Have you ever gazed at a sunset, its fiery hues painting the sky, and felt a sense of awe wash over you? Or perhaps you’ve shared a laugh so deep it brought tears to your eyes? These experiences, and countless others, are all thanks to the incredible phenomenon we call consciousness.
Philosophers often imagine consciousness as a bridge, connecting our internal world of thoughts and feelings to the external world we perceive through our senses. It’s the reason we can experience the beauty of a sunset, the warmth of a hug, or the sting of a harsh word. It allows us to construct a unique sense of self and how we fit into the world around us.
The building blocks of experience
Every moment we’re alive and awake, the complex mechanisms responsible for consciousness are constantly at work. Let’s break down the key elements that contribute to this:
Perceptions: These are the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches we experience through our senses. They can also include internal sensations like pain and pressure. We can even experience the world through memory and imagination, conjuring past moments or creating fantastic new ones. (“I can picture a dolphin leaping through the waves when I close my eyes.”)
Emotions: These are the powerful feelings that colour our lives, from joy and excitement to sadness and anger. They influence our thoughts, behaviours, and relationships, sometimes as subtle whispers and sometimes as overwhelming waves.
Thoughts: Woven into the fabric of our sensory and emotional experiences are our internal narratives. These include ideas, questions, memories, answers, judgments, and other mental activities that we can understand and express through language. Thoughts are designed to help us navigate the world. Like emotions, they can sometimes be fleeting and, at other times, be a bit more stubborn.
These three elements don’t exist in isolation. They interweave and interact, creating the complex experience of consciousness. This allows us to experience sun sets, sangrias, self-awareness, love, motivation, and the countless other wonders of being human.
These three elements are not always accurate or helpful !
Our perceptions can be fooled. Imagine a magician making an object disappear. Your senses tell you it’s gone, but you know logically that it’s still there. Mental health conditions can also cause hallucinations, where you perceive things that aren’t there. Music can sound better when you are drunk, colours look better when you are happy, and food tastes like cardboard when you are down and out!
Emotions can be so strong that they cloud our judgment. For example, intense rage might lead someone to say something hurtful to a loved one, something they might regret later when they calm down.
We often make assumptions based on limited information. For instance, you might see a colleague talking intensely with their boss and immediately think they’re in trouble, when in reality they might be discussing a new project. Our inner voice can be overly critical, focusing on our flaws and failures. This can keep us in a loop of feeling inadequate.
The workspace
Consciousness arises in the brain when information from different regions – sensory, emotional, and cognitive—is processed, integrated, and broadcast. Imagine this as a bustling workspace, where all the different aspects of our experience are brought together to create a unified perception. This workspace allows us to understand and make sense of the information we receive, so we can respond accordingly. Much like the control center of any major operation. I like the depiction in the movie “Inside Out.”.
Like we have discussed in the last couple of sections, how we interpret this information isn’t purely objective. Our beliefs and past experiences play a significant role in shaping our perception. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and the world around us can influence how and what we experience in the “workspace” of consciousness.
This model of consciousness is missing a crucial piece. If our conscious experience—the information presented in the “workspace”—simply dictates all our actions without any room for intervention, then the idea of free will crumbles.
Free will isn’t about guaranteeing a specific outcome; it’s about having the ability to choose our response to what we experience. This implies that the information presented in our conscious workspace has to be processed further and manipulated before it translates into a response for free will to exist.
The observer
Now, let’s introduce a crucial part of who you are: the observer. This part of your consciousness constantly “observes” your thoughts, feelings, and experiences within the “workspace.” For most of us, this observer gets swept up in the experience itself. We sometimes lose the ability to watch the information presented without getting tangled up in it. When the observer merges with the experience, psychologists call it “fusion.” This often leads us to define ourselves by what’s happening to us.
Imagine walking into a crowded party, and you are up for a great time. Fusion with the fear of being judged can make you feel hyperaware of every flaw, leading to self-consciousness and awkwardness. Instead of enjoying the party, you become fixated on the anxiety, your trembling, and your sweating, which prevent you from connecting with others. In such a situation, the anxiety and the thoughts surrounding it call the shots, where “you” and what you want vanish !
