Biocentrism: College Admission Essay Sample

I've always had a special interest in physics, and if I could teach the Reed community anything, I'd want to talk about Biocentrism. Biocentrism is a relatively obscure theory that states that we, with our consciousness, create the universe, instead of the other way around. It argues that life isn't merely a byproduct of physics but the very thing that physics stems from. Take this scenario. You're sitting on a beach watching a beautiful sunset. You can hear the waves crashing, and can smell the salt in the breeze.

Now what if I told you that it's all in your mind? In a way, it really is. The sunset you're "watching" is the end result of your eyes picking up light waves of different frequencies, thus making different "colors," and your brain interpreting those stimuli. Your brain's interpretation is what forms the picture of the sunset. The sound of waves is merely sound waves hitting your eardrums, and your ears translating that into something your brain can process. And the smell of the salt is a sensation created by the neural pathways in your brain. So although, yes, the beach is outside of your mind, everything that you experience is processed internally, in your brain. This process is, according to biocentrism, closely tied to your consciousness. Furthermore, this idea can be extended to encompass everything—everything we have "observed" in the universe or in science is essentially open to how we choose to interpret it. Some scientists go as far as to say that the famous "Theory of Everything" will never be complete until consciousness is factored in.

I don't necessarily expect my fellow Reedies to agree with the theory. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that I do myself—since biocentrism is pretty radical for our time. However, I would hope, at least, that this would open their eyes to the possibilities of scientific inquiry. That this would inspire them to look outside the box, and take a different approach to a problem that has yet to be solved. Biocentrism is brave in that it dares to be different from the mainstream of ideas dealing with the universe.