The Ghost of Consciousness - the “Really Hard Problem”

Abstract

It is doubtful that a single ineluctable postulate can be found to explain the raw feeling of the quale of human consciousness. This is so because: 1) It has been hard to create a general theory around a phenomenal experience that is subjective, unique, and ephemeral, such that it can be transmitted to another human mind[1],[2].  2) The problem of logic and language to express raw sensations is currently lacking in the human lexicon of consciousness. 3) The concept of deep qualia, has not yet been verified, nor has it been falsified, and 4) The problem of the tenuous reliability and validity of human recall. This is a conceptual work that hypothesizes that new data on consciousness might be found, e.g.,  using the pineal gland as an “explanatory bridge,” between the physical brain and the metaphysical consciousness. The social implications of deep consciousness lie in the areas of law, and other fields that qualitative inquiry.

[1] Beckett, L.C. (1955) Neti, Neti, Not This, Not That, in Arc Publications, London. The phrase comes from Sanskrit in the early Vedic texts, and it means—it is not this, it is not that”. This phrase denotes something “inexpressible”, logically and in ordinary language.

[2] Gabriel, M. (2024) in “The Paradox of Self-Consciousness,” in Edge.org, says that”… the invariant of the human being is precisely that capacity to give an account of how you fit into the largest possible domain—reality as a whole.”