My friend Devon explained the idea of “emergence” to me at a party the other night.
Emergence is when a complex phenomenon (an emergent property) can result from the interaction of simpler parts. This occurs when “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” In math, it looks like this: W = P + E. Where W is the whole and P is the sum of the parts and E is the emergent property. The idea is that the whole has properties not contained in the sum of the parts.
The idea came up when we were talking about meditation and psychedelics. We were talking about the “third eye” and spaces of higher consciousness. Devon pointed out that these experiences may be emergent properties of sensory phenomena. This made me think more generally that many aspects of spirituality may be emergent properties of physical phenomena.
Source: Wikipedia