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The Primary & Language Consciousness Hypothesis Explains Spirituality & Religion Frank Heile, PhD. Physics degrees from Stanford and MIT [email protected]
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Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

May 08, 2017

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Page 1: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

The Primary & Language Consciousness Hypothesis Explains Spirituality & Religion

Frank Heile, PhD.

Physics degrees from Stanford and [email protected]

Page 2: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Consciousness Hypothesis

� If an intelligent(1) agent:

� Has goals,

� Can sense the world,

� And makes representations and models of the world,

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� And makes representations and models of the world,

� Is able to perform actions that change the world,

� And makes predictions about whether goals will be acheived,

� And makes representations and models of the agent itself,

� Where the model of both the world and itself are sufficiently rich, detailed and comprehensive,

� Then the agent will be conscious!

(1) Intelligence measures an agent’s ability to achieve its goals in a wide range of environments.

Page 3: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Consciousness Properties

� The “amount” of consciousness depends on the how complete the models of the world and itself are:

� Such as how rich, detailed & comprehensive the models are:Most Conscious ------------------------------� Least Conscious

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Most Conscious ------------------------------� Least ConsciousHumans,…Primates,…Mammals,…Reptiles,…Insects,…Plants

� The “kind” of consciousness that develops will depend on the nature of the representational system used to model the world and itself

� If there are two sufficiently different representational systems or models, there would be two different conscious beings

Page 4: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

A Human Being has Two Different Representations of the World & Itself:

Trees have different sizes and shapes.

Th

e W

orl

d t

ha

t is

be

ing

Mo

de

led

Visual

AuditoryA bird is singing a song.

Co

nn

ecti

on

s a

nd

co

rre

sp

on

de

nce

s

be

twe

en

Pri

ma

ry a

nd

La

ng

ua

ge

M

od

els

an

d R

ep

rese

nta

tio

ns

Primary Representational System Language Representational System

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17 is a prime number.XTh

e W

orl

d t

ha

t is

be

ing

Mo

de

led

Subconscious perceptions that are not reportable by the language consciousness

Abstract thoughts that have no equivalent perceptualrepresentation in the primary consciousness.

X

Auditory

Kinesthetic

A bird is singing a song.

The cat’s fur is soft.

Co

nn

ecti

on

s a

nd

co

rre

sp

on

de

nce

s

be

twe

en

Pri

ma

ry a

nd

M

od

els

an

d R

ep

rese

nta

tio

ns

“I” – I am looking at trees where I can

hear a bird is singing while I pet my cat.

I think I will go to the store next. Why

did I say that to mom?Two different “SELF” representations

Page 5: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Therefore, Two Consciousness Entities:

Primary Consciousness Language ConsciousnessAncient (many millions of years) New (about 50 thousand years old)

Primates and many other animals have this consciousness.

This consciousness seems to be (almost?) uniquely human.

Massively parallel processing (senses as inputs & internal representations)

Largely serial processing (the “voice” always talking in your head)

High Bandwidth Low Bandwidth

Intuitive, spatial, concrete thought, music, art, Language, logic, temporal sequences, abstract

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Intuitive, spatial, concrete thought, music, art, athletics

Language, logic, temporal sequences, abstract thought, science

Emotions are from the primary system Emotions are felt in the body

Automatic Effortful

Difficult to report the contents of consciousness without using the language consciousness.

Easily “reportable”; thus it is the most obvious consciousness and is often mistaken as the only consciousness.

It is the entity that perceives the “blind sight” object.

It is the entity that is blind to the “blind sight” object.

Subconscious or Id Ego (and Super Ego)

Does most of the work. Takes most of the credit.

Page 6: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Primary Representational System and Goals

� The Primary Representational System includes:

� The direct sensory and motor representations, representational categories and sensory-motor schemas

� Abstract higher level hierarchical categories and symbolic

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� Abstract higher level hierarchical categories and symbolic representations

� Goals are built in by evolution and they are associated with and indicated by emotions, feelings, drives and motivations

� Since humans are intensely social, many of these goals and emotions promote sociability which support the spiritual virtues:

� Such as: Love, Altruism, Selflessness, Forgiveness, Humility, Compassion, Empathy, Fairness, Justice, Acceptance, Patience

� However, there are still some selfish and self-centered goals from evolution – which are usually seen as spiritual vices

Page 7: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Language Representational System and Goals

� Language models the world and self with words:

� It will only be present when the words of language have become a universal representational system:

� When language is able to represent almost everything that the Primary

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� When language is able to represent almost everything that the Primary Representational System can represent

� It can potentially represent more since it is easily expandable with new words

� There are no goals or emotions built in to the Language Consciousness: The only intrinsic goals would be:

� To Exist,

� To be in Control,

� To plan for the Future based on the Past.� This goal is present since the Language Representational System is built on the parts of

the brain that do long term planning: the executive function and episodic memory.

