600139
research-article2015
WFRXXX10.1177/1946756715600139World Future ReviewMontecucco
Evolving Consciousness-Based View
The Neuroevolution of
Consciousness: The New
Paradigm Contribution
to Global Self-Awareness
Evolution
World Future Review
2015, Vol. 7(2-3) 279­–295
© The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1946756715600139
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Nitamo Federico Montecucco1
Abstract
Consciousness is the core of every living being and the key of human evolution. Consciousness
is the core of the new paradigm now emerging in every field of science, culture, and spirituality.
For centuries, consciousness has been divided from matter like the soul from the physical
body. Now, at the historical beginning of globalized civilization, the exponential development
of physics, genetics, neuroscience, and PNEI (psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunology) is
making possible a new unitary understanding of the evolutionary process of living being from
quantum proto consciousness to human self-awareness. This article will focus on the brainmind psychosomatic human evolution, called neuroevolution of consciousness that is leading to
understanding the direction of human individual and collective self-awareness evolution toward
a planetary consciousness and a sustainable civilization.
Keywords
evolution, consciousness, unitary system, neuroscience, self-awareness, brain coherence,
meditation
The Neuroevolution of
Consciousness
The new paradigm represents the most important cultural, scientific, and spiritual breakthrough in the history of human knowledge.
Consciousness is the “core” of the new paradigm. The fundamental understanding of any
holistic paradigm is that consciousness is pervading, informing, and organizing the whole
of existence.
The new paradigm’s first mission is to allow
a unitary understanding of the evolution of
consciousness, from quantum, physical, to
human self-awareness. Evolution is the most
important phenomenon of life, because it is
concerned not only with the already amazing
process of existence of living beings but also
with their astonishing development into higher
complexities of organization, knowledge, and
wisdom. The understanding of the general
laws of the evolutionary process allows us to
understand how intelligence, compassion, and
consciousness evolve in living organisms, and
therefore the direction we can take to evolve
individually and collectively toward a planetary consciousness and move from an old
1
Instituto di Psicosomatica PNEI, Italy
Corresponding Author:
Nitamo Federico Montecucco, Instituto di Psicosomatica
PNEI, Associazione Villaggio Globale, Villa Demidoff, LU
55022, Italy.
Email: info@villaggioglobale.eu
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fragmented and unsustainable eco-social situation to a new sustainable global civilization.
The exponential development of neuroscience and PNEI (psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunology) researches consents a new comprehensive
understanding of the evolution of brain-mindconsciousness psychosomatic unity, that we call
neuroevolution of consciousness.
The Dichotomous Paradigm
and Driven-by-Chance
Evolution
Ecological, economic, and social crises can be
imputed to the old unconscious dichotomous
paradigm that divided existence into matter and
spirit. The neuroscience understanding allowed
to presume that the old dichotomous-fragmented
paradigm was born from persons with a dichotomous perception of themselves and of existence,
resulting from a “fragmented neuro-cognitive
function” of the three brains (instinctive-emotional-mental) and of the two hemispheres, that
the neuroscientist Paul Maclean called “schizophysiology.”1 The materialistic side of this
dichotomy is represented by the mechanistic,
reductionist neo-Darwinian scientific interpretation that considers evolution to be a mere result
of chance, as if the entire complexity of life and
the whole of nature were only a reflection of
blind, material mechanisms. The religious side of
the dichotomy is represented by the patriarchal,
ideological, and metaphysical interpretation,
recently sustained by “creationism” and by
“intelligent design,” which consider a superior
and transcendental entity as the sole creator of
every form of biological or “superior” life, denying all paleontological and scientific evidence. In
both the cases, the fundamental role of individual
consciousness and intelligence in evolution is
negated.
The New Paradigm and the
Evolution of Consciousness
The new paradigm emerges from a conscious
unitary perception of self and existence, and is
the result of a “unitary/coherent/synergic
neuro-cognitive function” of the three brains
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(instinctive-emotional-mental) and of the two
hemispheres (analytic-rational and intuitivecreative), which unify science and spirituality,
reason and sentiment.
The new paradigm is a holistic, systemic
synthesis that highlights the intrinsic unity
between materialism and spiritualism and
focuses the active and intelligent role of single
individual and cultural groups, which sustain
the process of the evolution of consciousness.
Five Basic Definitions
Consciousness. For a new understanding of
evolution, we need a new operating definition of consciousness as
the faculty of a system to understand the meaning
of information, to elaborate it (perception,
memorization, analysis, etc.), and to use it in an
intelligent functional way for survival or for
self-evolution and co-evolution.2,3,4
Any form of quantum, atomic, physical,
biological, or psychological sensory perception is a form of knowledge based on the
cognitive capacity of consciousness to
understand the meaning of information.
Consciousness has the basic intrinsic qualities of mind, memory, and intelligence (see
Figure 1).
