The quest to understand consciousness—a phenomenon as enigmatic as it is central to our experience—has long baffled scientists and philosophers.
In recent years, a once-fringe philosophical idea has experienced a renaissance: panpsychism, a theory that proposes consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous aspect of all reality.
While it might sound like something out of a science fiction novel, panpsychism is increasingly being discussed in academic circles as a viable solution to the so-called “hard problem of consciousness.”
This renewed interest stems from developments in neuroscience, psychology, and even quantum mechanics, which continue to demonstrate that our current understanding of consciousness is far from complete.
What is Panpsychism?
Panpsychism, derived from the Greek words pan (all) and psyche (soul or mind), suggests that consciousness is not limited to humans or higher animals but is an essential feature of all matter.
From electrons to entire galaxies, under the theory of panpsychism, everything in the universe could possess some form of consciousness, albeit very rudimentary or different from human awareness.
A fitting metaphor for panpsychism is found in the immensely popular Star Wars franchise. Central to this fictional universe is the concept of the “Force,” a mystical energy generated by all living things that binds the cosmos together. This idea parallels the philosophical view that consciousness is a fundamental feature that pervades all matter throughout the universe.
Although panpsychism may seem radical or counterintuitive, the theory is not new. Its roots can be traced back to ancient philosophical traditions.
According to Aristotle, the pre-Socratic philosopher Thales believed that “everything is full of gods,” suggesting that consciousness might permeate all things. Likewise, the renowned ancient Greek philosopher Plato supported ideas akin to panpsychism in several of his works.
For example, in his 3rd-century dialogue Timaeus, Plato argues that the universe is a living creature endowed with a soul and reason and that a form of consciousness or soul exists in all its elements.
“When the Creator had framed the soul according to his will, he formed within her the corporeal universe, and brought the two together, and united them center to center,” Plato wrote in Timaeus. “The soul, interfused everywhere from the center to the circumference of heaven, of which also she is the external envelopment, herself turning in herself, began a divine beginning of never ceasing and rational life enduring throughout all time.”
Similarly, in some religious philosophies, such as certain strands of Hinduism and Buddhism, there is a long tradition of viewing consciousness as a fundamental aspect of reality, not confined to individual beings but rather as an intrinsic quality of the cosmos.
Panpsychism enjoyed intermittent popularity over the centuries, reaching its zenith in the 19th century when famous philosophers like William James and psychologists such as Gustav Fechner promoted panpsychism ideas that consciousness was a pervasive element of the universe.
Despite enjoying nearly 2,000 years of popularity, panpsychism fell out of favor in the 20th century as materialism— the view that all phenomena can be explained through physical processes—became the dominant scientific paradigm.
However, panpsychism has experienced a resurgence in recent years, driven by advancements in neuroscience, psychology, and quantum mechanics, as well as growing dissatisfaction with reductionist explanations of consciousness.
The Revival of Panpsychism
The resurgence of panpsychism is largely due to the growing dissatisfaction with materialist approaches to the mind.
The “hard problem of consciousness,” a term coined by philosopher David Chalmers, highlights the difficulty of explaining how subjective experiences (qualia) arise from physical processes in the brain.
At the material level, we understand that electrical impulses and chemical signals drive consciousness between neurons in the brain. However, science has yet to find a convincing explanation for how brain activity can give rise to conscious experience.
Moreover, scientists remain puzzled by how the same fundamental elements of the universe can form something as simple as a rock or as complex as the human brain.
Understanding what makes the human brain the most sophisticated object in the known universe continues to be one of humanity’s most challenging questions.
Dr. Philip Goff, a philosopher and professor at Durham University, has emerged as one of the leading contemporary advocates for panpsychism. He contends that the theory offers a promising solution to the profound mystery of how consciousness integrates into the fabric of the universe.
In Why? The Purpose of the Universe, Dr. Goff argues that the materialist approach has failed to account for consciousness. He suggests that we better integrate consciousness into our scientific worldview by treating it as a fundamental component of the universe, akin to space, time, or mass.