Page 8: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Language Representational System and Goals

� These intrinsic goals of “To Exist” and “To be in Control” tend to be selfish and self-centered and thus support the spiritual vices

� These include: Selfishness, Resentment, Arrogance, Pride, Self-centeredness & Hate

� However, the language system can notice the primary consciousness goals and can incorporate those into it. This can give it some spiritual virtue goals.

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can incorporate those into it. This can give it some spiritual virtue goals.

� It can create new goals for itself because of the many past decisions and judgments it has made:

� Judgments include: good/bad, right/wrong, should/shouldn’t , can/can’t, agree/disagree or true/false

� Decisions can be about how we or others need to be or act: Something is wrong here. Life isn’t fair and I have to make it fair! No one listens to me. I'm a failure! I'm ugly. I don't deserve it. I'm not worth loving. …

� It’s favorite topic is “me” or “I”. The inner voice is always talking about itself: What should or shouldn’t happen to me? How am I going to be safe?What should I do? What shouldn’t I do? They are slowing me down!

Page 9: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Goals in General

� Both the language and primary consciousness can notice and try to incorporate the other consciousness’s goals:� The language consciousness can notice what “feels good” (i.e. what is a

primary consciousness goal) and try to incorporate those goals into it

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primary consciousness goal) and try to incorporate those goals into it

� These goals can be distorted due to the less accurate language consciousness model of the world

� For example, if a something feels good, then go get LOTS more of it! (leading to addictions)

� The primary consciousness does understand language so it can incorporate the language consciousness goals:

� For example; if the language consciousness has created a goal of “always being right” and if someone says “you are wrong”, the primary consciousness will notice and can create an angry feeling.

Page 10: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

What the Language ConsciousnessThinks It Is

Language Consciousness= Who I Am

SensoryInput

It thinks it is the one who Perceives and does all Actions & that it Understands Language and Translates it into Words.

The unimportant subconscious stuff…

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MotorOutput

LanguageInput

LanguageOutput

InnerVoice

It thinks it’s decisions and judgments are exactly the way the World IS (or should be).

Decisions &Judgments

Page 11: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

What the Primary & Language Consciousnesses Really Are:

LanguageConsciousness

PrimaryConsciousness

SensoryInput

Language

Understands Language & Translates into Words

FuzzyBoundary

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The Primary &Language Consciousness

each have a full model of the world & a model of itself in that world, including it’s goals

MotorOutput

LanguageInput

LanguageOutput

Understanding1

Translate into Words2

1 Perhaps Werneke’s Area 2 Perhaps Broca’s Area

InnerVoice

De

cis

ion

s &

Ju

dg

me

nts

Increasing Levels of Abstraction

Page 12: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Brain Architecture division between Language and Primary Consciousness

PRIMARY

CONSCIOUSNESSLANGUAGE

CONSCIOUSNESS

Sensory Input

CategoriesAnalogies

Emotions&

FeelingsGlobal Workspace

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Executive FunctionWorking Memory

Top-Down Attention

Episodic Memory

Explicit Memory

Implicit Memory

Analogies

Motor Output

Motor Schemas

Feelings

Goals

Drives

Motivations

Bottom Up Attention

Page 13: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Language Consciousness Strengths:

� It is good at planning things out sequentially in time – it is the time traveler!

� The auditory system excels at timing sequences.

� Expressed language is always a linear sequence of words.

� It enabled agriculture and thus the development of very large communities

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� It enabled agriculture and thus the development of very large communities

� With the ability to do long range planning and to use language to parcel out the division of labor.

� It enables Science and Technology!

� This has many obvious survival advantages

� And some obvious disadvantages like nuclear weapons and pollution!

� The world model of the language consciousness can be exported by one human to another through language (and books).

� So the language world model and hence the language consciousness gets better and stronger from one generation to the next.

Page 14: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Language Consciousness Weaknesses:

� The language consciousness does have problems living in the world.

� It tends to get easily frustrated by its inability to achieve its goals.

