Evolution of Consciousness

1
Mind in the Cosmos

• Evolution of Consciousness

Christian de Quincey, Ph.D.
University of Philosophical Research Institute of
Noetic Sciences John F. Kennedy University
2
Session Five
Quantum Consciousness
3
Overview of Session 5

• Can quantum physics enlighten us about
  consciousness? In this session, we will explore
  why many theorists are excited about the
  possibilities that quantum mechanics might at
  last have opened the door to a scientific
  understanding of consciousness.
• We will ask What is so special about the
  quantum? And we will look at four approaches to
  understanding the quantum-consciousness
  relationship
• 1. Metaphors Quantum physics as a source of
  metaphors for the nature of consciousness
• 2. Mechanism Quantum physics as a mechanism for
  explaining how consciousness happens
• 3. Implicate order Quantum physics as an
  entry-point to a reality deeper even than the
  quantum itself
• 4. Quantum idealism A first step toward a
  radical idealist science where the quantum is
  consciousness.

4
Why Quantum Physics?

• Whats so Special about the Quantum?
• that it might throw light on the nature of
  consciousness?
• Four Quantum Paradoxes
• may help us understand whats so special about
  the quantum

• But first . . .

5
What is a Quantum?

• Quantum means Packeta tiny packet
• A packet of energymore accurately a packet or
  unit of action.
• Its the smallest possible part of the
  universethe tiniest space
• about 10-33cm, called the Planck length
• 1/10,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,
  000,000,000,000 (10-33)
• Slice a tiny one-centimeter spec of matter into a
  trillion-trillion-trillion pieces, pick one up,
  and youve got yourself a quantum!
• Thats about a billion-trillion (10-20) times
  smaller than a protonwhich is a million times
  smaller than an atomand you know how tiny they
  are.
• OK Whats the big deal?
• Well, if you were a photon (aka quantum)
  traveling at the speed of light, it would take
  you 10-43 seconds to cross the Planck length.
  Thats quantum timethe smallest tick of time
  that has any meaning.
• Theres no shorter amount of timeso, when the
  universe came into existence, it was already
  10-43 seconds old.

6
Quantum Wonderland

• Discovered by Max Planck in 1900
• The quantum was named by German physicist Max
  Planck who discovered that energy is always
  radiated in whole packets or bundles. There are
  no partial quanta. They always come in wholes.
  Because it is the smallest unit of physical
  reality, the quantum is indivisible. It is the
  root (some would say source) of the physical
  world.
• But it is a very strange physical entity. The
  quantum wonderland is a domain of paradoxes that
  strain the grasp of reason and imagination. A
  domain where the world of physical things seems
  to evaporate into a dance of surreal events. A
  world where the relationship between mind and
  matter becomes blurred.

Max Planck(1858-1947)
7
Quantum Paradoxes

• 1) Wave-Particle Duality
• 2) Position-Momentum Uncertainty
• 3) Schrödingers Cat (Superposed States)
• 4) Nonlocality

8
Quantum Wavicles

• Paradox-1 Both Wave-particle duality
• A quantum is both a wave and a particle. How?
• A particle occupies a small amount of space. A
  wave is spread over wide space. Yet experiments
  show that light quanta (photons) behave both as
  particles and waves.
• Paradox How can something be both confined to a
  small space and also spread out over space?
• Experiment 1 Double-slit interference (Thomas
  Young) showed that light behaves as waves by
  creating interference patterns of patches of
  brightness and darkness.
• Experiment 2 Photoelectric effect (Albert
  Einstein) explained how light can knock electrons
  from certain metals (e.g. silver bromide) as one
  kind of particle (photon) striking another kind
  of particle (electron).
• Quanta behave as waves and particlesthey are
  wavicles!

