h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Except biological changes what does happen with a sleeping person.where does his consciousness go and come back.

A sleeping person is unconscious. Their consciousness fragments into different parts, some of which turn off, others continue in their head. For example, most people are conscious of time passing when they're asleep. They'll know whether they were asleep for one or ten hours.

In contrast, when they are knocked out by anaesthetic for an operation, it seems as if no time has passed because their sense of time is also knocked out.

People's consciousness doesn't ever come out of their body.

"People's consciousness doesn't ever come out of their body."

Ah, but until we know for absolute certain what consciousness *is* you can't really say that.

I am reminded of a quote from a film about Rasputin (no idea if it comes from real life or not)

Dr. Botkin: I have performed many autopsies in my time, but I've never located a soul.
Rasputin: How many memories or emotions have you found?

Rasputin was right. Memories and emotions are quite clearly products of your brain. Why believe soul is any different?

I believe consciousness is created by an interaction of the cells of the brain and the signals going between them. There's no known mechanism for it being anything else - there are only four forces, and none of them allow consciousness to exist outside of the body and interact with the body.

Only four forces that we know of. I'm not arguing that consciousness does exist outside a few electrical and chemical processes but I *am* arguing that with things like this (i.e. where the line between science and philosophy is very thin indeed) it's not a bad idea to keep an open mind; understanding of the universe never progresses by people saying "this is what we know now, therefore it is definitively correct".

I'm often conscious of noises happening around me when I'm asleep... especially if I leave the radio on, or when I hear noises outside that I know what time they're happening, I can know what time it is, even though I'm asleep I guess that's what being a light sleeper means

>>most people are conscious of time passing when they're asleep. They'll know whether they were asleep for one or ten hours<< Gnomon @2

Then I'm probably not one of them. I can wake up after a couple of hours feeling 'my, that was a good sleep'. Conversely, have a damn' good sleep all night & it's gone in a flash.
Methinks it's more to do with quality than quantity.

But then, I could (almost) always set a time (in me head of course) to wake up and be within ten minutes or so.


Out-of-body experiences? I've had a few, including being perched on the bedstead arguing with myself. On one occasion at least, waking up with a solved problem. On one memorable occasion, waking up knowing the answer to it all ("It doesn't matter").

But consciousness actually roaming elsewhere? Nah, can't see it - prove it to me.

"Methinks it's more to do with quality than quantity."

Me too. I've never been in any way aware of the passage of time when sleeping.

Count me in among those that can't keep track of time while asleep.

One Saturday afternoon I was feeling a bit sleepy, so had what I thought was a litte nap on the sofa. This was in the middle of winter, so pretty dark outside except for in the middle of the day.

When I woke up, it was 7 o'clock. A good time for dinner, so I prepared it and sat down to eat. While eating, I noticed that it started getting lighter outside - it turned out that instead of a lengthy nap of 2 hours I had slept solidly for 14...

"where does his consciousness go"

Where does your lap "go" when you stand up?

I can set an internal alarm clock for routine days. I don't trust it with non-routine sleeps, like getting up early to catch flights. I could try... but I've never had the nerve.

What does interest me is how scientists from different disciplines reac to the idea there may be ... something ... let's call it bob. Broadly speaking, the closer you are to neuroscience, the more likely you are to think that all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be. It was published in the New Scientist a few years ago, but I've not been able to find it since.

Not to say there aren't materialists everywhere, it's just that neuroscientists really, really don't think in terms of souls.

Ben

I guess spending one's life looking closely at the soggy squishy stuff in our heads would make one less inclined towards a philosophical attitude about consciousness!

You can get brain-shaped jelly moulds....

http://www.thisnext.com/item/3CCFB0F1/156509AF/Gelatin-Brain-Mold-in

>>"I guess spending one's life looking closely at the soggy squishy stuff in our heads would make one less inclined towards a philosophical attitude about consciousness!"

I guess the more knowledge one has about how something seems to work at low levels or about the various ways it can fail to work as a whole actually removes much of the potential mystery that people with less knowledge might see.

Thank you, Potholer. I was afraid people might not have understood me there.

""where does his consciousness go and come back. ""

in and out of REM