Schooler’s General Resonance Theory and Subjective Time

Experimental psychologist Jonathan Schooler outlines a theory of consciousness that combines two novel ideas: “General Resonance Theory” (co-developed with Tam Hunt), where multiple levels of consciousness interact, and “subjective time,” where consciousness arises with an observer's movement through objective time relative to a currently unacknowledged dimension of subjective time. (Hunt and Schooler 2019; Schooler, 2022a). Both ideas are motivated by Schooler's research and thinking on meta-consciousness, mind wandering, and anomalous cognition (i.e., psi/paranormal phenomena).

Meta-Consciousness and Resonance Theory

The first idea is what he calls meta-consciousness or meta-awareness. In addition to having experiences, he says, “periodically, I check-in on what's going on in my mind. And I may notice things that I hadn't noticed otherwise; for example, mind wandering while reading. We all have the experience of reading along and suddenly realizing that, although our eyes are moving across the page, we have no idea what we're reading. We're thinking about something completely unrelated. It's as if we're waking up, but we were awake all along” (Schooler, 2022a). Temporal dissociations are revealed when an individual, who previously lacked meta-consciousness about the contents of consciousness, directs meta-consciousness towards those contents (e.g., catching one's mind wandering during reading) (Schooler, 2002).

Appreciating the distinction between consciousness and meta-consciousness helps to clarify a variety of phenomenal experiences. As Schooler notes, “when we're entering a moment of meta-consciousness, when we recognize that we can have experience without being meta-aware of that experience, it helps to open up the discussion about consciousness. We can have an emotion and not realize that we're having it. We may not notice that we're angry. When people shout, ‘I'm not angry,’ they are attempting to take stock of it, but they get it wrong. By recognizing this distinction between experiential consciousness and meta-consciousness we can gain broader perspectives on the varieties of consciousness and deeper understanding of the nature of consciousness” (Schooler, 2022a).

Meta-consciousness is said to correspond to conscious states in which the content of those states includes an explicit characterization of what is currently being experienced. In other words, he says, meta-consciousness is simply a kind of conscious experience in which the focus of thought is turned on to itself. Thus, although conscious and unconscious mental processes are categorically distinct, conscious and meta-conscious states differ only with respect to the type of content that they entail (Schooler and Mrazek, 2015).

“Resonance theory” leverages meta-consciousness by positing multiple levels or streams of consciousness going on simultaneously. In the same way that the brain's left and right hemispheres seem to carry on multiple streams of consciousness, Schooler says it's possible that lower levels or “windows” may have their own, albeit circumscribed conscious experiences. And the way that these windows are communicating with one another is through resonances of assorted kinds. Within a single window, all can be happening in synchrony, and then, between levels, there is cross-frequency coupling. And it is through these various kinds of resonances, both top-down and bottom-up circuits, that multiple potentially sentient windows may be able to communicate with one another, thus producing what we know as macroscopic consciousness (Schooler, 2022a).

In their General Resonance Theory of consciousness, Tam Hunt and Schooler propose that “Synchronization, harmonization, vibrations, or simply resonance in its most general sense seems to have an integral relationship with consciousness itself.” The problem they seek to solve is “how do micro-conscious entities combine into a higher-level macro-consciousness?” The solution they offer in the context of mammalian consciousness suggests that “a shared resonance is what allows different parts of the brain to achieve a phase transition in the speed and bandwidth of information flows between the constituent parts. This phase transition allows for richer varieties of consciousness to arise, with the character and content of that consciousness in each moment determined by the particular set of constituent neurons.”

They suggest that the ontology of consciousness “manifests as a continuum of increasing richness in all physical processes,” which, they say, distinguishing their view from emergentist materialism (Hunt and Schooler, 2019).

According to Schooler, the General Resonance Theory of consciousness works via a shared resonance that allows different parts of the brain to achieve a phase transition in the speed and bandwidth of information flows between the constituent parts. This phase transition allows for richer varieties of consciousness to arise, with the character and content of that consciousness in each moment determined by the particular set of constituent neurons (Hunt and Schooler, 2019).

Schooler recognizes that because the idea driving his resonance theory is that we may have multiple levels of consciousness, he affirms what Daniel Dennett denies: a “Cartesian Theater” in the brain. Whereas Dennett disparages the “Cartesian Theater” as imaginary, Schooler champions its reality.

