Can consciousness exist outside the body?

[shawn001]

Of course I can't. Why would I even try? Nor can I name something conscious that doesn't have a heartbeat.
The other side of the Dennett coin is Bennett and Hacker. Brains are not conscious - people are.
Lets not lose sight of where we began

"Of course I can't. Why would I even try?"

You can't because you need the neurons firing and brain structure.

Conciousness has parts as brain damaged people show.

"Brains are not conscious - people are."

No chemical and electrical activity and your brain dead.

Nature Of Consciousness: How Activity Of Single Neurons In Human Brain Reflect Conscious Perception

ScienceDaily (Feb. 18, 2008) — An international team of scientists led by a University of Leicester researcher has carried out a scientific study into the realm of consciousness.

The scientists have made a significant step into the understanding of conscious perception, by showing how single neurons in the human brain reacted to certain images.

Nature Of Consciousness: How Activity Of Single Neurons In Human Brain Reflect Conscious Perception

 

[Tonymai]

Spirit is conscious. For example the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit. Reference the Urantia Book.

 

[shawn001]

Robot with a biological brain

Scientists at the University of Reading create a robot that is controlled by cultured neurons.

[youtube]wACltn9QpCc[/youtube]
Robot with a biological brain - YouTube


Robot with a rat brain

Robot with a rat brain

 

[shawn001]

Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.

[youtube]t0pwKzTRG5E[/youtube]
VS Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization - YouTube



Split brain with one half atheist and one half theist

Neurologist VS Ramachandran explains the case of split-brain patients with one hemisphere without a belief in a god, and the other with a belief in a god


[youtube]PFJPtVRlI64[/youtube]
Split brain with one half atheist and one half theist - YouTube

 

[shawn001]

Souls do not Exist
Evidence from Science & Philosophy Against Mind-Body Dualism


Our 'minds', 'souls', 'spirit' and consciousness are all physical in nature. Thousands of years of research have shown that our brains comprise and produce our true selves. Souls and spirits do not exist. Our bodies run themselves. We know from cases of brain damage and the effects of psychoactive drugs, that our experiences are caused by physical chemistry acting on our physical neurones in our brains. Our innermost self is our biochemical self.

1. The Physical Brain is the Source of Emotions and Personality, Not the Soul
2. The Physics of the Soul
   1. Eyes
   2. Evolution and Development of the Self
   3. Consciousness and Complexity
3. Particular Phenomenon
   1. Ghosts
   2. The Recently Dead
   3. Out of Body Experiences
   4. Night Terrors: Demonic Attacks
4. Religion
   1. A Life Force: The Creation of a Pre-Scientific Age
   2. Popular Judaism, Christianity and Islam
   3. God Does Not Need Souls
   4. Souls are a Pagan Concept
5. The Religion of Spiritualism
   1. Institutionalized Spiritual Populism
   2. Issues and Problems: Its Original Proponents Admit Making It Up

Souls do not Exist: Evidence from Science & Philosophy Against Mind-Body Dualism

 

[Krok]

But, but, but...humans want to feel special and want to be loved by the creator of the universe.

It really is that feeling of superiority above everything else. The creator of this universe talks to me in my head, you know, but I'll pray for you as the creator of the universe whispers "things" in my ears; but not in yours. Ha-Ha. But I'll pray for you (newspeak for: I talk to the all-powerful creator, you don't. Therefore I'm better than you).

In the meantime there's absolutely no evidence that any part of any human will survive death. Every human becomes reworked worm faecies.:faint:

I love the references again. Thanks. (It's gonna take a while to read them).

 

[Looncall]

How about things like deja vu - is that just some kind of false memory?

More to the point really - if we cannot have consciousness outside of the body then how can religion, spirituality, paranormal etc. be true?

Exactly! Well done!

 

[nnmartin]

^it was a rhetorical question.

Spirituality and religion are both true therefore it must be possible to have consciousness outside the body.

A lot of this is due to Archetypes.

ie: the perfect me.

This is created at conception and always exists as a kind of higher personal power - it hovers above our head (in an abstract sense) and cannot be destroyed.

It is this which connects us to God.

 

[Looncall]

^it was a rhetorical question.

Spirituality and religion are both true therefore it must be possible to have consciousness outside the body.

A lot of this is due to Archetypes.

ie: the perfect me.

