**14. Conclusions**

Consciousness is an open system having many relations to its mental, physical, and social surroundings. Changes in these surroundings produce internal "disturbances" of the system that require adjustment, adaptation, or correction. As originally described by Bernard [50] and Cannon [51], and more recently by the author [1], such disturbances are normally kept within set limits, because automatic adjustments are brought into action such that the internal and external conditions are held fairly constant. Everything known about the executive role of the forebrain in action planning and decision-making and the recently discovered central homeostatic network [93] suggests that this must indeed be the case.

The General Theory of Behavior holds that the reach of homeostasis extends well beyond physiology into many realms of psychology and into society as a whole. Homeostasis type I, H[ Φ], and type II, H[Ψ], serve identical stabilizing functions internally in the body and externally in socio-physical interactions, respectively. With Cannon, I hypothesize that "steady states in society as a whole and steady states in its members are closely linked" [51]. H[Φ] and H[Ψ] exist in a complementary relationship of mutual support.

A much neglected topic in the history of psychology and today in consciousness studies is mental imagery. Yet, the evidence suggests that mental imagery is the basic building block of consciousness [33]. In protecting stability, security, and equilibrium in the socio-physical world, psychological homeostasis is one of the primary functions of consciousness, and could not exist without it. The emergence of homeostasis and consciousness in evolution would not have been possible without mental imagery. It is impossible to say which came first, consciousness or psychological homeostasis. One thing of which we can be certain is that each of us can truthfully say: "I am conscious; therefore, I am".

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** I am pleased to acknowledge a debt of gratitude for critique, information, or assistance to many people with whom I have had the good fortune of meeting, collaborating with, and, in many instances, becoming friends: Akhter Ahsen, Alan Richardson, Allan Paivio, Anne Isaac, Carole Ernest, Cesare Cornoldi, Donald Broadbent, Doris McIlwain, Elizabeth Loftus, Geoff Loftus, Geir Kaufmann, George Sperling, Gosaku Naruse, Ian Hunter, Jack Clarkson, Jack Hilgard, John Richardson, Joseph Juhasz, Mark Marschark, Martin Orne, Michel Denis, Peter Hampson, Peter McKellar, Peter Sheehan, Ray Hyman, Robert Morris, Stanley Krippner, Shinsuke Hishitani, Steve Kosslyn, Stuart McKelvie, Takeo Hatakeyama, and Tess Molteno. Graham McPhee kindly provided a forerunner of Figure 6. In addition, I appreciate the helpful comments of the two reviewerswho enabled me to improve the clarity of the paper. Responsibility for error rests entirely with the author.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.