9
Quantum Wavicles

• Whether a quantum behaves as a particle or a wave
  depends on the kind of experiment performed. A
  quantum never behaves as both particle and wave
  in same experiment. Yet it has the capacity, or
  nature, to be either.
• A quantum is, thus, a wavicle.
• Particle and wave natures are mutually exclusive
  (the appearance of one automatically rules out
  the other). Yet both natures are necessary for a
  full accounting of the quantum.
• Wave and particle are complementary.
• Complementaritymutual coupling of oppositesis
  a fundamental characteristic of the quantum
  domain.

10
Quantum Cop-Out

• Paradox-2 Not both Position-Momentum
  Uncertainty
• How can a quantum not have both a precise
  position and momentum?
• Imagine this Youre driving your new BMW on the
  open freeway. You clock 100 mph just as youre
  passing a traffic cop. Zap! He got you with his
  radar gun, and gleefully writes you a ticket. But
  youre not botheredyoure driving the new
  quantum model.
• In court, the judge asks the cop for evidence of
  your precise speed and the precise location of
  the offense. The cop tells the judge Your honor
  he was doing precisely 100 mph. But Im not
  exactly sure of the location. Thats something
  of a blur.
• You mean you cant say where the incident
  occurred? the judge asks.
• Well, you honor, when I focus on the quantum
  drivers exact speed, his position on the road
  is blurred. And if I focus on his exact location
  at the time of the offense, Im afraid I cannot
  report his precise speed.
• Well, then, the judge snorts, if you cannot
  give me exact details of both the drivers speed
  and location at the time of the alleged offense,
  you are wasting the courts time. Case
  dismissed.

11
Uncertainty Indeterminacy

• According to quantum theory (and experiment
  confirms this) it is impossible to measure
  precisely the position and momentum of a quantum
  particle. Knowledge of one precludes knowledge
  of the other.
• In other words, we can never have certain
  knowledge of both where a subatomic particle is
  located and how fast it is moving. Not only are
  position and momentum uncertain in this way all
  quantum events have a degree of intrinsic
  uncertainty.
• Heisenberg showed that the uncertainty is not a
  consequence of unsophisticated instruments or
  ignorance. The uncertainty is built into the very
  fabric of quantum reality itself. This is called
  Heisenbergs uncertainty principle.
• Because of this inherent uncertainty, we can
  never predict precisely when or where a quantum
  event will happen.
• Quantum events are indeterminate. We cannot know
  what, if anything, causes them to happen. Quantum
  events are uncaused. Randomness is intrinsic to
  quantum wonderland.

12
Random Jumps or Hidden Causes?

• Given quantum indeterminacy, we have three
  options
• Quantum events are totally random
• . . . are caused by a hidden implicate
  order
• . . . involve inherent choice.
• If this last option is active, it means that some
  kind of consciousness/ volition operates all the
  way down at the quantum level

13
Quantum Superposition

• Paradox-3 Both/And Superposed States
• Quantum reality exists in multiple,
  simultaneous, mutually contradictory states. Its
  a world of both/and where a cat may be alive
  and dead at the same timeuntil someone takes a
  look.

Imagine thisSchrödingers Cat A sealed box
contains three things a radioactive quantum
device a hammer a vial of poison and a cat. In
a given time, theres a 50-50 chance that
radioactive decay (quantum event) will happen.
Option 1quantum event happens, triggers hammer
to fall, cracks open the vial, releases poison
Cat dead. Option 2No event Cat alive. In
quantum world, both states (event/no event) exist
as probabilities simultaneouslythey are
superposed on each other. Cat is both dead and
alive at the same time!
14
Quantum Cat
The various multiple states of a quantum system
exist as probabilities (expressed mathematically
as Schrödinger wave functions)until the system
is observed. At the moment of observation, all
the probabilities vanish except one. This is
called the collapse of the wave function. At
that moment, the quantum possibilities collapse
down into a single actualitya particular,
observed event. For reality to become
particularized (for a definite particle to
appear from a sea of indefinite wave
possibilities), it must first be observed. And
observation means consciousness. Somehowno-one
knows howthe presence of an observer in the
quantum system is essential for the quantum event
to happen. Until observation, no event happens,
and all possibilities remain unmanifested. Its
as if the observers consciousness reaches into
the quantum wonderland, picks out a single
possibility, and turns it into an actuality. This
aspect of quantum theory has excited many New
Age types because it seems to support the idea
that consciousness creates realityor at least
participates in the creation of reality. In other
words, the observer is a necessary and integral
part of (a participant in) the quantum system.
Quantum scientists are participant-observers.
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Quantum Cat
Mystery How can consciousness reach into the
domain of quantum wave probabilities and pluck
out a particular reality? How can consciousness
collapse the wave function?
16
Quantum Nonlocality

