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Originally Posted by cadmar  So, everything is outside the brain. Outside the body: the five senses; inside the body: organ senses (stomach, heart, lungs, etc.). |
Technically, the five senses are also inside the body, but I know what you mean (perceptive vs. visceral senses).
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Originally Posted by cadmar As I'm a school teacher, I taught my pupils how this can be put into practice to get higher grades: connecting patterns with other patterns. For example, the more neurons that are excited, the more knowledge one has. It's like drawing a picture with dots, the more dots the clearer and more defined is the picture. |
Aye, Scott Young has written a
great little ebook on this learning process.
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Originally Posted by cadmar So thoughts, thinking, is merely connecting these patterns with other patterns. |
I think the intricacy of the process defies the adverb 'merely'.
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Originally Posted by cadmar These chemical release are quite important. They are programmed by the user's experiences through one's own direct or from the environmental influences. |
They're also partially innate, i.e. while our internal environment influences neurogenesis a great deal, the process of neurogenesis is driven by DNA. You could consider DNA to
be an influence, but its role is more central than that.
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Originally Posted by cadmar These chemical releases also trigger neuron patterns. That is why thought can not change desires. I can't say stop smoking and it will stop. The chemical release is the gate keeper. Thoughts are the products, the children of chemical releases. |
But thoughts, as patterns of neural activity in plastic neurons, can influence those patterns. So you can't say "stop smoking" and immediately stop, but you shape those patterns of chemical release over time, given the right influences.
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Originally Posted by cadmar I'll stop here. I don't want to go on if this does not make sense or that this is too simple and you know it already. |
No need to stop. Just don't expect to get much of a response to this sort of information on this forum. As you can see from the rest of the responses, ideas posted here tend to be far less scientific. (which is not a value judgment, just an observation)
But how would you say this materialistic view of the mind relates to the topic? Is there no such thing as 'beyond' consciousness in respect to consciousness as specific aspects of neural activity? How does neural activity account for Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's experiences?