Mascari’s Qualion-Mind Paradigm
Stephen Arnold Mascari offers his “Qualion-Mind Paradigm” as a “biophysically generated dualism,” a “physicalistic/materialistic dualism that manifests supraphysical properties.” Mascari’s model was motivated by the recognition that something “new” is needed to explain our conscious mental life and that Nature could provide organic life-forms with a higher-level component, a “robust dualism,” that could account for mental phenomena in a fairly straightforward way.
Verified*
Stephen Arnold Mascari
Independent Theorist
Stephen Arnold Mascari is an independent researcher who writes on philosophy and the nature of consciousness. His work focuses on a non-reductive view of conscious experience, specifically developing the “Qualion Hypotheses.” These hypotheses propose the existence of “qualions,” which are stable microphysical energy-structures in the brain that may be the fundamental substrate of mental activity.
Key Takeaways
Core Claim
Consciousness arises from “qualions,” stable microphysical energy structures in the body that manifest supraphysical mental properties.
How It Works
The brain (“Brain 1”) interacts with qualions (“Brain 2.0”), which generate unified consciousness fields and enable volition.
Distinguishing Idea
Qualions act as the physical substrate of a modern “soul,” bridging energy and consciousness more closely than neurons can.
Ontological View
Treats energy and consciousness as “ontological cousins,” reducing the explanatory gap between brain matter and mental life.
Philosophical Aim
Offers a scientifically framed dualism that preserves human freedom and responsibility, rejecting deterministic neuro-materialism.
Mascari’s Qualion-Mind Paradigm
Independent theorist Stephen Arnold Mascari offers his “Qualion-Mind Paradigm” as a “biophysically generated dualism,” a “physicalistic/materialistic dualism that manifests supraphysical properties.” Mascari’s model, he says, was motivated by the recognition that something “new” is needed to explain our conscious mental life and that Nature could provide organic life-forms with a higher-level component, a “robust dualism,” that could account for mental phenomena in a fairly straightforward way (Mascari, 2016a, 2016b).
Mechanism of Qualions
His mechanism is founded on humans manifesting 310 Kelvin (~98.6 Fahrenheit; ~37 Celsius) energy: energy, as he puts it, that is “continually being emitted and absorbed by every molecule within us, with only two possible mechanisms. The first would consist of a direct emission of the body’s 310 K energy in an anomalous form due to certain unique features and interactive processes of biological molecules. The second may occur when ordinary thermal emissions interact in their various potential states with biological structures or processes.”
One of these mechanisms, he says, may engender a body-wide network of “localized microphysical energy-structures” that are stable and immune to absorption. These quanta are theorized to be a new form of electromagnetic energy with a wide range of possible structures, including balls, strings, toruses, loops, composites, and the like.
According to Mascari, these energy-structures—which he designates qualions—are throughout the body as a whole and would constitute what has traditionally been thought of as the “soul.” In the brain region, however, they would be elevated to the higher level of “mind.” The neuronal brain (Brain 1) would have evolved in part to complement and take advantage of the qualion-mind’s potential.
Brain 1 would activate, unify, and pour information into the local qualion microcosm. It would also offer arenas for the qualion-mind’s functional activities and offer features that allow for two-way interaction. Although intimately connected to neurons, qualions would nonetheless remain distinct and have the capacity to interact electromagnetically with individual neurons or neuronal networks. Even so, they may be viewed as a higher faculty of the brain itself—Brain 2.0.
Qualions, Mascari states, may be thought of as “the ultimate substrate of mental activity. Essentially, they are proposed to generate highly variable levels and states of supraphysical consciousness fields into the virtual emptiness of the brain region. (Recall that all matter is 99.99+% empty space.)”
Mass and energy are known to be interrelated potentials. Similarly, energy and consciousness are proposed to be interrelated but much more closely. Hence, M ⟷E ⟷C. Based on the inference that consciousness fields have an inherently protean, freely active essence that allows them to self-configure and assume a superordinate role over their energetic sources, several other properties, such as field-intensity variation, can be attributed to these quanta. As the means of achieving subjective unity, consciousness fields from distinct qualions are proposed to merge into a single ultracomplex field.
Implications of the Paradigm
When these and other postulates are added to what is known about the brain’s involvement in cognition, they provide a coherent framework for understanding the emergence of the conscious mind, its continuity as a relatively autonomous, higher-level system, its content and processes, and its ability to exert volitional controls.
Mascari contends that the concept that the mind is based on a versatile, transcendent form of energy has better explanatory power than neuro-materialism, because mental phenomena and the material neurons are simply too different in kind, which yields the unbridgeable explanatory gap between them. By contrast, energy and consciousness seem like ontological cousins.
The paradigm also affirms that humans are freely acting selves. It transcends the naive neuro-materialistic view that humans are determined mechanisms with no ultimate self and is thus consistent with the perennial view of persons as free, responsible agents. Mascari calls his Qualion-Mind Paradigm “a soul for the 21st century.”
Tools
Cite