Everything is energy, leading neuroscientists & Buddhists agree: “Consciousness is everywhere”
New theories suggest Buddhist teachings on consciousness may be correct, and the implications for science could be huge.
https://www.lionsroar.com/consciousness-is-everywhere/
In 2013, Koch, one of the world’s leading experts on consciousness, went to a monastery in India to discuss that question with a group of Buddhist monks. He and the Dalai Lama debated neuroscience and mind for a full day.
They had different approaches. Koch offered contemporary scientific theories on the subject, and His Holiness countered with ancient Buddhist teachings. Yet, at the end of their discussion, the two thinkers agreed on almost every point.
“What struck me most was his belief in what we in the West call ‘panpsychism’ — the belief that consciousness is everywhere,” says Koch. “And that we have to reduce the suffering of all conscious creatures.”
Panpsychism, the idea of universal consciousness, is a prominent thought in some branches of ancient Greek philosophy, paganism, and Buddhism. And it has been largely dismissed by modern science — until recently.
IIT also marries these practical applications with profound ideas. The theory says that any object with a phi greater than zero has consciousness. That would mean animals, plants, cells, bacteria, and maybe even protons are conscious beings.
Koch sees IIT as promising because it offers an understanding of panpsychism that fits into modern science. In an academic paper, Koch and Tononi make the profound statement that their theory “treats consciousness as an intrinsic, fundamental property of reality.”
Modern research and recent dialogues between Buddhists and scientists have focused mainly on understanding the physical brain. But scientists have barely begun to develop an understanding of mind — or consciousness — itself.
On the Buddhist side, however, this is a discussion that has been going on for thousands of years. Buddhism associates mind with sentience. The late Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche stated that while mind, along with all objects, is empty, unlike most objects, it is also luminous. In a similar vein, IIT says consciousness is an intrinsic quality of everything yet only appears significantly in certain conditions — like how everything has mass, but only large objects have noticeable gravity.
At Drepung Monastery, the Dalai Lama told Koch that the Buddha taught that sentience is everywhere at varying levels, and that humans should have compassion for all sentient beings. Until that point, Koch hadn’t appreciated the weight of his philosophy.
“I was confronted with the Buddhist teaching that sentience is probably everywhere at varying levels, and that inspired me to take the consequences of this theory seriously,” says Koch. “When I see insects in my home, I don’t kill them.”
The theory of IIT shows promise for the future. With more research, Koch and Tononi could better test consciousness, to prove scientifically that all beings are sentient. Meanwhile, Buddhists around the world are constantly working to develop an understanding of the mind. Traleg Rinpoche said that analytical methods can only go so far toward understanding the mind. Instead, he says, by resting his or her mind and contemplating it, a meditator can develop an understanding of the nature of mind and how it relates to everything else.
Understanding the source of consciousness is an extremely difficult hurdle, but Koch is up to it. He says that his ultimate goal is to understand the universe. Some say that the best way to do that is to look inside your own mind. Maybe Koch is on to something.
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Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare
A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There’s “a realistic possibility” that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consciousness.
In 2022, researchers at the Bee Sensory and Behavioral Ecology Lab at Queen Mary University of London observed bumblebees doing something remarkable: The diminutive, fuzzy creatures were engaging in activity that could only be described as play. Given small wooden balls, the bees pushed them around and rotated them. The behavior had no obvious connection to mating or survival, nor was it rewarded by the scientists. It was, apparently, just for fun.
The study on playful bees is part of a body of research that a group of prominent scholars of animal minds cited today, buttressing a new declaration that extends scientific support for consciousness to a wider suite of animals than has been formally acknowledged before. For decades, there’s been a broad agreement among scientists that animals similar to us — the great apes, for example — have conscious experience, even if their consciousness differs from our own. In recent years, however, researchers have begun to acknowledge that consciousness may also be widespread among animals that are very different from us, including invertebrates with completely different and far simpler nervous systems.
The new declaration, signed by biologists and philosophers, formally embraces that view. It reads, in part: “The empirical evidence indicates at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates (including all reptiles, amphibians and fishes) and many invertebrates (including, at minimum, cephalopod mollusks, decapod crustaceans and insects).” Inspired by recent research findings that describe complex cognitive behaviors in these and other animals, the document represents a new consensus and suggests that researchers may have overestimated the degree of neural complexity required for consciousness.
