“Since consciousness is the source of all life, being, and form, energy and matter, any application of this force has unlimited power in the universe.” ~Gene Savoy, Sr.
Scientific American says on the subject that “consciousness is everything you experience.” They also note that “the origin and nature of these experiences, sometimes referred to as qualia, have been a mystery from the earliest days of antiquity right up to the present.”
One of the Cosolargy academy texts reads: “According to Cosolargy, all phenomena are the products of Consciousness, Intellect, or mind.” That agrees with Scientific American that everything you experience is consciousness, but goes further. It also says that physical objects, rocks, trees, planets, and even stars, are the products of consciousness. Consciousness is not a product of the mind or the brain, the brain and mind are products of consciousness. Cosolargy more explicitly teaches, “Consciousness gives birth to Intellect, which in turn gives birth to mind.”
Cosolargy also teaches that much like the muscles of the physical body, and like the mind, Consciousness is something that can be dramatically improved through intentional development.
“A developed Consciousness is therefore vital if we are to participate in dimensional existence beyond that registered by the physical senses.” ~Gene Savoy, Sr.
Scientific Debate
There was a time not long ago when all scientists knew that consciousness was a product of the brain, and therefore couldn’t exist without the neurons of the human brain, and consciousness was little more then the development of self-awareness. Fortunately, that is changing. Some scientists now say that consciousness exists without the brain and continues to exist even after the brain is dead. Some are going even further and saying that consciousness is the creative force of the universe. The book, “Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe” by Robert Lanza, a highly respected scientist, clearly says that in the title alone.
Over the past two hundred years we find only a few scientific voices speaking out, after much scientific study of consciousness, favoring the view that consciousness is primary. The AAPS book provides a list of major figures from the 1800’s and 1900’s:
· Sir James Clerk Maxwell, PhD – 1831-1879; physicist, electromagnetic theory
· William James, MD – 1842-1910; philosopher & psychologist. “Varieties of Religious Experience” 1902
· Max Planck, PhD – 1858-1947; physicist, originated quantum theory
· Wolfgang Pauli, PhD – 1900-1958; physicist, quantum mechanics.
· Carl Jung, MD – 1875-1961; founded analytic psychology, developed concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious.
· Wilder Penfield, MD – 1891-1976; neurosurgeon,
· Sir John Eccles, PhD – 1903-1997; neurophysiologist
· David Bohm, PhD – 1917-1992; physicist, “Wholeness and the Implicate Order” human condition and consciousness
This list of eight groundbreaking voices includes four physicists working with quantum mechanics and four medical doctors, two of whom focused on the nature of human consciousness, and two brain surgeons who were the developers of modern brain surgery.
In 1918 Nobel Prize winner Max Planck made the case for consciousness:
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
Awareness of consciousness as primary has expanded from those eight pioneer voices to a growing chorus of important scientists in a number of fields and is now taking on an organized form.
In 2017 a new organization was formed by Gary E. Schwartz and Marjorie H. Woollacott: The Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences. (aapsglobal.com) Gary Schwartz, PhD is Professor of Psychology, Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Surgery at the University of Arizona, and Marjorie Woollacott, PhD is a professor of neuroscience at the University of Oregon. So some scientists are now taking seriously the idea that consciousness came before the brain.
The great Nikola Tesla said this on the subject:
“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”
“My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength, and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.”
Giulio Tononi is an Italian scientist and specializes in sleep medicine. He is also an expert on consciousness and co-authored a book on the subject. Tononi also developed the integrated information theory (IIT): a theory of what consciousness is, how it can be measured, how it is correlated with brain states, and why it fades when we fall into dreamless sleep and returns when we dream.
Bernard Baars developed another theory of consciousness called Global Workspace Theory (GWT) began with this question: “How does a serial, integrated and very limited stream of consciousness emerge from a nervous system that is mostly unconscious, distributed, parallel and of enormous capacity?” Global Workspace (GW) theory provides the most widely used framework to date for our rapidly accumulating body of evidence. It is consistent with our current knowledge, and can be enriched to include other aspects of human experience.
Christof Koch is a neurophysiologist and computational neuroscientist best known for his work on the neural basis of consciousness, and he wrote a book on the subject published by MIT Press.
