THE CONSCIOUS MIND

INTRODUCTION

Theology in the 15^th Century or thereabouts had a huge impact on life in the Western World when Medicine took a back seat after enormous strides had made in understanding disease in combating infectious ailments and modernizing midwifery practice prior to that. The plague was seen as a curse on mankind and burning women as witches prevailed for a hundred years. However, in the non-Christian world, religion ordained ethical and moral practice and promoted scientific understanding. Eastern Medicine progressed with vigour in India, Persia and China. After the dark ages in Europe came a period of Renaissance when architecture, art and music became prominent. Colonization of the East, Africa and the Americas in the 17^th and 18^th hundred enabled the permeation of Western culture with knowledge and wisdom of the East and other nations of the Incas and Mayans.

December 21, 2012 passed by with a storm hitting our homes in Shah Alam. The sky was dark and lightening struck with such anger that it knocked off the automatic gate electrical system and the ICT modem in our home. Although the world was expected to end that day , according to the Mayan calendar, it did not, but the ferocity of the storm which struck that  evening ,punctuated with a ‘whirlwind’ warned us the true effects of climate change and the instability of the weather. The flood mitigation system fell like a collapsed pack of cards as the highways plying our housing estate was flooded causing massive traffic jams.

THE CYCLE OF LIFE

As we trace mankind’s journey through the ages, it seems to come in cycles of order and plenty during the times of the Greeks and Romans in the West and growth of civilizations not very different from that of the Greeks in the Indus Valley and Sumeria in what is now Iraq. Then volcanoes   erupted to wipe out civilizations, societal decay destroyed moral norms and disease eradicated thousands. We have heard about the ravaging effects of the plaque, small pox and cholera. A lack of identification of disease ad microbes placed the blame on spirits and   evil forces. Following such devastations often came reigns with sensible approaches to life and rehabilitation and meaningful livelihood. The cycle is repeated and life is reorganized.

EVOLUTION IS PRESCRIBED

The world did not end on 21^st Dec 2012. We are now edging on in 2013. Geopolitical changes will carve out new patterns for living things and humans will need to take stock of lifestyle changes. Why confuse climate change with people and theology. This perplexing problem haunts me and as we grow with age we begin to philosophise, re-visiting the facts and myths and their origins. While man has made huge strides in understanding the universe, he also confuses us. When Copernicus delved in Astronomy and his discoveries he was scorned upon in the beginning and then we started accepting his views. Later physics took the forefront of new discoveries with Newton and the like explaining gravitation, matter and velocity before the Quantum theory came into the equation in the early 20^th century. Do we have all the answers? Do we accept Darwin’s ‘Origin of the Species’? The National Geography series simplifies many facts based on the evolution of living things.

Recently I watched a program where the commentator eloquently sets the scene with the whale, a mammal electing to lose its limbs, converting them into fins and remaining a huge animal with its carnivorous habits. The deep seas permit such an evolutionary change. The sea lion on the other hand, takes on a dual habitat depending on the deep seas for its food and learning to live on land! The penguin is a bird that elected to lose its ability to fly and walk upright staying on land in the Antarctic.

The Gods must be crazy to create   diversity in both the plant and animal kingdom. But do we not see the adaptation to survive, procreate and preserve with the change in the environment. The ‘Dark Continent’ of Africa has some severe living condition even without poverty and war. The skin colour adapts the people to the hot dry weather of the sub-Saharan desert. As one moves up the Mediterranean Sea the skin colour changes to that of the North African, Greek and Roman-light skinned.

Move on further up north and the fair skinned blonde looks of the Scandinavians becomes apparent. Adaptations will continue to prevail with environmental changes and food availability. A simple example is how the dead body is disposed. If a death takes place while on a ship, a sea burial is in order. When wood is available, cremation appears to be in place. Many of these adaptations are justified by custom, religion and circumstances clearly indicating an alternative means of accepting life. The malleability of the human and animal is integral to its survival and we need to bear this in mind. Rigidity of practice, inflexibility of thoughts and dogmatic adherence to archaic way of life would pose a barrier to revolutionary and evolutionary thinking deterring adaptation and improved living.

FACTORING THE CONSCIOUS MIND

Hinduism remains a mystery to even those who practice the religion. After 35 years of both formal and informal worship, I understand that Hinduism is not a religion, by conventional definition, but a way of life. When  empathy erodes because all and sundry are judged by others and measured using societal standards that can be questioned we begin to fall back on the thoughts that not all actions and thoughts can be explained by scientific understanding where a hypothesis needs to be generated and an experiment done so as answer the primary question. Many continue to ponder what happens after death and if there is a soul. When a the first heart transplant was done in South Africa , an old aunt of mine was perplexed; what would happen to his ‘soul’ assuming that the soul resides in the heart, a functional component that perpetuates our very being! Saints and theologians have delved in this subject in depth and have explanations and views. The subjective truth is not to be discussed here but as long as religiosity remains a part of society we need to live in harmony with the views of those who profess the soul and empathy. There must be some truth in this non-tangible feeling we have (not just the functioning of the autonomic nervous system of fright and flight).  Why are some so very empathetic and then there is the ‘animal’ who maims and disfigures other humans? The horrendous fatal gang rape of a young medical student in India recently is a classic example.

WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN?

