Consciousness is indeed rocket science
A tired brain says all kinds of stuff - but none of it, is the actual intention of the individual. If your wife is extremely upset during the hormonal storms striking her psyche before menstruation, she may most vocally proclaim that she does not love you any more, or that she is tired of you - but the hard reality beyond the momentary hormonal impulses is that those words are nowhere near the actual truth. Now let's turn the situation around. If your husband gets extremely angry for some reason, and bursts out saying that, you are the greatest mistake of his life, this does not mean, that it is exactly what he feels in his lucid state of mind. And that my friend, is the complexity of human consciousness.
Human consciousness is not at all as simple as you think. Yes I have said previously on my works that it is the simplest phenomenon on earth, but that statement would only make sense to you if you have actually studied the human brain. Otherwise, you would either take our word for it, or completely refute it, deluded by your culturally passed on barbarian idea of soul and afterlife and all that non-sense of our tribal days.
Human consciousness is the part of the mind which we are actively engaged in. And human mind is not what you think it is, that is, it is not a fixed system. It is a relentlessly changing virtual system, created by electrochemical interactions among the neurons of the brain. Billions of neurons talk to each other through the language of neurochemicals, and voila! We have a sense of being, i.e. a sense of mind. Now here, many new readers of my work have put forward the argument, that we neuroscientists are talking about a magically appearing mind or consciousness out of a bunch of neurons. Recently, somebody referred to it, in the comments sections of one of my articles, as "neurostupidity". While accepting that I am stupid, and I try my best to become less stupid over time, this attack does not bother me the least, but what does bother me is that these people deem traditionally passed opinions as more important than empirical research of modern science. They think, because those beliefs are a part of their tradition, they must be true. What kind of barbarian logic is that! If one says that it is stupidity for us neuroscientists to say that consciousness is a product of neurons and it does not come from the heavens, because one does not understand it, then it is completely fine, and we scientists would do our best to make the matter as easy as possible. But if one says it's stupidity, because it does not abide by the traditional wisdom of their forefathers, then I am afraid, it is that one creature who's stupid and still is living in the barbarian days of ignorance. But the point is, even ignorance can be resolved, but not illusion of knowledge.
“Shallow intellect is worse than ignorance. Ignorance can be treated with knowledge, but shallow intellect, that is illusion of knowledge, is untreatable and quite dangerous to the progress and wellbeing of humanity.”
― Either Civilized or Phobic: A Treatise on Homosexuality
To have a real insight, not just theoretical understanding of how the mind is born through physical activity of neurons, an individual must go through decades of research on the human brain. Without this laborious endeavor, no human can truly realize - truly, genuinely realize, how the neurons create the mind. I am talking literally seeing this fact, as clear as one sees the sun and the moon. And this non-conflicted seeing cannot happen, even if one simply listens to a talk by a Neuroscientist for an hour. Yes, we Neuroscientists can bring up various examples, to illustrate how the brain creates our perception of ourselves and the world, and this may make you a bit able to see this rise of consciousness or to a broader aspect the mind in the brain, but it will still not make you see the way we the scientists of the mind see it. It's a matter of deep revelation, not just about theorizing and conceptualizing. And, I am in no way saying that we are smarter that you or any other layperson. But the only difference is in our engagement in the matter. While we wake up, while we sleep, while we eat, while we walk, we are relentlessly, thinking about various elements of the human mind. I cannot be sure of other scientists, but at least I function this way.
If one wants to have the confident awareness of how the mind is born in the brain, one must go through the pains that a scientist takes in order to study decades of research on the matter and scrutinize them very closely. The alternative is to take our word for it - by our I mean, the majority of Neuroscientists, Psychologists and Psychiatrists. To avoid the intellectual ordeal, you can depend on us, and that may make things clear to you, but it will still not be a complete understanding of the mind. Like it or not, there is no easy way here. Trying to understand the origin and nature of consciousness without actually arduously studying neurobiology, is like trying to understand quantum mechanics without actually studying physics.
Now the point is, people would most willingly accept that quantum physics is something that they don't understand, but when it comes to the mind or soul, or consciousness, they would most neurotically proclaim that they know everything, because various traditions throughout the world have passed on their imaginary perception of this concept as a form of divine wisdom. And it takes huge courage and curiosity to actually see that those so-called perceptions were nothing but imaginations and opinions formed in the absence of real empirical understanding of the phenomenon which we scientists call the mind, and the ancient people called soul. This makes me think of the very nature of scientific understanding.
Science or scientific understanding begins not with the knowledge of something, rather with the actual acceptance of our ignorance of that phenomenon. You only begin to understand something truly, when you accept that you don't know anything real about it - when you accept that your ancestors did not hand over to you actual knowledge, rather they handed over their imaginary stories to you. So, the first step towards actually, genuinely, truly, and least subjectively understand the rise of the mind in the brain, and its true nature and features, is to let go of your so-called traditional or cultural ideas on this issue. If those ideas indeed do have even traces of truth, you would discover them for yourself, once you truly start to understand the phenomenon.
Consciousness is indeed Rocket Science. To understand truly, how it is born from electrochemical activity of neurons, one must take the pains that we scientists take to study it. If you don't have that kind of time and patience, then the easier alternative for you is to rely on the opinions of us scientists, that is the majority of us. But, be aware, no matter how desperately we scientists attempt to clarify this issue for the understanding of the general population, we can only give an overall perspective on the neurological origin of consciousness, but that perspective could never be an actual revelatory insight. So, the choice is yours - either do the study yourself, or rely on our works, or be a deluded idiot and take traditional beliefs as fact.
