Mossbridge’s Informational Substrate as Collective Unconscious

Cognitive neuroscientist and educator Julia Mossbridge’s Informational Substrate as Collective Unconscious (IS/CU) model has several motivations for a theory of consciousness. One is the recognition that the collective unconscious is an ontological reality (but is rarely included in theories of consciousness). Another is the recognition that consciousness theories rarely separate consciousness per se (i.e., pure awareness) from its contents. In addition, Mossbridge cites her own research showing that conscious states of unconditional love support precognition accuracy (Mossbridge, 2022, 2025). She builds her theory of consciousness as follows.

Foundations of the IS/CU Model

First, she states, quantum mechanics requires a foundational informational substrate that informs the possibilities that emerge in spacetime, including neuronal firing in our brains as well as the objects and events we perceive with our brains. Because we are not conscious of this substrate, and because it influences our reality collectively, she makes the assumption that this informational substrate (IS) is equivalent to what Jung called the collective unconscious (CU). A further parallel, she says, is her assumption that our individual unconscious minds “read from” the IS/CU to obtain information that is useful for us at any particular time. She makes this assumption, she says, because otherwise it would not be clear how our unconscious minds can retrieve information about nonlocal events (which Mossbridge says has been established scientifically for skilled individuals).

Filtering and Individual Consciousness

Second, she says, the model addresses our unconscious minds. An unconscious mind is like a nonphysical container for information that also acts on that information (e.g., a mathematical function acting on the contents of a set). She says, “Given that we know we do not retrieve all the information in our individual unconscious minds, let's assume that part of acting on this information is to create a filter that narrows down the information eventually reaching our individual consciousness. I assert that the contents of individual consciousness are narrowed down by this filter according to unconscious intention—which is derived, like all the contents of the individual unconscious, from the IS/CU. This unconscious intention sometimes becomes one of the contents of consciousness, but often does not.”

Writing to the IS/CU

Third, she says, the contents that arrive in our individual consciousness (e.g., another mathematical function acting on the contents of a smaller set) are combined with unconscious contents and unconscious intentions, though, by definition, our consciousness is not aware of this combination. As a result, consciousness forms a conscious intention about “what to do next” that can be rationalized according to conscious contents alone but is influenced by unconscious content and unconscious intention, which is ultimately derived from the IS/CU.

Since everything can actually be done in the world without consciousness (i.e., zombies are possible), the only reason individual consciousness evolved is because it was the only way that intention, which is derived from individual consciousness itself (not from its contents), could have the power to suggest something—”write to”—the IS/CU directly. This, Mossbridge asserts, is the purpose of individual consciousness. Why can't the individual unconscious write to the IS/CU directly? It does not speak the same “language” as the IS/CU. The ironic implication here, she says, is that both individual consciousness and the collective unconscious share an “observer” status—that is, they are both conscious.

Finally, the IS/CU receives the suggestion and combines it with all other suggestions arriving from all points in time and space, calculating the information that creates spacetime events, including the contents of the individual unconscious mind and the eventual contents of the conscious mind.

Mossbridge stresses that this is a circular description of how reality and consciousness work, and the key is to recognize that the IS/CU is outside of spacetime, so there is no paradox here. We are inside of spacetime, sending our conscious intentions to the IS/CU. But it calculates what happens based on all intentions throughout all time, arriving from all beings with enough individual consciousness to ‘write’ to it, which could include other animals, extraterrestrials, ultraterrestrials, and AIs. As a result, it is the only entity that has free will—and as long as we include ourselves in it, we inherit free will. If we cut ourselves off from it, we deny ourselves free will.

One indirect test of this implication, she says, is to determine whether feelings of universal love or unity support more efficient read/write from/to the IS/CU. Some research suggests this may be the case, but more should be pursued. A general test of individual consciousness according to this IS/CU model would be whether the entity could read/write directly to the IS/CU, amounting to passing a test for psi capacities, as Turing suggested in 1949.