� It can worry endlessly about things it cannot do anything about.

� It lives in fear of the future or else it lives in resentment about the past.

� In other words, the language consciousness does not know how to live the “Serenity

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� In other words, the language consciousness does not know how to live the “Serenity Prayer”:

� Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

� Whereas the primary consciousness has had 100M+ years to learn how to get along in the world so it can easily live the “Serenity Prayer”

� The language consciousness is often complaining, judging and making up false stories about the world.

� These can lead to decisions that become goals that are unworkable:

� The world should not be this way…! I should always be right!

Page 15: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Language Consciousness Constantly Bombards the Primary Consciousness

Language Consciousnessand the Language Consciousness

Model of the World

“This is not good.”

“I hate that guy.” “I’ll never be able to do this.”

“I give up.”

These decisions and judgments can be made now or could have been made in the past and are recalled and reaffirmed now…

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World

Primary Consciousnessand the Primary Consciousness

Model of the World

“I hate that guy.”

“I need MORE!”

“I am worthless.”

“I’ll never be able to do this.”

“I’ll do it tomorrow.”

“I’m going to die!!”

“I cannot live without her!”

This can result in dysfunction of the primary consciousness model of the world since the messages from the language consciousness will cause distorted goals and models of the world to be constructed – can lead to addiction and other mental diseases.

Page 16: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Evidence for a Primary & a Language Consciousness:

Explains Many Psychological Experiments and Observations

� Top Down vs. Bottom Up Attention

� Split brain experiments

Theory of Mind (Sally – Ann tests)

Consistent With and Helps to Explain other Theories and Models about Consciousness

� Daniel Dennett’s meme complex

� Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

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� Theory of Mind (Sally – Ann tests)

� Blind Sight Phenomenon

� Non-conscious Perception and Priming

� Libet’s decision delay experiments

Kahneman

� Ned Block’s Phenomenal Consciousness vs. Access Consciousness

� Bernard Barrs’s Global Workspace Model

� Antonio Damasio’s “Core” and “Extended” consciousnesses.

� Julian Jaynes’ Bicameral Mind Consciousness

� The User Illusion by Tor Norretranders

Page 17: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Spirituality & Religions

� The primary consciousness and the language consciousness explain all kinds of spiritual traditions and religions.

� The primary consciousness is the mostly the source of the spiritual virtues (but not the only source).

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spiritual virtues (but not the only source).

� The language consciousness is mostly the source of the spiritual vices (but not the only source).

� In general, we tend to identify with the language consciousness

� “Man” (or “self” or ego) is the language consciousness

� “God” (or “Self” or the higher self) is the primary consciousness

� Since it is more powerful and controls the world we live in; and since it the source of most of the spiritual virtues.

Page 18: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Primary Consciousness is the source* of Spiritual Virtues Language Consciousness is the source* of Spiritual Vices

Spiritual Virtues

� Love

� Altruism (or Selflessness)

� Forgiveness

Spiritual Vices

� Hate (or Hatred)

� Selfishness

� Resentment (or Regret or Blame)

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� Forgiveness

� Humility

� Compassion (or Empathy)

� Fairness (or Justice)

� Acceptance

� Patience

� Resentment (or Regret or Blame)

� Arrogance (or Pride or Self-centeredness)

� Indifference

� Unfairness (or Injustice)

� Rejection (or Judging)

� Impatience

*Mostly the source – the language consciousness can sometimes be loving and altruistic and the primary consciousness can sometimes be selfish

Page 19: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

The Split into Two Consciousnesses Gave Rise to the Theistic Spiritual Traditions:

� When the language consciousness was first developing and it was weak, it experienced a stronger consciousness (the primary consciousness) that had more power in the world and even power over the language consciousness.

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� The language consciousness would have a vague sense of a more powerful being that wasn’t itself & had quite a bit of power over its life.

� These vague senses of another being became identified as God

� Thus the Primary Consciousness became God

� God creates the world (the primary consciousness world model) that the language consciousness tries to model with language.

� And the Language Consciousness became Man

� God created man and gave Man (an illusion of) a Free Will.

Page 20: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Generic Western God:

� God is all powerful

� The primary conscious (God) filters and controls whatever the language consciousness (man) perceives and in that sense is all powerful.

� God is all knowing

� The primary consciousness (God) knows everything that the language consciousness

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� The primary consciousness (God) knows everything that the language consciousness (man) knows – and really more since the primary consciousness knows about all the unconscious things going on in the body and brain.

