consciousness

Posts Tagged ‘consciousness’

Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life, Part 1: Properties of Life at the Quantum Level

Doug Marman

Abstract: The idea that the key to life might be a quantum process is not new. Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and Werner Heisenberg found signs of life at the quantum level. What they saw was useful, but not enough to solve the mystery of how life works.
Two recent interpretations of quantum mechanics add new pieces to the puzzle: Quantum states act the same as what biologists call “anticipation” when the future possibilities of superposition states influence the outcome. And quantum wave function collapse acts the same way as what biologists call “purposeful actions” when a choice is made.

This paper, the first in the series, “Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life” (ODQTL), explores in detail the above two properties that are traditionally seen by biologists as being unique to life. In fact, many surprising traits of life are present at the quantum level. The idea that quanta might be alive is explored and shown to be a valid interpretation.

A detailed theory of life is presented in Part 2 of this ODQTL series. It is published in this same issue of Integral Review (Marman, 2023b). The new theory explains how cellular life might have emerged from quantum processes. It offers a Catalyst-First Hypothesis and shows why catalysts might be the real drivers of life, not metabolism, RNA, or accidents such as lightning striking primordial soup.

The new theory that emerges from this series of papers proposes that life is not based on the right combination of ingredients; it is a mutually responsive relationship between a life form and its habitat. We cannot take this relationship apart to study how life works because taking it apart kills the process of life. Quantum theory can explain this irreducible property as an entangled state, but new interpretations of quantum mechanics are needed to show why quantum principles must also be actively involved in relationships between organisms. This insight suggests that, when trying to understand life, context is more important than content. As a result, the science of quantum biology can expand to include interactions between organisms, opening doors that take us beyond quantum mechanics and chemistry, and perhaps even beyond biology to include psychology, as Heisenberg predicted.

Tags: Doug Marman, quantum measurement problem, consciousness, mind-body problem, entanglement, panpsychism, quantum formalism, superpositions, wave collapse.

Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life, Part 2: Top-Down Causation

Doug Marman

Abstract: In Part 1 of this series, “Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life” (ODQTL) (Marman, 2023a), we saw that Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and Werner Heisenberg were some of the first to raise hopes that discoveries in quantum mechanics might solve biology’s hardest problem: explaining how life works. However, they hit a wall. In fact, they hit a similar wall when they tried to make sense of quantum mechanics. We found that two recent interpreta¬tions of quantum mechanics open some new doors to both the mystery of life and to an intuitive understanding of quantum mechanics.

Surprising signs of life at the quantum level were reviewed in Part 1, as well as unexpected signs of quantum behavior in relationships between organisms. A detailed analysis showed that quantum states display the same properties as what biologists call “anticipation” when future possibilities in superposition states influence the end results. And a quantum wave function collapse displays an act when a selection is made, showing the same properties as what biologists call “purposeful action.” We then saw how, starting with four principles, it is possible to derive all of quantum formalism. This suggests a new possibility: Sentience and relationships between sentient agents may be the true foundation of quantum mechanics. This also makes sense as a founda¬tion for biology.

This paper, Part 2 of this ODQTL series, proposes a quantum theory of life that shows how cellular life could have emerged from quantum processes. A new model for life’s origin, called the Catalyst-First Hypothesis, is offered that shows why catalysts might be the real drivers of the origins of life: because catalysts engage properties of top-down causation.

The new theory described in this series of papers suggests that life is not based on the right combination of ingredients; it is a mutually responsive relationship between a life form and its living habitat. We cannot take this relationship apart to study life because taking it apart ends the relationship. Interpretations of quantum mechanics can explain this irreducible property as entanglement. And a new interpretation explains why we should see quantum principles like entanglement in relationships between organisms. And this all leads to the complexity at the heart of life that emerges from top-down causation in nested relationships.

Tags: leadership, reproduction, consciousness, strong emergence, death, strong force., panpsychism, Doug Marman, Birth, catalysis, embryo development, enzymes, origin of life

A Hierarchy of Consciousness from Atom to Cosmos

Marilyn Monk

Tags: consciousness, cosmos, atoms, hierarchy, Monk

Integral Ecofeminism: An Introduction

Chandra Alexandre

Abstract: This article offers an introduction to integral ecofeminism as a spiritually-grounded philosophy and movement seeking to catalyze, transform and nurture the rising tension of the entire planet. It articulates integral ecofeminism as an un-pathologizing force toward healing, as the offering of a possibility for creating and sustaining the emergent growth of individuals, institutions and our world systems toward awareness. Doing so, it embraces sacred and secular, rational and emotional, vibrant and still, in its conception of reality; and with this, it is a way of looking at the world whole, seeking to acknowledge the wisdom of creation in its multiplicity, specificity, and completely profound manifestation.

