Consciousness and Energy: Insights on the Nature of Reality

Science has arrived at its first conclusion and results that are, at least qualitatively, indubitable. Matter is a form of energy. All that we call "objective reality," which would be more appropriate to define as "concrete reality," is composed of atomic matter that, ultimately, consists of vortices of radiant energy circumscribed in stable form and which we can in a certain sense think of as "stationary light" in an adequate geometric space. These subatomic vortices and energy centers are also force centers that radiate their qualities, giving rise to the substrate of phenomenal reality.

Ultimately, the phenomenal world that we experience daily and that we are accustomed to conceive in its multisensory fullness of tastes, smells, flavors, sounds, and colors is a phenomenon that exists only in the human mind and consciousness. The Universe lived by Man is a mental Universe - that is, one that exists in the mind of Man. Consequently, the philosophical hope for an "objective reality" shared collectively by all humans is equivalent to the hope and faith in the existence of a collective mind and consciousness shared by all humans. From this simple reflection, expressed in a few lines, arises the need for a panpsychic hypothesis as a philosophical and scientific, physical and metaphysical hypothesis.

Light and Consciousness

Revelation and metaphysical inquiry of thousands of years have led to the understanding that, beyond the illusion of senses and perceptions, of feelings and convictions, there is one unique experienceable reality that is Light-consciousness, of a splendid, lightning, and adamantine luminosity, living and vivifying, without shadow or boundaries. This conclusion is reached by the great religions and numerous philosophical and spiritual movements that have crossed centuries and continents. "For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light." (Psalm 36:9)

If the investigation of the external world could be partially precluded to those who did not have the technological instruments of the contemporary era, interior investigation has always been available to the human spirit. It would therefore be superficial and reckless to discard the mystical and spiritual inquiry of great thinkers and great religions of the past, especially when this has proven incredibly convergent.

"In the beginning was the Word [...] What was born in Him was Life and Life was the Light of men" (John's Prologue). Sound-Life-Light are three terms to indicate the Power, Energy, and pure transcendent Consciousness that is the cause and foundation of human existence. The Evangelist affirms the existence of a transcendent and uncreated Light, "God is Light" (1 John 1:5), which is divine by its energy and not by its essence. At the same time, he affirms the existence of an immanent Light interior to human consciousness, the "true Light that enlightens every man" (John 1:9) that Christ reveals to be Himself saying "I am the Light of the world" (John 8:12).

With other words, it was Krishna himself who declared himself the source of Light in the hearts of men (Bhagavad Gita 13:18). In his "Universal form" Krishna-Christ appears as the blinding radiance of thousands and thousands of suns all together in the sky (Bhagavad Gita 11:12). Moreover, the light-consciousness equivalence was already present in the Upanishads in India, and subsequently Buddhism of the Great Vehicle will always insist on Light-Consciousness (prabhasvaram cittam).

We find the same doctrine in the Egyptian sanctuaries of Memphis where Ra, the Divine Word, diffuses its visible and invisible rays through the Spirit of the Sun. Light, radiation of the Sacred Fire, was venerated in Zoroastrianism as the aura of the divinity Ahura-Mazda, and even the Quran, thousands of years later, in the sura of "Light" describes the theophany saying "Light upon light is God." In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as well as in the Christian one, the Five Lights, also called the Five Wisdoms, are expressions of pure transcendent and then immanent Divine Consciousness.

Given these premises, it would not be difficult to multiply and expand the quotations that arise transversally in all religious and spiritual cultures regardless of geographical origin or reference epoch. However, the unequivocal datum, result of the metaphysical and spiritual inquiry of millions of individuals for thousands and thousands of years is always the same: Light is radiant energy originated from Consciousness. In a certain secondary sense, light and consciousness are identifiable with each other. The soul is light clothed with the Light of God.

Consciousness and Energy

From a purely physical-mathematical point of view, consciousness is associated with a current of information. The awareness of a reality corresponds to a form of knowledge and therefore to the reception of information. A well-known principle, formulated by Landauer to solve an eminently practical computer problem, but then applied theoretically to resolving Maxwell's apparent paradox, says that the creation and destruction of information requires a minimum amount of energy necessary for the creation of information and which is released in the process of its dispersion. This energy $\Delta E$, under ideal conditions, is equal to:

$$\Delta E = k T \ln(2)$$

where $k$ is Boltzmann's constant, $T$ is the temperature of the environment in which the information is created or dispersed.