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Summary

On one hand, Mind is inherently non-local. On the other, the world is governed by a quantum physics that is inherently non-local. This is no accident, but a precise correspondence: mind and the quantum operator algebras are the enjoyed and contemplated aspects of the same thing. This fundamental non-locality of the universe has, however, broken down in various ways. Space and time are themselves manifestations of this breakdown, and with them the incoherent array of atomic particles that dominate large areas of the universe. Consciousness as we know it arises from the interplay of mind developing within the non-local aspect of the universe, with matter, which is the localised aspect of this same universe.

On this view mind is not extended, because the fundamental quantum world from which mind emerges is prior to space and time.

The way ahead, I believe, has to place mind first as the key aspect of the universe. It is what determines the operator-histories without which the universe does not exist. We have to start exploring how we can talk about mind in terms of a quantum picture which takes seriously the fundamental place of self-observation; of the quantum logic of actual observables being itself determined by the current situation. Only then will we be able to make a genuine bridge between physics and psychology.



Chris Clarke
Tue Feb 4 16:22:05 GMT 1997