“I do think that, at any given moment, there is a vantage,” Schooler states, “but I also think that it's just one of multiple vantages that are happening in the mind. We have multiple windows; we have what we call ‘nested observer windows’. And so, we imagine that consciousness may actually be these nested windows, windows upon windows, with each one resonating with the others. In this way, through the shared resonance between different windows, at different levels of awareness, we may construct an ever increasingly complex conscious experience.” Thus, Schooler conjectures that there may be not just a single Cartesian Theater, but in fact a “Cartesian Multiplex” of multiple nested observers (Schooler, 2022a).

Anomalous Cognition and Subjective Time

The second idea undergirding Schooler's theory of consciousness is the real possibility of “anomalous cognition” (i.e., psi/paranormal phenomena). “I have a motto,” he says, “’entertaining without endorsing’, meaning I see sufficient evidence such that psi phenomena deserve consideration—hundreds of studies that have found positive results. But at the same time, the failures to replicate, and the profound challenges in understanding how it could exist, if it does exist, lead me to feel that we are far from being able to endorse it as being a real phenomenon” (Schooler, 2022b; Schooler et al., 2018).

For example, although accounts of precognition (i.e., the mind perceiving events that have not yet occurred) have been prevalent across human history, Schooler and colleagues say it is no surprise that these claims have been met with strong skepticism, but rather than dismissing the claims, they call for more research to bridge the gap between skeptics and proponents (Franklin et al., 2014).

While scientists on both sides may usefully vary in the criteria that they set for entertaining and endorsing anomalous cognition, Schooler and colleagues argue that researchers should consider adopting a liberal criterion for entertaining anomalous cognition while maintaining a very strict criterion for the outright endorsement of its existence. Appreciating the justifiability of polar opposite views on psi/paranormal phenomena, Schooler encourages humility on both the part of those who present evidence in support of anomalous cognition and those who dispute the merit of its investigation (Schooler et al., 2018).

Schooler wonders whether there may be some aspects of existence that may forever elude full scientific scrutiny. He relates two germane examples. “Just as it may never be possible to prove objectively the single thing we know the best, which is our subjective experience of qualia, so it may never be possible to reproduce anomalous cognition events with robust precision and effects” (Schooler, 2022b).

Seeking potential mechanisms for anomalous cognition or psi/paranormal phenomena, if they were to exist, Schooler speculates that explanations of consciousness and explanations of anomalous cognition are going to be related. “If there is anything to anomalous cognition,” he says, “then it has to do with unexplained aspects of the nature of consciousness itself” (Schooler, 2022c).

Pondering what possible structures could explain both consciousness and anomalous cognition, Schooler focuses on the failure of the prevailing third-person perspective of material reductionism to account adequately for the first-person experience of subjectivity, the flow of time, and the present. While acknowledging intrinsic differences among these three ideas, he posits a meta-perspective that experience, the flow of time, and the unique quality of “now” might be accommodated by a subjective dimension or dimensions of time (Schooler, 2014). This new dimension of existence, a subjective dimension of time, would be as real as spatial dimensions. It is this subjective dimension, Schooler posits, that, while entirely overlooked by science, may be where the possible realm of anomalous cognition resides as well as being an essential part of the deep explanation of consciousness (Schooler, 2022b).

Alluding to information theory, Schooler considers how a conjoined first-person/third-person meta-perspective could conceptualize subjectivity, the present, and the flow of time within an architecture that closely links information to an ever-changing now. Thus, “consciousness arises via the changing informational states associated with an observer's movement through objective time relative to a currently unacknowledged dimension or dimensions of subjective time” (Schooler, 2014).

Perhaps most dramatically, certainly most controversially, the existence of an additional temporal dimension could be consistent with precognition (knowing the future), which has a vast anecdotal tradition and a serious (if challenged) research program. Schooler asserts that “demonstrating robust findings of precognition could inform theories of how consciousness interfaces with time in a manner not currently considered in modern science” (Schooler, 2014).

Ontology of Consciousness

Given his “resonance theory” and “subjective dimension of time,” what is Schooler's ultimate ontology of consciousness? Wielding his motto, “entertaining without endorsing,” he picks out panpsychism. “The magnitude of the challenge of how consciousness exists in physical reality, he says, invites ambitious characterizations of how it might fit. And panpsychism, the idea that very low-level consciousnesses integrate into higher levels, seems quite plausible” (Schooler, 2022a).