Kuhn, Consciousness, and Paradigms.

Abstract

S omething very profound is happening in science, something not seen in more than a century is occurring: the paradigm of science is changing. Consciousness, particularly nonlocal non-physiological consciousness, is becoming mainstream. The world view of materialism is increasingly inconsistent with the reported experimental data in a spectrum of disciplines, as any search of PubMed, Academia.edu, or Researchgate will quickly reveal. I think it is time to retire the limitation and go where the data goes. I believe materialism did not arise from scientific findings but was the result of a science culture that formed as a result of the pronouncements of the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the principal one being a prohibition against science studying “spirit,” which is to say consciousness, on pain of death. It is a taboo that lasted for centuries, and for more than three centuries it tortured and killed. An unknown but large number of doctors, scientists, herbalists, particularly village herbal women, philosophers, alchemists and others were tortured and killed, often by being burnt alive. I have described this elsewhere in these pages. Materialism is a self-imposed limitation not a scientific absolute. There is nothing in science that precludes consciousness being studied like anything else, and there is much to urge that it should be studied. In nonChristian countries like China, consciousness has always been and remains a part of science. In China religion has been stripped of any power in government, and so the study of consciousness is not burdened by its