My body has a state. So does my mind. So does my consciousness. My body's state includes its location in physical space along with other attributes that might be measured and reported. My mind was in some state when I started writing this and is in a different state now. My state of consciousness--which I see as different from my state of mind--has also changed. I can consider my mind’s state including something like a location in something like a mind state space--whatever that might be. And I can consider my consciousness as having a state in some consciousness state space. Can, and did, and do.
My body's location in physical space might be described with respect to a physical landscape. The landscape identifies locations, their proximity to one another and also something about the difficulties of moving from one location to another. My body can be in locations that are not part of the landscape--for example, my body might be above the landscape or below it. But the landscape metaphor is helpful, though we must acknowledge that it is inadequate.
I've been considering how I can change my body’s location as I might move through (and above and below) the commonly understood physical landscape and have gained useful insights about how a mind and a consciousness, such as my own, might move through their respective landscapes. And I imagine how other minds and consciousnesses might move or be moved.
I started this essay by locating my body with respect to a physical landmark: Flexit Cafe. I could find the location of Flexit Cafe on Google Maps, and read out its latitude and longitude. That might be a more accurate statement of location, but less meaningful. What I'm after here is meaning, not accuracy.
I know how to move my body from place to place through the physical landscape. Indeed I've done it. Since starting to write this I’ve moved from the Flexit Cafe to my home in Blue Hill Maine where I am right now. I know how I could move my body to other places in the physical landscape as well.
So much for a physical location. For now, anyhow. Let's consider mental location, mental spaces, the mental landscape, and the means for moving a mind such as mine.
When I started writing this my mind was situated in some location in some sort of mental space whose characteristics I had hoped to discover and to describe as I constructed and revised this essay. This essay is a record of my exploration of a landscape of ideas adjacent to that first location in that mental space. It might be turned into a kind of map. I don’t know what else it might end up being.
A mental space, as I conceive of it, is a space that contains ideas, images, and other mental phenomena. Phenomena exist in relation to one another. Some ideas are close to others. Some are distant. We might consider that a mental space exists only within a particular mind. We might also consider that a mental space exists independent of any mind and that minds locate themselves within it. Or both. We're talking metaphor here, so I'm not sure it matters whether it's one, or the other, or both. Yet.
I can't think of a coordinate system for an idea space that might parallel the coordinates of a physical space. That doesn't mean there can't be one. But I don't think it's necessary. I can locate my mind in relation to landmark ideas just as I located my body in relation to Flexit Cafe--a landmark location. Right now my mind is exploring the region around an idea I might call “mental landscapes” occasionally teleporting to ideas in the region of the idea of “physical landscapes.” Occasionally my mind goes somewhere else entirely-- to ideas associated with sentence structure or choice of words.
So minds can travel the landscape of ideas by tedious exploration (and possibly creation) of adjacent ideas, by logical reasoning to move from one idea to another, and by something like teleporting in which one jumps from one idea, or one region of mind space, to a distant idea or region.
Is such a jump a change in location, that is, a change in state of mind? Or do certain states of mind require different states of consciousness? When I'm exploring the neighborhood of ideas about the content of this essay and when I'm thinking about the mechanics of writing it seems that I am in more than different states of consciousness. But that's just the idea that I'm examining, right now. The question does not have to be resolved, yet, if ever.
The characteristics of a physical landscape are entirely familiar to all of us. The characteristics of a mental landscape, less so. When it comes to understanding what a consciousness landscape might be like, I'm a bit lost. That is: I'm not conscious of any ideas that seem to have utility.
No matter. I am in some location in some space of possible conscious states, and if pressed I could write some word describing that state. And I even know a little about how I got here. I started by moving my mind through my mental landscape to ideas about mental and consciousness landscapes. And then I turned my mind to the question: “What is my current state of consciousness?.” And then I became conscious of my current state of consciousness--for how else could I answer that question?
So now my body is located in my bedroom in Blue Hill, my mind is moving between ideas about physical location, ideas about mental location, and ideas about my location in the space of consciousness, and I am intermittently conscious and unconscious of what I am doing.
What am I doing?
I am deciding, right now, that this is a good start. And I'm going to finish it up and post it.
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