Science of unconsciousness

[Guest guest]

Name: Morey Kitzman

 

Affiliation: Psychology, Metropolitan State College of Denver

 

Abstract Title: Toward a Science of Non-Consciousness

 

Abstract: During the last century we saw the psychological sciences

mount an all out assault on the concept of consciousness. Therefore,

it is not surprising to see this tendency continue in the new

century and the new millennium. Yes, the concept of consciousness

has been resurrected, but the same materialistic forces that drove

science previously act now. We have come to bury Caesar, not to

praise him. The paper will argue that the motivation behind the

denial of consciousness derives from an attempt to maintain control

over the mass thinking. Science has lost its pursuit of truth and

traded it for power and control. How do you control a free people?

Deny that they have freedom. Consciousness more than any other

concept is about freedom, it affirms it and it demands it. The rule

of the science is to avoid the study of anything that would lead the

individual to believe that they have any power or self-importance.

Hence, the study of imagination, emotion, creativity, self-control,

self-understanding, self-actualization, free will, meaning,

spirituality have all been avoided entirely by the mainstream

science. As in case of behaviorism, which dominated American

psychology for over five decades, instead of asking how does the

individual become more free, it was about how people can be

controlled like rats and pigeons.

 

The unfortunate circumstances that this creates for our culture is

that the individual is discouraged from attempting to understand

themselves. Personal philosophies are discouraged, the only thing

that really matters is the collective effort of science to apply

methodology and technology, all problems and their solutions become

technological in nature. The door to self knowledge is closed, the

encouragement of the individual pursuit of truth is lost, and

individuals in society await the pronouncements about human nature

from on high. Society becomes passive.

 

The paper argues that the continued effort to mechanize our concepts

of consciousness is driven by the two distinct motivations. The

first motivation is control. To define people is to control them:

you are a machine, we can measure you, predict you, and even make a

better version of you. Do you see how insignificant your existence

is and how utterly helpless you would be without science? Do you see

how powerful science is and that it can even create consciousness?

This is propaganda at its best. It is the ultimate form of

possessiveness and it is the result of a science that has lost the

ability to introspect, to look at itself objectively. The second

motivation behind the mechanization of consciousness is about

resistance to change. When all the efforts of scientist are directed

toward building machine consciousness, it diverts the discussion and

the attention away from seeking to improve self and to understand

self. The scientist does not need to improve, to grow, to actualize.

Self actualization is not in the nature of machines. Consciousness

ceases to be about unfolding dimensions of self. Consciousness

becomes static and two dimensional, and in a way, so do we.