Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Showing posts with label Index - Process Consciousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Index - Process Consciousness. Show all posts

Sunday, March 8, 2026

Index - Process Consciousness



Index - Process Consciousness

In the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, consciousness is not treated as a stable substance or isolated mental object. Rather, it is understood as a dynamic event within an ongoing process of experience. Reality itself, in Whitehead’s view, is composed not of static things but of momentary acts of becoming. These acts - which he called actual occasions - are the fundamental units of existence. Each occasion arises by integrating the influences of its past and the possibilities present within its environment into a unified moment of experience.

From this perspective, experience is more fundamental than consciousness. Whitehead uses the term prehension to describe the basic relational activity through which entities “feel” or register aspects of their surroundings. Every entity in the universe participates in this process at some level. Even the smallest physical events possess a rudimentary form of experiential relatedness. Consciousness, therefore, is not the foundation of reality but rather a rare and complex development within a much deeper field of experience.

Whitehead famously described consciousness as a “flicker in the sea of experience.” The vast majority of experiential processes occur without reflective awareness. Human consciousness emerges only when the complexity of biological and neurological organization allows experience to become aware of itself. In this sense consciousness is not the starting point of existence but a late evolutionary achievement within a universe already saturated with relational activity.

Central to this framework is the process Whitehead called concrescence. Concrescence describes the formation of each new moment of experience. In every instance an actual occasion gathers influences from the past, integrates them with conceptual possibilities, and resolves them into a concrete present. This process involves two complementary dimensions of reality which Whitehead referred to as the physical pole and the mental pole.

  • The physical pole inherits and integrates the data of the past world.

  • The mental pole introduces conceptual possibilities that shape how that data may be interpreted or realized.

In most entities the mental pole operates implicitly and without awareness. In highly complex organisms such as human beings, however, the mental pole can become self-reflective, giving rise to conscious thought, imagination, and symbolic reasoning.

Process philosophy therefore proposes a radical shift in how consciousness is understood. Rather than viewing mind as something added to matter, Whitehead’s framework suggests that the universe is fundamentally relational and experiential at every level, with consciousness emerging as one of its most sophisticated expressions. Reality becomes not a collection of inert objects but a living web of processes continually forming, dissolving, and reforming through time.

Within such a vision, consciousness is neither supernatural nor accidental. It is the flowering of deeper patterns of experience that have been unfolding throughout cosmic history. The human mind thus participates in a much larger process - a universe whose basic structure is not static substance but creative, relational becoming.

Key Concepts in Process Consciousness
by Alfred North Whitehead

TermProcess-Based Definition
Actual OccasionThe fundamental unit of reality; a momentary “drop” of experience.
PrehensionThe act of relational “feeling” through which entities grasp aspects of other entities.
ConcrescenceThe process by which a new occasion of experience integrates past influences into a unified present.
Physical PoleThe dimension of an occasion that inherits the past world.
Mental PoleThe dimension that introduces conceptual possibilities and interpretation.
Subject-SuperjectEach occasion is both the subject experiencing and the outcome that influences the future.
Eternal ObjectsPure potentials (such as forms, values, or patterns) that give character to experience when realized.
Embodied Processual Realism
by R.E. Slater

“Embodied Process Realism (EPR)” can function as a shorthand translation of Whitehead’s scheme - but not as a one-to-one replacement. It is better understood as:

a contemporary reformulation that gathers, simplifies, and extends Whitehead’s terminology into a field-oriented, continuous ontology.

Essentially, it compresses a highly technical vocabulary into a more intuitive architecture.

Whitehead Terms        EPR Language
Actual Occasion                 Localized embodiment / event of form
Prehension                         Relational responsiveness / coherence uptake
Concrescence                     Integration → embodiment (coherence becoming form)
Physical Pole                      Inherited relational field (past coherence)
Mental Pole                        Possibility / variation within coherence
Subject-Superject              Interior-exterior unity of embodied form
Eternal Objects                  Pattern potentials / structuring possibilities

Embodied Process Realism may therefore be understood as a contemporary shorthand that gathers Whitehead’s process categories into a unified framework of relational coherence, embodiment, and continuity.

But there is a crucial distinction between each system:

Whitehead's system is granular, event-based, and momentary (occasion-centric).

Whereas,

The EPR framework is field-oriented, continuity-based, and structurally stabilized
(via forms, systems, persistence).

Hence, EPR is not simply summarizing Whiteheadian grammar but shifting its emphasis.

Contrasts

What EPR does that Whitehead does not explicitly do

1. From Events → Fields

Whitehead: reality = succession of occasions
EPR = continuous relational coherence-fields

2. From Momentariness → Persistence

Whitehead: occasions perish into the next
EPR: emphasis on stabilized embodiment across time

3. From “Feeling” → Structured Interiority

Whitehead: prehension = feeling
EPR: interiority = integration / responsiveness / coherence-holding

4. From Technical Language → Public Ontology

Whitehead’s language: precise but difficult
EPR language: translatable across philosophy, science, and culture

Summary

Embodied Process Realism may be read as a contemporary reformulation of Whitehead’s process metaphysics. Where Whitehead articulates reality in terms of actual occasions, prehensions, and concrescence, the present EPR framework translates these into the language of relational coherence, embodiment, and continuity. This is not a rejection of Whitehead’s categories, but a rearticulation that emphasizes field-like continuity over momentary discreteness, and structural persistence over episodic becoming.
  • EPR does not replace Whitehead
  • EPR is not identical to Whitehead
But,
  • EPR translates and extends Whitehead
  • EPR reframes Whitehead in contemporary terms (such as quantum physics, neuroconsciousness studies, political and economic theory, human being-ness, etc.)
Embodied processual realism functions as a conceptual bridge that translates Whitehead’s metaphysical grammar into a continuous, field-oriented ontology of embodied coherence.

Why does this matter?

  • It makes Whitehead usable again
  • It aligns process thought with:
    • systems theory
    • quantum field thinking
    • contemporary metaphysics
  • It prepares the ground for:
    • Process-based Value & Teleology
    • Process theology

    • REFERENCE ARTICLES

    The Metaphysics of Process Realism - "What Is Reality?"

    "What is Embodied Process Realism?"

    The Ontology of Process Realism - Studies in cosmology, consciousness, etc
    Cosmology - Gravity, Coherence, and the Real (1)
    Cosmology - The Rise of Relational Physics (2)
    Ontology and Embodied Process Realism (3)
    The Interiority of Reality (4)
    Persistence, Continuity, and Coherence of Becoming (5)
    Process Consciousness and the Failure of Spatial Ontology
    A Cosmic Timeline - From Cosmic Energy to Cosmic Meaning (6)
    The Ontology of Reality - Towards Embodied Process Realism (7)
    x

    The Ontology of a Process Cosmology - "What Kind of Universe Do We Live In?"
    What Kind of Universe Do We Live In? - Cosmology and Consciousness (1)
    The Universe as Divine Process - From a Universe of Value to Its Theology (4)


    List of Process Consciousness Essays


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