Ideas for Exploration
The scientists are right to be puzzled and disturbed. If they accept that mind and matter interact, how do they begin to study this relationship? Their investigations of matter so far—the amazingly successful results of the contemporary science of physics—tell them nothing whatever about mind, let alone how mind and matter are related (and probably, in some utterly mysterious way, identical). Having painstakingly generated a powerful light to shine on the physical world, they are being asked to move again into the dark. They would have to start with guesses and untried assumptions.
Here are a few. It is a good bet that mind and matter are two aspects of the same thing but that mind-matter has properties that the physical scientists never before suspected. The mind properties may be inherent in all matter but become manifest only under special circumstances, most notably in living things. What we lack and would first want to seek is a fundamental, elemental principle: how do the basic units of mind relate to the basic units of matter? Mind is a dynamically structured unity of many discrete elements. To what in the physical world do those discrete units correspond?
Consciousness is limited; although my mind may be my brain's awareness of itself, I am clearly not aware of everything about my brain that might be worth knowing. What causes those limits and how do they correspond to the physical shape of my brain?
If what I call my mind is the controlling consciousness of my body, does that necessarily mean that it is the only consciousness in my body? Might it be that smaller units of awareness exist throughout our bodies but lack the ability to communicate? The philosopher Leibniz proposed such a theory in 1714 when he suggested that the universe is composed of what he called “monads”: self-contained units of mind that are contiguous but isolated. They are like a series of adjacent states between which exist impenetrable walls.
If something like that is the case, then our own minds overcome that isolation by using impulses from the outside world to construct a model of the world in which our otherwise isolated consciousness exists. That is, our minds are devoted largely to reaching out across those barriers, feelingly constructing what cannot be directly known.
There are many intriguing questions to be asked. And if scientists are terrified of the concept of purpose because it challenges the foundations of their current beliefs, it also provides a wonderful opportunity for new discovery. If mind changes matter, then scientific theories—theories that produce testable predictions—can be constructed. We know the elements of mind only by introspection, but there is no reason why we could not look outside our minds for signs of the elements we find in it. We know where to look: the inner workings of living things. We need merely stop seeking solely mechanistic answers and expand the scope of our search.
That sounds easy. It is not. It means abandoning certain knowledge. It means leaving the comfort of the light and plunging into the darkness. But in the dark is where the answers lie.