Reflections on consciousness

 

The evolution of consciousness

As we glimpsed on the previous page concerning perception, the field of human consciousness is vast.

It begins with the more or less confused feeling of existing... rises to the distinctive consciousness of a thing... refines itself into the psychological consciousness of another... strengthens with moral and universal consciousness... To blossom into a state of absolute consciousness — the consciousness of the ecstatic in contemplation, a consciousness freed from its material attachments and from the distortions introduced by the ego.

Consciousness as foundation

Described thus, the various degrees of consciousness reveal an evolution toward the absolute. But precisely, what is consciousness? Can one simply define it? Would we say with the philosophy professor Harald Höffding that "it is impossible to give a description or definition of consciousness and its elements since these are the fundamental facts that can no longer be reduced to anything simpler"? And in that case, how can one take an external position to describe it?

In the absolute.

In the absolute, and according to us, the Danish philosopher is right. Being conscious encompasses the totality of the individual. It is the only reality of which one could be certain. Being conscious, we can give body to our existence, body to others, to God, to creation. The unfolding of our states of consciousness is the only objective reality.

From this perspective, it is impossible to affirm the existence of other things outside our states of consciousness. Impossible to affirm that external realities exist outside of us. Consciousness then represents the totality of the possible. It contains everything. Including the limits beyond which nothing more can be proven.

In reality.

However, we exist in a kind of reality, even if this should one day prove to be merely an illusion, and in this reality we must build our world, our humanity — and for this we need to restrict the omnipotence of our intimate consciousness. We must admit that other consciousnesses exist. In other words, other organisms outside ourselves. Admit the existence of others, of the world, of its rules, its laws, its values. By accepting exteriority as real, our consciousness then becomes a consciousness among many others.

This is, moreover, the most logical position — our only way of accepting the rules of humanity. To be a human among humans, one must believe in reality as it presents itself to us. One must accept to "play the game" of existence. In other words, one must accept giving body to external reality. This is our position on Universal Mechanics — a position allowing us to reflect on the phenomenon of consciousness and to help scientists and philosophers define this marvellous subtlety.

What is consciousness?

 

Organic or abstract?

Two conceptions seem to prevail in defining consciousness.

Some theories make of it an essentially biological activity.
Others lean toward a purely spiritual phenomenon.

According to us, consciousness belongs to both orders.

• Under a certain mode, it is the fruit of neuronal and synaptic agitation. A chemical activity animates certain cerebral zones, producing our various states of consciousness. It is therefore a neurobiological activity...
• But this neuronal activity depends entirely on the energy that fuels it. Our neurons agitate because they are, in a sense, nourished by a vital principle. When, for example, this energy ceases to activate our brain, the entirety of our states of consciousness disappears. And that is death.
  Without this subatomic energy (quarks, electrons, strings...) our mind would be inert.
  This energy, we say here, is spiritual. It flows from the divine in continuous stream.

In other words, our states of consciousness do indeed derive from biological actions, but their activity depends on a spiritual energy. The origins of this mechanism are perhaps more mystical than one might believe, writes Henri Bergson. According to our philosophy, therefore, consciousness is a biological activity impelled by a spiritual energy.

The processes of consciousness

 

The floors of the brain

"The human being is obscure to himself — that is to be known." Alain

The evolution of consciousness is inscribed in the evolution of the human brain. The human brain is constituted of all the stages of its evolution within the living world.

To clarify our reasoning, we have schematised these stages in a simple and naive fashion. The terms used are therefore to be taken lightly.

A staged construction

The current human brain did not reach its degree of complexity overnight. It is the result of the long evolution of the psyche of the living world. From bacterium, to fish, to reptile, to mammal, to natural primate, to humanity. Each stage enriched the mind with a higher level of consciousness.

1/ Initial Energy-Love

At the origin of all cerebral activity there would be an energy, an impulse. According to our philosophy, this energy is of a "spiritual" nature (God). It is the animator of the mind, in sum. This energy activates and animates all the successive layers of our brain.

2/ Cellular brain

Upon this energy would rest the first basic cerebral form — an archaic and primary brain, equivalent to the brain of our bacterium ancestor. As for the first living form, it handles our motor functioning (blood pressure, heart, digestion, breathing, reflexes and so on).

