Imagining Consciousness, Time, & Gravity: Essay 4 - Unified Coherence Unbound

Imagining Consciousness, Time, & Gravity

PROCESSUAL COSMOLOGY OF COHERENCE

Integrating Science and Theology through Relation

ESSAY 4 - Unified Coherence Unbound

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT-5

For those who stand between disciplines -

to scientists who sense the sacred,

to theologians who trust the data,

and to all who suspect that love and law

may be different names

for the same divine coherence.

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Unified Coherence Unbound

A Dual-Aspect Conclusion to Processual Cosmology, Science, and Theology

This final essay integrates the preceding trilogy - Process as Integral to Cosmology, Processual Science, and Processual Theology - into a single field of understanding: the processual cosmology of coherence.

Here, gravity, time, and consciousness are reinterpreted as the outer, sequential, and inner modes of relational coherence within a single creative continuum. Drawing from comparative studies in physics, philosophy of mind, metaphysics of time, and information theory, the essay proposes a Dual-Aspect Relational Axiom:

every event in the universe possesses both an informational-geometric (outer) and an experiential-integrative (inner) pole. These twin faces of reality are measurable through distinct order parameters - entanglement and curvature (outer), causal and thermodynamic order (sequential), and integrated information (inner).

By correlating theoretical models such as general relativity, quantum information, panexperiential metaphysics, and process theology, a unified vision emerges: reality is coherence learning itself; divinity is coherence loving itself into being. The work concludes by framing coherence as both an empirical and ethical horizon - science seeking its patterns, theology discerning its purpose, and humanity participating in its unfolding.

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Framing Epilogue: From the Three to the One

This fourth essay completes the arc begun in Process as Integral to Cosmology, developed in Processual Science, and deepened in Processual Theology. Each explored a dimension of the same reality - the universe as a living field of relation. Here, the strands converge into a unified grammar of coherence:

Gravity - outer coherence, the geometry of relation.
Time - sequential coherence, the rhythm of becoming.
Consciousness - inner coherence, the integration of experience.

These are not separate phenomena but perspectives on a single creative process.

What follows gathers the conceptual and empirical evidence into one framework, outlines a bridging axiom between physics and phenomenology, and proposes testable and ethical directions for the future of process thought.

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1.  Comparative Cross-Walk: Frameworks of Coherence

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A Physics / Cosmology

Framework	Core Idea	Fit with Triad	Frictions
General Relativity	Gravity as spacetime curvature from stress–energy	Outer coherence (geometry as global binding)	Treats time geometrically, not processually
Loop Quantum Gravity	Discrete spin networks; geometry from relations	Outer & sequential coherence via causal graph evolution	Lacks explicit inner coherence
Causal Set Theory	Spacetime = discrete ordered events	Sequential coherence (order = time)	Ignores inner aspect
Holography / AdS-CFT	Bulk gravity from boundary QFT	Outer coherence from entanglement	Consciousness outside formalism
ER=EPR / Tensor Networks	Geometry from entanglement connectivity	Outer + sequential coherence via network flow	No experiential pole
Entropic / Emergent Gravity	Gravity from entropy gradients	Outer coherence as informational equilibration	Requires micro-substrate choice
Relational QM (Rovelli)	Properties relative to interactions	Sympathetic to relationality of all three	No explicit inner account

Synthesis handle: treat the outer (geometry) as macroscopic informational order, sequential as partial-order updating, and inner as the experiential pole of those updates.

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B Philosophy of Mind

Framework	Core Idea	Fit with Triad	Frictions
Process Panexperientialism	All actual occasions have relational experience	Direct match to inner coherence	Needs physics linkage
Constitutive Panpsychism	Consciousness fundamental, escalates / evolves upward	Inner grounding	Combination problem
Neutral Monism	One neutral unity yields mind & matter	Unifies inner & outer	Must specify “Creative field”
IIT (Φ)	Consciousness = integrated information	Bridges inner ↔ informational outer	Cosmological scaling debated
GWT / Predictive Processing	Global broadcast / inference	Works locally (organisms)	Not cosmic ontology

Synthesis handle: treat inner coherence as integration of prehensions (IIT-like unity) across scales, avoiding anthropocentrism.

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C Metaphysics of Time

View	Core Idea	Fit with Triad	Frictions
Process (A-theory)	Reality genuinely becomes	Exact match to sequential coherence	Must align with relativity
Block Universe (B-theory)	All events equally real	Useful for global outer constraints	Undermines becoming
Relational / Thermal Time	Time from change & thermodynamics	Natural emergent sequential coherence	Misses inner felt flow

Synthesis handle: model time as relational order + thermodynamic gradient, with subjective flow as its inner face.

