Peter Eastham: The Inside Out Paradigm – A New Theory of Consciousness

The inside out theory of consciousness states that everything in the universe is comprised of an inner world of information (consciousness) and an outer world of energy/matter (the physical universe). From the time of Galileo, science has only told half the story since the subjective first person perspective was excluded in favour of the objective third person perspective. I explain how and why it is vital to put psyche back into the scientific world view as there is always a cosmic dance between the inner and the outer, the knower and the known, the subject and the object. I will describe cosmic consciousness and the ultimate ground of being. On the inside the knower becomes (in)formed i.e. information orders, creates and makes things less random (entropy decreases). On the outside the known physical world follows the arrow of time or the 2^nd law of thermodynamics. Things become (ex)formed i.e. external forms (energy/matter) disintegrate, disorder and become more random (entropy increases). I will consider the role of entropy in information theory, brain imaging during psychedelic experiences and brain entropy during the first months of life (the near birth experience). I develop a dual aspect monism conjectured by Carl Jung with quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli to suggest how we might move away from the exclusively bottom up reductionist paradigm toward a more rigorously scientific top down or ‘inside out’ theory of consciousness which describes the flow of information both within and beyond the body/brain.

Peter Eastham is a psychologist who has spent most of his career working for the NHS as a psychotherapist. He has been involved in psychical research, transpersonal psychology and was awarded a PhD in archaeology. Peter is currently writing a book on consciousness.