Mind. Mind is the cognitive capacity of the
system to process (to perceive, analyze,
combine, compare, categorize, select, transmit, abstract, evaluate, etc.) information.
Synonyms are psyche, mind, and intellect.
Memory. Memory is the systemic capacity
to retain information. Memory is present, in
different degrees of evolutionary complexity, in every living organism.
Intelligence. Intelligence is the capacity to process and organize systemic information and
energy to solve a problem and to realize functional structures (negentropy) and projects
geared for survival, well-being, or evolution.
In light of these new definitions, it is possible to reinterpret living organisms as Unitary
Systems defined as “systems that can perceive
and process the meaning of information with a
unitary consciousness.”
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Figure 1. System consciousness scheme.
In accordance with all the ancient spiritual
traditions of the world, such as Greek “Cosmos
and Logos,” Hindu “Brahma,” Chinese “Tao,”
Christian “God,” or Buddhist “Dharma,” and
from the most forward-thinking scientific
understanding such as David Bohme’s “implicate/explicate wholeness” and “holographic
universe,” Ervin Laszlo’s Akasha Paradigm,
to Amit Goswami’s Self-Aware Universe, to
Erich Jantsch’s Self-Organizing Universe,
Giuliano Preparata’s Quantum Oneness, and
John Archibald Wheeler’s Participatory
Universe, we can assume that the whole universe is a “unitary system”: a one, conscious,
intelligent, multidimensional, infinite, entangled network that pervades all its parts. Any
fractal sub-system therefore creatively participates in this unity on different levels of evolution and complexity. The deep coherent
information network that connects and glues
all the sub systems in a unitary wholeness is
based on and explained by the “quantum electrodynamics coherence” laws proposed by
physicists Giuliano Preparata and Emilio Del
Giudice.5 Quantum coherence explains even
the nega-entropic evolutionary tendency to
higher order and knowledge that characterize
the four most important classes of sub-system
units: particles, atoms, cells, and multicellular
beings. These four units are “unitary systems”
themselves. They are similar to holograms,
microcosmic fractals that show the same qualities of unity, self-consciousness, intelligence,
self-organization, and beauty of the whole.
These four classes of “unitary systems” are the
basic living elements that make up the whole
of existence with differencing levels of complexity and consciousness. This article will
focus particularly on the neuroevolution of
brain-consciousness of the higher class of unitary systems: from the cell to human beings.
Every living “unitary system” is characterized by a state of negentropy, high level of
energetic coherence (quantum coherence
domain), and by the ability to communicate a
high level of information between all its parts
(electroencephalography [EEG] coherence),
thus, creating a higher order and complexity of
structures and functions: so the system acts as
a whole. Every “unitary system” is an autopoietic system,6 a “far from equilibrium system,”7
and a self-referential cybernetic system, capable of knowing through a circular and recursive flow of information.
These unitary systems can be considered psychosomatic unities, because inside them the body
biological-biochemical “energy-matter” and the
conscious brain-cognitive “information-meaning” functional organization are inseparably
linked. The unitary system consciousness is evolutionarily superior to the sum of its individual
parts.
Thanks to the “unitary system” model, it
is possible to formulate an organic “unitary
evolution systems theory” that can include
consciousness and its neuro-evolutionary
processes, in terms of capacity, quality and
amount of processing, storing, organizing,
intelligent use of information, and
communication.
From One to Many to One:
The Logic of Co-evolution
Figure 2 illustrates the pattern of co-evolution
from simple unitary systems to more complex
unitary systems, through a series of steps of
increasing complexity and organization.
A simple unitary system, similar to the unicellular (at the left-hand side of the scheme)
through a process of reproduction, creates a
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Figure 2. Unitary systems co-evolution scheme.
“complex set” of cells, such as a bacterial colony, which is not yet a unitary system but only
a collective aggregate. In millions of years, the
“complex set” increases in organization and
information exchange becoming like a primitive algae colonial being (middle position of
the scheme), and in other million years,
becomes a collective set, more organized but
still not yet unified, such as pleodorina or volvox (collective green algae) that show a certain
level of “collective consciousness” but have
not yet reached a sufficient level of communication and information integration to generate
a unitary consciousness. At some point, a true
“evolutionary quantum leap” happens, and
from a complex collective living set, we
observe the emergence of a multicellular “unitary system” with a “unity of consciousness”:
the first animal.
We can compare this shift toward an awakening of the collective consciousness of the
single elements (unitary systems) that constitute the complex system, similar to when a
group of boys or girls become aware of being
“one” team, or when, in the nineteenth century,
millions of people became aware of being citizens of “one” larger nation. For millennia, this
unitary state of consciousness called buddhafield (from the Sanskrit buddhi [the awakened consciousness] and the energy field) has
been understood and used in many spiritual
schools and is the basis of the profound unity
that binds all spiritual master and disciples
together in spiritual communities, monasteries,
and ashrams. More general is the perception of
being part of a larger, collective consciousness.