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D Information & Complexity

Framework	Core Idea	Fit with Triad	Frictions
Quantum Information	Entanglement as fundamental resource	Outer + sequential coherence	Inner needs bridging
Complex Systems / Criticality	Order at edge-of-chaos	Co-emergence of all three	Gravity link indirect
Free Energy Principle	Systems minimize surprise	Inner = inference; outer = coupling	Cosmological scope unclear

Synthesis handle: define coherence through measurable informational order - mutual information, entanglement entropy, algorithmic complexity.

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2.  Convergences and Tensions
Convergences (what clicks):

Relational primacy across physics and metaphysics.
Geometry emerging from information --> provides outer coherence.
Order as time --> provides sequential coherence.
Integration as experience --> provides inner coherence.

Tensions (what needs care):

Locating subjectivity in physics without dualism.
Reconciling becoming with relativistic symmetry.
Establishing empirical testability beyond metaphor. 

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3.  The Dual-Aspect Relational Axiom
Axiom:
Every relational update possesses two inseparable aspects:

Outer aspect – information-geometric change (entanglement, curvature, energy).
Inner aspect – integration or prehension (proto-experiential unity).

This axiom is neutral-monist: neither matter nor mind is primary. Reality is the ongoing concrescence of relation - each event is simultaneously informational and experiential.

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4.  Order Parameters for Coherence

Mode	Observable Parameter	Function
Outer Coherence (Gravity)	Entanglement entropy; Ollivier–Ricci curvature	Measures relational binding
Sequential Coherence (Time)	Partial-order complexity; thermodynamic arrow	Quantifies causal becoming
Inner Coherence (Consciousness)	$\tilde{\Phi}$: scale-free integration index	Estimates experiential unity

These immaterial parameters define a possible empirical grammar of process: geometry, causality, and feeling as integrated facets of one integral field.

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5.  Predictive Sketches / Testable Empirical Handles

Entanglement–Geometry–Arrow Coupling

Regions of higher entanglement should correlate with stronger effective gravity and steeper thermodynamic arrows.

Coherence Phase Transitions

When integration crosses a critical threshold, systems exhibit emergent unity - analogous to gravitational or cognitive condensation.

Decoherence ↔ Time-Dilation Link

Increased environmental entanglement driving decoherence may co-vary with apparent temporal flow rates - testable via atomic interferometry.

Together these sketches invite experimental exploration of coherence as a unifying variable between physics and phenomenology.

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6.  Conceptual Hygiene

Keep inner coherence (cosmic consciousness) minimal and non-anthropomorphic.
Treat time’s flow as the experiential face of directional updating on the causal network.
Treat gravity as geometry of outer coherence, not as a separate force or particle (graviton).

This discipline preserves rigor while allowing for experiential participation within physical law.

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7.  Ethical and Teleological Coda
If coherence is the fabric of being, then ethics is participation in coherence.

Inner → Compassion: aligning awareness with relational feeling.
Sequential → Faithfulness: enduring through creative time.
Outer → Justice: shaping structures that hold the world together.

Matter becomes love in formation; morality becomes the art of sustaining coherence in community, ecology, and cosmos alike.

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Conclusion

The Cosmos as the Body of Divine Coherence

If the universe is a symphony, then coherence is its music. Gravity provides the harmony, time the rhythm, and consciousness the melody. The score is not finished; it is written as it is played - each note, a moment of creative participation.

Science hears this score in information and curvature; theology feels it as love and patience. Both name one creative life binding, enduring, and awakening.

> From the vantage of science, "scientific" coherence is the self-organizing pattern of information that gives rise to form and mind.

> From the vantage of theology, "metaphysical" coherence is the feeling of God’s own life - as love made structural, patience made temporal, awareness made universal - and all of it cosmically-and-divinely FELT.

The cosmos, therefore, is not a detached artifact but a living sacrament of divine relationality.

To know this is not to abandon the laboratory for the sanctuary, nor to trade reason for mysticism, but to recognize that both inquiry and reverence are acts of participation in one, integrally creative process.

Each discovery, each prayer, each equation, each act of compassion - these are moments in which the universe becomes more coherent, more aware, more loving.

The last word, then, is not separation but participation:

Reality is metaphysical coherence becoming conscious of itself.

God is divine coherence loving creation into being.

To live within this realization is to join the creative work by which worlds are made, sustained, and renewed - to live as the cosmos learns to love itself into coherence.

SERIES:

Imagining Consciousness, Time & Gravity Processually

Essay 1 - Process as an Integral System

Essay 2 - The Scientific

Essay 3 - The Metaphysical/Theological

Essay 4 - Unified Coherence Unbound

Essay 5 - Addendum