In this appendix, we will present the three concepts of consciousness we discussed earlier, in the form of a series of tables, listing their differences and similarities on a variety of issues.
What I have tried to describe here as Mainstream Physicalism is the concept of consciousness that most non-specialists seem to use and that many authors within the interdisciplinary field of Consciousness Studies use to differentiate their own views from. It is basically the concept medical staff uses in an emergency ward to determine if a patient is conscious or not.
The Exclusive Spirituality view used to be mainstream in the Indian tradition, but in recent years there seems to be a marked shift towards a more integral position. There are many varieties of it, but I'll limit myself to how it occurs in Advaita Vedānta and Samkhya.
For the Integral Spirituality view, I am basing myself largely on Sri Aurobindo.
The differences between these three views may look so great, especially when tabulated together like this, that it seems almost illegitimate to use the same term for all three. But if we look closer, it becomes clear that everywhere, the Mainstream Physicalist view and the Exclusive Spirituality view have opposite subsets of the wider gamut of consciousness described in the integral view. This gives them a certain simplicity and strength, but it also robs them of the possibility of arriving at a comprehensive understanding of life in all its marvellous complexity.
consciousness as awareness |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
1 |
Consciousness is awareness of what the physical senses report about the external world and of one's own intentions, thoughts, feelings and sensations. |
Consciousness is primarily pure, content-free awareness. In us as human beings it can become pure and content-free, but as long as Ignorance lasts, it is an egocentric awareness of our own being and of things and processes in a variety of subtle and physical worlds. |
In us as human beings, consciousness slowly develops from a limited awareness of what our senses report about the outer physical world and our own outer nature, into and ever deeper and more detailed awareness of the Divine in all its aspects. |
consciousness as power — I |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
3 |
Consciousness is only awareness. |
Consciousness is only awareness.1 |
Consciousness is both awareness and force (cit is also cit-śakti). |
the presence of consciousness in the world |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
4 |
Consciousness is the exception in an otherwise unconscious universe. It occurs only in humans or at most in a few other animals and machines. |
Consciousness is primary and its existence is not questioned. |
Consciousness is all-pervasive. It exists not only in individuals, but throughout the cosmos and even in the transcendent beyond. While it is understandable why the physical world looks unconscious to some and unreal to others, it actually is conscious in its own way. |
ultimate reality: consciousness or matter |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
5 |
The ultimate reality is matter. |
The ultimate reality is saccidānanda: consciousness and delight are intrinsic to ultimate reality. |
Same as Exclusive Spirituality. |
what is taken for granted and what is in doubt |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
6 |
Matter is primary and taken for granted. The existence and relevance of consciousness are open to doubt. According to some, consciousness "emerges" out of unconscious material processes at a certain level of complexity. |
Consciousness is primary and its existence not doubted.
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Consciousness is primary and not doubted. Matter and physical energy are the end product of a process of exclusive concentration within the conscious existence of the Divine. Both Matter and Consciousness are real and divine. |
consciousness in matter |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
7 |
Matter is unconscious (except, perhaps, the human nervous system). |
Vedānta: Some schools same as Integral Spirituality; other schools see matter as an illusion. |
Everything is conscious. The consciousness in inanimate things is the secret cause of their "name and form." |
consciousness and mind |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
8 |
Mind is the wider concept: consciousness is a property of some mental states and processes. |
Vedānta: Consciousness (cit) is a fundamental aspect of reality. Mind (manas) is used for a type or plane of consciousness (as in the manomaya kośa of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad) or, more commonly, in the narrower sense of the sense-mind. |
Ultimately same as Vedānta, but occasionally, for pragmatic reasons "on the way", using the conceptualizations of Sāṁkhya. |
consciousness, happiness and suffering |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
9 |
Emotional states are dependent on brain states and tend to be described in functional terms. |
Consciousness is intrinsically blissful. Suffering arises through identification with the ego. Happiness arises out of detachment.3 |
Same as Exclusive Spirituality. |
consciousness and love |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
10 |
Selfless, "true" love is not understandable, and whatever can be understood instead tends to be described in utilitarian and pragmatic terms. |
Except for love for the Divine, its stress is on purity and inaction. This tends to push love out of sight, though perhaps more in theory than in practice. |
Love is the dynamic side of delight, and as such intrinsic to existence and pervasive throughout the universe. In humans, however, it tends to be corrupted by ego, ignorance and other leftovers from our evolutionary past. |
