User blogs

Towards A New Paradigm of Consciousness (by Michael Cecil): Abstract: The following essay postulates the existence of a non-spatial—and, thus, species non-specific—3rd dimension of consciousness beyond the consciousness of the “self” and the ‘thinker’; a dimension of consciousness within the context of which the current paradigm of the (‘classical’) “science of consciousness” is to be understood as a ‘special case’ (focusing exclusively upon the consciousness of the ‘thinker’) of a more all-inclusive description of consciousness based upon the acknowledgement of three rather than only one dimension of consciousness. This description of consciousness extends the range of applicability of the ‘classical’ “science of consciousness” to Jungian psychology and, for example, animal presentiment and telepathy. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/129

Between-Two: On the Borderline of Being & Time (by Gregory M. Nixon): Abstract: The purpose of this review article is to attempt to come to grips with the elusive vision of Gordon Globus, especially as revealed in this, his latest book. However, one can only grip that which is tangible and solid and Globus’s marriage of Heideggerian anti-concepts and “quantum neurophilosophy” seems purposefully to evade solidity or grasp. This slippery anti-metaphysics is sometimes a curse for the reader seeking imagistic or conceptual clarity, but, on the other hand, it is also the blessing that allows Globus to go far beyond (or deep within) the usual narrative explanations at the frontiers of physics, even that of the quantum variety. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/130

Table of Contents: http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/issue/view/23

Articles --------

Molecular Uniqueness of Major Depression: Biological Remarks and Theoretical Implications (by Massimo Cocchi, Lucio Tonello, Fabio Gabriellir)

On the Quantum Mechanics of Consciousness: Sartre’s Contribution (by Rui Freire Lucas)

A Proposal for Memory Code (by Matti Pitkanen)

Quantum Model for the Direct Currents of Becker (by Matti Pitkanen)

Looking for the Physical, Logical, and Computational Roots of the Mind (by Paola Zizzi, Massimo Pregnolato)

Conference Report --------

The Explosion of Consciousness: TSC Conference Tucson Arizona 2012 (by John K. Grandy)

During his intuitive states there was strong congruence of activity between the left temporal lobes of participants who sat near Mr. Harribance and the activity over his temporal (primarily right) lobes within the theta and 19-20 Hz band. Reversible increases in photon emissions and small alterations in the intensity within the nearby (up to a 1 meter) geomagnetic field along the right side of his head were equivalent to energies of about 10-11 Joules with amplitude modulations in the 0.2 to 0.6 Hz range. The results indicate even exceptional skills previously attributed to aberrant sources are variations of normal cerebral dynamics associated with intuition and may involve small but discrete changes in proximal energy.

Cutting through the Enigma of Consciousness (by Chris King): Abstract: Critical to the investigation of consciousness is that it is existentially completely different from the objective physical world description, being experienced directly only by the subject, and not being subject to the same criteria of replicability a physical world experiment has. Also the observer cannot control their consciousness objectively in the same manner a physical experimentalist can their equipment, because any attempt to change consciousness carries the observer into a new conscious situation as well. In this respect the exploration of consciousness has similarities to quantum measurement. This renders all forms of introspection made as if we are looking at consciousness objectively, completely, or partially invalid. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/117

Human Consciousness and Selfhood: Potential Underpinnings and Compatibility with Artificial Complex Systems (by David Sahner): Abstract: A broadly influenced theory of consciousness and selfhood is presented, followed by a discussion of crucial incompatibilities between human consciousness instantiated in a living biological system and the limitations of artificial intelligence research that might hope to replicate that form of consciousness. It will be argued that human phenomenal experience is firmly anchored in sensation borne of human flesh within a human cultural milieu, and thus enjoys a privileged status. Other pivotal challenges faced by those in pursuit of human-level artificial intelligence are also presented. Based on these considerations, viewed in aggregate, it is concluded that the achievement of human-level artificial intelligence is highly unlikely, even if the potential realization of some form of machine consciousness in the future cannot be excluded. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/112

