What is Consciousness?

[Nighthawk]

What is Consciousness to you?

How can we use/embrace it into or daily lives?

What do do you feel we can learn by exploring consciousness?

[rdunk]

Hello Nighthawk! Well, I am simple, and to me, "consciousness" is being aware, and the "unconscious" while there, we are not aware. But I assumed that your question relates to a somewhat "deeper' realm of thought. So, I did a quick search on the internet, for myself, and immediately confirmed that there is a deeper area of related consciousness.

I did look at a few of the headlines on one website, but have gone no farther than that, so I can't answer your questions. But I can give you a link to the site i did briefly look at. Of course this may be a website you are already aware of. But there does seem to be some study going on relative to this subject.

http://noosphere.princeton.edu/

[atmjjc]

PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

What Is Consciousness?

Prospects for a scientific explanation of conscious experience.
Published on April 8, 2011 by Paul Thagard in Hot Thought

People experience perceptions such as blue, sensations such as pain, emotions such as happiness, and thoughts such as believing that spring has finally arrived. Will psychology and neuroscience ever be able to explain how people have these kinds of consciousness?

Psychology and neuroscience have made major progress in explaining many kinds of thinking such as problem solving, learning, and language use. But many people still have the intuition that, no matter how far cognitive science progresses, it will still be unable to deal with the mystery of consciousness. On this view, we all have a basic understanding of conscious experience from our own episodes of perception, sensation, emotion, and reflection. But there is an unbridgeable explanatory gap that prevents science from drawing consciousness within its scope.

Science would indeed be incapable of explaining consciousness if mental experiences were the properties of non-material souls, whose operations would have to remain totally mysterious from the perspective of the mechanisms that physicists, chemists, biologists, and psychologists use to explain what happens. But there is scant evidence for the view that minds are anything more than brains, so non-materialism does not seem to generate a barrier for explaining consciousness. Another possibility is that consciousness is just too complicated to be understood by human minds that evolved to find food, water, shelter, and mates in simple environments. But these minds have been able to create marvelous cultural tools such as written language, mathematics, and scientific instruments from telescopes to brain scanning machines. So it would be premature by centuries to give up on the attempt to find scientific explanations of mental processes including consciousness.

In fact, major progress is being made both experimentally and theoretically in unraveling the mysteries of consciousness. Skeptics should check out the web sites of some of the major researchers on consciousness, including:

Antonio Damasio, Los Angeles
Stanislas Dehaene, Paris
Christof Koch, Pasadena
Guilio Tononi, Madison

Through work by them and others, we are starting to get a glimpse of how consciousness could be a mental property that emerges from complex processing in billions of neurons in dozens of interacting brain areas.

In my book, The Brain and the Meaning of Life, I sketch an account of how one kind of consciousness - emotional experience - can arise through the interactions of multiple brain areas that deal simultaneously with perceptual representations of external situations, cognitive appraisals of the significance of these situations for one's personal goals, and internal perceptions of bodily states. On this view, consciousness is not a special function of mind, but rather the result of interactive processes that bind together perceptions and appraisals. How such bindings and interactions work is a topic of ongoing investigation in psychology and neuroscience.

Hence I see reasons for enthusiasm about the prospects for a scientific theory of consciousness. It may take decades or even centuries before we have good explanations of all the different kinds of experience that arise in perception, sensation, emotion, and reflection. But parts of the puzzle are starting to emerge, and it will be very exciting when scientists manage to put them all together. Then we will be able to say with confidence that consciousness is a brain process.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201104/what-is-consciousness

[Nighthawk]

rdunk, thanks, you understood the concept of consciousness I was asking about perfectly. ;)

atmjjc, that was a good read also, thanks.


Some talks by experts on this topic seem to oversimplify things when it seems like it is exactly what we think it is! Consciousness is our awareness of living, thinking, feeling etc and also our connection to the ether in which we all share, the collective unconscious mind!

It is this concept I am trying to explore. ;)

[atmjjc]

Can we be conscious due to low-level biochemical processes?

What of Jackendoff's "Mind-Mind" Problem - the bridge from third-person patterns (the "Computational Mind") to first-person mental states (the "Phenomenological Mind"). This is precisely what our posited pattern/information duality achieves.

[CasperParks]

DéjÃ* vu...

Most of my life, on and off - more on than off...

Go to bed living in a state of déjÃ* vu and waking the next day in the same state.

Sometimes, lasting minutes, hours, days, months and even years at a time non-stop.

I've learned to function within it. When not present in my daily life for long periods, it as if part of me is missing or died. Difficult to explain, sorry.

Anthony Peake has written a number of books on déjÃ* vu, consciousness and other related subjects. Discovered him years ago, when researching my condition.

http://www.anthonypeake.co.uk

[atmjjc]

DéjÃ* vu is an excellent way of explaining this awareness.

