Consciousness, Mind and Ethical Values: A Scientific Approach | - Dr. G. Alagar Ramanujam
Consciousness, Mind and Ethical Values: A Scientific Approach
-
Dr. G. Alagar Ramanujam,
Email:gravity2003@gmail.com
Introduction:
Consciousness is a familiar word
both with philosophers and the scientists, but it lacks a precise definition.
Since ancient times, many thinkers worldwide have pondered over questions like:
What is Consciousness? What is mind? What is the relationship between the two?
Historically, this discussion has been in the domain of philosophers. In
today’s world, however, Consciousness is also being addressed more frequently
by physicists, cognitive scientists and neuroscientists.
Currently, there are a few theories
at the forefront that address Consciousness. Many of them focus on the premise
that Consciousness arises in the brain. A couple of them, like the Integrated Information
Theory (IIT) and the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) have developed
sophisticated models and theories using insights from philosophy, psychology, computer science, and
neuroscience, to
formalize how the brain implements Consciousness. The two approaches differ
primarily in their level of conceptual abstraction and anatomical specificity.
Physicist Roger Penrose and noted anaesthesiologist Stuart Hammeroff have
constructed an Orchestrated Reduction Theory of mind. It is a biological theory
of mind that postulates that Consciousness originates at the quantum levels
inside the neurons rather than the conventional view that it is a product of
connections between the neurons.
A theory that also appears to be
gaining ground in scientific circles is that the entire universe is inhabited
by Consciousness (Panpsychism). In some physics circles, the prevailing theory
is that there is a “Proto-Conscious” which is an invisible field that inhabits
our universe. John Wheeler postulates that every piece of matter contains a bit
of Consciousness, which it absorbs from this Proto-Conscious field. Thus, when
a particle absorbs Consciousness from the proto-field, the concept becomes
dualistic in character with the particle as one entity and the proto-field the
other. This raises additional questions regarding the source of this
proto-field and the evolutionary connection between the particle and the proto-field.
Certain
Indian Philosophical systems are of the view that Consciousness is an attribute
of the all-pervading Primordial source of the universe with Energy being the
other attribute of it. Every particle of the universe is considered as an excited or manifest state of the all -pervading
Consciousness-Energy medium (CEM). Every particle, due to its inherent spinning
excites a wave in the all pervading Consciousness – Energy medium. Thus CE
medium manifests in two ways. First as a
spinning particle and then as a wave in itself.
Every system in the universe is of
and by the CE medium. Energy makes the system function, while Consciousness of the
system manifests as its “order of function.” In other words, that by which a
system functions is called its energy, and that due to which its functional
order arises is called its Consciousness. In science the functional order is
called a law. It’s ironic that we humans recognize the person who discovers a
law that is already existing but never think of crediting the Consciousness
which became the law. There is no system in the universe without energy and it
is equally true that there exists no system without Consciousness.
Consciousness of a system manifests
as the functional order associated with that system. A scientist tries to
understand that order and then tries to express it in a mathematical language.
That expression is termed by him as the “Law of Nature.” It’s conceivable,
however, that the mathematical expression may not completely reveal the
functional order either due to the limitation of the mathematical language used
or by the subjective limitation of the scientist’s preconceived notions.
In the evolutionary process of the
universe, the twin principles of Energy and Consciousness remain inseparable
and undifferentiated in the journey from primordial substance to a living being.
Consciousness is not just a passive phenomenon but an active agent forcing the
systems to obey a particular order. When you look at the structure of an atom,
the first (lowest) orbit will have a maximum of only two electrons. If you have
a third electron, it can only go to the second orbit as something prevents it
from occupying the first orbit. That something is nothing but the collective
Consciousness of the electrons that prevents the third electron from occupying
the same first orbit. A scientist expresses this behaviour as a law. Thus, a
law in physics is nothing but an expression of the functional order in a system
designed by the Consciousness.
When we say every system is of
Consciousness, we mean that the material cause of the system is Consciousness.
When we say that every system is by Consciousness, we mean that Consciousness
is also the efficient cause of the system.
Present-day physics takes the energy
of a particle into account but not the Consciousness associated with that
particle.
Consciousness
is the natural rhythm guiding,
regulating, and maintaining everything in the universe in an appropriate and
specific pattern, precision, and regularity. Pattern refers to the structural
form. Precision means the character and the quality of that structure.