The unity of consciousness that characterizes a
“unitary system” is the awareness by each
single element that it is part of a larger whole,
a higher-level system.
The Isomorphic Unitary
System Co-evolution Table
This table (Figure 3) illustrates the isomorphic
co-evolutionary processes of increasing complexity, from simple unitary systems to more
evolved unitary systems. In the first column on
the left, we have aligned the four basic unitary
systems (particles, atoms, cells, and animals)
that have aggregated to form complex systems
(second, third, and fourth column), evolving
over time in terms of organization, specialization, communication, and knowledge.
The bottom row shows the evolution of the
elementary particle “proto consciousness,”
through stages of complexity, to generate the
first atomic unitary system. The second line
shows the parallel co-evolution from the atom
to the first prokaryotic cell unitary system. The
third line shows the evolution of cell consciousness up to the generation of the first animal
(multicellular) unitary system. The top line
starts from the human being (multicellular) to
the formation of collective social complexes,
such as the communities, cities, nations, and
finally the possible creation of a planetary consciousness or Gaia consciousness.
The logic of co-evolution is highly isomorphic on all levels of complexity. The table shows
the main steps of this process in successive columns, showing the deep analogies and similarities (vertical column) between the different
evolutionary steps of these four fundamental
units. This confirms one of the main points of
Ludwig Von Bertalanffy’s general systems
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Figure 3. Unitary systems co-evolution table.
Note. RNA = ribonucleic acid.
theory, highlighting that the laws that govern
systems are repeated in a similar way on different levels of evolution and complexity.
The Quantum Leap in the
Evolution of Consciousness
The Unitary Systems Evolution Curve (see
Figure 4) highlights the levels of complexity of
the three “evolutionary quantum leaps” that
have already taken place and the possible
fourth leap.
The first quantum leap was made in a very
short cosmic time, “only” 300,000 years after
the Big Bang, when quarks and elementary
particles merged to form “one” atom, a unitary
system of fundamental importance in the
development of the entire universe. It is indicated by the line at the bottom of the chart.
Atoms, in the next 14 million years, evolved in
complexity from the simple hydrogen to
heavier and complex atoms such as uranium
and came together in complex systems (nonunitary), such as molecules, amino acids, proteins, and “genetic” molecules such as
ribonucleic acid (RNA). This is reflected by
the second line up on the graph. Then the complexity of the system reached a critical point,
when billions of atoms became “one” cell: a
unitary system of great intelligence and adaptability that ultimately generated all the living
beings we know.
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Figure 4. Unitary systems evolution curve.
The first cell (prokaryotic) without a nucleus,
evolved in complexity, and within four billion
years, generated its own nucleus with a genetic
code of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA; eukaryotic
cell). It developed internal organelles to produce
energy and other specific molecules for sense
organs and movement. This is the third line on
the graph. Cells gradually came together in colonies, developed specialized organs, and began to
communicate and organize themselves into
increasingly larger and more complex sets such
as algae, pleodorine, volvox, and so on. Then an
“evolutionary quantum leap” occurred, generating the first multicellular unitary system. This is
the magic of life, a “complex system” of billions
of cells becomes “one” single living being, a
multicellular unit, plant, or animal.
This brings us to the top line on our chart of
the evolution process, and the curve of the evolution of complexity rears upward. In an evershorter time, countless new species emerged that
were more adapted and aware. In over a billion
years, the first worms amazingly evolved, generating shellfish, fish, amphibians, then reptiles,
birds, and mammals, up to the evolution of the
human being who, in less than two million years
(the small blue vertical line on the right of the
curve), developed written language, history, and
the arts and sciences, and ultimately realized selfawareness and spiritual consciousness.
We are now approaching the possibility of a
further quantum leap: the moment when all
human beings on the planet realize that they are
citizens of the world; indispensable elements of a
giant living network called Gaia, a planetary consciousness, a unitary system that lives and evolves
through all living being and each one of us.
For the past two decades, our institute in close
collaboration with the Laszlo Institute of New
Paradigm Researche and a team of quantum
physicists, biologists, and geneticists, has extensively studied and found important validation for
the fundamental laws of the first three level of
evolution, from atomic proto consciousness to
the creation of cellular and multicellular consciousness. This article will consider briefly only
the fourth level, based on neuroscience research
and insights on the evolution of higher consciousness and human self-awareness.
The Emergence of the
Nervous System as the Basis
of the Self
At the beginning of the fourth row, we observe
two parallel processes of multicellular evolution:
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Figure 5. Primitive brain structures.
(1) plants that are without nervous systems and
(2) animals with a centralized nervous system
(brain): the neurophysiological basis of selfawareness or identity.