My earliest memories in which I have had this obsessive driven urge to go over every detail of my awaken life and frantically going over it and over it constantly to see if I had existed the day before. I would spend hours doing this before I finally fell asleep at night and the first thing upon waking I would recall the day before. I would then slap my hands to see if I was solid.

[Nighthawk]

I don't get what you guys mean by Deja vu sort of explains away this reality!

A Deja vu to me is when I have the sense in a moment of have being there or seeing exactly the same thing before, sort of like me seeing it before it happened but long before it did and only realized when it actually did happen!

I think I have just helped myself understand what you mean by life to you being like a Deja vu! Do you mean that it is like to you that everything that happens already has, as if to say everything is already written?

[CasperParks]

I don't get what you guys mean by Deja vu sort of explains away this reality!

A Deja vu to me is when I have the sense in a moment of have being there or seeing exactly the same thing before, sort of like me seeing it before it happened but long before it did and only realized when it actually did happen!

I think I have just helped myself understand what you mean by life to you being like a Deja vu! Do you mean that it is like to you that everything that happens already has, as if to say everything is already written?

Sort-of...

[atmjjc]

I don't get what you guys mean by Deja vu sort of explains away this reality!

A Deja vu to me is when I have the sense in a moment of have being there or seeing exactly the same thing before, sort of like me seeing it before it happened but long before it did and only realized when it actually did happen!

I think I have just helped myself understand what you mean by life to you being like a Deja vu! Do you mean that it is like to you that everything that happens already has, as if to say everything is already written?

The best way to try and explain DéjÃ* vu in the meaning as to my POV is our consciousness which is interpreted by our brain has patterns filtered into it which reflects what we view as reality and its pretty much well established on how we view the external world around us and interpret it as input which than becomes a Modus Operandi in our behavior which is stored in memory and when retrieved can be interpreted and mixed with the conscious interpretation we are in at the moment. The past and the present can be intertwined in one moment due to the physiological makeup of repetition and memory retrieval of just living as a cognizant human being.

[atmjjc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks_UHmaZcSg&feature=g-vrec&context=G294d59aRVAAAAAAAAAg

[tomi01uk]

This is a good read about consciousness:

http://www.novaspivack.com/uncategorized/consciousness-is-not-a-computation-2

[Doc]

This is a good read about consciousness:

http://www.novaspivack.com/uncategorized/consciousness-is-not-a-computation-2

Thanks! This is one of those topics that I could go around about for hours and give myself a headache by the end of it. Heck, I have even taught this back in the day. I take a behaviorist view of consciousness: It is responsiveness to stimuli accompanied by awareness. It might not include more than the simplest cognition, such as the recognition of objects and environment.

[Redbone]

Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy...

But anywhere is the center of the world.

Black Elk
Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux


Native American's will say Consciousness is being in touch with the Earth. They will say we have lost our Conciousness. Just as a dog will walk in circles before it lies down in the center, we have not yet come full circle. To me it is an understanding of one's self, that there is more than we see, more than we know and to understand this is to be conscious there is a greater power. As Black Elk says, "Anywhere is the Center of the World." We just need to stop walking in circles and get back to Center!

[norenrad]

One thing comes to mind is that Black Elk's words look like what others are confusing with what Moses has said, which I cannot find anything that indicates that Moses wrote them or said them at all.

[Redbone]

One thing comes to mind is that Black Elk's words look like what others are confusing with what Moses has said, which I cannot find anything that indicates that Moses wrote them or said them at all.

Thousands of years before the first ships sailed to the New World, Native Americans believed in One World, One Spirit and One People. The Earth to them is a living breathing entity to be respected and treated with reverance. You take only what you need and you replace what you take. You thank the food before you eat to appease it's spirit. Even a rock, though it just sits there without moving, has a spirit and will talk to you, if you know how to listen. This connection with all things was their consiousness. Take away their land, you've taken away their connection to the Spirit, in essence you've taken away their consiousness.

Which pretty much summarizes the state of Tribes in America today. Drugs, alcohol and domestic violence is common on the reservations. But then that seems to be the state of the entire country as a whole. So instead of crawling back under a rock and pretending all is well, perhaps we should sit down and see what the Spirit of the Rock has to say! First though, we need to learn how to listen.

[norenrad]

I just finished a paper that dealt with North American culture, before and after European influence. To make a long story short, trade agreements between the Indian tribes and the Europeans changed much of how some tribes viewed and practiced their rituals and beliefs. The demand for deer skin slowed and almost stopped the practice of asking for forgiveness from the deer and deer populations dropped dramatically when trading was good, although when tribes began warring against one another, the deer populations would recover.

There were many very intricate political maneuvering practices going on from both sides back then. The Apache, if I remember this right, were basically feared or disliked by most of the other Indian tribes because of their warring tendencies. Most of the coastal tribes, East and West, were peaceful farmers and hated war.