• Paradox-4 Nonlocality
• How can two things be separated, yet have no
  space between them?
• Perhaps the greatest challenge to normal
  sciences understanding of the nature of reality
  is the phenomenon of nonlocality.
• Picture this A very simple quantum system with
  only two particles. Lets call them Photon A
  and Photon B (they could just as well be
  electrons). Now shoot the two photons off in
  different directions, and keep an eye on their
  spins.
• Wait until the two photons are sufficiently far
  apart so that in a given time (lets say a few
  seconds) there would not be enough time for a
  light signal to pass between them. (Remember the
  speed of light is not infinite. It takes time
  even for light to travel from point A to point
  B.)
• Quantum theory tells us that in any quantum
  system the spins of the particles always balance
  out. So if you change the spin on one, the other
  will automatically change to compensate. Its
  just the way it works!

17
Spooky Action at a Distance

• Now, being a skillful experimenter, you twist
  Photon A to make it spin in the opposite
  direction. According to theory, the spin on
  Photon B should also change automatically to keep
  things balanced. You make a measurement, and sure
  enough Photon B has changed its spin too, just as
  theory predicts.
• But theres one small problem How could Photon
  B know that you changed the spin on Photon A?
  No signal, no energy, no information could
  possibly have traveled between them in the time
  available.
• This aspect of quantum theory deeply troubled
  Einstein, who rejected any possibility of spooky
  action at a distance. He spent long hours
  arguing with his colleague Niels Bohr who
  insisted that, indeed, yes the quantum domain
  really is that weird. In fact, it was Einstein
  who came up with the thought experiment just
  described as a way to show the absurdity of
  Bohrs position. Both men went to their graves
  believing the other was wrong.
• Then in the 1960s, Irish physicist John Bell
  proved mathematically that Bohr was right,
  Einstein was wrong. And in the 1980s French
  physicist Alain Aspect actually did the
  experiment, and again, the results confirmed
  Bohrs intuition. Similar experiments have been
  repeated many times since, and all have confirmed
  the same result.

18
Quantum Interconnectedness

• The day the news broke, Einstein probably turned
  in his graveand, no doubt just to emphasize the
  point, Bohr turned too, but in the opposite
  direction!
• The experimental results clearly show that when
  two quantum particles (photons or electrons,
  for example) are separated in space, they
  continue to behave as though there is no space
  between them. The behavior of one is always
  correlated with the behavior of its partnerno
  matter how far apart they are in space!
• This result troubled the physics community
  because they could see only two possible
  explanations, either
• The photons communicated at speeds faster than
  light or
• The photons somehow remained connected parts of
  the one undivided system.
• The first violates Einsteins relativity (i.e.
  nothing can move faster than light) the second
  means that at the quantum level everything is
  interconnected. The nature of the universe is
  unbroken wholeness. In other words, at the
  quantum level (which underlies the entire
  physical world) reality is nonlocal.
• Nonlocality means no space separates any
  parts of the whole. Reality is not localized.
  It is interconnected everywhere.

