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Information self‐organization andconsciousness—towards a holoinformational theory ofconsciousnessFrancisco Di Biase a c & Mário Sérgio F. Rocha ba Department of Neurosurgery and Neurology, Department of Electroencephalography andBrain Mapping, and Neurosciences Sector , UNIPAZ‐International Holistic University , Brasíliab Department of Psychology, Neurosciences Sector, CLÍNICA DI BIASE‐RJ, Post‐GraduationDepartment , Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras, FERP‐RJc Rua Paulo de Frontin 280, Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil , 27123120 E-mail:Published online: 04 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: Francisco Di Biase & Mário Sérgio F. Rocha (1999) Information self‐organization and consciousness—towardsa holoinformational theory of consciousness, World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research, 53:4, 309-327

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02604027.1999.9972745

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Information Self-Organization andConsciousness—Towards aHoloinformational Theory of Consciousness

FRANCISCO DI BIASEa and MÁRIO SÉRGIO F. ROCHAb

Department of Neurosurgery and Neurologya, Department ofElectroencephalography and Brain Mappinga, Department of Psychologyb,and Neurosciences Sectora,b, CLÍNICA Dl BIASE*-RJ, and UNIPAZ-International Holistic University, Brasíliaa, and Post-GraduationDepartment, Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras, FERP-RJa

*Rua Paulo de Frontin 280, Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil,27123120. E-mail: biase@ibm.net.

(Received July 20, 1998; accepted November 2, 1998)

The authors propose a holoinformational view of consciousness whichincorporates the classical concepts of information, negentropy, order, andorganization (Shannon, Wiener, Szilard, Brillouin), to the theories of self-organization and complexity (Prigogine, Atlan, Jantsch, Kauffman). Thisholoinformational view of consciousness also considers the recent develop-ments of the physics of information (Zureck, Stonier) with its new conceptsof statistical entropy and algorithmics entropy, the latter related to thenumber of bits being processed in the mind of the observer. Such concep-tual framework gives a quantum-informational basis that is integrated tothe logics of non-locality, to the holomovement theory of David Böhm, andto the holonomic theory of brain function developed by Karl Pribram.They so elaborate a synthesis in which consciousness is conceived as a non-local flow of meaningful quantum-informational activity, interactingactively with each part of the universe through the holomovement. A con-tinuous process of expansion and enfoldment of the cosmos, connectingin a holistic and indivisible way the human mind to all levels of the self-organizing universe.

KEYWORDS: consciousness, information, self-organization, complexity,non-locality, holomovement

World Futures, 1999, Vol. 53, pp. 309-327 © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.VReprints available directly from the publisher Published by license underPhotocopying permitted by license only the Gordon and Breach Publishers imprint

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INTRODUCTION

The Tao obscures when we only stareat small fragments of the existence

Chuang-Tzu

Models that try to explain the nature of consciousness, whetheroriginary from the neurosciences, medicine, psychology, physics,philosophy, computer sciences, or religion, generally share the'cartesian-newtonian paradigm by insisting on an approach exclu-sively reductionist, and/or on the dualism mind-matter. Such reduc-tionism/dualism's dichotomy has been impairing the grasp of thetrue essence of what consciousness is since the seventeenth century.

Hameroff (1994) believes that such dispute "may potentially beresolved by views which contend that conciousness has a distinctquality, but one which emerges from brain processes which can beaccounted for by natural science". As a solution it proposes a con-sciousness model based upon the emergence of quantum coherencein the neural microtubules, which he developed with Penrose (1996).

Models like this one, use a traditional interpretation of quantummechanics, and as Clarke shows (1995), "start from a basicallyquantum-mechanical position but then impose modifications of thequantum formalism so as to ensure that the net result is basicallynewtonian... strong emphasis is placed on the wave function as thefundamental object of quantum theory and a "collapse" is invokedto pass to a newtonian picture. As a result, they are very firmlybound to a spatial picture." By transforming the quantum logic intoa newtonian logic, they leave aside the non-locality function, quan-tum logic's essence, and the universe's fundamental property—and,as we shall see, also consciousness fundamental property.

