Once again – On Consciousness

Once again – On Consciousness

?Case for Consciousness

?Life will not be worth living if we did not have a ‘first person’ subjective experience. If in Coma, deep sleep or living as a zombie, Life richness and colour would be absent. So what makes us Conscious?

?Western Perspective

?Neuroscience is attempting to uncover the cognitive functioning of the brain, to explain why there is an inner theatre that occurs in the mind, which is an Experience. This inner theatre generates a first-person experience of I. While David Chalmers claims that the Easy problem is to understand what cognitive processes do, its frameworks, etc. it cannot explain why an Experience occurs, which he describes as the Hard Problem. Science holds the mind and brain as being one, and that the inner theatre – the world of experience is an outcome of physiological processes. Science has adopted a ‘third person’ interrogation to explore the depths of consciousness.

?More recent studies by Mark Solms and Antonio Damasio offer newer thinking in this area. Solms argues, that we have been looking at the wrong place – the Cortex. He argues that instead we should be looking at the Brain stem region where if damaged, the experience stops. He argues that the presence of Feelings is evidence of Consciousness, and you have to have consciousness to feel your feelings. Feelings are crucial to navigate your way to enable Homeostasis, a process of regulating ‘human conditions’ required for its survival and covers glucose, temperature, sugar, calcium, etc. The human condition, he argues is best within a range, and what the body automatically wishes to be at all times. All deviations are away from this central point. A movement towards the range creates pleasure, and a movement away from homeostasis creates displeasure. ?Let me illustrate this point: at Ladakh at Khardung La Pass, one feels uncomfortable, because of lower oxygen in the lungs and your sensations/feelings are the guides to help you find solutions to alleviate yourself from this life threating situation.

?Not all situations are life threating. Yet, in these cases decisions have to be anchored in Value Systems which are part of the Social Character (Fromm) or imagined ideas (Yuval) of our times. In Abrahamic religions, spiritual texts act as a lighthouse to guide behavior, while in other cultures one is required to take responsibility to solve for these dilemmas, polarities and paradoxes (dharam sankat). Hence feelings act as an essential guidepost that regulates our decision making and is crucial for enabling and regulating the process of thinking.

?An Indian Perspective

?Indian exploration of the mind is first person exploration. It is neither a religious faith-based process, nor does it ask for confirming to a belief or faith system. It asks that you verify the truth yourself with direct experimentation. It has you directly see/experience that there is ‘the one who sees’ and the other that is ‘seen’. In other words, the subject and the object.

Through exploration one notices that the eyes sees objects, but if one is aware that the eyes can see, the eyes itself is an object. The mind has thoughts, sensations, and if one is aware of this, all of these are subtle objects itself.

?One is able to grasp that there is awareness, which is constant, but all that is around awareness is continually changing. This awareness is Conscious but all that it perceives are objects. One recognises that this awareness is all pervasive and separate to material existence. It is this awareness that allows for first person consciousness.

?Neuroscience can study objects, and this awareness, according to Sankha Philosophy is sans object. In Indic philosophy, Consciousness exists in waking, sleeping and deep sleep stage. Awareness exists in all of these three states, and in the 4th stage of Turiya, Consciousness is aware of itself. Indic philosophy holds that Consciousness Is, always has been, with no beginning nor end, formless.

?What are your thoughts after reading this?