But scientists are not the only theorists who have theories of consciousness. The philosopher, René Descartes, expressed his opinion of it in a philosophy called “Dualism” Here is a definition of it:
Dualism is closely associated with the thought of René Descartes (1641), which holds that the mind is a nonphysical—and therefore, non-spatial—substance. Descartes clearly identified the mind with consciousness and self-awareness and distinguished this from the brain as the seat of intelligence.
Daniel Dennett, an American philosopher wrote a book on consciousness in 1991, in which the author offers an account of how consciousness arises from interaction of physical and cognitive processes in the brain.
John Searle, another philosopher, maintains that the notion of an unconscious mental state is incoherent. He argues that, because consciousness is an intrinsically biological phenomenon, it is impossible in principle to build a computer (or any other nonbiological machine) that is conscious. Searle also says that although not all mental states are intentional, all of them, in Searle’s view, are conscious, or at least capable in principle of being conscious.
Some have speculated that the earth itself has some form of conscious awareness, as in this article found on an NPR website: “Can The Earth Be Conscious?”
The New York Times published an article this year titled “2 Leading Theories of Consciousness Square Off”, in which proponents of two theories of consciousness each tried to prove their point. The two people involved were David Chalmers, a philosopher, left, and Christof Koch, a neuroscientist, at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness at New York University. Back in 2998, Dr. Koch wagered his friend that scientists would find a neural correlate of consciousness within 25 years. Dr. Chalmers took the bet. The prize would be a few bottles of fine wine.
Oxford University Press published a book titled “Consciousness” The description of the book says: “This innovative text is the first volume to bring together all the major theories of consciousness studies–from those rooted in traditional Western philosophy to those coming out of neuroscience, quantum theory, and Eastern philosophy.
An article in Psychology Today states:
- Consciousness is notoriously difficult to define.
- There are (at least) three primary and different basic meanings. The first is functional awareness and response.
- The second meaning is subjective experience, and is only available from the inside.
- The third meaning is explicit self-conscious awareness, and is only present in human persons.
But there is growing evidence that some animals experience self-consciousness or self-awareness.
In an article on working memory and consciousness, it is stated that many maintain that there is a common sense tie between working memory and consciousness, but conclude that it is far from obvious that folk psychology includes a tie between working memory and consciousness.
The Biocentric Theory of Consciousness
From an article in Discover Magazine:
“The farther we peer into space, the more we realize that the nature of the universe cannot be understood fully by inspecting spiral galaxies or watching distant supernovas. It lies deeper. It involves our very selves.”
And from Dr. Lanza:
“Most people believe that there’s an independent physical universe ‘out there’ that has nothing to do with our awareness of it. This seeming truth persisted without much dissent until the birth of quantum mechanics. Only then did a credible science voice appear, which resonated with those who claimed that the universe does not seem to exist without a perceiver of that universe.”
So in short, when scientists say that what exists is changed by viewing it, they are saying that consciousness controls the universe, or at least our view of it.
Dr. Lanza also says that life is not a product of the universe, but its source. It is not a fortunate coincidence that much of the universe seems to be constructed to support human life. It is human lives that are making it, specifically, the consciousness of all of humanity.
Evidence of Biocentrism
From Water
Dr. Masuro Emoto conducted many experiments into the effects of negative and positive ideas on water. His experiments showed that when water was sent negative thoughts such as “I hate you,” it would form misshapen crystals when frozen. If sent positive thoughts, the crystals would form beautiful geometric shapes. These experiments showed two things. One, our consciousness effects water. Two, water has consciousness of a sort or it couldn’t have reacted to thoughts.
From Plants
Another similar kind of experiment involves talking to plants. After years of study, it is now largely accepted that talking to plants can make them grow better. The question is “Why?”
From one article on the subject:
“There are a few theories as to why scientists believe talking may help plants grow. One theory is that the carbon dioxide we breathe on the plants while talking to them helps growth, but there is very little supporting evidence for that. Another theory is that talking causes vibrations and scientists “have found evidence that plants do react to a number of environmental stimuli in which they rely on for survival, this includes vibrations.” (ProFlowers) Since vibrations have been found to stimulate plants, it would make sense that vibrations from speaking can have a positive impact on the growth of plants.”
