What is consciousness?

[Geoff-Allen]

Yes. Yes. I know we all HAVE it but what IS it?

Where is your consciousness located?

Where exactly do our thoughts come from?

How can meditation alter your consciousness?

How does a lump of grey matter inside your skull produce the experience of being alive?

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware?

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware that you are aware?

As you may have guessed, I am in another of my reflective moods.

Any feed-back would be welcome - the more creative the better!

Enjoy your day!

 

[YmirGF]

I'm such a sucker for questions like this. Heck, awake 4 minutes, eyes still adjusting and I'm already contemplating, LOL.

Yes. Yes. I know we all HAVE it but what IS it?

I'm not sure than mankind has found a definitive answer to this question. I have come to describe it as an attribute of being, an attribute of sentience.

Where is your consciousness located?

For the vast majority it would seem to be located directly behind the eyes, more or less in the centre of the brain. That said, in some cases, especially among members of the alt-left and the alt-right, it seems to be closer to the colon.

Where exactly do our thoughts come from?

From belief structures. I see it more as a case of thoughts come both from belief structures and reinforce those structures. This can get a bit hairy when some beliefs are in direct competition with other beliefs. (Here I am imaging how rain clouds form over the ocean and then rain falls back to the ocean. It's a cyclic dependency.)

How can meditation alter your consciousness?

Through a repetitive action that exercises the art of focus. Once focus is sufficiently mastered expansions of consciousness can begin to occur.

How does a lump of grey matter inside your skull produce the experience of being alive?

It's a bit more than a lump. It is an amazingly intricate collection of cells that seem to be doing much more than we are currently aware. The scientific community is making great strides in this area though.

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware?

I doubt very much that anyone has a good answer to this. It just seems to be the way things are. It is just another facet or attribute of sentient being. In the case of the human animal it is especially interesting when we move from ordinary, everyday awareness, into the non-ordinary awareness of what some call self-realization; the point where one identifies with something much larger than previously conceived and results from the expansion of consciousness.

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware that you are aware?

Lucky break, I guess. I fear all too many would consider it a design feature, but that's a bit too simplistic for my tastes.

As you may have guessed, I am in another of my reflective moods.

It's sorta hard to stop the wee neurons from continually making exulting leaps. Time for coffee.

 

[Geoff-Allen]

I'm such a sucker for questions like this. Heck, awake 4 minutes, eyes still adjusting and I'm already contemplating, LOL.

Glad you enjoyed the experience!

Quite creative answers!

I mainly meant "where" do thoughts come from in a physical sense - though your answer is perfectly valid.

May answer more fully later on.

Cheers

 

[`mud]

ahhhh.....consciousness....the property of not being aware of one's cognizence,
until all the sensitivities are gone and stimulation into your passed state, ceases.
Venture into the future existance of being another presence, floating nowhere !
When consciousness floats away, we ourselves, float away.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Yes. Yes. I know we all HAVE it but what IS it?

Where is your consciousness located?

Where exactly do our thoughts come from?

How can meditation alter your consciousness?

How does a lump of grey matter inside your skull produce the experience of being alive?

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware?

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware that you are aware?

As you may have guessed, I am in another of my reflective moods.

Any feed-back would be welcome - the more creative the better!

Enjoy your day!

All in the neurons. Just as our brain processes information between synapses to our bodies (like 0011s to a computer) so are the repetition of thoughts or already received information playbacking when we solve novel equations such as taking old material and thinking about it to form new. I took a neuropsych test about a month ago and it said I had problems processing information. So the verbal words that go in my head has to take neuronic time to process before storage. If it was something supernatural, then why would it involve my neurons and how can they pick up when one is thinking and when one is not.

Where is it located

The brain both hemispheres.

Where do thoughts come from

Recycled neuronic information received, process, and interpreted for output.

How can meditation alter your consciousness?

Breathing exercises can calm the nerves (for me prevent seizures, for example), help with oxygen to the brain and body, so that the information we take in an process, can be verbally and physically outputted in a healthy way.

How does a lump of grey matter inside your skull produce the experience of being alive?

Awareness of being alive usually happens with a clear and healthy brain. So, if one isn't suffering from depression or have stress, they are more aware of their surroundings and what's going on with their body and mind than those distracted by internal and/or external problems that may influence such awareness. A lot of it is subconscious and people feel they get a "insight or an aha!" moment when they can be aware clearly for that minute without distraction.

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware?

Reflection and insight meditation

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware that you are aware?

Umm... reflection, insight meditation?

That one's confusing.

 

[Sunstone]

It seems to me that consciousness largely evolved as both a defense mechanism and a tool to enhance foresight and planning. Consciousness is very closely related to the ego, or psychological sense of self. In fact, I suppose the two are the same thing, just looked at differently.

 

[Geoff-Allen]

It's a bit more than a lump. It is an amazingly intricate collection of cells that seem to be doing much more than we are currently aware. The scientific community is making great strides in this area though.

