I'm walking along in my garden. It's a beautiful morning; the sky is cloudless, the air is warm for the time of year; the sun is in my eyes, a southerly breeze cools my face. The crunch of gravel underfoot, birdsong and the scent of spring are in the air (again, early this year); all is serene and calm. My mind is entirely at rest; I am not thinking of anything in particular, just enjoying the sense of being. And then a memory flashes by – a similarly sunny spring day, Oxshott Common, out for a walk with my family, 60 years ago or more; sunlight, trees, birdsong.
This, dear readers, is pure consciousness. It is distinct from the act of thinking – the process of pushing thoughts around the brain, thoughts linked logically to one another. The train of thought is not the same as the stream of consciousness. Thoughts get thought; consciousness occurs. Consciousness is the experience of awareness of being in the moment. It is entirely subjective; it cannot shared by others; it cannot be reduced to a formal mathematical equation or generated by an artificial intelligence, nor can it be replicated by a lab-grown brain in a vat.
Described by philosophy of the mind as 'qualia', these raw subjective 'feels' of our experiences form a fundamental challenge to the existing paradigm of how science understands mind. How can physical processes, neuronal activity, give rise to the experience of awareness?
Defined in 1994 by Australian philosopher David Chalmers as 'the hard problem of consciousness', this has essentially stumped scientists and philosophers ever since, leading to a divergence of thinking. Either consciousness is an illusion – something we only think exists; or it one day it is destined to be discovered by mapping the neural correlates of conscious activity; or else it is something that transcends mere physics.
Personally, I believe that the scientific method as we currently understand it is insufficient to explain consciousness in physicalist terms; physicalists, however, are of the opinion that it's only a matter of time before science cracks the hard problem.
Today it remains contentious, dividing physicalists and idealists. It is entirely possible that a complete answer to the question may require a completely new way of looking at the universe. A paradigm shift that would unite science and spirituality, maybe?
Based on my own 'feel' and intuition, I believe (and it is indeed only a matter of belief) that consciousness is something that transcends matter.
This insight has had profound implications on how I perceive reality and therefore how I live my life, and the relative importance that I attach to things.
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Spirituality for Our (New) Age (Pt II)
Lent 2023, Day seven
A Universe hand-crafted for us all
Lent 2022, Day seven
Monism, dualism and non-dualism
Lent 2021, Day seven
How much spirituality do we need in our lives?
Lent 2020, Day seven
Build your own Religion – the Trappings of Faith
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2 comments:
Pondering your thoughts this Lent, I had meant to pipe up sooner, specifically with regard to 'the material'. Scientific investigation has permitted us to discover that what we once thought of as solid turns out to be mainly empty space populated by particles which themselves seem to be more energy than anything else.
Then this video on telepathy came up in my feed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qlppHc3-gg
on the apparent discovery of telepathy among non-speaking autistic individuals - mind blowing to say the least (though my impatience meant I did skip to the description of individual cases). Worth a look.
Oh yes! I've watched several interviews with producer Ky Dickens and researcher Dianne Hennacy Powell. Whilst not denying the reality of what they portray, I'd question whether this particular phenomenon is universal to all non-verbal autistic individuals to the degree that their research suggests.
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