Consciousness - What's with the Light Bulb above the head ?
75The study of consciousness in science is producing theory, which is what science does until proof is at hand, science = proof. . Yet to measure consciousness using physical instruments may proove fruitless because the arena of consciousness is not physical at all. You can certainly see the effects of thought as a stimulus on the brain using an MRI. The nervous system is not only stimulated by thought but outside senses void of thought, like being burned by the flame of a candle, the stimulus of burning comes first, then the thought.
MRI mind stimulus to swine flue outbreak
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I am not a scientist, let me set that straight. I admire the field of science.....to a point. I've had debate with a young gentleman who was convinced that if you can't show me the proof then it doesn't exist. Yet I can see and I can experience and I can give this gentleman a way to see and to experience but he does not take up the offer and the arguement goes on and on and on. The pursuit of convincing someone what you experience is useless unless they too have the experience. Our mind will stay closed to many things until you venture beyond the limits of your current knowledge. Knowledge is to know, and to know is to experience. For many knowledge comes from the written word, but for others it's not good enough to be told. The experience must be the convincing element.
There is nothing magic or supernatural about coming to see for yourself that consciousness or the realm of creative thought is not physical. The process of learning to think above your head has perhaps been practiced previously and we've forgotten the art.
Where does inspiration come from? Where do ideas come from. Where does creativity come from? This is all consciousness. And it is above your head and not inside it. Layers and layers of highways of thought for you to TAP INTO. Like a light bulb going off above your head - that's where you go to get your ideas and your inspiration which allows you to be creative and active and stimulated. Like putting life into the physical puppet
If you have enough discipline, enough willpower to have a go then by all means, take the test and see for yourself. Quieten the mind enough to see. Meditate. Yes, sorry you will have to at least have a go. Again nothing magic, nothing supernatural. Just empty your head for a minute. That's all the time you will need.
Slow thoughts down at least to a point where you can feel them. It's like you watch them drop down into your brain. Seriously it's an amazing feeling, firstly to know you don't have a clutter of garbage (thought) rolling around in that skull of yours. And secondly so you can SEE that thoughts are something that descend, not unlike pancakes dropping into a frying pan (that's your brain).
For those interested in our metaphysical abilities, I had a conversation with a cyber friend on the emanation of thought which may interest you. http://hubpages.com/hub/Consciousness__Thoughts_and_the_Brain Whilst this subject may seem foreign to your current level of thinking, don't let that close you to the possibilities of this subject. For those who dabble in past lives your understanding of consciousness as a continuum may be stimulated by this topic. Even if you have no interest in past lives, don't let that frighten you away from seeing what consciousness is.
Regardless of your understanding of thinking, having an open mind whether you see it's in your head or above makes for broader possibilities.
- Consciousness, Thoughts and the Brain
This is a cyber conversation I had with a friend that was thought provoking and stimulating. I wanted to share it with you, perhaps it will tweek your own thoughtforms. What information is not. ... - Meditation shows thoughts are BEYOND the brain
For many years now I've been pursuing a quest for spiritual awareness. Not content to be told about non-physical worlds, I began practices of meditation, self awareness in the pursuit of Self (Atman) and... - Third Eye Meditation
There are many techniques to practice meditation and this is yet another of them. The third eye is your gateway or door to your inner world, your Self, and being more in yourself is a sure way of being...
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I like Annalene, will wait for the article. Thanks a lot. Cheers
I read the initial part of that discussion and just finished reading what followed.I applaud his sincerity and intention in attempting to understand , but science has a limitation when dealing with processes that can't be physically visualized.For science ,seeing is believing.Science is right at it's own place, but that doesn't change the truth about consciousness and consciousness isn't answerable to science.I feel, as science expands it's horizons through metaphysics , it will open up to processes that can be experienced with enough clarity to believe them even if they can't be physically seen or explained.As you rightly put it in the other hub 'If you have to ask then you don't know' or I could perhaps rephrase it as ' You need to experience it yourself to understand it' because it's beyond the realm of words or explanations.I once heard an interesting question - If soul and life is within the heart ,then how can the body still function when the heart is replaced by a pacemaker.
Thankyou bluewings, we have things in common.