Linked to RQA we prospect also the method CZF, recently introduced by us. It is able to account for a true estimation of variability of signals in time as well as in frequency domain. And, consequently, it may be used in conjunction with classical Fourier analysis, accounting however that it is inappropriate in analysis of non linear and non stationary experimental time series. The use of CZF method in fractal analysis is also considered in addition to standard index as Hurst exponent. A large field of possible applications in neurological as well as in psycho-physiological studies is given. Also, there are given examples of other and (possibly linked) applications as example the analysis of beat-to-beat fluctuations of human heartbeat intervals that is sovereign in psycho-physiological studies. We give applications on some different planes to evidence the particular sensitivity of such methods. We reach the objective to show that the previously exposed methods are also able to predict in advance the advent of ventricular tachycardia and/or of ventricular fibrillation. The RQA analysis gives good results. The CZF method gives the most excellent results showing that it is able to give very significant indexes of prediction. We also apply such methods in investigation of state anxiety, and proposing in detail a quantum like model of such phenomenological status of the mind. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/113

The Dis-closure of World in Waking and Dreaming (by Gordon Globus): Abstract: The dream world is sometimes indiscernable from the wake world and so parsimony demands a common explanation of world as such. The widespread conviction that the world of dreams is somehow “synthesized” from memory traces of various disparate waking worlds in space and time is implausible, leaving explanation to a mysterious synthetic process. It is argued instead in a Heideggerian vein that closure is fundamental, an “abground” from which world is dis-closed in waking and dreaming both. The abground has dual modes, in accordance with thermofield quantum brain dynamics. Dis-closure of world takes place in the dual modes’ belonging-together, whether waking or dreaming. Three factors participate in the process of matching during waking: (1) sensory input representations and their entanglements, (2) self-actions (self-tuning) and their entanglements, (3) re-traces (memory traces of recognitions). The first factor is of course absent during dreaming, yet an authentic world may appear. This leaves waking and dreaming worlds at ontological parity, both dis-closures between-two. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/114

The Principle of Existence II: Genesis of Self-Referential Matrix Law, & the Ontology & Mathematics of Ether (by Huping Hu, Maoxin Wu): Abstract: In the beginning there was Consciousness (prespacetime) by itself e^0 =1 materially empty and spiritually restless. And it began to imagine through primordial self-referential spin 1=e^(i0)=e^(i0)e^(i0)=e^(iL-iL)e^(iM-iM)=e^(iL)e^(iM)e^(-iL)e^(-iM)=e^(-iL)e^(-iM)/e^(-iL)e^(-iM)=e^(iL)e^(iM)/e^(iL)e^(iM)…such that it created the self-referential Matrix Law, the external object to be observed and internal object as observed, separated them into external world and internal world, caused them to interact through said Matrix Law and thus gave birth to the Universe which it has since passionately loved, sustained and made to evolve. In short, this work is the continuation of our hypothesis of scientific genesis, sustenance & evolution of the Universe and all creations within (the principle of existence).

‘Conventional time t’ versus ‘Rhythmic Time T’ (Two Faces of One Mystery) [by Peter Beamish]: Abstract: Here is described a second form of time. Here, it is also suggested that ‘ALL (real) TIME IS NOW TIME,’ otherwise past and future temporal concepts of the two types are scalar labels called ‘Conventional timetags’ and ‘Rhythmic Timetags.’ Additionally one’s mind is described by a new, seemingly important, dynamic concept called an ‘Essos’ (pronounced Eee-sos) and containing both one’s ‘Conventional Now’ and one’s ‘Rhythm Based Now.’ It is suggested that we use an upper case ‘TIME’ for the sum of these two mental concepts. Described also is the seemingly very important ‘Mental Vector Process’ or ‘MVP’ which appears as the Most Valuable Player, for all living organisms, in The Game of Life. The book preparation, entitled Dancing With Nature, from which this paper is a highly edited form, suggests the merging of the science of physics with the sciences of biophysics and biochemistry. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/91

Eminent Entities: Short Accounts of Some Major Thinkers in Consciousness Studies (by Peter Hankins): Abstract: I run a blog entitled “Conscious Entities” at http://consciousentities.com which is devoted to short discussions of some of the major thinkers and theories about consciousness. This is another small collection of my writings on consciousness which the editor of JCER very kindly selected to appear here. It contains my short accounts of six major thinkers in consciousness studies including Daniel Dennet, John Searle, David Chalmers, Colin McGinn, Roger Penrose & Gerald Edelman. In reading the books of these writers, I found I had views which were very clear, but also completely contradictory; so these pieces are written in the form of dialogues between a character I call Bitbucket (represented by the abacus) who is a hard-line materialist computational reductionist, and Blandula (the cherub) who leans towards dualism and mysterianism. (The last few words of each article, by the way, are actually quotes from the subject himself.) http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/92

