Why We Might Live in a Conscious Universe | Rupert Sheldrake

Then we might expect consciousness in large self-organizing systems as well as small ones, including the sun. Thank you. I'm speaking about consciousness, and it's a remarkable thing how little we know about our own consciousness, even though it's the very basis of our very being. And one question we know very little about is where consciousness is located. If we start with where we are right now, our immediate experience being in this tent, where is your consciousness as you see me now? There are two main theories. There's the theory that it's all inside your head. Consciousness is in the brain. It's produced by the brain. It's in the head. So everything you see is actually inside your brain. So inside your brain, there's me, there's the whole of this tent, as a kind of virtual reality display, what Anil Seth, the neuroscientist, calls a controlled hallucination inside your brain. The other view is that when we see things, the images we see are actually projected out to where they seem to be. So your image of me is located not inside your brain, but where I'm actually standing right here. So it's in your mind, but not in your head. Now, there's a surprising diversity of views about this among perfectly normal people, such as people gathered here. I've never done this before, but I'm very interested to know how many people think of their mind as being located inside their head. I should think about a third. How many people think of it as being extended around them? It's probably more, but it's interesting. Here's this debate, and here within this room, we have very different opinions. Now, the main reason for thinking the mind is inside your brain is because it's a consequence of a whole worldview. It's usually called materialism or physicalism. And the physicalist worldview is that the whole universe is made up of stuff, of matter and physical processes, like energy and fields, which is completely unconscious. And if you study physics or look at cosmology textbooks, there's nothing about consciousness there at all, except maybe the observer in quantum mechanics. It's simply not part of physics. So the whole universe is considered to be unconscious. And then here on Earth, inside brains, complex brains, consciousness has emerged and exists within an otherwise unconscious universe, except perhaps for little green men or humanoid beings possibly on other planets. But we live in an unconscious universe, in unconscious nature, with consciousness confined to the insides of heads. Now, that's the official view. It leads to problems, often called the hard problem, because if the whole universe is made of unconscious matter, how come we're conscious? We ought not to be if everything's unconscious. And some philosophers say, well, the brain does all these things physically, and consciousness is an epiphenomenon. It doesn't do anything. Others say that consciousness is an illusion produced by the brain. But then their critics point out that doesn't really answer it, because illusion is a mode of consciousness. So you're simply explaining consciousness in terms of consciousness. That's why it's called the hard problem. There's been very little progress in the philosophy of mind about this problem until recently with the development of panpsychism. And panpsychism is primarily fashionable within philosophy of mind, surprisingly fashionable, even though it's very similar to ancient animistic worldviews we're all supposed to have grown out of. The panpsychism was really put forward originally by Galen Strawson and has been elaborated by people like Philip Goff, who's spoken here at this festival, in order to solve the hard problem. And what they say is, well, there's a little bit of consciousness inside electrons and atoms, and a little bit more in molecules, bit more in cells, bit more in tissues and organs. And then by the time you get to brains, it's a difference of degree, more consciousness emerges in brains. But it's not something completely new appearing from a totally unconscious universe. It's a difference of degree. And then when you get up to the brain, normally what happens is the panpsychist philosophers sort of sit back with a look of satisfaction because they've solved the hard problem. But why stop at the brain? After all, panpsychism means psyche or mind everywhere, and the universe is a lot bigger than brains and the planet Earth. And I myself think if panpsychism is true, or a reasonable point of view, which I do think it is, then we might expect consciousness in large self-organizing systems, as well as small ones, including the sun. I wrote a paper a couple of years ago in the Journal of Consciousness Studies called, Is the Sun Conscious?, arguing that the sun may well be conscious. The interface between its mind and its body may be the ever-shifting electromagnetic fields. It has very complex electromagnetic fields and rhythms that are always changing, as do our brains. And most people think the interface of mind and body is somehow through the electromagnetic activity of the brain. And I think that would apply to the sun as well. And I think it could decide what to do, when to shoot out a