How conscious are you?

[jimmoyer]

I won't forget the little nightwalk I took 20 feet away
from the tent near the Appalachian trail and
saw it stand there large on the boulder.

It looked at me.

Only after it flew away....

Only after it flew away...did I realize, consciously
that it was a large horned owl, with yellow eyes.


And so it makes me think perception is separate
from conscious awareness.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Please Dex take this as a compliment...

I shall; a powerful compliment indeed, thank you very much, and blessings upon your household.

And since you asked, my preferred scotch is The Macallan, but I've sampled many and the only two I'll never touch again are Teacher's and Johnny Walker Red. Kerosene with iodine... ugh!

 

[feronia]

Do you consider yourself more conscious than an average 7-year old kid?

Are you more conscious than a tree?

Are you more conscious than the universe itself?

If the universe is not conscious and you are conscious how do you explain it? How can a part of an unconscious whole be conscious?

That was very poetic and prophetic.

 

[Curiosity]

Re: RE: How conscious are you?

I won't forget the little nightwalk I took 20 feet away
from the tent near the Appalachian trail and
saw it stand there large on the boulder.

It looked at me.

Only after it flew away....

Only after it flew away...did I realize, consciously
that it was a large horned owl, with yellow eyes.


And so it makes me think perception is separate
from conscious awareness.

You have that touch Jim!

An interesting thought to chew on. Perception vs. Conscious Awareness

How often to we "see" something which is not - unless we have the opportunity to view it again at another moment in time.

 

[s_lone]

Re: RE: How conscious are you

If the universe is not conscious and I am conscious, then conciousness exists at my point of self definition and not at the point of the Universes definition from self.

A part of an unconscious whole can be conscious when the part that is concious exhibits concious behaviors and not unconcious behaviors; while, the unconcious part exhibits unconcious behaviors and not concious behaviors.

But we exhibit BOTH conscious and unconscious behaviours. And we don't know if the Universe exhibits conscious or unconscious behaviors... Or maybe both... It all boils down to your personal interpretation of what you witness and experience.

Some will say hurricane Katrina was a conscious act of God (the universe I guess)... Others will say it is an "unconscious" mechanical phenomenon of nature... But in the end... how could we ever know if there could be some form of consciousness behind the phenomenons of nature.

The intelligent design concept is all about projecting our own consciousness onto the universe. How legitmate it is I don't know but I sure do understand how attracting the idea can be to anyone who leans more on the "believer" side...

 

[tamarin]

If God did exist He would have far, far, far more important things to do than take such an earnest interest in us or this planet.
That is intelligent design's biggest fault: it assumes God doesn't act intelligently.

 

[china]

consciousness

There is in fact only one state, not two states such as the conscious and the unconscious; there is only a state of being, which is consciousness, though you may divide it as the conscious and the unconscious. But that consciousness is always of the past, never of the present; you are conscious only of things that are over. You are conscious of what I am trying to convey the second afterwards, are you not? You understand it a moment later. You are never conscious or aware of the now. Watch your own hearts and minds and you will see that consciousness is functioning between the past and the future and that the present is merely a passage of the past to the future.…
If you watch your own mind at work, you will see that the movement to the past and to the future is a process in which the present is not. Either the past is a means of escape from the present, which may be unpleasant, or the future is a hope away from the present. So the mind is occupied with the past or with the future and sloughs off the present. ...It either condemns and rejects the fact or accepts and identifies itself with the fact. Such a mind is obviously not capable of seeing any fact as a fact. That is our state of consciousness, which is conditioned by the past and our thought, is the conditioned response to the challenge of a fact; the more you respond according to the conditioning of belief, of the past, the more there is strengthening of the past.That strengthening of the past is obviously the continuity of itself, which it calls the future. So that is the state of our mind, of our consciousness - a pendulum swinging backwards and forwards between the past and the future.JK

 

[s_lone]

Interesting thoughts China...

Pushes me to ask you these questions...

Is it possible to be conscious of the present?

Are animals conscious of the past and of the future? Of the present?

Is a tree conscious? (repeating this question because this one really forces us to further define what consciousness is...)

 

[hermanntrude]

consciousness i think is a very subjective word. Although clearly defined by the dictionary we alls eem to put our own spin on it.

when i first read the post I thought to myself that a child is certainly more aware of their sensory inputs, and hence more conscious than me. As for self-awareness, possibly it's the other way round, although kids can be pretty self-conscious... maybe that's a bad way to use the word.

This question has made me more confused than i already was. Maybe consciousness is an illusion, or a lie we tell ourselves

I'd say, though, that by most definitions a tree is less conscious than a human but still has some consciouness as it can sense things

 

[china]

Dear S-lone, , The answer to your questions is ...I don't know. I have a hard time understanding my self.If I did understand my self , obviously I wouldn't be here now,would I?

 

[china]

Hermanntrude :This question has made me more confused than i already was. Maybe consciousness is an illusion, or a lie we tell ourselves_______________________________________________________________

Perhaps, But what's important is an answer to the question who am I whithout which all else is truly an ilusion.

 

[hermanntrude]

so we come back once more to "i think therefore I am". The very fact we can ask the question "am i conscious" shows we must be. I think quantifying it requires a more specific definition though