  In the field theories in physics, any particular region of the presumed
space-time continuum and all interactions between elementary objects therein
can be objectively measured and/or accounted for mathematically. Since this
does not apply to any of the field theories, or any other neural theory, of
consciousness, their explanatory power is limited. As discussed in detail
herein, the matter is complicated further by the facts than any scientifically
operational definition of consciousness is inevitably partial, and that the
phenomenon has no spatial dimensionality. Under the light of insights from
research on meditation and expanded consciousness, chronic pain syndrome,
healthy ageing, and eudaimonic well-being, we may conceive consciousness as a
source of potential energy that has no clearly defined spatial dimensionality,
but can produce significant changes in others and in the world, observable in
terms of changes in time. It is argued that consciousness may have evolved to
enable the human species to generate such changes in order to cope with
unprecedented and/or unpredictable adversity. Such coping could, ultimately,
include the conscious planning of our own extinction when survival on the
planet is no longer an acceptable option.
