Everyone knows that human beings are conscious, and many also believe that other animals and perhaps even plants may also be conscious. But what does this really mean? How does consciousness arise in the world? What is its nature? Is it something special or just a useful adaptation? And can we learn anything about how consciousness works from non-human animals or plants? These questions about consciousness — its origin and meaning — have been debated for as long as humans have thought about such things. The recent surge of interest in “panpsychism” represents a new wrinkle on this old problem. Panpsychism is the view that everything has a degree of consciousness, even things like tables and chairs. This isn’t just because all things have some sort of “spiritual essence” but because everything has properties like size, shape, color, smell or taste; properties which are essentially also ways of sensing the world. This post will explore the relationship between consciousness and panpsychism.

What Is Consciousness?

Philosophers, scientists and cognitive scientists have long wrestled with the question of what exactly consciousness is. Due to the inherent difficulties of exploring consciousness in an objective way, there is no consensus over the precise definition that captures all of the essential features of consciousness. Nevertheless, there are a few features that most definitions of consciousness have in common: – There is a subjective aspect to the experience of consciousness. When we are directly experiencing the world, we are only aware of our own subjective consciousness. In other words, the contents of our experience are private and cannot be directly accessed by other people. – Consciousness is an integrated whole. Our experiences don’t feel like a random collection of disconnected sights and sounds, but like a unified “field of consciousness”. – Consciousness is known as “what it is like” to be an experiencing subject. When we experience the world, we aren’t just passively receiving information, we also have a “feeling of what it is like” to be that subject.

Panpsychism And The Problem Of Qualification

Panpsychism is the view that all matter has some degree of consciousness. This might sound like a strange or even ridiculous view, but the truth is that no one really knows how consciousness arises. Therefore, any theory that purports to explain the origin of consciousness is going to seem strange or ridiculous at first glance. The main problem with panpsychism, as a theory about consciousness, is that it seems to “qualify” consciousness. In other words, panpsychism suggests that consciousness is a quality that all things possess — like size or shape. This runs into problems because we often think of consciousness as something more than a mere quality. We think that only certain types of things can be conscious — living things, for example. We don’t think that consciousness is a generic property of the universe; it’s something that is rare and special.

Why Have Qualification?

One way to respond to the problem of qualification is to argue that consciousness isn’t a mere quality, it is a special kind of relation between an experiencing subject and the things being experienced. This “relation theory” of consciousness isn’t a solution to the problem of qualification because it isn’t a form of panpsychism. It’s an attempt to re-define what we mean by “consciousness” so that we aren’t forced to admit that everything has consciousness. A better way to respond to the problem of qualification is to argue that consciousness isn’t just a simple quality like size or shape. It is a highly complex and sophisticated phenomenon that depends on underlying neural and cognitive processes that are specific to living creatures. Consciousness isn’t a generic quality that all things possess, it is a specific ability of living things that comes about as a result of very particular underlying processes.

How Is Consciousness Inherent In All Things?

One way to respond to the problem of qualification is to argue that consciousness isn’t a mere quality of the world — it’s a fundamental aspect of the nature of all things. This would mean that consciousness isn’t something that we discover like an underlying law of nature, it is something that we create when we observe the world and use language to give meaning to our perceptions. This is the reasoning behind the “panpsychist” approach to the problem of qualification: consciousness isn’t something that some things have, it is something that all things have. Consciousness isn’t something that is added to the world, it is something that is implicit in all things. It’s not something we discover when we observe the universe, it’s something that we impose on the universe when we make meaning out of our observations.

Consciousness As An Adaptation: The Epistemological Argument For Panpsychism

One way to respond to the problem of qualification is to argue that consciousness isn’t something that all things have, it’s something that only living things have. This would problematize the “epistemological” approach to the problem of qualification: consciousness is an adaptation that gives a particular advantage to living things. This is one way to respond to the problem of qualification by arguing that consciousness isn’t a generic phenomenon but a specific ability. This isn’t a form of panpsychism because it doesn’t suggest that everything has consciousness — only living things do. Consciousness is an adaptation that has been shaped by natural selection to give living things an advantage in the struggle for survival.