19
Quantum Consciousness

• Four Approaches
• Quantum as metaphor
• Quantum as mechanism
• Quantum as gateway to implicate order
• Quantum as consciousness

20
Quantum as Metaphor

• Classical physics could shed no light on the
  nature of consciousness becauseas we learned in
  a previous lectureunlike matter, mind could not
  fit the criteria and methodology of standard
  science measurement, separate-identity,
  determinism, reductionism, objectivity.
• But quantum physics challenges each of these
  criteria. The quantum possesses many
  characteristics reminiscent of consciousness. If
  nothing else, the quantum provides researchers
  with scientific images or metaphors for
  consciousness.

21
Quantum as Metaphor

• Like the quantum
• Metaphor of Uncertainty
• Consciousness cannot be measured or pinned down
  with precision (non-measurement)
• Metaphor of Wave-Particle Complementarity
• Consciousness is not restricted to either/or
  alternatives it often involves both/and (e.g.
  both first-person and third-person
  perspectives)
• Metaphor of Indeterminacy
• Consciousness operates via volition or choice,
  which overrides determinism, and which is the
  opposite of randomness (non-determinism)
• Metaphor of Participant-Observer
• Consciousness research involves the observer
  participating in the system being investigated
  (non-objectivity).
• Metaphor of Nonlocality and of Holism/Interrelated
  ness
• Consciousness cannot be divided up into separate
  parts or localized in space (non-reductionism)

22
Jungs Quantum Metaphor

• Carl Jungs Quantum Metaphor of Consciousness
• Psychologist Carl Jung noted that consciousness
  sometimes involves synchronicitiesa-causal
  connections between mind and matter that are
  linked through meaning. Along with physicist
  Wolfgang Pauli, Jung likened synchronicities to
  the indeterminism of the quantum, and to the
  mind-matter relationship of the observers
  consciousness involved in the collapse of the
  wave function.
• Jung and Pauli also likened the nonspatial nature
  of psychic archetypes to the nonlocality of
  quantum events.
• Other consciousness researchers have compared the
  wave-like nature of the stream of consciousness
  to the wave-nature of quantum events. Individual
  thoughts are likened to the particle-nature of
  quanta. While creative and volitional capacities
  of consciousness have been likened to the
  indeterminate probability waves of quantum
  theory.

23
Quantum as Mechanism

• Whereas Jung and Pauli turned to quantum physics
  for metaphors that could describe how
  consciousness works, other theorists, such as
  Stuart Hameroff and Dana Zohar, have put forward
  mechanistic models of the mindwhere
  consciousness is presumed to be generated by
  quantum events happening at the level of
  subneuronal microtubules (Hameroff), or at the
  level of electrons in the proteins of neural
  membranes (Zohar). Both Hameroff and Zohar see
  the phenomenon of quantum coherence as a clue
  to many of the distinctive properties of
  consciousness.

24
Quantum Microtubules

• Stuart Hameroff defines consciousness as an
  emergent macroscopic quantum state driven or
  selected by neurobiological mechanisms . . . with
  origins in quantum coherence in cytoskeletal
  microtubules within the brains neurons.
• He proposes that the physical basis of
  consciousness is coherent patterning of
  innumerable submicroscopic structures
  (microtubules) inside the brains neurons. He
  agrees with Francis Crick and Cristof Koch that
  coherent firing of widely-distributed neurons in
  the brain is a candidate for explaining the
  mystery of the binding problem in
  consciousness.
• Essentially, the binding problem is this How
  can multiple brain-wide activities (in
  innumerable neurons and synapses) result in a
  singular perceptual entitynamely the
  experience of a unified consciousness or self.
• Hameroffs answer Nonlocal quantum coherence
  within and between the microtubules in the
  brains neurons results in quantum
  interconnectedness of multiple brain events that
  are experienced as a unitary sense of self.

