Monday, December 9, 2013

The Science of Consciousness

Hi All,

Please watch the following two videos and think about consciousness - as well as about the power that thoughts and/or emotions have to change  or even create reality - then share your reflections with us!


   Conversation with Deepak Chopra  & Stuart Hameroff: Consciousness

   Peter Russel, The Primacy of Consciousness


Thank you!

Gudrun





5 comments:

  1. I watched “The Primacy of Consciousness”. In the beginning of the video, Peter Russel points out that in today’s paradigm, people assume that matter is unconscious. However, he asks how humans, who are made up of matter, have consciousness if matter is unconscious. It also made me wonder, as I have never thought of this question. I also did not know what we really mean by consciousness. Russel asks if dogs, fish, or jellyfish have consciousness, but I did not know how “conscious” the object had to be to fit in the category. He says that he believes consciousness goes all the way down to fundamental units of matter and informs us that subatomic particles of matter that we believe to be solid are just eigenvalues in wave equations and that space and time vary according to the motion of the observer. Space and time are the dimensional framework in which the mind constructs its experience and, finally, at the end of the video, Russel proposes that every experience and everything we ever knew is taking place within us. Since I found this idea challenging, I was very confused about this video; it made me wonder if what we are experiencing is really happening inside of our minds.

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    1. Thanks for giving us your summary of Russel's talk. Yes, I totally understand your confusion, since the ideas presented in the talk are very different from mainstream beliefs. As far as I understand, Russel is right: what we think of as outside reality, may very well exist only inside our minds! This changes everything about reality and therefore is very hard to believe - but I think it's probably true….

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  2. There is such a thing as collective consciousness. Consciousness is the mental processes in which things happen in the brain. Everything we do affects everything when we are aware of it. In the video, Primacy of Consciousness, Peter Russel venerates the mind to be greater than physical experiences. The argument which is most emphasized is that consciousness is not formulated in our brain alone but every being has it. As a result from watching the video I have learned that there is a large distinction between sensation and perception. Sensation is what affects our sensory inputs such as the vibrations to the ear which allows us to hear, whereas perception is what we interpret the sensation to be in order to make sense of it. Peter Russel illustrated to me that we do affect everything in that we do not take action even in endeavors that seem not entirely related to us. The aforementioned is significant because although there are others in poverty and we may not have directly caused these people to be in that situation, we are aware of it and we could have possibly done something in order to change the situation. This applies to anyone, not only the people in our neighborhood but other parts of the world as well. Through being more aware of what is happening around us, we are able to take action and better ourselves. The alternative is true when it comes to self-awareness and the physical reality. As we learn more through introspection and learning about ourselves, we are able to learn about others.

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    1. Exactly! Thanks for sharing those very important insights!

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