Consciousness...?

[Ratatosk]

Is it just electrical and chemical activity in the brain, like science suggests it is? Or is it completely independent of our material body? I seem to remember claims from a few religions suggesting that people have recalled previous lives as birds, flowers, or rocks. Of course, there are several non-sensical claims from people in our modern world, claiming to have been someone famous in their past life. On the other hand, Hinduism suggests an eternal soul that retains deed, karma, and memory. Time to time, I seem to recall memories of a past life. If it were all true, then maybe memory and consciousness transcend material being! One can never be sure, though. So what is consciousness; the feeling of being alive?

[Pimpmaster McSlap-Bitch]

...Suggests people have recalled previous lives as birds, flowers, or rocks?... Who could verify such a claim? Nobody could even verify the recall itself as even happening apart from the recaller. I'd say comprehending how a flower lives and senses the world in order to create memories would be hard enough without the memory wash of rebirth - flowers don`t have brains. Rocks don`t either . I have to say though, I`ve heard some freakishly crazy stories about kids who know about conversations adults have had years or even decades before their birth. So maybe it is true. As far as a maybe goes though, there is no option for me but to remain skeptical.

I wonder, if we`re all consciousness that transcends material, if we're not also leeching parasidic entities driven by the will to extend our lifespans by taking over regenerating flesh and bone shell casings.

I`m a little high. Apologies.

Glad to see you posting in Deep Thoughts Ratata

And what does it feel like to be alive?

[Ratatosk]

How does it feel? .............tingly. Yeah. I just feel energy flowing through me, so that's what I assume it feel to be alive. As for the unverified claims,... >< sorry bout that. I just remember reading it somewhere, and I can't find the source for the life of me. I think it was from some Native American books I was reading. Such are the mysteries of Animism . Also-- You were high? =o I didn't notice. Maybe highness just leads to more hypothetical speculation. Oh wells. Deep stuff as always. *thumbs up*

[godsrighthand]

People tend to associate the soul as the medium of transfer to other lives.(if there is any) However the soul is not factually provable to show existence or not to exist.

Therefore it is most likely vagaries of the human mind. The phenomenon or feeling of Deja Vue can be blamed as the basis of modern belief of this from the (non religious) public.

To be alive is the ability to feel and reason, by instinct or intellect.

[lunarfist]

In order to understand conscience, it requires vast amounts of meditation and inner reflection. You must seperate the ego from the conscience to "see" the truth.
There is an old hindu tale of how conscience came into being. During a rainstorm, in a pond, where there were thousands and thousands of ripples, one ripple acheived conscience and left the pond. This became the basis for sentient thought. Although you can apply this to Enlightenment as well. When your prespective ripple achieves Enlightenment, you too can leave the pond. oooooommmmm. ^^

[godsrighthand]

I will stick with, I can think therefore I am.

[Athildur]

Hmm, as a person who majors a lot of science, I'd have to say it really is just a series of chemical and electrical processes and impulses.
Fortunately, I can think for myself and rather think that the scientists are wrong concerning this matter.
Yes, I do believe that electrical impulses and chemical reactions make up the most important part of our brain and consciousness, but I believe there to be something as a 'soul' or 'spirit' , that acts beyond those physical things and can actually lead to experiences such as a previous life, or even some minor form of telepathy.

I don't think things like actual mind reading, telkineses and that sort of stuff is really true (thought I would love it to be ), but I do believe there is some unknown factor in our lives and memories, feelings and that sort of things that can be related to this spirit or soul. I tend to believe people that say they have memories of previous lives, because who in their right minds would just think up such a thing? (as far as I know, nobody's gotten famous for it, nor are there millions of people claiming to have been some really famous/important person in a previous life, so why bother then?)

But then I have to wonder, can these memories of past lives and such things be categorized as consciousness, or is that which we define as consciousness really just chemistry? I'd say what we believe to be consciousness, aka being conscious, has nothing to do with this soul or spirit, and can thus be described as just a series of electrical impulses and chemical processes. However, there is more to life than just consciousness, and I would not dany the existence of the soul or spirit, nor would I deny they can lead to experiences such as remembering past lives and such. Perhaps the spirit is just a vessel that stores what our conscious mind has experienced, at that's all it really does.

That's my view on the matter. Hope you like it (and if not, too bad ).

Edit: right, now to answer the question in the first post (doh!): Yes, I do believe consciousness is merely the being alive, the being able to think and sense, nothing more.

[Maelstrom]

godsrighthand said:

I will stick with, I can think therefore I am.

Descartes has been disproven time and time again.
How do you know that your thoughts, are actually your own?
Matrix OMG.

[Athildur]

You know your thoughts are your own because they create a chain with all previous thoughts and events that have occured in your life, and those precise conditions and events cannot be the same for any single other person, because they are not you and therefor cannot think of things you are thinking of exactly.
If thoughts were somebody else's, I am completely sure you would notice, would you yourself be conscious at the time.

[Maelstrom]

Someone could be feeding you those thoughts.

[Athildur]

Well, I honestly hope that there is nobody out there who has nothing else to do all day but watch me and feed me thoughts...because that is a 24-7 job...nobody would be that stupid.

Somehow I feel inclined to start about conspiracy theories...ah, nm...

[Maelstrom]

Now way man.
I'm not talking about a person.
I'm talking supernatural beats here.
Like demons and wizards.

[AlucardAmakusa]

i think humans posess some level of a group consciousness . Like a transmission of knowledge somehow on some level. There have been studies done where identical mazes were set up in different locations and the results from completely separate groups steadily improved chronologically. Consciousness is just realizing that you are, some interpretation of our combined senses and instinctual thoughts of survival and procreation . I am a stoner. .. lol

[Maelstrom]

Don't give me that "i think therefore i am."
It's been philosophically disproven.

[Pimpmaster McSlap-Bitch]

Why don`t you take us step by step through it`s... disproof? Yus, that`s it. Hume, was it?

I think therefore I am... If I don`t think, I am not, I being me. If me doesn`t think, me doesn`t exist. So if something were feeding me, in this context my body/casing, thoughts, wouldn`t the entity feeding the body be me?

*Shrugs*

Perhaps the thoughts created by this being are different from its own... but the thoughts are still created, and they are the possesions of people, who think them and so exist...

Anyway, I have a feeling the 'thought making entity' isn`t what disproved Descartes on this point.