Does Consciousness Precede Life Itself?

As part of my work at Aletheia Today, I scour the latest newsletters, searching for the latest ideas in science, technology, culture, theology and philosophy for you, our dedicated readers. 

Today, I came upon a post with mind bending implications. Let me share excerpts (SL) with you along with my observations (AT). The author is Susan Lahey and the publication, Popular Mechanics (4/7/2025). 

SL: Every six years, an asteroid by the name of Bennu passes by Earth. Bennu…formed nearly 4.6 billion years ago. Recently, scientists accomplished an unprecedented feat, sending a spacecraft billions of miles to the asteroid and back to collect 121.6 grams of material from Bennu for study at an Arizona State University lab…for clues to the nature and origins of life. 

Tantalizing evidence in the Bennu sample suggests that the asteroid contains constituents of the “primordial soup” that scientists believe likely led to life emerging on Earth. But that’s not all. It could also contain particular molecules that could have formed crystalline formations that some scientists believe are key to consciousness. These formations may have been present among organic molecules (molecules containing carbon atoms) for a hundred million years before genes (much less DNA) existed, enabling the earliest forms of decision-making and self-organization into life. 

AT: On its face, this is an astonishing suggestion. If you assume DNA, or something very much like it, is necessary for life, then the Bennu sample suggests that consciousness precedes life itself. 

SL: The prevailing theory of consciousness is that humans manufacture it inside the brain—that it boils down to a computation. Yet, Dr. Hameroff and his collaborator, Nobel Laureate and physicist Roger Penrose (just to drop a name) have argued for decades that consciousness made the world and not the other way around.  

AT: In my opinion, Roger Penrose may be the smartest human being alive today. I won’t compare him to Davinci, Shakespeare, Bach, Einstein, Joyce, or Picasso…but if I did, Roger would not come off badly. 

A long time colleague of Stephen Hawking, Penrose is a true polymath. He has turned his attention to numerous topics in science and philosophy and, beginning in middle school, he’s revolutionized every field he’s explored. Just pray he doesn’t come calling at your place of employment any time soon.  

SL: They (Penrose & Co.) believe that it (consciousness) is not manufactured in the brain but only processed there, via an external quantum wave function sweeping through the universe that interacts with tiny protein tubes.  

AT: Whaaaat! If confirmed, it is hard to imagine a scientific development more earth shattering than this. It would literally overturn most of the last 500 years of science and philosophy. Karl Marx is said to have stood Hegel on his head; this thesis, if substantiated, would turn us all upside down. 

SL: These microtubules form the cytoskeleton of living cells and are especially plentiful in brain cells… Quantum activity in the brain could take place in these microtubules…  

AT: Experiments have confirmed that quantum effects can occur in these micro-structures. 

SL: Here’s where Bennu comes in. The asteroid is made up of carbons — the molecules that form the basis of all life. Researchers found that the samples include 14 of the 20 amino acids that life on Earth uses to make proteins. The bits of rock also contain all five nucleobases used to store and transmit genetic instructions in more complex biomolecules, such as DNA and RNA…  

But what about signs of consciousness? Bennu also could contain the structures that allow the kind of quantum resonance…needed for consciousness. These are organic ring molecules whose extra electrons form electron clouds that exchange photons, as in fluorescence. Organic rings…become quantum oscillators that are able to support consciousness…  

AT: So, the molecular precursors of life and the structures of consciousness existed in tact before the Earth as we know it was even born. If so, consciousness precedes life itself! 

SL: It’s these quantum oscillators in our microtubules that give us our conscious experiences. Neurons are incredibly complex. Each neuronal cell comprises billions of microtubules that are oscillating, or passing electrons back and forth, at the astonishing speed of 1015 times per second. 

AT: The clear implication is that the universe was somehow conscious of itself before anything was ‘alive’. Note: Even if it turns out that life emerged in the universe before it emerged on Earth, that wouldn’t change the fact that the ‘population’ of Bennu included the structure of consciousness but not of life itself.   

SL: …Japan’s National Institute of Material Sciences found that there are, in fact, three bands of frequencies that conduct electricity at the neuron level; three bands of higher frequencies at the microtubule level; and three bands of even higher frequencies at the level of tubulin—the material microtubules are made of. Within each frequency another three bands of frequencies operate: a triplet of triplets. 

AT: If the idea that consciousness preceded life itself is not mind-bending enough for you, this corollary (above) should be. Cutting edge cosmology views the Universe as a giant fractal in which the same ordered patterns recur at scale across 60 orders of magnitude (the ratio of the observable universe to the Planck metric).  

The new ‘Penrose Theory’ of consciousness incidentally confirms that supposition. Triplets within triplets. To paraphrase Stephen Hawking, “It’s triplets all the way down.” To paraphrase the Nicene Creed, “Three persons, one God.”  

SL: They believe this ‘triplet of triplets’ pattern of resonance is a fundamental pattern of the universe… These polyaromatic ring molecules might have organized themselves to increase opportunities for conscious quantum experiences. 

AT: In other words, life itself could be a by-product of consciousness, a series of molecular structures evolving to protect, preserve, and intensify conscious experience. Consciousness then would be its own reward and the driving force behind the evolution of all living organisms, behind the emergence of life itself. Cosmology then would be the process by which the universe wakes itself up! 

 ***

Image: "The Creation of the Birds" (La creación de las aves) is a 1957 oil painting on masonite by Spanish-Mexican surrealist artist Remedios Varo. This work is housed in the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. 

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