Reminds me of a great passage in "Siddhartha's Brain":

Scientists have unpicked the firing mechanism of isolated nerve cells, cracked their signalling code and are using increasingly sophisticated technology to interrogate the workings of the brain. But the operation of the three-pound organ we all carry around inside our skulls remain largely a mystery. If you didn't already know its wonderful and marvelous qualities such as consciousness, metacognition, language, love and creativity, you couldn't begin to predict its abilities from an examination of its individual components. The brain is so much more than the sum of its parts, not least because each of its 100 billion nerve cells is an information processsing unit in its own right, interconnected with thousands of others and each densely populated region is just a single node in many interconnected networks. No wonder neuroscientists are still puzzling over what their MRI images and EEG traces actually mean. The scale of the challenge facing them is breathtaking. It's as if upon hearing an orchestra perform a violin concerto you were to attempt an "explanation" of the music by dismantling each instrument in turn. You would end up with a tangle of catgut, scraps of varnished wood and metal tubing, still none the wiser.

It's a great read - quite eye-opening!

 

[WalterTrull]

Uhmm... first is the word which creates the light.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Yes. Yes. I know we all HAVE it but what IS it?

Consciousness in its simplest terms is Self awareness.

Where is your consciousness located?

Best I can tell, somewhere within the mind. Science has yet to determine exactly where.

Where exactly do our thoughts come from?

Again, science has no answer, but for lack of an answer that contains certainty, I would speculate that they come from our consciousness.

How can meditation alter your consciousness?

By learning focus through discipline and routine.

How does a lump of grey matter inside your skull produce the experience of being alive?

Through electrical impulses.

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware?

Through interpretation of electrical signals in the mind.

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware that you are aware?

Through realization that awareness of your awareness is a part of an illusion.

 

[Rational Agnostic]

Yes. Yes. I know we all HAVE it but what IS it?

Where is your consciousness located?

Where exactly do our thoughts come from?

How can meditation alter your consciousness?

How does a lump of grey matter inside your skull produce the experience of being alive?

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware?

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware that you are aware?

As you may have guessed, I am in another of my reflective moods.

Any feed-back would be welcome - the more creative the better!

Enjoy your day!

My responsive isn't going to be creative, because we just don't know the answers to these questions. The only thing that we can say with reasonable certainty is that consciousness is located in the brain. The rest, your guess is as good as mine.

 

[sun rise]

My acceptance of NDEs and other phenomenon dictate that I believe consciousness is not a product of the brain but experienced through the medium of the brain.

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware?

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware that you are aware?

Since self-awareness is not a uniquely human thing but is found in a number of non-human animals, the question for me becomes "what is the nature of the soul that people and at least some non-human animals have"?

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Reminds me of a great passage in "Siddhartha's Brain":

Scientists have unpicked the firing mechanism of isolated nerve cells, cracked their signalling code and are using increasingly sophisticated technology to interrogate the workings of the brain. But the operation of the three-pound organ we all carry around inside our skulls remain largely a mystery. If you didn't already know its wonderful and marvelous qualities such as consciousness, metacognition, language, love and creativity, you couldn't begin to predict its abilities from an examination of its individual components. The brain is so much more than the sum of its parts, not least because each of its 100 billion nerve cells is an information processsing unit in its own right, interconnected with thousands of others and each densely populated region is just a single node in many interconnected networks. No wonder neuroscientists are still puzzling over what their MRI images and EEG traces actually mean. The scale of the challenge facing them is breathtaking. It's as if upon hearing an orchestra perform a violin concerto you were to attempt an "explanation" of the music by dismantling each instrument in turn. You would end up with a tangle of catgut, scraps of varnished wood and metal tubing, still none the wiser.

It's a great read - quite eye-opening!

• " If the human brain was simple enough to understand, we would be too simple to understand it" - anon

Corollary - if we became smart enough to understand our present brains, the new brains that could do that might not be able to understand their own brains at that time yet again.

Nobody knows what consciousness is. Nobody knows its fundamental essence, or as you allude, its location. Is it a substance or a process? Is it in the physical reality it observes.

Is consciousness an epiphenomenon of matter, that is, does the brain generate it or merely act as a receiver channeling it like a radio, which is also not the source of the music it makes, nor where the radio waves reside?

Does consciousness reside in the 6 or 7 unseen dimensions of reality postulated by some modern hypotheses, observing the four comprising spacetime, or is it right here in this space? None of these questions is answerable now.

 

[Lester Tryon]

Consciousness, can been witnessed by observation of the brains electrical activity. There have been successful experiments involving mechanically aided "telepathy". As to what it is? A collection of thoughts (sum reactions to stimuli both current and as related to memories of previous stimuli). Cognition. I liked what Sunstone, said ["It seems to me that consciousness largely evolved as both a defense mechanism and a tool to enhance foresight and planning. Consciousness is very closely related to the ego, or psychological sense of self. In fact, I suppose the two are the same thing, just looked at differently."] Being aware of being aware of being aware is a side effect of interactions with others who are also aware. Many of our thought patterns, behaviors etc, are inherited. e.g. Aversion to dangers, like fire, or spiders, or snakes that are present, without the individual having had any prior experience of the given danger. Meditation, by calming the body functions through mental focus, allows the brain, mind, to "relax" it's attentive control of movement and reactions to external stimulus, thereby freeing the thought process to wander into more ethereal areas.