Consciousness, Mind and Matter in Indian Philosophy (by Syamala Hari): Abstract: I am very impressed by the striking similarity of concepts in the Guest Editorial by G. M. Nixon in JCER V1(6) to those of ancient Indian Philosophy on thought, time, and Consciousness. I drew only a few examples from the article to depict the similarity but I am impressed by the elegancy of expression and profoundness of concepts in the whole article. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/87

Consciousness, Lack of Imagination & Samapatti (by Alan J. Oliver): Abstract: Let me say from the outset that in all of the material written on the issue of consciousness I have found little, if anything at all, about the presence of imagination and what part it might play in a discourse about consciousness. In view of the ubiquitous nature of imagination, at least for most people, this is hardly surprising. For people like me, lacking that faculty, it is quite a different story. Over a lifetime trying to understand why most people find the way I think a bit odd, autistic even, I have had to find my own answers, only to find that what the absence of an imagination can provide as an answer for me just deepens the puzzle. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/88

Interactions among Minds/Brains: Individual Consciousness and Inter-subjectivity in Dual-Aspect Framework (by Ram L. Pandey Vimal)

Abstract: Previously in (Vimal, 2010a), we argued that: (i) it is necessary to link experience and function aspect of consciousness with the related structure or neural correlate(s) of consciousness (NCC); and (ii) non-conscious experiences are equivalent to relevant proto-experiences at various levels because both are precursors of conscious subjective experiences aspect of consciousness. Here, in terms of dual-aspect dual-mode PE-SE (proto-experience/subjective experience) framework (Vimal, 2008b, 2010d), we argue as follows: (I) Non-experiential consciousness is a part of functional aspect of consciousness and consciousness is more fundamental than experience because experiences and functions are two aspects of consciousness. (II) Therefore, one could argue for the continuum of consciousness, experience, and function. (III) The origin of individual consciousness could be a ‘universal background of awareness’ that is equivalent to virtual reservoir (where potential SEs are stored in superposed form, and a specific SE is selected via matching process) in the PE-SE framework. The interaction between zombies is relational but it would not lead to an individual consciousness in each zombie. The origin of intersubjective consciousness is the interaction between individual consciousnesses, i.e., interaction between ‘I’, ‘you’, and ‘she/he/it’, i.e., interactions between minds/brains and their environments. (IV) A specific SE is selected during matching process and conscious experience constructs the perception or SE of external objects. (V) The dual-aspect dual-mode PE-SE framework is consistent with classical double-aspectism in the sense of inseparability of mental and physical aspect, whereas it is consistent with double-perspectivism in the sense that the mental aspect is known via first person perspective and the physical aspect is known via third person perspective. (VI) Our conventional reality is subject inclusive or mind dependent reality (MDR), whereas the subject exclusive or mind independent reality (MIR) remains always unknown even in so called samadhi state of mind that claims to have direct perception (or consciousness as such), which may or may not be close to MIR. (VII) The hard problems are Types 1-3 explanatory gaps: Type-1 explanatory gap is how can SEs emerge from non-experiential matter (emergentism) or identical with respective neural states (identity hypothesis of Type-B materialism)? Type-2 is how can SEs pre-exist? And Type-3 is how can physicists claim that MDR is MIR? The hard problem of panexperientialism is how can experiences create the matter of mind independent reality? (VIII) The predictive behavior (developmental rhythmic call and response behavior) and then existential crisis contribute towards the emergence of consciousness. On the basis of evolution, (a) individual consciousness in rudimentary form might have occurred about 540 mya during Cambrian explosion, (b) symbolic, language-using, Homo sapiens (tribal-centric consciousness ) emerged at around 150 kya, and (iii) self-centric or object-centric consciousness might have emerged at around 10 kya. (IX) (a) The existential crisis, biological crisis, and predictive behavior can be interpreted as the motivation/cause of the formation of appropriate neural-networks, and (b) self (SE of subject) occurred in brain when self-related neural-network were formed and necessary ingredients of consciousness were satisfied. (c) The co-evolution and co-development (neural Darwinism) of mind and brain and the dual-aspect-dual-mode PE-SE framework are necessary in a complementary manner for physicalism and panexperientialism. Inter-subjectivity can modulate the attributes of already created/occurred individual-self in self-related neural-network. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/89

How Unconditioned Consciousness, Infinite Information, Potential Energy, and Time Created Our Universe (by Leon H. Maurer)