The brain, derived from the exoderm (the
outermost of the three primary germ layers of
the human embryo, from the eighteenth day of
development), invaginates to form the neural
tube from which originates the entire nervous
system. The top of the neural tube forms three
vesicles called forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain (see Figure 5).
From this primitive brain will develop the
reptilian, instinctive, somatic brain; the mammalian affective, emotional brain; and the
human neocortical mental, cognitive brain,
which we will describe in Figure 6.
Figure 6 represents the three main neuro-cognitive levels (three brains, three areas of the
body) of the human being. This picture serves as
a color code reference (hindbrain in red, midbrain in green, and forebrain in blue) linking
images throughout this article. Readers can
download all the true color pictures and diagrams
of this article at http://www.psicosomaticapnei.
com/psicosomaticapnei.php?id=figures.
The Neuroevolution of
the Brain-Consciousness
Psychosomatic System
A unitary system evolves as a whole psychosomatic unit. The evolution of all living systems
proceeds synchronically on the neurophysiological and cognitive levels as integral parts of
the same psychosomatic “unitary system.” At
each evolutionary leap, the development of a
higher, more specialized, and adapted consciousness takes place, parallel to the development of a more structured, complex, and
specialized nervous system.
The brain is the structure that has most
evolved in complexity over the last 350 million years from fish, reptiles, mammals, to the
human being. Figure 6 shows that the reptile’s
nervous system is already differentiated into
three brains and that by the appearance of the
development of the neo-cortex of the first
mammal, the evolutionary curve rises rapidly.
With the human development of neocortical
consciousness and self-awareness, the curve
increase and the evolution accelerate even
more, becoming an exponential curve.
Self-Awareness: The “Core”
of the New Paradigm
The emergence of the “self” represents a fundamental leap in the process of evolution of
consciousness. The animal brain’s “cognitive
centralization” is the neurophysiological basis
of self-awareness and generates a greater speed
for the elaboration of information, and therefore a better adaptive response.
Mary Catherine Bateson stated that “the
heart of every living system is the experience
of Self.”8 The Self is the core of every animal
and human being: it is the cognitive center that
is perceived as identity. The Self is the unitary
experience of the totality of one’s being, the
sensory and cognitive awareness of self as a
psychosomatic system, where body, emotions,
thoughts, and consciousness exist as an organic
unity.
Definition: The Self is the systemic cognitive centralized capacity to integrate, elaborate, memorize information, and provide
intelligent responses and unitary decisions
to fit the many challenges of life.
Compare the self with an orchestra conductor who brings together and harmonizes the
sound of different musicians and instruments
(internal events), creating a unified complex
expression that interacts with the audience
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Figure 6. Three brain evolution exponential curve.
(external events). The neural basis of selfconsciousness makes possible the scientific
understanding of what had been, until now,
purely philosophical concepts, such as “soul”
or “identity,” common to the majority of
ancient and modern philosophies, psychology,
and spiritual paths.
The Psychosomatic Self as
Governor of the PNEI System
In psychosomatics, we consider the Self as the
governor of the PNEI (psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunologic) network (see Figure 7).
According to Candace Pert, the human
being is a “psychosomatic self,”9 a PNEI network based on the cognitive, cybernetic, and
systemic understanding that all biochemical,
physiological, endocrine, and neuropsychological processes are elements of an unbroken
flow of intelligent information.
The psychosomatic self becomes aware of a
situation: it is able to react to disease by activating the immune response and to adapt to
stress situations and solve problems by changing and activating specific neuro hormonal
responses and behaviors with different epigenetic–genetic activations, to better adapt to the
environment and expand its knowledge.
Figure 7. Self-PNEI interaction.
The Neuronal Basis of
Consciousness of Self
Until a few decades ago, neuroscientists such
as Sir John Eccles, winner of the Nobel Prize
for medicine in 1963, in his book The Self and
Its Brain,10 believed that consciousness was
the expression of the higher cognitive functions of the neo-cortex, the most evolved and
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mental part of the brain, whereas the emotional
and bodily functions, connected with the subcortical areas of the brain, the oldest mammal
and reptile (limbic system and trunk), were
essentially automatic and unconscious.
Today, however, research shows instead
that even animals whose neo-cortex has been
surgically removed at a young age, have no
visible consciousness deficits, and therefore,
we must assume that the center of consciousness is subcortical.11
The Three Brains of MacLean
To clarify this critical point on the neural
nature of the Self, we need to understand the
triune nature of the human brain. The neuroscientist Paul MacLean pointed out that the process of human consciousness neuroevolution
is the result of the parallel development of the
three brains: reptilian, mammalian, and neocortical (see Figure 8).
In the human brain, therefore, we find the
oldest most instinctive-physical consciousness
related to the “reptilian brain,” a more affective-emotional consciousness related to the
“mammalian brain,” and a higher cognitivepsychological mental consciousness related to
the neocortical brain.