Wilber (1997) considers that an integral theory of consciousnessshould embody all the essential characteristics of the twelve mainschools that study consciousness, not as an ecleticism "but rather atightly integrated approach that follows intrinsically from theholonic nature of the Kosmos". Such holonic nature of the Kosmosis based upon the self-organizing holoarchy described by Jantsch(1980) that correlates the co-evolutionary interactions amongst themicroevolution of the holons (Koestler, 1967), to the macroevolution

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of its collective/social forms. Wilber's theory, however, leaves openwhat we consider the key point in the understanding of conscious-ness, that is, the way by which information, order, negentropy, aretransmitted amongst the infinite levels of organization of the cos-mic and brain holoarchy, giving meaning to them. This commonground capable of integrating consciousness and cosmos in anordered and indivisible whole, can only be fulfilled by a holoinfor-mational theory that takes into consideration the non-local quan-tum-informational structure of brain-universe interactions, and bealso compatible with the theory of relativity.

Wheeler (1990) and Chalmers (1995) realized how important theinformation is in such context. Chalmers, by stating that informationmust be considered as an essential property of reality as matter andenergy, and that "conscious experience be considered a fundamentalfeature, irreducible to anything more basic". Wheeler, with its famous"the it from bit" concept that allows us to unite information theory toconsciousness and physics: "... every it—every particle, every field offorce, even the space-time continuum itself—derives its function, itsvery existence, entirely—even if in some contexts, indirectly—fromthe apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices,bus".

A more wide conception of order, organization, information andnegentropy (Wiener, 1948; Shannon, 1949; Szilard, cf. Brillouin,1959) is essential for the development of a holoinformationalmodel capable of integrating consciousness to nature.

Leon Brillouin, in his famous theorem, showed the equivalencebetween information and negentropy, and Norbert Wiener put thisidentity on the very conceptual basis of cybernetics stating that"information represents negative entropy", and prophetically empha-sizing that "information is information, not matter or energy".

Bateson (1972) defines information as "the difference that makesa difference", a conception that Chalmers (1996) retakes stating thatthis is "the natural way to make the connection between physical sys-tems and informational states". The equivalence/identity betweenorder, negentropy and information, is the way that allows us to buildupon and understand the whole irreducible and natural flow oforder transmission in the universe, organized in a meaningful andintelligent informational mode. In the classical thermodynamic

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theory, the definition of order is probabilistic and dependent on theentropy concept, which measures the degree of disorder of a system,leaving absent, or reducing much, the immense wealth of naturalmeanings.

SELF-ORGANIZATION AND INFORMATION

For Atlan (1972, 1979, 1983), as well as for us, "entropy shouldn't beunderstood as a disorder measure, but much more as a measure of complex-ity" (p. 37, 1979). In order to do this, it is necessary to consider thatthe notion of information implies a certain ambiguity, meaning thebit capacity of a physical system (e.g., Shannon), or the semanticcontent (meaning) conducted by the bits during a communication.In the information theory, the organization, the order expressed bythe amount of information in the system (Shannon's H function) isthe information measure that is missing to us, the uncertainty about the sys-tem (cf. Brillouin). Relating this ambiguity, this unexpectedness, tothe variety and the non-homogeneity of the system, Atlan couldsolve certain logical paradoxes of self-organization and complexity,widening Shannon's theory. Defining organization in a quantita-tively formal mode, Atlan showed that the system's order corre-sponds to a commitment between the maximum informationalcontent (i.e., the maximum variety) and the maximum redundancy,and showed also that the ambiguity can be described as a noise func-tion, or even a time one, if we consider the time effects as related tothe random factors accumulated by the environment's action. Suchambiguity, peculiar to self-organizing systems, can be manifested ina negative way ("destructive ambiguity") with the classical meaning ofdisorganizing effect, or in a positive way ("autonomy producer ambi-guity") that acts by increasing the relative autonomy of a part of thesystem in relation to the others, that is reducing the system's naturalredundancy and increasing its informational content.

