QandC

"WHY DO WE HAVE CONSCIOUSNESS? Given our brain’s capacity to process information unconsciously, why have we evolved into conscious beings? What functions does consciousness serve? Surely the subjective richness of your life might evaporate if you lost the ability to consciously reflect on nature’s beauty, or on your feelings, thoughts and memories. But what about survival? How does consciousness help us adapt to, and survive in, our environment? Christof Koch (2004) suggests that consciousness serves a summarizing function, it is important in planning, and allows us to think about the many ways we might deal with different situations and indeed choose a solution path. At any instant, your brain is processing numerous external stimuli (e.g., sights, sounds) and internal stimuli (e.g., bodily sensations). Conscious awareness provides a summary – a single mental representation – of what is going on in your world at each moment, and it makes this summary available to brain regions involved in planning and decision-making. Other scientists agree that consciousness facilitates the distribution of information to many areas of the brain (Shanahan & Baars, 2005). Where there are disorders of consciousness, for instance, such as locked-in syndrome, scanning suggests that there is neurological disruption in multiple areas related to the functional and organizational structure of the brain itself (Amico et al., 2017). On another front, a lack of self-awareness would compromise your ability to override potentially dangerous behaviours governed by impulses or automatic processing. Without the capacity to reflect, you might lash out after every provocation. Without the safety net of consciousness, Sondra almost drank ammonia during a sleepwalking episode. Under the control of unconscious, autopilot processing, other sleepwalkers have fallen down stairs or have cooked foods and then burned themselves severely while grabbing red-hot pans. Consciousness allows us to deal flexibly with novel situations and helps us plan responses to them (Koch, 2004; Langer, 1989). Self-awareness – coupled with communication – also enables us to express our needs to other people and co-ordinate actions with them." ...let's just say I was kind of disappointed.

Yeah exactly. They just view it as a mental process.

No. But the illusion has great value, if used correctly.

@confused It doesn't have to because it doesn't have a conceptualization/awareness in the first place. 'You' can realize you're the rock though, it's basically the same thing. It's like.. the fundamental nature is always present, just remove the filter.

No use asking important questions like these on this forum anymore. The people on this forum care more about disproving solipsism, if Jesus was real or not, and shamanism healing. Sorry mate

Hey, just wanna recommend y'all a great stage green/yellow Netflix series named"Down To Earth with Zac Efron". A lot better than all the other crap that's out there. Very impressed so far, check it out! They're basically traveling around the world looking for new perspectives on some old problems searching for healthy, sustainable living solutions for the planet

@James123 I have realized that during my awakenings, you can read my last topic where I describe it

Whenever I have had awakening experiences, it's been very visual. I don't mean in a sense where I have hallucinated, but I mean that the "sight" is a big part of it. As if me 'seeing' that I become a part of everything. It's like a visual enlightenment. But I don't know, does it play a big role or what is it?

@Johnny5 Yes exactly. Good explanation. Thank you It's just something that has interested me for a while. I find it interesting, but people here rather wanna discuss if Jesus was real or not... jeez

@Johnny5 Alright but I mean, the 'experience' of or "understanding" of enlightenment, when you awaken or have an experience of it, for me and what I have experienced is that it is very visual. Like, there is an understanding to the degree of awakening because I see things differently. Like actually with my eyesight, things look the same but still the perception of it all has flipped

Lol I guess enlightenment points really was a thing after all...

@Demeter Thank you I just do 30 minutes of meditation per day, doing nothing technique But I spend a lot of time contemplating, trying to shift my perspective, opening up to new ideas constantly and I always try to see things in different ways. I think that what is going on around me in my life currently plays a big part of it. Many things I've experienced lately has had me questioning my identity and who I think I am, so I am kind of stripping away "myself" every day in a way.