The wonder question I now ponder over is what life is. When does it begin and what happens after death. Google the subject and up springs a volume of literature far too much to read. Does life in humans begin with the successful formation of the embryo?  Does it begin with ensoulment even before birth? These questions have been answered rather convincingly by theologians and those concerned with the sanctity of life. Cells that are known to exist in its fundamental form are ‘alive’. The single cell organism continues to thrive exhibiting all the characteristics of living i.e it respires, reproduces by cleavage, excretes its by-products and gets its nutrition by engulfing what is available and suitable. If this is what being alive is, then the embryo stage is way up the evolution ladder. It then is comprehensible that current terms like ‘living and the soul’ have outlived their meaning and one needs to look at subatomic definitions for being alive. This way of redefining ‘living’ ultimately leads one to consider energy binding atoms and subatomic parts as being alive!

BEING CONSCIOUS

Philosophy, Psychology and ancient spiritual teachings frequently visit the state of awareness of either internal or external stimuli by referring to the mind, ego and superego. The branch of metacognition, which later got incorporated into ‘thinking processes discusses in great depths, layers of consciousness. The Hindu mantras relate consciousness to the universal sound’ AUM’. The deep thinkers go further to discuss seven levels of consciousness. If we were to apply the spiritualists’ teachings to science we begin to understand how much we do not understand. I discussed earlier that science and mathematics are based on proving a theory correct by equations and observations. Einstein brought us to the edge of uncertainty by introducing space and time through the theory of relativity. If two trains were moving at the same speed in the same direction each of the observers in opposite trains would have the illusion that they are motionless! Time and space are relative to the observer.

This stubborn illusion stays within our conscious mind and makes us think that there is a force beyond simple scientific explanation, yet to be discovered.  But the basic principle we have to bear in mind is that without consciousness, time and space comes to nothing, nought! The quantum theory underscores this notion; particles exist even if we don’t persist’. What does this mean? The mystery begins when we enquire if there is life after death! I am pondering if the energy released from the body after death remains as consciousness (or is consciousness, energy that is to evolve and be incorporated into new cells!).

BIOCENTRISM

Robert Lanza, a scientist and theorist, introduced the concept that physics and chemistry cannot explain in entirety everything unless it was threaded through with biology. He uses the term ‘Biocentrism’ to explain life. Life creates the universe and not the other way round. It is quite gratifying in seeing some sense in this revolutionary way of thinking. Neuroscience of today underscores the primary theme of consciousness that creates reality. The schizophrenic patient and those with intense depression hallucinate, even normal people have illusions and inexplicable dreams haunt the ‘unconscious’ mind. Just as time and space depend on perception (they are not physical in the true sense), consciousness becomes a critical part of the universe.

A common event I see in the clinical wards is the ritualistic ward round when an intern scribbles away what he perceives as ‘reality’; not what actually occurs. The ‘animal observer’ creates reality and not the other way around. Most of what has been discussed during the ward round is not captured in the patient‘s bed head ticket, only what is perceived as reality by the illusionary views of the intern.

 Lanza’s  (with Bob Berman)  theory of biocentrism appears aligned to the ancient teachings ( Vedas etc.)  that consciousness not only generates but  governs, and becomes a physical world. This brave new re-look at life is perhaps not new but puts in perspective what we have not been able to do, weave the basic principles of ancient teaching zooming down to consciousness in explaining the very tenet of life and its existence. Biology meaningfully builds on physics and chemistry. Biocentrism unravels the confusion we contend with when we pretend to understand the puzzles of science (Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, the double-slit experiment, gravitational forces, and laws that shape the universe as we perceive it). Though there is radical opposition to what Lanza theorizes, he tries to convince the audience that the 200 or so parameters of physics governing the universe remain as such, orderly and ordained, so as allow the existence of life and consciousness.

CONCLUSION

I was quite surprised and disillusioned when I learnt that Pluto is not to be considered a planet in our universe, after I had firmly encrypted in my mind all the planets (Venus, Mars, and Jupiter etc.). It became even more unsettling that some of the planets are not solid! If you Google for more information, one would come across more inconsistent information which we have taken for granted for many years; what makes the core of the earth?

With age comes wisdom, so we say; but it also beckons questions about the beginning of the universe and what reality is. The human has evolved over the years and has become a complex organism. With this evolution comes intangible process of life and consciousness. If we break down the body we will eventually talk about subatomic particles involved in wizardry of reactions using and dissipating energy in some form (ATP, ADP etc.). A knowledge of physics and chemistry helps explain events and signalling pathways. But when illusion and hallucination are thrown into the equation of consciousness, we become perplexed of the complicated circuitry that needs further elaboration. What is time? Is it the inner sense that animates still frames? Appreciating spatial orientation needs energy and consciousness. A dear sister of mine was in ‘coma’ for two days. When she came out of her stupor she described a ‘beautiful garden with flowering plants and chirping birds-so serene, that she warned us not to wake her up should she go into yet another stupors state! That is the conscious mind, the beautiful mind. Time and space are but tools of the mind and we need biology to explain the intricacies of life and consciousness.
We will be continuously applying science and mathematics to explain the parameters that govern the universe. We are yet to be convinced if we can explain life, soul and consciousness.

Sivalingam Nalliah

13 January 2013