The Mirror Hypothesis - On the Possibility of a Fundamental Principle of Reflection Between Physical Organization and Subjective Experience (Experimental Approach)

Abstract

This paper introduces the Mirror Hypothesis, a speculative interdisciplinary framework exploring the possibility that reflection may represent a fundamental organizational principle of reality. The hypothesis proposes that reflection, understood in its most general sense as the interaction, feedback, representation, and self-reference of states within a system, may extend across different levels of organization, from physical interactions and gravitational structures to biological self-organization, neural networks, internal modeling, and subjective experience. The paper examines how these levels might be conceptually connected without assuming that physical matter is inherently conscious or that gravity directly produces consciousness. It distinguishes the Mirror Hypothesis from established approaches such as panpsychism, Integrated Information Theory, and contemporary neuroscientific theories of consciousness, while emphasizing that its individual components are not presented as new discoveries. A central aim of the paper is to formulate the hypothesis in a way that allows it to be examined scientifically. It therefore discusses possible empirical approaches, including the investigation of gravity-dependent changes in the organization and dynamics of complex neural networks. The Mirror Hypothesis is presented explicitly as a speculative model rather than an established scientific theory. Its scientific value would ultimately depend on whether it can generate testable predictions and observations that distinguish it from existing explanations.