consciousness, thoughts and feelings |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
11 |
Thoughts and feelings are looked at as physical processes taking place in our nervous system. |
Humans have the illusion they think and feel when (in their ignorance) they identify with thoughts and feelings, which may well have their own existence, independent of any individual human being who hosts or expresses them. |
Same as Exclusive Spirituality. |
consciousness as power — II |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
12 |
Consciousness is only awareness. In the field of Consciousness Studies one would say, consciousness is epiphenomenal, that is, it is not causally active. |
The human consciousness is habituated to being enslaved to the workings of the nervous system, but it can liberate itself and become free. |
The human consciousness is habituated to being enslaved to the workings of the nervous system, but it can liberate itself and then become both free and active. |
consciousness and the individual |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
13 |
Consciousness is located in the individual. |
Consciousness is the individual (but see 2 and 19). |
Same as Exclusive Spirituality. |
consciousness and the brain |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
14 |
Consciousness is dependent on a working nervous system. As such it has to belong to a living human being (or other animal). |
Consciousness as such is not dependent on a working nervous system. As long as it is ignorant, the individual, human consciousness identifies with the workings of a nervous system. |
Same as Exclusive Spirituality. |
types of consciousness |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
15 |
The ordinary, mental awareness of ourselves and our surrounding is the norm. The few states recognized as different from the ordinary waking consciousness, such as dream, sleep, coma, trance, and altered states, tend to be considered as less than the ordinary waking state. |
Consciousness is pure awareness: no types, no content, no movement. Any intrusion of content is ultimately a sign of ignorance. |
There are many different types of consciousness. Some of them are considered lower than our ordinary waking state, some higher in the sense of being more conscious, beautiful, true, loving, pure, and powerful. |
intentionality |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
16 |
Intentionality and the distinction between subject and object are considered defining characteristics of consciousness and mind. |
Intentionality belongs to the mind. Consciousness has no intentionality; it simply is. (The idea that consciousness has intentionality is due to the error of confusing consciousness with the mind.) |
Intentionality and the distinction between subject and object are considered typical of the ordinary mental consciousness, but are absent in most other types of consciousness. |
the subliminal |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
17 |
The physical and mental processes of which we are not aware are classified as preconscious or as unconscious. Preconscious processes are being explored by cognitive psychology in laboratory experiments. Some dark corners of the unconscious are studied by depth-psychology through free-association, dream-analysis and sometimes hypnosis. |
One strives to arrive at pure consciousness. The subtle worlds are as irrelevant as the physical world. |
The physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual processes of which we are normally not aware may be subconscious or superconscious to us , but they are not unconscious in themselves. Through the various processes of yoga, one gets access not only to darker and lesser types of consciousness but also to higher forms, and to whole worlds of inner light, power, beauty, knowledge, love and joy, which go far beyond anything one can even imagine in the ordinary waking state. |
Emptiness: the transcendent |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
18 |
Consciousness is dependent on a working brain; so, consciousness is intrinsically individual. |
Besides the individual and the cosmic consciousness, there is also a transcendent consciousness. |
Same as Exclusive Spirituality. |
one, two and many |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
19 |
There are many individuals, each with his/her own consciousness. |
It depends on the school. According to Advaita Vedānta there is ultimately only One: once Ignorance is left behind, the jivātman merges and effectively disappears into the Divine. Saṁkhya takes the many seriously. Some schools consider others a support (e.g. the sanga); others consider them a distracting encumbrance. For the bhaktas, there are only two: oneself and the Divine.4 |
Each individual has a distinct, individual Self, the jivātman, which is an eternal portion of the Divine with its own, unique, svadharma and svabhava. |
the unitary character of consciousness |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
20 |
The unitary character of consciousness has been acknowledged as the "binding problem", the as-yet-unanswered question how a mass of parallel neurological processes gives rise to a single conscious experience. |
The entity that combines all the different sense-impressions and mental processes into one mental state is called the manas. |
The unitary character of consciousness has been acknowledged as the essential oneness of the individual consciousness with the consciousness of the Divine (and all other beings). Oneness and diversity don't contradict each other. |
human relationships |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
21 |
Relationships tend to be seen pragmatically in terms of their evolutionary functionality. |