Atlan developed this self-organizing theory of complexity for bio-logical systems. Jantsch studying the evolution of the universe,showed that cosmological evolution is also a self-organizing process,with the microevolution of the individual systems (holons) co-evolvingtowards macrosystemic collective structures better organized, with a

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big reduction in the amount of these collective systems. This whole self-organizing process represents, actually, a universal expression of a biggeracquisition of variety or informational content that, as Atlan demonstrated, is aconsequence of a reduction of redundancy in the totality of the system.

Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize winner, developed an extension ofthermodynamics that shows how the second law can also allow theemergence of novel structures, and indicates the ways in which ordercan emerge from chaos. This type of self-organization generatesdissipative structures that are created and maintained through theenergy's exchanges with the environment in non-equilibrium condi-tions. These dissipative structures are dependents upon a neworder, called by Prigogine order from fluctuations, which correspondsto a "giant fluctuation" stabilized by the exchanges with the envi-ronment. In these self-organizing processes the structure is main-tained through an energy dissipation, in which the energy displacesitself, simultaneously generating the structure through a continuousprocess. The more complex the dissipative structure, the moreinformation is needed to keep its interconnections, making it conse-quently more vulnerable to the internal fluctuations, which means ahigher instability potential and higher reorganization possibilities.If fluctuations are small, the system accomodates them and doesnot change its organizational structure. If the fluctuations reach acritical size, however, they cause a disequilibrium in the system,generating new intra-systemic interactions and reorganization."The old patterns interact between themselves in new ways, andestablish new connections. The parts reorganize themselves in anew whole. The system reaches a higher order" (Prigogine, 1979).

CONSCIOUSNESS SELF-ORGANIZATION AND INFORMATION

Seagér (1995) states that consciousness, self-organization and infor-mation connect themselves at the level of semantic significance, notat the level of "bit capacity", and that "as the classical theory ofinformation is situated at the level of "bit capacity" it would seemunable to provide the proper connection to consciousness"...and"we can begin to move towards a more radical view of the fundamen-tal nature of consciousness with a move towards a more radical view

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of information". Seager still reminds us that in the famous two-slitexperiment, and in the "quantum eraser" experiment, what is at stakeis not the bit capacity, but the semantically significant correlation ofinformation laden distinct physical systems, in a non-causal mode.

Chalmers (1995) argues that each informational state has two dif-ferent aspects, one as conscious experience, and the other as aphysical process in the brain, that is, one internal/intentional andthe other external/physical. This view finds support in the presentdevelopments of the so-called "information physics", developed bythe physician Wojciech Zureck (1990) and others, that propose thatthe physical entropy would be a combination of two magnitudesthat compensate each other: the observer's ignorance, measured byShannon's statistical entropy, and the disorder degree of the observedsystem, measured by the algorithmic entropy which is the smallestnumber of bits needed to register it in the memory. During themeasurement, the observer's ignorance is reduced, as a result of theincrease in bit numbers in its memory, remaining, however, con-stant the sum of these two magnitudes, that is, the physical entropy.

In this informational view of the universe, the observer remainsincluded as part of the system, and the quantum universe changesnot because it was direcdy influenced by the mind, but because theobserver's mind unleashed a transfer of information at a subatomiclevel. From this all results a law of conservation of information, as wellas or more fundamental than the law of conservation of energy.Stonier (1990) also identifies information with the structure andorganization of the universe, arguing that information is the funda-mental cosmical organizational principle with a "status" equal to matterand energy.

In our holoinformational view we propose that what self-organizessignificantly the cosmical evolution is the relationship between thephysical entropy and the universe's quantum-informational content,through a process in which the complexity using the pre-existinginformational content reaches each time higher organizational levelsand variety. The complexity in the universe grows gradually, fromgravity and nuclear powers, intensifies with die emergence of theself-organizing systems of the biosphere, and reaches an almost infi-nite antientropic state of complexity, variety and informationalcontent with the emergence of the noosphere.

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As we shall see soon ahead, there is a physical theory that hasimplicit in its conceptual framework, besides the mechanistic localinteractions, a non-local quantum informational unfolding, thatself-organizes matter, life and consciousness in a meaningful way.

