What produces consciousness?

What is a human being? What is life? Can science give us reliable answers to such questions? The electricity of life. The meaning of human consciousness. Are we alone? Are the traditional contests between science and religion still relevant? Does the word "spirit" still hold meaning today?

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StevenO
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by StevenO » Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:51 am

Grey Cloud wrote:Au contraire, Blackadder! The now is the world as perceived by you at lightspeed since that is the best your visual sense can do*. :P
Darkness has no need for speed because it doesn't go from or to anywhere; it just is.
Similarly with sound and silence. :geek:

* This only applies if one accepts the scientific explanation of how light and vision works. ;)
En garde D'Artagnan! Up your game, cause your missing science education is showing... :geek:

As you know photons are spinning, so Darkness :twisted: is not the absence of light as you would like it, rather it is the backside of a photon since it will only impress you if it rotates in your direction.

This Darkness comes in many forms....Blackness, Mass, Gravity, Particles, Decay, even Death. None of these can touch you however since they are just the other side of a spinning thing. Just wait for the next merry-go-round or if you are too impatient for that, who knows what's hiding on the other side...:ugeek:
Last edited by StevenO on Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
First, God decided he was lonely. Then it got out of hand. Now we have this mess called life...
The past is out of date. Start living your future. Align with your dreams. Now execute.

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StefanR
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by StefanR » Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:54 am

A
StevenO wrote:
StefanR wrote:If the past is what the present was and the future is the present to be, the present seems to be between the future and the past.
But when the past is not and the future is not, where is the present supposed to be?
There is no future, there is no past, there is no present.
Ah, somebody thoroughly confused :mrgreen: We are doing great then :D

Let me try to explain it: the now is the world presented to you at lightspeed since that is the smallest timescale we can use in this universe. But timescales are relative, just like viewpoints. So depending on the viewpoint you could well be considered immortal. :ugeek: Time to slow down... ;)
:? :lol:

NewAgeMan: You have to get into moment, the now.
A Nobody: Well, after you!
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

Grey Cloud
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by Grey Cloud » Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:56 am

Steven,
Your materialist, reductionist viewpoint is leading you astray. :roll:
Darkness is not the absence of anything; darkness is the source of everything. :shock: When the darkness vibrates it causes light; when the stillness vibrates it causes sound.
Your photons et al are just avidya maya. There are no photons and there is no bucket to put them in. :lol: The pretty lights are beguiling you. :cry:
If I have the least bit of knowledge
I will follow the great Way alone
and fear nothing but being sidetracked.
The great Way is simple
but people delight in complexity.
Tao Te Ching, 53.

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StevenO
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by StevenO » Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:45 am

Grey Cloud wrote:Steven,
Your materialist, reductionist viewpoint is leading you astray. :roll:
Darkness is not the absence of anything; darkness is the source of everything. :shock: When the darkness vibrates it causes light; when the stillness vibrates it causes sound.
Your photons et al are just avidya maya. There are no photons and there is no bucket to put them in. :lol: The pretty lights are beguiling you. :cry:
We all travel different paths to truth, Great Pale Master of ancient wisdoms. :ugeek:

Yours is a dark one, mine is a light one. But all colors sprout from the borders of light and darkness.

Image

Empirical verification of Goethe's Theory of Color
Goethe on Newton's Theory of Color
Rainbows, Prisms and non-edge Diffraction
First, God decided he was lonely. Then it got out of hand. Now we have this mess called life...
The past is out of date. Start living your future. Align with your dreams. Now execute.

Grey Cloud
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by Grey Cloud » Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:57 pm

The urge of creation is ceaseless.
It is called the Dark Mother.

The womb of the Dark Mother
is the ground of heaven and earth.

Timeless, imperceptible,
it continues ever-present.

Endless use does not touch it.
Tao Te Ching 6
Searching, we cannot see it.
We call it ephemeral.
Straining, we cannot hear it.
We call it ethereal.
Reaching, we cannot grasp it.
We call it intangible.

These three are often confused
because they are the same.

The One is not bright above and dark below.
Transparent, it moves in and out of nothing.

Its form has no shape.
Its image has no substance.
It is indistinct, elusive.
Nothing to face, nothing to follow.

Hold to the timeless Tao.
Abide in the present.
TTC 14
Be completely empty.
Be completely still.

Witness the ten thousand things
appear and vanish in one motion.
Watch as they arise, linger,
and return to the source—stillness.
TTC 16
Others are clear and bright.
I alone am nebulous and dim.
Others are alert and clever.
I alone am withdrawn,
adrift in the ocean,
directionless as swirling wind.

Everyone else has purpose.
I alone am stubborn and untamed.
I am different.
I am nourished by the Dark Mother.
TTC 20
Formless no-thing.
Precedent of heaven and earth.
Timeless, unchanging, solitary, silent.
It is the mother of the ten thousand things.

I do not know its name.
I call it Tao.
If forced to describe it,
I call it great.
TTC 25
Tao moves by returning and acts by yielding.
Thus, the ten thousand things arise into being.

Being arises from non-being.
Things arise from no-thing.
TTC 40
;)
If I have the least bit of knowledge
I will follow the great Way alone
and fear nothing but being sidetracked.
The great Way is simple
but people delight in complexity.
Tao Te Ching, 53.

moses
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by moses » Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:31 pm

The past, whether ancient or not; whether drama-filled and catastrophic, whether glorious, or whether of the rather mundane, peaceful type is DEAD and gone. Let it go, say I. It's that simple. Not very exotic or entertaining or lucrative, maybe. But very liberating, imo and experience. Anything else, besides truly honoring the past by simply letting go of it (digging into the specifics and the [over] analyzing of it NOT required), to me borders on an unwholesome, morbid curiosity if not obsession. Been there, done that. No more, thank you.

