Brief
In 2024, the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS) sponsored an essay contest with the instruction to provide a “Review and comparative analysis of theories of non-local consciousness.” First, second and third winners were announced. I read the essays expecting to learn more about contemporary views of consciousness. Instead, I found the same old compilation of theories.
IONS is a public facing educational organization that, from my experience, has always been focused on supporting the seeker community. That is why I expected to gain a sense of the kind of guidance learned academics might offer to the lay community to help us understand our nature, the nature of reality and our relationship with reality.
My intention was to write a brief review of each essay intended for my imagined lay readers. As it turned out, the essay question was too open-ended, and the essays seem to add little to our understanding of consciousness.
2024 Prize Topic
“Review and comparative analysis of theories of non-local consciousness”
Instructions
“By consciousness, we mean first-person subjective awareness. By non-local, we mean a form of consciousness that is not exclusively generated by neuronal activity and that extends beyond the brain and body. The comparative analysis will review theories suggesting that (a) consciousness is not constrained by the brain, the everyday boundaries of space and time, or by the traditional five senses, and/or that (b) consciousness, via focused attention and intention, can potentially influence aspects of the physical world at a distance. The term non-local consciousness (NC) is used to encompass this definition.
“The review highlights theories supported by empirical evidence rather than purely philosophical ones. The philosophical implications and a discussion of how the theories may be tested will also be included. The target audience for the reviews is the general public, meaning that they should be able to convey their messages in language understandable to the average person (and not in scientific jargon).”
I See These Main Points in the Instructions
Consciousness
“First-person subjective awareness.”
Comment: Your sense of self.
Non-local
“A form of consciousness that is not exclusively generated by neuronal activity and that extends beyond the brain and body.” And “The term non-local consciousness (NC) is used to encompass this definition.”
Comment: The idea is that our awareness of the world is not restricted to information that is formed in the brain and in response to just our five senses. The evidence of psychic (Psi) functioning (e.g. clairvoyance, mediumship, remote viewing) suggests that our biological brain might also use information from beyond our physical body (nonlocally) to help form our awareness.
“The comparative analysis will review theories suggesting that:
-
- “Consciousness is not constrained by the brain, the everyday boundaries of space and time, or by the traditional five senses, and/or that”
Comment: “Psi” is the term currently used to name the outward expression of mind. It can be used as mental sensing as in psychic functioning or outward mental expression or influence as in psychokinesis and healing intention. The target concept here is whether or not mind can express or sense outside of the body.
-
- “Consciousness, via focused attention and intention, can potentially influence aspects of the physical world at a distance.”
Comment: Can we influence the world with our thoughts? If so, such an influence would be psychokinesis.
Audience
“The target audience for the reviews is the general public, meaning that they should be able to convey their messages in language understandable to the average person (and not in scientific jargon).”
Comment: As important aspect of a scholarly review of theory is understandability for the reader.
My observations about these essays
This is not an in-depth review. My intention here is to provide a perspective for the lay paranormalist community from a point of view of current parapsychological thought about Psi Phenomena as I understand it and especially lessons learned from the study of Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC). See What ITC Tells us About Consciousness. (1)
Be mindful that, as author of the Implicit Cosmology, (2) I have a specific point of view that is likely not considered “scientific” by the academic community. Since the Implicit Cosmology is inspired by lessons learned from ITC and is designed by an engineer, you may find it very different than models proposed by academically trained researchers. With that said, it is useful to note that the cosmology has consistently helped me model Psi phenomena and consciousness.
Beware of hidden biases. The fact that none of the authors mentioned ITC in their lists of “parapsychological” phenomena warns us that they likely do not know much about ITC. Alternatively, they may doubt the veracity of ITC. Because of the unspecific nature of isms, it can be difficult to recognize the theoretician’s point of view. It is useful to consider points of view in terms of:
Anomalistic Psychology: Everything is physical, and reports of paranormal phenomena are misattribution, illusion of fraud. This is the Physical Hypothesis. Generally, Physicalism
Exceptional Experiences Psychology: Everything is physical, but Psi functioning may be possible. This is sometimes referred to as the Super Psi Hypothesis. Generally, Physical Dualism.
Continuous Life: The physical is an aspect of the greater reality that has been expressed by life forms that are native to the greater reality (nonphysical). It is helpful to think of this point of view as “Spirit having a human experience.” This is the Survival Hypothesis. Generally, Strict Dualism.