 

[Lester Tryon]

• " If the human brain was simple enough to understand, we would be too simple to understand it" - anon

Corollary - if we became smart enough to understand our present brains, the new brains that could do that might not be able to understand their own brains at that time yet again.

Nobody knows what consciousness is. Nobody knows its fundamental essence, or as you allude, its location. Is it a substance or a process? Is it in the physical reality it observes.

Is consciousness an epiphenomenon of matter, that is, does the brain generate it or merely act as a receiver channeling it like a radio, which is also not the source of the music it makes, nor where the radio waves reside?

Does consciousness reside in the 6 or 7 unseen dimensions of reality postulated by some modern hypotheses, observing the four comprising spacetime, or is it right here in this space? None of these questions is answerable now.

Just because someone said something, doesn't make it fact. Just because we have not yet completely figured out all the mechanisms that the brain employs, does not mean that we won't in time. Technology is advancing at such an incredible pace, it's truly hard to say what we will or will not be able to comprehend tomorrow.
We do know that memories, senses and emotions are located in the matter of the brain. This is empirically verifiable. These things, can be stimulated by inserting an electrical pulse. As to the other more, non-physical questions you raised, you're right, because it is impossible to prove things without a way to measure or experiment. I experience a 4 dimensional universe, 6 - 7, or the 23 dimensions a friend of mine, who is a published cosmologist talked of, are a bit beyond me. I'm still fascinated with the Mobius strip; how a 2 dimensional object can occupy 3 dimensional space.

 

[WalterTrull]

Quantum implies there's nothing out there. There is no brain. Quantum physicists slowly, kicking and screaming, accepting there must be some sort of universal consciousness. LINK

 

[Nous]

Yes. Yes. I know we all HAVE it but what IS it?

Where is your consciousness located?

Where exactly do our thoughts come from?

How can meditation alter your consciousness?

How does a lump of grey matter inside your skull produce the experience of being alive?

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware?

How is it possible to be aware that you are aware that you are aware?

As you may have guessed, I am in another of my reflective moods.

Any feed-back would be welcome - the more creative the better!

Enjoy your day!

It isn't easy to define “consciousness”. To say that it is awareness or experience doesn't clarify much. Consciousness is also causal--my desire and decision to meet an old friend for dinner next week is what will ultimately cause my feet to move out the door and to arrive at a certain restaurant at a certain time on a particular day. If consciousness were not causal, i.e., producing effects on bodies, then it could not have been selected for by way of natural selection.

Obviously there is no explanation as to how anything in brains causes consciousness--people arrive at that idea by way of the logical fallacy cum hoc ergo propter hoc, wrongly concluding that correlation indicates causation. Further, a good deal of evidence contradicts the proposition that consciousness is an effect of some component or happening in brains. The mere unity of consciousness is inexplicable as an effect of billions of cells or electrochemical activity. There is documented evidence that persons can have complex experiences, engage in logical thought process and form memories even when the brain is isoelectric.

 

[Geoff-Allen]

My acceptance of NDEs and other phenomenon dictate that I believe consciousness is not a product of the brain but experienced through the medium of the brain.

Since self-awareness is not a uniquely human thing but is found in a number of non-human animals, the question for me becomes "what is the nature of the soul that people and at least some non-human animals have"?

Interesting reply! Humans are certainly the only the creatures that can "observe" their own thinking processes - assuming other non-human beings even have "thoughts".

On the other hand no other species experiences the psychological "defects" that some humans fall prey to.

So human consciousness is a very mixed bag!

Thanks for the responses everyone ... some of you do seem to be on a similar "wavelength" as me - I don't personally know anyone who is even asking these kinds of questions!

Cheers!

 

[YmirGF]

Thanks for the responses everyone ... some of you do seem to be on a similar "wavelength" as me - I don't personally know anyone who is even asking these kinds of questions!

Cheers!

You really should come up and visit me in paradise. If you can get me to stop giggling long enough we might actually have a fun conversation. My BBQ lighter is always at the ready.

 

[Geoff-Allen]

You really should come up and visit me in paradise. If you can get me to stop giggling long enough we might actually have a fun conversation. My BBQ lighter is always at the ready.

I already live in the world's most "liveable" city - Melbourne, Australia.

Thanks for the invite!

No sausages or steak for me - I have been a vegetarian for a while now ...

 

[YmirGF]

I already live in the world's most "liveable" city - Melbourne, Australia.

Thanks for the invite!

No sausages or steak for me - I have been a vegetarian for a while now ...

Interesting. I'm next door to another most livable city, Vancouver, Canada. It's about 2 hours away from my island paradise. I can make an incredible vegetable curry!