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Should plants be given rights? What new botanical breakthroughs could mean
They can communicate with each other about threats, summon help from predatory killers – and some can even count – but does this mean plants are conscious?
Last month, at a gathering at New York University, a group of prominent biologists and philosophers widened the perimeter of a very exclusive club. They declared that there is “a realistic possibility” that insects, crustaceans and fish experience consciousness. This was an expansion of an earlier declaration, made in 2012, in which researchers asserted that mammals and birds were capable of intentional behaviour and had all the physical markers of conscious states: “Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness,” they concluded. The official consciousness list – or “realistic possibility of consciousness” list – now includes “all vertebrates (including all reptiles, amphibians and fishes) and many invertebrates (including, at minimum, cephalopod mollusks, decapod crustaceans and insects)”.
Lizards have been shown to learn how to navigate mazes, suggesting behavioural flexibility, an often-used marker of intelligence. Bees are able to distinguish between styles of art; engage in play; and perform an elaborate, symbolically rich “waggle dance” that tells their hive mates precisely how far and at what angle to the sun to fly to find food. Scientists suggest bees may have the capacity to feel, perhaps denoting consciousness.
Where, then, will the circle widen to next? As a journalist, I have spent the last several years immersed in the world of plant behaviour research, where botanists are coming to startling new conclusions about what plants are capable of. They have found that plants communicate to each other about threats, manipulate animals to their own advantage, and can react to the sound of a predator caterpillar chewing. Some plants, we now know, can count: the Venus flytrap famously counts the number of times the fine trigger hairs in their maw-like traps are flicked, so as to ensure they are ensnaring a wriggling creature and not, say, a bit of fallen twig. Twining parasitic vines appear able to sense the suitability of their potential victims before making contact with them, and cress will make space for its genetic kin, rearranging its leaves to avoid shading out its siblings. When under attack, tomatoes can alter the chemistry of their leaves in such a way that encourages the caterpillars to eat each other instead. And I have seen a climbing plant in Chile that can change its leaves to mimic the shape, texture and vein pattern of whatever plant grows beside it. Plants’ behaviour appears elastic, capable of adapting to changing circumstances, and even strategic: they integrate information about the recent past to make decisions for the future.
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Everything in Our Universe—Even the Chair You’re Sitting On—May Be Conscious, Scientists Say
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a60229168/panpsychism-everything-has-a-soul/
Panpsychism, an old theory saying that everything has a mind or mind-like quality, is regaining momentum among scientists.
For some scholars, panpsychism is metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, and consciousness an illusion of a mind that has exceeded its natural capacities.
But panpsychists insist the world is fully awake and conscious—you are conscious, rocks are conscious, the sun is conscious.
How would you react at the thought that the very chair you are sitting in is made up of tiny particles that harness some type of rudimentary experience? Actually, how would you feel if we told you that the potted flower next to your chair, as well as your brain and the four walls surrounding all of you—each and every one—possess an internal mental characteristic? What if the world around you was not an inanimate stage, upon which you, the owner of a soul, played the lead role, but was instead fully awake–just like you? Let’s hear it from panpsychism, the theory that everything has a mind or a mind-like quality.
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Scientists Conclμde That The Universe Is Conscioμs
https://online-updates.net/scientists-concl%CE%BCde-that-the-universe-is-conscio%CE%BCs-video/
According to a scientific concept, the μniverse coμld have conscioμsness, and if that is trμe, then everything coμld change. Scientists know very little aboμt the μniverse, they strμggled to μnderstand where we came from, and more importantly, why are we here?
Scientists have failed to really μnderstand the μniverse, Gregory Matloff is a scientist, he has given his ideas aboμt the μniverse if it is proven right, the scientific world will never look at the μniverse throμgh the same eyes. He said that hμmans coμld be like the rest of the μniverse when it comes to spirit and sμbstance. He said that a so-called “proto-conscioμsness field” can extend throμghoμt the space, which means that the entire cosmos coμld have self-conscioμsness. Matloff is not the only one to sμpport this, becaμse Christof Koch of the Allen Institμte for the Brain Sciences also sμpports the same hypothesis in the concept of Panpsychism, he went on to say that biological organisms are aware and self-conscioμsness.
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