� God can perform miracles

� Since all perception comes through the primary consciousness (God) it could theoretically change the perception that the language consciousness (man) receives and therefore it may appear that the laws of physics are violated.

� God is only good, but man can be either good or evil

� This is understandable in the sense that the primary consciousness (God) has social goals that support the spiritual virtues, whereas the language consciousness (man) is more self-centered and is more inclined to the spiritual vices.

Page 21: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Reinterpretation of a Selected Passage of Genesis

� God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree … But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." - Genesis 3:3

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� The primary consciousness (God) knows that when the language system became consciousness (man) then it can choose between good and evil (i.e. make decisions) so then it will be conscious just like God.

� So eating the fruit of this tree is the story of when the language consciousness became conscious.

� Man then had to leave the paradise of Eden and live in the difficult real world that we find ourselves in now. Life was harder because the language consciousness is not as good at living as the primary consciousness.

Page 22: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Reinterpretation of Selected Passages of the New Testament

� [Jesus said] - “The Father and I are one.” - John 10:30

� Christ’s realization that the language consciousness (Jesus the man) and the primary consciousness (Jesus the God) are really the same single human being.

� It is also the statement that they should be one – they should act more in harmony with one another – even if they are currently not experienced as being one.

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with one another – even if they are currently not experienced as being one.

� [Jesus said] – “So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” - Mark 11:24

� This is expressing the fact that the primary consciousness (God) is much more powerful than the language consciousness (man) so that if the language consciousness humbly and confidently asks the primary consciousness for help in a prayer, the primary consciousness will do its best to help the language consciousness.

� “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” - Matthew 6:10

� “Your will” is God’s (the primary consciousness’) will. Earth is the world model where man (language consciousness) lives and heaven is the world model where God (primary consciousness) lives.

Page 23: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 Step Programs

� The primary consciousness can become addicted

� But the language consciousness greatly intensified the addiction when it obsesses about pleasures from the substance use and about suffering from the substance withdrawal.

� Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.

This is the language consciousness admitting that it cannot control the alcohol or our lives in

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� This is the language consciousness admitting that it cannot control the alcohol or our lives in general.

� Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

� This is the language consciousness coming to believe that the primary consciousness exists and could help.

� Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

� This is the language consciousness letting go of control and letting the primary consciousness run our lives.

� This is where the sobriety comes from – letting “God” take over.

� The 12 Steps then go on to help the alcoholic clear up mistakes of the past and present, let go of other character defects, pray and meditate and carry the message

Page 24: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Prayer & Meditation

� Prayer would be an example of the language consciousness trying to explicitly communicate with the primary consciousness.

� If the prayer is a request of some kind the primary consciousness may be convinced to use its powers to achieve the result.

� If the prayer is to know God’s will for us then it is the language consciousness

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� If the prayer is to know God’s will for us then it is the language consciousness declaring it’s willingness to follow the direction of the primary consciousness.

� The various meditation techniques are all attempts to quiet the language consciousness and experience the primary consciousness directly.

� Mantras - Repeating the same word or phrase over and over keeps the language consciousness busy.

� Concentrating on breathing - Breathing is one area where the language consciousness and primary consciousness share motor control.

Page 25: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

The Split into Two Consciousnesses Gave Rise to non-Theistic Spiritual Traditions:

� Suffering comes from the obsessive attachments of the language consciousness to objects it thinks it needs and to it’s stories.

� The judgments of the language consciousness also create suffering

� since it finds it hard to accept things it judges as bad

� and it tends to get addicted or at least distorted in the pursuit of whatever it

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� and it tends to get addicted or at least distorted in the pursuit of whatever it judges as good

� the Dualistic State:

� Is the misidentification of the self as only being the Language Consciousness

� the Nondualistic State:

� The Nondual State is when we realize that we really are the Primary Consciousness

� We see that the Language Consciousness is a useful tool,

� But not something that we indentify as being the self

Page 26: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Zen Buddhism

� Zen masters achieve nirvana after years of sitting meditation.

� Nirvana is universally described as something that cannot be described – it is beyond words.

� This is exactly true for any experience of the primary consciousness since any use of words automatically makes it a language consciousness experience or concept.

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of words automatically makes it a language consciousness experience or concept.

� Another Zen technique is to concentrate on a koan:

� A koan is a statement or question given by the teacher that does not make logical “sense” (to the language consciousness).