Theories of consciousness are laden with “isms.” Many are an ism derived from other isms. Examples of isms addressed in these essays include Panpsychism, Dualism and Physicalism. Unless you are very familiar with remembering what each ism means, it is likely that you will not fully comprehend the essay author’s point. I know that my engineer’s mind is not well suited to philosophical and psychological discussions of metaphysical concepts that do not include “so what” examples. The theories are almost always written for academic peers. With that in mind, I will try to help you focus on the more useful points in these essays.
First Place
Title: Theories of Non-local Consciousness: A Review and Framework for Building Rigour
Prize: $50,000
Authors: Michael Daw, PhD (psychology) and Chris Roe, PhD (psychology)
Note that I have paraphrased much of the material from the essay that is discussed here.
The authors pointed out that theories of consciousness fall into one of five major categories.
“In traditional academic philosophy, theories of consciousness are usually considered as occupying five broad categories:” (5.1 Philosophical Classifications Page 50)
-
- Physicalism: The physical world is all there is and everything in the world, including consciousness, is ultimately subject to observation and measurement through the use of our senses and physical instruments.
- Dualism: The two fundamental aspects of the universe are physical and mental so that everything has a physical and a mental aspect.
- Dual-aspect monism: The substance of the universe has both physical and mental aspects. This is also known as Panpsychism meaning everything is consciousness.
- Idealism: Consciousness is all there is. The physical world is a manifestation of consciousness.
- Mysterianism: Any explanation of consciousness ultimately comes from within consciousness itself meaning that it is ultimately inexplicable and therefore mysterious.
In Section 7 Summary Conclusion, the authors noted that it is important for the reader to have a clear sense of what is to be explained. They also noted that the theoretician’s failure to explain key terms used in their text is a significant source of confusion and misunderstanding for readers.
The authors noted essential characteristics of consciousness that should be considered in theories include:
- That consciousness is subjective, private, personal and unitary (aka complete?).
- Emergent subjective experience such as love or fear (qualia)
- Different states of consciousness such as the waking, sleeping and trance states.
- Why we have conscious experiences as opposed to mindless or zombie states.
- Free will.
- Difference between conscious things and non-conscious things.
The authors parsed major theories of consciousness into six categories and indicated the metaphysical point of view they support as Table 1. Since they listed the theories of consciousness addressed in the essay only by author, I have provided a version of the table, modified to include the distinguishing points of the related theories.
Table 1 Philosophical Classifications from page 51 of the essay (modified to show theories)
Comment
Of the three, I agree that this essay earns first place for being the most informative and well presented. If you watch the video on the IONS website you will see that IONS wanted the authors to focus on public accessibility and possible next steps. Daw and Roe organized the essay to explain definitions and then addressed only the more prominent theories in six well-considered categories.
I did note that the essay has a definite feel of an outline for a required course toward a psychology degree.
“Disturbing Phenomena” aka Psi Phenomena
I am disappointed that the authors introduced “disturbing” as a new, alternative term for Psi phenomena. From Page 32 of the essay:
“We call these phenomena ‘disturbing’ after Alan Turing’s reference to them in his proposal for the ‘imitation game,’ a test to gauge whether computers can exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human (Turing, 1950). Turing considered one objection to the test to be that human protagonists might use extrasensory perception (ESP) in order to pass the test whereas an intelligent computer could not. He exclaims, ‘These disturbing phenomena seem to deny all our usual scientific ideas. How we would like to discredit them! Unfortunately, the statistical evidence, at least for telepathy, is overwhelming’” (Turing, A.M. (1950). Computing Machinery and Intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460. p. 453)
The parapsychological community has named the expression of mind “Psi” and “Psi functioning.” As I read this essay, Turing called Psi phenomena “disturbing” in the context that they are contradictions to mainstream thought. And not in a good way.
While I think consciousness studies should supplant parapsychology as a field of study, I think it is a mistake not to carry forward parapsychological thought that has been useful. Calling Psi phenomena “disturbing” casts a negative light on a most promising field of study.
Author’s point of view
Chris Roe is past president of the Society for Psychical Research (3) and currently Director of the Center for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes, the University of Northampton. (4) From his biography offered by IONS:
“Roe is renowned for his empirical approach to exploring these areas, integrating rigorous scientific methods with an open-minded investigation of extraordinary human experiences.”
“Extraordinary human experiences” is a phrase often used to indicate the Exceptional Experiences Psychology point of view which I understand as a Physicalist view of Psi functioning typically phrased as the Super Psi Hypothesis. Super Psi is more commonly known today amongst parapsychologists as Living Agent Psi (LAP). That translates as the assumption that mind is an emergent characteristic of biological brain.
As I note later in this paper, proof of Psi functioning is not necessarily proof of the Survival Hypothesis. Some theories of nonlocal consciousness are applicable to Super Psi Hypothesis as well with the idea that Psi functioning as an emergent quality of biological mind.
