Weekly QUEST Discussion Topics, 9 June

QuEST 9 June 2023

This week’s QuEST  Dr. Mike “Ancient Mike” Young will continue the discussion started on 19 May regarding the newest iteration of his Matter as Awareness model of consciousness. Mike has been involved with QuEST for decades, and his ideas and writings continue to be sharpened from our hearty Friday discussions. In short, this theory maintains that energy is both matter and knowingness. The complexity of the aggregated matter determines how intelligent, flexible, and adaptable the organism is. In this model, consciousness is an internal representation of the organism’s world, with the architecture determining what the organism can experience and do. Please join us for this discussion on consciousness, life, and the universe!

MA₂ theory update

I will provide an update on the Matter as Awareness (MA2) theory of consciousness. The core axiom of the MA2 theory postulates that all matter/energy, which according to Einstein are two forms of the same thing (E = MC2 or M = E/C2), is cognizant (or awareness). At first, when people hear this the typical response is one of incredibility: “Matter is aware?” But if you think about it, Einstein argued, and others proved, that there is only one thing in the universe: matter/energy. If anything is aware or conscious, then it has to be due to a property of energy/matter. Further, while this does sound strange to us, two world religions—Hinduism and Buddhism—hold this position, that everything is a field of energy that is also awareness.

For clarity’s sake, basic (unstructured) matter is not conscious, and it does not have a mind. It doesn’t think, plan, nor feel pain. Intelligence and consciousness require specific complex types of sensory and representational configurations of matter to function.

As human beings, we are not sets of matter; we are configurations of matter. All atoms, including those in our CNS (central nervous system), are replaced every seven years, yet we remain almost completely the same.  We are a class of dynamic system that uses metabolic processes to extract energy from the environment to create and maintain our existence. While the matter that we are comprised of is constantly changing, the structural configuration of it is not, at least at a macro level. The structural configuration of matter gives rise to specific perceptual and cognitive capabilities. It is structural relations among matter that transforms (unstructured) awareness into (structured) consciousness.   

Both Hinduism and Buddhism argue that there is a path from our current state of consciousness to other more open or encompassing states, culminating in a state called enlightenment which is described as communing with the field of awareness that underlies existence. In this update, I

will describe two contemplative states that are found not only in Hinduism and Buddhism, but likewise in Judaism and Christianity, suggesting that this quality of consciousness is a human capability not limited by religion.  A major challenge is finding or developing techniques that

will enable measuring the brain states that underlie these subjective experiences, so it can be determined if the experiences are the same.

As a thought experiment, consider the idea that you have two subjects who just completed a meditation retreat.  One individual is replaying over and over their favorite tropes (story snippets, or stereotype scenes); the other is resting their mind in a state of no thought, where thoughts arise, but are not followed (i.e., there are thoughts, but they are not identified with, and quickly die out.) One can think of the first condition as a boat on a choppy sea, and the second being a boat anchored in a lagoon where there are small waves that gently rock the boat. In this analogy, the waves represent the thoughts.  The second individual is approaching the state of consciousness we wish to investigate. 

Is there technology that could characterize the two individuals’ thinking on some meaningful dimensions? Is there technology that would have sufficient resolution to differentiate the two individuals, based on their state of thinking?  If we look at existing techniques (e.g., PET, fMRI, EEG) none of them seem to have the capability needed to differentiate the two individuals in a meaningful fashion.

I will summarize the MA2 model, discuss a spiritual stage model derived from world religions that addresses the contemplative consciousness described here, and then spend the remaining time discussing contemporary research methods for studying the brain, and what these methods actually determine.

Attached to this email are the descriptions of the spiritual experiences of five individuals; this material is provided as background information.

If you would like additional information on the theory of Matter as Awareness, you will find it here: http://www.cognition-only.com/essays.html.