Consciousness' conception as something essential, primary andirreducible is also found in the consciousness maps, obtainedfrom thousands of psychotherapeutics reports and consistent andconverging experiences, observed by several researchers of themedical and psychological areas (Jung, 1959; Grof, 1985; MoodyJr., 1976; Ring, 1980; Sabom, 1982; Kübler-Ross, 1983; Weiss,1996). These researches work with persons submitted to alteredstates of consciousness, through various methods, like hypnosis,relaxation, meditation, holotropic breathing, near-to-death experi-ences, etc. Surprisingly, such maps reveal "an ontology and a cos-mology in which consciousness cannot originate from, or beexplained in terms of any other thing. It is a primordial factor ofexistence and from it emerges everything that exist" (Grof, inCapra, 1988).

The replication of these numerous clinical observations byresearchers of notorious scientifical reputation are extremely impor-tant data, many times despised. It consistently proves an irre-ducibility of consciousness, being one of the few non-philosophical,non-religious and non-physical ways that allow us to investigate andunderstand directly, "in totum", the consciousness phenomenon, ina controlled scientifical way. Presently, there are available a series ofpsychotechnologies that are usually ignored and/or marginalized bythe academic community, which allow us to use the human mind asa reliable system of investigation and elucidation of the nature ofconsciousness, that are passibles of replication and corroboration.

NATURE, INFORMATION AND CONSCIOUSNESS

It follows that a holoinformational and self-organizing theory,capable of integrating consciousness to the non-local quantum-informational tessitura of the universe, can solve the question ofconsciousness nature. We understand like Weil (1993) that "intelli-gence's nature is nature's intelligence" and like Atkins (1994) that

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"consciousness is emergent information itself at the moment of itsgeneration, ongoing, self-organizing change in a self/world model".

Fortunately, there is a physical theory of the universe that inte-grates consciousness as an irreducible dimension of nature in its con-ceitual framework. Nevertheless, this theory has been inexplicablyconsidered in an insufficient way by the scientifical world, going unno-ticed its revolutionary implications about the consciousness-universeinteraction. It is the holomovement theory developed by the physicianDavid Böhm that mathematically demonstrates the existence of ahidden, implicit order in the universe, a primary reality. Matter, lifeand consciousness (the explicate order), would originate from thiscommon ground (the implicate order) by means of a continuousmovement of unfolding and enfolding of the cosmos called holo-movement.

Böhm (1987) states that "in the implicate order everything isfolded into everything. But it's important to note here that thewhole universe, is in principle enfolded into each part activelythrough the holomovement, as well as the parts. Now this meansthat the dynamic activity—internal and external—which is funda-mental for what each part is, is based on its enfoldment of all therest, including the whole universe. But of course, each part mayunfold others in different degrees and ways. That is, they are not allenfolded equally in each part. But the basic principle of enfoldmentin the whole, is not thereby denied. Therefore enfoldment is notmerely superficial or passive but, / emphasize again, that each part is ina fundamental sense internally related in its basic activities to the whole andto all the other parts. The mechanistic idea of external relation as fundamen-tal, is therefore denied. Of course such relationships are still considered to bereal, but of secondary significance. That is, we can get approximationsto a mechanistic behaviour out of this. That is to say, the order of theworld, as a structure of things that is basically external to each other,comes as secondary and emerges from the deeper implicate order".

So, we can say, we live in a quantum universe in which reality isessentially non-local, and the classical newtonian world with itsexternal local interactions, emerges as a special case from thisdeeper quantum order.