The present moment is sufficient unto itself, is entirely whole, and lacks nothing -- if it is only recognized, allowed, and accepted.
arc-us


What you experienced in the past is affecting you now, in brain changes, in epigenetic changes, so the past is certainly not dead and gone, in that it influences us now. By going over the past, psychotherapeutically, those influences can be undone.
Mo

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StevenO
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by StevenO » Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:56 pm

StefanR wrote: NewAgeMan: You have to get into moment, the now.
A Nobody: Well, after you!
Stefan,

To put it another way: now your constellation (aka. your body) has reached equilibrium with lightspeed and is able to experience and interfere with the universe around us you have this one chance to change the world forever. What's it going to be? Just see what needs to be done and take your pick. I've done mine, I hope you will hear ;) about it one day...

Steven
First, God decided he was lonely. Then it got out of hand. Now we have this mess called life...
The past is out of date. Start living your future. Align with your dreams. Now execute.

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StevenO
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by StevenO » Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:31 am

Grey Cloud wrote:
The urge of creation is ceaseless.
It is called the Dark Mother.

<snip>

Being arises from non-being.
Things arise from no-thing.
;)
Don't get fooled, you Dark Lord of Muted Skies,

Your arguments are faded ones, born from a time when life was heavy and wisdom was still confused with knowledge. Buddhistic type confusion from people paralyzed by the overwhelming presence of the now. Fortunately since then we have learned to work the land of knowledge and let it bear fruits. We found that there is more to life than working the land and being ruled by impostors claiming to posses dark magic arts.

Colors hide between light and darkness, music hides between noise and stillness, life hides between gravitationally clumped matter and empty space. It is our task in life to bring it forth, not hide in esoterics, whatever shelter and comfort they might bring.
First, God decided he was lonely. Then it got out of hand. Now we have this mess called life...
The past is out of date. Start living your future. Align with your dreams. Now execute.

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StefanR
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by StefanR » Sun Aug 22, 2010 6:56 am

StevenO wrote:
StefanR wrote: NewAgeMan: You have to get into moment, the now.
A Nobody: Well, after you!
Stefan,

To put it another way: now your constellation (aka. your body) has reached equilibrium with lightspeed and is able to experience and interfere with the universe around us you have this one chance to change the world forever. What's it going to be? Just see what needs to be done and take your pick. I've done mine, I hope you will hear ;) about it one day...

Steven
My body obstructed in lightspeed enables me indeed to experience the Universe sensibly and bodily, but is that all of it or just a part of the whole experience? Why do I have one chance to change the world forever?
I'm very curious to what you have seen that must be done and picked, how or when or where will I get to hear your choice? 8-)
The illusion from which we are seeking to extricate ourselves is not that constituted by the realm of space and time, but that which comes from failing to know that realm from the standpoint of a higher vision. -L.H.

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StevenO
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by StevenO » Fri Aug 27, 2010 2:19 pm

StefanR wrote: My body obstructed in lightspeed enables me indeed to experience the Universe sensibly and bodily, but is that all of it or just a part of the whole experience? Why do I have one chance to change the world forever?
I'm very curious to what you have seen that must be done and picked, how or when or where will I get to hear your choice? 8-)
You will have to match body and soul. How, don't ask me, I'm just another traveller, like you. My choice is to bring original sound back to the people. All this digital nonsense is misguided double confusion. After that, we'll see (in 3D) 8-)
First, God decided he was lonely. Then it got out of hand. Now we have this mess called life...
The past is out of date. Start living your future. Align with your dreams. Now execute.

seasmith
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by seasmith » Sun Aug 29, 2010 4:26 pm

`
StevenO wrote:

My choice is to bring original sound back to the people.

Details, me maestro, Details ! ?

s

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StevenO
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Re: What produces consciousness?

Unread post by StevenO » Mon Aug 30, 2010 11:31 am

seasmith wrote:`
StevenO wrote:

My choice is to bring original sound back to the people.

Details, me maestro, Details ! ?

s
I'm just one man with some ideas and some experience. It will take me time doing this without disturbing things.
First, God decided he was lonely. Then it got out of hand. Now we have this mess called life...
The past is out of date. Start living your future. Align with your dreams. Now execute.

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StevenJay
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Rather Than: What produces consciousness?. . .

Unread post by StevenJay » Thu Sep 02, 2010 2:38 pm

. . . I would ask: Without an echo - a reflection of some sort - could Consciousness know the essence of Its own existence? Or is that merely the perspective of the echo? :? ;)
It's all about perception.

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StevenO
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Re: Rather Than: What produces consciousness?. . .

Unread post by StevenO » Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:18 pm

StevenJay wrote:. . . I would ask: Without an echo - a reflection of some sort - could Consciousness know the essence of Its own existence? Or is that merely the perspective of the echo? :? ;)
Your subconscience hides the echo's.
First, God decided he was lonely. Then it got out of hand. Now we have this mess called life...
The past is out of date. Start living your future. Align with your dreams. Now execute.

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cherokeeroots
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Re: Rather Than: What produces consciousness?. . .

Unread post by cherokeeroots » Fri Sep 03, 2010 4:27 am

StevenJay wrote:. . . I would ask: Without an echo - a reflection of some sort - could Consciousness know the essence of Its own existence? Or is that merely the perspective of the echo? :? ;)
For something to be self-aware of itself doesn't it need something 'other' to measure/recognise/compare itself against otherwise there is no means of reflecting.

Just a thought in line with yours.
"The power of the world always works in circles"

Black Elk 1863-1950

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

Chief Seattle, 1854

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