4) Dream Telepathy: David Chalmers on "The Hard Problem of Consciousness"

The accepted framework for discussing consciousness and memory is what philosopher David J. Chalmers refers to as the "hard problem" of consciousness. Telling us the hard hard problem, "is the question of how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience" (Chalmers: 2, 1995).

But this investigation of what philosophers call the "hard problem" is limited, because it does not even consider aspects of consciousness beyond the limits of monistic materialism. Contrary to Chalmer's limited epistemology (or theory of knowing), if additional research can support what neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has referred to as his "somatic-marker hypothesis" (Damisio, 1994), this would allow us to pose questions like Ralph Metzner has been asking. Such as, are brain frequencies resonant images of chemical states of consciousness? Are brain frequencies capable of being mapped onto states of personality? That is, can particular brain patterns be associated with precise states of personality (like depression, ecstasy, and so on? (Metzner, 1996).

If so, "it might be possible to actually 'tune'into' or become resonant with specific states of consciousness (if we knew their frequency or resonance) a process that would be similar to switching channels on our television or radio" (Schroll: 122, 1997). Nevertheless, by 1990 I had more or less stopped working on this search for an operational mechanims to explain telepathy because I had realized the shadow--(in the sense of Jung) or evil sorcerer--consequences of its outcome. The dangers of the coming technology in the 21st century, which I shall take up in my next blog.

References

Chalmers, David J. (1995). "The Puzzle of Conscious Experience." Scientific American, December, 62-68.

Metzner, Ralph. (1996, February 23). "Sucht und Transzendenz. [Ecstasy and Transcendence]. Presented at the 2nd International Conference of the European College for the Study of Consciousness: "Weltan des Bewusstseins" ["Worlds of Consciousness,"], held at the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.

Schroll, Mark A. (1997). The Philosophical Legacy of David Bohm, its Relationship to Transpersonal Psychology and the Emergence of Ecopsychology: Searching for a Coherent, Co-Evolutionary, Sustainable Culture. Doctoral Dissertation. The Union Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio/Ann Arbor, MI: Univresity mirofilms.