# Consciousness

## Purpose

Consciousness Tiles distinguish established neuroscience, active research, philosophy, reported experience, esoteric practice, and spiritual interpretation. This chapter is an index and a method: it shows how to explore the subject without collapsing documented history, current research, reported experience, fiction, community belief, and Oracle synthesis into one truth claim.

## Reading Method

1. **Locate the Tile.** Read its Primary Class to learn what kind of thing it is, then its Inquiry Domains to learn which questions it can illuminate.
2. **Name the material mode.** A science-fiction, mythology, political-mythology, experiential-report, or established-science label identifies context; it is not a score of spiritual or personal importance.
3. **Read claims layer by layer.** Begin with the literal-and-empirical layer, then the cultural-and-historical layer, and only then the symbolic-and-divinatory layer. An evidence state applies to one bounded claim, not to the Tile as a whole.
4. **Open the sources.** A concept-specific citation can support a history or bounded claim. A class-level contextual citation only locates the Tile in a wider field. Neither one certifies every interpretation.
5. **Follow typed edges.** Compare the exact verb and rationale. “Fictionalizes,” “opposes,” “echoes,” and “investigated-by” are not interchangeable. A resemblance edge is not proof of historical influence.
6. **Integrate through action.** Use Gift, Shadow, Threshold, and the integration practice to identify one grounded choice that remains useful even if a favored ontology is wrong.

## Worked Comparison

1. **Wonder** is a Forces Tile centered on Mind & Consciousness. Its literal layer is **not-applicable**; its symbolic question is: “What remains useful in Wonder if its strongest literal claim proves false? Answer by testing how openness before the unknown placed within mind & consciousness changes the conditions under which every actor chooses against attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness.”
2. **Attention** is a Forces Tile centered on Mind & Consciousness. Its literal layer is **not-applicable**; its symbolic question is: “What changes when describe the experience before choosing among neurological, psychological, social, or metaphysical causes, rather than assuming the preferred interpretation? Answer by testing how the attention motif placed within mind & consciousness changes the conditions under which every actor chooses against attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness.”
3. **Noosphere** is a Cosmologies Tile centered on Mind & Consciousness. Its literal layer is **plausible-speculation**; its symbolic question is: “Which voice, dependency, or counterexample is missing from the current reading of Noosphere? Answer by testing how the noosphere motif placed within mind & consciousness changes what counts as possible before any local decision is made against attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness.”

Compare these examples by asking what changes when the class, evidence state, or edge verb changes. Do not treat the most vivid Tile as the most factual. When a reading crosses into health, identity, conspiracy, or current politics, show the card’s safety flags and preserve an alternate explanation.

## System Links

- [How to Use](HOW-TO-USE.md) for reference, reading, and game workflows.
- [Graph](GRAPH.md) for edge semantics and provenance.
- [Divination](DIVINATION.md) for reflective reading rules.
- [Glossary](GLOSSARY.md) for Classes, Domains, Modes, and Evidence States.
- [Source Registry](../research/SOURCE-REGISTRY.md) for source tiers, scope, and rights.

