Mark Lew's Blog
May 30, 2025
Panpsychism
Depending upon one’s disposition, the term panpsychism sounds like—but isn’t—some kind of mental aberration. Or perhaps—noting the ‘psychic’ in its contents—it is errantly perceived as some mumbo-jumbo (because humans aren’t predisposed in their thinking, now are they?) that falls outside the five-sense world we think we know. And yet, neither aberration nor claptrap, it may well be greeted with skepticism in the predominant “culturally-advanced” world of monotheism that Western civilization has cultivated.
The long and short of it is that panpsychism is defined as the existence of consciousness in all living things. It kicks the notion of beings directed purely by instinct to the curb. And by “beings,” we are not restricting that notion to the animal world, creatures with a skull and grey matter beneath it. In the world of panpsychism, plants, bacterium, and even cells have a level of consciousness, aware of their surroundings.
A researcher named Michael Levin working at Tufts University conducted experiments with flatworms. Flatworms have incredible regenerative abilities, and he wanted to see how that applies to their consciousness. These worms have a strong aversion to light, a tool Levin used to his advantage. He lit up the center of petri dishes and, as expected, the flatworms hung around the darker edges. Then, he put flatworm food in the center of the brightest area of the petri dish. After some time, the allure of the food had the flatworms overcoming their reluctance and venturing forth into the light.
Not a big deal. Hunger is a powerful motivator. This same pattern of food in the bright spot was repeated for a short time. Learned behavior, right?
Wrong… because Levin then cut off their heads where their teeny-tiny brains reside! And no, it didn’t kill them. In fact, a couple of weeks later, they had all grown new heads. But here’s where it gets even more interesting. These head-regenerated flatworms no longer had an aversion to light! With or without food at the brightest area of the petri dish, these flatworms ventured forth without hesitation. Their consciousness was not seated in their brains. Consciousness is something else entirely.
Findings like this suggest that modern science may have made a big mistake in assuming that cognition is all about the brain. Brain cells, known as neurons, are actually not that special. A key feature of these cells — the ability to send and receive electrical signals — is shared with other cells in the body. And it’s this sensing and communicating via electricity that, Levin suspects, makes basic cognition possible.
And what about plants? No brains, as far as we can tell. So, explain the findings of Monica Gagliano, an ecologist, using Mimosa pudica, a plant known for defensively folding in its leaves in response to physical stimuli. Gagliano dropped these plants from a height onto a foam base and, as expected, the leaves curled up at the shock. But after being dropped several times, the plants learned that the drops were pretty harmless, so they kept their leaves open during future drops — even a month later.
Cognition and behavioral modification are manifestations of consciousness; that’s a given. Without consciousness, using only pre-programmed DNA sequencing, a subject would repeat a response without alteration. But that doesn’t happen—not in headless flatworms, in flora, or even slime mold. In short, the limitation to states of consciousness is invented in our own heads as we state with unequivocal bravura, that only beings with a developed brain know what’s going on around them.
As Mr. Levin states, “there’s no getting away from the fact that cognition exists widely and long before brains and nerves appear.”
So, the next time you think you’re sure about something, don’t be so sure.
For a deeper dive into this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjK-2...
The long and short of it is that panpsychism is defined as the existence of consciousness in all living things. It kicks the notion of beings directed purely by instinct to the curb. And by “beings,” we are not restricting that notion to the animal world, creatures with a skull and grey matter beneath it. In the world of panpsychism, plants, bacterium, and even cells have a level of consciousness, aware of their surroundings.
A researcher named Michael Levin working at Tufts University conducted experiments with flatworms. Flatworms have incredible regenerative abilities, and he wanted to see how that applies to their consciousness. These worms have a strong aversion to light, a tool Levin used to his advantage. He lit up the center of petri dishes and, as expected, the flatworms hung around the darker edges. Then, he put flatworm food in the center of the brightest area of the petri dish. After some time, the allure of the food had the flatworms overcoming their reluctance and venturing forth into the light.