This is created at conception and always exists as a kind of higher personal power - it hovers above our head (in an abstract sense) and cannot be destroyed.

It is this which connects us to God.

What evidence do you have that any of this is true? You do not get to simply assume that it is.

Please explain this archetypes thing. It sounds improbable to me.

 

[theirreverentconcubine]

First part yes; second part, superposition, and we will get there.

There's no mind-body duality in my experience; there's a mind-mind duality which I call dual-state identity and which is derivative of the illusion of time. Here's some dualities: I. Will. 12 minutes of now before 1/18 of a second of discontinuity of now. I've heard of a Swedish psychologist who was just awarded a large grant and perhaps his own department to research that last. Sounds like a link... Ny forskning: Ett nu är cirka två sekunder långt - Högskolan Väst...which is in Swede, so you might need Chrome.

Here's a link that illustrates, to me, why superposition may apply... HowStuffWorks "Entanglement and Recent Experiments"

Which also illustrates my first answer. This mind made these associations, science is more than welcome to prove this mind wrong; what others call living I call learning.

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

I look on the human brain as part of a genetic pattern, which is what differentiates a human brain from that of a chimpanzee's and consciousness as an emergent property as the universe had undergone a critical level of complexity just as the triple alpha process which created carbon in the universe is an emergent pattern consciousness is. You could have emerged anywhere in the universe where conditions entered such a critical phase such as the emergence of genetically encoded brain matter. You will naturally ignore the conditions which did not allow you to exist such as the matter in your body being locked up in a supermassive black hole.

 

[bigbadgirl]

Nothing exists outside the body. Prove it to me.

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

Nothing exists outside the body. Prove it to me.

Sounds like solipsism

 

[shawn001]

I look on the human brain as part of a genetic pattern, which is what differentiates a human brain from that of a chimpanzee's and consciousness as an emergent property as the universe had undergone a critical level of complexity just as the triple alpha process which created carbon in the universe is an emergent pattern consciousness is. You could have emerged anywhere in the universe where conditions entered such a critical phase such as the emergence of genetically encoded brain matter. You will naturally ignore the conditions which did not allow you to exist such as the matter in your body being locked up in a supermassive black hole.

Both human's and chimps have conciousness.

"undergone a critical level of complexity just as the triple alpha process which created carbon in the universe is an emergent pattern consciousness is"

I don't understand this sentence?

What's this mean?

"triple alpha process which created carbon"

nucleosynthesis?

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

Both human's and chimps have conciousness.

"undergone a critical level of complexity just as the triple alpha process which created carbon in the universe is an emergent pattern consciousness is"

I don't understand this sentence?

What's this mean?

"triple alpha process which created carbon"

nucleosynthesis?

Why am I a human as opposed be being a chimpanzee? The answer is of course I don't know. I don't think anyone knows. I could have become a chimpanzee or even a dolphin for that matter rather than a human as I see nothing in nature that could prevent that from happening. Perhaps because humans have such a large population on this planet at this time in history the chances of becoming a human would be much in the human's favour. With humans numbering in their billions and bonobos being “threatened” (conservation stratus, “endangered”) you are more likely to become a human than one those for instance. It could even be possible that humans have a faculty that goes a little further than just being conscious such as executive functioning, artistic expression, complex language and other frontal lobe functions that chimpanzees and to a greater extent other animals are more deficient of. That could be the emergent property that creates the higher form of human consciousness. The big downside for us humans is that we are far more prone to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease which according to recent research which is so far unheard of in other great apes like chimps. Maybe this could be the price we pay for our higher intellectual functioning.

 

[PolyHedral]

Why am I a human as opposed be being a chimpanzee? The answer is of course I don't know. I don't think anyone knows. I could have become a chimpanzee or even a dolphin for that matter rather than a human as I see nothing in nature that could prevent that from happening.

No chimpanzee or dolphin would be you, though, because you are human.

 

[Thief]

Is this possible?

How about all the weird things you hear such as Near Death Experience, Astral Projection, OBE, telepathy etc..

Like when someone you haven't seen for a long time the day or hour after you just thought about them suddenly rings you up.

Could this be scientifically possible?

Science can't go there.

Ever hear of Edgar Cayce?

 

[PolyHedral]

Science can't go there.

 

[Willamena]

Well, it doesn't exist inside the body.

 

[PolyHedral]

Science can examine plenty of things which don't go on inside the body.