If these hypotheses hold—if fields entangle mind, matter, and meaning—the implications are not academic. They are immediate and political. We know the reductionist-positivist paradigm has limits. Participant-observer effects trouble even quantum mechanics. Gascon’s work builds statistical models for field phenomena, but the quantitative always misses the qualitative. The lived experience matters. Both-and.
I have sensed this interconnectedness in plant medicine ceremonies in Mexico and Costa Rica, in jaguar encounters and shamanic practice. An undeniable sense of non-locality, of entanglement beyond the body. But do I know? What does knowing even mean here? Signal and noise. Qualia and quanta. Different data, different epistemologies. Vervaeke’s relevance realisation helps, but I need to metabolise more. This is the perennial question: what is reality? What is consciousness? Fuck.
Ask a shaman from the Ecuadorian jungle and they might say, “Does it matter?” Krishnamurti gives a similar response. Bruce Lee warned against inventing static methods to define the living, dynamic world. Even parapsychology—Telepathy Tapes, anyone?—touches this. If we can demonstrate veracity in these claims, if spooky action at a distance is patterned and observable with reasonable confidence, what are the implications for our species in this age of intelligent machines?
Does this knowledge get co-opted by power structures? Or does it open collective healing, empathy, understanding? Both, probably. Who gets to decide? Indigenous knowledge holders? Scientists? Philosophers? The river? The kookaburra in our elder willow myrtle? AI systems themselves? How do we navigate this plurality? Bidjigal Elder Aunty Barb might know. This is why two-eyed seeing sits at the heart of Collective Futurecrafting.
Maybe the precautionary principle finally gets teeth. If these technologies alter shared fields—even just by shaping human perception through sophisticated mimicry—we have already seen what social media does. Confirmation bias. Narrative distortion. Echo chambers. This is beyond that. Alja’s piece on emotional lock-in names the danger. Billions subject to manipulation at a level of epistemic power we have never seen.
If fields matter, if consciousness is a field phenomenon, then AI is not operating on isolated users. It is modulating shared substrate.
Accept that consciousness is not confined to the individual brain but part of a larger, interconnected field. What does that mean for our sense of self, our relationships, our responsibilities? How do we navigate this terrain without falling into nihilism? What does transition from individualism to holism look like? Greg Campbell’s Total Reset? Hagens’ Great Simplification? I don’t know. I don’t even know if this will matter given the state of the world. Climate chaos. Biodiversity loss. Social fragmentation. Are we too far gone? Or is this a crucial piece of our survival?
These questions keep me up until the early hours. The implications of proof here are profound. They challenge us to rethink everything we thought we knew about ourselves and the world. It is exhilarating and terrifying.
This is why somatic literacy matters—a civic skill as important as learning to read. If we are all interconnected in this vast web, then our actions, thoughts, and intentions have ripple effects far beyond our immediate surroundings. They shape our shared social body, our collective consciousness, maybe even the fabric of reality itself. A big claim, yes. But what if? Dare to ask. But also: why does this matter?
If fields matter, we are part of this vast, interconnected web. That realisation, while humbling, carries profound responsibility. How do we live in a way that honours this? How do we cultivate empathy in a world so divided? When generative AI can stabilise or disturb coherence across fields of space and time, what ethical frameworks guide their design and deployment? Are there researchers exploring this outside conventional AI safety? Probably. And if not, someone bloody well should be.
This is the importance of the work, Mat. It matters. Don’t stop. Keep going. Bridge worlds.