As I discussed in the Author’s Point of View Essay, (5) It is sometimes necessary for the reader to examine the author’s prior work to gain a sense of the kind of bias the authors might insinuate into their writing. I have noted that some of the literature produced by staff in Roe’s department has a distinct bias toward Physicalism.
With that said, I may have the wrong impression. It is noteworthy that the Roe et al BICS 2024 Essay (6) submission is a $20,000 honorable mention essay. See A Critical Evaluation of the Best Evidence for the Survival of Human Consciousness after Permanent Bodily Death. The essay is also mostly a survey of long past evidence. However, it ends with:
“Our essay thus leads us to conclude that the survival hypothesis is the most rational plausible explanation for the range of evidence discussed.”
Second Place
Title: The Arcane Nexus, Assessing the Roots of Non-Local Consciousness
Author: Michael Nahm Ph.D. (Biology)
Prize: $30,000
Comment
Of the three essays, this is the most difficult to comprehend for me. It is a mind-bogglingly long 215 pages (double spaced). The author is a biologist and my past exposure to his work tells me to be extra discerning about his opinion. Much of the 215 pages is filled with his opinion.
One example of the unnecessarily obscure writing is on Page 169:
“Processes of life are objectivations of holistic dynamics in the ontic domain that manifest on the epistemic level by way of final causation.”
“Objectivations” and “holistic” are unnecessarily obscure terms. “Ontic domain” and “epistemic level” mean little without further explanation. Does “final causation” mean end of life? The essay fails IONS’ requirement for readability:
“The target audience for the reviews is the general public, meaning that they should be able to convey their messages in language understandable to the average person (and not in scientific jargon).”
My bias: Author’s Point of View (5) and The Arrogance of Scientific Authority (7)
Third Place
Title: Breaking the Boundaries of the Brain
Author: Cameron T. Alldredge, PhD (Psychology)
Prize: $20,000
While I agree that Daw and Roe earned first place, Alldredge’s essay is the most reader friendly of the three. The essay reads a little like reading a well-planned power point presentation. In general, it is an innovative, reader-friendly approach to teaching.
The author noted that the “Hard Problem” in consciousness studies is how the brain can produce subjective experience. He listed six associated problems: [I have abbreviated the explanations.]
The Problem of Personal Identity
How does one maintain a unique and consistent identity over time? And how does this continuity of identity remain intact if consciousness transcends the physical person?
The Reverse Hard Problem
How do subjective experiences give rise to or influence physical processes?
The Combination Problem
How separate units of consciousness (perhaps residing in basic particles like neurons or atoms) come together, or combine, to create the complex and cohesive conscious experiences typical of human beings.
The Interaction Problem
How does the consciousness that is not bound by locality or physicality engage with systems like neurons and synapses in the body’s functions and processes?
The Problem of Free Will
How can we know that our choices are genuinely our own rather than being influenced or directed by overarching non-local forces?
The Epistemic Gap
How can we study or measure consciousness if it exists outside the brain and outside the scope being measured by traditional scientific instruments?
Comment
The author talked about “filtration” and “Free will” as important elements for the study of consciousness. As I understand his point, “filtration” is used in the sense that the experiencer’s mostly unconscious mental processes tend to filter or reject information that does not agree with their worldview. This is consistent with the idea of Perceptual Agreement I discuss later in Par 3 of this paper.
The author suggested that such mind distracting techniques as meditation, hypnosis and psychedelics sometimes helps reduce filtration.
The author also explained that “Free Will” (one of his six problems listed above) may be moderated by the influence of other life fields. That is an interesting question I explored in the Conditional Freewill Essay. (8)
References
- Butler, Tom. “What ITC Tells us About Consciousness.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/what-itc-tells-us-about-consciousness/.
- Butler, Tom. “Toward a Consensus Cosmology.” Etheric Studies. 2023. ethericstudies.org/toward-a-consensus-cosmology/.
- Society for Psychical Research. spr.ac.uk/main/.
- The University of Northampton. northampton.ac.uk/.
- Butler, Tom. “Author’s Point of View.” Etheric Studies. 2024. ethericstudies.org/authors-point-of-view/.
- Butler, Tom. “Review of Runner Up BICS Essays.” Etheric Studies. 2022. ethericstudies.org/2021-bics-essay-reviews/.
- Butler, Tom. “The Arrogance of Scientific Authority.” Etheric Studies. 2015. ethericstudies.org/arrogance-of-science/.
- Butler, Tom. “Conditional Freewill.” Etheric Studies. ethericstudies.org/conditional-freewill/.
