Intelligence and dementia

[Dan.Linehan]

If your intelligence is the only thing that you can take with you after you die, what happens to the intelligence of people who get dementia?

[Erin Pavlina]

Dementia is a symptom of the brain, not the mind. Your mind becomes intact again when you get to the other side.

[supertom]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

Dementia is a symptom of the brian, not the mind. Your mind becomes intact again when you get to the other side.

And mind is what your make it in this lifetime plus the minds of lifetimes ??

[Plato]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

Dementia is a symptom of the brain, not the mind. Your mind becomes intact again when you get to the other side.

Hi Erin. What is mind then? Where is it? How does it relate to the brain?

Would you say that consciousness/mind is a kind of passenger on the human journey, that grows from the range of experiences? Or if consciousness is more than just a spectator, how does it exert its will over matter, if it is not the brain?

[Akashic_Librarian]

Descarte was interested in the mind / brain connection. Google him if you want a very in depth analysis of the problem.

In short though to me, I can only come to the conclusion that consciousness (Mind) only comes into being when there is a correct wiring of the brain.

But that raises the question why have we not invented consciousness and reproduced it in the lab...? Surely we know enough...

Furthermore it begs the very serious existentialist question: What is the point?

If we manage to reduce our very consciousness to a formula, then what is left of our humanity. As a species so far we only separate ourselves from animals by saying we can think about our own thoughts.

Well what happens when we can make a small piece of silicon and metal wires do the same?

I think it will be a crucial time in our history, we will either vanish and disappear into a nihilistic funk...Or we will have to start thinking about ourselves in terms of other than just things who are accidents of nature.

[Plato]

Originally Posted by Akashic_Librarian

Descarte was interested in the mind / brain connection. Google him if you want a very in depth analysis of the problem.

I think it will be a crucial time in our history, we will either vanish and disappear into a nihilistic funk...Or we will have to start thinking about ourselves in terms of other than just things who are accidents of nature.

You're absolutely spot on Phil. What we really need is a new cosmology to give meaning back to our lives. The current one leaves no space for a meaningful life, but there is no particular reason it is true! Philosophy and science need a Copernican revolution, as it were.

As to Descartes, he would agree with what I suspect Erin's position is, but modern philosophers almost unanimously agree that Cartesian dualism is fundamentally flawed. However, the in vogue philosophy of eliminative materialism may turn out to be flawed as well.

EDIT: interestingly, it is widely held that the New Age movement is a reaction to our "meaningless" cosmology.

[MasterD]

Where do thoughts come from in this model?

From the mind or the brain?

Is thinking a physical manifestation of consciousness or is thinking consciousness itself?

[Dannyboy1]

Memories, beliefs, etc. will all be unnecessary in the afterlife.

[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by MasterD

Is thinking a physical manifestation of consciousness or is thinking consciousness itself?

I don't think thinking is consciousness itself. When you practice present moment awareness, you don't think, yet you are highly aware and conscious. To me consciousness is more like a feeling. Thoughts are the ego.