Brain, mind, and consciousness have long been subjects of debate in the scientific world. A group of scientists from the University of Arizona, spanning the fields of biology, neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and psychiatry, published the Post-Materialist Science Manifesto, advocating for scientific minds to move beyond materialism and for the mind to be better understood as an important part of the universe. Prof. Dr. Yunus Çengel, a faculty member at the University of Nevada, USA, evaluating the Post-Materialist Science Manifesto in the context of brain, mind, and consciousness, stated that there is a need for a broader ontology that also encompasses non-material existence. Çengel used the expressions, 'While we live in a non-physical reality with all our emotions and thoughts, to disregard the non-physical due to our ideological obsessions and prejudices is not compatible with a rational approach.'
Prof. Dr. Yunus Çengel, a member of the Üsküdar Üniversitesi Board of Trustees and also a faculty member in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Nevada, USA, evaluated the Post-Materialist Science Manifesto by a group of scientists on the axis of brain, mind, and consciousness.
Çengel made the following evaluations:
Awareness of existence is not possible without consciousness…
“Knowing and consciousness are closely related concepts, as both are about ‘awareness’. Consciousness is a mental phenomenon directed towards something with the intention of realizing its existence or knowing its qualities. We are even conscious of our consciousness because consciousness includes itself within its scope. As long as we are not aware or conscious of the act of knowing, we cannot claim to have knowledge about something. Without consciousness, awareness of existence and speaking of an entity would not be possible. Therefore, it can be said that consciousness is an indicator of the existence of both concrete and abstract things. Everyone constructs an 'ego'-centric virtual world consisting of representative entities created by consciousness and lives in that private world.”
Knowing and consciousness are directly related…
Meaning can only be attributed to perceived things through consciousness. Therefore, the mysterious consciousness, which is the feeling of awareness of one's inner world, lies at the center of the phenomenon of 'knowing'. In other words, the phenomenon of 'knowing' is directly related to consciousness. In this case, unconscious entities like computers, smartphones, and robots cannot be said to know anything, because, unlike humans, they are not aware of information and have no sense of awareness.
Will artificial intelligence surpass human intelligence?
The same can be said for artificial intelligence, which consists of 'information processing' in microprocessors and software. The power of today's artificial intelligence is estimated to be at the intelligence level of a 4-year-old child. However, even in the most advanced AI devices like robots and self-driving vehicles, there is no trace of subjective qualities such as consciousness, emotions, and free will, which are present in a child. For this reason, many leading scientists and engineers do not agree with the idea of singularity, which suggests that artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence and take over the world at some point in the future (around 2040).
The feeling of knowing applies to sentient beings…
Consciousness refers to present awareness and encompasses physical phenomena experienced through the five senses at that moment, mental phenomena arising through thought, and emotions known through feeling. Emotions, thoughts, memories, and perceptions from the external world are included in this scope. The feeling of knowing applies only to 'sentient' beings such as humans and higher-level animals. A being's learning capacity is proportional to its level of consciousness. Plants, because they lack consciousness, do not possess knowledge. Even if leaves resemble an ultramodern chemical factory converting solar energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis… Knowledge related to photosynthesis exists in the minds of conscious beings like humans.
Despite all of us having an innate intuition and a shared general understanding of consciousness, it is difficult to give a clear definition to this fascinating yet elusive phenomenon. Consciousness is a mental state and quality closely related to awareness, experience, feeling, introspection, knowing, attentiveness, vitality, responsiveness, thinking, comprehension, volition, intention, perception, and recognition of oneself and others. In short, consciousness is the ability to be aware of one's own existence and the external world, and to experience, feel, perceive, and know. A conscious being has a sense of awareness of its own existence, its inner world, and the external world, along with a sense of self. What we are aware of at a given moment comprises our realm of consciousness: (1) things related to the physical realm that we perceive with our five senses such as sight, hearing, touch, taste, pleasure, pain, and even the feeling of tickling, and (2) things related to the non-physical realm such as mind (thoughts, ideas, knowledge, imagination, memory), heart (emotions, inspirations, beliefs, instincts), and desires (to be successful, to be rich, to live eternally). For example, wanting to drink water is a natural consequence of becoming conscious of our desire to drink water.
