Quizzes & Puzzles3 mins ago
The Problem Of Consciousness
51 Answers
Maybe one of the 'big 'questions that some on here would argue about, but....
Isnt consciousness just the product of the brain, just as heat is the product of fire?
Ive struggled with this question as much as anyone who has an interest in such things.
After a lifetime of reading about such things from NDE's to religion to investigating the occult and 'supernatural' and investigating spiritualism in all its forms...alternative spiritual philosophes etc.
I cant see anything that contradicts the view that consiousness is merley a brain activity
Where do you go when you sleep? (non REM)?
Where are *YOU* at 2am?
Your body (a collection of millions of cells) maybe asleep, but where is your consiousness?
Maybe the 'self' doesnt exist.
Scary thought in itself.....
Isnt consciousness just the product of the brain, just as heat is the product of fire?
Ive struggled with this question as much as anyone who has an interest in such things.
After a lifetime of reading about such things from NDE's to religion to investigating the occult and 'supernatural' and investigating spiritualism in all its forms...alternative spiritual philosophes etc.
I cant see anything that contradicts the view that consiousness is merley a brain activity
Where do you go when you sleep? (non REM)?
Where are *YOU* at 2am?
Your body (a collection of millions of cells) maybe asleep, but where is your consiousness?
Maybe the 'self' doesnt exist.
Scary thought in itself.....
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According to Carl Jung (& Khandro!) the human psyche consists of three parts, the ego, the personal unconscious, & the collective unconscious.
The collective unconscious contains the knowledge all humans share as a species & I believe it is that which causes so much unrest in those attempting to deny the spiritual needs of the self which on the surface manifests itself through a variety of the world's religions.
The collective unconscious contains the knowledge all humans share as a species & I believe it is that which causes so much unrest in those attempting to deny the spiritual needs of the self which on the surface manifests itself through a variety of the world's religions.
"This leads to the far deeper question.
At death, when our hard drive stops, where does our ‘mind’ go?
Into the same void as our bodies, i.e. nowhere, or does it exist independently of our body? "
well someday we will all find out....and our bodies don't go into a void
""You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.
And at one point you'd hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him/her that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let him/her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her/his eyes, that those photons created within her/him constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.
And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.
And you'll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith. Let them know that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they'll be comforted to know your energy's still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly".
Aaron Freeman
At death, when our hard drive stops, where does our ‘mind’ go?
Into the same void as our bodies, i.e. nowhere, or does it exist independently of our body? "
well someday we will all find out....and our bodies don't go into a void
""You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.
And at one point you'd hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him/her that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let him/her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her/his eyes, that those photons created within her/him constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.
And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.
And you'll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith. Let them know that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they'll be comforted to know your energy's still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly".
Aaron Freeman
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