As we are all part-manifestations of the same Divine consciousness, one can recognize (and love) the Divine equally in oneself, in everyone else and in everything (see also 10 and 19). |
Same as Exclusive Spirituality. |
the other as object of psychological inquiry |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
22 |
Classical Behaviourism: If you want to be objective, then "you … must describe the behavior of man in no other terms than those you use in describing the behavior of the ox you slaughter" (Watson, 1930). Later schools are more respectful |
If one goes deep enough inside, one recognises others as oneself, and one can know them as well as one can know oneself through knowledge by identity (vijñāna). |
Same as Exclusive Spirituality. |
consciousness at the time of death |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
23 |
When the body loses its ability to maintain sensorimotor contact with its surrounding, e.g. under narcosis or at the time of death, it is said that the person "is losing consciousness". In other words, the mainstream view identifies the person with the body. |
In the same situation, it is said that the person "withdraws from the body". In other words, the spiritual view identifies the person with the centre of his consciousness, and asserts that it can continue to exist without the body.6 |
Same as Exclusive Spirituality, except for a different conceptualization of the Self. |
the purpose and meaning of life |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
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24 |
If nature is an unconscious machine, evolving through brute laws of chance, then pursuing one's own (or one's group's) desires, survival, fitness and ability to procreate, even at the cost of others, is the most appropriate natural expression of the laws of nature, while qualities like truth, love, and beauty are secondary and worth pursuing at most for pragmatic, commercial or hedonistic purposes.
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If consciousness is all, then ascetic withdrawal from nature is the only thing that makes sense. |
If nature is gradually evolving towards an ever more perfect and complete manifestation of consciousness, truth, love, and beauty, then our individual aspiration for them is the natural expression of nature's own will. |
striving for a higher consciousness |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
25 |
If our ordinary waking consciousness is the best way of being conscious, then striving for anything higher is an error. |
If pure consciousness is the only thing real, then withdrawing from activity is the best thing to do and all other human pursuits are vain. |
If there are ranges of consciousness beyond our ordinary state, then pursuing them is the most sensible thing to do. All events in one’s life, good, bad or indifferent, are then occasions for growth, and there are no limits to the heights of joy, light, love, power, and right action one can develop. |
the future |
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mainstream physicalism |
exclusive spirituality |
integral spirituality |
|
26 |
If each centre of consciousness is intrinsically locked up in a separate brain and dependent on its survival, then people are intrinsically separate from nature and from each other, and doomed to an unending battle for resources. |
If consciousness is the only thing real, then striving not to be reborn is the right thing to do, whether individually (as in most schools of Exclusive Spirituality) or collectively (as in Mahayana Buddhism). |
If consciousness is ultimately one, and quite independent of the body-minds with which individual portions of it temporarily and ignorantly identify, then people are intrinsically and intimately one with each other, one with nature and one with the Divine. Love and cooperation are then the natural outflow of the underlying unity, and nature's own striving after truth, love and beauty will inevitably prevail in the end. |
*
* *
For a more detailed description of what set the integral concept of consciousness apart:
For a look at the gradual emancipation of consciousness in nature
as background narrative for psychology:
1Though physicalism and the exclusive schools of Indian spirituality both hold consciousness to be inactive, their positions are radically different. As mentioned before, for the physicalist, matter is all, and consciousness is at best an ephemeral side-effect of chemical processes in the brain, while for virtually all schools of Indian spirituality, consciousness is the only thing of true value. For adherents to an exclusive form of spirituality, matter is at best something one has to contend with in the early stages of one's inner development: it has to be left behind in the end.
2Though physicalism and Sāṁkhya both hold matter to be unconscious, their positions are radically different. See endnote 1.
3The word detachment can be used for different things. What I mean here is not the same as indifference, which belongs to the same "level" as like and dislike. It is rather a stepping into the peace and delight of the free consciousness of the Divine, from where the world can be seen, enjoyed, and loved, free from egoïc distortions. As such, it is not incompatible with commitment, though this combination is difficult to achieve.
4The sweetest expression of this position is probably Sri Ramakrishna's, who is supposed to have exclaimed: "I don't want to become sugar; I want to eat sugar!"
5Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, p. 724.
6This point of view is of course not limited to integral Indian spirituality. The same expression is used by people with many different religious and spiritual backgrounds.
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