This basic layer also manages sight, hearing, smell and touch.
It is a kind of organic consciousness. It lies below subjective consciousness. It is linked to life itself. It gives us the capacity to live, feel, see, hear — simply, without reflection or secondary impulse (domination, copulation). It is a kind of original consciousness. Human will has no hold over this state of organic consciousness.

3/ Reptilian brain

Above this cellular brain would be positioned a kind of reptilian brain. This motivates our instincts and innate reflexes. The consciousness it generates summarises things in an instinctive way (object of fear, indifference, copulation). This animal consciousness gives us a view of the world through the angle of predator, prey, reproducer... it is the level where aggressiveness, desire and fear are generated.

The human species can now act on this level of consciousness. Humanity can block its desire, master its fear, forbid itself from using others as prey. Though animal, this layer of consciousness now belongs, in a certain way, to subjective consciousness. The subject can orient it, transcend it, if they have the desire and the means.

4/ Mammalian brain

Above this reptilian consciousness would be positioned mammalian consciousness. It is the seat of emotions, feelings, socialisation, friendship, affection and so on. This zone of consciousness is also autonomous (our feelings impose themselves on us), but education and will can also act upon it. For example, one can break definitively with all socialisation (the hermit), or develop one's emotional quotient, or help an outlaw to grasp the harm they have caused to their victim.

5/ Human control zone

Within this mammalian layer, humanity has equipped itself with particular zones — typically human zones. Language, will, intelligence, moral and ethical aptitude and so on inhabit these cerebral spaces. Thanks to these faculties, humanity manages to obey the moral and social rules of society. By obeying these human rules, it has granted itself mastery over the reptilian and mammalian zones.

Let us imagine the following scene.

An individual perceives an object not belonging to them that they desire. All the conditions are in place for them to steal it. Their predatory nature will push them in this direction. But this impulse must also traverse a zone of sociability — a zone where prohibitions, morality, fear of the law, the sense of responsibility and so on interpose themselves. This cerebral zone forbids us from performing certain actions contrary to human values (of which theft is one).

If humanity were to ignore this socialising space, its acts would be reduced to those of nature (predation, lying in wait, attack, flight, copulation, domination and so on) and the act resulting from this scenario would be theft. But for the majority of humanity, the socialisation zone is already well developed and most of us refuse prohibited acts. As for the small percentage who succumb to temptation — they allow society to evolve. They help it to improve law, justice, sanction, care and so on. (See chapter on evil)

6/ The human cortex

The last human level is the cortex.

Present in other mammals, it abounds in humanity. Thanks to it, our species has elaborated all its specificities. Art, philosophy, technique, psychology — all result from its evolution. Its content is not innate but acquired. It fills itself through education, learning, socialisation, legislation and so on. When not stimulated, no humanisation is possible (as the stories of feral children demonstrate).

The humanising cortex

Education develops consciousness.

 

"The human being has two ears and only one tongue, to listen twice as much as they speak." Zeno.

From birth, the human being is taken in hand by an educational and socialising system. Education builds in this malleable layer the great human faculties — language, will, knowledge of prohibitions, morality and laws are stored there, as are intellectual and spiritual faculties.

The cerebral gendarme

In humanity, thanks to the cortex, reptilian instincts no longer act as such. They are transformed into impulses and tendencies. Upon these impulses and tendencies, humanity can intervene. For millennia, this sphere of control (the cortex) has been in constant progression. It acquires ever more authority over the reptilian and mammalian regions.

Even if my instinct wants to appropriate my neighbour's object, the cortex will forbid me. It will allow me to reflect on the consequences — to take others into account and thus hold back my impulse.

The great step

The great human evolutions also have an influence on our cerebral hemispheres. Technological discoveries compel our brain to acquire a certain mastery of itself. We must now be constantly attentive, concentrated and vigilant — concentrated and vigilant in our domestic and professional work, vigilant in the street, at school, in travel and so on.

But the greatest influence comes from spiritual discoveries.

The great religions

This is the case, for example, with the contributions of monotheism and the great Asian religions.

