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Catherine's avatar

Funnily enough this topic has been the theme of my week so I enjoyed it very much. It was really interesting.

I had an experience a few weeks back when while I was coughing (again!😞) and I abruptly felt separate from my physical body and was observing it. Something inside said.”That is the body that coughs.” A very odd experience similar to waking up one night out of my body hovering in the room observing both my own body and my husband asleep in bed. It was an incredible moment of revelation as I knew that ME was not really That on the bed sleeping, yet it belonged to me. As I wondered how I was going to get back into my body, it happened and I felt an instant cellular merging. I’d say it was the beginning of my belief in the numinous which only grows stronger as I get older.

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CG Braswell's avatar

Consciousness = fumes is a fairly well defensible position I think.

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THE LETHAL TEXT's avatar

I guess you've solved the 'hard problem' of consciousness, then. Congratulations.

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CG Braswell's avatar

This is bat country, sir.

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THE LETHAL TEXT's avatar

Got any arguments, or just insults?

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CG Braswell's avatar

Well, there are a few thoughts but it’s more of a gestalt or maybe I’d call it the “surd of consciousness.”

The concept of “dependent origination” came to mind, a theory of consciousness which incidentally might answer the question of why (I think it was mentioned in this article) buddhism poorly accommodates for the mechanics of evil. That is, from a perspective of dependent origination, evil is arguably a phenomenon downstream of consciousness, sort of like just knock-on of bad kharma.

So my quip about “bat country” was not an insult. It was referencing HRT’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas — that is, I’m saying, maybe the only “hard” problem of consciousness is a first principle question—that it may not be always possible to accomplish simultaneous apiriori subjective AND individual distinction among hallucinations, dreams, and “waking life”consciousness, without applying ex post facto analysis (or psychological preset scaffolds) which, in turn, are metaphysically biased frames of reference.

I think Descartes errs in assuming consciousness upon others, at least in any uniformity of magnitude.

I believe there is a measurable physical cognitive moment for my own mind anyway, and, among other traits , i observe that it oscillates harmonically. I believe this based on my experience of contemplative arts practice over time in tandem with my trying to fill my mind with as much knowledge as possible.

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THE LETHAL TEXT's avatar

As I thought.

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