Western vs. Eastern Ideas of Consciousness and Physical Reality

This is the 6th video in the Top Down series. Prompted by the intriguing suggestion on Medium of Dr. Tim Anderson, this explores the differences in Western and Eastern thinking on the relationship between consciousness and physical reality. While today the views are vastly difference, science today leads us into a re-convergence.

Video Script:

Many in the science world are rethinking consciousness, our minds and the very nature of reality. One of those is Tim Anderson, a physicist and philosopher of science, the author of The Infinite Universe.

Dr. Anderson asks a most intriguing question. If we draw a circle and surround it with a vast cloud or unlimited horizon, what is consciousness and what is the physical world we interact with? He concludes that if we answer that the cloud is the physical world and the circle is our conscious minds, then we are likely someone from the Western culture. If we think that the cloud is consciousness and the circle is physical reality, then we are likely someone with an Eastern cultural…