Regularity implies the timing in the functional order of existence. Thus, from
the energy particle up to all its associated states, such as stars and all
celestial bodies of inanimate nature, Consciousness manifests itself as “Order
of Function” along with the principles of Pattern, Precision and Regularity.
The Origin Of Life
Life is a mysterious phenomenon in
the universe. As the universe grows and evolves, the emergence of living beings
with lifeforce or bio-current is a significant development in the
transformation process of the CE medium. Let us discuss in detail what exactly
we mean by lifeforce or bio-current in a living organism.
The physical body of a living system
is made of five elements: solid, liquid, air, heat, and fundamental particles.
There are four circulations in our body, namely blood circulation, heat
circulation, air circulation and circulation of fundamental particles. We are
all familiar with the first three circulations. The medical knowledge available
today helps us to maintain only the first three circulations at the proper
level. However, we are not that familiar with the circulation of fundamental
particles. It is this circulation that gives rise to a current which we call
lifeforce or bio-current. The bio-current in a living being energizes every
part of the body and makes the whole body ready for action. Our bio-current is
similar to the electrical current in a wire that arises due to the circulatory
motion of electrons. The bio-current in a living being is referred to as Prana or Astral body by philosophers.
Our identification of lifeforce as a
power arising out of circulation of fundamental particles needs further
comments. For a long time, electric current was thought of as a fluid flowing
between positive and negative electrodes of a battery. It was only after the
discovery of electrons it was recognized that electric current is a power that
arises from circulation of electrons. Similarly, we consider lifeforce a power
that arises from the circulation of fundamental particles even though many
philosophers consider lifeforce as a physical entity that enters the body,
exists there for some period and then leaves.
Once Consciousness along with Energy
has evolved into a living system, the system begins multiplying. Gradually,
Consciousness develops into higher and higher forms of life, each with
increasing faculties. Certain forms of life, however, were unable to thrive due
to unfavourable environmental conditions. The remaining evolved into various
living organisms like amoeba, insects, reptiles, birds, animals, and human
beings. Darwin’s famous evolution Theory of Natural Selection demonstrates how
life emerged from the lowest life forms and evolved through stages to the
highest life form, human beings.
Genetic Centre (soul or Jeevatman) and Mind
In every living being, circulating
fundamental particles constitute the lifeforce and due to their spin motion,
every particle excites waves
in Conciousness. These waves form a Biomagnetic Wave Complex in our body. This
wave complex records the experiences of the living being and periodically
reflects them. These reflections are what we call thoughts. This wave complex
which contains the records of all our life experiences both borrowed through
our parents and other sources is called our Genetic Centre which corresponds to
our soul or Jeevatman. When the
Genetic Centre reflects the imprints to the brain and makes it respond, it is called
mind. So the mind is a wave complex in Consciousness always reacting to a
signal received.
The memory of a living being
involves two steps, namely, recording and retrieval of information. It is
well-known that the recording process, retrieval, and its transmission to a
different point can only be done by a wave system—examples include TV, Radio,
Mobile phones, etcetera. The Genetic Centre in a living being performs all
these three processes. Every experience of a living being adds a wave of a
particular frequency to its Genetic Centre, making it more and more complex.
Inside every living being there is a
Genetic Centre that contains the records of all the experiences of that living
being. Let’s consider the situation of a tree growing from its seed. The seed
contains in it all the experiences of the mother tree since its initial growth.
In fact, we can consider the seed as an entire tree in a condensed form. Given
an opportunity, the seed will repeat every function of the mother tree in the
same order. Similarly, a male shrinks himself into his seed called the sperm.
The sperm is a miniaturized version of a mature male, carrying all the imprints
of the male in it. Similarly, a female condenses herself into an egg called
ovum. Once the egg is fertilized with the sperm, the two combine to form a
child (zygote). The child has the lifeforce and the imprints of both parents.
In addition to these hereditary imprints called ‘Sanchita Karma’, every child while in the mother’s womb, also gets
influenced by the Genetic Centre of its mother, by the waves from the stars and
planets, by the waves from other living beings and from the waves in the cosmos
of the beings that had lived and are gone. These influences continue even after
the birth of the child. After birth, the child acquires additional imprints
from its own life experiences like education, environment, and various other
sources. The acquired imprints are called “Prarabdha
Karma.”
The
waves from the Genetic Centre of a human being, generally called mind waves,
can travel beyond the physical body of the being and can link with the mind of
another being. Even though the living beings are separated by their physical
body, they are linked with one another by their minds. As a result, the mind of
a particular person may affect the nature of the mind of another person and
thereby influence his actions. The power of the mind is beyond our
comprehension.
