“Mind is not a place inside the body—it is the unfolding of relation across levels of meaning.”
Consciousness has long been treated as a mystery inside a machine—either a ghost in the neural network or an emergent illusion of computational complexity.
But what if consciousness is not in the brain at all?
What if consciousness is a pattern of relation, recursively expressed across strata—from biology to meaning, from the firing of neurones to the stories we tell ourselves?
In a relational ontology, mind is not substance or location—it is recursive participation in meaning.
Consciousness as Recursive Construal
To be conscious is not simply to perceive—it is to perceive that one perceives. It is not mere reaction, but recursive construal: a loop in which meaning is not only experienced but reflected upon, structured, symbolised, and re-instantiated.
Where perception provides difference, consciousness provides pattern—the tracing of that difference across symbolic time.
From this view:
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Consciousness is recursive: it loops experience back through itself.
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Meaning is cumulative: built from patterns of construal across contexts.
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Awareness is awareness of meaning: it is meaning about meaning.
To say “I am aware” is not to say “I see.” It is to say “I see that I see”—I construe that I construe.
The Self as Pattern, Not Point
In this recursive model, the self is not a central observer or a static identity. The self is a symbolic pattern—a process that emerges from the recursive interaction of perception, memory, language, and relation.
Selfhood is not a container of experience, but an emergent system of symbolic differentiation.
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It is not where experience happens—it is how experience organises itself.
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It is not a thing—it is a function of recursive construal.
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It is not unified—it is stratified, woven from shifting patterns of actualised meaning.
And it is instanced differently in every context.
Perception, Memory, Imagination: Systems of Actualisation
From the perspective of relational ontology, the core functions of mind—perception, memory, imagination—are not internal faculties. They are systems for actualising potential into instance:
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Perception: Construal of present potential—differentiating the “now” from the flow.
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Memory: Recursive symbolic storage—not replication but reinstantiation of meaning.
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Imagination: Generative potential—projecting meaning ahead of the moment, not as fantasy, but as possible instance.
These are not separate faculties but interpenetrating loops, each recursively feeding the others.
From Neural Substrate to Symbolic Order
How does this symbolic recursion arise from biological form?
This is where we bring neuroscience into dialogue with Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)—linking the material substrate of the brain to the semiotic structures of meaning.
In SFL, meaning is stratified:
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Semantics: what is meant.
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Lexicogrammar: how it is worded.
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Phonology: how it is sounded.
These strata are related by realisation—each level expressing the one above it in a more concrete form.
Now, transpose this model onto neural function:
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Neuronal firing patterns are like phonology: structure at the material level.
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Neural groups and circuits act like lexicogrammar: patterning potential forms.
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Cognitive construals emerge as semantics: symbolic meanings realised through the material substrate.
Just as a language system does not contain meaning but realises it, the brain does not store the self—it instantiates it.
Consciousness as Participation in Symbolic Recursion
To be conscious is:
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To construe meaning from experience.
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To symbolise that meaning across strata.
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To re-enter those symbols as participants in your own unfolding.
And within that spiral, the self arises—not as a centre, but as a symmetry of becoming.
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