Consciousness: Another Perspective
Consciousness: Another Perspective
by Ashok Bhatia
In the earlier part of this series of articles on Consciousness, we had covered the wide range of models which experts have used to define the concept of Consciousness, whether from management practitioners, scientists or those who repose their faith in either religion or spirituality.
We notice that most of the models used for explaining Consciousness have been centred on these four concepts:
The CEN Perspective
The model that Conscious Enterprises Network believes in is related to some extent to point 4 above. The aspect we are investigating is information based and not just energy/vibration based. To us, energy is of secondary importance.
Of Evolutionary Forces
We believe that Nature (or, ‘The Act of Informative Creation’) came about first, followed by matter/energy. Over millennia, driven by forces of natural evolution, we have been chiselled to a state we find ourselves in today. We have repeatedly enjoyed biological benevolence and good fortune. From a single cell structure, we have today become a highly sophisticated machinery which willy-nilly is aware of its own existence.
In the interim, we have undergone repeated transformations. We have never been attached to a particular type, shape, colour or size for too long. We first developed a liking for oxygen. We then frolicked about in the deep oceans, before trying to rule land in various forms. We bore our way underground and climbed on trees. We took wings and enjoyed the freedom of mobility, often backed by a highly effective GPS.
We assumed different forms, whether of the hissing or slithering kind or of the ferocious carnivorous kind. From bonobos and apes to Homo Sapiens has been a logical jump for us, and we know that we have indeed arrived.
We now roam about all corners of the solar system. We keep messing up the fragile environment we have been gifted with. We have possibly come to believe that the journey of evolution is over. We think we can now rest on our laurels and remain content with inventing newer and better means to destroy ourselves. We need pandemics to come knocking to our doors to wake us up from this slumber and drive home the reality that we need to be more conscious of the inexorable forces of nature and respect its mandate.
The Importance of Information
Our physical bodies serve the unique purpose of facilitating the process of learning that we continue to undergo. It would not be wrong to say that our bodies are merely the tools provided to us by Nature. This helps us to keep amassing information-based wisdom – the wisdom of survival, the wisdom of living a happy, contented and fulfilling life.
Thus, information is the key input. The characteristics of information are as follows:
It is alive from the simplest form to the more complex form.
It brings about stability by having a self-organising capability.
Self-learning helps it to expand in complexity.
Self-reflectivity enables a dynamic continuity.
Since information is the key, energy assumes a subservient role in our evolution.
Another Take on Consciousness
In this model, we can readily explain Consciousness as a process belonging to the realm of information. Information, when backed by self-reflection, tends to get distilled and refined. Through this process of involution, we fulfil our purpose of self-learning.
As per this model, the source of everything could be called a Quantum Soup from which all possibilities and all potential creations of nature keep emerging and becoming extinct. The Quantum Soup is beyond the physical and the multidimensional universes, akin to the Vishwa-Roopam described by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, an Indian scripture, some 5,500 years back.
What comes about is a timeless chain of procreation which, in turn, leads to an environment which, even though in a flux over time, gets established temporarily. We keep growing, duly propelled by a complex information structure.
Consciousness is a process of singular information. With further information packages thrown in, it assumes a condensed form. Thus, it does not belong to its parts but to all of creation. It may appear as if it is confined merely to a specific situation, say, a human life. But that is just an illusion created from a perception created as we mentally travel back and forth between the past and the future. It is not a perception of an eternal present.
The Toltec/Shamanic Tradition
To absorb this concept better, let us consider the Toltec Shamanic tradition. For a Toltec Shaman (see work from Carlos Castaneda), when a living entity dies, it faces the “Eagle” that is generally explained by a mass of pure consciousness with a mass of information behind it. This mass of consciousness absorbs the dead entity’s history with its consciousness too in its action. In other words, the “Eagle” devours even the awareness of the dead. We base our observations on the work done by Carlos Castaneda in this context.
Consciousness as a Process
Because of its functional aspect, consciousness is universal and does not belong to any portion of information. This is another important point as my consciousness, yours and anything that exists is fundamentally the same one.
Indeed, there are packets of consciousness, such as a human consciousness, a tiger’s consciousness, and the like. Owing to the self-organising property of information, such packets lead to an apparent compartmentalisation of consciousness.
Sure enough, it takes time and understanding for one to realise that our individual consciousness is actually the same as that of anyone else even though each entity’s physical sheath and history may be quite different.
(Inputs from Dominique Conterno and Esther Robles, co-founders of Consciousness Enterprises Network (https://www.consciousenterprises.net) are gratefully acknowledged).
