What is consciousness?

Preliminary reflections by an earthling in our time of transformation

What is consciousness?

This is one of the most challenging questions facing humans. Why? Because it deals with the very essence of being (ontology), being a human being (anthropology) and how we know what we know (epistemology). The perspective of this preliminary reflection is that being is without exception relational and interdependent which are conditions and dynamics of consciousness. Thich Nhat Hanh calls this interbeing.

In full transparency, a human reader must be aware that this post was composed by a human writer from the perspective of multiple-reflective consciousness found in the earthling human animal species and is being read from the same perspective.  

Let us review the evolutionary journey of consciousness.

Today, astrophysics and cosmology tell us that for 13.8 billion years everything has been and continues to be related and interdependent due to a common initiation event (the big bang or whatever), a singular evolutionary journey (cosmogenesis), universal forms such as subatomic particles, stars, black holes, planets, and molecules, and ubiquitous forces including gravity, energy, light, dark matter, and matter.

Quantum physics shows us that across vast distances subatomic particles can become entangled and in relationship, a form of quantum consciousness. Subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, cells, and organs are all in dynamic relationship and mutually causal interdependence, as are organisms, plants, animals, soil, water, air, ecosystems, human society, planet Earth, the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, webs of galaxies, and other systems throughout the universe.

To be is to be embedded in a vibratory dance of consciousness with all other beings as holons within holons from subatomic particles to strings of galaxies. We humans experience ourselves and our consciousness as meso (in the middle) between macro and micro spacetime.

Water (1 hydrogen 2 oxygen) is responsive to and interacts with gravity, heat, cold, dryness, elevation, soil, minerals, wind, sunlight, sound, vibration, plants, animals, and more. This is an example of elemental consciousness also found in soil, air, wind, and fire. Masaru Emoto’s experiments have shown that water responds to positive or negative human speech by forming different patterns of water molecules. We may recall that the human brain is eighty percent water and the human body is sixty percent water.

Plants are aware of, interact with, and are responsive to gravity, sunlight, heat, cold, pain, water, drought, soil nutrients, wind, viruses, insects, other plants, animals, and more. This is plant consciousness. Some types of trees, for example, can recognize the root tips of their kin and send them carbon through mycorrhizal networks. Some experiments have shown that plants respond to positive or negative human speech by shrinking or flourishing.

Animal consciousness includes awareness, cognition, perceiving, observing, feeling, listening, reacting, reflecting, imagining, understanding, a sense of being an entity or self, responding, communicating, pattern creation, displaying beauty, empathizing, protecting, caring, deciding, acting, killing, eating, sexual activity, giving birth, parental behavior, sickness, death, and more. Mammalian animals, e.g., primates, dolphins, elephants, and humans, seem to exhibit higher levels of empathic and caring consciousness and behavior than other types of animals.  

In the mammalian human animal (homo sapiens sapiens), there are additional dimensions and functions of consciousness of experiencing being a self, reading language, speaking, writing, abstract thinking, analytical thinking, synthetic thinking, mathematical thinking, artistic creation, technological invention, contemplation, meditation, prayer, wisdom, altruism, compassion, and more.

In humans and in some other animals, there is an additional dimension of consciousness of being aware of their awareness, or self-awareness. And with humans there seems to be a further dimension of consciousness of being aware of being conscious of their awareness – multiple, reflective consciousness.

This begs the question of a self. Is there a self, an entity of individualized consciousness? If so, what is it is nature? If not, then how does consciousness function?

There are also theories and metaphysics that postulate that consciousness precedes and is embedded in existence, that the universe itself is a neural network, and that a brain is a type of receiver/processor composed sixty percent of fat and, as stated earlier, eighty percent of water.

Teilhard de Chardin identified an envelope of consciousness around our planet which he called the noosphere. After millennia of migration, creation of cities, far flung empires, the invention of writing, agriculture, printing, exploration, and much more, the noosphere has grown even more complex in the past century with international air travel, mass media, radio, telephone, television, computers, the internet, social media, quantum physics, long range telescopes, space exploration, and more.

