Transdisciplinary Language for Noospheric Consciousness: Neuroscience, Music, Mysticism

Presented by Michael Jacob

N2 Conference 2023

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The study of noospheric consciousness demands a radical transdisciplinary approach. Given the major themes of the N2 conference: science, philosophy, politics, theology, and education - what ties them together? Can these disciplines contribute to a coherent ‘metascience’ to understand the meaning of noospheric consciousness?

This session will begin with an introductory presentation on the language of consciousness, using neuroscience as a case-study for a transdisciplinary approach. Following this presentation, we will discuss this topic with scholars who have bridged science, the humanities and religion to come to a new understanding of noospheric consciousness.

In the introductory presentation I will consider how terms such as ‘consciousness’ and ‘collective consciousness’ define both the what it feels like aspect of human experience and the creation of meaning from experience itself. Next, I will briefly explore the relevance of transdisciplinary approaches to neuroscience, generally considered the scientific launchpad for consciousness research. In the brain, meaning emerges from the collective communicative capacity of billions of electrochemically interacting neurons. It is not contained in any neuron or network, and must be understood as an emergent whole, like a piece of music. This approach reveals how consciousness research in neuroscience needs dialogue with the humanities, and also offers an entree into a transdisciplinary approach to the study of noospheric consciousness. While an individual neuron may only have the vaguest possible sense of their collective participation in the music of the brain, humans are drawn to experiences greater than any one individual. This perspective on noospheric metascience evokes the etymology of religion, as that which binds us, and mysticism, in that both the sciences and humanities are necessary to explore the mystery of life, consciousness and the cosmos.

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