Consciousness As An Adaptation: The Ontological Argument For Panpsychism

One way to respond to the problem of qualification is to argue that consciousness isn’t something that only living things have, it is something that all things have. This would problematize the “ontological” approach to the problem of qualification: consciousness is a fundamental aspect of the underlying nature of all things. This is one way to respond to the problem of qualification by arguing that consciousness isn’t a specific ability but a fundamental feature of the universe. It isn’t something that we discover when we observe the world, it is something that we create when we give meaning to our observations. This isn’t a form of panpsychism because it doesn’t claim that everything has consciousness — only things that are capable of meaning-making are given a degree of consciousness.

Consciousness And Self- Awareness

One way to respond to the problem of qualification is to argue that consciousness isn’t a generic phenomenon, it’s a specific ability of living things that only living things have — the ability to be self-aware. This would problematize the “epistemological” approach to the problem of qualification: consciousness is a specific ability that only living things have — the ability to be self-aware. This is one way to respond to the problem of qualification by arguing that consciousness isn’t a basic ability of all things, it’s a complex ability that only living things have: the capacity to be self-aware. Self-awareness is a sophisticated cognitive ability that allows us to experience ourselves as subjects in the world.

Conclusion

Despite the lengthy discussion of consciousness above, it might seem that we’re no closer to understanding what consciousness is. The truth is that no one really knows how consciousness arises in the world or what it really is. We are forced to make educated guesses in the absence of any clear consensus. This doesn’t mean that we can’t learn anything from the debate about consciousness, it just means that we should be careful not to overstate the certainty of our conclusions. Whatever view we hold about the nature of consciousness, it would be wise to remember that we don’t fully understand the phenomenon we call “consciousness”.

Meet Paul Wagner

Paul Wagner is an Intuitive Life & Business Coach, clairvoyant reader, and a five-time EMMY Award-winning writer. He created “THE PERSONALITY CARDS,” a powerful Oracle-Tarot deck that’s helpful in life, love, and relationships. Paul studied with Lakota elders in the Pecos Wilderness, who nurtured his empathic abilities and taught him the sacred rituals. He has lived at ashrams with enlightened masters, including Amma, the Hugging Saint, for whom he’s delivered keynotes at Her worldwide events.

Paul tours the world lecturing on spiritual liberation. He lovingly offers intuitive readings, inspirational coaching, and illuminating courses to help others with self-discovery, decision-making, healing, and forgiveness. Book a session with Paul: HERE

Straight from the horse’s mouth, here are 13 quick notes of reasonable advice that can help any human being be more loving, balanced, and wholesome.

13 Notes of Reasonable Advice

Here’s some reasonable advice about using products on our bodies:

1. Do not buy any soap, other than pure soap. The only brand that meets the highest mark is Dr. Bronner’s. Their jug of rose soap is lovely and effective. Their bars of lavender and citrus soaps are wonderful. You can add baking soda to Dr. Bronner’s liquid peppermint, rose, lavender, and citrus soaps and make your own laundry detergent.

2. Do not buy cosmetics that have any unnatural ingredients in them. Most of them have metals that get into your blood and cause damage and disease. It’s best to make your own lotions from all-natural cream bases.

3. Do not buy deodorant. It either has chemicals in it and/or blocks your pores and causes illness down the line. Whatever you put into your armpits goes directly into your bloodstream. Use warm oil at night to nourish it. Wipe it off with a steamy, hot cloth. If your diet is healthy, over time, you will have very little smell coming from that part of your body.

Some reasonable advice about relationships…

4. You can exit a relationship at any time. Your primary relationship is with The
Universe, not individuals. Boundaries are helpful; exits can be transcendent. Why break yourself to appease people who have no interest in making room for who you are?

5.  Angry people are often the most loyal – until you judge them into the ground for their anger. Like all emotions, we must allow ourselves to feel them as much as we can and then find healthy pathways to release them. We can’t blame anger for being itself. The Sedona Method is the purest method of healing and release on Earth.

Reasonable advice about the beliefs and desires that rule us:

6.  Living in tiny religious boxes, believing that your representation of God is “the only one,” will leave you limited while living and also upon your death. Embrace all love-based religions as doorways to the illumination of the Self. In most cases, the stories are repeated from one religion to the next, but with different deity names and timeframes. To The Divine Consciousness that permeates all reality, these stories are nothing.