Mental disability is a partial absence of intelligence and consciousness…
In contrast, an unconscious person, such as a fictional zombie or a sleepwalker, despite being physiologically fully functional and exhibiting the same behavior as a conscious person, has no awareness of their own self, emotions, and actions. In other words, there is no one 'knowing' and 'living' there. That's why, during a conversation, when we notice the listener drifting off and their attention shifting away from us, it's common to ask, 'Hello, are you there?' Meaning, the lights are on, but nobody's home. Furthermore, a person who faints is said to be unconscious because they are no longer aware of themselves and what is happening around them. The same can be said for people in deep sleep or under anesthesia, unless the dreams they see and remember upon waking are counted. Mental disability (and mental illnesses like Alzheimer's), depending on the level of disability, is a partial absence of intelligence and consciousness.
Does consciousness have a level?
Newborns have very limited consciousness and offer an opportunity to observe the development of full consciousness throughout their developmental years. A person can intentionally limit the scope of their consciousness by directing their attention to a specific area and focusing on a particular thing or things, including subjective matters. The level of consciousness varies significantly depending on the level of mental vitality. For example, a tired and sleepy person will have a low level of awareness of what is happening around them and, consequently, a low level of consciousness.
The apparent simplicity and universal familiarity of consciousness do not diminish its mystery and ambiguity. Over the last half-century, a significant number of interdisciplinary studies on consciousness have been conducted by philosophers, neurologists, and psychologists. However, these investigations into the origin and nature of consciousness, rather than providing satisfactory answers, have led to more perplexing questions about consciousness. Some of the frequently asked questions are:
Questions science seeks to answer…
- Does consciousness exist?
- Is consciousness an extension of the physical body, or is it part of a separate non-physical entity like the soul?
- What is the source of consciousness?
- Is consciousness a natural consequence of neuronal activity in the brain?
- What are the things categorized as consciousness, and what are its fundamental characteristics?
- What is the essence and nature of what is called awareness?
- What is that 'thing' that is aware of our entire body and the external world around it?
- Where does it reside?
- What are the relationships between brain, life, mind, and consciousness?
- Can mind emerge from the assembly of mindless matter?
- Can consciousness arise from unconscious matter?
- Can electrical signals in the brain produce a mind or a consciousness aura, including self-awareness, just as an electric current passing through a wire generates a magnetic field around it?
- If it can, then why are mind and consciousness never measurable, whereas electric current and magnetic fields can be felt and precisely measured with instruments?
- Or are mind and consciousness independent and external entities that permeate the entire structure of the brain?
- Why does everyone perceive themselves as 'I'? Where does this sense of 'self' come from?
- How can we experience non-physical things like imagination and dreams?
- Despite perception centers being spread throughout the brain and there being no 'center' in the brain, how is it that consciousness feels unified, whole, indivisible, and integrated?
- Is there a non-physical 'self' related to the brain that provides unity and integrity in a person?
A living being without consciousness only lives in the moment…
A living being without consciousness only lives in the moment. Therefore, it has a very narrow and limited field of observation and a restricted life experience. However, a conscious being, like a healthy and awake human, lives in a very broad segment of life, extending to the past by constantly accessing the rich accumulation of experiences in their memory; and to the future by constantly accessing plans, hopes, and desires in the realm of imagination. This situation is like a person standing in a small room equipped with mirrors and feeling as if they are in an infinitely large room because many reflections in the mirrors extend to infinity in all directions.
Consciousness is like a magical electrical switch…
At night, a person with a lit candle in hand illuminates only their immediate surroundings, while a person with access to a city's street light switch can turn night into day throughout the city and bring vitality to the entire city by flipping a switch. Similarly, consciousness, when activated, is like a magical electrical switch that revitalizes the past and illuminates the future, giving virtual reality and visibility to both the past and the future. Therefore, a conscious being, while physically existing in the present moment and living it, also imaginatively experiences the past and the future with all their pleasures and pains. Due to this comprehensive life experience, it can be said that one hour of conscious life is worth years of unconscious life – like the lives of zombies or people in a coma. Moreover, due to the depth, richness, and intensity of experienced moments, one hour of human life can be said to be worth a lifetime of animal life. In Abraham Lincoln's words, 'In the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years.'
