The First Big Bang generated Space-Time and Matter-Energy. The Second Big Bang lit the Spark of Life here and there. And the Third Big Bang ignited Consciousness. – V. V. Raman
From the merger of a microscopic sperm and egg in the darkness of the fallopian tube in the human body arises an entity that gradually acquires self-awareness and an identity all its own. This embodied being reflects and rejoices, creates and communicates, and engages in countless activities for a brief bracket on the infinite timeline. Then, after a final breath, its non-physical attributes vanish from the tangible world. No thinking mind can remain unimpressed by this remarkable phenomenon in the cosmic stretch. If anything is a mystery, human consciousness is.
We all carry within us a totality that is more than the sum of our body’s material substrate. Countless microorganisms thrive in our saliva and alimentary canal. Not so long ago, the molecules that make up our body were not part of us. They could have been somewhere in our vicinity or in the ground somewhere or in the body of another animal or who knows where! With all that, there is a subtle intangible Self at our core, that etches the identity of separate existence within our hugely interconnected whole. This Self has been within us since the first utterance of I and me, and will be there until the dusk and dimness of life when, gradually or suddenly, our memories will falter and fade away for good.
It is difficult to write this off as another accident of cause-effect chemistry or of wave-function collapse in atomic physics. Niels Bohr famously said that if one is not jolted by quantum mechanics, one has simply not understood it. For me, the jolt received from my encounter with quantum physics was not half as intense as what I feel when I reflect upon consciousness. I am unable to dismiss it as yet another emergence in nature’s blind dance, like thunder and volcano, like wing and horn from mutations, or generosity from genes.
Someday, silicon configurations in plastic casings may acquire feelings and emotions, mimicking the heaves and aha’s of the human heart. Computers create music today; they may be enjoying it tomorrow. Robots may be reflecting on life and death the day after. But some thoughtful people hold that this is not sufficient proof that there is nothing beyond matter and energy in space and time.
From the perspective of science, nature is essentially a tangible ephemeral manifestation of matter and energy. To all appearances this seems to be the case. However, the laws which organize and sustain the phenomenal world, cannot be located here or there. They pervade the span of spread-out space and ceaseless time. One perspective may be that consciousness is implicit in these laws, an intangible principle that breathes order in the universe, and life into inert matter.
It is quite satisfying for some to regard love and laughter, acts of kindness, and quest for truth and justice as among the peak performances of neuron firings or as evolutionary upshots of cerebral chemistry. It may well be that we are essentially sophisticated carnal computers that compose music, write poetry, alliterate, and make jokes. But it is also plausible, or at least not altogether unreasonable to some, to suppose that some other as yet unknown factor is at work in the context of value and meaning and whatever goes with what we loosely call the human spirit.
The Copernican revolution displaced our earth from the center of the universe. Science has been enormously successful in exploring the physical range of the universe from the invisible microcosm to the farthermost galaxies in the vast expanse. Science regards consciousness as one among the countless occurrences since the world burst forth from the first creative Bang it calls Big.
But to me, consciousness deserves more than passing mention in any serious commentary on the universe. Humanity’s habitat has been displaced from center stage, but human consciousness has not been dethroned from the Center of the Perceived World. The universe is a sphere whose circumference is nowhere and whose center is wherever there is consciousness.
Consciousness has been discussed by thousands of keen minds in all cultures and ages. Four centuries of modern science has thrown little light on the root of this uncommon wonder which may have parallels in other pockets in a universe studded with billions of stars, planetary systems, and weird incidents. With all that, except for what we hear in mystical utterances and metaphysical musings which are like humming in the dark, most of us still don’t have a clear idea of what it is all about. That is why some philosophers declare in exasperation that consciousness cannot be known through analyses and theories. That is also why scientists feel that it to be explored relentlessly; and have initiated a journal devoted to the Neuroscience of Consciousness. They are optimistic that someday we will be able to explain consciousness in terms of neurons, microtubules, or other matter-based entities and electro-physiological principles.
As of now, consciousness remains a fantastic anomaly in the mindless mechanical morass of mass-energy cluttering the cosmos. As we can see our own face nowhere but in a mirror, some have recognized consciousness through silent introspection and deep meditation. They hold that like the taste of honey and halwa, consciousness transcends verbal articulation. The scientifically inclined are sure that the truth about it will be unraveled through experimentation and theories.
In the meanwhile, all I can do is to reflect on it.
Spurts of Thought 