{"id":79,"date":"2018-12-27T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T04:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/voicesinthestillness\/?p=79"},"modified":"2018-12-26T18:18:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-26T22:18:50","slug":"could-consciousness-all-come-down-to-the-way-things-vibrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voicesinthestillness\/2018\/12\/could-consciousness-all-come-down-to-the-way-things-vibrate\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Consciousness All Come Down to the Way Things Vibrate?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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\n What do synchronized vibrations add to the mind\/body question?
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agsandrew\/Shutterstock.com<\/span>
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By Tam Hunt, University of California, Santa Barbara<\/p>\n
Why is my awareness here, while yours is over there? Why is the universe split in two for each of us, into a subject and an infinity of objects? How is each of us our own center of experience, receiving information about the rest of the world out there? Why are some things conscious<\/a> and others apparently not? Is a rat conscious? A gnat? A bacterium? <\/p>\n
These questions are all aspects of the ancient \u201cmind-body problem,\u201d which asks, essentially: What is the relationship between mind and matter? It\u2019s resisted a generally satisfying conclusion for thousands of years. <\/p>\n
The mind-body problem enjoyed a major rebranding over the last two decades. Now it\u2019s generally known as the \u201chard problem\u201d of consciousness, after philosopher David Chalmers<\/a> coined this term in a now classic paper<\/a> and further explored it in his 1996 book, \u201cThe Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chalmers thought the mind-body problem should be called \u201chard\u201d in comparison to what, with tongue in cheek, he called the \u201ceasy\u201d problems of neuroscience: How do neurons and the brain work at the physical level? Of course they\u2019re not actually easy at all. But his point was that they\u2019re relatively easy compared to the truly difficult problem of explaining how consciousness relates to matter.<\/p>\n
Over the last decade, my colleague, University of California, Santa Barbara psychology professor Jonathan Schooler<\/a> and I have developed what we call a \u201cresonance theory<\/a> of consciousness.\u201d We suggest that resonance \u2013 another word for synchronized vibrations \u2013 is at the heart of not only human consciousness but also animal consciousness and of physical reality<\/a> more generally. It sounds like something the hippies might have dreamed up \u2013 it\u2019s all vibrations, man! \u2013 but stick with me.<\/p>\n
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\n How do things in nature \u2013 like flashing fireflies \u2013 spontaneously synchronize?<\/span>
\n Suzanne Tucker\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span>
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