## Canonical Tiles

- [Wonder](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-wonder.md) — Wonder frames openness before the unknown placed within mind & consciousness as a decision environment rather than a finished answer. Its evidence discipline is transparent analogy, declared invention, and practical usefulness.
- [Attention](../cards/forces/sfoc-forces-attention.md) — The Oracle places Attention where the attention motif placed within mind & consciousness affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a recurrent pressure or organizing dynamic with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Noosphere](../cards/cosmologies/sfoc-cosmologies-noosphere.md) — Seen closely, Noosphere is about the noosphere motif placed within mind & consciousness under conditions of attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Hive Mind](../cards/beings/sfoc-beings-hive-mind.md) — Hive Mind brings the hive motif meeting attention, interpretation, and subjective continuity into focus. It operates as an agent, intelligence, identity, or recurring role and asks how attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness alter practical choice.
- [Remote Viewing](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-remote-viewing.md) — A claimed practice of acquiring information about a distant target outside ordinary sensory access.
- [Controlled Remote Viewing](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-controlled-remote-viewing.md) — At the center of Controlled Remote Viewing is the controlled motif, perception or action across separation, and observation made into a practice acting together. The card treats that tension as a repeatable capability for sensing, transforming, connecting, or constructing, bounded by spiritual use is not blanket empirical verification.
- [Mind Upload](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-mind-upload.md) — Mind Upload concentrates attention, interpretation, and subjective continuity meeting the upload motif into a repeatable capability for sensing, transforming, connecting, or constructing. Its value lies in examining attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Consciousness Transfer](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-consciousness-transfer.md) — subjective awareness and experience meeting the transfer motif gives Consciousness Transfer its distinctive charge. Read it through attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness, with assumptions, feasibility constraints, and discriminating tests kept visible.
- [Attention Economy](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-attention-economy.md) — Attention Economy is a way of encountering the attention motif meeting rules for allocating value and obligation. Its Oracle use joins a persistent rule environment coordinating access, behavior, and value to the question of attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness.
- [Near-Death Experience](../cards/states/sfoc-states-near-death-experience.md) — A reported cluster of experiences occurring near death or perceived death, interpreted through neurological, psychological, and spiritual models.
- [Out-of-Body Experience](../cards/states/sfoc-states-out-of-body-experience.md) — Within the Oracle, Out-of-Body Experience holds together the out motif, embodied capacity and limit, and lived perception before causal settlement acting together and embodiment, care, inheritance, adaptation, disability, and the politics of transformation. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Astral Projection](../cards/states/sfoc-states-astral-projection.md) — Astral Projection concentrates the astral motif meeting the projection motif into a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited. Its value lies in examining embodiment, care, inheritance, adaptation, disability, and the politics of transformation without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Lucid Dream](../cards/states/sfoc-states-lucid-dream.md) — The Oracle places Lucid Dream where the lucid motif meeting imaginal experience during altered awareness affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Prophetic Dream](../cards/states/sfoc-states-prophetic-dream.md) — Prophetic Dream brings the prophetic motif meeting imaginal experience during altered awareness into focus. It operates as a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited and asks how attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness alter practical choice.
- [Precognition](../cards/states/sfoc-states-precognition.md) — Precognition offers an instrument for reading the precognition motif placed within mind & consciousness. It becomes useful when interpretation remains answerable to describe the experience before choosing among neurological, psychological, social, or metaphysical causes.
- [Déjà Vu](../cards/states/sfoc-states-d-j-vu.md) — What makes Déjà Vu consequential is the meeting of the d motif, the j motif, and the vu motif acting together with attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Temporal Dislocation](../cards/states/sfoc-states-temporal-dislocation.md) — the temporal motif meeting the dislocation motif gives Temporal Dislocation its distinctive charge. Read it through continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together, with phenomenology, context, care, and multiple possible explanations kept visible.
- [Panoramic Awareness](../cards/states/sfoc-states-panoramic-awareness.md) — Within the Oracle, Panoramic Awareness holds together the panoramic motif meeting the awareness motif and authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Ego Dissolution](../cards/states/sfoc-states-ego-dissolution.md) — Ego Dissolution concentrates the ego motif meeting the dissolution motif into a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited. Its value lies in examining attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Timelessness](../cards/states/sfoc-states-timelessness.md) — What makes Timelessness consequential is the meeting of the timelessness motif placed within time & causality with sequence, recurrence, prediction, counterfactuals, and the difference between order and cause. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Altered State](../cards/states/sfoc-states-altered-state.md) — The working core of Altered State is the altered motif placed within body & evolution: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. respect for testimony does not require certifying one external cause.
- [Psychedelic Contact](../cards/states/sfoc-states-psychedelic-contact.md) — Psychedelic Contact concentrates the psychedelic motif meeting reciprocal encounter across difference into a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited. Its value lies in examining signal, translation, reciprocity, consent, and the repair of misunderstanding without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Ontological Shock](../cards/states/sfoc-states-ontological-shock.md) — Information or experience making the previous model of reality impossible to maintain.
- [Chapel Perilous](../cards/states/sfoc-states-chapel-perilous.md) — The threshold where coincidence, paranoia, revelation, and play become difficult to distinguish.
- [Rabbit Hole](../cards/states/sfoc-states-rabbit-hole.md) — One anomaly opening an expanding network of hidden explanations.
- [Red-Pill State](../cards/states/sfoc-states-red-pill-state.md) — Red-Pill State gathers a field around the red motif meeting the pill motif. Its deeper subject is memory can preserve personhood while also being edited, inherited, contested, or supplied by others.
- [True-Believer State](../cards/states/sfoc-states-true-believer-state.md) — True-Believer State brings the true motif meeting the believer motif into focus. It operates as a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited and asks how embodiment, care, inheritance, adaptation, disability, and the politics of transformation alter practical choice.
- [Skeptical Suspension](../cards/states/sfoc-states-skeptical-suspension.md) — the skeptical motif meeting the suspension motif is the engine beneath Skeptical Suspension. As a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.
