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Routledge eBooks

Conscious Action Theory

Wolfgang Baer

Published Nov 20, 2019• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Conscious Action Theory provides a logical unification between the spirit and the material, by identifying reality as an event that processes personal experiences into explanatory memories, from which personal experiences are regenerated in a never-ending cycle of activity. Baer explores the idea that our personal feelings are undeniable facts that have been systematically excluded from the basic sciences, thereby leaving us with a schizophrenic division between objective materialism and spiritual idealism. Cognitive Action Theory (CAT) achieves this unification by recognizing that the observer’s existence is the foundational premise underlying all scientific inquiry. It develops as an event-oriented physical theory in which the first-person observer is central. By analyzing the methods through which we human observers gain knowledge and create the belief systems within which our experiences are explained, we discover a fundamental truth: all systems are observers and exhibit some form of internal awareness. Events, not the objects appearing in them, are the fundamental building blocks of reality. The book is comprised of three parts: the first addresses the paradigm shift from an object to an event-oriented world view, the second develops the foundations of action physics for an event-oriented world view and the third provides examples of how these new ideas can be applied to move our knowledge up the next evolutionary step of human development. This book will benefit anyone questioning their role in the universe, especially those in interdisciplinary fields of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and medicine, who seek understanding of quantum theory as the physics of conscious systems that know the world.

DOI
10.4324/9781315618883

Related papers

Conscious Action Theory: An Introduction to the Event-Oriented World View

Wolfgang Baer

Conscious Action Theory provides a logical unification between the spirit and the material, by identifying reality as an event that processes personal experiences into explanatory memories, from which personal experiences are regenerated in a never-ending cycle of activity. Baer explores the idea that our personal feelings are undeniable facts that have been systematically excluded from the basic sciences, thereby leaving us with a schizophrenic division between objective materialism and spiritual idealism. Cognitive Action Theory (CAT) achieves this unification by recognizing that the observer’s existence is the foundational premise underlying all scientific inquiry. It develops as an event-oriented physical theory in which the first-person observer is central. By analyzing the methods through which we human observers gain knowledge and create the belief systems within which our experiences are explained, we discover a fundamental truth: all systems are observers and exhibit some form of internal awareness. Events, not the objects appearing in them, are the fundamental building blocks of reality. The book is comprised of three parts: the first addresses the paradigm shift from an object to an event-oriented world view, the second develops the foundations of action physics for an event-oriented world view and the third provides examples of how these new ideas can be applied to move our knowledge up the next evolutionary step of human development. This book will benefit anyone questioning their role in the universe, especially those in interdisciplinary fields of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and medicine, who seek understanding of quantum theory as the physics of conscious systems that know the world.

•Nov 14, 2019•1 citation

Cognitive Action Theory: An Overview

Wolfgang Baer

Incorporating a conscious 1st person observer in scientific theories has been hampered by the lack of physically viable mind/body models. I will present a Cognitive Action Theory (Baer 2020) model of an integrated mind/body system and identify the process of creating conscious experience as the basic building block of reality. This building block is a cyclic process in time, connecting the first person experience with its 3d person physical models so that conscious phenomena are possible. To allow the construction of such a basic building block we propose a fundamental shift to consider what we do to be conscious as an a-priory activity that must be happening for us to be able to ask the question, “How can conscious beings exist in our physical world?” This shift means first asking, “How does the memory of a physical world exist in a conscious being”? The answer to this question leads to Conscious Action Theory (CAT) and the physical formulation of a conscious being as a self contained action cycle with the mental and physical phases. This activity contains both qualia and its explanation to produce what physicist Archibald Wheeler [1,2] described as a self measuring explanatory cycle. At this level of abstraction such a cycle of activity can accommodate any belief system defining physical reality as an explanation for personal experience and therefore provide a framework which accommodates both scientific and spiritual traditions. Visualizing such an abstract activity as the motion of masses and charges allows us to couple what we do to the formalism of classic and quantum physics. Such a theory integrates the subjective and objective aspect of our experience in a single physical framework, reducing to the linear quantum formalism when the motions involved are small enough to be reversible [3,4].

