The very study of the external world [leads] to the conclusion that the content of consciousness is an ultimate reality.
Eugene Wigner
So begins one of the chapters in The Grand Biocentric Design, which deals in a somewhat rigorous (without the attendant equations) treatment of various quantum mechanical concepts like entanglement, locality, many-worlds interpretation, superposition, indeterminacy, etc. that reads very easily to the average reader and how it relates to a conscious observer being necessary for things (meaning reality) to work.
After that comes discussions on consciousness, qualia, and the subjective experience of awareness (of both philosophical and neurophysiological bents). They try to explain scientifically how various quantum mechanical processes occurring in brain cells lead to a unified conscious subjective experience without shying away from admitting when something is unknown.
Next comes an explanation of causation and free will (with Libet’s experiments as an example) using biocentrism to unveil specific insights. Other topics discussed in the light of quantum mechanics are the arrow of time, dreams & multidimensional reality, animal consciousness, death, immortality, quantum suicide, etc.
The authors’ exposition can be thus summarized: using fully realized and verifiable scientific hypotheses and experiments to bring together various disparate concepts in proving to us what the age-old sages and mystics from time immemorial have espoused and shouted from the tops of mountains, burning bushes, etc. (most especially the Hermetic and Hindu philosophies), that consciousness is the only absolute and underlying reality in this and any other universe(s) and not only that but it brings about said reality itself.
In other words, “life creates reality,…The “universe” is simply the complete spatiotemporal logic of the self.“
The Grand Biocentric Design is a great read, especially for those not well-read in the scientific concepts the authors discussed to arrive at their conclusion. The book is highly recommended for the curious and open-minded.
The universe is the externalization of the soul. Wherever the life is, that bursts into appearance around it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
