The Mystery of Consciousness – Part Two
As we have seen from the previous instalment, despite four hundred years of painstaking scientific experimentation, investigation and analysis, we are faced with an inescapable conclusion to the riddle of consciousness. The fact is that we simply do not know how it is that we are able to see, or hear, or smell, taste or touch!
If we trace the process of vision to its source, we can see how the energy of light is converted through chemical and molecular interaction into neurological signals that ultimately lead to the visual centre of the cerebral cortex of the brain. And as it is with sight, so it is with all the other senses. But this is where scientific knowledge ends and speculation begins, for scientists have still been unable to explain exactly how a mental image occurs in our minds.
It is obvious that no image can appear in our minds unless there exists something in which, or on which, this image can appear. This base, or substratum, is consciousness itself. When we say that we see something, what we are saying is that an image of that something registers upon our consciousness. If it did not, we could never be aware of it. But the enigma of how it is that we come to see or sense something is preceded by an even greater mystery.
Not only has science so far been unable to explain exactly how a mental image comes to appear in consciousness, but it has also been unable to say how consciousness itself arises. For if consciousness is regarded as the outcome of a series of physical processes within the brain, as psychologists maintain, then some part of the brain must obviously be responsible for its creation.
So far, however, no evidence of any source of consciousness has yet been found to exist within the brain, nor has any accepted explanation been produced to account for its appearance. The fact that scientists have thus far been unable to explain how consciousness arises has not deterred them from believing that it does take place, although in some as yet unexplained manner. Until it is explained, however, the idea that consciousness arises inside the brain remains an article of faith. It is nothing more than an unsubstantiated belief.
This conclusion has now been corroborated by the latest findings of quantum physics, as has been pointed out in previous instalments. It is also supported by the vast body of evidence contained in dreams, hallucinations, and other “alternate” states. For as Dr Charles Muses has pointed out: “A salient fact of modern brain research should be stated here: The brain is not the source of its own motivational impulses“.
The mystery of consciousness also conflicts with accepted evolutionary theory, which is held to be an inviolable pillar of modern scientific thought. According to the principles of neo-Darwinism, life on earth has evolved through a series of changes in form from the simple to the complex, as can be seen from the fossil record. Simple life forms like algae and plants emerged first, to be followed by more complex life forms like fishes, birds, animals and primates, leading up to the emergence of human beings (Homo Sapiens).
All scientists agree that human beings possess consciousness. However, they are not prepared to accept that consciousness exists in primitive forms of life, such as bacteria or plants. But the conundrum of consciousness is this. If all life forms are the product of natural selection, as Darwin claimed, and that complex life forms have evolved over vast eons of time from these simple origins, then when exactly did consciousness first appear within the hierarchy of life forms, and what caused it to come about.
While modern science has nothing to say on this point, the solution to this mystery has been known for thousands of years. It has in fact been taught over the centuries by mystics and Rishis, and has been revealed in their holy books. The secret to the understanding of the mystery of consciousness, lies in the true understanding of energy itself.
We have seen how quantum physicists have come to recognise that all matter ultimately resolves itself into energy. As Fritjof Capra has pointed out: “Atoms consist of particles, and these particles are not made of any material stuff. When we observe them, we never see any substance, what we observe are dynamic patterns continually changing into one another – a constant dance of energy.” (The Tao of Physics)
This conclusion is echoed by Gary Zukav. “The search for the ultimate stuff of the universe ends with the discovery that there isn’t any. If there is any ultimate stuff of the universe, it is pure energy, but subatomic particles are not ‘made of’ energy, they are energy“. (Original emphasis) (The Dancing Wu Li Masters)
If we are ever to understand the true origin and nature of consciousness, we need to investigate what this energy is, and what its properties are. This investigation will not only explain what consciousness is, but how it came about, and how it empowers us to change the universe that we see and sense around us. The following instalment will reveal what the ancient Rishis have had to say about it.