Book Publisher International (a part of SCIENCEDOMAIN International)•Jul 23, 2021•0 citations

Introduction to cognitive action theory

Wolfgang Baer

Abstract Incorporating a conscious 1st person observer in scientific theories has been hampered by the lack of physically viable mind/body models. I will present a Cognitive Action Theory (CAT) model of an integrated mind/body system and identify the process of creating conscious experience as the basic building block of reality. This building block is a cyclic process in time, connecting the 1st-person experience with its 3rd-person physical models so that conscious phenomena are possible. We therefore propose a fundamental shift to consider what we do to be conscious as an a-priory activity that must be happening for us to be able to ask the question, “How can conscious beings exist in our physical world?” This activity contains both qualia and an explanation to produce what Archibald Wheeler described as a self measuring explanatory cycle. At this level of definition such a cycle of activity can accommodate any belief system defining physical reality as an explanation for personal experience and therefore provides a framework which accommodates most scientific and spiritual traditions. However visualizing abstract activity as the motion of masses and charges that together compose matter allows us to couple what we do to the formalism of classic physics thus describing a Reality of interacting events. Such a theory integrates the subjective and objective aspect of our experience in a single physical framework, reducing to the linear quantum formalism when the motions involved are small enough to be reversible.

Journal of Physics Conference Series•Jun 1, 2019•1 citation

Observer-Participant Theory

Dion Fryson

The prevailing epistemological frameworks of the twentieth century positioned the human mind as a passive receptor of objective reality—a "mirror of nature" (Rorty, 1979) tasked with accurately reflecting an external world. Yet emerging syntheses between cognitive neuroscience, phenomenology, and quantum physics suggest a radical departure from this dualistic separation of observer and observed. This paper introduces the Observer-Participant Theory, a comprehensive theoretical framework that reconceptualizes the role of awareness in human experience. The central thesis posits that conscious engagement with mental phenomena constitutes an active, participatory process that inherently shapes, modulates, and co-creates the fabric of experienced reality (Schwartz et al., 2016). The Observer-Participant Theory represents a paradigmatic shift from a classical, Newtonian model of psychology—where mental states are viewed as deterministic outcomes of biological machinery—to a quantum-neurodynamic model. Here, consciousness is not a passive epiphenomenon but an active agent in the construction of subjective reality (Wallace, 2007). This paper argues that directing conscious attention toward internal or external phenomena is never a neutral measurement; rather, it constitutes an energetic intervention that influences the ontology of what is observed. Awareness operates not merely as a window through which reality is perceived, but as a dynamic force through which reality is continuously crafted, refined, and actualized (Pribram, 1991).

•May 25, 2025•0 citations

The Quantum and Classic Approximation

Wolfgang Baer

This chapter shows that the Conscious Action Theory (CAT) model of interacting conscious beings is a superset of quantum theory. Quantum theory itself will be derived as a linear approximation applicable when disturbances in the material-producing experiences are small enough to be reversible oscillations around a dynamic equilibrium state. Historically quantum theory grew out of classical physics as an attempt to explain how light interacts with matter to produce the colors that were observed spectroscopically. The chapter shows how the essential components of quantum theory already model an action cycle. It aims to assume the interior matter beyond or internal to a Hilbert space-cell boundary is composed of mass and charge densities. The mass and charge densities move relative to each other in order to maintain their equilibrium positions. However, once we must deal with the growth and destruction of the memory cells, which surely happens, it will be necessary to adopt CAT and the event-oriented world view.