solar flare, whether to send one towards the Earth, taking out our power systems at a particular time in our history, or not. The sun has a lot of influence on the Earth, which is why NASA issues space weather forecasts, which are all to do with solar flares, coronal mass ejections. It affects the northern lights. Recently, they were seen as far south as London, because there's a lot of solar activity at the moment. So if the sun's conscious, and if you're interested in the details, again, the paper's on my website. It's under the research section under consciousness. You can find it's all open access. If the sun's conscious, why not other stars? And if other stars are conscious, why not the whole galaxy? The galaxy is like a superorganism, the stars and solar systems like cells in the body of the galaxy. There could be a galactic mind. It would then become interesting, what's the speed of galactic thought? Because it takes 100,000 years for light to move from one side of the galaxy to the other. It's 100,000 light years across. It would be thinking awfully slowly if its thoughts are moving only at the speed of light or electromagnetism. So, but nobody knows anything about the speed of galactic thought. And this is not yet part of cosmology or physics, which is still a consciousness-free zone. I think when physicists and cosmologists take seriously these things, new insights may emerge. Cosmology is stuck at the moment. And I think this could be, because they've left out something as important as consciousness. Then, of course, there are many galaxies in the cosmos, and they're linked up through threads of plasma. It's called the cosmic network, through which huge electric currents and magnetic field lines flow. So the whole cosmos is linked up a bit like a brain. The galaxies are like neurons in this huge brain-like system. And maybe the entire cosmos is conscious. Now, this is not a new idea. The ancients believed in the world soul, the cause of the mind of the universe, the Anima Mundi. Plato and other philosophers took it for granted. So we may have a completely conscious universe. But then, as we pursue ideas about consciousness beyond the brain, we realize that in all religious traditions and spiritual traditions, it's been taken for granted all through history that there are many forms of consciousness beyond the human level. Spirits, ancestors, saints, gods, goddesses, and angels, and an ultimate consciousness behind all that. Incidentally, next Sunday, not tomorrow, but a week on Sunday, is Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael and all angels, one of my favorite festivals, because it's a festival where all over the world, in cathedrals, wonderful choirs sing wonderful music, celebrating the angels. And although most people only have the haziest idea what angels are like, I think what they are is our traditional cultural way of framing the idea of consciousness beyond the human level, including throughout the whole cosmos. The ancients believed that the stars and planets were alive and conscious. Plato called them the visible gods, the stars and the planets, with their own minds and consciousness. Medieval theologians thought of their guiding intelligence as an angel. Each star had its own angel. So they weren't just beings with wings inhabiting stained glass windows. These were cosmic powers, consciousness, forms of consciousness. And then, in all religions, it's taken for granted that there's an ultimate source of consciousness beyond all these other lower forms, angels, saints, and so forth, and spirits. In the Hindu worldview, that ultimate consciousness, Brahma or Satchitananda, being consciousness bliss, is reflected in all forms of consciousness in the universe. And a familiar image that Hindus use is of buckets of water at night outdoors. There could be hundreds of buckets of water, and you see the moon reflected in each bucket. And it looks as if each bucket's got its own moon. But actually, there's only one moon, and it's reflected in all these buckets. And what they argue is that our conscious minds are reflections of and participate in the ultimate conscious mind that underlies the whole universe. And this is something many people directly experience through mystical experiences. In mystical experiences, which come about spontaneously for some people, come about through spiritual practices, some through meditation, some through being in nature, some, perhaps surprisingly, through intense involvement in sport, which brings people completely into the present, sometimes through psychedelics. Many people have had the experience of being part of a consciousness vastly greater than their own, which they may call God or Brahma or whatever. But the idea of a consciousness beyond the human level of which all conscious beings are part is a very traditional idea in all religions. In Christianity, it's the Holy Trinity which gives a model of the nature of that ultimate consciousness, as the Sat-Chit-Ananda model does in Hinduism. Well, to continue watching this video, click the link in the top left or in the description below. With a free trial, you can enjoy the full talk and thousands more. Thank you for being part of the conversation.