# An Exciting New Perspective on the How and Why of Consciousness

Birgitta Dresp

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Birgitta Dresp. An Exciting New Perspective on the How and Why of Consciousness. 2023, 10.33548/SCIENTIA877. hal-04877852

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Submitted on 9 Jan 2025

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# NEW PERSPECTIVES ON CONSCIOUSNESS

Birgitta Dresp-Langley

UMR 7357 CNRS

FRANCE

## 1. Defining Consciousness?

A specific and consensual definition of consciousness continues to elude scientists. Very broadly defined, consciousness can be considered to be a mental state that one is aware of being in. Field theories have been influential in the study of consciousness and depend upon objectively measurable interactions in space and time. In other words, they seek to examine patterns of interaction between an individual and the total physical field represented by the environment. While these theories can account for specific aspects of brain-behaviour function such as stimulus coding, memory representation, decision, and action programming, they do not encompass the whole of the complexity of conscious experience and, definitely, not why or how it came to be in the first place. The so-called ‘hard problem of consciousness’ refers to the difficulty in finding brain measures of the complex phenomenon we want to study, such as the ‘Self’ and experiences of ‘I am’, ‘I feel’ and ‘I can and will be’. We can study cognitive processes such as conscious perception, memory, decision-making and behaviour, and determine where in the brain these take place, but consciousness itself is a different matter. Phenomenal experience in terms of specific instances of perception (think of tasting a strong coffee and holding the hot mug in your hands on a cold day, watching the snow fall outside while sitting comfortably in well heated room) involves neural activities across multiple regions and networks in the brain. But where does consciousness itself come from and how is it represented, if at all, in the brain?

## 2. The Development of Consciousness in Time

Dr Birgitta Dresp-Langley and collaborators are working to overcome the limitations of existing theoretical frameworks, and to address some of the many unanswered questions about the *how* and *why* of consciousness. In 2009, Dr Dresp-Langley and the French nuclear physicist Dr Jean Durup borrowed from the field of physics to propose that we may have a biophysical brain code for consciousness that feeds on, yet works independently of, cognitive processes such as perception and decision making. They suggested that such a brain code could provide a generic neural mechanism that, like an electronic lock, may trigger, maintain, or terminate individual conscious states.

The researchers were interested in developing a computational account that takes into a account the facts that 1) consciousness reflects a specific state of being in time but 2) does not directly depend on a specific ongoing external stimulation or a specific physical (spatial) location. This absence of an observable spatial dimensionality of consciousness is critical to Dresp-Langley’s current approach, insisting on how readily we may represent events from the past to mentally simulate future events that have not yet happened, as any architect or designer, for example, when she/he conceives a novel structures or piece of artwork. The active construction of consciousness in time is fundamental to much of our human life. Indeed, early in childhood, we learn much about the temporal order of the physical world long before we become aware of higher-order concepts such as the Self. For centuries philosophers have proposed that consciousness is built on the full awareness that we exist
in, and are part of, moments in time in an environment that changes continuously and that we are
able to consciously shape, deconstruct, and reconstruct beyond the immediate awareness and
operational intelligence that some animal species may have developed. Human consciousness may
have progressively evolved from a primitive ability to be aware of, to remember, and to predict
temporal order and change in the environment. Dresp-Langley takes the perspective that
consciousness, while associated with specific cognitive processes such as perception memory,
awareness and intelligence, transcends these processes. By changing and developing with
experience, in interaction with other beings, society, and the physical world, consciousness creates a
unique potential for mobilizing new resources beyond currently existing or known physical
boundaries.

3. Consciousness as Energy

Consciousness drives human creativity and the technological and cultural development of human societies as we know them. As such, it may be seen as a form of energy that can lead to observable changes in ourselves, in others, and in our physical environments. This means that consciousness also has the power to change and/or determine the future mental states in ourselves and others and to change and/or determine future physical environments. Conscious energy originates within the brain, yet, the potential it can mobilize is boundless and unpredictable, and therefore transcends the physical limits of the brain. Conscious energy underpins all human creativity. It is the driving force of the construction and the advancement of human society and, ultimately, also that of its disappearance. Well before the sun has burnt our planet out, human societies will have disappeared, and it is human consciousness that will set the stage for the conditions under which this will happen. There is much still to be explored in consciousness research as our understanding of the individual and collective powers of consciousness is still very limited.

4. Expanding Consciousness for a Better Life

Given the role of consciousness as a vital energy source, techniques that help expand consciousness,
such as meditation and mindfulness practice, are of utmost importance to its further development.
These approaches to consciousness expansion could allow us to adjust individual expectations, and
find greater purpose and fulfilment in our lives despite any adversity that we may encounter. In this
way, consciousness as energy is a driving force. Whether it is exploited positively or negatively
depends on us. It could be harnessed as a positive fundamental driving force towards achieving a
better life across the lifespan, individually and collectively. In short, our conscious minds are not
confined to what we can objectively measure, and thus, the measurement-oriented approaches to
consciousness research are limited. Instead, we could (and maybe should) focus our efforts on
furthering our understanding of how we can expand human consciousness towards improving
health, well-being, and harmony at the individual and societal level. Consciousness may well have
evolved on Darwinian principles, towards generating increasingly complex adaptive abilities that not
only enable us to plan for and ensure our survival for the time being, but also to plan for our
extinction under conditions of a best case or a worst case scenario or, most likely, something in-
between.
5. References

Dresp-Langley B (2023) Artificial Consciousness: Misconception(s) of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Nobody Wants. *Qeios*. https://doi.org/10.32388/DW9JBP.2

Dresp-Langley B (2023) From Reward to Anhedonia-Dopamine Function in the Global Mental Health Context. *Biomedicines*, *11*(9):2469. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11092469

Dresp-Langley B (2022) Consciousness Beyond Neural Fields: Expanding the Possibilities of What Has Not Yet Happened. *Front. Psychol.* 12:762349. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.762349

Dresp-Langley B, Durup J (2012) Does consciousness exist independently of present time and present time independently of consciousness? *Open J. Philos.* 2:45–49.

Dresp-Langley B, Durup J (2009) A plastic temporal brain code for conscious state generation. *Neural Plasticity* 2009:482696. https://doi.org/10.1155/2009/482696

Cacha LA, Poznanski RR (2014) Genomic instantiation of consciousness in neurons through a biophoton field theory. *J. Integr. Neurosci.* 13:253–292. doi: 10.1142/S0219635214400081

Cabanac M, Cabanac AJ, Parent A (2009) The emergence of consciousness in phylogeny. *Behav. Brain Res.* 198:267–272. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2008.11.028

Fabbro F, Aglioti SM, Bergamasco M, Clarici A, Panksepp J (2015) Evolutionary aspects of self- and world consciousness in vertebrates. *Front. Hum. Neurosci.* 9:157. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00157

Carroll S (2010) *From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time*. New York, NY: Dutton/Penguin Group.

Heidegger M (1927) *Sein und Zeit*. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

Wahbeh H, Sagher A, Back W, Pundhir P, Travis F (2018) A systematic review of transcendent states across meditation and contemplative traditions. *Explore (NY)* 14:19–35. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2017.07.007

Alexander R, Aragón OR, Bookwala J, Cherbuin N, Gatt JM, Kahrilas IJ et al. (2021) The neuroscience of positive emotions and affect: implications for cultivating happiness and wellbeing. *Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.* 121:220–249. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.12.002