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Connections between the Binding Problem and Synchronicity
Presented at Consciousness and the Brain Conference in Cuenca, Ecuador, May 13-15, 2026
Abstract
The binding problem of neuroscience asks how separate qualities of a percept are processed by different portions of the brain, yet nevertheless are perceived as one whole. In visual perception for example, the colour, shape, and location of an object are bound together spatially. Studies with metronome ticks in psychophysics demonstrate that binding also occurs temporally, through experiential moments that are indistinguishable from each other. Binding thus resonates with the continuity / heterogeneity polarity of subjective experience, which was discussed by notable philosophers like William James, and Henri Bergson. Likewise, binding potentially delineates the difference between consciousness and the unconscious. Modern theories of consciousness propose neural synchrony, integration of information, and electromagnetic fields as possible mechanisms for binding. Synchronization to fields is also observed in the emerging science of biogeomagnetism and research on superorganisms, all pointing towards binding extended to a general property or nature, rather than just the brain. Finally, this research analyzes the role that binding plays in exceptional human experiences (EHEs) like synchronicity. Using an arts-based photographic and phenomenological approach, a number of practical participatory examples of synchronicity are presented and discussed. The findings suggest that binding can take place among percepts separated by large spatial and temporal frames, or as the definition of synchronicity would suggest, through meaningful coincidences extended outside the personal bodily self. Speculation over the binding of spacetime itself, including the possible higher dimensions of consciousness is included.
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