything that is “unreal”. Even the word unreal” is UNREAL.!
I have long thought about consciousness as spiritual reality rather than as a by-product of a materialist reality. But from an epistemological viewpoint all experience is subjective. At the same time “reality” is defined as “objective”, that is, all the phenomena we can more or less agree upon (or pretend to agree upon). The assumption that all subjectivity is ultimately individual is IMO unnecessary. My Buddhist friend tells me individuality is the illusion.