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.
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.
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.
1. Comparative Cross-Walk: Frameworks of Coherence
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.
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.
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.
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.
2. Convergences and Tensions
Convergences (what clicks):
Relational primacy across physics and metaphysics.Tensions (what needs care):
Geometry emerging from information --> provides outer coherence.
Order as time --> provides sequential coherence.
Integration as experience --> provides inner coherence.
Locating subjectivity in physics without dualism.
Reconciling becoming with relativistic symmetry.
Establishing empirical testability beyond metaphor.
3. The Dual-Aspect Relational Axiom
Axiom:
Every relational update possesses two inseparable aspects:
Outer aspect – information-geometric change (entanglement, curvature, energy).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.
Inner aspect – integration or prehension (proto-experiential unity).
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) | : 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.
5. Predictive Sketches / Testable Empirical Handles
Entanglement–Geometry–Arrow CouplingRegions of higher entanglement should correlate with stronger effective gravity and steeper thermodynamic arrows.
Coherence Phase TransitionsWhen integration crosses a critical threshold, systems exhibit emergent unity - analogous to gravitational or cognitive condensation.
Decoherence ↔ Time-Dilation LinkIncreased 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.
6. Conceptual Hygiene
Keep inner coherence (cosmic consciousness) minimal and non-anthropomorphic.This discipline preserves rigor while allowing for experiential participation within physical law.
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).
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.Matter becomes love in formation; morality becomes the art of sustaining coherence in community, ecology, and cosmos alike.
Sequential → Faithfulness: enduring through creative time.
Outer → Justice: shaping structures that hold the world together.
Conclusion
The Cosmos as the Body of Divine Coherence
Science hears this score in information and curvature; theology feels it as love and patience. Both name one creative life binding, enduring, and awakening.
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.
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.The cosmos, therefore, is not a detached artifact but a living sacrament of divine relationality.
> 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.
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 ProcessuallyEssay 1 - Process as an Integral SystemEssay 2 - The ScientificEssay 3 - The Metaphysical/TheologicalEssay 4 - Unified Coherence Unbound
Essay 5 - Addendum
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