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 davedes
Stranger
Registered: 05/20/08
Posts: 35
Last seen: 10 days, 22 hours
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 "Mother Sea" of Consciousness
#8502307 - 06/09/08 01:49 AM (5 months, 11 days ago) |
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Over a decade ago, American philosopher William James made a rather interesting proposal. This article summed it up pretty well:
Quote:
We know that the mind depends on the physical brain, James said. But that doesn’t mean that our brain processes actually produce our mental life, as opposed to merely transmitting it. Perhaps, he conjectured, our brains allow our minds to filter through to this world from some transcendent “mother sea” of consciousness. Had James given his lecture a few decades later, he might have used the radio as a metaphor. When a radio is damaged, the music becomes distorted. When it is smashed, the music stops altogether. All the while, however, the signal is still out there, uncorrupted.
This seems like a relevant topic given the nature of a psychedelic experience -- which often includes "removing the brain's filters" and "becoming one" with everything, etc.
Your thoughts?
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 Cameron
perma-stone
Registered: 10/31/07
Posts: 2,143
Loc: Canada
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Re: "Mother Sea" of Consciousness [Re: davedes]
#8502371 - 06/09/08 02:34 AM (5 months, 11 days ago) |
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I wonder, is he talking collective consciousness, as in shared consciousness, or consciousness streaming from the 'mother sea' to the individual separately? Collective consciousness should be easy enough to test, but using the radio metaphor, individual streaming consciousness seems impossible to prove either way.
I find it difficult to believe that humans are somehow privy to an external stream of conscious flow when our complex consciousness can be explained by brain activity alone. In my eyes, we are no different from any other life forms, in that we gain an understanding of our external circumstances through internal workings. IMO this idea comes off as a supernatural explanation for a unique complication that we can not fully grasp yet.
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burgatory
sssssssssssssshit
Registered: 02/16/08
Posts: 328
Last seen: 16 hours, 25 minutes
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Re: "Mother Sea" of Consciousness [Re: davedes]
#8502373 - 06/09/08 02:35 AM (5 months, 11 days ago) |
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Yep... that's a great metaphor. You might think of the brain as allowing a certain manifestation of the consciousness of the singular mind, creating a 'node', beacon or singularity of consciousness. It allows a limited manifestation of an infinite mind. Although there are countless numbers of these beacons, there is still only one mind.
The illusion of a personal self can be created through thought patterns and not without a little help from the instincts. However, we are ALL alone in parallel universes. I've heard reality described as a "dream woven of dreams", which I think is a good description.
There are several ways we can experience "oneness" - there's the feeling of an infinite pool of love between people or by one person towards everything, which is a kind of emotional oneness. Then there's then actual level of consciousness in which even space itself is felt/seen/heard as a singular thing, as "you". This is a sort of refinement or steadying of consciousness. Then there's the inbetweens, like magic mushrooms where there's a huge change in the clarity of things, where stepping "outside" is like stepping into another big room. I've seen some Eastern texts describe the sky as a vault. This is a pretty good description. It's like you can "see" that you're looking at a stage. Spatial distances are illusionary. I once kicked my feet up outside on the lawn and just gazed at the moon in awe whilst on mushrooms, and I really and truly had that feeling. "Cosmic stillness" might be another way of describing it.
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we must strive against all ill-formed resistance to attain the chalice of a higher spiritual awakening
There's nothing there.
"Dreams: at the bottom of them lies the merciless onslaught of reality."
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Boots
Disenchanted
Registered: 07/25/07
Posts: 1,137
Loc: Northwood, Ohio, U.S.A.
Last seen: 19 hours, 5 minutes
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Re: "Mother Sea" of Consciousness [Re: burgatory]
#8505165 - 06/09/08 08:49 PM (5 months, 10 days ago) |
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On a 7g trip, I contemplated the thought of a "sea of thought" from which everybody draws from. It can't be verified so I pretty much gave up on the idea but it is interesting.
Let's say there was one: is it possible that it's a physical place? Like somewhere deep in the earth or out in outer space?
Or is it immaterial? Well, I'm still debating my belief in a soul and souls are immaterial so when I make up my mind, I'll get back to you.
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burgatory
sssssssssssssshit
Registered: 02/16/08
Posts: 328
Last seen: 16 hours, 25 minutes
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Re: "Mother Sea" of Consciousness [Re: Boots]
#8505669 - 06/09/08 11:17 PM (5 months, 10 days ago) |
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Everything is immaterial...
And there doesn't have to be a spatial or temporal connection between things. Time is a creation of the ego, space is a creation of the mind.
I think there are souls to the degree that there is an essential form to the organism you currently are. This essential form, or spirit, is non-cognitive. I think its purpose is as a kind of singularity of consciousness which provides your reality. The idea of existence may be to 'grow' the soul, your organism and existence on this plane might be a kind of vessel for its growth, and if you do not grow it enough, you may have to come back to this plane as another organism to permit yourself to inhabit a higher dimensional organism. This might be the idea of reincarnation. Growth, I would imagine, isn't a competitive process, it's simply existing in your natural state that allows growth, like any other life form on this planet. This might be the idea that "all is suffering" - to 'try' and 'seek' is actually damaging to the organism, and also painful.
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we must strive against all ill-formed resistance to attain the chalice of a higher spiritual awakening
There's nothing there.
"Dreams: at the bottom of them lies the merciless onslaught of reality."
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 23,395
Loc: underbelly
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Re: "Mother Sea" of Consciousness [Re: davedes]
#8507003 - 06/10/08 11:10 AM (5 months, 10 days ago) |
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Quote:
davedes said:
Over a decade ago, American philosopher William James made a rather interesting proposal. This article summed it up pretty well:
Quote:
We know that the mind depends on the physical brain, James said. But that doesn’t mean that our brain processes actually produce our mental life, as opposed to merely transmitting it. Perhaps, he conjectured, our brains allow our minds to filter through to this world from some transcendent “mother sea” of consciousness. Had James given his lecture a few decades later, he might have used the radio as a metaphor. When a radio is damaged, the music becomes distorted. When it is smashed, the music stops altogether. All the while, however, the signal is still out there, uncorrupted.
This seems like a relevant topic given the nature of a psychedelic experience -- which often includes "removing the brain's filters" and "becoming one" with everything, etc.
Your thoughts?
It seems to be that as humans it is impossible to know the answer in a difinitive way. There is sketchy evidence for mind outside of brain but anything seems to be possible in the unknown.
I find highly suspect anyone who sez they know one way or another.
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What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. R.A.W.
I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. R.A.W.
embrace death in all the ways it comes no matter how soft or hard. cruel ,tragic,weak,light, gentle, ect how ever. thats life
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