25
Funda-mentality

• While impressed by the scientific evidence for
  quantum coherence to provide a physical basis for
  consciousness, Hameroff, sensing the
  philosophical difficulty of explaining how
  consciousness could emerge from events that in
  themselves are nonconscious, has recently tilted
  in the direction of panpsychism or radical
  naturalism. He has suggested that a double-aspect
  funda-mentality (involving physicality and
  mentality) is intrinsic to the nature of quantum
  reality at its deepest levels.
• Thus consciousness (or mentality) would not be
  generated by purely physical quantum coherence.
  Ratherbeing fundamentalmind or consciousness
  could actually play a role in directing quantum
  events (Hameroff has not gone this farat least
  not yet).

26
Bose-Einstein Condensates

• Like Hameroff, Dana Zohar views quantum coherence
  as the physical basis for consciousness. However,
  whereas Hameroff comes close to reducing
  consciousness to quantum mechanisms in the
  microtubules of the brains neurons, Zohar goes
  a level deeper and suggests that consciousness
  may be the product of the coherent alignment of
  electrons in proteins in the membranes of brain
  cells (neurons), or a coherent alignment of
  electrons in the water of the neurons.
• The technical term for this coherence of
  electrons (after their discoverers) is the
  Bose-Einstein Condensates which are the most
  coherent structures known. The condensates are
  quantum superpositions of multiple brain states
  (or of parts of the brain). Zohar explains the
  Bose-Einstein condensates as separate bits of
  the brains neurons that are so overlapped and
  entangled with each other they behave as though
  there is just one large molecule present. This
  one large quantum molecule is, she says, the
  physical basis for unitary consciousness and the
  sense of self.

27
Mind Like Ripples on a Pond

• She says Our thoughts and perceptions may be
  excitations of a comparable Bose-Einstein
  condensate in the brain, like waves on a pond.
  In other words, the brains Bose-Einstein
  condensateswhich are spread over the brainare
  like a quantum-electronic pond, and mental
  events (such as thoughts and perceptions) are
  like waves on the pond.
• Like Hameroff, Zohars philosophical intuitions
  nudge her beyond mechanism, reductionism, and
  materialism. Instead of saying outright that
  Bose-Einstein condensates are the material cause
  of consciousness, she takes a double-aspect
  position. She proposes that at the deep level of
  quantum events (such as Bose-Einstein
  condensates) reality is neither mental nor
  material. The quantum is some third thing or
  process that gives rise to both mind and matter.
  Both mind and matter are derived from the
  quantum realm, she says.
• But, as we saw in Session 3, mind and matter
  could emerge from some third thing only if this
  third thing itself had some degree of mind and
  matter already present. Otherwise, wed be back
  in the domain of miraclesnot mechanism or
  explanation.

28
Beyond the Quantum

• Zohar sees the quantum as a deep, dual-aspect,
  reality underlying both mind (nonlocal coherence)
  and matter (local incoherence). In a similar way,
  Hameroff views the quantum as the fundamental
  substrate of both consciousness and material
  bodies.
• Other theorists, howeversuch as David Bohm, on
  the one hand, and Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli,
  on the othersee quantum phenomena pointing to a
  reality even deeper than the quantum a reality
  rich with underlying causal order that shapes the
  patterns of mind and of matter, and the patterns
  that connect them both together.
• For Bohm, this deeper realm is the implicate
  order for Jung, it is the domain of
  unconscious, transpersonal archetypes.

29
Beyond the Quantum

• Bohms Implicate Order
• Standard quantum theory describes the quantum as
  intrinsically indeterminate, random, uncaused.
  Physicist David Bohm, however, says that below,
  or behind, the quantum lies an even deeper
  realitythat he calls the implicate order.
• The implicate order surrounds and interpenetrates
  the domain of quantum events and guides or
  causes the apparently random quantum processes to
  unfold as they do.
• The implicate order is enfolded in the
  explicate, or manifest, reality detectable at the
  quantum level and at the macroscopic level of
  everyday experiences.

