Dontaskme wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2019 8:15 am
Consciousness is that which modifies itself as both the observing consciousness and the object observed.
In other words, consciousness is perceived relationships.
But what are relationships?
Relationships are conscious perceptions.
How are relationships determined by consciousness?
Relationships are determined by comparing current sensory data to remembered sensory data in consciousness.
Sensory data is electrical impulses, generated by what we perceive as body sensors, but effected by forces outside of consciousness.
Outside forces stimulate body sensors to send electrical impulses to the brain.
Something other than consciousness stands behind the activation of body sensors.
This is the unknown reality out of which our 'self's hallucinate perceptual reality for us.
Reality, as we perceive it, might not be what is actually consciously perceived in the physical world. But evolution has interpreted, whatever that reality is,in the way which best enables the conscious entity to survive that reality. What appears to us as DNA seems to be the blueprint for constructing an environmental detection and accommodation machine.
We carve out representations of these outside forces in consciousness, however, the thing that caused us to carve out these representations is not in consciousness. Reality is not something of which we are conscious. We are only conscious of that which helps us to survive in this unknown reality.
Do you think that there can be a disembodied consciousness, or do you think that conscious memory requires 'whatever it is' that we perceive as our brain and body? That is, can there be a consciousness without hallucinating a 'self'? Without a self, nothing can be carved out of reality. Without a self, we have nothing but many to many relationships, which is as meaningless as an un-analyzed mountain of data. It is only by hallucinating a self that we can develop the one to many relationships which allow for comparison of current conscious perception with past conscious perception. The non physical 'self' hallucination is what evolution requires for survival of the physical being.
The consciousness that we see during meditation; the mere recognition of being; is of little practical importance. It could be a phase change that is not effected until enough information (current data compared to past data) is collected. Or, it could be an elemental force of the universe. But this has no practical import for a being's survival, and is merely of intellectual interest. Consciousness is the medium of relationships, and it only works in the 'one to many' relationships envisioned from within a given 'self'.