How to discover the nature of Consciousness?

[Swami V. Ānanda]

There are three big questions of life that science has not answered for. These questions deal with the origin and nature of life, the Universe, and consciousness. For this topic I will focus on consciousness.

To date, scientists study consciousness by looking at the brain activity associated with a controlled experience. By doing so, scientists think that it will lead them to the causes and workings of consciousness. Suck work has gone on for decades and we are still no closer to explaining why and how neurons give rise to conscious experience.
"Importantly, it is not clear how any physical process, such as neural activity, can give rise to a subjective phenomenon such as conscious awareness of something, and even the possibility of such a causal relationship is controversial. It must be kept in mind that empirical research on the neural correlates of consciousness should be neutral to the question of causality. Instead, this research can identify and characterize patterns of neural activity that specifically correlate with conscious as opposed to unconscious perception." [1]

An alternative approach which I have tested myself is to use meditation to understand consciousness. The problem with Western science is that it does not involve the study of consciousness in its pure form and so its no wonder they get led away in different directions. Instead of studying consciousness, instead they are studying thoughts, feelings, and not the awareness itself. In the meditative state, I am able to reach a state of awareness without mental and bodily input. This is consciousness in its true and pure form.

The skeptics will say that mediation is not a scientific tool. Perhaps to these skeptics, science can only be done in a lab. Real science can also be done where the experimenter becomes the subject. That is called field research. There is no good reason for why meditation has worked for thousands of years as explained by many Eastern thinkers and religions but then it somehow becomes worthless in the West. Using meditation as a scientific tool would be nothing more than using field research. We must get over our egos and cultural biases.

1. P. Sterzer, G. Rees, in Encyclopedia of Consciousness, 2009; https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/neural-correlates-of-consciousness

 

[AgnosticBoy]

The skeptics will say that mediation is not a scientific tool.

Hey Swami. On this issue, I would agree with skeptics in the sense that meditation is not currently recognized as a scientific tool. Even if you say that it can be used as one, you still have to show that it would lead to any reliable observations, whether it is regarding consciousness or some other mental state.

Now if you want to question the methods that scientists use to study consciousness, and whether or not they are even suited to address the matter, then you might get some agreement there. But even that doesn't automatically make meditation a reliable tool. Again, that needs justification itself.

 

[Swami V. Ānanda]

[QUOTE="AgnosticBoy,
" On this issue, I would agree with skeptics in the sense that meditation is not currently recognized as a scientific tool. Even if you say that it can be used as one, you still have to show that it would lead to any reliable observations, whether it is regarding consciousness or some other mental state"

If there wasn't a demand for what I am saying then I would be out of business. But as it stands, scientists have not explained consciousness nor have they even discovered it. I'm here to provide a good alternative.

You are correct in saying that meditation is not widely used in science but this is not because it is disproven. What I find is that scientists that are truly open to exploring are willing to accept and try meditation for themselves. Their numbers are steadily increasing. Then there are scientists that prejudge and that have a cultural bias. They are not true explorers and don't want to change their paradigm and long established methods.

To truly understand consciousness, scientists have to find a reliable way for the experimenter to also become the subject. Forget about third-person method. Meditation provides a reliable first-person method.

 

[bbyrd009]

funny to me that consciousness is treated as if it were on/off, when to all appearances it exists on a sliding scale

 

[Swami V. Ānanda]

Why do scientists focus more on the things they are aware of instead of on the awareness itself?

 

[bbyrd009]

Is consciousness individual (insert gif of guy literally walking into the side of a moving truck here), or can a group develop consciousness?

 

[bbyrd009]

Why do scientists focus more on the things they are aware of instead of on the awareness itself?

bc lack of…awareness?

 

[bbyrd009]

seems we are quick to wanna discuss this thing we call “consciousness,” when unconsciousness is more likely our default; i mean, how can we not know (up to) 90% of the species alive on earth today? Doesnt even seem possible, does it?

 

[bbyrd009]

This is Einstein, copyxpasted for the bit about consciousness:
Here are some inspiring words from Albert Einstein:

“I didn't arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”
"Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think.
Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, determined by the external world."
“Time does not exist – we invented it. Time is what the clock says. The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me."
"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”
"A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
"Our separation from each other is an optical illusion."
“When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected. The greatest tragedy of human existence is the illusion of separateness.”
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.”
“When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.”
“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.”
“The ancients knew something, which we seem to have forgotten.”
“The more I learn of physics, the more I am drawn to metaphysics.”
“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike. We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses, worlds are hidden of which we are unaware.”
“I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books.”
"The common idea that I am an atheist is based on a big mistake. Anyone who interprets my scientific theories this way, did not understand them."
"Everything is determined, every beginning and ending, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."
“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It will transcend a personal God and avoid dogma and theology.”
“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”
“Everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you can not help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”
"I am happy because I want nothing from anyone. I do not care about money. Decorations, titles or distinctions mean nothing to me. I do not crave praise. I claim credit for nothing. A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future."

 

[AgnosticBoy]

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

“When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected. The greatest tragedy of human existence is the illusion of separateness.”

“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.

I think Swami V. Ananda would like these.

My top 2 from what you quoted:

“I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books.”

“The ancients knew something, which we seem to have forgotten.”