7. Telling everyone your secret desires and goals leaks energy and gives your ego the illusion that it is satisfied. Over time, the chemicals related to healthy creative aggression will subside, and you will give up on the desire or goal – or perform it half-heartedly with little success.

8. Most desires will result in pain. Some will result in joy and then pain. The majority of our desires are useless to us, often defrauding us of our happiness. Thoroughly vet your desires and goals before diving into them. Put them through the most arduous scrutiny before deciding to pour your lovely heart into them or bring them to life.

9. Conspiracy theories are built for fragile, childish, egoistic minds to appease their fear of uncertainty. The vast majority of conspiracy theories are untrue. Even if you found a conspiracy theory that is true, what can you really do about it at this point in your life? Besides blabbering on about it, what are you willing to actually do or sacrifice? Nothing! Because you are not 100% certain about it and the conspiracy has no tangible impact on your life. 99% of conspiracies are nothing more than marketing funnels for ideologues or toxic gossip created for idiots. Focus on allowing uncertainty in your life so that you do not waste so much energy on childish things that you fail at concreting love and joy in your life.

Reasonable advice about what we put in our bodies:

10. Sugar is bad for you. If you drink a glass of orange juice, it yields an overwhelming amount of sugar for your body. Drink water. Make orange juice a weekly cocktail.

11. Ice in your beverages is bad for you. Your body needs room temperature or warm beverages to assist in digestion. Ice stops the flow. Warmth keeps it moving.

Reasonable advice about activism:

12. Healthy masculinity, feminity, men, and women are strong, robust, resourceful, and never play the victim. Toxic masculinity is most often obvious and requires drastic repercussions. Toxic femininity and toxic feminism hide behind contrived, judgmental new-age concepts and trending varieties of cancel culture. Canceling someone you never knew is just a harsher form of gossip. Canceling someone does not help their soul advance – it drives them deeper into their wounds and self-hatred. Each of us is masculine and feminine: You were male or female in many prior lives. Be more allowing and truly get to know someone before spreading gossip. Look at yourself deeply and address your own misconceptions before barking wildly at the moon. Why waste so much energy on someone else’s illusion?

13. Non-allyship of brands you hate does nothing for anybody. This is just another form of toxic, passive, do-nothing gossip. It’s what preachy bullshitters do when they have too much free time and not enough intelligence to evaluate the trajectory of it. If you don’t like a brand, buy something from a different brand. Breaking a brand with non-allyship sends a terrible message – and it wastes the possibility of the brand and its employees experiencing transformation and transcendence into a new way of doing and being. If you’re motivated to help, then get involved with the brand. Inform it, inspire it, and reach out to the decision-makers. Not buying Chick-fil-A because the CEO is an LGBTQ+-hating jackoff does nothing for anybody. The more loving you are, the more people will change. There’s always another way. Even if a wave of non-allyship shuts a company down, the investors and executives will find new pathways to express their prejudice. Non-allyship is egoistic and it wastes an
opportunity to help others grow.

More Reasonable Advice from Paul Wagner

Paul Wagner is an Intuitive Life & Business Coach, clairvoyant reader, and a five-time EMMY Award-winning writer. He created “THE PERSONALITY CARDS,” a powerful Oracle-Tarot deck that’s helpful in life, love, and relationships. Paul studied with Lakota elders in the Pecos Wilderness, who nurtured his empathic abilities and taught him the sacred rituals. He has lived at ashrams with enlightened masters, including Amma, the Hugging Saint, for whom he’s delivered keynotes at Her worldwide events.

Paul tours the world lecturing on spiritual liberation. He lovingly offers intuitive readings, inspirational coaching, and illuminating courses to help others with self-discovery, decision-making, healing, and forgiveness. Book a session with Paul: HERE

Mindfulness, Meditation, & Other Inward Practices

The world stops for no one. Sometimes, though, we wish we could just hit the pause button and take a breath. We wish we had time to take stock of our lives and check in with our wellness physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. At the same time, we often get in our way by procrastinating and doubting ourselves.

