THE MINISTRY of INS!GHTS

Micrococcus bombycis flacherie microbe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anyone who has to put up with me on anything like a regular basis will know I tend to go on about two things. One is my political ranting, which I try to keep separate from my business life. The other subject may not seem particularly business oriented but, from an insight point of view, I think its a fundamental element of what I do.

A couple of years ago I came to a personal conclusion about life which, when I tell people about it, usually registers a sort of ‘so what’ shrug.

To me though the idea that ‘the universe is conscious because I am conscious’ was an amazing revelation. I know it’s hardly a new idea. Lots of religions say something very much along these lines and quite a lot of new age mumbo jumbo assert something similar too. But the difference to me was that I’d worked this conclusion out from things I’d observed myself. What’s more, I think the statement is absolutely irrefutable – even for the most empirically-minded skeptic.

The argument goes like this: I am made up of atoms and particles and all of that other stuff Prof. Brian Cox likes to enthuse over. I am just a physical object made up of other physically objects that can be found floating around the universe. There is nothing special or magical about me that can’t be explained by physics, chemistry and a very long period of time. I’m a bit of the universe bound together into this admittedly quite elaborate bundle of stuff.

I assume you’re with me on that. The human form isn’t anything particularly special and conforms to the laws of nature that can be found everywhere in the universe. I am made up of the universe and I am indivisible from the universe.

And yet I am aware of myself. I have theories and ideas about my place in the world and how and why I came to be here. I am, in a word, conscious.

Putting these two irrefutable conclusions together, it is only logical to conclude that the universe is conscious. The Universe Is Conscious.

I’m not saying necessarily that the universe is uniformly conscious. I’m not saying necessarily that the stars we look up to at night are looking back at us or that the atoms that make up my cornflakes have an opinion about my eating them. But I can say with absolute certainty that some parts of the universe ARE conscious, because I am conscious and because I am a little part of the universe.

So what?

Yes, indeed, so what?

That was the next question that came to mind once I’d settled on this conclusion. Why am I conscious / why is the universe conscious? What purpose does it serve the universe for some or all of it to be conscious and aware of itself?

Sadly I am still working on this conundrum. On a personal level I can gain a sense of pleasure from being aware of my own existence and the amazing world I live in, but I’ve yet to identify any particular benefit being derived by the wider universe that extends beyond my own form.In fact, I did, for a while become quite depressed by the idea that there didn’t seem to be any kind of benefit when looked at on the grand scale.

But that’s for a different blog post.

The reason I’m sharing all of this with you is because I’ve just been listening to a BBC Radio 4 programme (again already!) about this very subject and if you are in any way intrigued by the ideas and ramblings I’ve just been writing about, you might also want to listen to this broadcast / podcast:

Here’s the link:

A Natural History of Me!

If only one in ten cells in the body is human, then what are we? Paul Evans investigates.