From the book “The Nature of Consciousness: Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter” by

Rupert Spira:

Panpsychism, the belief that consciousness or mind (in philosophy these two terms are
equated, unlike in the non-dual tradition, where they are distinguished) is an essential and
fundamental property of things, is not a new idea. It was prevalent in early Greek philosophy.
The word ‘panpsychism’ comes from the Greek pan-, meaning ‘everything’ or ‘all’, and psyche,
meaning ‘mind’ or ‘soul’. Aristotle, for example, believed that ‘everything is full of gods’.

The belief that all things are full of gods, or that consciousness is fundamental to all things,
depends upon the existence of things. It starts with a multiplicity and diversity of things! It is
equivalent to saying that the screen is fundamental to an image. Although this appears to be a
true statement, it contains a misunderstanding, and it is in this subtle misunderstanding that
the real problem for contemporary philosophy lies.

To suggest that the screen is a fundamental property of the image is to credit the image with
more existence than it deserves. It is to start with the image and work backwards from there
to the screen. Likewise, to state that consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe
is to start with the universe and work backwards from there to consciousness. In other words,
it is to start with the materialist assumption that there is something called a universe.

If we start with the assumption of a universe and try to fit consciousness into that model, we
end up with the classic panpsychist statement that all things have a degree of consciousness
or, more simply, that the universe is conscious. However, from the perspective of
consciousness there is no ‘all’. From consciousness’s perspective there is just its own seamless,
indivisible, unified, infinite whole.

The belief that the universe is conscious is New Age non-duality, and it is this confusion that
leads so many people who would otherwise be open to the consciousness-only model to reject
it. The belief that the universe is aware is simply an extension of the materialist belief that the
body is aware. Fleas are not aware; fish are not aware; dogs are not aware; trees and rocks are
not aware; human beings are not aware; the universe is not aware. Only awareness is aware!
Only consciousness is conscious.

The word ‘universe’, from the Latin uni-, ‘one’, and versus, ‘turned’, means ‘combined into
one; whole’. What is it in our experience of the so-called universe that is whole, one,
undivided? Only consciousness! Everything else we know about the universe comprises a
multiplicity and diversity of objects. The only element of experience that is one, undivided and
whole is consciousness itself, or self-aware being. The universe is not conscious; consciousness
is the universe!

In fact, the more scientists look for a universe, the less they find it. The more they look for
matter, the less like matter it seems to be. Why? Because they are looking for it in objective
experience. Sooner or later science will realise that consciousness is the reality for which they
are seeking in objective knowledge and experience.
If we want to build a model of reality, we must start with first principles. What is the primary
element in all experience? Consciousness! To build a theory based upon anything other than
consciousness is to build a house on sand. No matter how well the house may be constructed,
it will sooner or later collapse due to the insubstantial nature of its foundation.

The belief that consciousness is fundamental to the universe credits the universe with too
much existence. The universe does not exist! That is, it does not ‘stand out from’
consciousness with its own independent reality.* Only consciousness truly is. The apparent
existence of the universe is consciousness itself – indivisible, self-aware being – refracted
through the activity of the finite mind. The universe borrows its apparent existence from
consciousness, just as the landscape in the movie borrows its apparent reality from the true
and only reality of the screen.