(Simultaneously published on Apple News and TopBuzz.)
Recommended Reading
What is Mind?
Human consciousness is not at all as simple as you think. Yes I have said previously on my works that it is the simplest phenomenon on earth, but that statement would only make sense to you if you have actually studied the human brain. Otherwise, you would either take our word for it, or completely refute it, deluded by your culturally passed on barbarian idea of soul and afterlife and all that non-sense of our tribal days.
Human consciousness is the part of the mind which we are actively engaged in. And human mind is not what you think it is, that is, it is not a fixed system. It is a relentlessly changing virtual system, created by electrochemical interactions among the neurons of the brain. Billions of neurons talk to each other through the language of neurochemicals, and voila! We have a sense of being, i.e. a sense of mind. Now here, many new readers of my work have put forward the argument, that we neuroscientists are talking about a magically appearing mind or consciousness out of a bunch of neurons. Recently, somebody referred to it, in the comments sections of one of my articles, as "neurostupidity". While accepting that I am stupid, and I try my best to become less stupid over time, this attack does not bother me the least, but what does bother me is that these people deem traditionally passed opinions as more important than empirical research of modern science. They think, because those beliefs are a part of their tradition, they must be true. What kind of barbarian logic is that! If one says that it is stupidity for us neuroscientists to say that consciousness is a product of neurons and it does not come from the heavens, because one does not understand it, then it is completely fine, and we scientists would do our best to make the matter as easy as possible. But if one says it's stupidity, because it does not abide by the traditional wisdom of their forefathers, then I am afraid, it is that one creature who's stupid and still is living in the barbarian days of ignorance. But the point is, even ignorance can be resolved, but not illusion of knowledge.
“Shallow intellect is worse than ignorance. Ignorance can be treated with knowledge, but shallow intellect, that is illusion of knowledge, is untreatable and quite dangerous to the progress and wellbeing of humanity.”
― Either Civilized or Phobic: A Treatise on Homosexuality
To have a real insight, not just theoretical understanding of how the mind is born through physical activity of neurons, an individual must go through decades of research on the human brain. Without this laborious endeavor, no human can truly realize - truly, genuinely realize, how the neurons create the mind. I am talking literally seeing this fact, as clear as one sees the sun and the moon. And this non-conflicted seeing cannot happen, even if one simply listens to a talk by a Neuroscientist for an hour. Yes, we Neuroscientists can bring up various examples, to illustrate how the brain creates our perception of ourselves and the world, and this may make you a bit able to see this rise of consciousness or to a broader aspect the mind in the brain, but it will still not make you see the way we the scientists of the mind see it. It's a matter of deep revelation, not just about theorizing and conceptualizing. And, I am in no way saying that we are smarter that you or any other layperson. But the only difference is in our engagement in the matter. While we wake up, while we sleep, while we eat, while we walk, we are relentlessly, thinking about various elements of the human mind. I cannot be sure of other scientists, but at least I function this way.
If one wants to have the confident awareness of how the mind is born in the brain, one must go through the pains that a scientist takes in order to study decades of research on the matter and scrutinize them very closely. The alternative is to take our word for it - by our I mean, the majority of Neuroscientists, Psychologists and Psychiatrists. To avoid the intellectual ordeal, you can depend on us, and that may make things clear to you, but it will still not be a complete understanding of the mind. Like it or not, there is no easy way here. Trying to understand the origin and nature of consciousness without actually arduously studying neurobiology, is like trying to understand quantum mechanics without actually studying physics.
Now the point is, people would most willingly accept that quantum physics is something that they don't understand, but when it comes to the mind or soul, or consciousness, they would most neurotically proclaim that they know everything, because various traditions throughout the world have passed on their imaginary perception of this concept as a form of divine wisdom. And it takes huge courage and curiosity to actually see that those so-called perceptions were nothing but imaginations and opinions formed in the absence of real empirical understanding of the phenomenon which we scientists call the mind, and the ancient people called soul. This makes me think of the very nature of scientific understanding.
Science or scientific understanding begins not with the knowledge of something, rather with the actual acceptance of our ignorance of that phenomenon. You only begin to understand something truly, when you accept that you don't know anything real about it - when you accept that your ancestors did not hand over to you actual knowledge, rather they handed over their imaginary stories to you. So, the first step towards actually, genuinely, truly, and least subjectively understand the rise of the mind in the brain, and its true nature and features, is to let go of your so-called traditional or cultural ideas on this issue. If those ideas indeed do have even traces of truth, you would discover them for yourself, once you truly start to understand the phenomenon.
Consciousness is indeed Rocket Science. To understand truly, how it is born from electrochemical activity of neurons, one must take the pains that we scientists take to study it. If you don't have that kind of time and patience, then the easier alternative for you is to rely on the opinions of us scientists, that is the majority of us. But, be aware, no matter how desperately we scientists attempt to clarify this issue for the understanding of the general population, we can only give an overall perspective on the neurological origin of consciousness, but that perspective could never be an actual revelatory insight. So, the choice is yours - either do the study yourself, or rely on our works, or be a deluded idiot and take traditional beliefs as fact.
(Simultaneously published on Apple News and TopBuzz.)
Recommended Reading
What is Mind?
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What is the force which makes us to take birth, to grow and to die against our will?
Why we have to go through events like pain, pleasure, appetite, accidents, cruelty etc. willingly or unwillingly?
Why there are chemical reactions in the body responsible for keeping it alive, conscious or working? I mean what is the purpose behind keeping the creation or body alive through actions and reactions?