30
Beyond the Quantum

• Jungs Psychoid Archetypes
• Like Bohm, Carl Jung proposed that below the
  conscious mind lies the unconscious psyche, and
  that below causal matter lies the realm of
  indeterminate quantum events. Deeper still, below
  both the level of unconscious psyche and quantum
  events, lies the realm of a-causal archetypes.
• Jung called it the unus mundus, an indivisible
  continuum of psychoid events. (Psychoid means
  of the nature of both psyche and matter.) The
  archetypes can never be known directly they can
  only be inferred from their effects on the
  conscious psyche (e.g. in dreams via the
  unconscious) and on material objects (e.g.
  patterning of physical processes via
  synchronicities or quantum events).

31
Quantum Idealism

• Whereas Hameroff and Zohar straddle a shifting
  line between materialism and double-aspectismverg
  ing on reducing consciousness to quantum
  physicsBohms position is a form of neutral
  monism (or holistic monism), and Jungs a
  neutral pluralism. For these latter two,
  consciousness (or some teleological ordering
  principle) runs deeper than the quantumnudging
  them over toward idealism.
• In contrast, physicist Amit Goswami sits squarely
  and unambiguously in the idealist camp. Goswami
  is distinctive as a quantum physicist because he
  has proposed a radical departure for quantum
  theorytaking consciousness as the primary,
  all-encompassing reality.

32
Science Within Consciousness

• For Goswami, there is no question of quantum
  reductionismwhere consciousness is somehow
  generated by or emerges from quantum processes.
  On the contrary, quantum events and processes
  (e.g. superposition of probabilities) are created
  by consciousness.
• For Goswami, consciousness generates the tangled
  hierarchy of quantum probabilities by a creative
  act of self-reflection.
• According to Goswami, given the necessity of
  including the causality of consciousness in
  quantum physics (to account for the collapse of
  the Schrödinger wave function) Western science
  has, for the first time, shifted its ground
  toward the perennial idealist ontology. Now, a
  true dialogue can open up, not only between the
  perennial philosophy (which recognizes the
  reality and primacy of spirit) and quantum
  physics, but with all the sciences.
• Whereas other approaches to explaining
  consciousness in terms of the quantum lead to
  what Goswami calls consciousness within
  science, his approach explicitly proposes the
  reverse of this science within consciousness,
  or idealist science.

33
Cosmology Consciousness

• Arthur Youngs Lifework
• Arthur Young was a true Renaissance mana master
  inmany fields including engineering, mathematics,
  philosophy, science, the arts, mythology,
  spirituality, and even astrology. Perhaps his
  greatest legacy is his Theory of Processa
  comprehensive and inspired cosmology that takes
  account of both matter and mind, both
  consciousness and the physical universe.
• But even if the world never heard of Arthur
  Youngs ideasabout consciousness and the cosmos,
  he will be remembered for his engineering genius
  He invented the Bell helicopter.

Arthur Young(1905-1995)
34
Quantum is Consciousness

• Another approach to the quantum-consciousness
  relationship is Arthur Youngs Theory of
  Process. Like Goswami, Young starts with
  consciousness, or spirit, as the primary reality.
  But unlike Goswami, Young does not derive the
  quantum from consciousness. For Young, the
  quantum is consciousness spirit is the quantum
  of action.
• In Youngs cosmology, the ultimate constituent of
  reality is the photon (i.e. the quantum of light,
  or the quantum of action). In other words, Young
  equates the light of the physicist and the light
  of the mystic. The physicists photon is the
  mystics divine light.
• Young develops a theory where the photon (or
  quantum) is inherently purposeful. He points out
  that the randomness of the quantum is random only
  from the point of view of the observer.
  Logically, randomness is indistinguishable from
  the exercise of choice. Thus, from the point of
  view of the photon itself, what appears as
  randomness is actually choice. The
  photon-quantum, thus, is the source of choice and
  purpose in the universe.

