Abstract

This paper provides a way forward from the greatest unanswered question in science and philosophy: ‘What is consciousness?’ The path forward begins with the recognition that ours is an undistinguished, temporary planet in a vaster and timeless universe. Telescope improvements since Galileo have proven the reality that this is no longer the earth- centered perspective of Ptolomy and Aristotle. Today we also have the previously unimagined perspective of Schroedinger's quantum wave mechanics which apply independently of time and place. We take the quantum-mechanical ‘bing" of Hammeroff and Penrose as the best present understanding of primitive consciousness, and show that the universe has both a physical and a spiritual component, both of which are independent of time and place. We postulate that the spiritual component is identical among us, and is our true selves. We conclude that our home is not the earth, but the universe.