In the growth of every human being, there
is a personal, familial, and social evolution
from the instinctive consciousness connected
to the egotistic primary needs of the child (the
reptile brain), to the emotional consciousness
of youth, connected to affective and relational
needs (mammalian brain), and on to the adult
mental consciousness connected with rational-scientific comprehension, and the perceptions of beauty and ethics (involving the two
hemispheres of the neocortical brain).
Potentially, this process of evolution may
continue even further to attain the higher
neuro-functional state connected to self-consciousness (the neocortical brain, feedback
circuits thalamic-cortical-frontal-thalamic)
and even to the global awareness of Self (synchronized thalamic and elevated cerebral
coherence).
The Bodily Self: The
Neurocognitive Roots of
Consciousness
Jaak Panksepp, psycho-biologist and researcher
in neuroscience at Washington State University,
states that all forms of human higher consciousness are the result of an evolution of
primitive states of consciousness of the old circuits of brain stem and that the primordial
“sense of self” or “core self” is rooted in the
PAG (Peri Aqueductal Gray) in the low areas
of the reptilian brain. The PAG controls the
basic body and emotional perceptions as a
“coherent whole,” a kind of “bodily-instinctive
self” that has a complete neural representation
of the entire body and all the emotional primary processes such as pain, fear, anger, stress
and separation, sex, and maternal behaviors.12
Edelman named this “the bodily self” and
stated that “the first self-consciousness is
based on the body-self” and that the fundamental bodily-based “primary consciousness”
must still be present in animals.13 The PAG
relays sensory messages from spinal neurons
to the thalamus and then to the neo-cortex. The
PAG area is also deeply connected with the
serotoninergic raphe nuclei and ARAS
(ascending reticular activating system) that
activates the awakening consciousness and
sleep. When the PAG and system of pleasure
and body stability, mediated by serotonin,
become weak, psychological and psychiatric
disorders begin to emerge.
The Emotional Self and the
Seven Emotional Systems
Panksepp has identified seven major neuronal
emotions systems, as specific neuronal pathways common to all mammals and human
brains, which will be described below. In his
books Affective Neuroscience14 and The
Archeology of Mind,15 Panksepp highlights
that these emotional systems are the main
channels of expression of the self: the psychological, emotional, and behavioral ways
through which self-consciousness manifests in
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Figure 8. The Psychosomatic Self.
life. They represent the psychosomatic basic
living functions that regulate all the different
essential aspects of life and the physical, emotional, and cognitive specific behaviors. The
emotional circuits connect across the brain
from the PAG, the center of the instinctivebody self; develop toward the thalamus, center
of the emotional Self; and then to the neo-cortex for higher cognitive elaboration.
develops in emotional-mammalian self, centered in the thalamus, which coordinates the
functions of the consciousness-affective emotional limbic system and that further evolves in
the human being with the development in the
neocortical cognitive Self and with the CMS,
critical to mental psychological analysis and
social and cultural understanding, rational
analysis and strategic behavior, and to develop
its creative potential.
The Neocortical Cognitive
Self
The “Dynamic Core of
The neo-cortex is the most advanced brain Consciousness”
structure, with higher cognitive processing
capacities. The neo-cortex is essential for the
development of higher cognitive processes, ideational, rational, ethical, strategic evaluation in
large part attributable to the complex interpretation of relational, family, social, cultural, political, and religious meanings that encode human
relationships. In particular, the CMS (Cortical
Midline Structures) elaborates the higher psychological and social cognitive consciousness
and self-consciousness process.16
From an evolutionary point of view, it is
useful to recall that the primitive bodily self,
linked to the PAG and the reptilian brain,
The real revolution in neuroscience’s understanding of self-consciousness has been proposed by Gerald Edelman,17 Nobel Prize winner
in medicine, who demonstrated that “self consciousness is a process” that is not reducible to
an anatomical object or a neurophysiological
function of a specific brain center, but emerges
from the whole brain neural network. Edelman,
supported by Damasio,18 has highlighted that
consciousness and the sense of Self are strongly
related to the thalamus-neocortical circuit that
connects the thalamus (the center of the emotional Self and the mammal brain) to the whole
neo-cortex (the center of the cognitive Self and
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higher human brain) and to the PAG (the center
of the body Self and lower reptilian brain).
Edelman called the thalamus-neocortex network the “Dynamic Core of Consciousness,” or
“Core Self” that is in constantly active communication with the neocortical processing system
and represents the more cognitive-oriented delicate social, ethical, and relational function of
self-consciousness. In this system, the thalamus
represents the emotional-affective, and the PAG
the body-instinctive primary functions and
drives. The Self through this whole neural network is thus able to be conscious and to unify
the information of the whole body-mind psychosomatic system. Research has demonstrated
that this unitary process is related to higher EEG
coherence between the thalamus and all brain
areas.19,20
The thalamus and PAG are fundamental
centers of consciousness, both with a strong
psychosomatic activity because they regulate
all major bodily and emotional functions, and
are the two key areas related to self-consciousness, as even small lesions of the thalamus
and/or the PAG will seriously affect or nullify
consciousness. Accordingly, the “Self”—the
psychosomatic consciousness of our being—
appears to be primarily rooted in body consciousness, subsequently evolving in the
emotional levels and then in the mind.
