Mind= blown.

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I'm not convinced. I made some google searching, and found an article that only speculated that it could be true. I think you'll have to elaborate a bit more on this.

Re-revison topic

I suppose I am still not making myself understood. This is a difficult concept.

How is it that a human is conscious of self and knows it, and is able to communicate this to others, as I am doing now. What separates you from others?

Do not invoke religion.

It is the brain at work.

ruveyn

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Ah, me topic

This may be what I am trying to articulate. I have wondered about this since I was first aware of my existence at about age three, and asked other adults about it.

No wonder I was seen as unusual.

At any rate, like Henriksson, I am not convinced as yet, as I am skeptical of religious/mystical answers, as they are circular in reasoning. but I am not sure that a human brain would know for sure what the Me is, since it has never been a You.

From what I can recall about Sartre and his take on human consciousness, there is only so much (at this point) that can be answered, and there is no definitive answer on this issue yet.

Strange days indeed. Most peculiar, mama!

Ok, I'm sure that there is a being that is aware that is reading these words at the moment. That being (you) is a brain which consists of neurons, and the electromagnetic disturbances that surrounds the brain at all moments. These two are always hand in hand. So consciousness must either be the brain or the EM field that surrounds it. Remember that consciousness is a centralized process, we can feel this. I doubt you could explain to me how awareness which tends to be related with synchronous neuron firing rather than individual neuron firing is the brain matter itself. Nobody can.

So that leaves the EM field. Locating consciousness in the brain's EM field has the advantage of accounting how information located in millions of neurons scattered throughout the brain can be unified into a single conscious experience. When neurons fire together their EM fields generate stronger EM field disturbances, so synchronous neuron firing will tend to have a larger impact on the brain's EM field (and thereby consciousness) than the firing of individual neurons.

It sounds like truth doesn't it?

So what does it mean that the EM field actually holds consciousness? I think this is where spirituality overcomes science in understanding who we actually are. Science is going to fail when answering certain questions because the real questions about reality are going to have to be answered by direct experiences, not numbers. I think our conscious self has more power over the reality we live in than reality over our experiences. Too bad humans think reality is truth and cannot be changed, and that in itself sets up failure to direct our experience in a positive manner. I believe before we came here on earth we signed a contract that we would abide by certain rules, but somewhere in the fine print it says "subject to change". We just have to connect to our whole being. So forget limitations and embrace possibilities knowing all is possible.

No, it doesn't sound like truth. An electric field is a side effect of electrical operations. The field variations are the result of specific physical electrical connections and patterns. The field itself has no operational capabilites.

Of course the field has no operational capabilities. But is an experience such as hearing music, enjoying colors, feeling the breeze really an operational capability? No amount of scientific study into the human brain will tell you why the color blue looks blue, or why pizza tastes like pizza because the experience is something that resides totally in our conscious self.

One thing I've realized about consciousness is that it is everywhere, not just in creatures that appear living but also the earth itself. The ground itself is conscious and even the air. I suppose I came to that conclusion because I could not answer the question, where does consciousness start in the evolutionary progress from atoms to complicated humans? Does consciousness start at self replicating molecules? Bacteria? Insects? Where??? It seemed to me that everything must have a level of consciousness, some higher than others. It became apparent to me that because there is no specific barrier where everything behind that line is not conscious and everything in front of it is, everything must be conscious to some degree. Of course you may not agree with that but the coincidence that the EM field also resides pretty much everywhere is of some satisfaction to me.

It looks to me that you are redefining consciousness. When you do that all barriers are down and no real discussion is possible.

The question of where consciousness ends is a hard one. Self realisation can be attained by the individual, and to an extent by a group. I sometimes wonder if the planet will beome self-aware, on a much higher level, so far I think the human occupants would protect the planet if something threatening happened (Like the film Armageddon, a massive asteroid threatens the planet with apocalypse ), but I find the idea of everything having consciousness poorly thought out, like the idea that every object has an IQ, or "plants have feelings".

Atomsk wrote:

And to take it a step further:

Since one of the requirements to be a life form is the ability to replicate itself then when we contemplate the universe and since contemplation is a form of reproduction then can we say the universe is alive?

See Eternity at Marvel for the universal consciousness.

On a more serious note, the Universe does and does not fulfil the 12 qualifications to be considered alive. Some, could be argued to be be filled; Digestion could be defined as black holes and Hawking radiation, Reproduction as the big bang/crunch, universal expansion through dark energy as Movement, perhaps even utilizing galactic orbits as Circulation, but beyond that it becomes rather hard to abstract those life functions. Course, you could very easily say that the human definition of life is wrong and that there is a more correct one that would include such things, possibly viruses as well (they only fulfill two functions, movement and reproduction, and hence are not "alive")

As for consciousness being the EM field around the brain, or the brain itself, I would agree that it has more to do with the collective EM field produced by the multitude of neurons working in concert, than the individual bioelectric current produced from neuron to neuron. Seemingly due to the fact that for the current to work and flow through each neuron, or at least a majority of them, and achieve a thought, vs all of them doing it at once. Perhaps this is assuming the individual neurons to be less intelligent than they are and achieving EM conciousness could drastically improve our overall intelligence, but as I prefer to think of myself as I, not We the several million neurons, (Though I wouldn't have difficulty with that thought, should it be proven).

I find the most mindblowing thing to be that everything is vibration.