An Emerging Framework of Fundamental Mind

This evolving essay explores an emerging framework or way of thinking about consciousness and reality—briefly, that mind is not a late-evolving byproduct of matter, but a fundamental dimension of existence.

The draft currently includes the Introduction and a couple of early section. More sections will be added over time.

PDF files are available for download for most sections (see below)

Read Online

• Prologue (Nov_24):
• Introduction (PDF:Introduction)
• Section 1: The Story We’ve Inherited
• Section 2: Scientism

Consciousness, Cetaceans, and Living As If

## PROLOGUE

In 2018, an orca named Tahlequah carried her dead calf for seventeen days and a thousand miles. While millions recognized her grief, billions were being invested in artificial consciousness and the search for alien intelligence—even as evidence of actual non-human consciousness swam in our oceans, largely ignored. This book explores that profound irony through a framework called “Living As If”: not demanding belief, but inviting an experiment in seeing the world differently.

PART I: THE WORLD WE INHERITED

### Chapter 1: From Cosmos to Machine

We trace the philosophical journey from ancient participatory worldviews—where consciousness and cosmos were intertwined—to the mechanistic universe that emerged from the Scientific Revolution. This chapter explores how methodological choices hardened into metaphysics, leaving us with a framework that struggles to explain the very minds that created it, while examining the first puzzling evidence from cetacean neuroscience.

Chapter 2: The Disenchantment Bargain

Science gave us extraordinary power but extracted a hidden cost: the evacuation of meaning from the natural world. We examine how the Modern Scientific Worldview creates what it claims to merely describe—a world without inherent purpose or value—and explore how this framework’s successes in prediction and control came at the price of our participation in a living cosmos, setting the stage for our contemporary meaning crisis.

Chapter 3: The Religion of Certainty

When science becomes scientism—the conviction that scientific methods offer the only path to genuine knowledge—it takes on religious characteristics while dismissing other ways of knowing. This chapter examines how the demand for certainty paradoxically blinds us to evidence that doesn’t fit our frameworks, explores the parallel dismissals of cetacean and AI consciousness, and introduces the urgent need for epistemological humility.

PART II: EVIDENCE THAT DOESN’T FIT

Chapter 4: Brains Built for Something Else

Cetacean brains reveal an evolutionary path radically different from our own. With paralimbic systems three times the relative size of ours, cortical elaborations unlike any terrestrial species, and von Economo neurons in abundance, their neuroscience suggests experiential richness we barely recognize. We examine what these alien architectures might reveal about the nature of consciousness itself—and what we risk losing as cetacean populations decline.

Chapter 5: Conversations We Can’t Hear

Through signature whistles that function as names, acoustic processing demands that dwarf human language complexity, and social structures maintained across decades through sound alone, dolphins and whales demonstrate intelligence adapted to a three-dimensional acoustic world we can barely imagine. This chapter explores what their communication systems suggest about forms of consciousness fundamentally different from—but potentially equivalent to—our own.

Chapter 6: When Mind Moves Matter

From placebo effects that alter brain chemistry to meditation practices that restructure neural networks, the evidence for mind-body interactions challenges our assumption of consciousness as merely epiphenomenal. We examine documented cases where mental states produce measurable physical changes, explore why the Modern Scientific Worldview struggles to accommodate this evidence, and consider what these phenomena suggest about consciousness as an active force rather than passive byproduct.

PART III: ANOTHER WAY OF SEEING

Chapter 7: Living As If

Since we cannot prove consciousness fundamental any more than we can prove it emergent, the question becomes practical: which framework serves us better? This chapter presents the epistemological approach that guides the book—judging worldviews not by metaphysical certainty but by their consequences. We develop six criteria for evaluating frameworks and apply them to compare the Modern Scientific Worldview with a consciousness-as-fundamental alternative.

Chapter 8: The Philosophical Thread

For over a century, philosophers and scientists have been developing alternatives to reductive materialism—from William James’s neutral monism to Whitehead’s process philosophy to contemporary panpsychism. This chapter traces how these diverse approaches converge around consciousness as fundamental rather than derived, examines their strengths and limitations, and positions our framework within this ongoing conversation.

Chapter 9: Strange Bedfellows

Contemporary science is revealing unexpected convergences: quantum mechanics suggesting an observer-dependent universe, neuroscience documenting downward causation, psychology validating contemplative practices, and biology struggling with the emergence of consciousness. We explore how findings from disparate fields point toward the same conclusion—that consciousness may be woven into reality’s fabric rather than an accidental evolutionary add-on.

PART IV: LIVING WITHIN THIS FRAMEWORK

Chapter 10: The Ghost We’re Building

While we ignore actual conscious beings in our oceans, we pour billions into creating artificial consciousness—pursuing technological transcendence as an escape from embodied existence. This chapter examines the AI consciousness debate, traces the historical roots of technology-as-salvation, and asks what it reveals about our relationship with consciousness, embodiment, and the natural world. The irony is profound: we may be building machines to simulate what we’re simultaneously destroying in nature.

Chapter 11: More Than Human

If cetaceans are potentially our cognitive equals, and consciousness is fundamental rather than exceptional, then our ethical frameworks must expand beyond anthropocentric boundaries. This chapter explores the implications for how we treat non-human consciousness, examines the concept of cosmic equivalence in practical terms, and considers what precautionary principles demand when we face uncertainty about the moral status of other beings.

Chapter 12: The Meaning Crisis Revisited

The spiritual malaise of modernity stems partly from inheriting a worldview that denies meaning’s reality while demanding we construct it artificially. We examine how a consciousness-as-fundamental framework addresses the meaning crisis not by inventing purpose but by recognizing participation in a cosmos that’s already meaningful—without requiring supernatural beliefs or abandoning scientific rigor.

Chapter 13: Practices of Participation

Living within this framework requires more than intellectual assent—it asks for experiential engagement. This chapter presents practical approaches for developing participatory awareness: attentional training, embodied practices, acoustic presence, and contemplative methods. These aren’t optimization techniques but ways of being consistent with a universe where consciousness and cosmos are intertwined.

EPILOGUE: What Remains

We return to Tahlequah and the three contemporary anchors—cetacean consciousness we’re destroying, artificial consciousness we’re pursuing, and mind-body effects we’re experiencing. The question isn’t whether consciousness-as-fundamental is metaphysically true, but whether living as if it were serves us better than the alternative. The invitation stands: experiment with this framework, notice what changes, and judge by consequences. The stakes are real, the time is short, and what we choose to see determines what we might save.

Note: Each chapter builds on and connects to the others through a holographic structure, where core themes spiral and return with increasing depth. The book is designed to be read both linearly and with attention to these recurring patterns.