[nibs]

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 ESV / 19 helpful votes

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

2 Peter 1:21 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV / 7 helpful votes

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.


http://www.openbible.info/topics/deja_vu

[norenrad]

I often ponder those verses, and wonder what they mean in relation to us and time; where are we? Are we forever trapped to do the same thing over and over again without ever remembering? We are a generation, that much has been made clear and that makes me think that there has been generations before us and there will be others after us.

[atmjjc]

I often ponder those verses, and wonder what they mean in relation to us and time; where are we? Are we forever trapped to do the same thing over and over again without ever remembering? We are a generation, that much has been made clear and that makes me think that there has been generations before us and there will be others after us.

John 14:2

King James Bible

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

[Redbone]

I just finished a paper that dealt with North American culture, before and after European influence. To make a long story short, trade agreements between the Indian tribes and the Europeans changed much of how some tribes viewed and practiced their rituals and beliefs. The demand for deer skin slowed and almost stopped the practice of asking for forgiveness from the deer and deer populations dropped dramatically when trading was good, although when tribes began warring against one another, the deer populations would recover.

There were many very intricate political maneuvering practices going on from both sides back then. The Apache, if I remember this right, were basically feared or disliked by most of the other Indian tribes because of their warring tendencies. Most of the coastal tribes, East and West, were peaceful farmers and hated war.


It is an interesting but unpleasant read regarding the influence of the Euorpean settlers on the megafauna of North America and the Native tribes. Especially for people of Native American hertiage such as myself. Much is made of the plight of the African in the United States because of Slavery. Yet these same people completely ignore what some argue was nothing short of Government santcioned genocide towards the American Indian. This is not the proper place to debate the matter for it is getting off topic, but I will leave a link that takes a look at both sides of the issue. Of course one has to remember, History is never written by the Defeated, but by the Victor!

http://hnn.us/articles/7302.html

[norenrad]

Indeed, my Grandmother was half Native American, she made it a point that her grandchildren experienced that portion of our ancestry.

Consciousness, though, is the ability to contemplate our past, present and future.

[kalindu10]

i think what you can do to embrace Consciousness is to learn more about it. and devote your consciousness to do good to the world. and i feel honestly that if we ever can find a definite answer to what Consciousness really is we have answered most pressing question in the history of science. read this article i posted below, its about Human Condition and Consciousness

http://www.worldtransformation.com/consciousness/

[organelle]

I am going to play around a little informally here.

Firstly, consciousness, whatever it may be, doesn’t properly fit in our ordinary categories. It is really crucial to understand this. The short version is that this means it is not a 'what' at all, but something akin to a meta-way of generating modes of what-ness (and much more, this is just a crude shot at sketching its identity in relation to whatness).

Secondly, consciousness is, in part, that which allows the elicitation and expression of questions such as this one, and other similar questions like what is the purpose of consciousness (or life)? These questions are reflexive in that they refer directly to and examine their own sources. That property is a lot more interesting than even experts usually pretend, and this is a fundamental property, to my mind, of consciousness... peculiar reflexivity. Nested self-reference. Nested modes of related simultaneous recursions.

Thirdly, I would liken it to a magical liquid. It flows, and it has properties that are reminiscent of water, including turbulence, evaporation, reflection, distortion, and regeneration (echoing).

More... perhaps... soon.

[A99]

I am going to play around a little informally here.

Firstly, consciousness, whatever it may be, doesn’t properly fit in our ordinary categories. It is really crucial to understand this. The short version is that this means it is not a 'what' at all, but something akin to a meta-way of generating modes of what-ness (and much more, this is just a crude shot at sketching its identity in relation to whatness).

Secondly, consciousness is, in part, that which allows the elicitation and expression of questions such as this one, and other similar questions like what is the purpose of consciousness (or life)? These questions are reflexive in that they refer directly to and examine their own sources. That property is a lot more interesting than even experts usually pretend, and this is a fundamental property, to my mind, of consciousness... peculiar reflexivity. Nested self-reference. Nested modes of related simultaneous recursions.

Thirdly, I would liken it to a magical liquid. It flows, and it has properties that are reminiscent of water, including turbulence, evaporation, reflection, distortion, and regeneration (echoing).

More... perhaps... soon.

It sure sounds like you've got a full grasp of this type of vernacular down pack in it's totality. There really should be a name for this 'art form' as that's exactly what it is; and style over substance defines it. But no question about it, it's an intimidating style of writing that leaves the reader thinking he's way over his head with the topic itself no matter how hard he try's to understand what the writer is saying. So in that sense, it's a "functional art form" that's more an expression, at least in an oblique way, of some kind of post-modernist ennui on the part of the writer than anything else. To me, that is the real message that is being conveyed and not the actual topic.

[atmjjc]

For the scientific minded a good place to start in trying to understand consciousness is to look at ‘THALAMOCORTICAL RESONANCE ‘ aspect of brain function.