Abstract: Since the cause and nature of consciousness and its derivation from the universe have never been satisfactorily explained by conventional reductive science, I offer here a rationally imaginative basis for a new scientific paradigm. This new view not only explains the origin of the physical universe, but also that potential consciousness, time, mass/energy and infinite holographic information are rooted in original spin momentum of unconditioned pre-cosmic (empty) space (see appendix) – the absolute source of all relative phenomenal existence. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/85

Whitehead & the Elusive Present: Process Philosophy’s Creative Core (by Gregory M. Nixon)

Abstract: Time’s arrow is necessary for progress from a past that has already happened to a future that is only potential until creatively determined in the present. But time’s arrow is unnecessary in Einstein’s so-called block universe, so there is no creative unfolding in an actual present. How can there be an actual present when there is no universal moment of simultaneity? Events in various places will have different presents according to the position, velocity, and nature of the perceiver. Standing against this view is traditional common sense since we normally experience time’s arrow as reality and the present as our place in the stream of consciousness, but we err to imagine we are living in the actual present. The present of our daily experience is actually a specious present, according to E. Robert Kelly (later popularized by William James), or duration, according to Henri Bergson, an habitus, as elucidated by Kerby (1991), or, simply, the psychological present (Adams, 2010) ­– all terms indicating that our experienced present so consists of the past overlapping into the future that any potential for acting from the creative moment is crowded out. Yet, for philosophers of process from Herakleitos onward, it is the philosophies of change or process that treat time’s arrow and the creative fire of the actual present as realities. In this essay, I examine the most well known but possibly least understood process cosmology of Alfred North Whitehead to seek out this elusive but actual present. In doing so, I will also ask if process philosophy is itself an example of the creative imagination and if this relates to doing science. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/86

Phenomenal Time and its Biological Correlates (by Ram L. P. Vimal, Christopher J. Davia)

Abstract: Our goal is to investigate the biological correlates of the first-person experience of time or phenomenal time. ‘Time’ differs in various domains, such as (i) physical time (e.g., clock time), (ii) biological time, such as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and (iii) the perceptual rate of time. One psychophysical-measure of the perceptual rate is the critical flicker frequency (CFF), in which a flashing light is perceived as unchanging. Focusing on the inability to detect change, as in CFF, may give us insight into phenomenal time. CFF varies from 24 Hz for dim light and 60 Hz in bright light and is lower for colored lights. We propose that problem of the phenomenal time can be addressed using two contrasting but complementary approaches (inability to detect changes vs. ability to detect changes): (1) The soliton-catalytic model that entails invariant quantum coherent state for temporal frequencies (TFs) >= CFF, where flickering light is perceived as unchanging, similar to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). (2) Temporal frequency tuned mechanisms model, which starts with ability to detect changes for TFs < CFF and then their sensitivities decreases to zero at CFF. For a subject who has CFF of 60 Hz, the duration of one cycle or time-period of the flickering light is approximately 16.7 ms. Phenomenal time may be quantized into ‘subjective occasions of experience’ (SE), which arise out of the interaction of the individual with situation (environment). Pioneering work examining the complex interaction of neurons suggests the possibility that macroscopic quantum states similar to a BEC may also occur in the brain (Davia, 2006; Freeman & Vitiello, 2006; Georgiev, 2004; Vimal & Davia, 2008). http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/81

Time and its Relationship to Consciousness: An Overview (by Mansoor Malik, Maria Hipolito)

Abstract: Time is one of the most fascinating and fundamental concepts in human life. Yet the physical meaning of time is far from understood. Subjective experience of time is equally intriguing and mysterious. Time may be considered an illusion according to modern physics, but its psychological impact cannot be denied. This current paper explores the conception of time in many diverse contemporary fields such as physics, psychology, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and anthropology. Disorders of time perception and neuro­physiology of time is discussed. The idea of time as the creation of conscious mind is considered. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/82

Time, Consciousness and the Foundations of Science (by Stephen Deiss)

Abstract: For the reasons discussed herein, it makes sense to treat consciousness as a process pervasive in nature, at all levels of complexity. It can be seen as having a type of self-similarity. Recall that time supervenes on change, change requires contrast, and the contrast has to be detected. Whatever systems are changing are sensing and recording their reaction to the contrast in their behavior and in their state change. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/83

Why Time Flies When You're Having Fun (by William A. Adams)