Routledge eBooks•Nov 20, 2019•0 citations

Quantum consciousness and life

Alexander E. Wendt

Introduction We saw in Part I that in addition to explaining consciousness there is another hard problem for the modern scientific worldview – understanding what quantum physics is telling us about reality. And if anything this one is harder. In philosophy of mind there is at least consensus enough for an orthodox position to exist (materialism), and a widespread expectation that it will be vindicated by future neuroscience. By contrast, in philosophy of physics all sides understand that quantum theory is compatible with a variety of metaphysical interpretations, and have little hope that new empirical discoveries will settle the matter. But both problems are “hard” in the sense that, despite tremendous intellectual effort over many decades, no clear progress has been made toward solving them. The basic idea of quantum consciousness theory is that bringing the two problems into contact may be the key to solving both (though I will be addressing only the mind–body problem in what follows). That this could be a novel idea attests to the fact that their philosophical discussions have evolved quite separately. While philosophers of physics have long been interested in the role of consciousness in the measurement process, they have engaged little with the mind–body problem per se; and philosophers of mind have been almost unanimous in dismissing the suggestion that consciousness has anything interesting to do with quantum physics. Social scientists might echo such skepticism, wondering how adding the problem of interpreting quantum theory to the problem of consciousness will help them . Besides piling up jargon and arcane debates, in moving to the sub-atomic level we are now even farther removed from the human world, and seemingly poised to engage in the most vulgar reductionism. Yet, naïvely one might expect the two problems to be related, for two reasons. The first is the intriguing analogies mentioned in Chapter 1 between the mental and quantum domains.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Apr 20, 2015•0 citations
Conscious Action Theory provides a logical unification between the spirit and the material, by identifying reality as an event that processes personal experiences into explanatory memories, from which personal experiences are regenerated in a never-ending cycle of activity. Baer explores the idea that our personal feelings are undeniable facts that have been systematically excluded from the basic sciences, thereby leaving us with a schizophrenic division between objective materialism and spiritual idealism. Cognitive Action Theory (CAT) achieves this unification by recognizing that the observer’s existence is the foundational premise underlying all scientific inquiry. It develops as an event-oriented physical theory in which the first-person observer is central. By analyzing the methods through which we human observers gain knowledge and create the belief systems within which our experiences are explained, we discover a fundamental truth: all systems are observers and exhibit some form of internal awareness. Events, not the objects appearing in them, are the fundamental building blocks of reality. The book is comprised of three parts: the first addresses the paradigm shift from an object to an event-oriented world view, the second develops the foundations of action physics for an event-oriented world view and the third provides examples of how these new ideas can be applied to move our knowledge up the next evolutionary step of human development. This book will benefit anyone questioning their role in the universe, especially those in interdisciplinary fields of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and medicine, who seek understanding of quantum theory as the physics of conscious systems that know the world.
Conscious Action Theory provides a logical unification between the spirit and the material, by identifying reality as an event that processes personal experiences into explanatory memories, from which personal experiences are regenerated in a never-ending cycle of activity. Baer explores the idea that our personal feelings are undeniable facts that have been systematically excluded from the basic sciences, thereby leaving us with a schizophrenic division between objective materialism and spiritual idealism. Cognitive Action Theory (CAT) achieves this unification by recognizing that the observer’s existence is the foundational premise underlying all scientific inquiry. It develops as an event-oriented physical theory in which the first-person observer is central. By analyzing the methods through which we human observers gain knowledge and create the belief systems within which our experiences are explained, we discover a fundamental truth: all systems are observers and exhibit some form of internal awareness. Events, not the objects appearing in them, are the fundamental building blocks of reality. The book is comprised of three parts: the first addresses the paradigm shift from an object to an event-oriented world view, the second develops the foundations of action physics for an event-oriented world view and the third provides examples of how these new ideas can be applied to move our knowledge up the next evolutionary step of human development. This book will benefit anyone questioning their role in the universe, especially those in interdisciplinary fields of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and medicine, who seek understanding of quantum theory as the physics of conscious systems that know the world.
Incorporating a conscious 1st person observer in scientific theories has been hampered by the lack of physically viable mind/body models. I will present a Cognitive Action Theory (Baer 2020) model of an integrated mind/body system and identify the process of creating conscious experience as the basic building block of reality. This building block is a cyclic process in time, connecting the first person experience with its 3d person physical models so that conscious phenomena are possible. To allow the construction of such a basic building block we propose a fundamental shift to consider what we do to be conscious as an a-priory activity that must be happening for us to be able to ask the question, “How can conscious beings exist in our physical world?” This shift means first asking, “How does the memory of a physical world exist in a conscious being”? The answer to this question leads to Conscious Action Theory (CAT) and the physical formulation of a conscious being as a self contained action cycle with the mental and physical phases. This activity contains both qualia and its explanation to produce what physicist Archibald Wheeler [1,2] described as a self measuring explanatory cycle. At this level of abstraction such a cycle of activity can accommodate any belief system defining physical reality as an explanation for personal experience and therefore provide a framework which accommodates both scientific and spiritual traditions. Visualizing such an abstract activity as the motion of masses and charges allows us to couple what we do to the formalism of classic and quantum physics. Such a theory integrates the subjective and objective aspect of our experience in a single physical framework, reducing to the linear quantum formalism when the motions involved are small enough to be reversible [3,4].