Are you hoping to improve yourself inwardly for 2022 and beyond? Looking for inspiration for inward practices you can add to your daily life to slow the world down and help you cope with stress? Look no further–I’ve dedicated my life to helping people build healthy spiritual and psychological habits that improve their lives from the inside out.

Practicing Mindfulness

There’s no better building block to all other spiritual and mental habits than practicing mindfulness every day. Practicing mindfulness helps you to be more aware of yourself and your environment. You’ll be able to live in the present rather than in the past or the future. Ultimately, you can begin to appreciate life for what it is at that moment rather than stressing over the past or wishing for a better future.

For example, mindfulness helps you to stay in tune with your body. Practicing mindfulness can improve your fitness efforts, as you are constantly checking in to make sure you’re not in pain, hurting yourself, or pushing yourself further than is healthy. It also helps with tracking your progress by seeing and feeling the benefits of your efforts physically. At the same time, mindfulness can help you detect when you might be falling ill as you’re very aware of the way your body usually feels, and even slight changes can alert you long before others who are always rushing through their days.

Similarly, mindfulness can help you be one with your mind. Those who live in the past or rush towards the future are often running away from how they are feeling in the moment. Maybe there are responsibilities they want to avoid or overwhelming thoughts and feelings. Being mindful of how you feel in the present forces you to confront your feelings and any emotional problems you might be experiencing. Then, you can get to understand yourself better and apply solutions to enjoy your life better.

Finally, mindfulness can put you in touch with your spirit. Those who are mindful are comfortable checking in on their soul and faith experience. They are highly aware of their daily practices and how they affect their spirituality. These people are also very aware of internal and external factors that might be getting in the way of fully delving into their spiritual life, helping to more quickly and effectively clear any spiritual blockages.

How Can I Start Practicing Mindfulness?

Mindfulness can be as simple as frequently remembering to stop and breathe for beginners. Try forcing yourself to stop throughout the day to turn inward regularly. Start asking yourself questions such as:

1. 1. 1. What am I feeling right now?
      2. How is the current action I’m doing affecting the way I feel?
      3. What is surrounding me in my environment?
      4. Is there anything in my environment that is affecting the way I feel?
      5. Am I alright to continue what I’m doing, or should I stop?

You can apply these questions to your physical, mental, and spiritual life by asking yourself these questions as they relate to your physical wellness, emotions and thoughts, and finally, your spiritual health.

Some practices for mindfulness that you can apply to your daily life are to focus on one task at a time, eat slowly, schedule brain breaks, limit time using devices, and spend more time in nature. Question your habits and automatic reactions throughout your day. The ultimate goal is to live intentionally, understanding the reason behind every action, thought, and emotion and paying attention to how these affect you.

As you become a mindfulness master, you’ll start noticing patterns in your behavior and be able to pinpoint the good and bad energy working in your life. Then, you can seek to address those. Mindfulness, meditation, and other inward practices put together can skyrocket your spiritual journey.

Add Meditation to Your Daily Routine

Mindfulness and meditation go hand-in-hand. You can start one or the other first, but ultimately, one will improve your practice of the other. For example, if you are meditating regularly, you’ll naturally become better at slowing down, breathing, and turning inward. If you start with mindfulness first, you’ll have built up your self-awareness skills and break up the monotony of your daily routine with breaks to reflect. Consequently, practicing both simultaneously is key to self-awareness and improving your life.

Meditation comes in many forms, some instituted by religions, others recommended by health professionals, and others still invented by those just looking for ways to slow down and turn inward. Meditation can be as simple as deep breathing and as complex as focusing the mind on spiritual energies within the body. Regardless of your skill level or exposure to meditation practices, you can start right away with nothing but yourself and the will to learn. Combine mindfulness, meditation, and other inward practices for the best benefits.

How to Begin Meditating

The most common and popular way to meditate is to get into a comfortable position, close your eyes, and focus on your breath. Taking deeper, slower breaths can help the body and mind relax. Meditation can stop right there, or it can go deeper. You can choose to find a happy place, imagine your favorite place to go, focus on your most happy memories, and try your hardest to stay in that place for as long as you practice. Or, you can begin focusing on the physical world, listening to the sounds and textures around you, how the floor supports your weight, and how each limb and appendage feels in this position.

