Publish at July 12 2022 Updated July 12 2022
Is it those "magical" moments, that augmented reality movie produced by our brains? For philosopher David Chalmers, "consciousness is one of the essential facts of human existence" while being "the most mysterious phenomenon in the universe."
We are conscious, we know we are conscious, but we don't really know how we are conscious or why!"
Troubling, isn't it?
In this TED talk, David Chalmers outlines his research by exploring two propositions.
Thus, "understanding consciousness is the key to understanding the universe and ourselves."
The two "bloggers" David Louapre - of Amazing Science - and Thibaut Giraut - Mr. Phi - offer us a tour d'horizon de la conscience and highlight the two current tendencies that clash on the benches of philosophy. Two schools for interpreting what "mental states" really are.
Does consciousness emanate exclusively from the living or the brain?
This complex part of our biology has not finished revealing its potentialities.
At the end of the 20th century a neuroscientist completely revolutionized the vision we could have of our brain: the work of Damasio opened the way to new dimensions still ignored or unknown in human beings.
In Descartes's Error, Antonio Damasio presents the pathological case of Phineas Gage, whose brain machine was pierced by a crowbar and miraculously survived this accident.
Thus, the analysis of the injured foreman's brain behavior led to an awareness of the importance of the emotional in the cognitive, i.e., that cognitive and emotional are intrinsically linked and allow human beings to make the most appropriate decisions regardless of the type of decision.
For more details, see the article, from the well-heeled foreman to the sociopathic drifter
Yes, because Phineas Gage survived his accident preserving all of his intellectual abilities but ended his life homeless...
He had no emotional skills left.
Two approaches come to continue this "road to consciousness." Two approaches with no apparent connection but which come together in the consideration of human life. Philippe Guillemant and Corine Sombrun.
Philippe Guillemant is an eclectic intellectual with a very particular profile. He is able to cross the mastery of fields as diverse as philosophy, physics and artificial intelligence. Making the link between physics and spirituality is not given to all researchers.
In his 2016 lecture on the physics of consciousness, Philippe Guillemant makes us dizzy; he revisits our notion of a linear - and deterministic - view of time by summoning thinkers like Nietzsche, Etienne Klein, and Albert Einstein.
More concretely, time does not exist. Ouch! The future is already here but we can change it.
Can I go on? Hang on!
According to Einstein, the separation between past, present and future is an illusion even though intellectually - culturally - it is almost impossible for us to picture things otherwise.
Nietzsche had the intuition that our future determines our present because the present is as much influenced by the future as it is by the past.
Recently, Philippe Guillemant is behind a rather confusing film:The Road to Consciousness
In it, he explains to us that the "mind" prevents us from accessing certain levels of consciousness, and thus it is necessary to "let go" in order to open up the channel of intuition. He uses two tools accessible to any human being: my walk and nap.
When I think about it, the best ideas came to me in unusual places - which I wouldn't dare mention here - and where precisely my mind was disconnected.
We are all tunnels!
Philippe Guillemant proposes a particular definition of consciousness; let's remember that his intellectual approach is atypical.
In his film, he presents the theory of Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose according to which each of our lives would be represented by a cylinder, an invisible tunnel that would orient each of our steps throughout our life. This invisible tunnel can change position as we move forward.
Here is a schematic:
It would be our intentions that would cause these position changes. One could believe in science fiction but the researcher has scientifically experimented by the computer way of the influences of the future on the present....
This proposal may seem far-fetched - you can follow all the way through in Philippe Guillemant's film - for my part I will not detail further (this time).
"Consciousness and space, it's the same thing"
Philippe Guillemant
I prefer to direct you towards a link, a bifurcation between the reflections of the researcher - philosopher and of an unusual journalist too.
The incredible destiny of Corine Sombrun was revealed to the general public during the TEDx in Paris in 2012. In it, she recounts her first experiences of shamanic trances during a professional stay in Mongolia.
In 2001, while reporting for the BBC on shamanism, she discovered her "gift of communicating with spirits." She then trains for 8 years on the border of Siberia. She will thus seek to decipher and understand her trance experiences.
