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A Second Scientific Revolution

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INTRODUCTION    | synopsis |  “The concept of qualia is clearly at the heart of the next stage of human intellectual endeavours. There is no other intellectual challenge more important or pressing than qualia. The revolution can only be brought about by a combination of rigorous scientific thinking and trembling sensitivity.” “Qualia thinkers of the world, unite!” Ken Mogi “…if we lived in a merely quantitative universe, no transformation would be possible, because transformation is a question of qualities – that is, of qualitative differences, of one thing transforming into another.” Maurice Nicoll

“The soul is not a unit that is definable. It is instead an undefinable quality.” “The basic universe of which I speak expands constantly in terms of intensity and quality…in a way that has nothing to do with your idea of space”. Seth, “The Unknown Reality” Vol.2 Jane Roberts

 

SYNOPSIS    The most fundamental scientific 'fact' is not the existence of the physical universe, but our awareness of that universe. Not even the most advanced physics, physiology or psychology, however, can explain even the most elementary qualities of our sensory awareness of that universe - qualities such as 'redness' for example. Qualia used to be defined as sensory qualities such as colour and tone. But what if awareness is not an empty receptable for sensory impressions, but has its own intrinsic sensual qualities - of the sort we experience as the inwardly sensed shape and substantiality of our bodies, the sensed 'lightness' or 'darkness' 'colour' or 'tone' of our moods, or a sensed feeling of 'warmth' or 'coolness', 'closeness' or 'distance' to another human being? What if such sensual qualities of awareness are intrinsically meaningful - being the felt essence of meaning or sense? The Qualia Revolution puts forward the radical hypothesis that it is not energetic 'quanta' but Qualia in this sense - sensed and sensual qualities of awareness - that are the basic stuff of which the universe is composed. It argues that qualia are not simply qualities of our own human awareness but fundamental units of awareness. Atoms, molecules and cells are recognised as the physical form taken by field-patterns of atomic, molecular and cellular awareness composed of such units. The 'soul' is understood as an ever-changing gestalt of such units, each of which possess characteristics of both unit and field, particle and wave - allowing the soul-qualities of our own awareness to mix and merge with those of all other beings. Drawing on the dynamic field-phenomenology of Michael Kosok, the SETH books of Jane Roberts, and Eugene Gendlin's philosophy of directly felt meaning or 'sense', The Qualia Revolution rearticulates Rudolf Steiner's vision of a truly "spiritual science" of nature and man, and Karl Marx vision of a "natural science of man" that is at the same time a "human science of nature". It lays the theoretical foundations for what Peter Wilberg calls Cosmic Qualia Science - a science with immediate practical implications in such key areas of human life as and economics and education, psychology and medicine. Cosmic Qualia Science represents a most radical shift in our understanding of what constitutes 'science' and 'scientific knowledge' - not merely a 'quantum leap' but a Qualia Revolution. Starting from the understanding that it is not energetic fields but fields and field-qualities of awareness that constitute the fundamental nature of reality, it challenges the foundations of both conventional energy-science and New Age pseudo-science, with its talk of 'subtle energies' and 'energy medicine'. In their place it presents a qualitative physics of consciousness and the cosmos in which GOD not only might but must have a place - as that primordial field of awareness that is the source of all qualia and all quantised energy.

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