My Views on the Mind
Created | Updated Aug 3, 2003
This is a Work In Progress. I've not yet even remotely finished writing everything about this that I want to write.
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First of all: I want to say here and now that I do not believe that just human beings posses self-consciousness. I also want to say that I don't think we should add the 'self' to the 'consciousness'. Remember that I spent many years of my life in a condition of depersonalisation, and during these times I did not really have a sense of a 'self' but I definitely still have a consciousness. In terms of quality of existence, a depersonalised state can in fact compare well with the normal condition of having a sense of a 'self'. In fact normal people do experience times during which they depersonalise, as for instance when they're reading a book and so thoroughly getting into the story and the characters, identifying with them and their experiences, that for a time they lose their own sense of self. But certainly they're still conscious ... they're conscious of what they're reading and especially of the way they're imagining it. And it can be a very enjoyable experience to get 'lost' in a book in this way. So basically, I don't see why we have to append the word 'self' to 'consciousness'. I would rather ask, what other creatures, besides humans, possess a consciousness? And the way it seems to me, the answer must be - pretty much all of them! Really, I look at insects, and it seems inescapable to me that they are conscious, in other words, that they have mental experiences. I cannot say that an ant has a sense of 'self', but it certainly seems to possess feelings. An ant can feel pain, it can feel hurt. Presumably it can feel hot and cold, it can feel hunger or satiety, and it can probably feel lots of things we can't imagine. It certainly has certain chemical senses and other physical senses. And to me it really seems that it has to have a sort of 'mind' in which these experiences can happen. The pain that an ant feels, must be similar in its nature to the pain that *we* feel.
So certainly I respect the minds of non-human beings.
But what is mind? What is consciousness?
Right now I'm not sure that I can say if mind *is* consciousness. There certainly seem to be aspects of the mind that are not conscious. Should we call them 'mind' at all? To me it seems as if the answer is yes, since these unconscious aspects seem to often be similar to the conscious operations of the mind, save only that they are not conscious ... or at least, not conscious to the consciousness we call 'ourselves'.
But what is consciousness? What is *a* conscious mind?
I think, right now, that the conscious mind has to be a sort of 'field'... or, an aspect, a characteristic, a quality, of a sort of field. It has many characteristics of fields. Fields are holistic, and the conscious mind is holistic. This is in distinction to things like particles ... particles are disjunct from each other, while fields are continuous. I think the mind is a field that is brought into being by the operations of the living cells of not only the brain, but the entire living body. Maybe there are more than one such 'field' in a human being ... maybe there are different 'minds' that operate in different areas and fulfill different functions. But somehow all of these fields also overlap and form a bigger field. Maybe the conscious 'I' that we are all aware of is some aspect of this field. I think this field has more aspects than just the conscious mind, but at any rate, the conscious mind must certainly be a manifestation of this field.
What kind of field could the mind be? Well, actually ... I think there must be a universal 'mind field' which is the sum of all smaller minds, and which determines the natures of all minds that arise in/from it. This universal mind field stretches over all time and space and perhaps in itself loses the distinctions of time and space. But anyways, individual minds are 'outcroppings' from the substance of this universal field. These outcroppings are localised in timespace where the brains and bodies are that bring them into being. But I think the mind as a field should perhaps not be seen as being *completely* confined to the volume occupied by the body. I think the 'mind field' can probably be extended beyond the borders of the body, just like a magnetic field stretches beyond the borders of a magnet. Perhaps the mind can be 'projected' from a body over long distances by certain techniques.
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(To be continued ...)
***
First of all: I want to say here and now that I do not believe that just human beings posses self-consciousness. I also want to say that I don't think we should add the 'self' to the 'consciousness'. Remember that I spent many years of my life in a condition of depersonalisation, and during these times I did not really have a sense of a 'self' but I definitely still have a consciousness. In terms of quality of existence, a depersonalised state can in fact compare well with the normal condition of having a sense of a 'self'. In fact normal people do experience times during which they depersonalise, as for instance when they're reading a book and so thoroughly getting into the story and the characters, identifying with them and their experiences, that for a time they lose their own sense of self. But certainly they're still conscious ... they're conscious of what they're reading and especially of the way they're imagining it. And it can be a very enjoyable experience to get 'lost' in a book in this way. So basically, I don't see why we have to append the word 'self' to 'consciousness'. I would rather ask, what other creatures, besides humans, possess a consciousness? And the way it seems to me, the answer must be - pretty much all of them! Really, I look at insects, and it seems inescapable to me that they are conscious, in other words, that they have mental experiences. I cannot say that an ant has a sense of 'self', but it certainly seems to possess feelings. An ant can feel pain, it can feel hurt. Presumably it can feel hot and cold, it can feel hunger or satiety, and it can probably feel lots of things we can't imagine. It certainly has certain chemical senses and other physical senses. And to me it really seems that it has to have a sort of 'mind' in which these experiences can happen. The pain that an ant feels, must be similar in its nature to the pain that *we* feel.
So certainly I respect the minds of non-human beings.
But what is mind? What is consciousness?
Right now I'm not sure that I can say if mind *is* consciousness. There certainly seem to be aspects of the mind that are not conscious. Should we call them 'mind' at all? To me it seems as if the answer is yes, since these unconscious aspects seem to often be similar to the conscious operations of the mind, save only that they are not conscious ... or at least, not conscious to the consciousness we call 'ourselves'.
But what is consciousness? What is *a* conscious mind?
I think, right now, that the conscious mind has to be a sort of 'field'... or, an aspect, a characteristic, a quality, of a sort of field. It has many characteristics of fields. Fields are holistic, and the conscious mind is holistic. This is in distinction to things like particles ... particles are disjunct from each other, while fields are continuous. I think the mind is a field that is brought into being by the operations of the living cells of not only the brain, but the entire living body. Maybe there are more than one such 'field' in a human being ... maybe there are different 'minds' that operate in different areas and fulfill different functions. But somehow all of these fields also overlap and form a bigger field. Maybe the conscious 'I' that we are all aware of is some aspect of this field. I think this field has more aspects than just the conscious mind, but at any rate, the conscious mind must certainly be a manifestation of this field.
What kind of field could the mind be? Well, actually ... I think there must be a universal 'mind field' which is the sum of all smaller minds, and which determines the natures of all minds that arise in/from it. This universal mind field stretches over all time and space and perhaps in itself loses the distinctions of time and space. But anyways, individual minds are 'outcroppings' from the substance of this universal field. These outcroppings are localised in timespace where the brains and bodies are that bring them into being. But I think the mind as a field should perhaps not be seen as being *completely* confined to the volume occupied by the body. I think the 'mind field' can probably be extended beyond the borders of the body, just like a magnetic field stretches beyond the borders of a magnet. Perhaps the mind can be 'projected' from a body over long distances by certain techniques.
***
(To be continued ...)