- [Institutional Distrust](../cards/states/sfoc-states-institutional-distrust.md) — The Oracle places Institutional Distrust where the institutional motif meeting the distrust motif affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Epistemic Trust](../cards/states/sfoc-states-epistemic-trust.md) — The working core of Epistemic Trust is the epistemic motif meeting willing reliance under uncertainty: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. respect for testimony does not require certifying one external cause.
- [Hypervigilance](../cards/states/sfoc-states-hypervigilance.md) — What makes Hypervigilance consequential is the meeting of the hypervigilance motif placed within mind & consciousness with attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Cognitive Dissonance](../cards/states/sfoc-states-cognitive-dissonance.md) — attention and interpretation as terrain meeting the dissonance motif gives Cognitive Dissonance its distinctive charge. Read it through continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together, with phenomenology, context, care, and multiple possible explanations kept visible.
- [Dissociation](../cards/states/sfoc-states-dissociation.md) — the dissociation motif placed within body & evolution gives Dissociation its distinctive charge. Read it through embodiment, care, inheritance, adaptation, disability, and the politics of transformation, with phenomenology, context, care, and multiple possible explanations kept visible.
- [Compartmentalized Identity](../cards/states/sfoc-states-compartmentalized-identity.md) — the compartmentalized motif meeting continuity claimed across change gives Compartmentalized Identity its distinctive charge. Read it through continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together, with phenomenology, context, care, and multiple possible explanations kept visible.
- [False Memory](../cards/states/sfoc-states-false-memory.md) — Seen closely, False Memory is about the false motif meeting continuity through retained traces under conditions of continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Implanted Memory](../cards/states/sfoc-states-implanted-memory.md) — Implanted Memory brings the implanted motif meeting continuity through retained traces into focus. It operates as a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited and asks how continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together alter practical choice.
- [Genetic Memory](../cards/states/sfoc-states-genetic-memory.md) — Seen closely, Genetic Memory is about the genetic motif meeting continuity through retained traces under conditions of continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Ancestral Memory](../cards/states/sfoc-states-ancestral-memory.md) — Ancestral Memory concentrates the ancestral motif meeting continuity through retained traces into a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited. Its value lies in examining continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Bloodline Memory](../cards/states/sfoc-states-bloodline-memory.md) — Within the Oracle, Bloodline Memory holds together inheritance used to authorize identity meeting continuity through retained traces and inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Generational Trauma](../cards/states/sfoc-states-generational-trauma.md) — Generational Trauma names a threshold where the generational motif meeting the trauma motif changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps lived and reported experience distinct from symbolic use.
- [Collective Unconscious](../cards/states/sfoc-states-collective-unconscious.md) — Seen closely, Collective Unconscious is about agency distributed across many members meeting mental process outside direct awareness under conditions of attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Noospheric Awareness](../cards/states/sfoc-states-noospheric-awareness.md) — Noospheric Awareness concentrates the noospheric motif meeting the awareness motif into a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited. Its value lies in examining authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Light Body](../cards/states/sfoc-states-light-body.md) — The working core of Light Body is the light motif meeting embodied capacity and limit: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. spiritual use is not blanket empirical verification.
- [Crystalline Body](../cards/states/sfoc-states-crystalline-body.md) — Crystalline Body brings the crystalline motif meeting embodied capacity and limit into focus. It operates as a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited and asks how embodiment, care, inheritance, adaptation, disability, and the politics of transformation alter practical choice.
- [Starseed Awakening](../cards/states/sfoc-states-starseed-awakening.md) — Starseed Awakening offers an instrument for reading cosmic belonging and mission meeting a changed account of what is real. It becomes useful when interpretation remains answerable to trace the earliest attested form, each handoff, and what later tellers added.
- [Ascension State](../cards/states/sfoc-states-ascension-state.md) — Within the Oracle, Ascension State holds together transformation toward a higher state placed within liberation & transcendence and agency, release, transformation, integration, and the limits that freedom must still honor. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Posthuman Condition](../cards/states/sfoc-states-posthuman-condition.md) — Within the Oracle, Posthuman Condition holds together the posthuman motif meeting the condition motif and continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Cyborg Embodiment](../cards/states/sfoc-states-cyborg-embodiment.md) — Cyborg Embodiment brings the cyborg motif meeting the embodiment motif into focus. It operates as a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited and asks how agency, difference, recognition, and the ethics of meeting a mind unlike one’s own alter practical choice.
- [Digital Continuity](../cards/states/sfoc-states-digital-continuity.md) — Digital Continuity gathers a field around identity or value mediated by computation meeting the continuity motif. Its deeper subject is memory can preserve personhood while also being edited, inherited, contested, or supplied by others.
- [Amnesia](../cards/states/sfoc-states-amnesia.md) — The Oracle places Amnesia where the amnesia motif placed within memory & identity affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Memory Wipe](../cards/states/sfoc-states-memory-wipe.md) — The deliberate removal of remembered continuity in fiction, lore, and symbolic psychology.
- [Isolation](../cards/states/sfoc-states-isolation.md) — Seen closely, Isolation is about the isolation motif placed within mind & consciousness under conditions of attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Alienation](../cards/states/sfoc-states-alienation.md) — Alienation names a threshold where the alienation motif placed within intelligence & otherness changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps lived and reported experience distinct from symbolic use.
- [Belonging](../cards/states/sfoc-states-belonging.md) — Belonging offers an instrument for reading the belonging motif placed within body & evolution. It becomes useful when interpretation remains answerable to name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up.
- [Existential Dread](../cards/states/sfoc-states-existential-dread.md) — What makes Existential Dread consequential is the meeting of the existential motif meeting the dread motif with attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Psychosocial Hypothesis](../cards/hypotheses/sfoc-hypotheses-psychosocial-hypothesis.md) — The interpretation that culture, expectation, psychology, and social transmission shape anomalous reports.
- [Quantum Consciousness Hypothesis](../cards/hypotheses/sfoc-hypotheses-quantum-consciousness-hypothesis.md) — Within the Oracle, Quantum Consciousness Hypothesis holds together physical behavior at fundamental scales meeting subjective awareness and experience and attention, perception, interior experience, and the models used to explain awareness. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