Those with a deep spiritual practice go even further by focusing on their chakras or spiritual energy centers within the body. If certain things are ailing you, such as back pain or emotional stress, focusing on the chakra in charge of those things can help you unblock that energy center and restore you to complete wellness. Many choose to combine mindfulness, meditation, and more with yoga, mantra, and other forms of outward meditation.

Fasting and Prayer

There are many other forms of meditation and practices you can combine with mindfulness meditation, including fasting and prayer. Once you have slowed down your body and mind, prayer can be that much more potent for tapping into your spiritual life and connecting with the Universe and the Divine. During your meditation practice, you can choose to add prayers, whether they are candid or rehearsed, as a way to delve deeper into your practice.

A great way to focus on prayer is to pick a focus on the Divine. Is there a deity or divine master that inspires you? Is there a spiritual practice or trait that you’re seeking to improve within yourself? Set your intentions for your day and inward practices so that you always have the motivation and the reasons to guide you.

Fasting is another way to enhance your mindfulness as well. Intentionally choosing to skip meals or reduce the amount of food you consume is both physically and spiritually good for your wellness. It helps your body slow down and reset the digestive system for your health. For your mind, it enables you to be more mindful of the way you eat and how often. For the spirit, you’ll be able to focus on your sacrifice and how it has made you feel.

Take Your Inward Practices to the Next Level

If you love rituals, check out my Free Resources pages. You’ll find ancient ceremonies, lovely prayers, and encouragement that you might find helpful during times of change and transition. You might also consider using my Personality Cards – they’re wonderful for all sorts of rituals.

REMEMBER!

What is good for you and your body is entirely up to you. Experiment with these practices, do what you feel is comfortable, and only continue with things you feel benefit your life. Please realize that these aspects are only suggestions to help ease some stress and improve your inner life. You are far more powerful than you realize.

To improve your vibration, luck, and happiness, spend time chanting Sanskrit mantras and love-filled sutras. Pray for others and the Universe prays for you.

YOU ARE LOVE!

You are a beautiful Living Being filled with light and love, born from stardust. You are unlimited potential in every direction. With a focus on discipline, virtue, and your own goodness, you can become as expanded and liberated as you desire.

NeuroTheology: How God & Worship Affect The Mind, Body, & Spirit

Have you ever wished that there was some scientific evidence you could point to that would prove how profound an effect our faith has on our physical bodies? Or maybe you’re hoping to prove that a divine presence doesn’t exist, so you’re looking for studies that assess the mind’s ability to create illusions. If the new field of neurotheology has taught us anything so far, it’s that you won’t find the dismissal of a divine presence here. In fact, scientists seriously following these studies are calling for open-mindedness about how impactful religion and faith practices can be for our minds, bodies, and spirits.

Evidence is being compiled using brain scans and vital monitors to show the differences in anatomy and brain activity between religious and non-religious people and how increased religious practice can improve our brain function over time! That’s not to dismiss other effects, either, regarding how faithful devotion to a God and rituals can change our hearts and spirits.

What is Neurotheology?

In simple terms, neurotheology is a subsection of neurology that focuses on religious practice’s effects on people. Scientists in this field wish to understand the relation between religion and the brain.

Neurotheology is a new field, and there is friction for many reasons. To begin, scientific and religious leaders have never been at greater odds with each other–the political divide, sweeping generalizations, and the creeping hatred taking over many hearts have set those with religious views against those who glorify science. While there’s no reason at all that science and religion should clash, it can be challenging to move past differences and assumptions born out of these challenges.

At the same time, there is a divide even within science itself. A common misunderstanding of neurotheology has caused miscommunications and incorrect attributions to the term. At first glance, many might think the field is a religious take on neurology. Leading neurotheologists are working to define and refine the word so it is only applied to truly neurotheological studies.

While the field is still young, the studies have shown amazing and promising results so far. Evidence for religious practice changing our brain function, for instance, spans across religions and demographics, even in some cases to help those who suffer from brain disorders!