I know that some experiments were done years ago where the person talking to the plant was not anywhere near the plant. In some cases, they were looking at a photo of the plant located miles away. Yet the plants used still grew better when sent positive thoughts in the form of speech. This shows that it isn’t either of the theories mentioned above that is causing the change. What this article missed is the idea of Biocentric Consciousness. Consciousness is all linked, all one, so conscious thought in one place can change something far away because consciousness exists outside of the limits of space and time.
From A Near-Death Experience
Dr. Eben Alexander had a Near Death Experience (NDE), which he describes in detail in his book “Proof of Heaven”. I’m not going to delve into the NDE experience in any detail in this article, I have covered it elsewhere. The important part of this article is the state of Dr. Aleaxander’s brain when it occurred. He had a severe brain infection that put him into a deep coma, so he was essentially, non-conscious. So deep, that it was as if his brain, other than the most primitive parts that control basics such as breathing, were not functioning at all. Yet Dr. Aleaxander had some powerful experiences in the place he visited during his NDE and remembers it. This is proof that his consciousness continued to function just fine without the brain. Here is a quote from his book.
”Each one of us is more familiar with consciousness than we are with anything else, and yet we understand far more about the rest of the universe than we do about the mechanism of consciousness. It is so close to home that it is almost forever beyond our grasp. There is nothing about the physics of the materials world … that gives the slightest clue as to the mechanism of consciousness.
“In fact, the greatest clue to the reality of the spiritual realm is this profound mystery of our conscious existence. … To truly study the universe on a deep level, we must acknowledge the fundamental role of consciousness in painting reality.”
Consciousness is much more than another name for the mind, or a simple creation of the brain. It is beginning to be seen that Consciousness is the creative power of the universe, and there is but one Consciousness that we all tap into and are a part of.
Summary
So you can see that consciousness is much more than another name for the mind, or a simple creation of the brain, or the result of brain activity. One must be careful not to confuse what is called the conscious mind with consciousness. While there are many theories that try to answer the question: “What is consciousness?” those theories are moving away from putting consciousness only in the brain or the psyche. Although consciousness is connected with the cortex, it is more like the brain is a receiver of consciousness rather than its origin. Articles in Psychology today relate information processing with consciousness, but that doesn’t mean it comes from the cortex of the brain. It is beginning to be seen that Consciousness is the creative power of the universe, and there is but one Consciousness that we all tap into and are a part of, and the function of consciousness is to create that which we think is reality. So consciousness correlates with the universe as the universe is just consciousness. It is not part of the brain, but the brain links to it. Neuroscientists are beginning to understand this. Spiritual scientists have known it for a long time.
In regard to aspects of consciousness, Consciousness is typically taken to have two aspects: local states (see Glossary) and global states. Local states of consciousness include perceptual experiences of various kinds, imagery experiences, bodily sensations, affective experiences, and occurrent thoughts. Global states of consciousness are multidimensional phenomena that capture the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of consciousness.
Wikipedia says: “The neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) refer to the relationships between mental states and neural states and constitute the minimal set of neuronal events and mechanisms sufficient for a specific conscious percept. Neuroscientists use empirical approaches to discover neural correlates of subjective phenomena; that is, neural changes which necessarily and regularly correlate with a specific experience.” But then adds: “Discovering and characterizing neural correlates does not offer a causal theory of consciousness that can explain how particular systems experience anything, the so-called hard problem of consciousness.
Studies of cognitive science now say that while cognition and consciousness overlap, they are not the same thing.
Panpsychism is the doctrine or belief that everything material, however small, has an element of individual consciousness. It is becoming more accepted all the time.
There are many levels of consciousness or states of consciousness, and our goal in spiritual development is to reach a higher order of consciousness. And consciousness isn’t exclusively for human beings. All living things connect to some level of consciousness. Some will think that the nature of consciousness means that we don’t have free will, but that is not true. It is true that free will is more limited than many believe. So consciousness is not simply one of our mental states. The nature of consciousness is universal, indeed, it is more than universal, it is multi-dimensional.