Where is your consciousness located?

[Radical]

Subjective reality is a load of bs. The concept has no credibilty amongst any reasonably intelligent person. I can assure you that I am a real conscious being seperate from you, and that your thoughts have no power over my existence.

[songwriter]

Originally Posted by Radical

Subjective reality is a load of bs. The concept has no credibilty amongst any reasonably intelligent person. I can assure you that I am a real conscious being seperate from you, and that your thoughts have no power over my existence.

Like in the Taxi Driver movie... "Are you talking to me?" . I already had an effect in you. Perhaps you don't notice a single person having thoughts about you. But imagine all the people against you or favoring you.

[Radical]

Originally Posted by songwriter

Like in the Taxi Driver movie... "Are you talking to me?" . I already had an effect in you. Perhaps you don't notice a single person having thoughts about you. But imagine all the people against you or favoring you.

I mean your thoughts can't directly affect me without you acting on them.

[Radical]

Originally Posted by Radical

Subjective reality is a load of bs. The concept has no credibilty amongst any reasonably intelligent person. I can assure you that I am a real conscious being seperate from you, and that your thoughts have no power over my existence.

Sorry if this post offends anyone, no offence intended. It's just that in my opinion the concept of subjective reality sounds a bit unbelievable, but it could be possible, maybe...

[november]

Originally Posted by songwriter

I guess everyone's consciousness is all the things one can percieve or so... When someone has no consciousness he can't percieve a thing...
Then everyone consciousness is everywhere. Now mine is in front of this text... now.. to the left.. now I'm back, hearing the thoughts in my head, etc.

The Universe would be my answer.

Good answer.

I would answer: Everywhere. Even someone who has no consciousness can be percieved by another, so consciousness still exists in that situation.

Proof of my consciousness is everywhere around me. All of you are proof of it. Everything is proof of it. I simply can't find a lack of consciousness, therefore it is located everywhere.

[november]

Originally Posted by Radical

I mean your thoughts can't directly affect me without you acting on them.

You're funny! Wrong, but funny.

[Persol]

Originally Posted by Radical

Subjective reality is a load of bs. The concept has no credibilty amongst any reasonably intelligent person. I can assure you that I am a real conscious being seperate from you, and that your thoughts have no power over my existence.

Here's a test. What color is your wall? How do you know. Well, you know because you see it. You 'see' it because radiotion is bouncing off and hitting your eyes.

Now, here's the thing... the above could be completely wrong. You could be 'seeing' it because you are on drugs. You could have a matrix-ish wire in the back of your brain. You may be dreaming. You have NO way of proving that reality is not subjective. Your 'proof' is just as subjective as everything else, and therefore doesn't really count.

Saying that no reasonably intelligent person doesn't consider this a credible thought is misleading. Almost all of the great thinkers have gone down this line.

The fact is that we hedge our bets when assuming that reality is objective. It's simply easier and more practical.

[Toine]

Saying reality is subjective basically means we imagine reality. That makes reality a product of the mind. What then is the mind? How can something imagine itself? Does the answer lie in consciousness? If so and consciousness is all there is, why is it divided? And if it is not divided, why do we perceive it as such?

[Nico Kempe]

I'm still not entirely sure about what consciousness is, but I do feel that what separates us is the egoic mind.
But that ego couldn't exist without consciousness, which doesn't mean that consciousness is separated though.
So maybe in the end we are all thesame consciousness, but because of our ego's, that come with being human, we percieve us as being separated from eachother.

[songwriter]

Originally Posted by Toine

Saying reality is subjective basically means we imagine reality. That makes reality a product of the mind. What then is the mind? How can something imagine itself? Does the answer lie in consciousness? If so and consciousness is all there is, why is it divided? And if it is not divided, why do we perceive it as such?

It's not that we imagine it, it's that we perceive it. And perceptions are subjective.
Yes, you can imagine yourself, you can perceive yourself in a way and other can perceive you in other way... Is that familiar to you?
I think cons. is divided, everyone has one, but every cons. is everywhere. Including each other cons. Everything affects everything, etc.

[demk]

I get this sense that something to do with consciousness is at the top of my neck/bottom of my brain.

Descarte found some kind of gland there that isnt used by the brain (as was later found out by neurologists (I think thats right anyway)). He concluded that this was the part that connects us to god. Later, fMRI scans on meditators found activity in this part of the brain when they had the experience of connectedness with everything.

Maybe I am aware of that connection. Mayeb I am just aware of my neck lol.

Hmmm...

btw, please dont qoute me on all that science because I may have got my facts wrong. I personally hate it when the media or whoever quotes science or interprets it wrong to make a headline or a point something.

[Trina]

In my brain... :P

[Argenberg]

Interesting question My consciousness (as well as yours and ours) fills the entire Universe, it occupies every smallest part of it. In fact it holds the entire Universe in itself. Each of us also has some illusory neuro-anatomy 'consciousness' which is very limited to perceptions and ultimetly illusory and temporary.