Leading Neurotheology Studies

Dr. Andrew Newberg is one of the leading scientists who has paved the way for neurotheology. He has even authored a book called Principles of Neurotheology in which he has sought to set the story straight about the field and its potential. His work has mainly focused on brain scans to show brain function differences across religious and non-religious practices and its effects over time.

In one of his most fascinating studies, Dr. Newberg started with a group of older adults experiencing memory difficulties and taught them a meditation mantra. Over 8 weeks using meditation for only a few minutes per day, that group of elders was able to reshape their brains and improve their memory! The most compelling finding from this study is that we no longer have to rely on subjective reports from the study participants but can confirm with scientific evidence that the memory areas of their brain improved function.

Dr. Newberg explained that this improved function at about 10-15% was achieved only after two months. You can only imagine the effects this same study would have over years to mimic those who are religious for their entire lives.

Beyond basic brain function, many studies have linked religious practices and spirituality to improved mental health. Lower rates of suicide, depression, and anxiety have been found in people who use their faith practices as a form of coping with stress and understanding the world around them. Scientists delving into these studies have linked these mental health improvements with the physical practices that most religions promote, such as participating in the community, avoiding bad habits, and even better dietary choices like meat avoidance.

But that’s not the end of it! While many would seek to explain away the effects of spirituality on the brain by using the excuses above, neurotheologists like Dr. Newberg emphasize that spirituality itself changes the way the brain functions beyond just improved memory. In fact, meditation and prayer can increase the effectiveness of the brain’s ability to modulate emotional responses and the release of hormones like serotonin and dopamine.

Finally, religious therapies have even been proven to improve symptoms for those who suffer from ADHD, Alzheimer’s, and epilepsy.

Philosophical Angles of Neurotheology

Aside from trials and experiments, several sects of neurotheology are approaching the field from a philosophical angle. Some scientists are claiming that there must be a spiritual predisposition of the brain or human genetic makeup if religious practices change the function of the brain so drastically. Taking it further, some of working to apply quantifiable measures to a person’s spirituality.

Opposers question whether the two fields–neurology and spirituality–could ever be empirically linked beyond how some rituals train our brains to work differently. Some have posed a striking question of whether atheists and agnostics are defective if they do not possess a predisposition to be spiritual.

Again, the field is still young. When push comes to shove, it is questionable if science and religion will ever entirely disprove the other. Thankfully, some scientists are willing to stay open-minded and operate assuming that both science and religion can exist in harmony!

What Does the Evidence Mean for Worship?

As faith-filled spiritual people, the existence of these neurotheological studies give us even more reason to delve deeper into our practices! If it’s proven that religious practices such as deep prayer and meditation can not only form our brains but improve their function, then there’s even less reason to ditch our rituals. Further, our devotion to our daily practices throughout our lives may help our minds stay sharp to focus and remember things much better than others.

These results are also a huge breakthrough in the face of our growing mental health crisis in all age groups. Spirituality gives us a sense of oneness and purpose, a connection to a higher power, and the faith that our existence truly means something and has fantastic potential. With this sense of community and purpose, those who despair with mental health difficulties can find solace in others and the divine. They can find the strength to turn away from bad habits and toxic cycles that worsen their situation. They can use the tools of spirituality such as prayer and meditation to find balance, peace, and harmony with the Universe.

Dive into Spirituality to Heal You Mind, Body, and Spirit!

Are you looking to improve your brain function and mental health? Feel like something is missing from your life and would love to get in touch with your true self? Check out my Free Resources pages. You’ll find ancient ceremonies, lovely prayers, and encouragement that you might find helpful during times of change and transition. You might also consider using my Personality Cards – they’re wonderful for all sorts of rituals.

REMEMBER!

While scientists are working to find more evidence for the effect religious practices have on the brain, please realize that these are only suggestions to help. You are far more powerful than you realize. It might also be that you have other influences in your life that might greatly enhance your ability to receive what you desire.

To improve your vibration, luck, and happiness, spend time chanting Sanskrit mantras and love-filled sutras. Pray for others and the Universe prays for you.

YOU ARE LOVE!

You are a beautiful Living Being filled with light and love, born from stardust. You are unlimited potential in every direction. With a focus on discipline, virtue, and your own goodness, you can become as expanded and liberated as you desire.