According to Böhm (1987), the analogy with the hologram inwhich each part of the system is an image of the total object, even if

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it is a static image that does not transmit the ever dynamic nature ofthe infinite unfolding and enfolding which at each moment createour universe, is a functional metaphor, because "the mathematicallaws of the quantum theory that apply to these waves, and thereforeto all matter, can be seen to describe just such a movement in whichthere is a continual enfoldment of the whole into each region, alongwith the unfoldment of each region into the whole again. Althoughthis may take many particular forms—some known, and others notyet known—this movement is universal as far as we know". Böhmcalls this universal movement of enfoldment and unfoldment "holo-movement". Böhm states that these laws are also capable of beingcompatible with the theory of relativity, and therefore the implicateorder is able to have support from the two most fundamental theo-ries of modern physics, the theory of relativity and the quantumtheory. In a posterior development, Böhm postulated the existenceof a superimplicit order, a still more subtle dimension of the uni-verse's organization. In this model, a quantum superinformationfield of the totality of the universe would organize the implicatefirst level in multiple wave-like structures which would unfold in theexplicate order. According to Böhm (Weber in Wilber, 1992), "thereis a physical model developed by De Broglie that proposes a new type offield, which activity is dependent upon the information content that is con-ducted to the whole experimental field, which, if extended to the quantummechanics, results in the superimplicit order"\

CONSCIOUSNESS AND NON-LOCALITY

Adding to its equations a Quantum Potential that satisfiesSchrödinger's equation, that depends on the form but not on theamplitude of the wave function, Böhm (1993) developed a model inwhich the quantum potential, carries "active information" that "guides"the particle along its way. The quantum potential has inedited char-acteristics unknown up to then, because differently from the othernature's forces, it is subtle in its form, and does not decay with thedistance. Such interpretation allows communication between this"pilot wave" and the particle, to be processed in a higher speedthan the light, unveiling the quantum paradox of non-locality, i.e., of

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the instantaneous causality, fundamental in the holoinformationalview of consciousness. Such paradox, initially proposed by Einstein,who did not believe in the possibility of a particle to travel morerapidly than light, is presently known as Effect Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen, and states that after an atom issues two particlesof opposite spins, if the spin of one of them is altered, even thoughthey're separated by a long distance (for example, one in the Earthand the other in Mars), the spin of the other changes immediately,revealing an informational non-local interaction between them, andthe existence of a subjacent indivisible cosmic unit.

Information then starts to be understood as nature's fundamental process,capable of act changing the structure of the universe since any elementaryparticle is united to the whole cosmos by means of a quantum potential.

In 1982, Alain Aspect and colleagues experimentally proved theexistence of these non-local actions, and more recently, in July 1997(cf. Science, vol. 277, p. 481) Nicolas Gisin and colleagues provedthe existence of this non-local quantical informational instanta-neous action in large scale.

For Böhm, differently from Bohr, the elementary particles do nothave dual nature wave/particle but are particles all the time, andnot only when observed. Actually, the particle originates from aglobal quantum field fluctuation, being its behaviour determined bythe quantum potential "that carries information about the environmentof the quantum particle and thus informs and effects its motion. Since theinformation in the potential is very detailed, the resulting trajectory is soextremely complex that it appears chaotic or indeterminist" (D. Peat, 1987).Any attempt of measuring particles properties, changes the quan-tum potential, destroying its information. Actually, according toBöhm, Bohr had interpreted the uncertainty principle as meaning"not that there is uncertainty, but that there is an inherent ambigu-ity" in a quantum system (cf. Horgan, 1996).

As John Bell (1987) observed, "the De Broglie-Bohm's ideaseems...so natural and simple, to resolve the wave-particle,dilemma in such a clear and ordinary way, that it is a great mys-tery ... that it was so generally ignored".

In the holographic theory, as no field organized the implicateorder, it was consequently linear and difficult to unfold. The impli-cate order is a wave function, and the superimplicate order or

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superior informational field, is a function of the wave function, i.e.,a superwave function that makes the implicate order, non-linearorganizing it in complex and relatively stable structures. Besidesthat, the holographic model as a way of organization of the impli-cate order was dependent upon the quantic informational potentialfield, that did not have capacity for self-organization and transmis-sion of the information, essential for the understanding of the gen-esis and development of matter, life and consciousness. Thesuperimplicate order fills this need, allowing the understanding ofconsciousness energy and matter as expression varieties of a sameholoinformational order. As a result consciousness would already havebeen present since the beginnings of creation in the various levels of nature'sunfolding and enfolding.

