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LOL! That quote immediately caught my attention too pampe! So much so that I went searching for the context of the quote on the net. I haven't found it yet, but I'd love to know the subject being discussed.
~~~
Who said, "I think, therefore, I am." ? I think that consciousness is that simple. Just because I am able to ask the question means something is goin' on. I think that something is what we call "consciousness".
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Descartes said "I think, therefore, I am."
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Consciousness, my favorite subject! I agree with Albert, if he really said that. There is only one Consciousness of which we all partake.
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So what am I thinking now?
Have you read any of Jung's writings on his theory of the Collective Unconscious?
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pampe
- Tuesday, June 10 2008
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AND AL SHOULD KNOW, RIGHT?
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Well he was reeeeeeelllly smart. LOL!
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Yeah, he was a regular Einstein! :)
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A T
- Wednesday, June 11 2008
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I was reading an account a couple of years ago from a man who rescued a jumper from a bridge. He had grabbed the woman just as she leapt and was in danger of being pulled over the edge.
He managed to hold on until other passersby could assist him, but he almost went over with her. When he was lauded as heroic for not letting go...even when it looked like he would die with her.. he denied it was heroism.
He said it was total self-preservation. He said in that moment, as he grabbed her, he was rescuing himself. In that instant he could not distinguish between her and himself and letting go of her would kill *him*, because her death was his death - they were one person. He was holding onto her to save himself.
That's always stuck with me.
:)
AT
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the man had a poorly defined sense of self:)
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"the man had a poorly defined sense of self:)"
LOL! Up go sit in the corner until you can behave yourself!
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She
- Wednesday, June 11 2008
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The totality of what we "know" - what we sense, feel, think, experience, are aware of, constitutues our consciousness, right?
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pampe
- Wednesday, June 11 2008
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or is that just SUBJECTIVE reality...
Is there a consciousness "out there"?
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She
- Wednesday, June 11 2008
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Isn't Einstein saying that our consciousness IS collective and that we are blinded to that knowledge by our illusions?
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She
- Wednesday, June 11 2008
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Then you'd have to define 'out there' - do you mean this blog...this world...this universe...what about the multiverses? What about those dimensions that we think but don't know might exist? It's still all connected...infinitely...I believe...I opine...I feel.
Yet, I just don't know.
Remember the little engine: "I think I can..I think I can..."
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A T
- Wednesday, June 11 2008
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This reminds me of a thread at another group - objective versus subjective reality.... it's all tied to consciousness really, isn't it?
I used to have a lot of sleep disturbances and would occassionally dream while awake. It really got me interested in how your brain distinguished between a viewed landscape and an imagined landscape.
Are dreams and hallucinations unreal? Our current society determines "real" to be something communal by definition, but many cultures do and have honoured individual reality as a legitimate "flavour" of reality.
hmmm.....
AT
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"Are dreams and hallucinations unreal?"
AT
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
Pablo Picasso
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"The universe rearranges itself to accomodate your picture of reality."
sticker on the medicine cabinet.
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She
- Friday, June 13 2008
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I think dreams and hallucinations are real, not only because they are a part of our imagination, but also a part of our subconscious. I don't think Pampe's question of 'subjective reality' flies as more than one of us can perceive the same reality at the same time. Most of us recognize and can distinguish the smell of the sea or baking bread. We experience that reality collectively. Then the question lies---is the bread baking when no one is in the kitchen?
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Sheila, your point is taken, but what if we are all on some sort of martrix (the movie) sort of mass dream? it could be benevolent, but it could still be. not saying it is, there are certainly flaws in the logic of that movie, but the concept has potential for thought. that fact that a million people see something doesnt mean it is there....
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was watching something on youtube the other day on the whole 2012 thing....but what really jumped out at me was this bit of info about the pineal gland:
it seems that the pineal glad contains rods and cones just like our eyes do....and it is this gland that controls sleep (by releasing melotonin-sp?). There was a lot more fascinating info on this little "wonder gland", but what it seemed to mean to me is that the pineal gland truly is our 3rd eye, and is quite possibly the means by which we dream or at least "see" our dreams. It would also be what allows us to invision things in our imagination.
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She
- Saturday, June 14 2008
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It's just as possible that "X" doesn't exist whether it is perceived by a million people or by none. From my very amateur reading of quantum theory, it is thought that nothing exists, everything is in transition, and that given enough time, anything is possible.
I read a great book, "The man who turned into himself" (D.Ambrose) - a short read about a man who shocked by psychic trauma is able to experience alternate (uni)verses. Each -verse created by choice, the choice not taken, and it's subsequent consequences... Like when you make one choice and then wonder what would have happened if you had made the other. Each -verse was real to the 'man.'
p.s. I have'nt seen Matrix and I do bake bread...in the kitchen
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well, you can get a capsule at imdb.com and you can bake bread in the yard, if you have a clay oven:)
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pampe
- Tuesday, June 24 2008
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OK...I am back from the East coast and I see you all have been very busy being thoughtful.....BBL to respond..........
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A bit off-topic, but in relation to PaigeTurner's post here, too deeply nested to respond too directly:
I'd not heard of the pineal gland having rods and cones, but it turns out it does, just not in humans, where it just seem to convert serotonin to malatonin, and release it into the system. So sleeping, sleep disorders, but nothing about visualisations that I can find. As far as I remember, visual dreams take place in the visual cortex, as do visual hallucinations.
Melatonin, on the other hand, is a favourite for psychotropic research, should it be allowed -- since its synthesis is massively increased by LSD (and mind doctors do love to watch people on acid) and rather diminished in those with autism.
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Just a thought: the lens in the eye yellows with age, but who notices white becoming more yellow with age?
Coinciding with my reading this post, was someone on another site referring me to Unified Field theory of consciousness (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrcWntw9juM&feature=related). I need to read more quantum physics to understand the relation between light and atomic radiation - can anyone recommend a text on this, in relation to consciousness, by a scientist from a respectable University?
My own limited academic background did show me that consciousness is not limited to the brain, but largely relies upon the rest of the endochryne system, and muscle memory. If we take out these, what would be left..?
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pampe
- Tuesday, July 15 2008
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What about the non-ordinary states of consciousness?
They are seen by Western Medicine and society as psychosis, weirdness, or more.
In many native cultures, these states are mystical and to be strived for.....
How do those levels of consciousness seem to you?????
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She
- Friday, July 18 2008
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My son has an interesting neurological illness known as narcolepsy and it manifests itself in some very peculiar ways. Sometimes he has sleep attacks that are similar to epileptic spells except he could sleep upwards of 16 hours straight. Other times, his brain can go into REM while his body remains awake and functioning (somewhat)...and it is not sleepwalking. There are moments when his body goes to sleep but his brain remains awake and he is flacid with zero muscle tone to the point of being paralyzed. He can have what some people might call hallucinations but they are actually dream states. They can be auditory or visual. It is absolutely fascinating. He is a brooding intellectual which just adds to his mistique. I've never known anyone who has more states of consciousness than he.
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cdXy
- Friday, July 18 2008
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In other cultures he would be a respected shaman. A sad comment on how we view ASC in our civilized" society.
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There are no "ordinary" states of consciousness. Just a society pretending there are.
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pampe
- Saturday, July 19 2008
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I agree, Michael. I wonder if the future will bring a lengthening of the continuum.......
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