22/09/98 13:06

Unscientific notes on brain and consciousness. These are notes with no scientific, philosophical or metaphysics basis. They are the result of personal noticablitliy. I am looking at this from my thesis idea of the Internet and its many links and what becomes of literature in this tangled web. Obviously not only is the Internet not conscious but it seems most folks who use the Internet are not conscious either. What happens with narrative if meaning and consciousness are removed? Does it continue?

Brain and consciousness are not necessarily linked.

If the memory is short-circuited through organic means (brain dis-ease, or injury) or self induced (drugs, alcohol, meditation, prayer, stress) the individual can still be conscious. When one is in a coma we claim they are unconsciousness, but we really do not know if this is true. As a species we are very physical and earth-bound. What we see is what we get is our favourite orientation.

Philosophers, metaphysicians, religionists usually do not equate consciousness with the physical, ie. the brain. In this scenario the brain is the servant of the consciousness. A tool for the thinker to think through. Delete or change the tool, the thoughts are still available. They just are not processed and are not useable in a physical sense.

To others, the idea that there is a separation between mind and brain is ridiculous. A damaged brain produces a damaged consciousness. However, we all have come across those who have no organic problems with their brain, but their consciousness seems to us quite faulty.

In either case we have a linking mechanism happening. My view (and I have absolutely no credentials) is that consciousness is separate from the physical but we link to it. When the link is broken we are still consciousness but we can not express it in a way which others can be aware of if they are using their physical senses. However, another consciousness can access the consciousness of the one who has lost their physical connection. 

Perhaps this linking of consciousness is done through a meditative or prayer-like state, when an individual separates from their physical senses.

Consciousness could also be a type of field that physics has yet to detect. A philosopher might say there is only one mind in the universe and we as individuals wall off one section of that one-mind and call it our mind, our consciousness. There could be a similarity to an electrical connection between like-minded individuals.

Astrology attempts (and sometimes does) answers this question by claiming folks with certain similarities have affinities with one another, while others may irritate them. For example, people with Mercury (ruler of the mind) in fire may feel someone with Mercury in a water sign dampens their spirits. We all know of personality types that we feel comfortable with and others, which annoy us. Having studied astrology for more than three-decades (not the newspaper sun-sign columns, or any predictive based astrology - just personality based astrology) I have seen differences in personalities based on elements in the astrological chart numerous times.

Is the connection I have seen in thousands of astrology charts, where the individual portrays certain traits based on elements (fire, air, water, earth) and aspects to other sections (planets, signs, houses, mid-points) of their chart the same as between the brain and consciousness? Neither is seeable, yet we can calculate the results. A simple example, I have raised two children on my own, As far as I am aware I treated them the same. However, they are both incredibly different in every way. They have the same 'mother' and father (me). Their personalities are different, their ambitions are totally different even their size (the younger is six foot five at 15-years-old, the older at 17 is six foot two. One lives for sport the other for everything else. I realize this is not unique, but I am just using my children as an example of how many families are different. I can only explain this astrologically (they are even opposite sun-signs, and their every planet is of a different nature). Then again my partner and I get on like a house on-fire (we are both fire signs).

I went off the track again (was that my Mars conjunct Uranus in the air-sign, Gemini, taking over my five planets in Leo?) as an example of how we can imagine links to be. In other words, not all physical phenomenon is the result of physical causations.

Many believe our thoughts cause results to our physical well being. Doctors have now come to the party on this. Obviously stress or mental anguish can produce a reaction in the body. I know for example, one person I annoyed so much, she claimed she had a brain-tumour, which a few weeks later she downgraded to a migraine. But at the time she really believed she had a brain-tumour to the level that she had a doctor say it could be possible, with the symptoms she was having. When I stopped annoying her as much as I was, she discovered she had had a migraine.

What does all this prattle have to do with the Internet?

As far as I have gone as of: 22/09/98 13:06