Well that certainly got the two of you covered then, seeing as how smart the two of you are I'm sort of with J. on this one, I'm open to the idea. But there really is no evidence for any kinda of afterlife or similar. I find the concept of reincarnation fascinating, but ultimately we only truly know that this is the life we got. This is our shot. All done when this is done.
Fascinating is that the brain just works but it has no idea how. Consciousness is completely detached from the processes. If it weren't, we would automatically know what the hell is going on in our bodies.
It may be that we simply don't "know" yet how to do that. A vast majority of our brains are unused. There's a lot of room for expansion there. It won't happen overnight, but I believe that the future of human evolution will not be physical so much as it will be mental and cognitive. Breaking into unused parts of the brain will yield some amazing results. If there is a God (and I personally believe there is), we will know that Supreme Being/ascend once we have achieved that full potential (one of the pillars of Gnosticism). Now we just have to figure out how to do that without using psychotropic drugs that could physically destroy the brain and the rest of the body in the process.
Consciousness is the the result of the process, it is not at all detached. This is obvious because we can alter consciousness by altering the brain functions. It is also untrue that "we have no idea how" the brain works. We know quite a lot about how the brain works. Not everything, much is still to be learned, of course, but we know a lot. Um...no. We use all our brains. Every single bit. That whole "we only use 10% of our brains and have so much potential to unlock" thing is a complete myth.
I think it's just because people can't fathom it. You experience "not existing" before birth simply because you do not exist in the physical world yet. You also experience a lapse in waking consciousness while sleeping or in a coma. You might be "alive" while sleeping, but what also can occur is closing your eyes and waking up 8 hours later and the entire experience may have felt as though it only lasted for one minute.
To expand on the "we only use 10% of our brains" myth: this probably started because we tend to actively use only a percentage of our brains at any given time. This doesn't mean that the rest goes unused, just that at some times certain areas of the brain are more active than others. The bizarre experiences caused by psychotropic drugs are not due to activation of some usually inactive or "locked" part of the brain, but usually due to inhibition or disinhibition of certain brain functions. For example, as I said before, there is a part of the brain that is responsible for letting you know where you ends and everything else begins. Many drugs can inhibit this function, resulting in the user feeling as one with the universe or god (this effect can also be recreated with electric stimulation, and can be the result of seizures). There are also natural inhibitory functions in the brain, i.e. it is the job of some parts of the brain to inhibit other parts of the brain depending on our state of consciousness. Inhibiting an inhibitory function can result in experiences like hallucinations, or hyper-vivid dreams, paranoia, etc. So while only 20 or 25% of our brains may be active at any given moment, every bit is used, and the consequences of disrupting the balance of inhibitory and active functions, having more of the brain functioning at once, is usually seizure.
Amazing how people simply refuse to learn how stuff really works in order to hold on their meaningless fluff.
^It's shocking to me how many people do believe that myth, though. It's been perpetuated by Scientology and in pop culture a lot, I think. It's just that it is so easy to disprove!
LOL I soooo love double meanings. A pity this board has no rating system - you'd have gotten a huge thumb up from me Maybe we should call Reverend Kathy as well?
But that's you again reflecting upon your unconsciousness when you are conscious. And you do dream while sleeping or in a coma, you just forget about it later on.
Yes, I know that. You don't constantly dream though. Mainly in REM sleep. Either way, if there is lapse in consciousness and you cannot recall what happened in those moments or hours, then in essence it would seem as though...for a time...you experienced what would appear to be nothingness. I wasn't talking about what it IS, I was talking about what it seems like to the person.
You're making this difficult when it is simple. You're worried about one's perception of nothing, but failing to grasp that this is not even an issue: You don't have to worry about what will be perceived, the point is that there will be no perception.
Mind-body dualism is difficult to unknow, because it's so intuitively compelling. The concept seems to be built into the human psyche.
^While I think that dualism, as well as religiosity, is brain-based and rooted in an evolved psychology, I don't see why it is so difficult to comprehend oneself not existing any longer. If you can comprehend a point in time before you existed, then you should be able to comprehend a point in time after you're done existing.
Based on all available evidence, when you die you're dead. There is no evidence that supports the mind's ability to survive outside the body and it seems to be a property of the brain itself. The fact that if you get enough brain damage that it causes changes in personality seems to support this. If we had souls, what happens to them during this? What happens to them if you get Alzheimer's? Is it trapped in a body that it can no longer control? Personally I think we're better off. I get bored watching shows I like, I couldn't handle eternity. I wouldn't mind uploading my brain to a computer and cruising around for a while that way until I got bored with the universe.
I would have said Philosophical. I agree with JarodRussell and share his puzzlement in non-existence post-existence. I believe the brain is more complex than people give it credit for (I know, right?). The electronic signature given off by a brain during existence is unique in every individual, no one experiences life the same as anyone else. Before a brain exists, the unique signature it will later give off would have never existed in reality. A perception of the universe unique to one, generated electrically, can't just be lumped into the same category as pre-existence for me, though comparing after-life to pre-life always seemed like an 'earth is flat' statement to me anyway. Why? All I hear when that statement is spoken is "I wont exist, because I existed."