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The Cosmic Paradigm for Naturalizing Consciousness Our consciousness is the ultimate window through which we perceive reality. It would be rather illogical to call the very window, which afford us the perception of reality to be unreal. So, consciousness ought to be an essential part of reality. Yet our understanding of how it could arise in a physical universe has eluded us so far. In approaching a solution to this problem, it would be instructive to look for guidance from our knowledge of how the rest of the physical universe works. In a self-contained universe like ours, where everything seems to have come from one single source, the pattern of primary reality is likely to be universal. Therefore, it would be prudent to utilize our understanding of the primary reality of the universe in our effort for naturalizing something as fundamental as our consciousness. Physicists were long baffled by the mystery why any fundamental particle like an electron has the exact same property no matter where or when it is created in the universe. This mystery has been solved by the recent advent of the quantum field theories. According to these well-established theories, the primary reality of the universe consists of the unmanifest, vacuum quantum fields which fill all space at all times. An electron has exactly the same property irrespective of its origin because it is a manifest local excitation of the unbounded universal electron field. Likewise, other fundamental particles are excitations of their respective underlying quantum fields. This is the cosmic paradigm for primary reality. Although quantum fields and consciousness are both abstract, our usual understanding of the two are so distinctly different that it may appear a link between them is unlikely. However, evidences abound in the quantum domain of the natural universe that implies something akin to awareness, which is the basis of consciousness. Transition from quantum domain to our daily microscopic world also manifests in phenomena like laser, superconductivity and super fluidity. Furthermore, gravity, the oldest know force of nature, starts out as a quantum field which transitions into macroscopic gravity that we experience. Some eminent scientists indeed believe that the mysteries of quantum domain and the mystery of consciousness are linked. So, we are likely to be on the right track if we look for a linkage between the two primary realities of the natural universe, the quantum fields and consciousness. Thus, the cosmic paradigm of the primary reality of the universe point to a universal source for consciousness. As long as we consider consciousness to be a phenomena, which is merely localized in the human nervous system or more particularly in the brain, its origin is likely to elude us. No doubt that the unprecedented progress in neuro science will greatly elucidate the circuitry and signal processing in the brain. But how does this signal finally produces our subjective experience? Can a thorough knowledge of the circuitry of a TV allow us to produce an image without a screen, where the signal eventually registers for our perception? An unbounded universal "consciousness" whose local manifestation is our individual window of consciousness may provide an answer, consistent with our understanding of the pattern of the primary reality of the universe. |