� For example: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

� This has no logical answer, so trying to answer this unanswerable question may result in experiencing conscious from the primary consciousness point of view instead of the language consciousness.

Page 27: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Dualism

� A person who is experiencing life from a Dualistic point of view:

� Believes he IS his language consciousness

� He believes all the stories created by the language consciousness are

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� He believes all the stories created by the language consciousness are absolutely true

� Believes that he lives in the world directly

� But in fact he ONLY lives in the model of the world created by the primary consciousness.

� He combines the primary consciousness, the primary consciousness model of the world and the world itself together

� And thinks of this as some “other” thing

� And thinks of himself as a victim of this “other”

Page 28: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Dualism

Language Consciousness:“I” + the Word

model of the world

“self” The World where the “self” Lives –the World and the “self” are NOT one

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Primary Consciousness:

Self .

The World:

The “Other”

Page 29: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

The Nondual State

� The Nondual State is universally described as something that cannot be described in words – it is beyond words.

� Obviously any use of words automatically creates a language consciousness thought or concept and therefore fails to describe

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consciousness thought or concept and therefore fails to describe the true Nondual state which does not have words!

� It is also said that you cannot seek the Nondual State

� Seeking is what the Language Consciousness does

� It is the time traveler that tries to seek something in the future that it does not already have in the present moment.

� But the present moment is the ONLY place where Nonduality can be found since that is where the Primary Consciousness IS.

Page 30: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Nondualism

Language Consciousness:“I” + the Word

model of the world

“Self” The World where the “Self” Lives –the World and the

“Self” are ONE This is seen as a tool and the “Self” does not identify itself with this tool.

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Primary Consciousness:

Self .

The World:

There is No

“Other” X

Page 31: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Nondual Teachings

� Many Nonduality teachers say to pay attention to perception

� Direct perception is exclusively part of the primary consciousness – so it makes sense that this could help to realize that we are the primary consciousness and lead to Nonduality.

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the primary consciousness and lead to Nonduality.

� There is also an emphasis on letting go of the search or seeking for enlightenment.

� Seeking is always in the future and is thus exclusively part of the language consciousness

� so seeking implies identification with the language consciousness.

� Enlightenment / nonduality can only be attained when the seeking ceases.

Page 32: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Transformation

� Landmark and other secular transformative training programs experientially get across these ideas:

� There is a difference between the way the world is or was and the story that the language consciousness makes up about it.

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� Encourages people to clean up or complete the past so they do not have to continually find confirmation of past decisions or judgments in the future.

� When it is recognized that the stories of the language consciousness do not mean anything, then those stories can be discarded.

� The world of the language consciousness is essentially empty and meaningless.

� This then presents the person with the first opportunity to create a new future and a new world out of what is important to their primary and language consciousness

� Instead of continually recreating the past into the future.

Page 33: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

This Theory

� Is a Language Consciousness Theory

� Understanding this Theory will NOT produce Nonduality

� My hope is that for engineers, scientists, atheists and non-spiritual people (and even for spiritual people):

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spiritual people (and even for spiritual people):

� This theory could give an understanding how spirituality could work and

� That a nondual consciousness could be a worthwhile goal and

� Therefore it is a good idea to follow the practices that spiritual teachers advise

� Hopefully, this Theory could be a “pointing” to the Nondual state…

Page 34: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Conclusion

� The hypothesis that there are two conscious entities in the brain explains:

� Many characteristics of consciousness and of our conscious experiences

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experiences

� Are consistent with and explain psychological experiments and other consciousness models

� Shows how perception can result in meaning and understanding

� Give insight to the origin and purpose of the Theistic and Non-Theistic Spiritual Traditions.

� Explains Duality and Nonduality and can motivate practices…

Page 35: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Additional Slides

� Not presented due to lack of time….

� The following slides fill in some additional areas and present more evidence, but do not tell a coherent story!

They would have to be inserted at various points in the talk to

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� They would have to be inserted at various points in the talk to really make sense!

� They may also be older versions of some slides that were used in other presentations.

