The Mystery of Consciousness: Neuroscience Offers New Insights

By the end of the 19th century, physicists were almost unanimous in their belief that Newton’s laws had explained all of the observable behavior of the universe. But then experimentation began to open up more understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum, & things became more complex. Einstein was able to produce the amazing feat of Relativity Theory which subsumed & expanded Newtonian physics, & things got far less confusing. But almost immediately, experiments to determine the fundamental nature of electricity, & its relationship to radio waves, threw everything into confusion again.

It was unclear from the performance of electricity, in the real world, whether electrons were particles or waves. These concepts are mutually exclusive, so an experiment could be devised to measure the particle properties of electrons, & a different one for their wave properties. Both kinds of experiments were performed, & the particle experiments proved that electrons are particles, & the wave experiments proved that they are waves. Very confusing. At this point, a very simple & “primitive” solution would have been to consider that electrons had consciousness sufficient to decide to express themselves as waves, in wave conditions, or as particles in particle conditions. But since this straight forward approach sounds too mystical, a whole new branch of physics was invented, that can mathematically account for electrons being simultaneously both, in the form of something called a quanta, that has a shifting probability of behaving like a particle, or a wave, depending on external conditions–possibly including the intentions of the experimenter observing them.

Although Quantum Mechanics has been very successful at mathematically explaining the otherwise illogical, it has always involved a “don’t think about it too hard, just calculate” philosophy. And almost since its inception, its holy grail has been to find some sort of unifying force that could unite it with Relativity Theory & Newtonian mechanics. Currently, huge sums of money, vast amounts of energy, & countless man hours of data scanning & advanced calculation are being spent to find something called a Higgs boson, which if verified, would unite one segment of Quantum Mechanics, & supposedly bring it one small step closer to a unified field theory.

But, I suspect that fundamental reality rests in the ancient mystical belief, shared by many spiritual traditions, that the entire universe, from the smallest sub nuclear interactions, to the most awesome events in the cosmos, is an expression of a single unifying consciousness. If one allows that an electron taps into sufficient consciousness to make one of two possible choices, & that by acting in cooperation with each other, as they clearly do, that the total aggregate of accessed consciousness increases according to how many electrons are cooperating, & how complex that cooperation is, much of the mystery of the universe is explained. The cooperation between electrons & atomic nuclei, give atoms more complexity of behavior than free electrons. The electron sharing between atoms to form molecules leads to even more complex possible behaviors. Complex long chain molecules can do more than simple molecules. But even simple molecules, by way of electron interchange, can organize themselves into even more complex crystals. And long chain molecules can organize themselves into living beings, with brains, that become more complex & conscious with the increased electron activity occurring between neural connections.

I think that a unified field theory could take as its starting point, the assignment of a mathematical value to the consciousness of an electron, & go on from there. Quarks, neutrinos, bosons, & all of that might wind up being assigned fractions of the consciousness of an electron, or all sub atomic particles may access equivalent consciousness. But until physicists get past their fear of the metaphysical, & consider that consciousness is a physical fact, & is not necessarily limited to life forms (especially since the line between what is alive & what is just organic chemistry is becoming increasingly blurred), a working “theory of everything” will elude them.

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Truly fascinating. I find it amazing when science confirms what we already intuit to be true and that is the profound connection between mind and body. I think this is a great explanation of the individual experience of consciousness and perception. To expand on that, Richard, from the previous post, has got it right on in regards to a collective consciousness and how that is explained as a whole system.

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Do you have, or used to have another blog, Mary? I’m sure I have read post on similiar topic long time ago, but this one is far more comprehensive!
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