According
to Materialism, the essential feature of the universe is matter. Consciousness
in the universe is an emergent, local and temporary by-product of a living
system made up of material particles. In sharp contrast, Idealism states that
the essential feature of the universe is Consciousness. According to them, the
material particles that populate the universe are a secondary phenomenon and
they are local carriers of the Consciousness that constitutes the basic
reality.
In
CE medium perspective it is Energy that becomes the material particles of
the universe and it is waves in Consciousness that become the mind of a living
being in the universe. So, the universe is of both matter and mind. In this
view, the mind is not a product of matter and neither is matter a product of
the mind. They do not come into the universe one after the other but co-exist
simultaneously.
At
the lower level of living organisms such as animals, the material (physical)
strength dominates over the mind power whereas, at the level of human beings,
the mind power dominates over the material (physical) power. Thus, the
material power and mind power of a living organism are complementary to
each other; when one dominates the other becomes less predominant.
The
mind-matter complementarity principle, when examined further, leads to the
following conclusion. The primordial energy becomes the matter content of the
universe. The reverse process of matter becoming energy is possible and this
happens in the process of pair annihilation where an electron and a positron
collide to produce light energy. In a similar way, Consciousness becomes the
mind of a living organism in the universe. The reverse process of mind becoming
Consciousness is possible theoretically and this is referred to in philosophy
as Samadhi state or Mukti state or a state of Nirvana. However, in practice, this
reverse process of mind becoming Consciousness is not possible because imprints
in the Consciousness waves cannot be completely erased. At most, by regular
meditation and contemplation we can minimize the effect of higher-frequency
waves by making their imprints dormant.
Ethical Values
Freedom of action is a unique
feature of the human race. When we receive a signal, there are many ways we can
react to the signal. When an animal receives a signal, however, it can react
only the way dictated by its unchangeable, hereditary genetic codes. Its
reaction to a signal is instinctive and no ‘thinking’ is involved. We cannot
praise or blame the animal for that reaction, because it cannot act any other
way.
On the other hand, a human being has
a freedom of action on how one responds to a given signal among the multiple
possibilities that may exist. One’s response at any particular instant depends
upon the relative strength of the various code imprints in his Genetic Centre
whose nature is constantly changing. Therefore, human response to a particular
signal becomes unpredictable. Structurally all human beings look quite similar;
however, the way they react or respond to an incoming signal can differ vastly.
Of all the possible responses, we call the response that is consistent with the
following requirement ethical. The requirement is: “In everything, do to others
what you would have them do to you.” This is the emergence of ethics and
follows from the fact that in the core, we are all different forms of the same Consciousness
and Energy medium.
Consciousness remains associated
with every system and exists between any two systems. Any two systems in the
universe are linked by the all-pervading Consciousness. The suffering or the
happiness of one system reaches the other system through the medium of
Consciousness. A perfectly isolated system does not exist in the universe. All
of us are not only the excitation of the same primordial CE medium but also are
linked by the same. Contemporary science does not consider living and
non-living systems as different excitations of the same entity. Therefore,
ethics does not emerge as a part of the science syllabus.
The primordial CE medium (CEM) is
Plenum. Its manifestation includes inanimate objects, then into living beings
with complexity increasing along the way from the single-cell amoeba to the
human beings. The ability to transform into different ways is a general
characteristic feature of the primordial CEM. During the transformation
process, complexity increases as we move up the evolutionary ladder. The
complexity of a system may be considered as a measure of the amount of
information that can be stored in the system. The amount of information stored
in the Genetic Centre of the human being is much larger than the information
available in the Genetic Centre of an amoeba. We can say, therefore, that a
human being is a more complex system than the amoeba. As the complexity
increases, not only does the amount of information increase, but also the range
of choices increases. As a result, randomness increases. Thus, for a human
being complexity is the highest, randomness is also the highest, and hence he
is completely unpredictable.
According to physicist David Bohm, a
complicated or erratic behaviour should not be regarded as disorderly. Every
system has its own order dictated by the imprints in its Genetic Centre.
Randomness is the order of human beings. If the action of a living being is not
conducive to the surrounding environment, he/she has the ability to change its
action for a more conducive response. This measures the ethical level of that
being. The ability to change one’s own action for the sake of others is not
characteristic of any other life forms in the animal kingdom. This ability is
endowed only to human beings. Ethics, therefore, is solely a trait of human
beings.
***