Abstract
Consciousness is the unified, structured, subjective experience that we all share. The Default Space Theory has been proposed as a unified theory of consciousness that includes the brain and body in describing the infrastructure of consciousness. We have presented the theory in journals with a variety of academic specialties; however, the model is continually being developed. Due to the current state of science on the nature of conscious experience lacking hard data, the theory’s concepts must thoroughly explain and shoulder phenomenological observations including the phenomenology of deficits of consciousness. According to the theory, the thalamus serves as a central hub which networks the globally distributed, and continuous fast oscillations not only among the brain, but also the eyes, ears, skin, and other sensory organs. These oscillations form the virtual template of external space within the mind in which external sensory information is integrated into this pre-existing, dynamic space. In this article, we explore phenomenological support for our theory of conscious experience in which such experience resides entirely in such a virtual space, termed the default space. In order to provide such support, we discuss simple personal experiments and observations which anyone can partake along with phenomenal symptoms of clinical deficits. We encourage readers to perform the personal experiments we describe in order to gain an understanding of the various concepts of the theory. The neurological deficits we elucidate not only support the theory but clarify obscurities surrounding these conditions. We assert the support we give in our theory here will advance the uphill struggle many paramount theories face in gaining initial acceptance. Further research is needed in order to acquire empirical evidence for the veracity of our theory.
Highlights
We define consciousness in terms of the presence of experience
How do the qualia of experience arise from the strictly physical, electrical, and chemical physiology of life? How does the simple experience of colors or shapes come about from atoms jostling around in the large ordered clump we call a human body? Many hypotheses have been formed in academic areas in an attempt to scratch away at this hard problem [3] [4]; these hypotheses fail to unify the many aspects of consciousness as we know it in the human mind
We have previously proposed a unified theory of consciousness, the Default Space Theory (DST) [5]; what we propose may provide a means to one day solving this problem which may be out of the reach of human understanding all together [6]
Summary
We define consciousness in terms of the presence of experience. Perhaps the most difficult problem in science is the “hard problem of consciousness” [1] [2]. We have previously proposed a unified theory of consciousness, the Default Space Theory (DST) [5]; what we propose may provide a means to one day solving this problem which may be out of the reach of human understanding all together [6]. We assert that the DST elucidates a more realistic problem to solve, the “real problem” of consciousness that ponders the various characteristics of consciousness in terms of biological mechanisms instead of questioning the physical nature of its existence in the universe [7]. Our theory offers insight into this “real problem” by describing the physiologically unified nature of consciousness including its various states such as the coma, sleep, and awake states [5]. When we contemplate consciousness through the lens of our own experience along with scientific research, we can truly begin to understand it
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