It can be understood consciousness is a non-continuous event determined by synchronous activity in the thalamocortical system. It can also be postulated that the thalamocorticothalamic resonance is modulated by the brainstem and would be given content by sensory input in the ‘awake’ state or conscious state.

[CasperParks]

"I Am HAARP" - GAIA Consciousness from Suspicious0bservers


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3_Rg7yoMsE&feature=youtu.be


epo333 posted a link to the video in the 3 Min News thread, a great find.

Just under four minutes, I enjoy Suspicious0bservers videos.

[A99]

Interesting video. Thanks for sharing.

[calikid]

Interesting video. I'm already familiar with everything he's talking about it in but it's good short presentation for those who are hearing such information for the first time.

One of the first things that one finds out should they be going through spiritual emergence process is that, simply put, we are all connected to and are part of a much larger consciousness and information stream.

What we find out also is that psychic and precognitive information does NOT come from ourselve but it comes from those intelligences in that larger consciousness pool who transmit that information to us. This is also true of such things as psychokinesis. We humans are only the receivers... we are not the source of such information and abilities.

We receive that information in various ways. Sometimes 'they' transmit it to us verbally via telepathy where they may even identify themselves too. Other times the source will not identify themselves where a thought will pop into our minds that we know is not our own. Those who are not able to discern that, think it is they themselves who came up with the precog but most of us who get them, know better. Other times we receive information through our senses and when the same sensations occur over and over that gives clue that something is going to come up in a specific area, that's another way we get information too. There are also other ways 'they' send us information... too. Too many to mention here.


But the bottom line is anybody can have access to that information but the first thing they have to do is meditate everyday. By doing so you are entraining your mind in a passive manner to pick up information from the larger consciousness that we are all connected to.

Psychic abilities can also be passed on from one person to the next but that's another whole topic.

Only listen to those who have actually done one on one or public demonstrations of their abilities where you, yourself have witnessed them. Words are mean nothing no matter how pretty they are arranged on a page. If the person cannot prove their abilities then move on.

Your description reminds me of Edgar Casey. The sleeping prophet said to tap into a larger knowledge base to answer questions as he slept. Quiet a talent & resource if we can gain acccess.

[A99]

What I pointed out is common knowledge among anyone who gets precogs and so on. This is what Cayce and those other amazing talents out there know too. We are the receivers... not the source.

[atmjjc]

Consciousness as trying to be understood on the quantum level,,,


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEpUIcOodnM

part 2


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kQYPSD6t6c

[earthman]

This is a subject that i see as one that is hard for some to get a hold of. I for one, do believe that there is something to it. Children saying there someone else, it after checking there story's they seem to be telling the truth. That one is what makes me believe there is something to it all. But some take it to extremes as some sort of spoky connection to the whole universe. My mom was into the esp thing as we grew up so i was exposed to it at an early age. She would have dreams that came true many times, she always ouwrote down every dream and could prove it. Her "someone died" dreams was the worst because they always come true. I do think we have a enitity if you might call it in us that proves we have a consciousness in us but useing it in the ways that some state is another thing. I had a friend who was into Hipnosiss. He was good at it. He tried "out of body" stuff and instructed me on how to do it when i was younger. So i tried it. I did the relax part and then tried to leave my body. And it was working. I rose up above my house and could see just like i would see it if i was floating my self. But i got scared and "BOOM", I slammed back in my body and it hurt and scared me to death. I have tried it since. I was only like 15 or 16 then so i was young. I don't think i could do it again because of the Fibromyalga now but i would like to try. I really don't remember how to do it, hell i'm 51 now, lol. Maybe if i tried some meditation first which i do need. But i need some help on that. Anybody able to help on this? If i could do it back then, then i should be able to do it again with a little help. Interesting subject here.

earthman

[atmjjc]

Toward a Science of Consciousness
20th Anniversary - The Tucson Conference
April 21-26, 2014

http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/

[Longeyes]

Hi Atmjjc

From a Buddhist point of view. Everything is awareness. The whole universe is in some sense alive, it has an alive quality to it. We would also argue that awareness came first then the universe, ie we on some level create the world around us. So where scientists are having problems with quantum theory from a Buddhist point of view without any observer there won't even be an experiment of course you affect the result.
All you really have is awareness nothing else. It is the only indestructible part of you. Everything else dies/changes/fades and our experiences of the world are all created within the infinite expanse of our awareness , like the moons reflection in the surface of a lake. They, thoughts and emotions, come and pass away like reflections in the mirror but never really affecting the nature of the mirror at all. That is the true nature of your being.

[atmjjc]

Hi Atmjjc

From a Buddhist point of view. Everything is awareness. The whole universe is in some sense alive, it has an alive quality to it. We would also argue that awareness came first then the universe, ie we on some level create the world around us. So where scientists are having problems with quantum theory from a Buddhist point of view without any observer there won't even be an experiment of course you affect the result.
All you really have is awareness nothing else. It is the only indestructible part of you. Everything else dies/changes/fades and our experiences of the world are all created within the infinite expanse of our awareness , like the moons reflection in the surface of a lake. They, thoughts and emotions, come and pass away like reflections in the mirror but never really affecting the nature of the mirror at all. That is the true nature of your being.

