Consciousness and wave/particle duality: Underpinning the phenomenology of transpersonal psychology

Abstract

One of the challenges of materialism is explaining how phenomenal consciousness emerges from physicality. The theory of panpsychism has been proposed to answer this question by suggesting that consciousness is ubiquitous within the Universe, that the Universe is a mental construct, and that even the atoms and sub-atomical particles manifest a rudimentary form of consciousness or proto-consciousness. If panpsychism or one of its derivatives is true, then evidence of consciousness must exist within simple quantum mechanical atomic structures like the hydrogen atom, which expresses wave/particle duality. Furthermore, it is likely within the wave state that rudimentary consciousness resides. Significantly, if the concept of wave/particle duality is then applied to human consciousness, that our consciousness expresses both a particle state and wave state, then through its ripple effect and quantum entanglement, anomalous psycho-spiritual human experiences that hitherto cannot be explained in terms of physicalism can now be better understood. There is no need for new physics; we only need to reframe what we already know.