In his book, Dr. Goff also introduces the concept of “teleological cosmopsychism,” which posits that the universe itself is conscious and has a cosmic purpose: to create self-aware life as an expression of its own consciousness.
“The Universe being conscious is not as extravagant a hypothesis as you might think. Physics is just mathematical structure, and there must be something that underlies that structure, something that ‘breathes fire into the equations, as Stephen Hawking put it,” Dr. Goff explained in a 2023 interview with Big Think. “I argue that the hypothesis that it’s a conscious mind that ‘breathes fire into the equations’ is as parsimonious as any other proposal, and it has the advantage of explaining fine-tuning.”
“We need a hypothesis that accounts for both the goal-directedness evidenced in the fine-tuning of physics for life, but also the arbitrariness and gratuitous suffering we find in the world. Cosmopsychism sounds weird, but it accounts for the data.”
Dr. Goff is not alone in his support for panpsychism. The theory has garnered attention from several other prominent academics who see it as a viable framework for understanding consciousness.
Among them is Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. Brian Josephson, who has argued that quantum mechanics, which already challenges many of our intuitions about the physical world, might be more compatible with panpsychism than with traditional materialist views.
Despite winning the Nobel Prize for his work on quantum tunneling at only 22 years old, Dr. Josephson has often faced controversy for his research into the relationship between quantum mechanics and consciousness. Over the last 50 years, his research has frequently focused on quantum mechanics and parapsychological topics like clairvoyance, remote viewing, and psychokinesis.
In light of these criticisms, Dr. Josephson has maintained that topics like panpsychism or “paranormal phenomena” may simply represent not-yet-understood aspects of physics.
“Future science will consider quantum mechanics as the phenomenology of particular kinds of organized complex systems,” Dr. Josephson said in a 2002 interview. “Quantum entanglement would be one manifestation of such organization, paranormal phenomena another. As yet, our understanding of such matters is very qualitative, but application of the skills of the physicist to such situations can be expected to yield more precise theories in due course.”
In The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes, cognitive psychologist and UCLA professor Dr. Donald Hoffman offers an intricate variation of panpsychism and a solution to the “hard problem of consciousness.”
By combining two theories, the “multimodal user interface” theory of perception and “conscious realism,” Dr. Hoffman proposes that rather than being created by the brain, a universal consciousness creates brain activity and is responsible for all matter in the physical world.
Dr. Hoffman’s theory deviates from traditional panpsychism in that it doesn’t propose that all objects possess consciousness. Instead, physical objects are manifested by conscious agents.
“One can only imagine the initial reactions, centuries ago, to the early pronouncements that the earth is not flat and the stars are not near, that the earth is not the center of the universe and the sun does not revolve around the earth,” Dr. Hoffman wrote in a 2017 paper published in Activitas Nervosa Superior. “The reaction was widespread incredulity. We now know that these sane people were simply suffering from the reification fallacy, mistaking aspects of the way things looked to them as true depictions of the objective world.”
“The assumption of physicalism, namely that the objective world consists of atoms, rocks, brains, and stars, is, similarly, simply the consequence of the reification fallacy. But this physicalist assumption is very dear to us. We believe it from childhood without formal instruction.”
Arguments For and Against Panpsychism
Proponents of panpsychism argue that the theory elegantly sidesteps many of the problems faced by materialist accounts of consciousness. If consciousness is a fundamental aspect of matter, then the gap between the physical and the mental doesn’t exist because consciousness is already built into the fabric of reality.
Moreover, panpsychism offers a more inclusive view of nature that resonates with the idea of a connected and interdependent universe. This holistic perspective is particularly appealing in an age where the reductionist approaches of the past are increasingly seen as inadequate for explaining complex phenomena.
However, panpsychism is not without its critics. One of the main objections is that it defies common sense. The idea that inanimate objects like rocks or electrons could possess any form of consciousness strikes many as absurd.
