The Evolution of Consciousness

by Gary Lachman

In this paper Gary Lachman interrogates the conventional theory that human consciousness is a passive, mechanistic phenomenon created by chance. Overturning this dogmatic idea of materialist science rooted in Darwin's theory of evolution, Lachman proposes a far more persuasive alternative that the development of consciousness is an active process that "reaches out" toward the external world and in doing so, "evolves" from within.

One of the themes I write about in many of my books is the evolution of consciousness. Although the idea of an evolution of consciousness can be understood in a Darwinian way, that is not the way in which I understand it, nor is it the way in which the many philosophers, psychologists, and other thinkers whose work I draw on understand it. 

Perhaps the simplest way to understand the difference between the two is that from a Darwinian point of view, any evolution that consciousness may have undergone has been determined by strictly physical, material factors. Th…