Watching mainstream science’s creaking and increasingly decrepit attempts to find a source of consciousness inside the human brain would be amusing, if it were not so sad. As recently as a decade ago, scientists still remained confident that the brain generates consciousness and the mechanism by which that happens soon would be found. More and more now, though, the scientific community has begun to see that the answer to what they call “the hard problem” very sadly might forever elude them, just as the undeniable connection between quantum physics and the actions of the human mind may be forever a puzzlement. Oh, nearly all mainstream scientists still do insist that the brain must somehow generate consciousness! But the smartest of them are coming to see that they may never figure out how it happens. There still is no broadly accepted scientific theory that recognizes the fact that consciousness is the ground of reality.
Which fact is in itself astonishing! Because the discovery that consciousness predates matter is not new. Some of the greatest scientists of the past century have known or suspected that consciousness has to be primary. Max Planck won the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics as the father of quantum mechanics, and in 1931 Dr. Planck said, ”I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” He said in 1944, “As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear- headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” Albert Einstein never was quite so blunt, but he had the same suspicions. For example, he said, “Our experience of separation may be an illusion of consciousness.” And he said, “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Physicist Sir James Jeans simply said, “The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine.”
Although most scientists cannot yet admit it, the best of them know that the jig is up. It has gotten to the point where almost the only ones defending materialism any more are sad and entirely closed-minded workhorses like Richard Dawkins, just old polemicists who have devoted their lives to defending materialism and are at this point reduced to trying to debunk bits of the tidal wave of contrary evidence that now engulfs them. Here is what the spiritual philosopher Rupert Sheldrake has to say about his recent encounter with Dawkins. And there is a modern scientific theory, known as “dualism,” which holds that consciousness is a fundamental property of reality and is not generated by the human brain. Back in 1998, premier neuroscientist Christof Koch had wagered philosopher of mind David Chalmers a case of fine wine that within the next 25 years, a specific “signature of consciousness” would be found in the brain. Well, those twenty-five years are up this summer, and David Chalmers has won that bet. (When you click on the link, please scroll down and enjoy the video. And no, Dr. Chalmers has not of late become a homeless person.)
Consciousness is an infinitely powerful and infinitely creative energy-like potentiality that is primary. Your mind receives and does not generate consciousness. And when mainstream science stops foolishly insisting otherwise, there will be a whole world of new discoveries to be made!
