Abstract:Attempts to include consciousness within an architecture of rig- orous, quantitative science encounter several formidable difficulties, among them the elusiveness of its definition, the plethora of me...Attempts to include consciousness within an architecture of rig- orous, quantitative science encounter several formidable difficulties, among them the elusiveness of its definition, the plethora of mental states that can prevail, the intrinsically subjective character of many forms of experience, the wide variance of individual responses to sensory stimuli, and the capacity for anomalous modes of information acquisition and generation. Nowhere are these characteristics more dramatically demonstrated than in research on mind/matter interactions and remote perception, from which have been com- pounded large bodies of empirical evidence, but little insight regarding viable theoretical models or profitable strategies for superior experiments. The pur- pose of this paper is to review some of that evidence, and to attempt to glean therefrom a productive model to guide future studies. The essence of this modular model is to set aside the common presumption that anomalous mind/matter effects are achieved by direct attention of the conscious mind to the observable physical processes addressed. Rather, an alternative is pro- posed wherein unconscious mind and intangible physical mechanisms are in- voked to achieve anomalous acquisition of mental information about, or anomalous mental influence upon, otherwise inaccessible material processes. Implications for more effective experiments include subtler feedback schemes that facilitate submission of conscious intention to unconscious mental processing, physical target systems that provide a richness of intangi- ble potentialities, operators who are amenable to such interactions, and an en- vironmental ambience that supports the composite strategy. Theoretical req- uisites include better understanding of the information dialogue between conscious and unconscious aspects of mind, more pragmatic formulations of the relations between tangible and intangible physical processes, and, most importantly, cogent representation of the merging of mental and material di- mensions into indistinguishability at their deepest levels.Read More
Publication Year: 2019
Publication Date: 2019-11-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 7
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