Tags: evolution, ecofeminism, non-duality, sustainability., Chandra Alexandre, integral, consciousness

Daring to Step into the Open: Moving Beyond Perspectives in Education and Life

Kaisa Puhakka

Abstract: Evolution in all spheres—cosmos, culture, and consciousness—is explored as a dynamic, creative process of shifting and settling, where shifting breaks out of existing structures and conceptual moorings and settling solidifies the movement of evolution into structures. Both are seen as essential aspects of the evolutionary process, but a bias for settling is noted among living creatures. For humans in particular, shifting arouses anxiety whereas settling promises security. The correction of this bias in the educational process to help realign human consciousness and culture with the rest of nature and cosmos is explored. Such a realignment may be necessary for meeting the unprecedented challenges of our world today, and an open, perspective-free inquiry can serve as a vehicle for it. But this inquiry calls for a new way of relating to the inherent uncertainty of shifting and to the anxiety this arouses in teachers and students alike.

Tags: shifting, Creative, Shiva., Kaisa Puhakka, nature, Absolutism, consciousness, constructivism, cosmos, awareness, courage, inquiry, dialectical, perspective, heart, epistemology, pluralism, Education, settling, evolution

No Ontological Leaps: A Primer on Scientific Materialism

Christian de Quincey

Abstract: When the issue is intelligence in nature, arguments about whether science supports neo-Darwinian theory or intelligent design miss the point. The details of evolution or the structure of the brain are irrelevant because biology and neuroscience have nothing to say about consciousness. Science informs us only about the physical world. However, consciousness/mind/intelligence is non-physical, and no amount of evolution or complexity of purely physical processes could ever produce anything non-physical. There are no ontological jumps. You don’t get something from nothing—or, more precisely, you don’t get “no-thing” from anything. How, then, do we account for the fact that consciousness exists in an otherwise physical universe? It all comes down to our basic metaphysical beliefs.

Tags: panpsychism, performative contradiction, consciousness, philosophy of mind., Christian de Quincey, interaction, dualism, ontology, emergence, emanation, idealism, materialism

The Union of Spirit and Matter: Science, Consciousness, and a Life Divine

Lynda Lester

Abstract: The once unbridgeable chasm between spirit and matter is closing. While the scientific method and scientific materialism have brought untold benefits to humanity, quantum physics has changed our view of matter as solid, objective, and obvious to a view that is more complex and which includes the possibility that consciousness has a part in manifesting reality. This shift mirrors Sri Aurobindo’s integral philosophy, which states that the universe is a manifestation of consciousness. This manifestation occurs through a process of involution followed by evolution, the next step of which is the emergence of a suprahumanity whose native state of consciousness will be supramental. Interestingly, some of Mother Mirra Alfassa’s experiences in bringing supramental consciousness into her body bear similarities to the discoveries of quantum physics. Unlike previous spiritual realizations, the supramental realization has the power to unify spirit and matter and usher in a life divine on earth.

Tags: evolution, science, Mother Mirra Alfassa, involution, Sri Aurobindo, singularity, Integral Philosophy, supermind., Integral Yoga, Lynda Lester, consciousness, spirituality, quantum physics

Creating Dynamic Development and Harmony in the Classroom

Nick Drummond and Joan Berland

Abstract: The article describes a childhood education program for developing the individual and collective “consciousness” of a class of children. The word consciousness is used to refer to the level of an inner awareness, and responsibility being held by an individual and or group of people. The authors view consciousness as being a fundamental part of our experience, and although not easily seen, it is something that can be pointed to, described and developed. Practically, this means learning how to give attention to the “interior” as well as exterior dimension of a classroom environment and discovering how these are intrinsically connected. A set of tools are presented that can enable teachers and students to learn about this inner dimension of our experience – how to bring value and focus to it – and the effect it has on our choices and behavior. When consciousness is recognized and given importance it becomes something that can be experienced by everyone at any moment. When it is intentionally focused on and developed, an atmosphere of dramatic possibility, true discovery and infinite potential can be created in any classroom. Whenever this happens, children and adults alike are able to experience, envision and become attracted to new and more mature possibilities in the way they learn, teach, communicate and relate to each other.

Tags: values, vertical development, consciousness, awareness, Nick Drummond, Joan Berland, childhood education, rubrics

Consciousness in Evolution: Sketch for a New Model – A Speculation

Donald F. Padelford

Abstract: It is hypothesized that hierarchically negentropic systems (defined herein), including organisms, are associated with partially non-local information/probability fields which, a) entail or express interiority, b) engender “entangled learning” with similar negentropic systems, and c) cause otherwise random processes, including mutation in biotic systems, to become somewhat non-random. These effects, which are believed to be driven by quantum interactions, modify those identified with the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis. A series of tenets, or broad organizing principles, related to such systems and their associated fields, are enumerated. An empirical test which could potentially falsify certain aspects of the hypothesis is given.

