The Secret You- The Search For Consciousness. How do we know who we are?

by whereami 11 Replies latest jw friends

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  poppers

  I have myself wondered- where do 'I' go when 'I' am asleep? and if 'I' go nowhere, why do 'I' remember my dreams?

  Perhaps the "I" that is asleep no longer exists, since the research shows that that "I" is comprised of a widespread active neural network only. In other words, the "I" is composed of thoughts only; aside from a series of thought patterns there is no "I". The research indicates the deep sleep neural network is much more localized when stimulated, but that stimulation doesn't result in any sense of "I". There is, however, consciousness still present, according to the research.

  The "I" that dreams is just a wider network of neurons firing, which then become part of the memory bank that is activated and drawn upon in waking consciousness. Perhaps, then, that which "sees" the dream is that consciousness that still exists in deep sleep, the consciousness that is divested of the sense of individual selfhood. It's that consciousness that doesn't go anywhere. So the question then becomes, "What am I really?"
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  Lady Lee

  hmmmm interesting from a purely biological perspective

  Psychology would agree (there is a field of psychology that does study the biological aspects of our thinking)

  I had trouble with the idea that they could tell 6 seconds before he made a decision. It was 6 seconds before he took action. That is a very different thing. I'm sure we have all had experiences where we pretty much know what we are going to do but hesitate or run off to ask a dozen people - but we still know what we are going to do.

  I the study of dissociation they know that there arer many levels of consciousness. And being asleep is not "unconscious" We can be asleep and hear all kinds of things sometimes even incorporating them into our dreams.

  To give you an example of an ordinary "different" level of consciousness here is an exaple. You are riding on a bus on the way home from work. You are dozing off, eyes closed, not paying any attention to where you are. But a stop before you need to get off you wake up and get ready to get off the bus. Somne part of your consciousness is paying attnetion.

  Or you are driving your car home. You are deep in thought about something that is bothering you. All of a sudden you realize you are home and have to get out of the car but you don't remember driving, making the correct turns, stopping at lights or corners. You just got yourself home -- without having an accident. Some part of you is paying attention.

  We do this all the time. And it is perfectly normal. We don't even question it.

  A couple of psychologists, Watkins and Watkins, coined the term ego-states, to express this dual consciouness. They posit that there is always a "hidden observer" that is aware of what is going on around us. For example if we are driving that car, and not paying attention, the "hidden obeserver" might jolt us back to reality so that we don't crash into a car that has stopped in front of us. Hidden obeservers can be handy to hane around.

  Now a lot of this research has come from the study of traumatic dissociation. People can go into a trance state and still function during the abuse. After it is over they switch out of the trance state and often won't remember what happened while they were in the other state.

  It could be that these other states of consciousness are what was being measured by some of the tests shown in the video.

  I also had a problenm with that mirror test. Younger babies than 18 months can respond to "Where's Mommy?", "Where's Daddy?" and "Where's Megan?" when Megan is who they are. If anyone here has a toddler younger than 18 months can you try it and let us know?

  In one study by Dixon in 1957 babies could pick themselves out of a mirror when other babies where also in the mirror and by 12 months old would look at themselves in the mirror whan asked to. This isn't new stuff. They knew who they were. Babies aren't stupid and expecting them to removve a spot off their face that they saw in a mirror (at 23 months old) isn't exactly "proof" they knew who they were.

  Remember what they were doing is research and the most they can say is "What this study shows", or "we think this shows". It isn't proof. It's all just theory and it is one theory. Even if you can replicate it that only shows that you are doign the test the same way and getting the same results.

  Every piece of research has to be put together with the rest of research, especially with what is being done in other fields. Sadly too often researchers get into their own little niches and refuse to look at anything outside their field. So the sociologists don't like to read what the psychologists are doing. The biologists don't want anything to do with the sociologists or the psychologists and no one wants anything to do with religion.

  That is why I never got to go on to get my masters. I needed a program that would allow me to cross the boundaries of religion, psychology, sociology and even anthropology. I had no takers who wanted to deal with it all.