Not a big deal. Hunger is a powerful motivator. This same pattern of food in the bright spot was repeated for a short time. Learned behavior, right?
Wrong… because Levin then cut off their heads where their teeny-tiny brains reside! And no, it didn’t kill them. In fact, a couple of weeks later, they had all grown new heads. But here’s where it gets even more interesting. These head-regenerated flatworms no longer had an aversion to light! With or without food at the brightest area of the petri dish, these flatworms ventured forth without hesitation. Their consciousness was not seated in their brains. Consciousness is something else entirely.
Findings like this suggest that modern science may have made a big mistake in assuming that cognition is all about the brain. Brain cells, known as neurons, are actually not that special. A key feature of these cells — the ability to send and receive electrical signals — is shared with other cells in the body. And it’s this sensing and communicating via electricity that, Levin suspects, makes basic cognition possible.
And what about plants? No brains, as far as we can tell. So, explain the findings of Monica Gagliano, an ecologist, using Mimosa pudica, a plant known for defensively folding in its leaves in response to physical stimuli. Gagliano dropped these plants from a height onto a foam base and, as expected, the leaves curled up at the shock. But after being dropped several times, the plants learned that the drops were pretty harmless, so they kept their leaves open during future drops — even a month later.
Cognition and behavioral modification are manifestations of consciousness; that’s a given. Without consciousness, using only pre-programmed DNA sequencing, a subject would repeat a response without alteration. But that doesn’t happen—not in headless flatworms, in flora, or even slime mold. In short, the limitation to states of consciousness is invented in our own heads as we state with unequivocal bravura, that only beings with a developed brain know what’s going on around them.
As Mr. Levin states, “there’s no getting away from the fact that cognition exists widely and long before brains and nerves appear.”
So, the next time you think you’re sure about something, don’t be so sure.
For a deeper dive into this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjK-2...
May 19, 2025
Eyes Wide Open
It’s a curious thing how transformations occur in the human psyche, how the processes we encounter and repeat transform into unwavering certainty. God, I wish there were an easier way to express this idea; I’ve probably alienated a large swath of readers already.
But for those of you with courage enough to stay the course, I’ll do my best to break this idea down. When we’re young—too young to read, even—we begin the process of conscious learning by being read to, by illustrations that draw our attention, by learning A is for Apple (and here’s a nice picture of an apple) and B is for Ball (with amended picture), and so on. Then 24 letters later, we’ve reached the end of the alphabet and will do so again tomorrow and tomorrow. Then, one day, many tomorrows later, baby finds he/she can recite the alphabet in order without need of the book! We’re so proud of our little selves, huge smiles all around, a little dance maybe, and cookies & milk as the reward for a job well done! Yay!
And yeah… it’s effective. And in one way, it’s expansive—absorbing thoughts by reading what other people already know—but in another way, it’s restrictive. Not through any fault of the reading material, certainly, but by the metamorphosis that occurs in our heads. What’s the first utterance when seeking an answer to a question? “Look it up.” And in this regard, the advent of cell phones has been a blessing, a wealth of information at the touch of a few buttons. But the restrictive part arises when there’s no place to just look it up. We become creatures of habit where we only feel we learn when others feed us information.
What happens when we need to read that which hasn’t been written? What happens when we question the validity of an observation without corroboration by some expert or another? They’re not necessarily earth-shattering observations, but I’ll cite an easy one to get this ball rolling. (I mention this particular subject in my novel, so it comes easy). We all know that Vitamin D comes from sunlight. (and if you didn’t know, well… now you’ve read it, so you do know it). Spend all your time indoors and you’ll have a Vitamin D deficiency, requiring supplements to keep up this necessary vitamin in your body. But, if you spend too much time in the sunlight, you risk sunburn, blisters, and, in some extreme cases, skin cancer.