35
Strangest Entity in Physics

• Young also points out that the photon is beyond
  time and space. It is beyond time because the
  photon always travels at the speed of light, and
  at that speed time ceases to exist. It is beyond
  space because a single photon can traverse the
  entire universe without losing any energy. In
  other words, it experiences no distance, or
  space, between the start to end of its journey.
• For other reasons, Young says, the photon is the
  most unusual entity studied by physics. Not only
  does it transcend time and space, it has no mass,
  or charge. As Young describes it, it is pure
  actioncreative and purposeful, and completely
  free in all dimensions. And this, he says, is as
  good a definition of spirit as science could hope
  for.
• Unlike other entities studied in physics, the
  photon cannot be observed twice. Its observation
  is its annihilation. Light is peculiar because it
  is the condition for all other observations. In
  fact, observation of a photon is light observing
  itself (which accounts for its annihilation or
  self-absorption).

36
Youngs Challenge to Physics

• Youngs cosmology challenges standard physics not
  by introducing ad hoc spiritual metaphors. He
  arrives at the equation of photon
  consciousness by a very straightforward
  extension of normal physics.
• He shows that standard physics, based on the
  parameters of mass, length, and time, has
  consistently overlooked the fourth parameter of
  control. Yet the formula for deriving control
  (and control implies choice) is simply a matter
  of asking an obvious question What is the third
  derivative of position with respect to time? (The
  first derivative is velocity, the second is
  acceleration . . . and thats where physics
  stops.) By taking the next, clearly logical,
  step, physics opens up to include control (and
  therefore choice and therefore consciousness).

37
Theory of Process

• The central idea in Youngs theory is
  processpowered and governed by the quantum of
  actionand this process is evolutionary.
• Evolution begins with the photon descending
  through four levels of reality (at each level
  giving up a degree of its original unconstrained
  freedom).
• Beginning at the highest (first) level of pure,
  unconstrained action (pure spirit) the photon (at
  the second level) creates the dimension of time
  and nuclear particles next (at the third level)
  it creates the two dimensions of space (width and
  height) and atoms and then (at the fourth level)
  it combines the three dimensions of time and
  space (time is equivalent to dimension of depth)
  to create the world of molecular matter.
• At this point, the photon reaches The Turn, and
  begins its ascent, regaining degrees of freedom
  at each level. After matter (fourth level), comes
  the domain of plants (third level) then animals
  (second level) ever on upward to its homecoming
  in spirit.

38
The Reflexive Arc
S O U R C E
Level I Dimensionless ?(Spirit)
Stage 7 Spirit (Enlightenment )
Stage 1 Photons (Potential)
Level II Time ?(Soul)
Transpersonal mind
Stage 2 Forces (Binding)
Stage 6 Mind (Transformation)
Subtle mind
E V O L U T I O N ?
I N V O L U T I O N ?
Level III Space (Animation)
Egoic mind
Stage 3 Atoms (Identity)
Stage 5 Life (Growth)
Instinctive mind
Level IV Matter (Space-Time)
Stage 4 Molecules (Combination)
T H E T U R N
39
Ways of Knowing
S O U R C E
Dimensionless ?Spirit (direct experience)
Mystics Gift
Level 1
Time ?Soul (feeling / emotion)
Level 2
Shamans Gift
Space Mind (reason / logic)
Level 3
Philosophers Gift
Matter Body (senses)
Level 4
Scientists Gift
40
Next Session 6From Light to Enlightenment

• We have just briefly introduced here some of the
  key ideas in Arthur Youngs model of the
  evolution of consciousness.
• In the next session, we will explore his Theory
  of Process more closelyexamining his idea that
  the photon, the fundamental unit of light, also
  known as the quantum, is the source of all
  creativity and manifestation in the universe.
• We will follow Young as our guide learning about
  the quantum as it moves through seven stages from
  primordial light to mystical enlightenment.