Tags: non-locality, Falsification, non-random, Adaptive mutation, reductionism, directed mutation, Donald F. Padelford, entanglement, entropy, evolution, information / probability fields, interiority, natural philosophy, consciousness, negentropy

Establishing Second-Person Forms of Contemplative Education: An Inquiry into Four Conceptions of Intersubjectivity

Olen Gunnlaugson

Abstract: Four accounts of intersubjective theory are explored as a means for providing distinctions that support the development of second-person approaches to the emerging field of contemplative education. I examine Martin Buber’s conception of the interhuman, Thich Nhat Hahn’s interbeing, Christian De Quincey’s three modes of intersubjective engagements, in addition to Wilber’s five categories of intersubjectivity with consideration for how each will contribute to further outlining second-person dimensions of contemplative education. I then locate intersubjectivity in a broader epistemological terrain and propose the notion of critical second-person contemplative education as a type of pedagogy and approach to learning within contemplative education.

Tags: consciousness, Olen Gunnlaugson, contemplative, intersubjective, second-person education.

“Such a Body We Must Create:” New Theses on Integral Micropolitics

Daniel Gustav Anderson

Abstract: This essay proposes a rigorously postmetaphysical integral praxis, defines what this means and how such an intervention may be premised, and demonstrates throughout some methodological and practical advantages this approach may have over extant metaphysically-oriented integral theories. Beginning with an interpretation of post-Hegelian historical and dialectical materialisms informed by the Buddhist dialectical tradition of Madhyamika, a series of coordinated and interrelated theses address problems proper to fields such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, semiotics, historiography, and subaltern studies. The claimed purpose of this project is to coordinate subjective (psychological, spiritual) and objective (social, political, economic) transformational imperatives into a coherent, non-ontological “counterproject.” It takes as its aim the production of a radically democratized, responsible, and sane subjective and objective space, where responsibility is characterized as critical clarity, competence, creative consciousness, and compassion.

Tags: causality, semiotics, counterproject, Spiral Dynamics, ecocriticism, subjectivity, transformation, integral praxis, Wilber, Krishnamurti, consciousness, Marx, Nagarjuna, Daniel Gustav Anderson, nonduality, Deleuze, postmetaphysical, dialectics, radical democracy, Buddhism, responsibility

Exploratory Perspectives for an AQAL Model of Generative Dialogue

Olen Gunnlaugson

Abstract: Otto Scharmer’s generative dialogue model of the four fields of conversation has been largely applied in organizational settings with the intent of fostering conditions for groups to learn to think together, generate new knowledge and solve the deeper problems that pervade organizational culture. This article introduces elements of Wilber’s Integral or AQAL paradigm as an interpretive framework for advancing key distinctions within Scharmer’s account of generative dialogue.

Tags: presencing, reflective dialogue, integral, consciousness, Olen Gunnlaugson, generative dialogue

Good, Clever and Wise: A study of political meaning-making among integral change agents

Thomas Jordan in an Interview with Russ Volckmann

Abstract: Thomas Jordan discusses the intellectual and research foundations that have led to his creation of a consciousness development model. In interview research that he conducted among selected personnel in Swedish defense and security agencies, Jordan has focused on three key skill sets: consciousness skills, self-awareness and embeddedness or identification. From this he has identified seven characteristics that show up in various patterns among those he interviewed. The first three—good, clever, and wise—are key characteristics. The next four follow from them: curious, inventive, modest and handy. These show up in variable combinations among these integral change agents involved with promoting change within political institutions.

Tags: Russ Volckmann, consciousness, change agent, skills, political, meaning-making, integral, Thomas Jordan

What’s Integral about Leadership? A Reflection on Leadership and Integral Theory

Jonathan Reams

Abstract: This article provides an introduction to the idea of integral leadership. It describes the basic premises of integral theory, focusing on the four quadrants, levels or stages of development, and lines or streams of development. It briefly examines the relationship of consciousness to leadership, and then provides an overview of the history of leadership theory from an integral perspective. It then suggests a distinction between an integrally informed approach to leadership and integral leadership, and closes with questions deserving further inquiry.

Tags: integral, Jonathan Reams, leadership, consciousness, development, transpersonal

Integral Review

A Transdisciplinary and Transcultural Journal For New Thought, Research, and Praxis