� Use at your own risk ☺

Page 36: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Evidence for a Primary & a Language Consciousness:

Explains Many Psychological Experiments and Observations

� Top Down vs. Bottom Up Attention

� Split brain experiments

Theory of Mind (Sally – Ann tests)

Consistent With and Helps to Explain other Theories and Models about Consciousness

� Daniel Dennett’s meme complex

� Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

36

� Theory of Mind (Sally – Ann tests)

� Blind Sight Phenomenon

� Non-conscious Perception and Priming

� Libet’s decision delay experiments

Kahneman

� Ned Block’s Phenomenal Consciousness vs. Access Consciousness

� Bernard Barrs’s Global Workspace Model

� Antonio Damasio’s “Core” and “Extended” consciousnesses.

� Julian Jaynes’ Bicameral Mind Consciousness

� The User Illusion by Tor Norretranders

Page 37: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Top Down vs. Bottom Up Attention

� Attention is a characteristic of both the primary and language systems

� Language consciousness can only attend to 1 object at a time

� Top Down Attention – when the language consciousness instructs the

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� Top Down Attention – when the language consciousness instructs the primary consciousness to pay attention to some perceptual feature.

� Primary consciousness can attend to several (4 or 5 or ?) objects at a time

� Bottom Up Attention – when the primary consciousness brings something to the attention of the language consciousness

� Top Down Attention – the primary consciousness also has use of the executive function which can also focus the attention on some significant or important perceptual feature.

Page 38: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Split Brain Experiments

� Even when the language consciousness does not know what is going on, it will make up a story (or lie) about it.

� As an example, consider some of the split brain experiments:

� In these patients, the corpus collosum is cut

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In these patients, the corpus collosum is cut to control epilepsy

� Then present one visual problem to the righthemisphere and a different problem to the left.

� Each hemisphere solves the problem and the hand controlled by each is moved to the correct answer.

� Since the left hemisphere is where most of the language input and output ability for the patient resides, the patient is able to tell why the hand controlled by the left hemisphere made its choice.

� However the patient reports a made up reason for why the hand controlled by the right hemisphere made its choice – usually related to what the left saw.

� This is the language consciousness confabulating or making up a lie to explain why it did something that it did, in fact, not do.

Page 39: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Theory of Mind: the Sally-Ann Test

� A toddler is shown two dolls, Sally and Ann.

� Sally has a basket and Ann has a box.

� Sally puts a marble in her basket and then leaves the room.

� Ann takes the marble out of the basket and puts it in her box.

� When Sally comes back, the experimenter asks the toddler where Sally will look

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� When Sally comes back, the experimenter asks the toddler where Sally will look for the marble.

� Toddlers, at age 3, say that Sally will look for the marble in Ann’s box since they know the marble is there.

� At age 4, the toddler will say that Sally will look for the marble in her basket – where Sally last knew it to be.

� I claim this is evidence that between ages 3 and 4 the child’s model of other people begins to include the fact that they also contain a model of the world, and that their model of the world may differ from the child’s model of the world.

� This is also evidence that consciousness does include a model of the world and a model of other humans models of the world.

Page 40: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Blind-Sight

� The phenomenon of blind-sight* shows that something else is perceiving that which cannot be reported by the language consciousness!

� That something else is actually someone else – our primary

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� That something else is actually someone else – our primary consciousnesses

� Thus although the brain pathway used to directly report the stimulus was damaged, the primary consciousness does still perceive the stimulus and can give an intuitive nudge when the language consciousness makes guesses.

* Blind-sight is the phenomenon where some injury to the brain causes the patient to be blind to the presence

of an object in some part of the visual field (and therefore is not conscious of the object because he is unable to verbal report the presence of the object). However upon testing, it is evident that some part of the brain does know about the object since the patient does much better than chance on guessing the position, identity or other properties of the object.

Page 41: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Non-conscious Perception

� Non conscious perception is when a stimulus is presented for such a short time that the person cannot report that the stimulus was seen.

� However, the non-perceived stimulus can influence behavior or choices made later (priming).

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choices made later (priming).

� Again, this shows that something else is perceiving that which cannot be reported by the language consciousness!

� That something else is actually someone else – our primary consciousnesses

� Since the primary consciousness is parallel and the language consciousness is serial

� It takes time to do the parallel to serial conversion

� If the stimulus is removed before that conversion is complete, the language consciousness will not know about the stimulus.

Page 42: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Libet’s Decision Delays

� Benjamin Libet demonstrated that the brain begins to prepare to make a spontaneous finger movement 0.55 seconds before the movement, but that the reportable consciousness of making the movement was only 0.35 seconds before the movement. †

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� I interpret this result as saying that the primary consciousness actually makes the decision to start the movement 0.20 seconds before the language consciousness is aware of the impending movement

� And yet the language consciousness thinks that “IT” made the decision!

