The conservation of mass and energy is a fundamental law of the understood universe. Physical reactions in the universe neither destroy nor create mass and energy. A reaction may transform one or the other, but mass and energy do not disappear like magic. Even when energy and mass are transformed into each other, the combined quantity of energy and mass is preserved through that transformation. In fact, energy and mass are different forms of the same thing and can be viewed as equivalents.

Similarly, all energy and mass are connected in space. Space is not an empty void; it is inhabited by energy fields and gravitational forces[1] created by the mass and energy of objects in space. Those fields and forces interact and connect all matter and energy in a web of spacetime. At an even deeper quantum level, the universe lacks fundamental separability.[2] Objects consist of processes and interactions, not discrete particles, and when these “objects” interact, they become entangled in a way that creates a fabric of connectedness extending across the entire universe. Universal connection is not a mystical dream, but a core feature of physical reality.

Just as mass and energy cannot be destroyed, the effects of matter and energy on the universe cannot be removed or destroyed. The effects that matter and energy have on the universe, no matter how small, cannot be reversed and in that sense are permanent.[3] They are part of the experience of the universe as it exists in space and time.[4]

Like matter and energy, consciousness is connected to and affects other entities in space

If we accept the hypothesis that consciousness is not supernatural, but real and embedded in the substances and processes that make up the matter and energy of the universe, then consciousness itself both exists in space and is connected to the universe through the matter and energy that exist in space. The components of our consciousness are part of the components of the material universe, and our consciousness affects other entities in space through the connections between all matter and energy.

We live and breathe in space the way that fish live and breathe in water. Waves created by the constant breathing and movement of fish travel through the water and affect other things that exist in the ocean. Humans live and breathe in the earth’s atmosphere in almost exactly that way. Our inhalations and exhalations, our movements, our decisions—create waves that affect the atmosphere around us, including conscious beings and other things that exist in the atmosphere. Those waves and their effects exist and reverberate in the universe as do the waves and effects of all matter and energy.

The effects of consciousness are permanent

A natural corollary is that the effects of our consciousness on the universe cannot be removed or destroyed, just as the effects of matter and energy in general cannot be removed or destroyed. The effects of consciousness on the universe, no matter how small, cannot be reversed. They become part of the experience of the universe—literally part of the information that describes the complete state of the universe in that moment. In that specific sense, therefore, consciousness itself is permanent and eternal.[5]

The substance of consciousness cannot be destroyed

So if consciousness is real and part of the substance of the material universe—embedded in the substances and processes that make up the matter and energy of the universe—and if consciousness is permanent and eternal through its permanent effects and impact, then can we conclude that consciousness also cannot be destroyed? Is there a law of conservation of consciousness that is a logical corollary to the laws of conservation of mass and energy and conservation of information?[6]

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[1] Otherwise described as curvatures in spacetime.

[2] “That our actual world does not have separability is now generally accepted, though admitted to be a mystery. In principle, any objects that have ever interacted are forever entangled, and therefore what happens to one influences the other. Experiments have now demonstrated such influences extending over more than one hundred kilometers. Quantum theory has this connectedness extending over the entire universe.” Rosenblum and Kuttner (2006), p. 188.

[3] Even if many laws of physics are time symmetric and theoretically could apply either forward or backward in time, events themselves are not reversible for any practical purposes. Moreover, time symmetry implies that the past is knowable and the future predictable from the current state of the universe. In other words, in neither direction can the effects of matter and energy be lost or destroyed.

[4] Physicists talk about the conservation of information. “Conservation of information implies that each moment contains precisely the right amount of information to determine every other moment….[W]hat we might call the ‘microscopic’ information: the complete specification of the state of the system, everything you could possibly know about it. When speaking of information being conserved, we mean literally all of it.” Carroll (2016), p. 34.

[5] To put it more simply, the universe has a “permanent record”, and we are part of it whether we like it or not.

[6] See Feldman (2019). Compare Carroll (2016), p. 2, “Life is not a substance, like water or rock. It’s a process, like fire or a wave crashing on the shore. It’s a process that begins, lasts for a while, and ultimately ends.” Professor Carroll likely would agree, however, that water and rock, like all substances, are also processes, just slower processes than the process of life as we know it.