Douglas Youvan is an American biophysicist and mathematician (and, he relates at his home page, a Christian). He offers a thesis about consciousness in a preprint at Researchgate that many will be quick to dismiss: “This paper introduces the speculative concept of a ‘spiritual particle,’ an entity that may bridge the gap between the physical and spiritual dimensions of existence.” It has, he suggests, a dual nature, interacting with both matter and consciousness.

Why Dismiss Youvan’s idea?

The conventional reason for dismissing such an idea out of hand is that consciousness is supposed to be explained away any time soon as some sort of material construct, perhaps a circuit in the brain. But that isn’t happening and maybe can’t happen. Thus, the promoters of eliminative materialism have been reduced simply to proclaiming as truths theories that have not been established by findings.

For example, one thinks of philosopher Daniel Dennett‘s claim that consciousness is an illusion:“What we think of as our consciousness is actually our brains pulling a number of tricks to conjure up the world as we experience it. But in reality, it’s all smoke, mirrors, and rapidly firing neurons…” 

The obvious problem is that, as fellow philosopher Galen Strawson points out, consciousness is “the most certainly known natural fact.” If it is really just a trick that our brains are playing on us, then science itself is not a reality.

The thinkers who find it easy to ridicule Youvan’s idea often seem to have spent decades considering Dennett’s view a live possibility — without ever confronting that obvious problem.

Is Youvan’s Idea Testable?

It’s not clear how the spiritual particle can be tested. But before we dismiss it on that account, perhaps we should also ask, is the view that consciousness is an illusion testable? How?

If testability matters so much for Youvan’s thesis, why doesn’t it matter for Dennett’s? Dennett’s thesis is supported mainly because of its background in Darwinian evolution dogma, not by evidence or even by coherence. Thus it probably isn’t testable in the usual sense either.

As I have often noted, more and more scientists are turning to panpsychism — the idea that all life forms are conscious — as an alternative to that sort of eliminationism, grounded in Darwinian evolution theory.

Panpsychism allows researchers to continue to avoid seeing humans as special; on their view, we are merely conscious in more ways than, say, snakes or beetroots are. But note, also on their view, consciousness is a real thing in all these cases, not an illusion to be explained away.

Panpsychism poses an emerging threat to Darwinism. If consciousness is part of the nature of the universe, like matter or energy, it need not have evolved by natural selection acting on random mutation, any more than matter or energy did. It’s not that panpsychists oppose evolutionary theory; they just don’t need it nearly as much to ground their general theory of mind. 

That sort of thing weakens a theory after a while. Fewer thinkers will go to much trouble to defend it if they don’t really need it.

Perhaps Youvan will find a way to test his hypothesis that there is a particle that mediates interactions between the abstract and the concrete. Meanwhile, those who consider the idea uniquely ridiculous would be well advised to look more critically at some of the alternatives.

Here’s the Abstract:

In recent years, the exploration of consciousness has expanded beyond the confines of neuroscience and psychology, venturing into the realms of quantum physics, metaphysics, and spirituality. This paper introduces the speculative concept of a “spiritual particle,” an entity that may bridge the gap between the physical and spiritual dimensions of existence. The spiritual particle is envisioned as having a dual nature, interacting with both matter and consciousness, potentially influencing human awareness, perception, and spiritual development. By examining this concept, we explore how such a particle might provide new insights into the nature of reality, consciousness, and the purpose of the universe. This paper also considers the philosophical, ethical, and metaphysical implications of the spiritual particle, proposing that it could serve as a crucial link between scientific and spiritual worldviews. While the spiritual particle remains a theoretical construct, its exploration invites readers to consider the profound possibilities of a reality where matter and spirit are interconnected at the most fundamental levels.

YOUVAN, DOUGLAS. (2024). THE SPIRITUAL PARTICLE: SPECULATIVE INSIGHTS INTO THE INTERSECTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS, MATTER, “AND THE METAPHYSICAL REALM.,” 10.13140/RG.2.2.24940.78723.

Cross-posted at Mind Matters News.