This is a segment where we are featuring the work of one of our professional affiliates, Lorna Green. See here for a collection of her published works on our website.
Consciousness, this New Principle
Part 3:
A Rewrite of Modern Science and the Scientific Image of Nature
1. Rewriting modern Science itself.
Whitehead considered the laws of physics to be a description of the habits of matter. And he believed that biology, far from being reducible to physics and chemistry, would one day revolutionize physics itself, with its concepts of organism. I propose to rewrite even the concepts of organism, and all of its causalities, in terms of Consciousness.
I am proposing to re-conceptualize the concepts of matter, the basic concept of the whole of science, in terms of Consciousness, and with it re-conceptualizing science. And so, I offer a rewrite of many concepts of present-day science. I am proposing the term Consciousness as the true basis of the Universe, and of all Universes, and the right fundamental term.
To accommodate this new view of things, physics needs to revise just one concept: Energy, all energy contains Consciousness, that Idea alone will change our world forever. It is Consciousness that makes energy intelligent, know what it is doing. Physics at present is two termed matter/energy, it needs to become three termed matter/energy/Consciousness recognizing that Consciousness is the most basic term of all.
Sir James Jeans, twentieth century astronomer: The more we understand it, the more the Universe resembles a vast thought, than a vast machine.
Stephen Hocking once thought that physics would be over by the end of his lifetime. Well, his own theories of black holes are now undergoing major revisions. And physics has finally reached the starting gate.
Shortly before his death in the 1960’s, Robert Oppenheimer had a vision of a revolution in physics, and not in particle physics. Well, here it is, with this term Consciousness.
Physicists have never been interested in Consciousness but have always assumed that it would somehow “fall out of” the physical description. Well, it will not just fall out of the physical description, it will enable a major rewrite of the physical description itself.
And so, Roger Penrose: There must be something that we have overlooked, some other perspective…I say: Yes Roger, it is our own Consciousness, and its significance for the greater Universe of which we are a part.
And Roger goes on to say: If physics is to advance in the twenty first century, as it has in the twentieth century, it will require powerful new concepts of a completely different kind…and I say: Yes Roger, and here is the first of them, this term Consciousness that will change our understanding of the Universe Forever.
And so, to put it in a nutshell: The whole of science both Physics and the Life Sciences, founders on “the problem of Consciousness,” because it cannot be explained by any scientific principles and points to a completely new view of the Universe as I am presenting it here.
And so: A sketch of some of its implications.
There is only one basic term for all Universes, Consciousness existing in two modes: Consciousness in Form and Consciousness Formless. Consciousness is the common denominator of every Universe, both physical and purely spiritual.
The speed of light is not as Einstein claimed the same in every Universe, or even in our own, it varies with the density of the medium. The speed of light also appears to be an upper limit on how fast things can happen, that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. The truth is that Consciousness travels faster than the speed of light, things happen instantaneously.
And so here are some new ideas:
a. Physics at present is two termed, matter and energy, it needs to be three termed, matter, energy and Consciousness.
b. The forces: Newton considers the forces to be animating principles of bodies, pushes and pulls. What pushes? What pulls? The forces are “shades and silhouettes” of the Real, an expression and a direction in Consciousness.
And so, what of mechanistic explanation? Whitehead: The only way to mitigate mechanism is to show that it is not mechanism. What we are actually seeing, and looking at in mechanistic explanation, are interactions between different forms of Consciousness. When Consciousness meets Consciousness, there is a charge.
c. Mathematics? The simplest kind of order, as a child crawls before it walks.
d. The dark matter of space, 97% of all of the energy in the Universe: It is the energy of infinite spiritual Universes, showing up in the interstices of our own. There are other Universes in our own living rooms.
e. Unified field theory? When physicists have it they will have a description, not an explanation, of the flotsam and jetsam of the Universe, the truth will have eluded them, sneaked out the back door.
f. The Penrose triangle: What are the relationships between matter, mind, and mathematics? The basic term for the Universe is Consciousness, matter is an expression of Consciousness, mind is a specialization of Consciousness. And mathematics? It all depends on the status of numbers.
