For a world where mind really matters 1

[last edited 8 August 2008]

Ask where are the contents of conscious experience just as the thoughts, emotions, sensations and sensory perceptions one can have? And the answer could be that these subjective experiences cannot be found anywhere in the body or the world experienced. So the thought might be that to experience one's body and the world there would somehow need to be more than anything that can be found anywhere in the world experienced.

Then consider how the findings of modern science can be thought to indicate that all the causes that could be found to act universally in the world experienced that includes one's body, are of a kind that can be described as pushing or pulling objects as they produce their effects. These are causes that have all been called forces, including those that could be described as surrounding objects as forces of attraction or repulsion and that have also been called fundamental interactions.

The scientific findings have also indicated matter in general, as the atoms and molecules of the elements and compound of inanimate matter and so, also, all living organisms, consists almost all of the space between its component parts that have been called electrons and atomic nuclei. And the powerful charge force that produces electrical and magnetic effects could be measured to attract electrons towards nuclei and repel between electrons. So that all matter as atoms. molecules and living organisms could be thought to remain in their physical forms despite the action of all the forces. And one can also ask: given, it seems, just the charge force acting within all such matter as it surrunds electrons and and nuclei, what causes matter to be in all its various and particular forms as the elements and compounds of inanimate matter and the species of living organisms that include human beings?

So for matter just to remain in all these forms as atoms molecules and living organisms, it may be reasoned that, somehow, a cause would need to act universally and constantly in addition to all the forces just so as to maintain or conserve all the forms and organisation of matter. This would be a cause that could not be described as pulling or pushing or attracting or repelling objects. So that by not being such a push or pull force, this further cause would have no strength of effect that could be measured to decrease or cease with increasing distance between objects. And such, it may be thought, could be a cause of an effect that has been called quantum entanglement. This is a kind of effect that could be measured to occur at a distance between objects that include electrons as the subatomic components of atoms.

Thus, unlike the effect of any force, quantum entanglement could be described as arising just from a fixed relationship between certain forms of behaviour of objects that can be measured as a correlation. So that between matter particles that include pairs of electrons such behaviour can be described in terms of different directions of spin. And the measured relationship could be called spin-up in one component and whereby the other component would be measured to be in the opposite spin-down direction.

Hence although the entanglement effect has no measurable strength the thought could be that for it to be measured, a cause would need to act so as to maintain or conserve the fixed relationship of behaviour between the objects measured. And, by producing effects that have no measurable strength that reduces or ceases with increasing distance between objects, such a cause could not, like all the fundamental interactions, be described as producing its effect as it surrounds objects. The conclusion can be, therefore, that if the effect of quantum entanglement has any cause, this could not be described as acting in the world experienced.

Also, given that the quantum entanglement effect could have a cause that does not surround objects, this could also be true of quantum wave behaviour. So that, while the entanglement effect can be regarded as evidence of there being a distinct cause that maintains the organisation of the behaviour of subatomic components in relation to each other or one another, the wave property of electrons could maintain the overall form of atoms and molecules.

So what of all living organisms including human beings? Could there be an invisible cause acting in addition to the forces so as to maintain or conserve their material organisation and overall physical forms? And could this be the cause of conscious experience? And then what of a cause that could be thought to act universally upon matter from outside the world experienced, how could this be so?

See related blog.