So I I just had my second BIG awakening experience, and what I realized was literally mind blowing. I don’t really know why it happened but it went very fast and it lasted for quite some time too until my level of consciousness kind of ”tuned down” After a deep meditation session I went outside for a walk and my perspective totally shifted. I was listening to music and I started to realize that the ”substance” of music and sound is exactly the same as everything else. To explain it better, it felt like music was not sound anymore. It was rather a sort of substance that was made of the same fabric as everything else. When I understood this then suddenly the entire visual field became a part of me and my head. Imagine opening up your skull and you see the entire world in there, that is what it felt like. It was like the fabric of reality was the same and it was basically so pure that it was ridiculous. It was so ”BASIC” and ”right there in your face” that it was like hitting the wall of the Matrix. It was like all air became floating plasma. Like there was no distance except for that things were ”bigger” or ”smaller” (like a stillshot of visual perception, but still fully alive). It was basically all consciousness. The small chain between experience and experiencer, but now only the chain left keeping nothingness together. I began to think (”I” still felt separate from the experience) about how it could be that I never saw this before. I automatically added myself to the equation and understood that the idea of me was just a part of it. Really the only thing that I was, was the nothingness of everything. The place where everything has to happen. I also for the first time ever realized what it meant to be ”in the moment”. I looked up at a couple of birds flying and I just got totally lost in it. It was like everything went out of focus and suddenly just the observation of the birds was enough. It was perfect already. And to be present and ”here” in the ”now” is really just about being aware of what is going and just witnessing the perfection of what already is. It is all a part of the same substance anyway, and the only thing causing separation and value are the thoughts, that actually are mostly just disorganized and not used in an efficient way (aka. ”Monkey Mind”). I was starting to wonder, what if I just entered a psychosis of Solipsism? It got me a little bit scared but I tried to transcend it and see Love in everything, fully accepting. By the time I was about to do this my body became more grounded in reality (or less, lol) it felt and slowly but safely the experience faded. It was kind of sad but I felt like I gained a great insight, to try and see the perfection of the current moment. I did not get the time fully to dive into the next level, but I also guess I was not ready for that yet. I did feel that there is a sense of Love in everything, but it was also in a way overwhelming for me. It was like I had to release myself to Be It. not there yet... maybe some day PS: I get it if nothing makes sense but this was the only way I could describe it

It doesn't get anymore purple than this they started dancing afterward as well lol

@VerballyHazardous Look closer

When I saw the title I was like uh oh... prepare for Leo-attack

"When you pay too much attention to boundaries you don't see the big picture, all you see are categories"

Been having quite strange experiences lately. Not only crazy-ass, therapeutic dreams, but weird hallucinations and other stuff This morning I experienced a sort of ego-death, but don't really know what to call it. After I had woken up there was a separation between awareness and my identity (who I think I am). I asked myself who I am, and I said my name and I couldn't connect to myself at all. I was not me anymore, I was just the awareness behind me, looking at a character I have been playing for all my life. It was quite a refreshing experience but it didn't last for very long since I started to go into concept-land right away and then I got back to "myself". But I got very motivated to continue to explore this path. I guess I am just so sick of my own identity in a way and I am in a quite confusing stage in my life, so I see this as an opportunity to pursue awakening. I've had non-dual experiences before but this ego/identity-loss was new. Just wanted to share.

@Gesundheit Hmm almost. Mine was more like a meta-perspective on everything. Kind of like I stepped out of my own identity, perceiving myself "above" myself. Not fully, but a sort of separation

@Gesundheit I feel like my non-dual experiences are more about the visual/physical rather than the mental. When I experience the non dual things, the separation between my body and everything else kinda disappears. Today it was more the mental separation.. difficult to explain. I guess combining the two and I'm on to something

This was actually a great explanation about dreams

I experience lucid dreaming almost every week. It's come to the point where basically when I dream I can create any dream character I want, I can imagine anything and receive it, I basically become God and physical laws cease to exist. I know that when I am not in this "dream-world" (asleep) that I am limited physically. But an interesting thought I had was that lucid dreaming is basically like awakening. I know that I am dreaming and I am not connected to the body in my dream, instead I become the dream itself and I can manifest anything I want and do whatever I want. Since I know I am just dreaming, there is no fear or anything. Only problem is I get a little bit too excited and become close to waking up, therefore have to use the "spinning around"-technique to keep myself inside the dream. I was wondering, have anyone else reached this level of lucid dreaming? I don't know why it's so easy for me to experience lucid dreaming, I know some people who have never experienced it. I have also experienced astral projection several times, but that can be quite scary at times since it's basically like having an intense psychedelic trip and you can face a lot of your inner demons. I once left my body and started walking around my room like a child having trouble with my balance, and I saw that there was an army of people outside of my house waiting for me, screaming my name. Freaky stuff. Anyways, there is a lot to explore in these dream-states. I guess now it's time for me to wake up and realise this is also a dream

@Artsu I can't decide if that's heaven or pure hell