Foreword

Before the work of Freud and Darwin when space had not been explored the population travelled life’s journey with a fair degree of certainty. Now however living with uncertainty is considered a strength. Much of this uncertainty has been caused by the success of scientific research and exploring the depths of space with increasingly bigger telescopes. This is all using our eyes to look in on things.

Bertrand Russell and Teilhard de Chardin both asked the same question. What is the basic unit of consciousness? They both came up with similar answers. Russell said that consciousness is another dimension of matter and Teilhard said that matter had an inside and an outside. The only time that you are aware of the inside of matter is when you happen to be that matter and you experience consciousness.

Teilhard said that people who were looking out into space for the answers were looking through the wrong end of the telescope. The answers are in and around us.

Teilhard de Chardin straddled science and philosophy besides being a Jesuit priest. This was important since many people do not see the significance of philosophy.

Philosophers have known for some time that we do not know reality. The Scottish philosopher David Hume said that we make impressions of the environment and this was in the 1700s. Kant pointed out that we are often prepared for how to act or react. Today it would be more accurate to describe the mind as making dynamic models of the environment and we think with these models.

The world in general looks very real to most people and they do not realise that we are modelling the world out there. We do not experience it directly. Philosophers call the view of reality that we see the endemic view and the realisation that we do not as the scientific view.

Faith is considered by some people to be irrational, but the fact that we do not know reality opens the door to faith, that there is something more in the world and universe than we are aware of.

Sometimes the models that we make break down. For example, when we come to the mind-body problem, or when considering facts of a very small level, the quantum level. Quantum weirdness which stretches the mind. The future chapters of the book go into detail about scientific knowledge, quantum weirdness and the way that philosophers think about consciousness.

The direct approach is shunned in the belief that the direct approach is often flawed and short-sighted. A holistic approach is taken instead, allowing the reader to think things through for themselves.