Hey Longeyes,

Your words are so true when you compare quantum with the Buddhist perspective. I often think to myself that Buddhism is a guidepost to understanding consciousness. They are the pioneers of the final frontier so to speak, who have paved the way and have given us the guideposts for when we get lost in our own understandings of the nature of our being.

When science gets down to the micro level or quantum interpretation they take note and become aware in which we realize the state of being is nothing more than energy. This is where things start to get spooky in which atoms and molecular adhesion becomes a huge problem in the understanding of the nature of the world around us when viewed at the quantum level.

[Longeyes]

Hi atmjc

Can't recommend this book more highly. If you want to understand consciousness and our place in the world.
Chogyam Trungpa was largely responsible for bringing Tibetan Buddhist to the West. He speaks with the authority of an unbroken ancient tradition stretching back to the Buddha and when you read anything he says, you have that I kind of 'I thought that might have been true' feeling, but here that knowledge has been teased out by people meditating for the last 2000 yrs. It is concise and coherent. In my opnion, Buddhadharma is simply the most detailed description of the truth we have.

'Cutting through Spiritual Materialism' by Chogyam Trungpa

[tomi01uk]

This is another good theory about what you are describing in the idea of Biocentrisim:

http://www.robertlanzabiocentrism.com/is-death-an-illusion-evidence-suggests-death-isnt-the-end/

[atmjjc]

@ longeyes,

Thanks for the referral to the book, I will most certainly check it out.

@Tomi,

You bet, Dr. Lanza sure does stir up controversy with the theory of ‘biocentrism’.

On one hand you have the Buddhists who have the concept of nothingness and on the other hand you have an opposite point of view with biocentrism but both run somewhat parallel to each other in trying to formulate a theory of consciousness or the awareness of our being in conjuncture with reality.

One of the main themes of biocentrism is the theory in which we were not formed by the universe but the universe was formed by us.

Dr. Lanza has worked with the famed behaviorist B.F. Skinner in the late seventies and early eighties in experiments with animal behavior and other things and also many other famed scientists of our time.

[Longeyes]

Haven't had time to give it more than a brief look. But it seems biocentrism has obvious parallels with reincarnation. Reincarnation can be likened a bit like water going through the transition from a liquid to a gas then back again. We only perceive a discontinuity from the outside ie seeming someone else die, but from your own perspective there is no real break in awareness.
You have to be careful when discussing nothingness as a Buddhist belief. Buddhist practitioners use the concept of emptyness in meditation to break down ego and your conceptual view of the world. But it would be wrong to think there is nothing at all, only that it is essentially unknowable. It is a subtle but very important difference.

[atmjjc]

I agree with you Longeyes, on your interpretation of the word ‘nothingness’ as it is used in western language when speaking of Buddhism. Emptiness may be the preferred word. Without the experience in which one tries to express the words they use they tend to fall on empty ears with a confused understanding of the state of existence which one is trying to express.

There is one aspect I highly try to convey to people who experience out of the box perceptions is language becomes your enemy in trying to convey your experience.

There was a British philosopher, some of us old timers will remember him, who was recognized as a popularizer of Eastern Philosophy to a Western audience and lived for a time in the San Francisco Bay Area and his name was Alan Watts. Alan Watts died in 1973.

When you speak of the word in the Eastern sense, for those who have not tried to experience it, you can see by listening to the words of Alan Watts how confusing trying to interpret out of box perceptual thinking is.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLrMVous0Ac

[atmjjc]

Digital Physics Argument for God's Existence


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Xsp4FRgas

[atmjjc]

While surfing the net I came across a link posted on another site by Gary Bekkum of http://www.starpod.us/

Gary is a big fan of Max Tegmark of MIT who is able to grasp aspects of consciousness and present it in scientific hypothesis.

CONSCIOUSNESS AS A STATE OF MATTER
By Max Tegmark
Jan 8, 2014

For the scientifically minded…http://arxiv.org/pdf/1401.1219.pdf

[atmjjc]

When trying to pinpoint time and linear thinking with matter it does present kind of a conundrum in trying to realize how in the heck we arrive in this particular moment of existence with a purpose of being. This motion we experience as intellect does break down to irrational thought when trying to figure out connections of being at the most fundamental aspects or levels if I may, as to what holds us together in which it is meant to be taken literally without exaggeration.


