The Consciousness Field: A Proposed Framework for Information, Load, and Recovery in Individual and Social Systems

This paper presents an independently developed framework for understanding consciousness as a field-like system. It describes how a person, a team, or a society takes in information, interprets it, narrows under load toward a single fixed interpretation, and can open again through recovery. The framework treats identity, psychological load, and recovery capacity as measurable variables, and proposes that rigidity around a single fixed interpretation, rather than the presence of differing views itself, underlies much individual and social conflict. Its central construct, Truth Space, is defined as the capacity to hold more than one valid interpretation of a situation at once without collapsing into a single, identity-fused interpretation. The framework is presented as a proposal for testing, not as an established or proven theory. It is accompanied by a case study protocol specifying concrete instruments and procedures for measuring its variables and testing its predictions, and by a formal theory registration documenting those predictions and the analysis plan in advance of data collection. A philosophical prologue exploring speculative connections to physics is kept explicitly separate from these empirical claims. The author has no formal academic training in psychology or a related field. The framework was developed independently, drawing on personal experience and long-term observation, and formalised with the assistance of artificial intelligence, as documented in an accompanying accountability statement. The author does not present this work as a substitute for domain expertise, and welcomes correction, refinement, and empirical testing by researchers with the relevant training.