Energetic Monism

Energism, or energetic monism, is the view that consciousness can be explained as a physical process caused by the way energetic activity is organized in the brain. Energy, and the related actions of forces and work, are fundamental drivers of physical processes and are defined in terms of actualized differences of motion and tension. All physical systems subject to the actions of energy, forces and work entail there being something it like to undergo those actions from the intrinsic perspective of the system. But they are not necessarily conscious. Consciousness occurs when a sufficiently complex and recursive organization of actualized differences are active in a substrate such as a brain. Energism is a monistic theory of consciousness and is distinct from, though has some has affinities with, panpsychism.

See: Pepperell R (2018) Consciousness as a Physical Process Caused by the Organization of Energy in the Brain. Front. Psychol. 9:2091. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02091