To sum up, the “Psychosomatic Self System”
that emerges from neuroscience and PNEI is a
model that brings together, in an organic unity,
the physical, affective, and cognitive dimensions
and highlights the fact that the center of being,
the core self, is not exclusively rational as once
believed, but instead is deeply rooted in the body
and in the emotions.
Self-Consciousness and the
Seven Emotional Systems
The seven main emotional systems identified
by neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp and named by
him in capital letters, are: RAGE/DOMINANCE,
FEAR/ANXIETY,
LUST/SEXUALITY,
SEEKING/ENTHUSIASM, CARE/LOVE,
GRIEF/PANIC, and PLAY/DREAMLIKE.21
These emotional systems manifest themselves as
specific “psychosomatic functions”: physical,
emotional, and cognitive behaviors that are essential for life. Their inhibition simultaneously locks
specific muscular systems, emotional levels, and
psychological structures. When the inhibition or
blockage is particularly strong or deep (trauma), it
will even cause the inhibition of the Self. These
seven neuroemotional systems, along with their
hormones and neurotransmitters, are the neurophysiological roots of the psychological personality and of the body–emotional character.22
Their effects are so strong and precisely
determined that we named them neuropersonality.23 Neuropersonality assembling can create every imaginable pattern of personality
with infinite and unique shadings. There is
strong evidence that these emotional system
structures and activities are partly genetically
and epigenetically determined, and partly
determined by parental, family, and social conditioning.24 So, every human being is born
with their own neuropersonality (temperament), which will be modified in a unique way
by life experiences such as maternal, affective,
and social conditionings. Each of the seven
emotional systems is expressed by a set of specific bodily, emotional, and cognitive “psychosomatic functions.” For instance, anger is
manifested by such characteristic muscular,
emotional, and psychological behaviors as
increased sympathetic tone and shallow
breathing, extreme muscle tension, intense
aggressive emotions, and thoughts of conflict
and revenge. In other words, we can then say
that neuropeptides, neurotransmitters, and hormones act as “emotional molecules” or “consciousness
molecules”
within
this
“psychosomatic network.”25,26 PNEI studies
have demonstrated that eight main hormones
and neurotransmitters, serotonin, dopamine,
testosterone, cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, oxytocin, and endorphins, have a strong
and deep impact on psychosomatic activities.
The PNEI Map
In the PNEI Psychosomatic Map (see Figure 9),
we have systematized the function of “instinctive, emotional and cognitive consciousness.” In
the center named “psychosomatic self sphere,”
the homeostatic, functional, and balanced
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Figure 9. The Psychosomatic PNEI Map.
Note. PNEI = psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunology; DSM-IV = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th
ed., American Psychiatric Association 1994).
neuropersonality area, all the main emotional
system and their hormones/neurotransmitters are
in a natural equilibrium. In the middle area are
the unbalanced and slightly dysfunctional neuropersonalities, and the homologous neuro-hormones. In this area, we find one or more
personality traits with which people tend to identify themselves, thus, creating a “false self”
perception.
In the outer area, we find the severely unbalanced and dysfunctional neuropersonalities,
those with psychiatric disorders and their
DSM-IV classifications. The model of the human
being that emerges from neuroscience and PNEI
is a “psychosomatic self system,” an organic and
inseparable unity of body, with emotional and
cognitive abilities, which supports the understandings and the clinical field of action that
characterizes the body/psychotherapy paradigm.
The PNEI Psychosomatic Map (Figure 9) presents the most advanced PNEI model and can
enable direct and effective dialogue between
medicine, psychology, and education.
This scientific approach highlights the way
in which the inhibition-hyperactivation of the
emotional psychosomatic systems generates a
simultaneous inhibition-hyperactivation or
psychosomatic blockage of specific body functions (physiological, muscular, autonomic,
etc.), emotional and psychological, and, potentially, a simultaneous inhibition of the self.27
From a more systematic and holistic perspective, the effects of the emotional systems and
their hormones do not appear to be purely
mechanical, but are largely affected by childhood imprinting, upbringing traditions, individual determination, and awareness.
Our Research on Brain
EEG Coherence and SelfAwareness
To understand the laws of evolution of selfawareness, our institute has conducted several
brain experiments demonstrating the existence
of self-aware communication between the
brain areas of a person, between the brains of
couples, and between the brains of groups of
people, in terms of EEG coherence.