So, what does that tell you? It’s saying even good things need to be treated with moderation. It’s a simple enough lesson and wisdom that has been passed down through generations. The thing of it is, there are myriad lessons to be learned by virtue of our lives on Earth, lessons that aren’t quite so straightforward and that require some keen observation and a temperament to reflect upon those. I hope to touch on a few of those that have resonated with me in the hopes they resonate with you as well.
And that’s where this blog is going in upcoming issues. I’d love to have people chime in on their observations and the conclusions they’ve drawn. I believe it’ll make for lively banter and thought-provoking explorations. Maybe we’ll all begin to read things that aren’t written, hear the music that has never been played.
Etched in Stone
But for those of you with courage enough to stay the course, I’ll do my best to break this idea down. When we’re young—too young to read, even—we begin the process of conscious learning by being read to, by illustrations that draw our attention, by learning A is for Apple (and here’s a nice picture of an apple) and B is for Ball (with amended picture), and so on. Then 24 letters later, we’ve reached the end of the alphabet and will do so again tomorrow and tomorrow. Then, one day, many tomorrows later, baby finds he/she can recite the alphabet in order without need of the book! We’re so proud of our little selves, huge smiles all around, a little dance maybe, and cookies & milk as the reward for a job well done! Yay!
And yeah… it’s effective. And in one way, it’s expansive—absorbing thoughts by reading what other people already know—but in another way, it’s restrictive. Not through any fault of the reading material, certainly, but by the metamorphosis that occurs in our heads. What’s the first utterance when seeking an answer to a question? “Look it up.” And in this regard, the advent of cell phones has been a blessing, a wealth of information at the touch of a few buttons. But the restrictive part arises when there’s no place to just look it up. We become creatures of habit where we only feel we learn when others feed us information.
What happens when we need to read that which hasn’t been written? What happens when we question the validity of an observation without corroboration by some expert or another? They’re not necessarily earth-shattering observations, but I’ll cite an easy one to get this ball rolling. (I mention this particular subject in my novel, so it comes easy). We all know that Vitamin D comes from sunlight. (and if you didn’t know, well… now you’ve read it, so you do know it). Spend all your time indoors and you’ll have a Vitamin D deficiency, requiring supplements to keep up this necessary vitamin in your body. But, if you spend too much time in the sunlight, you risk sunburn, blisters, and, in some extreme cases, skin cancer.
So, what does that tell you? It’s saying even good things need to be treated with moderation. It’s a simple enough lesson and wisdom that has been passed down through generations. The thing of it is, there are myriad lessons to be learned by virtue of our lives on Earth, lessons that aren’t quite so straightforward and that require some keen observation and a temperament to reflect upon those. I hope to touch on a few of those that have resonated with me in the hopes they resonate with you as well.
And that’s where this blog is going in upcoming issues. I’d love to have people chime in on their observations and the conclusions they’ve drawn. I believe it’ll make for lively banter and thought-provoking explorations. Maybe we’ll all begin to read things that aren’t written, hear the music that has never been played.
Etched in Stone
Eyes Wide Open
It’s a curious thing how transformations occur in the human psyche, how the processes we encounter and repeat transform into unwavering certainty. God, I wish there were an easier way to express this idea; I’ve probably alienated a large swath of readers already.
But for those of you with courage enough to stay the course, I’ll do my best to break this idea down. When we’re young—too young to read, even—we begin the process of conscious learning by being read to, by illustrations that draw our attention, by learning A is for Apple (and here’s a nice picture of an apple) and B is for Ball (with amended picture), and so on. Then 24 letters later, we’ve reached the end of the alphabet and will do so again tomorrow and tomorrow. Then, one day, many tomorrows later, baby finds he/she can recite the alphabet in order without need of the book! We’re so proud of our little selves, huge smiles all around, a little dance maybe, and cookies & milk as the reward for a job well done! Yay!