My understanding to your statement re the soul and life is within the heart, what is spoken of is not the physical heart, but the non-physical. To one who can easily experiment with this one, watch, or see closely what happens next time you are hurt emotionally and sense exactly where the pain is inside you. In my experience it is the centre of the chest, not to the left of it.
Organs of the body are an amazing topic of speculation in the field of energetic sensations. There are transplant patients who seem to pick up the emotional senses of the donor. Also replacement of organic organs by mechanical devices, like the pacemaker would definitely have an effect on levels of the body that are beyond the normal physical measurement. The level of life force, or qi, or prana is a whole different field that is not explored by Western medicine, yet it is at this level that most disease begins.
Like time no one understands consciousness or how it arises, and I am coming around to Chlamers' view that it is a kind of optional extra in the universe.
I have yet to be able to delveop or control my Chi reliably.
Hi AlexK. There is a process called Throat Friction which is taught systematically by Samuel Sagan. His book Awakening the Third Eye is currently a free PDF download. He speaks extensively about Life force (Chi) and how to cultivate and manage it. Practices to develop and control life force are a major part of knowledge he teaches. (for the link please refer to my hub on Third Eye Meditation) Interestingly on his website he has another free download "A Language to Map Consciousness." So while you say no one understands consciousness, at least someone is systematically unravelling just that. His work is phenomenal. I personally don't think consciousness is an 'optional extra.' I think consciousness is all there is. We are only able to fathom a small portion of it from our current standpoint.
I did another hub called Consciousness, Thoughts and the Brain which you may find interesting.
Each and every point is very valid. We really are a proof and confirmation based society.
With all the things in the world, yet unpondered, you will still, to this day, ALWAYS find a fingerprint next to a "Wet Paint" sign...
We are still at the top of the food chain, right??
Hey Sailaway, I do wonder why we are still top of the food chain - do we deserve to be? It's only our minds that put us there!
There are many things I could comment on so I'll be brief. I think we need to distinguish between physical and material. Everything is physical - if it wasn't then we wouldn't interact with it. Matter, on the other hand, is an altogether different matter. Quantum mechanics may have been the final nail in the materialist coffin, but even before then electromagnetic theory showed that there were physical yet non-material phenomena.
From my experiences both as a scientist and of altered states I have not, as yet, needed to explain them in some non-physical way. The energetics you mention such as Qi - and I would add the chakras - do not need some other dimension but rather scientists having a good hard look in the right places. There are no material organs located at the chakras but there are bundles of the nervous system at those locations.
The universe really is an astonishing superposition of frequencies. Sometimes it's not just about looking in the right place but also at the right frequency.
I don't agree that everything is physical, if you equate physical with solid matter. Or is it that you regard the physical as anything seen with physical perception. What if you were not using the physical senses? Then there is matter - is this anything that exists?
When you have access to non physical experiences, altered states if you like to use that term, and many people are experiencing the same phenomena, it helps to have a language for those states. Thankfully this is being done successfully. Years of mapping states of consciousness helps to make those references tangible. Am looking forward to the day when science can bridge to these states, but as you say, it's a matter of looking in the right place. Frequencies is perhaps a nebulous term, but I understand what you are referring to.
There is a body of work underway called A Language to Map Consciousness, also undertaken by a scientist. If you are interested send a message. It's a free download.
I agree with the conclusions of this hub. I think the point is to be open, there are many things that science has yet to discover and so invalidating something because there is not scientific proof is a little...hmmm...what's the word, rash.
But that goes both ways, I suppose.
Experience counts for allot. Thanks for your comment ceciliabeltran, glad you dropped by.
Meditation is wonderful, food for the soul and nourishment for the mind.
Hey Ixxy.
Or is it food for the mind and nourishment for the soul!
^-^
It's supposed to clean the mind at least. Bit sludgy in there at times.
Ahhh the higher self. I have hear or read about there being 7 selfs. I don't remember where I read it. All I remember are a few of them like the emotional self, physical, gosh my mind is tired tonight. Can you explain these as you are so knowledgeable about things of this nature.
The Seven Selves - a poem by Khalil Gibran
In the stillest hour of the night, as I lay half asleep, my seven selves sat together and thus conversed in whisper:
First Self: Here, in this madman, I have dwelt all these years, with naught to do but renew his pain by day and recreate his sorrow by night. I can bear my fate no longer, and now I rebel.
