Consciousness

About: Due to the current popularity of artificial intelligence applications such as ChatGPT and the interest in the relationship of artificial intelligence and human consciousness, the author of this paper has offered his thoughts on a fledgling, Bahá’í-based approach to human consciousness which he terms “A Physical / Psychospiritual Theory of Consciousness.”

The paper was written in 1996 in partial fulfillment of a doctoral program and course titled “The Ecology of Consciousness” which was based on the written specifications for a proposed doctoral program for the Anisa Model of Education at National University, San Diego, California in 1982. Although dated, it may stimulate the thinking of those who are interested in the subject.

In addition to a review of a spectrum of the literature available at that time on human consciousness, it delves into the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and their legitimacy as an authority on consciousness, utilizes a metaphor used by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá — a step-up / step-down transformer — (from the pilgrim notes of Marie Watson) to explain the body / brain / mind / soul connection, and reverses the metaphor: “How strange that at times there appears to be a ghost in the human machine” to an opposite metaphor: “We are actually ‘ghosts,’ i.e., spiritual beings — that, in certain situations, from certain perspectives, and under certain circumstances, appear to operate like machines.” [– Keith Bookwalter, July 9, 2024]