“There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.� –Max Planck, quantum theorist

[Longeyes]

Hi Atmjjc
Thought you might find this interesting

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129532.200-the-ubit-may-be-omniscient-but-its-no-god-particle.html

TO CALL the Higgs boson the "God particle" is to invite the wrath of many a physicist. Religious objections aside, it overstates the case. The Higgs merely explains why other particles have mass – and even then it is only part of the story. It also obscures the origins of the term. Nobel laureate Leon Lederman, who led the charge to find the Higgs at Fermilab's particle accelerator and wrote a book about his search, wanted to call it "that goddamn particle". His publisher shortened it.

Now we have an entity that seems more befitting of the title: the omniscient, omnipresent and unseen "u-bit" (see "From i to u: Searching for the quantum master bit"). Some will pounce on the fact that science needs such an entity to explain the universe. But the existence of a u-bit would be no more profound than the existence of natural laws. Let's leave God out of it this time. Rest of the article only available to subscribers.

Apparently some quantum theorists have found a way of getting rid of imaginary numbers in quantum mathematical equations by coming up with the U-bit. It implies that all matter is connected and every interaction between particles relates to every other.
Bill Wootters's U-bit is the master bit: an entity that interacts with all the other bits describing things in the universe.

It has so many parallels in so many religions especially Buddhism.

[atmjjc]

Hey Longeyes,

Yes, I couldn’t agree with you more, many scientists are throwing in the towel because the mathematic calculations of quantum theories do not fit into relativity theory and many of the top scientists are claiming it is the end of physics as we understand it, at least it does not fit mathematically in which physics has its foundation.

The u-bit will most likely will lead you into quantum computing and teleportation in which they are trying to use real numbers instead of complex numbers from wave functions reformulations and quantum entanglement, a way for them to try and make the numbers fit but holds a lot of potential if they can make it work with matter.

Is the Higgs the glue which holds matter to create mass or is the Sun revolving around the Earth or the Earth revolving around the Sun? It does not seem to be the answer of all things and leaves us with many more questions to ponder.

So what do you think it is…is Science the new frontier for Religion or vice versa and how would infinity work with the scientific community which has huge problems of cognitive dissonance over the thought?

The video below probably explains better to understand what I am talking about.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHHz4mB9GKY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHHz4mB9GKY

[atmjjc]

Those in-the-box skeptics will surely have a hard time trying to comprehend the complexities of this modern day scientific research as to the meaning of reality and consciousness.




The woman who 'can leave her body at will': Student sheds light on the strange brain activity involved in out-of-body experiences

Researchers at the University of Ottawa, Canada, studied the brain activity of a student who can drift outside her own body at will

Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery are responsible for extra-corporeal experiences

They think the experiences could be more common than thought or that people only retain the ability to have them if they practice from childhood

By SARAH GRIFFITHS
PUBLISHED: 08:25 EST, 7 March 2014 | UPDATED: 09:27 EST, 7 March 2014

People have long been fascinated by out-of-body experiences - are they just tricks of the mind or do they have some sort of spiritual significance?
Now new research has shed light on what it terms as 'extra-corporeal experiences' by studying the brain activity of a Canadian woman who claims she can drift outside her own body at will.
Scientists believe the left side of several areas of the brain associated with kinaesthetic imagery (the perception of the sensation of moving) are responsible for the sensation of being able to leave your body and float above it – and that more people might have similar experiences than thought.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2575550/The-woman-leave-body-Student-sheds-light-strange-brain-activity-involved-body-experiences.html

[Longeyes]

Would be surely easy to prove if she had targets in an adjacent room or some such.
She would seem the idea subject for those kinds of tests.

[Longeyes]

Have two words which I think strike at the essence of consciousness - Clear Light

http://www.dreamyoga.com/tibetan-dream-yoga/the-dalai-lama-on-the-clear-light

[whoknows]

A quote from Nigel Walmsley from "Across the Sea of Suns.

"The four states of consciousness: Aha, yum-yum, oy vey and ho hum"

Of which, I think we spend the greatest deal of time, mental and psychological effort trying to escape from the Ho Hum, into the others at what ever cost.

[Longeyes]

This series of ten woodcuts in the Zen Buddhist tradition show the path to ultimate awakening or enlightenment.

http://japanesesymbolsofpresence.com/images/image27.jpg

http://www.fujiarts.com/cgi-bin/gallery.pl?page=tokuriki_ox_herding

The late great Chogyam Trungpa's commentary on the Ox Herding:

http://www.shambhala.org/dharma/ctr/oxherding/ox1.html

[atmjjc]

Teleportation Phenomenon Raises Baffling Questions About Your Existence
25 March, 2014


MessageToEagle.com - Teleportation - or the ability to transport a person or object instantly from one place to another - is a phenomenon often found in science fiction movies and literature.

Everything started in 1993, when a team of scientists at IBM, led by Charles Bennett, showed that it was physically possible to teleport objects, at least at the atomic level using the famous Einstein- Podolsky -Rosen Experiment (EPR).

More precisely, they showed that it's possible to teleport all the information contained within a particle.