Trance produces changes in perceptions: loss of notions of space and time, decreased perception of pain, increased physical strength, visions of "disharmonious" places that induce the production of unfamiliar sounds, languages and songs whose role is to rebalance the disharmonies.
The story of Corine Sombrun is told in 2019 in the film "a bigger world" with Cécile de France and Ludivine Sagnier
In order to understand what is happening to her, she then turns to science.
After a few unsuccessful attempts - including her doctor who invites her to consult a psychiatrist - she meets Pierre Etevenon, former director of research at INSERM and a specialist in modified states of consciousness. He takes her story seriously. Corine Sombrun was able to induce trance states outside of her original ritual, thus allowing her brain to be imaged to observe the effects. Professor Flor-Henri, a neuropsychiatrist in Canada, volunteers to carry out this research.
The Rabbit on LSD
"Your results remind me of a rabbit on LSD" are the words of Chris Frith to Corine Sombrun during the realization of her EEG (Electroencephalogram).
In fact, while at "rest" his trace is quite normal, during the trance this one has similarities with three pathologies well known to psychiatry: severe depression, manic disorder and schizophrenia.
Trance for all?
In her latest book - the diagonal of joy - Corine Sombrun tells us about her journeys in the scientific spheres in order to have trance recognized and to scientifically study its effects on the brain.
Trance is no longer called "shamanic" since it is a cognitive potential accessible to any brain. Thanks to the work of Corine Sombrun and the scientists who have supported her, cognitive trance can be self-induced. She sets up a loop of sounds that allows more than 90% of people to reach trance, whatever their profile. The trance is not a "dramatization" but a real cognitive state.
Access to the present is through the senses. Corinne Sombrun - through her work - seeks to balance the "I think" with the "I perceive".
Trance is a natural expression of our intelligences, one that makes us more knowledgeable and aware
Conclusion, are we witnessing a "scientific paradigm shift" or a profound cultural upheaval?
Without going into details, the dynamic spiral theory comes to corroborate this hypothesis...
Philippe Guillemant and Corine Sombrun agree that science - in our time - would be in a state of stagnation that requires reconsideration. They both speak of "the religion of science"; religion of materialism according to the researcher.
And both use science itself to demonstrate this. Both use the tools proper to science.
According to PG, with its mechanistic determinism, science has become a religion, the religion of materialism.
Connection to the Self: the Physics of Consciousness
Philippe Guillemant closes his talk with a synthesis of his "physics of consciousness" which rests on theoretical foundations that we have discussed above: the invisible tunnel (Golden Orch) that can be redirected by our intentions to which he adds the theory of the multiverse.
It is difficult to connect to the self in a materialistic society because we are conditioned by three prisons: that of the mind, the emotional, and the ego. It is possible to break out of these by cultivating three things: letting go, self-trust and detachment.
When I told you he was atypical...
"Intuition, faith, and joy are the three states of mind that automatically take hold once we have successfully connected to the self. This connection that makes us naturally happy. Happiness not being the destination but the path..."
Sources
David Chalmers How do you explain consciousness? TED 2014 https://www.ted.com/talks/david_chalmers_how_do_you_explain_consciousness?language=fr&subtitle=fr
Antonio Damasio (1994) The Descartes Error. The Reason for Emotions https://www.babelio.com/livres/Damasio-Lerreur-de-Descartes--La-raison-des-emotions/38598
Daniel Denett "about our consciousness" TED 2003 https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_the_illusion_of_consciousness?language=fr
Philippe Guillemant Physics of Consciousness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F5dT2k4AQg
Philippe Guillemant "The Road to Consciousness.Film by Jean-Yves Bilien" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMrTczTG744
David Louapre (2017), Consciousness, Amazing Science, https://scienceetonnante.com/2017/11/02/la-conscience/
Corine Sombrun (2021) La diagonale de la joie. Éditions Albin Michel https://www.decitre.fr/livres/la-diagonale-de-la-joie-9782226396150.html
Corine Sombrun (2012) The Shamanic trance, brain capacity? TEDx ParisSalon2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym0kIECFi0U&t=6s
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