Ok. Thanks, Lynn. I will sum up my point to Barnacle about consciousness which goes back to Rumar quoting Raduga as though the latter had said something nonsensical:
Quote:
"Way back when, people did not have consciousness. Yet
once it developed, it gradually started occupying more and
more of the waking state."
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Homo Sapiens, even as babies, acquire a fairly advanced form of consciousness (compared to animals). A baby will cry and try to get out of his highchair and if successful, will often pause and examine what happened - as though the question in the baby mind popped up: "hmmm... how did I do this? How did I get out?
Even though the baby may not have been fully aware of his method for getting out, he/she then experiences a reflective consciousness that you certainly don't see in a dog, for example.
Now, in evolution, our ancestors (the primordial human form) did not have consciousness. How can this be, you might ask. Well, we were only beginning to evolve the lizard brain which was pure instinct and highly stimulated by the environment and our movements were probably very much like that of squirrel monkeys.
Today, we can still experience a portion of this "lizard brain" and how, in some instances, it commands our bodies without us being aware of it. An example is when you touch a boiling hot pan and your hands instantly moves away. The reflect action is unconscious. There was no time for the conscious part of you to think and tell your hand to move...no consciousness involved...and yet, your lizard brain did it for you to protect you as it is highly sensitive to the environment. Afterwards, you often find that the conscious part of you is baffled by how "the hand moved by itself".
Now imagine a primordial being who only possesses such basic version of the brain. No consciousness is needed. But yes, the being is evolving a more complex brain as time passes and more interaction with the environment over generations occurs.
Then, we began to develop more complex cerebral layers until...voila... today, our amazing thinking brain. So complex, the most complex organ in the universe that it can literally reflect on itself.
Certain simple evolutionary facts plus certain altered states of consciousness that I experienced helped me to shape my current view on consciousness. To me, the self is nothing but a sense. The sense of self. I once reached a meditative state where I saw that I had no "core" and understood what the Buddha was talking about.
There is no "Cartesian Theatre" (as philosopher Daniel Dennett termed it) in our heads because that does not even begin to explain consciousness. Through my experience, I saw that we are like a factory that is active...every bit of machinery is working... but there are no workers, no supervisors, no managers... no-one. Intrinsically, we are empty. No spirit, no soul. Just mechanics.
I postulate that, death means the cessation of being (i.e. a state equivalent to the pre-birth state). For someone to come back to life after death, or for the universe to bring back your awareness, it would have to eventuate the right coordinates in space.
Maybe in a million years, hypothetically, it stumbles upon the same coordinates and you come into being... in which case, time would not have passed for you because you were not conscious to it. It would be like dying one minute and being born the next. Please note that this does not entail a spirit roaming in the afterlife until it finds a new body. No. In this view, the universe intrinsically holds you. No need for spirits. The right vibrations of matter will determine your return and I doubt that you would have same
self. There would be no memory of this life.
Since I can't fully talk about certain personal psychedelic experiences, I'll take a scientific route in explaining, in part, why I hold such views on consciousness. In fact, recent breakthroughs only seem to serve as confirmation. Scientists are starting to get a very clear picture of how certain conscious experiences relate to the physical brain and I have no doubt that it emerges from the nervous system. There is not much difference between a human being and a rock on a subatomic level. They are both the same energy. The difference is in how their particles vibrate and associate with one another.
The Allen Institute of Brain Science in Seattle have begun to work on a theory of precise measure whereby phi (like computer bits) quantifies the integration of associated parts of the brain in a particular state and the level of consciousness (how strong it is).
Not only can they get a good idea in determining the conscious experience of such system, the fact that some neurons fire and some don't creates a shape in a high-dimensional space. They liken the "shape" it creates to a crystal that incorporates many forms of conscious experience. The crystalline shape can change as well and widens the scope (not surprisingly as the mammalian brain is also known for its neuroplasticity). This crystal incorporates all that you experience...both dreams and reality. It all comes about in the electrical oceans of the brain.
To move away from Christof Koch's picture at the institute, I will also find you another breakthrough as soon as I find the link. Bear with me on this and you will be shocked to see what the brain can really do in terms of perception. This is pending...
Linear Mode