"Even a stone is in someway alive"(Böhm)

TOWARDS A HOLOINFORMATIONAL THEORY OFCONSCIOUSNESS

We saw that the quantum potential guides by means of active infor-mation the particle alongside its course. This active information thatorganizes the particle's world reveals that the whole nature is holo-informational, that is, organized in a meaningful way, and thismeaning process is crucial to understand the holoinformationalnature of consciousness and intelligence in the universe. Matter, lifeand consciousness are' meaningful activities, that is, intelligentquantical-informational processes, order that is transmitted throughthe cosmical evolution, originary from a generating holoinforma-tional field that is beyond our perception limits.

It follows that a universe structured as a quantum holoinforma-tional non-local field full of quantum potential with meaning activ-ity, is an intelligent (informed) universe functioning like a mind, asSir James Jeans already had observed. So, as consciousness hasalways been present in the various levels of nature's organization,matter, life and consciousness cannot be considered as separatedentities, capable of being analyzed under a fragmentary cartesian

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framework. Actually, it must be better considered as an indivisibleunity, with all its quantum informational processes interacting bymeans of non-local (holistic), internal, relationships, and simultane-ously by external, local (mechanistic) relations, generating trans-formation, learning and evolution capacities. Such view of aholoinformational "continuum", a fundamental generating orderwith a quantum-informational creative flow permeating the wholecosmos, permits to understand the basic nature of the universe as anintelligent self-organizing unbroken wholeness, i.e., a consciousness. A kindof universal consciousness unfolding in a "holographic" way in an infi-nite holoarchy.

The quantum-informational fluctuations generated from this uni-versal consciousness through the holomovement get self-organizedon the universe's basic informational levels: the nuclear code (cosmo-sphere), the genetic code (biosphere) and the neural code (noosphere).Such holoinformational codes, that is, this order that is transmittedin a meaningful and intelligent way through all levels of complexity ofthe universe, is the negentropic self-organization of the information.

In this holoinformational vision of consciousness the non-localquantum-informational flow in a continuous holomovement of expansionand enfoldment, between the brain and the superimplicate order, is the uni-versal consciousness self-organizing itself as human mind. The essentialcharacteristic of quantum non-locality of this dynamic holoinforma-tional interaction process makes the question about the phenome-nal quality (qualia) of conscious experience raised by Chalmers(1995), multicontextual, multidimensional, relative not only to theobserver, but also to the observation process and to what oneobserves, that is, to the holographic information of the whole inquestion. The level of this informational quality is capable ofincrease or reduce, in a phase transition, depending on the amountof information contained in the part of the universal hologram infocus and on the relations referential, whether external (mechanis-tic) or internal (holoinformational field).

The hard problem of consciousness proposed by Chalmers is onlydifficult and problematic in a mechanistic and reductionist carte-sian-newtonian context in which consciousness and universe areconsidered separated entities. In a holoinformational context ofinternal relations, indivisible and non-local, it ceases to exist, becausethe self-organizing sublevels of the universe that get structured in a

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mechanistic-local way are understood as secondary manifestationsof the harmonic, holistic and non-local nature of the universalholoinformational "continuum". Matter, life and consciousness, areexpressions of this holoinformational field, with fundamental non-local quantum relations, unfolding in myriads of possibilities.

Theoretically this sends us also to the question of the unconscious,which could be hypothetically understood this way, as a part of theuniversal holographic consciousness unfolded in the brain/mindthat gets "out of focus", gets "obscured", when it self-organizes ashuman consciousness, as in a hologram, in which the part containsthe whole in a less clear way. The holoinformational consciousnesswhen structured (embodied) in the human brain, reduces the qual-ity (qualia) of the perception of the unity/totality (holos) of nature,making these aspects remain usually unconscious, restricting thebeing's consciential field, and limiting it mentally and symbolically.This could explain the metaphor of Man's Fall found with severalnuances in many spiritual traditions.

