Consciousness education: Why an enquiry into consciousness is an educational and spiritual imperative

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present a case for including consciousness studies within the educational curriculum from early years through to postcompulsory education. We contend that its current exclusion is due to the deep embeddedness in society of the materialist assumption that the brain produces consciousness. Hence, as a subject of study, consciousness is considered only of relevance to neuroscientists. Informed by this same assumption, notions of spirituality are also seen to be the product of neuronal interactions, and are ultimately illusory, rather than indicating the existence of a different kind of reality. However, there is no incontrovertible evidence to support this assumption, which is increasingly being questioned by leading-edge scientists, spiritual thinkers, and philosophers. Supported by findings from quantum physics, and from the wisdom of indigenous knowledges, there is a growing interest in alternative theories, such as the idea that consciousness may be primary, and matter may be an emergent property of consciousness. We examine arguments for these radically different perspectives, and how they inform, and are informed by, different worldviews. We argue that young people need to be made aware of those alternative worldviews so that they can make informed choices about who they are as spiritual beings.