Abstract

The Hard Problem of consciousness—explaining why and how physical processes are accompanied by subjective experience—remains one of the most challenging puzzles in modern thought. Rather than attempting to resolve this issue outright, in this paper I explore whether empirical science can be broadened to incorporate consciousness as a fundamental degree of freedom. Drawing on Russellian monism and revisiting the historical “relegation problem” (the systematic sidelining of consciousness by the scientific revolution), I propose an extension of quantum mechanics by augmenting the Hilbert space with a “consciousness dimension.” This framework provides a basis for reinterpreting psi phenomena (e.g., telepathy, precognition) as natural outcomes of quantum nonlocality and suggests that advanced non– human intelligence (NHI) technology might interface with a quantum–conscious substrate. For a detailed mathematical exposition of this framework, see my preprint [3]. I demarcate the philosophical issues from the empirical ones and propose several experimental strategies— including entanglement–based psi research, quantum–enhanced neuroimaging, and quantum sensor applications—to test the model. Although this framework does not resolve the Hard Problem, it offers a rigorously formulated, historically informed, and empirically testable approach to integrating subjective experience into the scientific study of mind.