The brain contains electrically charged particles called ions, and each electrically charged particle creates an electric field around it, whose strength changes with distance from the charge. A moving charged particle, and thus a moving electric field, creates a magnetic field in its immediate vicinity. Electric and magnetic fields, like mind and consciousness, are not material things and are therefore invisible. This similarity might lead to the idea that mind and consciousness could be fields produced by electrical activity in the brain. However, there are fundamental differences here, and the production of electric and magnetic fields by electric current should not be confused with the manifestation of life, mind, and consciousness. This is because electric and magnetic fields, although non-material, are physical; their existence can be confirmed with measuring devices, and their strengths can be easily measured. Life, mind, and consciousness, on the other hand, are not physical entities and are therefore outside the scope of natural sciences. For this reason, the existence of non-physical things like life, mind, and consciousness cannot be directly confirmed with measuring devices, nor can their strengths be measured. Consequently, the analogy attempted between electric or magnetic fields and consciousness is not valid, because electric and magnetic fields are physical things while consciousness is non-physical.
The brain largely retains its mystery…
When it comes to the human brain, feelings of awe, astonishment, and perplexity prevail, alongside a sense of mental stagnation. Despite decades of neurological research by the best minds in the field and significant initiatives launched on brain research, such as the 'Decade of the Brain' in the 1990s and the 'BRAIN Initiative' in 2013, the brain, composed of billions of nerve cells called neurons, still largely retains its mystery. As humanity, we are not even close to understanding the mind-boggling mysteries associated with the brain, such as mind, intelligence, thought, consciousness, imagination, creativity, sensations, emotions, pain, pleasure, and motor skills, as well as the regulation of unconsciously performed bodily functions like digestion, heartbeat, and respiration.
Things the brain can never do…
Physiologically, the miraculous organ of the brain, with a fat content exceeding 60 percent, is the fattiest organ in the body. The building blocks of this fatty mass are the same as those of other organs. That is, the brain and all other organs are made up of the same atoms. But in terms of functionality, the brain is presented as an organ that knows, thinks, feels, is aware, and plans, coordinates, and controls all physical activity. These functions are things that a piece of flesh, containing aimless electrical signals, can never do.
What, or who, actually does the things attributed to the brain?
Moving electrically charged particles produce nothing but electric and magnetic fields and electromagnetic waves, which consist of these fields moving at the speed of light. The claim that electrical activity in the brain creates a ghost-like subjective resilient entity called the mind, possessing knowledge, intelligence, and will, and that this intelligent, knowledgeable, and powerful ghost coordinates and manages the body's internal workings as well as its external movements, is a complete fantasy and lacks scientific basis. What underlies this forced claim is the belief in and adherence to materialist thought, and consequently the necessity to reduce everything to matter (the brain in the case of mind, consciousness, will, feeling). This situation is no different from that of prejudiced individuals who refuse to attribute television reality to anything other than the television set itself (e.g., television broadcasts arriving via external electromagnetic waves) and cite the loss of an image when the television set breaks down as proof. Television sets do not produce television programs; they merely display them on their screens. Nothing containing electrical activity – including the batteries and microprocessors of smartphones – has ever produced even the slightest indication of subjective qualities such as mind, consciousness, sensation, imagination, and will, nor does it seem possible to produce them. This is precisely why the brain has always been associated with a deep mystery, and it has been stated that how the brain does what it is thought to do is mind-boggling. For instance, the continuous transformation of electrical signals coming into the dark brain via the eye into bright, three-dimensional images out of nowhere (we see that virtual image formed in the mind, not the external world itself), and the absence of any physical mechanism around, is quite thought-provoking. Smells are produced by signals from the nose, tastes by signals from the mouth, and sounds by signals from the ear, all of which are non-physical, i.e., virtual. While we live in a non-physical reality with all our emotions and thoughts, to disregard the non-physical due to our ideological obsessions and prejudices is not compatible with a rational approach.
A broader ontology encompassing beyond matter is needed!
Logical thought, free from prejudice, clearly reveals that the narrow understanding of existence confined to matter is detached from observed reality, and there is a need for a broader ontology that realistically models observed reality and thus also encompasses the non-material.