Galileo: And god made the intergerns. There is a deep question of causality about numbers, and what is really making things happen. Does mathematics create the bright spirits of birds animals and plants? Or do the bright spirits of living beings make us of mathematics?
Galileo thought that numbers were the most basic term for the Universe. My take on things is that the term Consciousness is the basic term, that numbers are a representation of Consciousness.
I would say numbers are concepts in Consciousness.
g. What are we looking at in the quantum world? Richard Feynman: Anyone who claims to understand the quantum world is either a liar or crazy.
The quantum world is simple, we are looking at Consciousness going in and out of physical form, stepped down from purely spiritual reality, from greater degrees of freedom into less degrees of freedom. We are in fact, looking at the interface between our three-dimensional Cartesian world and the wider and greater, richer Consciousness Universe.
h. Max Plank’s “pixels of reality,” —little bits of reality, now there’s a concept, hard to come by these days! This theory dates from the early 20th century, and is now growing more complicated by the day, and therefore badly in need of revision.
C. S. Pearce, proposed that the basic units of the Universe are mental, not physical, that physical reality is really composed of mental units “congealed.” This is not a happy term, suggesting as it does, cold porridge.
The true basic units of the Universe are Consciousness units, Consciousness vibrations. All physical reality is composed of myriads of minute forms of Consciousness, endowed with all the properties of Consciousness.
If physicists could understand that basic units in the Universe are more like selves, and not things, they would have less difficulty in understanding it. The dazzling radiance of the quantum world owes to the fact we are looking at the most basic elements of matter and the basic elements of Consciousness interacting.
And now, something needs to be said about ideas. The Universe picture I am spelling out is that Universe the mystics know. They know this Universe as a fish understands water. And so, here is what the mystics say is “a likely story.” The fundamental units of the Universe are Consciousness vibrations, endowed with Consciousness Love Frequency and Vibration.
“Like units of Consciousness” “dance together” “to see what they can make.” Bundles of like vibrations are ideas, ideas have the intent to manifest, and they do, be it in physical, or purely spiritual realities. And so, ideas emerge out of the fundamental properties of Consciousness itself, but they bring with them new capabilities.
Consciousness is the stuff of the Universe, organized and focused through ideas. And if we attend to our own Consciousness, with the right questions, we can learn a great deal about how ideas work, organizing our own Consciousness, and our lives.
Science has a place for mathematical ideas, as representations of Consciousness. But there are all kinds of other ideas as well—justice, Love, ethics, freewill, and so. And some ideas give rise to other ideas, a unique property among ideas.
i. And so, here is a brave bold and beautiful principle, a simple single and unifying principle, that will make sense of just about everything, a shift as basic as the shift that Copernicus made. It will enable an incredible gain in simplicity, clarity, and intelligibility. And so, the fundamental units of reality are as Aristotle hoped “transparent to intellect.”
Modern science is a mountain of discordant detail and anomalous facts, epicycles of every kind. And this new Universe picture can accommodate all the data of modern science—the paranormal, Jung’s synchronicities, Rupert Sheldrake’s morphogenetic field, Dean Radin’s “Entangled Minds,” Bruce Lipton’s findings, that what we carry in our Consciousness determines how stem cells differentiate. And it may account for the fact that the word Love, written on a glass of water changes the crystalline structure.
j. And, of course, reincarnation, together with the near-death experience, a great interest to many people these days. Reincarnation is a process whereby one Consciousness (self, soul) takes on bodies again and again, and lays them down, wholly impossible in the prevailing material Universe picture. The scientific evidence for reincarnation is increasing on all sides. But the real question is: What does reincarnation really mean? For Ourselves? And for the Universe? Stay tuned.
2. The New Scientific Image of Nature.
The human race has never gotten the Earth right, and now we must. For the Earth is the true foundation of civilization. We must get the Earth right and get ourselves right with one another. This term Consciousness is the key to getting the Earth right.
When we re-conceptualize Descartes concept of matter, and that of modern science, we re-conceptualize the Earth, and our ways of relating to the Earth… And so, this new image of nature: The present scientific image of nature, as something devoid of Consciousness, simply matter and mechanics, is driving the destruction of the planet, and driving us all insane. It is ultimately false, and it needs to change.
The trees, the animals, around us, they are not “things, consumer items, commodities and resources” to be converted into money in the bank. They are living conscious spiritual beings, like ourselves. Living beings have needs, needs to be honored and respected, nurtured and cared for, to be loved. Let the barriers we have placed between us go down, and the more we can realize how like us they are, the harder it will be to do them all in. Take a look at Beyond Words: What Animals Feel and Think, as a place to begin working out these ideas.
This new scientific image of nature: Nature, the Earth, consists of interacting systems of Consciousness, Consciousness within Consciousness, within Consciousness. And how does it all work? Consciousness functions by a kind of alignment, my Consciousness is aligning the Consciousness of neurons in the brain, mainly from the top down, or interactive, but not reduction to the purely physical forces.
All the true causalities and the explanatory principles of the Universe belong to Consciousness, and not matter. Consciousness is not something produced by matter, Consciousness is the source of matter, Consciousness is the “very stuff of the Universe.”
And so, just what are the neurons up to? Neurons are somehow carrying Consciousness, not producing it, and neural networks accommodate the field properties of Consciousness.
And so, the key: Just what is a neuron? Everything, every being in the Universe, small and great, has Consciousness, and that includes the neurons. The hard problem of Consciousness was hard, because we could not see how two such very different things, matter and Consciousness, could work together, how ideas could be reduced to physics and chemistry.
The neurons are conscious, like all beings, and so, my Consciousness interacts with the Consciousness of neurons, of cells in general, and the Consciousness of molecules and atoms. Here is a completely new concept of causality, and explanation.
David Chalmers: The causality between mind and brain is a two-way street, the mind affects brain, the brain affects the mind. This new principle, Consciousness, is the only way to overcome Cartesian dualism, the mind/brain problem, and every other dichotomy as well.
And so, there are not two different things, mind and brain, but there is only one, and one explanatory principle, Consciousness. My Consciousness is aligning the Consciousness of neurons, of other cells in the body, of molecules and atoms. Throughout Consciousness interacting with Consciousness and with it, completely new concepts of causality, and explanation, challenging the whole reductive explanatory and deterministic edifice of modern science, the materialist model for reality created in the 19th and 20th centuries. This materialist model has run its course, it has brought us to the brink of our own extinction, it is a false theory, it needs to be replaced with the truth.
3. And now, Descartes.
Descartes laid the thought foundations for modern science and the whole of the modern world, in a couple of nights, when he was travelling with the Army, and found himself stranded in a foreign town, in a bare room lit by a candle, with nothing to do but think. It isn’t clear that “modern professional philosophers,” with their grants, their reputations, their coteries of students, can do any better.
Descartes considered clear and distinct ideas a sign of truth, and he surely had them. If we can be clear about the basic issues, it owes to the fact that Descartes was so clear.
Now I tell you something about Descartes you may not know. In the Mediations, Descartes was a dualist, but there are minds and bodies, and he spent a great deal of his time on how they interact.
But Descartes’ Age, and the following 300 years through this present moment, has been high on “Cartesianisms,” on Descartes’ concept of matter as simply the weighable and the measurable. And now this concept has truly run its course. It brought ourselves and the planet to the brink of extinction, and it needs to change. The human race has been trying to “control matter.” The planet is not “matter,” but living conscious spiritual beings like ourselves.
And by the end of his life, Descartes knew the truth. Descartes guided his whole life by his vivid dreams. Toward the end of his life, he had this dream: He saw the Universe as a huge machine, and in the center of this machine, propelling the whole, was Consciousness.
Out of the shades and shadows and into the light of day.
And so, stay tuned!
