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What Is Consciousness?

  • Auteur de la discussion Auteur de la discussion Ganesha
  • Date de début Date de début
So in your view, consciousness is a form of awareness, let's call it self-awareness. I just read parts of the wiki article on consciousness and it is pretty interesting. It summarizes the philosophy of consciousness concisely.
didn't read the wiki yet ;) Yeah...exactly. What do you think?
So you mean consciousness is the awareness of being conscious ? Your just talking about diferent levels of consciousness . Conssciousness is being awake , higher consciousness is the awareness that one is awake ? So being , the thought "Iam" and the awareness of what "I am implys / can mean" ?
Yes. Hmmm, no, let's say, I am talking about Consciousness and not consciousness. I don't know, I wouldn't say that "I am is Consciousness. It is rather the total feeling, the total...well awareness :lol: of "I am". But that's how I see it or rather how I feel about my existence.
 
Consciousness doesent have to mean that something is aware of "I am" . Does a lizard have an awareness of "I am" or is it just it ?

Consciousness is life .
 
Is it physical or not?
I don't think it is physical. I think this is what is so special about consciousness is that it has no physical characteristics or boundaries.

Does it influence matter or not?

Yes. Young's double slit experiment. The wave function was collapsed through conscious observation. This is on the micro scale, and may not be noticeable on the macro scale.

How does one go about gaining consciousness?

Through being born and put into a world where consciousness exists. Through the formation of language and the collective understanding of the world around us. Not one person can become conscious, rather it necessary to have a group in order to become conscious, in my belief.

peace & love
 
Thanks for all your input.

I think consciousness cannot exist apart from matter, because then it looses its object (that which it is conscious of), but that it is somehow separate from it. I'd like to here more about Young's double slit experiment, user_1919, how did it work?

People talk a lot about 'expanded consciousness', what does this signify? That we are aware of more things than usual? Or that we are more sensitive to what we are normally conscious of? What do entheogens do to consciousness if anything?
 
restin a dit:
So in your view, consciousness is a form of awareness, let's call it self-awareness. I just read parts of the wiki article on consciousness and it is pretty interesting. It summarizes the philosophy of consciousness concisely.
didn't read the wiki yet ;) Yeah...exactly. What do you think?

I guess that sounds correct, although it is hard to not get into an eternal regression (i.e. being aware that one is aware that one is aware, being aware of that, being aware of that, etc.), maybe consciousness is this eternal regression of awareness. I really recommend the books by Hofstadter on this subject, although I don't always agree with him, he has a great way of looking at these problems.
 
It has to do with the weird world of quantum physics. Here is a young tube video about it.


peace & love
 
Ganesha a dit:
People talk a lot about 'expanded consciousness', what does this signify? That we are aware of more things than usual? Or that we are more sensitive to what we are normally conscious of? What do entheogens do to consciousness if anything?

I don't think expanded consciousness exists. I think the most essential thing of personal progress is unconscious elements coming into consciousness, but consciousness doesn't grow by that, because it doesn't have a size. Entheogens can help getting things out of the unconscious or subconscious into the light of consciousness.

The natural question that comes out of this is: What is unconscious(ness)? And how can unconscious processes be brought out into the open? Do we wait for them by being still? Do we need to do something? Does it require the use of a technique and/or substance? Do these help?
 
user_1919 a dit:
It has to do with the weird world of quantum physics.

Thanks, will check the vid.

Says one quantum physicist to another:

"You know, this quantum theory could of course all be a projection of our own false sense of identity."

@Forkbender: Those are legitimate anbd interesting questions and I will think about it.
 
I don't think expanded consciousness exists

I do. I have had experiences where my consciousness has expanded beyond my physical domain and into the universe. Alex Gray talks about this also with one of his Ayahuasca experiences.


peace & love
 
It was there already and you noticed it through takeing psychedelics .

And who the fuck is alex gray ? An average artist .
 
Yes, I had that too, but it is not what I meant with expanded consciousness not existing. I'm talking about a specific use of the term consciousness I described earlier, in which consciousness doesn't have dimensions. The object of consciousness might be bigger or embrace even the entire universe, but consciousness itself is still focused in one point from which you are aware of everything.
 
Yes, I had that too, but it is not what I meant with expanded consciousness not existing. I'm talking about a specific use of the term consciousness I described earlier, in which consciousness doesn't have dimensions. The object of consciousness might be bigger or embrace even the entire universe, but consciousness itself is still focused in one point from which you are aware of everything.
I very much agree. I had some thoughts about it... In our life, consciousness is bound to our body, it is limited to the functions of the brain, only through the brain can it express itself. But cosciousness itself is eternal, it is beyond any bodily functions. And that's what psychedelics show us.
 
GOD a dit:
It was there already and you noticed it through takeing psychedelics .


'noticing' something = 'becoming conscious' of something = expanding your consciousness
 
Consciousness is a form of awareness. I think consciousness should focused be one point from which you can imbibe strength.
 
consciousness is the canvas... that contains all the 10,000 things... And that's who We are...

But of course, you are really me... and I am you... so really there's only One - that One,,, is consciousness...

So i think cons. is Life itself... the One living thing and the ONly thing that is real... and we are all It...
 
Consciousness:

Conscious (Oxford Dictionary): 1 awake and responsive 2 aware 3 intentional

Mind: 1 the faculty of consciousness and thought

2 a person's intellect or memory

3 a person's attention or will

Mindful: conscious and aware of something


As we see in the above definitions, consciousness seems to be combined with the ability for awareness and response, intention and the storage and processing of perceptive data.

"Heightening", "Deepening" or "Broadening" of consciousness could mean, that the ability for awareness, response, intentional acting, the storage and processing of sensual perceptive data is increased.

This process certainly needs training in some form. Social conditioning is a method (and very good example) of heightening, diminishing and channeling of consciousness.
 
I believe consciousness is simply a cross point of information, like a computer chip. It's the thing that's between our senses, memory, muscles,... Which are also the primary limitations to a it.

I believe anything as small as a chemical reaction has a consciousness, limited in the world the chemical "knows". A brain is not a requirement for a consciousness but it's the organ that has specialised in creating a more efficient consciousness, using more and more chemical reactions as computer chip.

Our consciousness is only different from that of a computer because it has been created trough evolution and trial and error, while we design computers with a consciousness limited to their task.

The beauty of the self-designing algorithm :D :smoke:
 
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