Matter, life and consciousness, will never be understood by meansof a fragmented and reductionist emergentism view that only con-siders the external and mechanistics relations. This is a perceptionerror, already pointed out by the oriental traditions, thousands ofyears ago, under the name of "maya". As symbolical beings we canbetter understand this process going through the flower and fruit'smetaphor. We can say the fruit comes from the flower. However, thefruit is already implicit in the seed, making it impossible for us tostate that it only and essentially comes from the flower. This wouldbe a reductionism, a perceptive fragmentation of reality. Actually,not even the seed originates the fruit. The fruit comes from anindivisible totality, clearly intelligent and holo-related: sun, rain,earth, air, wind, cosmic rays, seasons, weather, microorganisms,insects, birds, seed, sap, steam, leaves... "ad infinitum", in an irré-ductible holoinformational order.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE HUMAN MIND

The cybernetical networks of cyclical hierarchical relations throughwhich we try to characterize life and consciousness, interrelate them-selves in a multilevel dynamic of "hypercydes" (Eigen and Schuster,

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1979), organizing in "self-cathalitic" cycles (Prigogine, 1979;Kauffman, 1995) in the "edge of chaos" (Lewin, 1992). Self-cathaliticcycles can organize in higher levels, by means of cathalitical hyper-cycles (e.g. a virus) capable of evolving to more complex and moreefficient structures, until the "emergence of sets, of sets of... of setsof neurons" (Alwin Scott, 1995). In this way, the network generates"creative loops" (Erich Harth, 1993) and "hyperstructures" (NilsBaas, 1995) integrating themselves in systems with patterns ofconnectivity distributed and parallels, as the "Global Workspace" ofNewman and Baars (1993) and the "Extended Reticular-TalamicActivation System"—ERTAS of James Newman (1997).

Dynamic non-linear systems like the human brain, with these"neural correlates" of consciousness are generated not only by suchcomplexifications of matter's mechanistic external relations, butas we already saw, also as a prime reason by a harmonic unfoldingof an indivisible universal consciousness field. This holographicintelligent self-organizing field, self-sufficient and self-referred thatcontinuously creates (unfolds) and recreates (replies) itself, goes onexperiencing continuously new possibilities of existence and non-existence, in an eternal and ever new unfolding-enfolding cycle.The Prigogine-Geheniau et al. "self-consistent non-big bang cos-mology" describes the main features of this multi-cyclic learningscenario in which the cosmic evolution is the result of an interactionbetween the quantum vacuum and the particles of matter that aresynthesized in it. Laszlo (1993) adds to this scenario "the postulateaccording to which the quantum vacuum is the fifth universal fieldinteracting with matter" stating that "the field acts as a holographicmedium, registering and conserving the scalar wave-transform ofthe 3n-dimensional configuration spaces assumed by matter inspace" (p. 204).

This universal fifth field is not inferred from space-time interac-tions like gravitational, electromagnetic, the strong and weaknuclear forces. In this new type of field space and time becomeimplicate, enfolded, as described mathematically by Böhm. Thefifth field is spectrally, holographically organized, and is made ofthe energy present in the interference patterns of the waveforms.The transformations from space-time order to this spectrum dimen-sion are described by holographic mathematical formulations. This

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type of formulation was first described by Leibniz who created theconception of monads. Dennis Gabor in our century described themathematical principles of holography and defined a quantum ofinformation he named logon, a channel which can carry a unity of com-munication with the least amount of uncertainty.

Pribram in his holonomic brain theory proposes that the wholequantum-informational holographic process interconnecting thebrain and the cosmos that occurs on a subatomic level, simultane-ously interacts with a holographic process of information treatment,the multiplex neural hologram distributed by the whole brain's cortex,dependent upon the so-called neurons of local circuit that do notshow long fibers and do not transmit the common nervous impulses."They are neurons that work in ondulatory way, and are overallresponsible for the horizontal connections of the neural tissue's lay-ers, connections in which holographicoides interference patternscan be built" (Pribram, 1980). He describes a "neural wave equation"(1991) resulting from the workings of the brain's neural networks,similar to the wave equation of the quantic theory.