Abstract: This paper distinguishes scientific and psychological time, and suggests how cycles of mentality define units of psychological time. This explanation explains the elasticity of psychological time and gives a broad account of the relationship between consciousness (mental activity) and time. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/73

Liberation and its Constraints: A Philosophical Analysis of Key Issues in Psychiatry (by Steven Bindeman)

Abstract: There can be no question that we are living in a post-Husserlian and post-Freudian world. Their modernist dream, consistent with Enlightenment ideals, was to create a perfectible science of consciousness that would ultimately have the power to liberate people from their confused and conflicted selves. But we can’t seem to get past the distortions that surround us. We are incessantly exposed to all sorts of images containing signifiers that we are unable to ignore. If in consequence we tend to internalize and become consumed by an increasingly large number of signified impressions that are uncontrollable and insatiable, then the limits of any science of consciousness become increasingly clear, and the insights made possible by hermeneutical interpretation must be included in our ongoing efforts to liberate ourselves from them. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/77

Now (by Gordon Globus)

Abstract: The Now is not of time but of Being, dis-closure. Time is continually stretched (Heidegger’s temporal ekstases) whereas Now is a match “between-two.” The now is unfolded anew in the dual mode match of each segmented Moment. There is no universal creative Now, as Nixon (2010) suggests, but unique fragmented Nows, monadological Nows, discreet dis-closures of Being within scattered monads of sufficient complexity. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/78

‘Landscapes’ of Mentality, Consciousness and Time (by Chris Nunn)

Abstract: This paper describes ‘mentality’ in terms of the contents of dynamic state spaces, then goes on to explore how consciousness-associated features of these contents, termed ‘ruling attractors’, could ‘map’ onto neural states. A fractal mapping, its links with memory mediated by the protein CaMKll, is pictured; it’s a view that, with minor differences of emphasis, turns out to have a lot in common with Stuart Hameroff’s ‘conscious pilot’ as far as the neural (though not quantum computational) picture is concerned. Finally, it is proposed that consciousness itself may be a local field, supervenient on fractally mapped ‘ruling attractors’and due to time-related symmetry breaking. Lines of evidence that may prove relevant to these ideas are indicated. I thus argue that consciousness can be described as a succession of ‘ruling attractors’ in the brain; it is based on fractal patterns of calcium waves, interacting with EEG fields and recorded by changes in protein (CaMKll) activation, while it may turn out to be a modulated ‘temporal field’. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/79

The Co-Evolution of Consciousness and Language and the Development of Memetic Equilibrium (by Christopher W. diCarlo)

Abstract: We now have significant evidence indicating many of the evolutionary constraints that contributed to the transitional phases through which hominins evolved cognitively from pre-conscious to gradually increasingly conscious states. With the co-evolution of language and consciousness, our ancestors were able to better understand relationships in terms of causality, morality, and mortality. And this is where we begin to see the incorporation of more and more memes into emerging and developing cultures. I will attempt to demonstrate that the acceptance of memes will deviate from individual, kin or group biological equilibrium if the perceived benefit of the meme(s) is intended to increase S-R value. With the emergence of sophisticated languages and consciousness, there arose an intimate and powerful connection between the memes of any particular individual, kin or group and their biological equilibrium. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/51

The Proclivities of Particularity and Generality (by Stephen P. Smith)

Abstract: The proclivities of particularity and generality describe a polarity, held together by a naked emotionality that signifies a felt middle-term. This polarity indicates a type of circular reasoning, and can endlessly oscillate due to an equivocation that confuses particularity with generality that may block emotional energies and prevent resolution. Deduction and induction represent the same polarity, as does the frequentist and Bayesian interpretations of statistics. Reintroducing emotion back into logic returns an intuitionist logic and grammar, and this permits the resolution of felt tension. This intuitionism is tied to a time-sense that oscillates between foresight (to particularity) and hindsight (to generality). Emotionality is found relating to causation, agreeing with A.N. Whitehead. It is hypothesized that the intuitionist logic provides a universal grammar, or a vitalistic organizing principle, that has impacted on biological evolution. This agrees with panpsychism and panentheism. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/55

From Dust to Descartes: My Thoughts on Various Aspects of Consciousness (by Micul E. Thompson)

Abstract: This short essay attempts to demonstrate how subjective experience, language, and consciousness can be explained in terms of abilities we share with the simplest of creatures, specifically the ability to detect, react to, and associate various aspects of the world. http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/9