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Chronic7
Registered: 05/08/04
Posts: 13,679
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What is Consciousness?
#8860506 - 09/01/08 01:16 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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We are all aware of our own consciousness, we can notice it slipping away when going to sleep, when fainting etc...
So what actually is it?
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Lakefingers
Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Chronic7]
#8860691 - 09/01/08 01:47 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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anything anyone answers on such a broad question will be cliché even this even that even that even that even that
ask something specific anyone answering this question is lying or spouting out pure book knowledge
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mofo
Hobby Jingoist
Registered: 04/05/08
Posts: 2,232
Loc: Donkey Kong Kill Screen
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Chronic7]
#8860813 - 09/01/08 02:12 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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And also what is its purpose? Couldn't we carry on just fine without it?
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Chronic7
Registered: 05/08/04
Posts: 13,679
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: mofo]
#8861332 - 09/01/08 03:47 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Its a question that no words can answer, but the best question to ask ourselves!
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deCypher
Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Chronic7]
#8861383 - 09/01/08 03:54 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Chronic777 said: We are all aware of our own consciousness, we can notice it slipping away when going to sleep, when fainting etc...
So what actually is it?
If we're already aware of it, why do you have to define it?
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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sketz
apothecary
Registered: 08/30/08
Posts: 10
Last seen: 15 years, 6 months
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: deCypher]
#8861587 - 09/01/08 04:25 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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hmm
i think consciousness is the stream of thoughts that just somehow stand out to you based on your brains makeup. some thoughts reach you, others dont, and you just have a constant flow, and whatever chemicals allow certain things, it becomes, well a conscious thought.
basically
its just our minds collection of information and rendering into "Conscious". such as
your eyes tell you the sky is blue a chemical process goes about in your eyes that reads and verifies everything and then this information is sent to your brain. obviously sight would be quite an urgency so, it isnt filtered. but something like a random noise (lets use aharatfh) is filtered out because it has nothing to do with ANY process that your body has to work out.
our mind is a filtered pool. it starts in our subconcious and whatever chemicals inside makeup you, is the filter. thoughts come from necessity
my .02's
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IamMe
Stranger
Registered: 08/20/08
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: sketz]
#8861720 - 09/01/08 04:49 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Consciousness is not really a part of our waking "conscious" being or body. Everything we are including our thoughts is the manifestation of the energy of consciousness. This is why you can't define it with thoughts. Thoughts are just empty contradictions stemming from the relativity of existence or manifestation. If you would like to try an exercise, i suggest you pay attention to the way you think. Usually there is a general forefront thought and seemingly deeper thoughts that are a viable guide to your actions and forefront thoughts and desires. The thing is that no thought is deeper than another or seems to come more from your "real self" because they are all relative to experiences your conscious body had. Consciousness is outside of that. It is pure awareness that watches this big picture we call the universe.
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psyka
Praetorian
Registered: 06/09/03
Posts: 1,652
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Chronic7]
#8862402 - 09/01/08 07:12 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Consciousness is an interface to "plug in" to an aspect of awareness.
The six senses (including sense of mind) are consciousnesses.
-------------------- As the life of a candle, my wick will burn out. But, the fire of my mind shall beam into infinite.
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norml840
sex toy guru
Registered: 10/19/07
Posts: 3,170
Loc: lost
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Chronic7]
#8862494 - 09/01/08 07:28 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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by trying to explain it, you are wanting to put mental labels on it. this question is absurd. same as asking someone to describe god. mere words won't be able to grasp the meaning.
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Boots
Disenchanted
Registered: 07/25/07
Posts: 1,137
Loc: Northwood, Ohio, U.S.A.
Last seen: 15 years, 4 months
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: norml840]
#8863292 - 09/01/08 09:53 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Consciousness is our thoughts, what we currently sense, what we remember to have thought and sensed previously, our biological ability to be thinking and rationalizing creatures.
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Patisotagami
Organism
Registered: 05/15/08
Posts: 687
Loc: Everywhere
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Boots]
#8863358 - 09/01/08 10:10 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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this question in and of itself is absurd;
What is consciousness?
This question is unanswerable-- we are conscious beings. Our lives are lived through a veil of consciousness, so how could we possibly define what consciousness is?
We can put labels on it, just like we have put labels on everything. "Good" "Bad" "Right" "Wrong"... these are just words that are meant to convey what we don't understand--- fundamental feelings that arise out of consciousness.
At a very fundamental level, consciousness is the simultaneous firing of hundreds of thousands of neurons in a person's brain. Somehow these neurons give rise to what we call "consciousness".
What is it, though? This question, as I have clearly described, is completely absurd in its basis.
-------------------- EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING
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jcesar10
Stranger
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Chronic7]
#8863494 - 09/01/08 10:41 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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This question reminds me of a story I read from the zhuangzi. It goes somthing like this.
I once dreampt I was a butterfly, floating around from flower to flower, doing all the things that butterflies do. When I awoke, I was a man again, but I could not tell wheather I was a man dreaming I was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming I was a man.
