What is Panspiritism? – An alternative way of conceiving consciousness

 

Steve Taylor in his essay (‘What is Panspiritism’ - Philosophy Now’) talks about a non-materialistic way of conceiving consciousness.   

The alternative view is it is just a product of the material brain as was argued by Francis Crick (with James Watson of the DNA double helix fame) but who failed to find a credible theory from a lifetime’s research. Others postulate consciousness is an illusion; an unconvincing subjective assessment upon which one then begins to argue the case. So, in the absence of any hard-nosed material theories there has been a resurgence in interest in non-material based concepts.      

 

Steve Taylor initially talks about one such widely discussed theory called Panpsychism (as distinct from Panspiritism) which in a nutshell holds the view the mind was always in matter. 

It’s a good idea to firstly talk about Panpsychism since Panspiritism is largely based on its underlying premise.  

Panpsychism in a general sense, to define it, is the idea that all things either have a mind, or some sort of mind-like quality. Bear in mind under the term “all things” and “mind” it is generally agreed that would refer to anything in itself having a reaction to phenomena - (an inner reaction) as opposed to being injected or sustained from outside. However in modernity, increasingly most things can be seen to react to phenomena of one kind or another to which triggers an inner response. Panpsychism was examined in some length and endorsed by such notable philosophers as William James, Whitehead, Russell, Eddington, Huxley, Dewy and Bohn.

So what does he mean by Panspiritism?

Taylor explains the distinction to Panpsychism, to hold the view that all material matter doesn’t have its own mind and experience; lacking the necessary structure to channel and receive fundamental consciousness. That is to the extent they don’t have their own psyches, such as for example that of rocks and rivers. Hence all living beings as having the capacity to become sentient and autonomous, whilst remaining immersed in fundamental consciousness. He contends that the autonomous nature of the mind however can give rise to the idea we risk becoming alienated to our fundamental consciousness; analogous to a wave forgetting its part of the ocean. 

 

Not entirely a new idea 

As you may have gathered already, this is hardly a new idea in the general sense that reality has always been viewed as non-material by various sages, in ancient cultures and tribespeople.  

To reiterate, the idea of Panspiritism is that the human consciousness is made up of a complex channelling of fundamental consciousness

 

Mind and matter. 

In his article Taylor also talks about Australian philosopher David Chalmers, as outlined in his book, ‘The Conscious Mind’, where he talks about fundamental consciousness as irreducible. In other words it’s already there and precedes the formation of the universe, so it is an expression of what it is now, more fundamental than gravity or electromagnetism. 

Assuming we accept Taylor’s theory we can think in terms of just fundamental consciousness, mind and matter. From an evolutionary perspective then in the beginning there was fundamental consciousness, followed by simple life forms with mind within matter to evolve with increasing complexity. But just how matter arises out of fundamental consciousness may never be explainable as it is tied up with the mystery of consciousness and existence in general.  

Summing up:

As fundamental consciousness is channelled through us, the brains complex neural networks facilitates mental functions such as memory, information processing, intention or will, concentration, and abstract and logical cognition- in other words the brain is a facilitator, but not the casual generator of mind. The relationship of fundamental consciousness to mind is like the relationship between the raw ingredients and the meal which is separated from it: fundamental consciousness represents the essence of mind, but it is not equivalent to it. Rather Mind is what happens when spirit is filtered through the neural networks of the brain.

 

How then we interpret this and make decisions,  is another matter beyond the scope of this paper but Panspiritism should not be seen as a form of idealism. Rather it is way of looking at our consciousness in different manner than to consider the traditional distinction between spiritually and material.  How we see GOD is also beyond the scope of this post, but I like the idea of an infinite creative energy behind fundamental consciousness - untouched by the boundaries that bind us in this place. Suffice to say there remains deep mysteries concerning the inner workings of our 3 pound big brains and its resultant output. Estimates are it contains 100 billion cortical neurons and more interneuron connections (chemical neurotransmitter based chemical synapses) than the stars in thousands of the great galaxies.

So far, the human brain is the most complex known piece of matter in the universe.      

 

Concluding Thoughts

The viability of both panpsychism and Panspiritism as concepts worthy of further of consideration. They both suggests a different world view to that of mechanical view of the universe to see the world as a vibrant interconnected whole.