- A physiological activity taking place in the human neo-cortex (human only).
- More generally, a physiological activity taking place in the whole brain (human and other animals to some degrees).
- An energy like phenomenon that uses the brain to manifest itself.
- A deeper phenomenon at the core of everything, eventually connecting us to a Universal Consciousness.
The CEN Perspective
The model that Conscious Enterprises Network believes in is related to some extent to point 4 above. The aspect we are investigating is information based and not just energy/vibration based. To us, energy is of secondary importance.
Of Evolutionary Forces
We believe that Nature (or, ‘The Act of Informative Creation’) came about first, followed by matter/energy. Over millennia, driven by forces of natural evolution, we have been chiselled to a state we find ourselves in today. We have repeatedly enjoyed biological benevolence and good fortune. From a single cell structure, we have today become a highly sophisticated machinery which willy-nilly is aware of its own existence.
In the interim, we have undergone repeated transformations. We have never been attached to a particular type, shape, colour or size for too long. We first developed a liking for oxygen. We then frolicked about in the deep oceans, before trying to rule land in various forms. We bore our way underground and climbed on trees. We took wings and enjoyed the freedom of mobility, often backed by a highly effective GPS.
We assumed different forms, whether of the hissing or slithering kind or of the ferocious carnivorous kind. From bonobos and apes to Homo Sapiens has been a logical jump for us, and we know that we have indeed arrived.
We now roam about all corners of the solar system. We keep messing up the fragile environment we have been gifted with. We have possibly come to believe that the journey of evolution is over. We think we can now rest on our laurels and remain content with inventing newer and better means to destroy ourselves. We need pandemics to come knocking to our doors to wake us up from this slumber and drive home the reality that we need to be more conscious of the inexorable forces of nature and respect its mandate.
The Importance of Information
Our physical bodies serve the unique purpose of facilitating the process of learning that we continue to undergo. It would not be wrong to say that our bodies are merely the tools provided to us by Nature. This helps us to keep amassing information-based wisdom – the wisdom of survival, the wisdom of living a happy, contented and fulfilling life.
Thus, information is the key input. The characteristics of information are as follows:
It is alive from the simplest form to the more complex form.
It brings about stability by having a self-organising capability.
Self-learning helps it to expand in complexity.
Self-reflectivity enables a dynamic continuity.
Since information is the key, energy assumes a subservient role in our evolution.
Another Take on Consciousness
In this model, we can readily explain Consciousness as a process belonging to the realm of information. Information, when backed by self-reflection, tends to get distilled and refined. Through this process of involution, we fulfil our purpose of self-learning.
As per this model, the source of everything could be called a Quantum Soup from which all possibilities and all potential creations of nature keep emerging and becoming extinct. The Quantum Soup is beyond the physical and the multidimensional universes, akin to the Vishwa-Roopam described by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, an Indian scripture, some 5,500 years back.
What comes about is a timeless chain of procreation which, in turn, leads to an environment which, even though in a flux over time, gets established temporarily. We keep growing, duly propelled by a complex information structure.
Consciousness is a process of singular information. With further information packages thrown in, it assumes a condensed form. Thus, it does not belong to its parts but to all of creation. It may appear as if it is confined merely to a specific situation, say, a human life. But that is just an illusion created from a perception created as we mentally travel back and forth between the past and the future. It is not a perception of an eternal present.
The Toltec/Shamanic Tradition
To absorb this concept better, let us consider the Toltec Shamanic tradition. For a Toltec Shaman (see work from Carlos Castaneda), when a living entity dies, it faces the “Eagle” that is generally explained by a mass of pure consciousness with a mass of information behind it. This mass of consciousness absorbs the dead entity’s history with its consciousness too in its action. In other words, the “Eagle” devours even the awareness of the dead. We base our observations on the work done by Carlos Castaneda in this context.
Consciousness as a Process
Because of its functional aspect, consciousness is universal and does not belong to any portion of information. This is another important point as my consciousness, yours and anything that exists is fundamentally the same one.
Indeed, there are packets of consciousness, such as a human consciousness, a tiger’s consciousness, and the like. Owing to the self-organising property of information, such packets lead to an apparent compartmentalisation of consciousness.
Sure enough, it takes time and understanding for one to realise that our individual consciousness is actually the same as that of anyone else even though each entity’s physical sheath and history may be quite different.
(Inputs from Dominique Conterno and Esther Robles, co-founders of Consciousness Enterprises Network (https://www.consciousenterprises.net) are gratefully acknowledged).
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