Words are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
are drifting through my open mind
Possessing and caressing me

Images of broken light which
dance before me like a million eyes
That call me on and on across the universe
Thoughts meander like a
restless wind inside a letter box
they tumble blindly as
they make their way across the universe

Sounds of laughter shades of life
are ringing through my open ears
exciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which
shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe

Nothing's gonna change my world.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by David Hausladen

Our immaterial memory is like the hard drive of a computer (long-term "storage" memory for those not familiar with computer hardware) while our physical memory is like the RAM (short-term "working" memory). In other words, what we have in our brain is just a small part of the total memory available to us, "cached" in our physical body to make it easily accessible to the brain for processing.

Just a thought. Don't quote me on it, it's probably wrong .

Actually, right or wrong, I thought it was really insightful. I can see this as a plausible possibility.

Originally Posted by Scott H Young

If you believe in a subjective reality then the real question is where is your body within your consciousness?

Very good point!

[Wabi-sabi]

I have noticed the location of consciousness to be in different places for different people.

For highly conscious people, it is located at the crown chakra. For loving people it is located in the heart chakra and so on.

I know this obnoxious guy whos consciousness is centered at an opening near the base chakra.

[Trina]

Originally Posted by Wabi-sabi

I know this obnoxious guy whos consciousness is centered at an opening near the base chakra.

LMAO!!! Haha, that's hilarious.

[DKSprocket]

I'm with the "consciousness is everywhere in the universe" camp.

Generally the claim that consciousness is in the brain comes from the scientific community. The claim that our consciousness is universal come from the spiritual/meditation community (which has said this for several thousand years). What I find really interesting is that scientists, which are the ones telling us we need empirical experiments, never bothered to look empirically at their own consciousness (through meditation). Wheras practically everyone from the mystical shcools through the ages who've made the effort to go into the deepest possible meditation (non-dual awareness) all say the same thing: Conscoiusness is universal, what we experience as being seperate is just an illusion. And you don't have to take their word for it - you can start meditating yourself and once you reach that deep state of consciousness you'll have your own experience of it that you can compare to theirs.

You can look at it this way:

Your brain is an organ for consciousness just as your eyes are organs for vision.

When you see the wall "over there", you're not really seeing the wall. What you're "seeing" is a bunch of photons hitting the rods and cones inside your eyes. This allows your brain to construct an image of the wall, giving you the illusion that your eyes are a "window" into the world. If you damage your eyes you can no longer see the wall - but that doesn't mean that the wall exists inside your eyes, they are just the organs that allows you to perceive the wall.

Likewise with the brain - its an organ that allows you to interface with conscoiusness (and probably some aspects of memory as well). You can think of your brain as a kind of radio receiver that tunes into consciousness just like a radio tunes into radio waves.

Here's a thought experiment:

Imagine we bring a radio (plus a very strong radio transmitter and lots of batteries) through a time-machine back to a scientist in the past who knows nothing about radios and radio waves. We then hide the transmitter and see what the scientist would conclude about a radio playing music:

- He can clearly hear the music is coming from the radio.
- He can't find anything connected to the radio.
- He can try to remove different parts of the radio which will either distort the music or completely shut it down. He could then conclude that he must somehow be damaging the music.
- He can check the weight of the radio before and after he destroys it and conclude that there's nothing beyond the physical radio there.
- He can look at the parts inside the radio and try to figure out what's going on. But since he has no knowledge of radio technology whatever he concludes will probably be way off.
- He can use all sorts of devices to measure the air surrounding the radio, but since he doesn't have any radio wave technology he will conclude there's nothing there.
- He could move the radio to a different location and observe that the radio works there as well, concluding the radio is clearly independant from its surroundings.

Based on the above he would probably conclude that the only explanation is that the music resides inside the radio and that it is not connected to anything else. He might descibe the radio as a "music generating machine". If we then tried to explain to him that the radio was picking up "invisible waves" that are present in the air at every location in the world he would probably think we're crazy and unscientific.

Of course the metaphor of the brain as a radio receiver is somewhat limited, but hopefully its useful to show how consciousness can be universal and exist "out there" while still being compatible with the experiements done by scientists on the brain.

Rasmus

[Jm4362]

Originally Posted by David Hausladen

Consider the following analogy: Our immaterial memory is like the hard drive of a computer (long-term "storage" memory for those not familiar with computer hardware) while our physical memory is like the RAM (short-term "working" memory). In other words, what we have in our brain is just a small part of the total memory available to us, "cached" in our physical body to make it easily accessible to the brain for processing.

How weird! I was reading this thread from the beginning and came up with a similar computer-related analogy of consciousness, but with a difference:

The Internet as the overall, God, highest-consciousness connected to everyone. And an unconnected computer being the "empty shell".

Just a thought. Don't quote me on it, it's probably wrong .

Haha, sorry for quoting. As for being wrong, how can it be wrong? We're just grasping at the true nature of things, the best we can.

~Jm4362

[Toine]

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "universe," a
part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, has
thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest-- a
kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a
kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires
and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task
must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our
circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the
whole of nature in its beauty.

