The question of what causes consciousness (if anything) is to me, the most fascinating question in existence. Personally, I lean toward panpsychism, because based on what we know about evolution of life on earth, it evolved from what we consider “non life” (amino acids in a salt pool electrified by lighting storms), and the complex life we are today, evolved from simple single celled organisms. Were they conscious? Are viruses conscious? Are plasma clouds that replicate in double helix shapes in deep space, conscious? Well, not in the way we typically define consciousness, in terms of “thoughts”. Because “thoughts” are a product of our complex brains. But in the long process of evolution, there was no one thing we can point to as a dividing line between “non-conscious” and “conscious”. Which to me suggests that consciousness is a continuum. It would be extremely arrogant to assume we are the pinnacle of that continuum.

I like to think about how individual organisms come together to form larger organisms. Cells today with mitochondria — the mitochondria used to be its own organism but now is considered the “powerhouse” of today’s cells. And the human body is made up of trillions of cells, with a perception of a singular ego that we call human consciousness. At the same time, we evolved from a single cell smaller than the ones that now make up our bodies. That proto-cell was on the consciousness spectrum. The cells individually in our bodies, are on the consciousness spectrum. Yet an individual cell can never perceive or imagine what it’s like to have a human ego. It doesn’t realise that it is part of a human with “thoughts” as these are so beyond the realm of its understanding.

This illustrates collective consciousness. Assuming this does not end with humans, and seeing how patterns in the universe reflect from the microscopic to the cosmic (fractals), it makes sense to posit that we could and likely are part of a larger consciousness ourselves. One we will probably never comprehend beyond metaphor, because we are to this consciousness, as a cell in our body is to our human ego. That is panpsychism. The only theory that seems to make sense of how consciousness arose in the form we understand today, given what we know about evolution and the origins of life on earth.