How to Think About Consciousness
published by New Scientist. ISSN 2977-6392 © 2025. This book describe most current scientific research into consciousness in a manner quite understandable to serious readers.
The problem is, Consciousness is not physical, and we are restricted to the very physical senses of our bodies. Even our most sensitive scientific instruments are just extensions of those same senses. We have nothing else. Our very words fail us because they can't describe the non-physical. We have a word for consciousness, but we have no words to describe what it is. The only way we can study consciousness is by it's effects on the physical, and by personal experience.
We do have well thought out and very useful "Laws of Physics". But let us consider Herbert Dingle's fly. The fly is sitting still on a leaf, and all is properly physical, but then the fly flies away. This is a gross violation of the laws of physics. It was not initiated by physical effects, like a stone rolling down a hill due to erosion. It was initiated, and controlled, by the consciousness of a living being.
So, let us first have a look at our physical reality. To quote one researcher, "The deeper you dig into reality, the weirder it gets.
The basic laws of physics were set down by Sir Issac Newton and James Maxwell in the 18th and 19th centuries, and they held up pretty well, but shortcomings were found. A really smart guy, Albert Einstein, set out to fix these shortcomings with his Theory of Special Relativity and expansion of Maxwell's Field Theory. He was confident he would define physical reality once and for all.
Problem: a bunch of other really smart guys were developing what they called Quantum Mechanics, which described reality quite differently. Einstein was not pleased.
Heisenberg said reality was a matrix of particles. Shrödenger said it was made of waves. What both sides fully accepted was the concept of "Uncertainty". Turns out both sides were right. Particles or Waves? It depends on how you look at it, or specifically, how particles and waves look at each other. An electron is a particle of matter but can also be a wave, and a photon, a quantum of wave energy, can also be a particle.
Einstein refused to accept the Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Mechanics. His most famous quote is, "God does not play dice with the universe". On the other hand, he had to use Quantum calculations in helping to create the Atomic Bomb - probably pissed him off.
Turns out, Einstein's Theory of Relativity has been proven mathematically correct and experimentally valid.
Turns out, Quantum Mechanics has been proven mathematically correct and experimentally valid - and Uncertainty is now certain.
How these two systems can both exist in the same reality remains unresolved. Some now consider both Space/Time and Quantum Mechanics emerged together from an even more basic level of reality. Quantum Mechanics, though is currently the one relevant to researching Consciousness. Consciousness is non-physical, and Quantum Mechanics is perfectly happy with the non-physical.
Quantum Mechanics proposes that some 86% of our reality is non-physical. We cannot detect it by our senses or our instruments. Even so, the non-physical realm that is the foundation of our physical reality has been shown to exist. This was done by very sophisticated experiments that detected it by it's effect on the physical realm.
Now, to be clear, Quantum Mechanics has no more defined Consciousness than has classical physics. On the other hand, the Quantum folks have proposed that, by necessity of quantum interactions, Consciousness may be an essential characteristic of matter itself. Philosophers call this concept "pansychism, and it simplifies a lot of thinking about consciousness.
Still, many scientists, especially neuroscientists, don't accept this concept and are determined to prove consciousness is purely a product of complexity in the physical brain. These folks are called physicalists. They have have learned a lot on how the brain and consciousness interact with each other - but finding the source of consciousness? Nada! Not a hint.
A basic fault of the physicalists is all their research is based on the human brain, so they tend to deny possibility of consciousness in any life form beyond our closest relatives. Some birds display unmistakably conscious behavior.
Researchers have now presented convincing evidence that plants display consciousness. They communicate with each other and anticipate future events. No lower limit of conscious has been found, It gets simpler and more limited the simpler the life form, but never disappears entirely, perhaps even deeper than life itself. That it is Consciousness that has built the complexity of our reality, in defiance of the laws of thermodynamics, is increasingly accepted.
Another thing Quantum Mechanics has done is legitimize research into non-physical realms as a reputable part of scientific inquiry. It has now become acceptable to even consider the possibility of other non-physical realms "above", or "beside", or "congruent" with the physical - and if we toss in a few Mushrooms, things get really interesting.
The effects of this are broad. Philosophers, who formerly just diddled with words, are now forced to consider experience and scientific research. Words are now well proven inadequate to describe our reality. Scientists need to engage in philosophy - but many had already been doing that for centuries. Psychologists are in the middle, referred to by both sides, and referring to both sides.