Critics argue that panpsychism dilutes the concept of consciousness to the point where it loses its meaning. If everything is conscious, then what does it mean to be conscious?
Another challenge for panpsychism is its testability. Unlike physical theories that can be tested through experiments and observations, panpsychism doesn’t lend itself easily to empirical investigation.
This has led some to dismiss it as a speculative or even pseudoscientific theory. However, defenders of panpsychism argue that the theory is no less testable than many of the foundational assumptions of physicalism.
Can a conscious universe Be Tested?
The question of whether panpsychism can be empirically tested is significant. While the theory offers a compelling philosophical framework, its scientific validation remains a challenge. Some researchers are exploring ways to test panpsychism ideas indirectly, such as through experiments in quantum mechanics and neuroscience.
One promising avenue is the study of consciousness in non-human animals. If consciousness is a fundamental property of matter, we might expect to find evidence in simpler organisms or even artificial systems.
Researchers have already made strides in understanding the neural correlates of consciousness in animals. Earlier this year, many scientists, philosophers, and scholars signed a “declaration” saying that current research suggests there is a “realistic possibility” that a number of animals experience consciousness.
“The empirical evidence indicates at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates (including reptiles, amphibians, and fishes) and many invertebrates (including, at minimum, cephalopod mollusks, decapod crustaceans, and insects),” the declaration reads.
As of August 2024, 287 experts from various fields had signed the declaration, suggesting a growing consensus on the possibility of consciousness in a wide range of animals.
Additional research has suggested that plants may possess a form of consciousness. For example, a 2020 study found that potted French bean plants would adjust their growth to use objects in their environment.
“It is one thing to react to a stimulus, such as light. It is another thing to perceive an object,” one of the study’s authors, Dr Vicente Raja, told the BBC. “If the movement of plants is controlled and affected by objects in their vicinity, then we are talking about more complex behaviors, not reactions, and we should be able to identify similar cognitive signatures to those we observe in humans and some animals.”
Quantum mechanics also offers potential insights. Some interpretations of quantum theory, such as the observer effect, suggest that consciousness might play a fundamental role in the behavior of physical systems.
In recent years, intense debate has focused on whether artificial intelligence (AI) could exhibit even the most rudimentary forms of awareness. As AI technology continues to evolve, it could challenge our traditional notions of what constitutes consciousness and potentially make the theory of panpsychism seem far less radical.
Moreover, recent empirical studies have begun approaching consciousness from a panpsychist perspective, even indirectly.
For instance, research published in Acta Analytica discusses different arguments for panpsychism, such as the “intrinsic nature” argument, which posits that the qualities we experience subjectively might be intrinsic to the physical world.
Another study, set to be published in the October 2024 issue of Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews by Professor of Physics at University College London Dr. Sergey Yurchenko, proposes that the “uncomfortable corollaries” of dualism and panpsychism can be remedied by the evolutionary theory of life, called “bioprotopsychism.”
“Bioprotopsychism provides a biologically inspired basis for a minimalist approach to consciousness via the triad’ chemotaxis-efference copy mechanism-counterfactual active inference’ by associating the stream of weakly emergent conscious states with an amount of information (best guesses) of the brain, engaged in unconscious predictive processing,” Dr. Yurchenko wrote in a pre-print preview of his paper.
The theory of panpsychism remains highly controversial. However, research in the last few years reveals a notable trend of panpsychist ideas being integrated into mainstream science. This revival marks a significant shift in how we think about consciousness and its place in the universe.
While panpsychism faces significant challenges regarding empirical validation and conceptual clarity, it also offers a fresh perspective on one of the oldest and most profound questions in philosophy.
As our understanding of the brain, consciousness, and the cosmos continues to evolve, panpsychism might provide the conceptual tools to bridge the physical and mental gap.
Regardless of whether panpsychism eventually prevails, the fact that the theory has faced a renaissance underscores the enduring mystery of consciousness and the human quest to understand our place in the universe.
Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan. Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com