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Montecucco
Figure 10. Unbalanced low EEG-coherent brain-mind system (left) and balanced high EEG-coherent
brain-mind system (right).
In our 1989 brain experiments, we studied
the coherence between both hemispheres
within a single brain and among the three
brains, which produced surprising results. In
state of self-awareness, we documented a high
increase of EEG coherence—up to 90 percent
to 100 percent (see Figure 10). These studies
have shown that the practice of self-awareness,
mindfulness, and meditation techniques tend
to increase EEG coherence and produce “harmonic waves,” thus, becoming an important
parameter to quantify the state of psychophysical integrity and of consciousness.
In the graph at right is the result of our research
on the relationship between EEG coherence, psychosomatic health, and self-awareness. The average values of about 20 percent of EEG coherence
in severely depressed individuals progressively
increased to 40 percent in average depression, to
50 percent in mild depression, up to about 60 percent in people in a state of normal well-being,
and rising to about 80 percent in individuals who
practice meditation. Meditation and self-awareness techniques can be considered, therefore,
fundamental practices for the evolution of human
consciousness and for improving well-being.
Research on Brain EEG
Coherence between Partners
From 1992, we started experiments on collective consciousness between couples. Our
research institute has studied the phenomenon
Figure 11. Statistical correspondences between
self-consciousness EEG coherence vs. states of
depression and better psychosomatic health.
of synchronization or “neuropsychic resonance” (EEG mirroring) between the brains of
two people in a state of empathy or self-awareness (meditation), showing a significant
increase of synchronization between their
brains (EEG coherence). This has been the first
international research to show that empathy
and self-awareness are important tools for
improving relationships and creating greater
understanding, communication, sense of confidence, and security among people.
The results were impressive, as you can see in
Figures 12 and 13. We found low EEG coherence
between couples of empathetic friends, and very
high EEG coherence between meditators. In
more than twenty years of research, we have
demonstrated that self-awareness improves
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World Future Review 7(2-3)
Figure 12. Two non-coherent brains compared to two coherent brains.
empathy, communication, and emotional intelligence among people.
Research on Brain EEG
Coherence between Groups
of People
In 1993, we started to experiment on group consciousness. The results (see Figure 13) show scientific evidence of a “collective field of
consciousness,” with a low level of synchronization between people in normal state (left) that
highly increased in states of self-consciousness
(right). The pictures show that in meditation, all
the EEG waves of the different subjects were
coherent and synchronized as if they where EEG
waves of the same brain. Self-awareness
improves group empathy, collaboration, emotional intelligence, and the spirit of unity among
people. In 2007, we did the first experiment to
pick up EEG coherence between two groups of
people meditating 200 km apart. The experiment
shows similar results, but on a lower level of
coherence (from 2% to 5%). This was the first
experiment to prove the existence of a non-local
consciousness entanglement between people: the
basis for a possible planetary consciousness
network.
The Medical and
Psychological Effects of SelfAwareness
Research in neuroscience has proven that practices of self-awareness and mindfulness have an
effect of synchronization between different areas
of the brain that are measurable through EEG
coherence. The effects of practices of self-awareness, meditation, and particularly mindfulness
have been scientifically validated by more than
2,400 psychological and international clinical
research studies (PubMed) to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. Several international studies
show that the development of self-awareness
(mindfulness) improves mental and physical
health, self-esteem, attention, concentration, and
academic performance. Meditation and selfawareness practices need to be considered as the
main skills for the well-being and growth of the
individual.
New Paradigm and Tools
to Evolve toward a Global
Civilization
The coherent and synergic activity of the whole
brain produces an integral human being, more
aware of self and of the world (see Figure 14).
Self-awareness (high EEG coherence)
allows to go beyond the cultural divisions
between materialism, spirituality, rationality, and intuition, and to reunite them in a
holistic vision and understanding. The new
paradigm emerges from this unitary consciousness of self and existence as the result
of “unitary/coherent/synergic neuro-cognitive functions.”
Self-awareness in the sense of global consciousness is the principal aim of human evolution as a means to realize global civilization.
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Montecucco
Figure 13. Twelve non-coherent brains compared to twelves coherent brains.
Figure 14. The new paradigm neural basis.
Sociological surveys on the new culture,
conducted in the United States, Italy, France,
Japan, and Hungary, show that the number of
people experimenting with meditation and
other techniques of consciousness evolution, is
strongly increasing in the last decades.28,29
Meditation and mindfulness are no longer isolated practices but are becoming mainstream
experiences to promote a more conscious, sensitive, and intelligent way of living.
Global Consciousness
Education: A Planetary
Challenge
To realize this self-awareness renaissance on a
planetary level, in the year 2012–2013, we
developed an education program called the
Figure 15. Gaia project scheme.