All this has encouraged scientists to start researching things they didn't dare touch in the past. The CIA spent several years and quite a bit of money studying "far sight", specifically examining a secret industrial site in Russia from a shielded room 10,000 miles away. This showed that a person's senses of the physical world could be independent of the person's physical body. The program was abandoned not from lack of results, but because it was seen as impractical for espionage.
Spiritual healing, locally and at a distance is being seriously studied, with some intriguing results. These concepts are made more acceptable now that Quantum Mechanics has demonstrated that things can interact instantaneously, independent of distance or the speed of light. It is even thought possible that distance, and perhaps even time, may not be characteristic of the non-physical realms through which these activities work.
Within this new light, it is so easy for each of us to accept that our consciousness is not physical. We can't see it, touch it, smell it, measure it, or describe it, and don't really know what it is. Yet this consciousness, whatever it is, enables us, through control of the body, to manipulate the physical world, whatever that is.
Many persons in coma or vegetative state are conscious and receiving sensory input, but have lost body control. Some can still move their eyes and learn to communicate in morse code by eye movement. One experimental subject learned to communicate through brain waves.
Some researchers propose that dreams are the Consciousness working alone, as its sense of the body has been turned off during the dream state.
How the interface between the non-physical consciousness and the physical body works is much in question. One theory is it is Quantum Mechanical effects working on microtubules, which are present in every living cell, bacteria and archaea on up, and have a lot to do with motion within the cell. How this interface might work is not yet defined.
So, We, as we see ourselves, are "The ghost in the Machine", pulling the levers and turning the knobs - a non-physical entity using the body to work within the physical realm, for whatever reason. It is evident we are multi-layered beings, and consciousness is often thought to work through a non-physical layer called the "subtle body". It is even thought this subtle body may be the pattern for the physical body.
For want of better terms, this subtle body is said to act from within an "etheric", or "spiritual" realm. It is even thought possible it is an intermediate realm between the physical and other, even more esoteric layers. It is even considered there may be other beings to whom these layers are home in their own reality. Plenty of very intelligent and reputable people hold that they have communicated with such beings.
This concept of a "subtle body" is central to nearly every religion and philosophy from the ancient Egyptians on. The exception is the three Abrahamic religions which have carefully wrung it out, usually by murdering people and burning their works. This was to suppress the concept of personal spirituality in favor of religious authority. Even so, small esoteric groups in each of these three religions have persisted with this concept in one way or another - and we are seeing increasing acceptance of personal spirituality here in the West.
This multi-layer concept has spawned great interest in Asian mysticism - particularly that of India. This is the oldest and most well developed, with a literary legacy spanning thousands of years. This system includes several increasingly subtle bodies (or kosas) between the physical and the ultimate reality. It also includes concepts for the flow of non-physical energies through and supporting the subtle bodies, with energy vortexes called chakras positioned within the subtle bodies.
A major tool of this system is deep meditation. This is to turn off the physical senses and turn instead to understanding of the higher layers of existence, and eventual unification with them. These techniques of meditation have been particularly adopted by psychologists, but also by other researchers interested in getting to better know the non-physical.
These concepts have been found quite useful by spiritually oriented people in the West. Major parts have been adopted into Neo-Paganism, Witchcraft, and many other spiritually oriented interests.
A big question is, do some layers of the subtle body continue on after death, and to what extent and how long - and of course what a person experiences in this transition. These are all very valid questions, to which we do not yet have answers.
Our universe is extremely complex. Could it itself be conscious? Some scientists say no, the distances are so great and the speed of light so slow it could never be coordinated - but - Quantum Entanglement has shown that effects can be instantaneous and without degradation regardless of distance, so I consider this an open question.
Now, in closing, one thing I want to make clear - all of this is a hundred times more complicated than how I have presented it. Take any point and call it up on Wikipedia and you'll be endless hours following links to links to things you don't understand, and mathematical symbols you never knew existed, and these will also have links - but that's why we pay professionals to do this stuff for us.
To go deeper into these subjects, I recommend:
Andrew Grygus
This document is based on the works of top international researchers with advanced degrees from leading institutions - selection guided by my own experiences.
My outlook on the world is as a mostly non-theist Pagan with great respect for science. Paganism can in no way be described as an "organized religion", so I can look at reality without adhering to any doctrine.