When we watch sleeping dogs’ legs or muzzles twitch, we wonder what
they might be chasing in their dreams. And while they’re not capable of
telling us in words, we accept that dogs are conscious creatures. Why
else would we ask veterinarians to give them injections so that they
won’t suffer pain during surgery, asks consciousness-studies pioneer
Peter Russell, who will give a talk at Northbrae Community
Church (941 The Alameda, Berkeley) on Wednesday, December 2.
“If dogs possess consciousness, then so do cats, horses, deer,
dolphins, whales, and other mammals. The same is true of birds; some
parrots, for example, seem as aware as dogs,” Russell reasons. “And if
birds are sentient beings, then so, I assume, are other vertebrates
— alligators, snakes, frogs, salmon, and sharks. However
different their experiences may be, they all have awareness of some
kind or other. The same argument applies to creatures further down the
evolutionary tree,” muses this Cambridge-educated author of ten books,
including The Brain Book, The Global Brain, and, most recently,
From Science to God. “The nervous systems of insects are not
nearly as complex as ours, and insects probably do not have as rich an
experience of the world as we do, but I see no reason to doubt that
they have some kind of inner experience. Where do we draw the
line?”
This question has shaped Russell’s career. After studying
mathematics and earning a degree in theoretical physics in 1969, he
traveled from his native Great Britain to India, where he studied
transcendential meditation with the Beatles’ yogi, Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi. Maintaining his interest in meditation, he then earned a degree
in computer science — long before computers were a household
word, much less a household fixture.
Now a fellow of the Petaluma-based Institute of Noetic Sciences,
Russell posits that the general public’s notions of what constitutes
consciousness — and where it resides — are narrow, archaic,
and inaccurate. Rather than requiring a brain or even a nervous system
in order to exist, “the faculty of consciousness must be present all
the way down the evolutionary tree. Some single-celled organisms are
sensitive to physical vibration, light, and heat,” he points out. “Who
is to say they do not have a corresponding glimmer of awareness? …
According to this view, there is nowhere we can draw a line between
conscious and nonconscious entities; there is a trace of sentience,
however slight, in viruses, molecules, atoms, and even elementary
particles.”
Although scientific progress is all well and good, “I think what we
need today is to gain an integration of our scientific understanding of
the world with the wisdom that’s held in the world’s spiritual
traditions,” Russell says. “The next great frontier is not outer space.
It’s inner space, the search into the nature of consciousness itself:
the one thing we all know for sure and the one thing we’ve not yet
explored.” 7:30 (preceded by optional $7 pasta dinner at 6:30 p.m.),
free. Northbrae.org