Since then, physicists have been able to teleport such objects as light or single atoms over short distances from one spot to another - in a split second.

In the coming years, researchers will be able to teleport water molecules, carbon oxide and finally DNA or organic molecules.

The next great scientific breakthrough will probably be to successfully teleport solid objects. Eventually, if all goes well, these successful experiments will open up many possibilities for future teleportation of humans.

But the human body is a very complex creation that contains an enormous number of atoms - which is 7 followed by 27 zeros: 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 along with hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, sulphur and etc. - all perfectly arranged in infinitely more complex pattern than other things.

To 'beam' something from one place to another, you have to turn the solid matter of the particle into information, which is sent into destination.

When the signal is received, the information is used to create an exact copy at the other end. So now it's both here and there, and to complete the process the original object must be destroyed, so it isn't here anymore - it's there instead.

Can you imagine yourself that you're simultaneously here and there?


So, in the process of quantum teleportation, a human has to be destroyed, at first, which means that the state of the original is totally corrupted.
If you want to be teleported, you have to die first in order to re-appear in another place. You have to go through the process of copying atoms and destroying the original of "you". Your copy will most probably have all your memories and feelings.

It's a new "you" but only theoretically, because the entire quantum teleportation process is very complicated and still faces many technical issues on its way to achieve a successful transportation of a human.

In the meantime, we can ponder on some deep, philosophical, ethical and theological questions.

First of all, "What is actually sent?" Is it the original system that is reconstructed at the remote site or merely a copy?

Am I the same person when teleportation has been completed? Will I have exactly the same personality of the original "me"?

What if something goes wrong and "some of me" will stay "here" and the rest of me will be beamed to other side?

What will happen with my memories? Will all my original memories be teleported along with my copy?



Read more: http://www.messagetoeagle.com/humteleportation.php#ixzz2x231TNHq

[atmjjc]

For those of you who try to follow what Dan Smith the mystics beliefs are is a tricky deal, especially when his beliefs seem to center on the Gaia principle of the creation and his belief in the feminine perspective of creation as in the beginning and end if there can be such a thing when the element of time plays a role in the equation.

Trying to follow his approach no doubt will leave you frustrated in trying to understand what the heck he is talking about but I have read some of his early work when he first started on his crusade and I will admit the man is brilliant but eccentric and does have his moods as most in his creative type mind do.

You may be thinking at this point on why bring in Dan Smith in the thread on ‘what is consciousness?’…To answer my own query is finally the man has pinned his belief down in his response to Cy in her belief that the PtB are looking and planning for ways to depopulate the planet.

So here it is folks an understandable explanation of Dan’s belief in Dan’s own words…


The main symptom of my insanity is that I believe that we are living in a virtual reality, not unlike what is surmised in the Matrix, for instance. And, down through the ages, most mystics have come to a similar conclusion. It is generally supposed that we mystics are insane and/or hopeless dreamers.

Yes Dan we are now on the same page!

[whoknows]

Thing is it all comes down to something like trying to find the GUT. There is a lot of truth out there that seems contradictory, but, is it not that our journey is still in the formative stages.

While some over there chose to feel that based on what they think they know with certainty, they can judge the state of grace or rightness of another.

To paraphrase the words of a song I post a while back. Are we not like the comets, wonderers /wanderers.?

Can we be any more at this point?

The reality we have, virtual or not, is the reality we have. We could eventually control the reality or maybe create our own separate realities. LOL which I think would be best for all concerned.

"What is this rough beast sloughing off to Bethlehem to be born."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9hVOsuKuMY&index=344&list=FLnbwInVpEKkXFC3UuEsCZHA

[atmjjc]

Thing is it all comes down to something like trying to find the GUT. There is a lot of truth out there that seems contradictory, but, is it not that our journey is still in the formative stages.

While some over there chose to feel that based on what they think they know with certainty, they can judge the state of grace or rightness of another.

To paraphrase the words of a song I post a while back. Are we not like the comets, wonderers /wanderers.?

Can we be any more at this point?

The reality we have, virtual or not, is the reality we have. We could eventually control the reality or maybe create our own separate realities. LOL which I think would be best for all concerned.

"What is this rough beast sloughing off to Bethlehem to be born."



Hard to believe Joni Mitchell is 70 years old and has a net worth of over 6 million U.S. dollars.

Curious how time flies past us with only memories which are only interpreted as relevant to one’s existence which flows towards the forward motion of one’s physiological momentum of time of one’s here and now which most likely may not represent the true interpretation of one’s past memory and only giving one a glimpse of a faceted reality which one expresses in a linear interpretation of the memory.

Looking at your meaning of your words WhoKnows, this comes to mind…


WARNING:some 4 letter swear words by Joe Rogan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ-i4ebetio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ-i4ebetio





:cool:

[whoknows]

Yes cool vid! Thanks for that, I had not seen it before.

