States of Consciousness and Self-Organization
Chaos and Nonlinear Psychology February 10, 2022 Allan Combs
Consciousness, like biological ecosystems, is a nonlinear, chaotic, and self-creating system that is never at rest but continuously recreates itself through feedback and feed-forward processes. Nonlinearity is nearly universal in biological and natural cognitive systems, making them famously unpredictable, though general patterns can be recognized. The interior "stream of consciousness," described by William James, follows recognizable patterns over time but cannot be predicted in detail. Small changes in such hypercomplex systems, like minute chemical changes in the brain or the onset of sleep, can dramatically shift human experience.