For the first time, a principle of absolute love became the horizon of humanity. It replaced the Greek and Roman deities and their procession of possible monstrosities. It brought with it compassion, goodness, forgiveness. These new values supplanted their inverses — vengeance, cruelty, domination and so on.

An example to follow

This ideal divine became the new icon to follow.
To draw closer to it, humanity had to increasingly curb its primary impulses — and the saints showed the way. By making the junction with the divine, the great mystics opened a new neuronal pathway. And this royal road opens the doors of absolute consciousness to us.

Consciousness and the absolute

Religion, ecstasy and consciousness

 

 

Hinduism, Judaism etc.

Taking root doubtless in India and Egypt, the idea of a unique creative principle spread. This new form of divinity brought with it the concept of Absolute Love. Hinduism and Judaism were its first great vehicles. Thanks to these mother religions, these values diffused and refined themselves further. Through Platonism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, they spread across all of humanity. From these great spiritualities, "negative" impulses were combated more vigorously. From this new divine, new ideal human values were born. Love, detachment, justice, goodness, awakening, generosity, ecstasy, compassion — all were ceaselessly exalted.

 

A new ideal to attain

For 2,500 years, these superior values have been venerated by humanity. And the rare individuals — the saints, the true heroes, the sages — capable of embodying them are also venerated. Most of us are dazzled by those capable of reflecting goodness and justice (despite the passing exaltation of unjust values by neo-liberalism and its television). Even the ironic and the mocking, in the secret of their hearts, are fascinated by the great modern saints who renounce futilities, pleasures, impulses, power and luxury for an ascetic life... We are nearly all full of admiration for the actions of Mother Teresa, Sister Emmanuelle, Abbé Pierre or Father Pedro.

The human majority

These supreme virtues — love, goodness, compassion, justice — are difficult to attain. Yet they serve as a lighthouse for humanity. This is true in the East and in the West, in Asia, in America as in Africa. By irresistibly attracting human beings toward them, these fascinating values inexorably trace the road of humanity toward its perfection.

The mechanics of the brain

The different zones of the brain

 

"Consciousness is not a thing, but a certain form of subjective experience and, on the objective side, a certain mode of functioning." J. Delecour

To understand well the mechanism of the evolution of consciousness, we will choose a slightly trivial example.

At the origin of all cerebral activity, we have said, lies divine energy (God). Its nature is love. This energy is at the origin of all action.

Let us imagine this scenario

An individual notices, from a distance, another person.
The initial energy pushes them to act.

Weak socialised zone, weak fear of the law

This spontaneous force passes through a poorly socialised cortical zone — a weakly educated zone with particularly pronounced affective and moral deficiencies. The act of this individual can then become that of a predator. A sexual assault, for example.

Normal socialisation zone and normal fear of the law

This initial energy encounters on its path a "normal" socialisation zone — good learning of the rules, a developed affective capacity. The resulting act will then have every chance of being perfectly socialised. A respectful seduction, for example.

Strongly pronounced socialisation and ethics zone

This primary energy encounters a socialisation zone strongly oriented toward libidinal repression — a cortex considerably imbued with inhibition. The initial energy will then most likely be diverted toward idealisation of the desired subject.
At that point, the basic sexual appetite has every chance of being sublimated and transformed into poetry, a novel, or a work of art, for example.

Strongly pronounced spiritualisation zone

Let us now imagine this motivating energy encountering strongly spiritualised zones — zones having dried up, so to speak, all the surges relating to instincts. Zones having quenched desires, judgements, attachments* and so on (as is the case for the ascetic, for example).

In this cerebral position, the attitude of this human being will be that of the "saint" — an attitude empty of aggressiveness and impulse, but filled with absolute love. The brain of the individual in this state will be directly connected to spiritual energy (love). All other cerebral zones will be inactivated, and the saint will diffuse toward this person a love totally empty of sexuality, ego and desire.

In summary.

From impulses to awakening

In summary, the various layers of the brain lead humanity toward ever greater humaneness. This evolution is not without meaning. It marks the rise of consciousness from the subjective toward the objective. In this final position, consciousness — empty of its reptilian part — welcomes the world in a pure way. It is directly animated by the divine principle. This is the ecstatic state. The being in ecstasy then becomes the simple and pure incarnation of this original energy.

2001