� This time delay can be thought of as the time needed to do a parallel (primary) to serial (language) “signal” conversion.

† B. Libet, et al., “Time of Conscious Intention to Act in Relation to Onset of Cerebral

Activity (Readiness Potential),” Brain 106 (1983) p. 640

Page 43: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Evidence for a Primary & a Language Consciousness:

Explains Many Psychological Experiments and Observations

� Top Down vs. Bottom Up Attention

� Split brain experiments

Theory of Mind (Sally – Ann tests)

Consistent With and Helps to Explain other Theories and Models about Consciousness

� Daniel Dennett’s meme complex

� Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

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� Theory of Mind (Sally – Ann tests)

� Blind Sight Phenomenon

� Non-conscious Perception and Priming

� Libet’s decision delay experiments

Kahneman

� Ned Block’s Phenomenal Consciousness vs. Access Consciousness

� Bernard Barrs’s Global Workspace Model

� Antonio Damasio’s “Core” and “Extended” consciousnesses.

� Julian Jaynes’ Bicameral Mind Consciousness

� The User Illusion by Tor Norretranders

Page 44: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Comparison to Other Theories

� Daniel Dennett† has a hypothesis about consciousness that states in part:

� “Human consciousness is itself a huge complex of memes…that can best be understood as the operation of a…virtual machine implemented in the parallel architecture of a brain that was not designed for any such activity. The powers of this virtual machine vastly enhance the underlying powers of the organic hardware on which is runs, but at the same time…its limitations can be explained…by the kludges

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which is runs, but at the same time…its limitations can be explained…by the kludges that make this reuse…[possible]”.

� This is compatible with my hypothesis: the virtual machine running memes is our language consciousness with language, whereas the underlying machine is our primary consciousness.

� Dennett does not, however, claim that there are two consciousness beings.

† D. Dennett, 1991, Consciousness Explained, Boston, Little Brown and Company, p. 210

Page 45: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Comparison to Other Theories� Daniel Kahnemann in Thinking Fast and Slow

� Fast System 1 = Primary Consciousness / Slow System 2 = Language Consciousness

� Kahneman does not call them consciousness – more like different agents or decision systems

� Ned Block:

� Phenomenal Consciousness = Primary Consciousness

� Access Consciousness = Language Consciousness.

� Bernard Barrs et al.:

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� Bernard Barrs et al.:

� Global Workspace Model = Language Consciousness

� Antonio Damasio* proposes the a “Core” consciousness and an “Extended” consciousness.

� The Core Consciousness is only aware of the current time right now and is thus related to the Primary Consciousness

� The Extended Consciousness can plan further into the future and reflect on the past and is thus related to the Language Consciousness

� The Bicameral Mind Consciousness theory of Julian Jaynes

� The Left Brain is the Language Consciousness

� The Right Brain is the Primary Consciousness

� The User Illusion by Tor Norretranders

* A. Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens, San Diego, Harcourt Inc, p. 16

Page 46: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Reinterpretation of Selected Passages of Genesis

� In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. - Genesis 1:1

� Since everything that the language consciousness (man) perceives comes through the sensory systems of the primary consciousness (God), it is true that God created and continuously creates the world for man.

� So God created humankind in his image, … and God said to them, "Be fruitful

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� So God created humankind in his image, … and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”… - Genesis 1:27

� The primary consciousness (God) did create the language consciousness (man) in the sense that the language consciousness runs on top of the hardware of the primary consciousness. The primary consciousness is also very interested in telling the language consciousness to be fruitful and multiply since procreation is one of the major primary goals of the primary consciousness.

� The LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them - Genesis 3:19

� The primary consciousness presented every animal to the language consciousness and let it name them.

Page 47: Consciousness Spirituality April 2014

Decisions as Evidence of Two Conscious Entities

� The evidence that humans have two distinctly different decision making mechanisms is evidence for two conscious entities:� “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Nobel Winner Daniel Kahneman:

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� “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Nobel Winner Daniel Kahneman: “two modes of thought: System 1 is fast, instinctive & emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, & more logical…”

� System 1 decisions = Primary Consciousness

� System 2 decisions = Language Consciousness

� “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell: “…your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions (and) those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good…”

� “blinked” decisions = System 1 = Primary Consciousness

� Non-blinked decisions = System 2 = Language Consciousness