“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” – Albert Einstein.
I’ve been thinking and wanting to write about Consciousness for some time now – what is it, where does it come from, and how does it shape our reality, if at all? Few questions are as mysterious or fascinating. Scientists, philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual traditions all describe it in different ways. Are our thoughts, feelings, emotions, awareness, and sense of self created entirely within our brains? Or is the brain more like a receiver that “tunes into” a consciousness that exists outside the body? One aspect of this puzzle that most agree on is that objective reality exists independent of our subjective experiences, which are dependent on our minds.
So, what is consciousness? Researchers describe it in several layers. There’s phenomenal consciousness, which is our raw subjective experience through the five senses – what it feels like to see color or taste food. There’s access consciousness, which refers to the parts of experience that we can reflect on, describe, and use in decision-making by focusing on cognitive utility. There’s self-awareness, which is the sense of being “me.” Last but not least, there are the unconscious and subconscious layers – deeper layers of the human mind beneath conscious awareness – such as memories, urges, muscle memory, and automatic responses that constantly influence behavior. These varied definitions highlight the complexity of consciousness that is deeply tied to the brain, yet not fully explained by biological processes alone.
The strongest evidence for biological processes is that physical damage to the brain and chemical substances can alter consciousness. For instance, prefrontal cortex injuries can alter personality and decision-making. LSD and other drugs can induce psychological effects that alter perception, mood, and thought. There are also instances where, after someone suffers a brain injury, they can do amazing things that they couldn’t before – music, math, languages. In a way, they were able to access other dimensions of consciousness because of the result of physical injury, which precisely changes experience. Moreover, modern tools like the EEG and fMRI observe neural activity patterns that correspond to thoughts, perceptions, and emotions. In some cases, intentions can even sometimes be predicted milliseconds before a person becomes aware of them. Finally, we have all heard stories of near-death and out-of-body experiences in which the person sees a tunnel, bright light, euphoria, and a sense of separation, which could be explained by hypoxia, surges of brain activity, and REM intrusion, like sleep paralysis. However, science still cannot fully account for experiences in which someone who’s supposedly under anesthesia and not actively conscious could describe in accurate detail what happened while they were under. This leads to the possibility of the non-local model that views consciousness as fundamental, with different dimensions that our minds could theoretically access and perhaps tap into, like a collective consciousness.
In Dan Brown’s new novel, “The Secret of Secrets,” he introduces the field of Noetic science, which posits that our brain is like a receiver that can tune to different dimensions of consciousness, similar to how our eyes can only see, process, and interpret a limited part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This theory could account for the geniuses of human beings like Newton and Einstein – they were somehow able to access and see those other dimensions that are fundamental and universal. Another notable perspective is that throughout history, meditation traditions such as those from Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and Vedanta, among others, describe consciousness as almost a pure capacity of awareness – independent of thoughts, emotions, and sensory input. People who practice yoga, prayer, and spiritual traditions will tell you that they are able to attain a higher level of clarity in consciousness and can create a sense of connection to others, the universe, or even a divine deity. Whether or not God exists, people’s spiritual experience contributes to a richer sense of conscious awareness.
So, where does this leave us? While some models see consciousness as created by our brain, others see it as something our brain filters. What we can agree on is that consciousness is still a central mystery and probably more complex than any model can explain, but it is something to explore through both scientific and introspective methods.
“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.” – Lao Tzu.
What do I know 