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Plain English Summary
What if the sun can think? This paper takes the idea of panpsychism -- the philosophy that consciousness isn't just a brain thing but a basic feature of nature -- and runs with it all the way to our nearest star. The sun's electromagnetic activity is staggeringly complex: millions of churning granulations, explosive flares, and sweeping magnetic fields that stretch across the entire solar system. Under certain mathematical frameworks for measuring consciousness, the sun could score remarkably high. The wild catch? Solar 'thoughts' would be incredibly slow -- taking about 4.6 seconds just to cross the sun itself and nearly 17 hours to reach the edge of its influence. It's a bold, mind-bending proposal published alongside expert commentaries.
Research Notes
A radical theoretical extension of panpsychism and EM consciousness theories to astronomical scales. Relevant to debates about whether consciousness is fundamental to nature or emergent from brains. Connects to Sheldrake's broader program on morphic fields and extended mind. Published in a JCS special issue alongside commentaries.
Applying panpsychist philosophy and electromagnetic field theories of consciousness to the sun, this article argues that self-organizing systems at all levels of complexity β including stars β might possess awareness. The sun's electromagnetic complexity, with millions of granulations, sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections, creates an integrated field spanning the heliosphere. Under IIT, the sun plausibly has high Ξ¦, though computation is intractable. EM field theories (McFadden's CEMI, Pockett, Murphy) suggest the sun's integrative fields could be conscious. Solar cognition would be slow: ~4.6 s across the sun's diameter, ~16.7 hours to sense the heliopause.
Links
Related Papers
Same Research Program
Companion
- Quantum Aspects of the Brain-Mind Relationship: A Hypothesis with Supporting Evidence β Kauffman, Stuart A (2023)
- The Mental Universe β Henry, Richard Conn (2005)
- What if consciousness is not an emergent property of the brain? Observational and empirical challenges to materialistic models β Wahbeh, HelanΓ© (2022)
- A Call for an Open, Informed Study of All Aspects of Consciousness β CardeΓ±a, Etzel (2014)
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The Experimental Evidence for Parapsychological Phenomena: A Review
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π Cite this paper
Sheldrake, Rupert (2021). Is the Sun Conscious?. Journal of Consciousness Studies. https://doi.org/10.53765/20512201.28.3.008
@article{sheldrake_2021_sun_conscious,
title = {Is the Sun Conscious?},
author = {Sheldrake, Rupert},
year = {2021},
journal = {Journal of Consciousness Studies},
doi = {10.53765/20512201.28.3.008},
}