~ Einstein ~

[King Of All Cosmos]

It seems that everyone is trying to prove physically something that isn't physical, which doesn't really make sense. You people are crazy people!

So I will add my thoughts. The physical evidence of consciousness isn't something everyone agrees on. What about evidence for other metaphysical things? How about the Chinese concept of chi (spelt qi actually)?

I have a friend who is very into martial arts and accepts the concept of chi. At the very least, it's a helpful concept to use in the the field of martial arts. Then it gets interesting: the master of this martial art had what was called a dragon's pearl. This is the physical place where the chi in your body is naturally stored; it's called the dan tien and is an inch or two below your belly button. This man had a physical lump in his dan tien. It was as hard as rock and he could even move it around at will (to what extent, I'm not sure). This is where he stored his chi, and it showed.

It was my fortune to meet this man, who, as the designated master of his martial art, spends his life training. Lo and behold, he looked like he had a pot belly! He was incredibly musculed, though unusually so. There was no fat in him, yet he had this bulge of a 'dragons pearl'. It's the only physical thing I've seen to verify the existance of chi and I wish I could've explored it further (but that would've been rude).

Still, it was a physical manifestation of a non-physical energy! Am I just crazy? Or are all of YOU people crazy people??

[Foresta Gump]

No one knows where our consciousness is located, my guess is it's in our eyes, we see, we perceive what we see, and we become aware of what we see, that the tree is there, because we perceive it there.

Our eyes are amazing consciousnesses, and if you look closely, you will see that everyone has two different eyes. Our eyes record to memory what we consciously perceive, we remember things through our eyes like a magnificent memory.

And people who are born blind still have a consciousness through their eyes
except that their consciousness is in the dark, they cannot perceive the tree is there because they cannot see it, they are conscious that the tree is there only by feeling the tree physically and perceiving it through their consciousness, but they wouldn't know what a tree looked like, they could only imagine from their own consciousness what a tree looked like, and how a person with sight sees a tree, may not be how a blind person sees a tree in his own mind.

This is purely speculation, and may or may not be truth.

Foresta Gump

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by Toine

Just wondering if anyone has an answer to this question:

Where (in your body) is your consciousness (and/or awareness) located?

as proven in research repeatedly: in each of your cells

[Judge]

Because the two major sensory organs (eyes/ears) seem to cross paths inside our brains it seems that our thoughts/consciousness are located there.

Ask yourself this question to yourself (in your mind) where am I? If you're not inside your head, then where are you? I consider that you don't actually have a location, consciousness isn't in a place.

It's a noddle baker for sure

Judge

[allirowe23]

my consciousness floats in waves up and down my body, from toes to head and then back.

[Foresta Gump]

Thank you for the information, I wasn't aware that research has proven our consciousness is in our cells. I'd like to read up on this. A person can get a good education here.

Foresta Gump

[Judge]

Originally Posted by Foresta Gump

I wasn't aware that research has proven our consciousness is in our cells.

Science proves something to be true about consciousness??

Good grief, they can't even define what space is

Judge

[NexusOfCompletion]

All of your body is in your mind. All of the external world is in your mind. There is no difference between within and without. Your consciousness is awareness. It is wrong to try and locate consciousness within spacial and temporal dimensions. Consciousness is eternal and infinite (timeless and spaceless).

[Foresta Gump]

I would certainly be more than interested in learning more about our consciousness being in our cells. Tomorrow I shall do search for infor. on the net.

I am more than curious as to how scientists have proved consciousness is located in our cells. Is it proven through more than a few agreeing, or is there actual genuine indisputable proof? This I would love to have the opportunity to see actual proof.

So if we lost an x-amount of our cells, we'd be less conscious? Or half dead?

Foresta Gump

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by Judge

you don't actually have a location, consciousness isn't in a place.

The mind (all of it, not just consciousness) often is
in a "place" but, - Thankfully it's not limited to such

[Foresta Gump]

Just a little humor

What about the guy whose consciousness is up his butt

He was so bad in his past life that God decided his next life of consciousness would be nothing more than an obnoxious, fowl-smelling gaseous fart, if you'll pardon the verbal diarrhia.

He actually thinks it's funny to excreet a nasty stink, the worse is people actually laugh at the ridiculous noise he exuberates uninvitingly. But, then what should one expect from a fart.

I mean everybody has to acknowledge the guy sometime or other, sometimes
he just slips out without any warning at all, how rude can a fart get anyway.

Sometimes he even fools ya, and lets you think he's making an appearance and instead he shits in your pants.

The farts consciousness is nothing to appreciate, I guess God knew what he was doing when he labled the fart consciousness, God got even with the guy for being such a menace in his past life, but the good Lord didn't realize that people must suffer not only with breathing the stink consciousness into their nostrils, but worse, inhaling the beast.

People have to actually excuse themselves when the fart consciousness slips in, he actually causes embarrassment for them. He's just as bad as he was in his past life, perhaps God made an error in creating the fart consciousness. It's a good thing he doesn't come out of our mouths, imagine kissing that.

Foresta Gump