(based on Peter Russell’s The Primacy of Consciousness)

One of the most feverishly pursued issues in modern psychology is the “hard question”: How does something as immaterial as the consciousness arise from something as unconscious as matter (Chalmers, 1995)? Many researchers have turned to the fields of quantum physics, information theory or neuropsychology to answer this impending question. However, what if the answer requires a substantial shift of scientific paradigm and the anthropocentric view of our world is fundamentally wrong?

According to Thomas Kuhn the term paradigm refers to “the accepted theories, values, and scientific practices within which a particular field of science operates” (Kuhn, 2009) . As Peter Russell states the omnipresent underlying assumption of our scientific paradigms is the belief that the universe is material. He suggests that all our perceptions, dreams, sensations, thoughts and feelings are diverse forms appearing in consciousness. This alternative viewpoint, that all phenomena are projections in the mind, does not conflict with modern science, yet it is estranged by the scientific worldview.

Consider color perception and think of the color green, or rather think of how we experience the color green. Science explains that in the material world there is light of a certain frequency which elicits chemical reactions in the retina which in turn produce electro-chemical impulses traveling along nerve fibers to the brain where the information gets processed and analyzed to create reality. The light, however, is not green nor are the electro-chemical impulses as no color exists there, meaning it only exists as a subjective experience in the mind. Russell argues that this also holds true for matter. We experience the world as solid and physical, therefore the world itself must be solid. A chair, for example, is a physical object constructed from molecules and atoms, “but from what is the image in the mind constructed?”, an important question posed by Russell.

In Sanskrit, the primary liturgical language of Hinduism and Buddhism, the term chitta is used to describe “mind matter” or rather the essence of our mind. In this respect any perceptual picture in the mind is constructed of the same matter as our sensations, dreams, thoughts and feelings. Chitta “has the potential to take on the form of every possible experience” according to Russell, thus giving consciousness infinite potential.

Matter is derived from mind, not mind from matter.
—The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation

That consciousness is the source of all that exists if often refuted in Western science. According to Thomas Kuhn consciousness is a great anomaly, a discrepancy from our established rules, and as such is rejected or simply overlooked. Consciousness cannot be observed and science seeks to find objective truths independent of an individual’s state of mind, therefore consciousness has been mostly ignored.

In 1543 Copernicus taught us that the earth is a planet orbiting the sun. His view was not only believed to be foolish but heretical as well and it was refused by common Aristotelian proofs. Yet the Copernican revolution triggered a paradigm shift towards the heliocentric model, placing the sun at the center of our Solar System and enabling the scientific revolution, the basis for modern science, to occur.

Is another paradigm shift bound to happen?

Most existing approaches to explain consciousness are based on a physical world – a world of space, time and matter. Immanuel Kant proposed that “space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality”. It might thus be advisable to distance ourselves from the fundamental assumptions of our reality. Peter Russell is convinced that "rather than trying to explain consciousness in terms of the material world, we should be developing a new worldview in which consciousness is a fundamental component of reality”.

Works cited

1. Chalmers, D. J. "Facing up to the Problem of Consciousness." Journal of Consciousness Studies 2.3 (1995): 200-20. Print.

2. Kuhn, Thomas. "Structure of Scientific Revolutions." Philosophy after Darwin: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2009. 176-77. Print.

3. Russell, Peter. "A New Metaparadigm?" Peter Russell - Spirit of Now. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.

4. Russell, Peter. "The Primacy of Consciousness." Peter Russell - Spirit of Now. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.