Second Self: Yours is a better lot than mine, brother, for it is given to me to be this madman's joyous self. I laugh his laughter and sing his happy hours, and with thrice winged feet I dance his brighter thoughts. It is I that would rebel against my weary existence.
Third Self: And what of me, the love-ridden self, the flaming brand of wild passion and fantastic desires? It is I the love-sick self who would rebel against this madman.
Fourth Self: I, amongst you all, am the most miserable, for naught was given me but odious hatred and destructive loathing. It is I, the tempest-like self, the one born in the black caves of Hell, who would protest against serving this madman.
Fifth Self: Nay, it is I, the thinking self, the fanciful self, the self of hunger and thirst, the one doomed to wander without rest in search of unknown things and things not yet created; it is I, not you, who would rebel.
Sixth Self: And I, the working self, the pitiful labourer, who, with patient hands, and longing eyes, fashion the days into images and give the formless elements new and eternal forms-it is I, the solitary one, who would rebel against this restless madman.
Seventh Self: How strange that you all would rebel against this man, because each and every one of you has a preordained fate to fulfil. Ah! could I but be like one of you, a self with a determined lot! But I have none, I am the do-nothing self, the one who sits in the dumb, empty nowhere and nowhen, while you are busy re-creating life. Is it you or I, neighbours, who should rebel?
When the seventh self thus spake the other six selves looked with pity upon him but said nothing more; and as the night grew deeper one after the other went to sleep enfolded with a new and happy submission.
But the seventh self remained watching and gazing at nothingness, which is behind all things.
Khalil Gibran
Jewels, what a fab poem! Perhaps our consciousness is made up of layers that can be peeled away like the skin of an onion, or else sliced through to expose them all at once. What an interesting idea.
Very interesting and thought provoking hub. Just realised that sounds like a pun on your subject, but I really liked this and will read more by you.
Hi Amanda. I love Khalil Gilbran, LG prompted me to go find info on the seven selves. Though it's not really on topic, still worth a read. Sometimes I think my onion is huge or the layers are unlimited. Wish it was so easy to cut through the lot at once - that would save so much time!
Thanks 2patricias. This subject is definitely thought provoking, thought expanding really. A resurgence of this hub and similar has prompted me to go back to the drawing board on my own meditation which is how I am able to differentiate different layers of consciousness. Those more creative layers are magnificent, way better than the chitta of the little mind - it never shuts up and is so unproductive.
Thank you so much for the poem find. I did enjoy in emmensly. I think it did contribut to this topic because the selves are part of the consiousness.
The topic is really about how consciousness filters through the structures above our anatomy and then into our anatomy. It deals with a non physical element being the substance of thought to the physical vehicle in which it is received - the anatomy.
The 'selves' are our interpretation and grasping of those thoughts. Our minds acting out and making sense, or non-sense of the initial thought. Yes the selves are part of consciousness - the realm of the psyche or soul. But consciousness goes way beyond what we can in general understand.
Ok I understand but then I don't understand. I will have to let it sit for a bit so my brain can get around it then.
It's not WHAT you think, it's the mechanism of thinking. The brain is the organ that is stimulated by thoughts and through the nervous system activates the puppet/our body. The hub on Consciousness Thoughts and the Brain may help. It was a conversation about the emanation of thoughts which is often visited by the string theory mob. Even though there is a 'spiritual', ie meditative bent to it, it address the same layers as the physicists, just a different language.
I understand as soon as I read the Puppet of our body. Yes it all makes sense now.
I have on my bookshelves a volume titled 'After We Die, What Then?' by George W Meek. It was published in 1980. In it George's research brings the conclusion that there are seven levels in which we reside, i.e. our self straddles the whole lot. It's a very interesting book and worth studying.
As for Science and seeing is believing: Can you imagine how the advent of wireless (radio) must have been to the majority of scientists just 110 years ago! Thank God there are those who will risk the ridicule of their peers to seek the truth.
I have seen this book before? Somewhere on the net, not sure where almost bought it back then...Now its back, lol; maybe that's a big hint to get the book, now; as its facing me...Thanks for sharing it.
You're welcome Debvill12.
Annalene 4 years ago
Exactly what I expected! Very interesting and I can't wait to see the update.