Post-materialistic science, as articulated by some leading neuroscientists (brain scientists/neuroscientists?) in the US in the 2019 Galileo Commission Report, proposes that natural science (fenbilim) liberates itself from these limitations stemming from materialistic preconceptions. The science of psychology has largely accomplished this proposed paradigm shift. In the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders, alongside the physical brain, the non-physical 'inner world' is also considered, and patients' expressed subjective emotions and thoughts, as well as mental approaches like mindfulness, play an important role in diagnosis and treatment.
(A detailed article on ontology/existence: Çengel, Y. A. “On emergent quantities, mental perceptions and constructs, and agencies: A holistic view of existence.” J Neurobehav, Sci. 2021, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 157-170. https://doi.org/10.4103/jnbs.jnbs_33_21)
The brain, which is ontologically objective, is related to consciousness, which is subjective, meaning non-material. However, being related does not mean creating or being the source. The television set is also related to the programs we watch on the screen, and if a malfunction occurs in the device, the image and sound on the screen disappear. But this does not mean that the television set is what produces the programs we watch with interest on the screen. If there were no broadcasts reaching our homes as invisible electromagnetic waves, the television set would be nothing more than a pile of technological parts and would be discarded.
TV-Brain analogy…
Despite containing many high-tech components, including its microprocessor with millions of electrical circuits, the television set inherently lacks the capability to produce a television program and show it to us on screen with its sound and image. And no one expects such a thing to happen in the future. Because atoms and molecules that constitute all physical entities (and even the fundamental building blocks of atoms, such as electrons, protons, and neutrons), like particles in a handful of sand, are passive entities unaware of themselves or their surroundings.
Everything related to television sets and program broadcasts is common knowledge today. If, hypothetically, the source of television broadcasts were not known to be transmissions coming from outside via electromagnetic waves, many researchers trying to unravel the mystery of the broadcasts we watch on screen would stop looking for the answer inside the television set and start looking outside the device. Because, through reasoning, it can easily be seen that the television set cannot be the source of these programs. The reality of television would only be understood once program broadcasts were recognized and revealed.
Consciousness, intelligence, free will, imagination cannot be reduced to the brain…
Similarly to a television set, the atoms and molecules that constitute the brain also lack the ability to create subjective qualities like consciousness. This is because the fundamental building blocks of the brain and the television set are the same; they are all composed of the same atoms. Just as the programs we watch cannot be reduced to the television set, subjective phenomena such as consciousness, intelligence, free will, imagination, dreaming, feeling pain, and experiencing pleasure cannot be reduced to a piece of flesh. There is no evidence suggesting the contrary. That is why many brain researchers have always approached the idea that we might one day uncover the secrets of how our minds work with cautious skepticism. Clearly, the brain contains much more than what is physically visible. The existence of this jelly-like and walnut-shaped convoluted piece of flesh, protected by the skull's armor, is necessary for us to continue our existence as functional human beings, but it is not sufficient. The network of relationships between the physical brain and non-physical qualities such as imagination, mind, and consciousness is very intricate and is the source of the brain's mystery.
What is the relationship between Brain - Behavior?
Based on what has been discovered so far, there is no doubt that an increase in the activity level of certain brain regions associated with a task is closely related to electrochemical signal transmission, oxygen consumption, or metabolic level in those brain regions during that task. Mapping brain activity with states and actions such as walking, eating, touching, feeling happy, thinking, sleeping, empathizing, etc., gives us a one-to-one correspondence between brain activity and the tasks performed. Based on this information, we can predict which part of the brain will be activated when specific feelings like fear are experienced or actions are performed. Or, by observing brain activity, we can determine the actions being performed or the emotions being felt by a person.
This is like the LCD screen control panel we see in a car's cockpit. Here too, there is a one-to-one correlation between the car's status and its functions, and the 'illuminated pixels' on the LCD screen. For example, when the air conditioning is turned on, the pixels related to its operation on the display screen light up to form the 'A/C' (air conditioner) symbol. When the air conditioning is turned off and made passive, these pixels extinguish, and the A/C symbol disappears from the screen. When the entertainment system is activated, the pixels related to this system also become active on the screen. Of course, it is not the LCD screen that decides to turn on the air conditioning or the entertainment system, but the driver of the car. The map of symbols seen on the screen is nothing more than a reflection of the driver's actions, visible to others as well.”
For the Manifesto for Post-Materialist Science:
