The Phenomenal Hyperspace: A Study of the Dimensional and Spatio-temporal Structures of Phenomenal Space and Binding

Summary

The paper argues that understanding the connection between phenomenal space and the brain requires considering a fourth spatial dimension. It introduces the transcendence principle of detection (TPD), suggesting that experiencing three-dimensional structures necessitates an additional dimension. This perspective aims to explain why aspects of consciousness seem inaccessible to empirical observation, proposing that the integration of brain events in binding leads to a three-dimensionally distributed phenomenal experience derived from neurophysical structures observed within a fourth dimension.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The dimensional structure of phenomenal space and its relation to the brain have not been widely focused on in brain and consciousness studies. This paper postulates that focusing on the dimensional structures displayed in the relation between phenomenal space and the brain is necessary for understanding the integration of distributed brain events in binding. A related issue is why items and events of phenomenal space and consciousness as they appear in experience seem to be beyond the reach of natural scientific empirical observation. The proposed solution to these issues is postulated to require a fourth spatial dimension. A transcendence principle of detection (TPD) is introduced, which states that transcendent degrees of freedom of an n+1 dimension are a necessary condition for experiencing or detecting an n-dimensionally extended physical structure as an n-dimensionally extended phenomenal structure. It is postulated that the phenomenal outcome of binding, i.e. the threedimensionally distributed and extended phenomenal structure of human experience, is the expected first-person outcome of threedimensionally distributed neurophysical structures being monitored at the domain of a fourth spatial dimension.