{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Is the Universe a Conscious Mind? Exploring Superconsciousness' data-url='/boclips/videos/689566f6f85aec7d1d07d050' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/689566f6f85aec7d1d07d050' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nIs the Universe a Conscious Mind? Exploring Superconsciousness\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eWhat if the universe is self-aware?  Is there a cosmic superconsciousness? Could it be a giant brain?  Is the universe a conscious mind? There is a short but lazy answer, and there is longer but more intriguing answer.  The lazy answer...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eWhat if the universe is self-aware?  Is there a cosmic superconsciousness? Could it be a giant brain?  Is the universe a conscious mind? There is a short but lazy answer, and there is longer but more intriguing answer.  The lazy answer is:  We humans are made of pieces of the universe. We are conscious, so the universe is conscious through us.  \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThis is the standard short answer to the question of a conscious universe. But could the universe have a consciousness separate from us or any other conscious being?  Could it be a kind of super consciousness?  This concept has a name.  It is called panpsychism.   \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe concept of Panpsychism has been around for thousands of years. It is an essential aspect of many religions, from the Old Testament's omnipresent God to the Brahman of Hinduism and Buddhism. In fact, in Buddhism, nothing exists except consciousness.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eTheoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, the man who conceived of the Dyson sphere, embraced panpsychism and said that the universe not only operates through our consciousness but a consciousness of its own.  \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eCould this be true?  \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eFirst we have to establish what consciousness is. Neuroscientist and psychiatrist Giulio Tononi, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has proposed a way to measure how conscious a thing is. He proposes that consciousness has to do with how much control a being has over itself or things around it. He even invented a measurement unit called phi to label how conscious something is.\u003cbr/\u003e#superconsciousness\u003cbr/\u003eThis theory separates intelligence from consciousness, which are two different things.  Super computers for example, which are highly intelligent, can routinely out-think humans and beat them at chess and Jeopardy, but they don’t have a will of their own.  The programmer controls it. So intelligence and consciousness are two different things.  \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBased on this line of thinking we can say that a tree is more conscious than a rock. A worm is more conscious than a tree.  A cat is more conscious than a worm. A human is more conscious than a cat. And the ultimate consciousness could be the universe itself.  \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eIf this is the way consciousness works, then the complexity of an organism’s brain has something to do with its level of consciousness.  And scientists do have good evidence that the seat consciousness resides in brains. If we are more conscious than all the other animals, as we appear to be, it surely is no coincidence that we also have the most complex brain.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eConsciousness seems to be an emergent property of highly interconnected and communicating systems like the brain which is an interconnected network of neurons that can fire chemical and electronic signals. Consciousness is not a property of individual neurons but results from the interactions of many neurons. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eAnd what are neurons? They are triggered by certain stimuli and can send signals to each other.  And large complex networks of these neurons seem to emerge into consciousness.  The more complex the network, the more conscious something appears to be.  \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eSo is there some kind of network such that a “communication” of sorts might be happening at the quantum level between entangled pairs of particles. There is a humongous network of galaxies in the universe, many hundreds of billions of galaxies.  This is not dissimilar from the network of the billions of interconnected neurons in our brain.  The difference appears to be that each of our brain cells can communicate or at least fire a signal to other brain cells.  Do the galaxies have such a communication mechanism between them? \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eIt doesn’t appear so, but you have to remember that at the center of almost all galaxies, there is a black hole.  It’s like the nucleus of a brain cell.  What’s happening inside a black hole?  We have no idea…because all our physics equations break down at the event horizon of a black hole – this is the point where time and space cease to exist and Einstein’s equations don’t work.  \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e#superconsciousness\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eIs it possible that something is happening here that we just don’t know about? The black hole could only be analogous to a brain cell if somehow they were connected to each other and could send signals to each other.  \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eIf that was the case, a vast network of communicating trillion black holes would act like a gigantic information processor, and indeed be intelligent and possibly conscious. This would truly be a kind of super consciousness that could theoretically control not only our universe, but perhaps time and space itself.  \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBut I think I’m getting way too excited about a completely speculative possibility.  Practically, we have to ask, does the universe need to be conscious in order to arrive at its present state. In other words, does what we see around us need a consciousness to direct the events that lead up to what we observe, that lead to life?  Would what we see right now be any different if the universe was utterly without consciousness?  See the answer in the video above.\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-report'\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-labelledby='resource-details-heading' class='rp-info-section'\u003e\n\u003ch2 class='title' id='resource-details-heading'\u003eResource Details\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-resource-details clearfix'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='detail'\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eCurator Rating\u003c/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e\u003cspan class=\"star-rating\" aria-label=\"4.0 out of 5 stars\" role=\"img\"\u003e\u003ci class=\"fa-solid fa-star text-action\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003ci class=\"fa-solid 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class='title' id='additional-tags-heading'\u003eAdditional Tags\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='clearfix'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='details-list keyterms' data-identifier='Boclips::VideoDecorator689566f6f85aec7d1d07d050' data-type='keyterms'\u003eis the universe conscious, consciousness, superconsciousness, conscious universe, is the universe god, consciousness after death, panpsychism, pansychism, is the universe self-aware, self aware, super consciousness, connect to the universe, simulation theory, super consciousness mind, is the universe a conscious mind, arvin ash, arvin ash consciousness, super consciousness meditation, superconscious mind, the universe is not conscious, consciousness explained, brain cell, send signals, black hole, big bang, fine tuning, network, brain, intelligent, direct, present, conscious\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='keyterms-toggle-buttons' data-identifier='Boclips::VideoDecorator689566f6f85aec7d1d07d050'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' class='more btn-link' type='button'\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eShow More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fa-solid fa-caret-down ml5'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='true' class='less btn-link' style='display: none;' type='button'\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eShow Less\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fa-solid fa-caret-up ml5'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-labelledby='classroom-considerations-heading' class='rp-info-section'\u003e\n\u003ch2 class='title' id='classroom-considerations-heading'\u003eClassroom Considerations\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='classroom-considerations'\u003e\u003cdiv class='fai fa-solid fa-bell'\u003e\u003c/div\u003eBest For: Explaining a topic\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class='classroom-considerations'\u003e\u003cdiv class='fai fa-solid fa-bell'\u003e\u003c/div\u003eVideo is ad-free\u003c/div\u003e 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Exploring Superconsciousness\" onError=\"handleImageNotLoadedError(this)\" data-default-image=\"https://static.lp.lexp.cloud/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/missing.png\" data-src=\"https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/p/1776261/thumbnail/entry_id/1_w4eu8w36/width/250\" width=\"315\" height=\"220\" src=\"data:image/png;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAD/ACwAAAAAAQABAAACADs\" /\u003e\n\u003cspan aria-hidden='true' class='flex justify-center items-center bg-white rounded-full w-16 h-16 absolute top-1/2 left-1/2 -mt-8 -ml-8 cursor-pointer z-0 border-2 border-primary drop-shadow-md lp-boclips-thumbnail-playBtn'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fa-solid fa-play text-primary text-3xl ml-1 drop-shadow-xl'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n"}