This is one example that illustrates how fusion can limit our ability to experience life, observing closely will reveal a lot more on a daily basis.
Qualia
This is a concept in philosophy that refers to the subjective, experiential aspects of our conscious experiences. It’s the “what-it-is-like” quality of those experiences, something that’s difficult to capture in words or share with others.
Imagine all of us taking a bite out of the same juicy apple. Each of us will experience a specific sweetness, a particular texture, and a certain redness. These intricate subjective qualities of our taste, touch, and sight are unique, private feelings associated with each person’s experience, and not the objective properties of the apple itself. The same applies to success, happiness, failure, love, pain, etc. Our experiences exist on a spectrum, and the intensity and expression of these experiences will vary from person to person.
An important question: Are we stuck with a need to conform?
This exploration of Qualia raises a fascinating question: Is there a “right” way to think, feel, or act? Are we simply programmed to conform to external expectations?
I remember as a kid, the first time I failed an exam, I did not know what it actually meant. It did not make a difference to me until a certain adult told me I should be ashamed of myself and that I should do better! Over time, I guess I learned to internalize that and fuse with it.
How do we know how an apple tastes to the other person, or how much it is supposed to hurt when someone turns you down or when your dog dies? Is there a right way to think about it or an accurate level of sadness, fear, and anger that we are supposed to feel ?
The answer is, no. There is not an ounce of scientific evidence to suggest that there’s an appropriate response or an ideal success. Yet, we often find ourselves striving to conform to external expectations, chasing a version of happiness or achievement that might not be authentic to us.
Is it possible that we’ve conditioned ourselves to think and feel in ways entirely irrelevant to our own unique experiences?
Free will: a byproduct of the observer?
Free will, at its core, is the idea that we have the capacity to make our own choices. We consider options, weigh the evidence, and decide on a course of action. We may all believe we have free will, but do we?
Science stuff
One of the most provocative findings in neuroscience is the notion that free will might be an illusion. Experiments by Benjamin Libet and subsequent researchers provide significant insights into this debate.
Libet’s experiments in the 1980s involved measuring brain activity related to voluntary actions. In these experiments, participants were asked to perform a simple movement, such as flexing their wrist, while noting the exact moment they became consciously aware of their decision to move. At the same time, Libet measured their brain activity using EEG.
He discovered that the brain’s readiness potential (a measurable change in brain activity) occurred approximately 550 milliseconds before the actual movement. Crucially, the participants reported becoming consciously aware of their decision to move about 200 milliseconds before the action. This means that the brain had already initiated the process of moving before the participants were aware of their decision to do so.
Libet interpreted this as evidence that unconscious brain processes precede and potentially determine conscious decisions, challenging the traditional notion of free will.
However, he also suggested a “veto” power, where consciousness could still intervene and stop an action in the final moments, preserving a form of free will.
These findings align with our previous discussions, highlighting the importance of developing the ability to observe our mental processes from a distance. By enhancing our capacity to monitor and reflect on our brain’s activities, we can introduce a degree of choice, ensuring that our past narratives and experiences do not rigidly dictate our future actions. Essentially, free will !
What if free will isn’t a given but a skill to be honed? Perhaps by strengthening the observer self, we gain the ability to watch the “workspace” of consciousness without getting trapped in it. This perspective allows us to make conscious choices rather than simply reacting to pre-programmed responses. Is this the key to free will?
Experiment – Finding the observer
Inspired by Michael Singer’s technique from “The Untethered Soul,” try this exercise:
- Preparation: Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to relax or not, your choice !.
- Initial Observation: Notice any thoughts or feelings that arise. Don’t judge them; just observe.
- Mental Speech: In your mind, say “hello” aloud. Pay attention to the voice in your head as it says the word.
- Repetition: Repeat the word “hello” several times. Focus on the act of saying it and the sound of the voice in your mind.
- Observation: As you repeat “hello,” notice the separation between the speaker (your mind) and the observer (your consciousness). Observe how one part of you is speaking while another part is simply watching.
- Reflection: After a few minutes, stop repeating the word and sit quietly. Reflect on the experience. How did it feel to observe your mental voice as a separate entity? Did you feel a sense of space from your mental voice?