Subjective Experience Aspect of Consciousness. Part I: Integration of Classical, Quantum, and Subquantum Concepts

Abstract

It was previously hypothesized that (1) strings or elementary particles have two aspects (material and mental) and are carriers of subjective experiences (SEs)/proto-experiences (PEs) aspect of consciousness in their mental aspect in superimposed form (Vimal, 2008: J Integr Neurosci, 7(1), 49-73) and (2) a specific SE is selected by the matching and selection processes in a neural-net (Vimal, 2009: J Integr Neurosci, 8(3)). This closes the Type-1 explanatory gap (how SEs can emerge from non-experiential matter). The current article (Part I of this series) unpacks the quantum view of superposition in terms of subquantum dual-aspect primal entities (bhutatmas). This also integrates eastern and western perspectives, but leads to another type of subquantum Type-2 explanatory gap: how it is possible that our SEs (such as happiness, sadness, painfulness, and similar SEs) were already present in the primal entities, whereas there is no shred of evidence that such SEs were conceived at the onset of universe. To address both gaps, the previous working hypothesis (H1) is extended, which is proposed as follows: (1) String, elementary particles, and inert matter are the carriers of superimposed fundamental (not derived) SEs/PEs (Vimal, 2008b). (2) Neural Darwinism and the matching and selection processes assist in embedding and selecting a specific SE in a neural-net (Vimal, 2009d). (3) Some of the SEs (such as happiness, sadness, and the like) that entail Type-2 explanatory gap can be derived from the fundamental SEs/PEs (such as emotion-related PE) and the stimulus-context (such as emotional stimuli). (4) To eliminate any the residual Type-2 explanatory gap, (a) we assumed that fundamental SEs/PEs follow the principle of the emergence of SE and anti-SE (or bhutatma and anti-bhutatma) in a dual-aspect vacuum at the onset of universe, which is similar to the principle involved in the emergence of matter and anti-matter in vacuum; and/or (b) the cycles of universe (that may have memory) might have preserved irreducible fundamental SEs/PEs in the mental aspect of primal entities. And (5) SEs occur/emerge in neural-networks when essential ingredients of SEs (such as wakefulness, attention, re-entry, working memory and so on) are satisfied. Alternative hypotheses (H2)-(H5) are discussed in Part II of this series (Vimal, 2009h).