Abstract Incorporating a conscious 1st person observer in scientific theories has been hampered by the lack of physically viable mind/body models. I will present a Cognitive Action Theory (CAT) model of an integrated mind/body system and identify the process of creating conscious experience as the basic building block of reality. This building block is a cyclic process in time, connecting the 1st-person experience with its 3rd-person physical models so that conscious phenomena are possible. We therefore propose a fundamental shift to consider what we do to be conscious as an a-priory activity that must be happening for us to be able to ask the question, “How can conscious beings exist in our physical world?” This activity contains both qualia and an explanation to produce what Archibald Wheeler described as a self measuring explanatory cycle. At this level of definition such a cycle of activity can accommodate any belief system defining physical reality as an explanation for personal experience and therefore provides a framework which accommodates most scientific and spiritual traditions. However visualizing abstract activity as the motion of masses and charges that together compose matter allows us to couple what we do to the formalism of classic physics thus describing a Reality of interacting events. Such a theory integrates the subjective and objective aspect of our experience in a single physical framework, reducing to the linear quantum formalism when the motions involved are small enough to be reversible.
The prevailing epistemological frameworks of the twentieth century positioned the human mind as a passive receptor of objective reality—a "mirror of nature" (Rorty, 1979) tasked with accurately reflecting an external world. Yet emerging syntheses between cognitive neuroscience, phenomenology, and quantum physics suggest a radical departure from this dualistic separation of observer and observed. This paper introduces the Observer-Participant Theory, a comprehensive theoretical framework that reconceptualizes the role of awareness in human experience. The central thesis posits that conscious engagement with mental phenomena constitutes an active, participatory process that inherently shapes, modulates, and co-creates the fabric of experienced reality (Schwartz et al., 2016). The Observer-Participant Theory represents a paradigmatic shift from a classical, Newtonian model of psychology—where mental states are viewed as deterministic outcomes of biological machinery—to a quantum-neurodynamic model. Here, consciousness is not a passive epiphenomenon but an active agent in the construction of subjective reality (Wallace, 2007). This paper argues that directing conscious attention toward internal or external phenomena is never a neutral measurement; rather, it constitutes an energetic intervention that influences the ontology of what is observed. Awareness operates not merely as a window through which reality is perceived, but as a dynamic force through which reality is continuously crafted, refined, and actualized (Pribram, 1991).
This chapter shows that the Conscious Action Theory (CAT) model of interacting conscious beings is a superset of quantum theory. Quantum theory itself will be derived as a linear approximation applicable when disturbances in the material-producing experiences are small enough to be reversible oscillations around a dynamic equilibrium state. Historically quantum theory grew out of classical physics as an attempt to explain how light interacts with matter to produce the colors that were observed spectroscopically. The chapter shows how the essential components of quantum theory already model an action cycle. It aims to assume the interior matter beyond or internal to a Hilbert space-cell boundary is composed of mass and charge densities. The mass and charge densities move relative to each other in order to maintain their equilibrium positions. However, once we must deal with the growth and destruction of the memory cells, which surely happens, it will be necessary to adopt CAT and the event-oriented world view.
Introduction We saw in Part I that in addition to explaining consciousness there is another hard problem for the modern scientific worldview – understanding what quantum physics is telling us about reality. And if anything this one is harder. In philosophy of mind there is at least consensus enough for an orthodox position to exist (materialism), and a widespread expectation that it will be vindicated by future neuroscience. By contrast, in philosophy of physics all sides understand that quantum theory is compatible with a variety of metaphysical interpretations, and have little hope that new empirical discoveries will settle the matter. But both problems are “hard” in the sense that, despite tremendous intellectual effort over many decades, no clear progress has been made toward solving them. The basic idea of quantum consciousness theory is that bringing the two problems into contact may be the key to solving both (though I will be addressing only the mind–body problem in what follows). That this could be a novel idea attests to the fact that their philosophical discussions have evolved quite separately. While philosophers of physics have long been interested in the role of consciousness in the measurement process, they have engaged little with the mind–body problem per se; and philosophers of mind have been almost unanimous in dismissing the suggestion that consciousness has anything interesting to do with quantum physics. Social scientists might echo such skepticism, wondering how adding the problem of interpreting quantum theory to the problem of consciousness will help them . Besides piling up jargon and arcane debates, in moving to the sub-atomic level we are now even farther removed from the human world, and seemingly poised to engage in the most vulgar reductionism. Yet, naïvely one might expect the two problems to be related, for two reasons. The first is the intriguing analogies mentioned in Chapter 1 between the mental and quantum domains.