Research Program / Claims / alternate-focus-11

Events reflect from any conscious layer to all other layers; each layer realizes the event according to its characteristics.

事件从任一意识层反映到所有其他层，每一层按其特性实现该事件

Concept alternate focus · Domain Consciousness States and Attentional Dynamics · ontological claim · interface 3/3 · testability 3/3 · status untested · ★ fundable

This program treats the Seth Material as a source of hypotheses, not as doctrine to be validated. Lead dossiers are AI-compiled from the corpus with a book-and-session citation after every statement; literature reviews are AI web-search summaries whose references were all DOI-verified against Crossref; the agenda draft is an AI synthesis. None of it is Seth's original text, and none of it represents scientific consensus. English fields are machine-translated; the Chinese text is authoritative.

Seth sources (book §session)

seth-speaks §19

Adjudicating experiment

First define 'layers' as six measurable representations: sensory discrimination, semantic, emotional, autonomic response, explicit memory, and dream report. Approximately 160 participants receive visual masking × attentional load manipulation, with simultaneous EEG, pupil, and skin conductance, measuring explicit and implicit memory; approximately 80 additional participants undergo 2 nights of sleep recording and scheduled dream reports. Pre-register detection sensitivity for each layer, event-specific decoding, and cross-layer prediction, and use positive calibration to exclude measurement failure, duration 18 months; testing propagation range within the defined layers, cannot prove reflection in any unobserved layer.

Suggested paper title

Cross-System Propagation of Event Information Under Perceptual Masking and Attentional Load

What it would overturn

If unreportable events stably preserve event-specific information across all predefined systems, it would challenge the assumption that 'attention and conscious access constitute selective gating of information propagation across systems.'

Candidate labs / funders

Stanislas Dehaene：法国 Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit，意识访问研究; Pieter Roelfsema：Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience，视觉与意识加工研究; George A. Mashour：University of Michigan, Center for Consciousness Science; Cogitate Consortium：多模态意识理论检验

Specificity of Seth's formulation

'Any event to all layers' is literally stronger than selective broadcasting models, but lacks enumeration of layers, transmission delays, or representation correspondence rules; allowing arbitrary symbolic interpretation would render it unfalsifiable.

Note

Broad brain activation or thematic similarity in dreams cannot be counted as propagation of the same event; event-matching rules must be fixed in advance, and signals must be shown to carry event identity, not just general arousal.

Evidence (2, DOI-verified via Crossref)

Conscious Processing and the Global Neuronal Workspace Hypothesis — George A. Mashour；Pieter Roelfsema；Jean-Pierre Changeux；Stanislas Dehaene (2020), Neuron
理论综述提出部分进入意识的信息经非线性放大而可被多个处理系统访问，不主张每一事件必然到达所有层面。[论文](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.01.026)
Adversarial testing of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness — Cogitate Consortium；Oscar Ferrante 等 (2025), Nature
多模态数据对意识信息维持和跨区交互提供约束，并挑战两种理论的部分预测；未检验未定义的所有意识层。[论文](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08888-1)

Cite: Future Mind Institute, Seth Material Research Agenda, claim alternate-focus-11, https://www.seth.org.cn/en/research/claims/alternate-focus-11