Conciousness, in my opinion, is a state of awareness. During a dream we are aware of what is going on, so, it too can be seen as a state of conciousness. Which one is real though? How do we know that this forum is in a real state of conciousness and not just a scene in a dream we are all a part of? How do I know that you all are different entities and that the responses you all write are not just my subconciouse answering my questions?
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Middleman
Registered: 07/11/99
Posts: 8,399
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Lakefingers]
#8863723 - 09/01/08 11:36 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Lakefingers said: anything anyone answers on such a broad question will be cliché even this even that even that even that even that
ask something specific anyone answering this question is lying or spouting out pure book knowledge
Heeey man everything is cliche, some are just more fun than others and there are new myths yet to be named.
We are we here? To develop our individual definitions or to reach a consensus of terminology?
Self-inquiry into the nature of awareness creates a certain continuity of consciousness through dreams and death.
Pure book knowledge? There is no such thing.
Consciousness is like a donut and I ain't lying.
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Lakefingers
Registered: 08/26/05
Posts: 6,440
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Middleman]
#8864093 - 09/02/08 01:37 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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the universe is shaped like a doughnut too is consciousness the universe?
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Chronic7
Registered: 05/08/04
Posts: 13,679
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: norml840]
#8864340 - 09/02/08 04:41 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
norml840 said: by trying to explain it, you are wanting to put mental labels on it. this question is absurd. same as asking someone to describe god. mere words won't be able to grasp the meaning.
Your right & im most certainly not saying to try to put mental labels onit, im saying it cant be answered but to look hard & to keep looking, much like you can't describe god but is it not a subject worth contemplating? where we come from? who we are? what is consciousness?
Most people will brush these questions off, the plain & simple truth is they are scared of looking (proove me wrong & look if you disagree....see what happens)
Your answer is still an answer, which is most probably the mind saying "you cant know what it is, so why try? no payoff for me so why bother?" but if you really experience the discovery that "WOW you can say what it is! & I Am inseparable from that!" then its like an explosion of insight
I dont mean to offend anyone by saying "if you dont look its due to fear" but its really true, the only reason more people are not awake is because they are scared of losing theyre false individual identity & finding out they're unspeakable identity, or 'death anxiety'
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 38,066
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Chronic7]
#8864392 - 09/02/08 05:38 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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trying to understand the stream of consciousness is not absurd. trying to encapsulate it's hugeness and plasticity using words may seem absurd, but it is important to get oriented to it. finding the relationship between the stream and the five senses and associative processing (memory/thought/timing) is like understanding how movies and television work to make a series of still frames into a believable moving scene. getting a grip on consciousness in this way provides a basis for learning and teaching dharma.
i would say it is one of the most important questions.
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Diaboleros
Devil's spawn
Registered: 07/20/08
Posts: 1,856
Last seen: 6 years, 10 months
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What you seem to be talking about is self-consciousness IMO. And that is the loop back created in the mind. The mind creating the self through imagination. Animals, plants, are aware. But we are aware of being aware which is what creates this loop back and what creates the self.
I have no idea what consciousness is tho, I don't think it's anything special tbh, but self-consciousness is a pretty cool thing.
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ackack9000
Smart pants are risky
Registered: 05/08/08
Posts: 258
Loc: Captain of the ship
Last seen: 15 years, 5 months
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Diaboleros]
#8864600 - 09/02/08 07:18 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Consciousness is your mom's cock in your daddy's mouth? You happy now!?
-------------------- [gradient:#FA7500,#000000]WOW WE LOVE YOU MISTER COOL!<!--/gradient//--> [url=/forums/files/08-36/079935499-eye.jpg] http://www.zefrank.com/sequencer/index.html <!--gradient:#FF0808,#00FF04//-->WonderrrrfFulll I"m so fullll. If I was any more full my eyes would turn brown.[/gradient]
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hoodbran
Dosser
Registered: 06/01/08
Posts: 1,570
Loc: Phloston Paradise
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: Lakefingers]
#8864667 - 09/02/08 07:52 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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The International dictionary of psychology does not even try to give a straightforward characterization;
"Consciousness - The having of perception, thought and feelings; awareness. The term is impossible to define except in terms that are unintelligible without a grasp of what consciousness means. Many fall into the trap of confusing consciousness with self-consciousness--to be conscious it is only necessary to be aware of the external world. Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon: it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written about it. (Sutherland 1989)"
- From The Conscious Mind (In search of a fundamental theory) David Chalmers
Edited by TerryTibbs (09/02/08 07:59 AM)
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ExplosiveMango
HallucinogenusDigitallus
Registered: 07/12/05
Posts: 3,222
Last seen: 14 years, 4 months
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Re: What is Consciousness? [Re: hoodbran]
#8864670 - 09/02/08 07:53 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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What is consciousness?!?!?!
I don't know I'm asleep.
-------------------- Know your self. Know your substance. Know your source. The most distorted perspective possible is the perspective that yours is not distorted.
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