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) are adding new dimensions to consciousness. We can now not only be conscious of what is happening everywhere around this planet in real time, and in other parts of the universe relative to the speed of light but can also access knowledge from thousands of years of human experience, thinking, writing, and invention, and create an infinite number of permutations of information, imagery, stories, opinions, and valuations.

In the years ahead, artificial general intelligence (AGI) will indeed increase by billions of times the scope and complexity of consciousness and conscious action in ways never before imagined, including the dominance of silicon- based AGI with its hyperintelligence and connectivity over carbon-based human consciousness with both positive and negative impacts.

The most confused and dangerous illusions affecting consciousness are human beliefs in the separateness, autonomy, and permanence of phenomena, and in the existence of a separate, independent, permanent self as the locus of consciousness. This delusion denies the essence of consciousness found in relatedness, interdependence, mutual causality, and impermanence, and sets the egoic self in a dangerous battle of self-protection and self-exaltation driven by fear, anger, hatred, pride, and greed causing great harm to other beings.

Those who control the instruments of collective consciousness and culture are often more able to control humanity and the destiny of consciousness. The wealthy and the powerful attempt to control collective and individual consciousness through their control of corporations, the economy, technology, AI, culture, media, entertainment, education, religion, and government.

Confused collective consciousness in 2023 gives rise to fake news, cultism, belief in a two-story universe, viewing the Earth as endless resources, belief and practice of private ownership, belief in technological saviorism, the religion of consumerism, capitalism, profit for a few, and endless extraction and production, corporatocracy, racism, misogyny, perpetual warfare, privilege and elitism, and the belief in the inevitability of poverty.

Science shows us that the observer affects observation, i.e., subjective consciousness affects and appears to alter or create objective reality. This is because of the role of perspective, e.g., viewpoint and assumptions, and the role of perception, e.g., sensory, narrow, wide, enhanced, imaginative, empathic, abstracted, intuitive, or whatever. The most profound example of this may be with humans viewing and defining consciousness only from the perspective of human self-consciousness.

Scientific consciousness results from empirical observation, analytical testing, and interpretation. Religious fundamentalist consciousness is the result of a strongly held belief or set of beliefs (doctrines). The consciousness of a racist is determined by incorrect assumptions (biases) about groups of people based on skin color. The consciousness of a misogynist is formed by feelings (biases) of dislike or fear of women.

Each academic discipline, e.g., history, philosophy, physics, biology, economics, sociology, or psychology, creates a different consciousness or way of viewing reality by focusing on a limited set of phenomena.

Popular culture offers many different views of what is real, important, or ethical. Fake news supports incorrect and often harmful views or awareness.

What then is real? What is true? What is just? What is fair? What is kind? What is sustainable?  

Mindfulness is a human practice of focusing attention on the here and the now, whether in breathing, sitting, eating, walking, or whatever. In that awareness there is no separation of subject and object but rather the reality of dwelling in the miracle of interbeing. This practice can foster a deeper sense of what is real, true, just, fair, or sustainable.

If we become trapped in confused consciousness of separation and permanence and of being a separate, permanent self, negative emotions of greed, pride, fear, anger, and hatred will result in actions that harm other humans, other species, and the ecosystems of the living Earth.

Compassionate consciousness can give rise to compassionate actions. If we humans are aware of suffering and have a deep commitment to relieve suffering, then we will engage in actions to relieve suffering in all beings everywhere. Collective compassionate consciousness can give rise to the creation of a compassionate civilization of ecological regeneration and social justice. May it be so.

What stands out for you from the above? How does it make you feel? What are your questions about consciousness? What is your story about consciousness? What difference does this make in your daily living?

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Postscript: 1) I hope to expand the brief reflections above as a chapter in a forthcoming book on Interbecoming: An Earthling’s Reflections In a Time of Transformation. And 2) Today, August 1st, is the sixth anniversary of the publication of my first book, A Compassionate Civilization: The Urgency of Sustainable Development and Mindful Activism - Reflections and Recommendations, and the first day of my eightieth year on planet Earth in this present incarnation. Gratitude and blessings to all.