Pribram (1991) has demonstrated that hyperstimulation of fronto-limbic forebrain allows primates including humans to operate ina holistic, holographic-like mode. The electric excitation of thesebrain areas relaxes the Gaussian constraints, as Laszlo put it. "Whileduring ordinary levels of excitation of the frontolimbic system signalprocessing creates the usual narrative consciousness, when the exci-tation of this system exceeds a certain threshold, conscious experi-ence is dominated by unconstrained holographic processes. Theresult is timeless, spaceless, causeless, 'oceanic' sensation. Pribramfound that in these states the nervous system becomes, as he said,'attuned to the holographic aspects of—the holograph-like orderin—the universe' (Laszlo, p. 179, 1993).

We have in the brain a more subtle and less known mind/bodyrelation than the neurophysiological maps represented by the cele-brated Penfield homuncule. The homuncule reveals only the spacialrelations between the surface of the body and the brain's cortex.Actually, the receptor field of the cortical neurons reacts selectivelyto multiples sensorial modes making the harmony curves of adja-cent receptors fields to mix as in a piano. In this way the harmonyfield of the cortex originates a resonance as a string instrument.

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The mathematical formulations that describe the resulting har-mony curve are the Fourier transformations that Gabor applied inthe creation of the hologram enriching these transformations witha model that can be reconstructed by the application of the inverseprocess. That holographic organization is what Böhm calls impli-cate order, a model that includes space and time in its structure asan enfolded dimension. Functioning in this holograph mode ourbrain "mathematically builds the objective reality" interpreting fre-quencies originally from another dimension, from a fundamentalorder, a holoinformational field located beyond time and space.

As the brain has the capacity of function in the holographic non-local mode as in the space-temporal local mode, we think that weare dealing here with Bohr's concept of complementarity in thequantum functioning of the central nervous system.

The holonomic brain theory of Pribram, and the holographicquantum theory of Böhm, added with Laszlo's fifth field contribu-tion quoted above, shows us that we are part of something much greaterand vast than our individual mind. Our mind is a subsystem of a uni-versal hologram, accessing and interpreting this holographic uni-verse. We are interactive résonants and harmonics systems with thisunbroken self-organizing wholeness. We are this holoinformational fieldof consciousness, and not observers external to it. The external observer'sperspective made us lose the sense and the feeling of unity orsupreme identity, generating the immense difficulties we have inunderstanding that we are one with the whole and not part of it.

"We did not come to this world: we came from it, like the leaves of a tree. Likethe ocean produces waves, the universe produces people. Each individual is anexpression of the whole kingdom of nature, a single action of the total universe.Rarely this is, if at any time it is at all, felt by the majority of the individuals".

Allan Watts

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Besides outlining the fundamentals of a non-local, self-organizingand holoinformational conception of consciousness, this approachalso gives the directions for understanding information as the uni-fying principle, capable of connecting consciousness to the universe

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and to the totality of space and time. It also allows a better under-standing of phenomena and theories related to consciousness whichup to now we could not explain or understand adequately, such assynchronicities, archetypes, collective unconscious (Jung), unconsciouscomplexes (Freud), near-death experiences (Moody Jr.), premoni-tory dreams, psychocinesia and telepathy (Rhine), morphogeneticfields and morphical resonance (Sheldrake), out-cerebral memory(Stevenson), memories of previous existences (Weiss), amongst others.

Brian D. Josephson, Physics Nobel Prize Winner, believes thatBohm's theory of the implicate order can even lead someday to theinclusion of God in the science network. We believe that the holoin-formational view of consciousness which has in Bohm's quantumtheory one of its very foundations, implies in the inclusion in sci-ence's framework of a Cosmical Consciousness. A Universal Intelli-gence that originates, permeates, maintains and transforms theuniverse, life and mind, through the holoinformational process.

finally, we would like to state that in the cartesian-newtonianreductionist paradigm, the question about consciousness nature isunanswerable. It can be useful to unfold new knowledges and gen-erate new questions and answers. However, the inherent fragmenta-tion to this perspective, obscures more and more our understandingof what reality and consciousness are.

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