Carl Gunther: Memory and Mind Emerging from the Growing Block Universe

Slides of the presentation can be found here.

The workings of the mind and memory have remained a black hole of scientific understanding. Exactly how do images of past events reappear in our consciousness? What builds a monarch butterfly’s delicate body and directs its migration thousands of miles to a remote spot in the mountains of Mexico? How does perceptual memory tell us the red orb in our hand is an apple that is good to eat? Science provides no clear mechanisms.

Memory, in the broadest sense, is life’s unified structure of both body and mind. The great physicist Erwin Schrodinger was so baffled by life’s fantastic organization he concluded it is a force ignored by modern science. To seek an answer, we turn to modern physics’ perplexing multidimensional realm of the Growing Block Universe where the past never disappears. Here we find a compelling source for memory’s hyperdimensional structures. As we probe deep into memory’s unified forms, the domain of the nonphysical Mind which manifests our waking and dream worlds becomes vividly clear. The riddle of memory decisively frames the mystery of the nonphysical Mind, a question that mankind has pondered since the times of Plato and Aristotle.

Carl Gunther has wondered about the nature of reality from his earliest memory. The power of scientific explanation drew him to study chemistry and biology at Boston University in the cultural turmoil of the early 1970’s.  But the limitations of scientific explanation to explain the living world and the products of human accomplishment were frustratingly clear. He continued in chemistry at Georgetown University for an MS before getting an MBA at Cornell University and worked for a period at the US Environmental Protection Agency. His interests and careers have extended into broad sections of society. He was at Woodstock, a Boston cabbie, hitchhiked several times across the United States, delved into the human potential movement, was a commercial real estate broker, and most recently taught high school chemistry. His passions include writing, hiking, piano, extreme gardening, carpentry, travel, and his family. He lives outside of Washington, DC.

In a quest for a coherent understanding for life and the mind, he made an extensive search through Georgetown University’s library to find a concise, “scientific” argument. This led to the book, The Vital Dimension, that builds on Erwin Schrodinger’s bafflement at life’s molecular organization. The book was revised and entitled Mind Memory Time. His current book, Chasing Memory, continues this exploration into memory and the nonphysical Mind.
His email is [email protected] and website is https://www.carlgunther.com