The Problem Of Consciousness

[nailit]

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.....

[ToraToraTora]

Take me to your dealer!

[198kHz]

The best brains in science and philosophy haven't come to any definitive conclusion after thousands of years, so I'm not going to give it too much thought. ;))

[Paigntonian]

Aren't you conflating consciousness and self when the two, at least in a religious sense, are not the same?

[Zacs-Master]

If we don’t exist, why do we wake up, conscious, in the morning?

[woofgang]

nailit here is a book for just this question
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[Mamyalynne]

No apologies for this - a straight lift from Wiki.

Consciousness, at its simplest, is "sentience or awareness of internal or external existence".Despite millennia of analyses, definitions, explanations and debates by philosophers and scientists, consciousness remains puzzling and controversial, being "at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives".


This may prove to be a long thread indeed.

[douglas9401]

"If we don’t exist, why do we wake up, conscious, in the morning?"

So that every mouth can be fed.

Deep and heavy, that's just wrong. X

[Zacs-Master]

Ooooh, oh, the Israelites.

[Paigntonian]

Good to see you're right up there with Socrates and Plato Zacs.

[nailit]

//Take me to your dealer!//

Please do!
But some of us on AB like to think things through with a straight mind!

[Zacs-Master]

I’m nalit’s equal, that’s all you need to know.

[woofgang]

seriously nailit, read the book. it explains what is known (or was known when it was written) about the mystery of consciousness in a "simple" ha ha and interesting way

[nailit]

//seriously nailit, read the book.//
What book?

[nailit]

My bad, just seen it.

[Zacs-Master]

Come on....If we don’t exist, why do we wake up, conscious, in the morning?

[douglas9401]

Is it possible to wake up unconcious?

[woofgang]

I don't know? do people who are in persistent comas sleep?

[Zacs-Master]

That’s my point Doooogie. Nailit wrote ‘where do you go when you sleep’, if you go somewhere else then.....

[venator]

puto ergo sum?

[Old_Geezer]

It may be, but no clear reason to think it may not be otherwise. Is the programme you watch on the TV just a product of the TV set ?
I may not recall where I was while asleep, but there again, I don't recall where I was this day say 7 years ago. Memory is a strange thing. Apparently most is just reconstructed anyway. One thing I'm sure of, reality, whatever that is, will be much stranger than we can presently imagine. One only has to compare quantum theory and even more cutting edge conjecture with that believed in, in the Middle Ages, to get a taste of how little we really know.