Our here and now is only the sum total of our previous experiences. Actually wouldn’t you say that we are in a way kin to a very tinny nonlinear sphere, I mean we start out that way anyway, mitosis begins and we expand, yes physically, but more into whatever consciousness is becoming for each of us in a specific and unique way?

Could It all comes down to progenitor… ? Infinity? All I know is that boredom is a real drag and I don’t want to be for eternity!

[atmjjc]

Could It all comes down to progenitor… ? Infinity? All I know is that boredom is a real drag and I don’t want to be for eternity!

Yes boredom can be a real pain as time moves in a linear wave. Sometimes you just have to ride the wave.

There was once a philosopher, which the persons name escapes at the moment, who philosophized that God was bored with being God and since God was the sum total of everything God decided to make humans to amuse himself. Since God is the totality of all that exists than all of humans are made of god-stuff, but to enjoy his new past time God made time to go along side by side with humans...the rest is history.

Here is a short video by Professor Max Tegmark of MIT where he gives a verbal exercise on the weirdness of reality.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25rLEBppbzI

[whoknows]

It's it's Mad Max. Been hearing a lot from Max of late.

A thing I love is that the weird we are finding is just a lexicon for the meta, finding a way to describe cogently what realty wave is, well, "The Endless Summer." Somehow I don't think this wave is going to collapse. Cowabunga!

Hmm. the rain just wash the atmosphere where I am, crystalline rain drops on clean widow pains. sighs :)

[atmjjc]

It's it's Mad Max. Been hearing a lot from Max of late.

A thing I love is that the weird we are finding is just a lexicon for the meta, finding a way to describe cogently what realty wave is, well, "The Endless Summer." Somehow I don't think this wave is going to collapse. Cowabunga!

Hmm. the rain just wash the atmosphere where I am, crystalline rain drops on clean widow pains. sighs :)

I like that, the first thing that pops into my mind is ‘Tarski's indefinability theorem’. I don’t know why, it just made me think of that and symbolic logic. I am sure there is a connection somewhere in my random thoughts.:bleh:

What I like about Mad Max Tegmark is the way he takes you into the world of speculative cosmology. He is trying to fit the theory of everything into a mathematical concept of the universe. Right now the numbers are way too large to make sense in the physics arena where they view infinity as nonsense… kind of makes you scratch your head when something is so obvious.

[atmjjc]

I like that, the first thing that pops into my mind is ‘Tarski's indefinability theorem’.

OOPS spelling error...It should read 'Tarski's undefinability theorem'

[whoknows]

I like that, the first thing that pops into my mind is ‘Tarski's indefinability theorem’. I don’t know why, it just made me think of that and symbolic logic. I am sure there is a connection somewhere in my random thoughts.:bleh:

What I like about Mad Max Tegmark is the way he takes you into the world of speculative cosmology. He is trying to fit the theory of everything into a mathematical concept of the universe. Right now the numbers are way too large to make sense in the physics arena where they view infinity as nonsense… kind of makes you scratch your head when something is so obvious.


Poor guys, LOL infinity spoils everything for them. Takes away their imagined control of everything away away away away.............

[Merjose]

What is Consciousness to you?

Consciousness is not about creation because it can´t create anything and it only can decide to navigate trough different quantum streams and other fundamental elements, but consciousness just exists in 3 versions and humans use the navigator version to navigate trough a determined simulation that others created, so you can´t create your own reality, you just can decide what already existing options you choose and if you do this all the time, it will be the only reality creation and you can get very positive and harmonic results by using your intuition, your will for learning something new and your love as a combination, because this way you can create a spiritualty inside a synthetic simulation of reality.


How can we use/embrace it into or daily lives?

You can´t control your consciousness, because your consciousness is controlling you, but you can navigate with your consciousness trough many learning curves and there are no negative or positive limits so everything is allowed, but its dangerous like walking trough london at night to learn something behind the corner of the next street.


What do do you feel we can learn by exploring consciousness?

Everything is possible.

[atmjjc]

Hmmm…Does size matter?:bleh:

This 3m30s video compares the reality of size to our perspective of being…but what of the quantum perspective:confused:... Yikes!!!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIbfYsQfNWs

[CasperParks]

Hmmm…Does size matter?:bleh:

This 3m30s video compares the reality of size to our perspective of being…but what of the quantum perspective:confused:... Yikes!!!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIbfYsQfNWs

Atmjjc,

Excellent video, thanks for sharing it.

[WildMage]

Hmmm…Does size matter?:bleh:

This 3m30s video compares the reality of size to our perspective of being…but what of the quantum perspective:confused:... Yikes!!!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIbfYsQfNWs

Action Movies 2014 Full Movies | New Sci-Fi Movies | Thriller - Best Action Movies 2014 - Lucy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vyzWpzlsFQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vyzWpzlsFQ

The movie above touches on serious philosophy, in regards to consciousness and scale. What is the unit of measure, and does it actually exist?