“Gaia Project: A global consciousness education program” (see Figure 15) based on the
new paradigm (www.progettogaia.eu) and on
the scientifically validated “Psychosomatic
Mindfulness Protocol.” The Gaia Project promotes an educational program centered on the
development of global awareness by individuals of themselves and the planet, with a base of
scientific, ethical, and practical information
that includes ten short multimedia videos and
two films on the new paradigm and how to
improve human knowledge to become creative
citizens of the kind of global society in which
we would all like to live.
294
The Gaia Project has been supported and
funded by the Italian Ministry of Labor and
Social Policies and sustained by the
Federazione Italiana Centri e Club UNESCO
(UNESCO-FILCLU), and has reached more
than ten thousand people including more than
four thousand students at all school levels, in
every region of Italy. The statistical results of
appreciation and of clinical and cognitive
effectiveness have been excellent. The Gaia
Project, thanks to mindfulness meditation and
self-awareness techniques, has succeeded in
promoting a “new paradigm based” whole
human consciousness program to awaken and
prepare people for a planetary sustainable
future.
World Future Review 7(2-3)
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
14.
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of
interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
15.
16.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Notes
1. Paul MacLean, The Triune Brain in Evolution:
Its Role in Paleocerebral Functions (New
York: Plenum Press, 1990).
2. David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate
Order (London: Ark, 1983).
3. Ervin Laszlo, Quantum Shift in the Global
Brain (St. Petersburg, FL: Lake Books, 2008).
4. Nitamo F. Montecucco, Cyber, la Visione
Olistica [Cyber, the holistic vision] (Roma:
Mediterranee, 2000)
5. Emilio Del Giudice et al., “Coherent
Quantum Electrodynamics in Living Matter,”
Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, 24, no.
3 (2005): 199–210.
6. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela,
Autopoiesis and Cognition, Boston Studies in
the Philosophy of Science (Boston: D. Reidel,
1979).
7. Ilya Prigogine and Gregoire Nicolis, SelfOrganization in Non-equilibrium Systems
(Hobokemn: Wiley, 1977).
8. Gregory Bateson and Mary Catherin Bateson,
Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
Sacred, Chapter 17 (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1988), 291.
Candace Pert, Michael R. Ruff; Richard J.
Weber, and Miles Herkenham, “Neuropeptides
and Their Receptors: A Psychosomatic
Network,” The Journal of Immunology 135, 2
Suppl. (1985): 820–26.
John Eccles and Karl Popper, The Self and Its
Brain (Berlin: Springer, 1977).
Bjorn Merker, “Consciousness without a
Cerebral Cortex: A Challenge for Neuroscience
and Medicine,” Behavioral Brain Sciences 30
(2007): 63–81.
Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven, The
Archeology of Mind (New York: W.W. Norton,
2012).
Gerald Maurice Edelman, Wider than the Sky:
The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2004).
Jaak Panksepp, Affective Neuroscience (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Panksepp and Biven, The Archeology of Mind.
Georg Northoff and Felix Bermpohl, “Cortical
Midline Structures and the Self,” Trends in
Cognitive Science 8, no. 3 (March 2004):
102–107.
Edelman, Wider than the Sky.
Antonio Damasio, Self Comes to Mind
(London: Random House, 2010).
Rodolfo Llinás, I of the Vortex: From Neurons
to Self (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001).
Nitamo F. Montecucco, “Coherence, Brain
Evolution and the Unity of Consciousness,”
World Future 62 (2006): 127–33.
Panksepp and Biven, The Archeology of Mind.
Panksepp, Affective Neuroscience.
Nitamo F. Montecucco, Psicosomatica
Olistica [Holistic psychosomatic] (Roma:
Mediterranee, 2005).
Claude Robert Cloninger, Personality and
Psychopathology (Arlington, VA: American
Psychiatric Publishing, 1999).
Pert et al., “Neuropeptides and Their
Receptors.”
Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion: The
Science between Mind-Body Medicine (New
York: Scribner, 1999).
Henri Laborit, L’Inibition de l’action [The
inhibition of the action] (Paris: Masson, 1969).
Paul Ray, “The Emerging Culture,” American
Demographics, 19, no. 2 (February 1997): 56.
Enrico Cheli and Nitamo F. Montecucco, I
creativi culturali [Cultural creatives] (Milano:
Xenia edizioni, 2009), 64–70.
Montecucco
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Reference
University of Medicine of Milan, and Professor at
the University of Medicine of Pavia and Siena.
Since 1994, following the directives of World
Health organization (WHO), he has developed an
integrated neurophysiological map of self-consciousness and the “Psychosomatic Mindfulness
Protocol” for global health and personal transformation. He has directed two films and published books
and articles in Italian and English scientific magazines and also broadcast on European television
networks.
American Psychiatric Association. 1994. Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
4th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric
Association.
Author Biography
Nitamo Federico Montecucco, MD, PhD, is
Co-director of the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm
Researche Professor of neuropsychosomatics at the