And yeah… it’s effective. And in one way, it’s expansive—absorbing thoughts by reading what other people already know—but in another way, it’s restrictive. Not through any fault of the reading material, certainly, but by the metamorphosis that occurs in our heads. What’s the first utterance when seeking an answer to a question? “Look it up.” And in this regard, the advent of cell phones has been a blessing, a wealth of information at the touch of a few buttons. But the restrictive part arises when there’s no place to just look it up. We become creatures of habit where we only feel we learn when others feed us information.
What happens when we need to read that which hasn’t been written? What happens when we question the validity of an observation without corroboration by some expert or another? They’re not necessarily earth-shattering observations, but I’ll cite an easy one to get this ball rolling. (I mention this particular subject in my novel, so it comes easy). We all know that Vitamin D comes from sunlight. (and if you didn’t know, well… now you’ve read it, so you do know it). Spend all your time indoors and you’ll have a Vitamin D deficiency, requiring supplements to keep up this necessary vitamin in your body. But, if you spend too much time in the sunlight, you risk sunburn, blisters, and, in some extreme cases, skin cancer.
So, what does that tell you? It’s saying even good things need to be treated with moderation. It’s a simple enough lesson and wisdom that has been passed down through generations. The thing of it is, there are myriad lessons to be learned by virtue of our lives on Earth, lessons that aren’t quite so straightforward and that require some keen observation and a temperament to reflect upon those. I hope to touch on a few of those that have resonated with me in the hopes they resonate with you as well.
And that’s where this blog is going in upcoming issues. I’d love to have people chime in on their observations and the conclusions they’ve drawn. I believe it’ll make for lively banter and thought-provoking explorations. Maybe we’ll all begin to read things that aren’t written, hear the music that has never been played.
But for those of you with courage enough to stay the course, I’ll do my best to break this idea down. When we’re young—too young to read, even—we begin the process of conscious learning by being read to, by illustrations that draw our attention, by learning A is for Apple (and here’s a nice picture of an apple) and B is for Ball (with amended picture), and so on. Then 24 letters later, we’ve reached the end of the alphabet and will do so again tomorrow and tomorrow. Then, one day, many tomorrows later, baby finds he/she can recite the alphabet in order without need of the book! We’re so proud of our little selves, huge smiles all around, a little dance maybe, and cookies & milk as the reward for a job well done! Yay!
And yeah… it’s effective. And in one way, it’s expansive—absorbing thoughts by reading what other people already know—but in another way, it’s restrictive. Not through any fault of the reading material, certainly, but by the metamorphosis that occurs in our heads. What’s the first utterance when seeking an answer to a question? “Look it up.” And in this regard, the advent of cell phones has been a blessing, a wealth of information at the touch of a few buttons. But the restrictive part arises when there’s no place to just look it up. We become creatures of habit where we only feel we learn when others feed us information.
What happens when we need to read that which hasn’t been written? What happens when we question the validity of an observation without corroboration by some expert or another? They’re not necessarily earth-shattering observations, but I’ll cite an easy one to get this ball rolling. (I mention this particular subject in my novel, so it comes easy). We all know that Vitamin D comes from sunlight. (and if you didn’t know, well… now you’ve read it, so you do know it). Spend all your time indoors and you’ll have a Vitamin D deficiency, requiring supplements to keep up this necessary vitamin in your body. But, if you spend too much time in the sunlight, you risk sunburn, blisters, and, in some extreme cases, skin cancer.
So, what does that tell you? It’s saying even good things need to be treated with moderation. It’s a simple enough lesson and wisdom that has been passed down through generations. The thing of it is, there are myriad lessons to be learned by virtue of our lives on Earth, lessons that aren’t quite so straightforward and that require some keen observation and a temperament to reflect upon those. I hope to touch on a few of those that have resonated with me in the hopes they resonate with you as well.
And that’s where this blog is going in upcoming issues. I’d love to have people chime in on their observations and the conclusions they’ve drawn. I believe it’ll make for lively banter and thought-provoking explorations. Maybe we’ll all begin to read things that aren’t written, hear the music that has never been played.
