04-29-2021, 07:45 AM
(04-29-2021, 07:11 AM)Patrick Wrote: The concepts of unconsciousness and sleep are real mysteries to me. I never found an explanation that I fully resonate with.
My explanation is that consciousness is a state of being aware as a self. So, contrary to other spiritual teachings, with my concept consciousness can be either on (waking state, dream) and off (deep dreamless sleep, unconsciousness).
The state of consciousness is connected to the infinite source and is aware of the finite manifestation of reality when enough information is integrated into an experience. The human soul is a unique, timeless and indestructible point and since the manifested reality evolves into higher complexity, consciousness remains. The human brain enters states of on and off of consciousness. There is also the possibility it seems to manifest consciousness outside the brain, such as in real out-of-body experiences (OBEs) where consciousness is activated when the vacuum energy in space is structured in a way that allows the activation of consciousness.
My idea is similar to the mainstream Integrated Information Theory:
Quote:"Integrated information theory (IIT) attempts to explain what consciousness is and why it might be associated with certain physical systems. Given any such system, the theory predicts whether that system is conscious, to what degree it is conscious, and what particular experience it is having (see Central identity).
... the most recent and complete statement of the axioms is as follows:
- Intrinsic existence: Consciousness exists: each experience is actual—indeed, that my experience here and now exists (it is real) is the only fact I can be sure of immediately and absolutely. Moreover, my experience exists from its own intrinsic perspective, independent of external observers (it is intrinsically real or actual).
- Composition: Consciousness is structured: each experience is composed of multiple phenomenological distinctions, elementary or higher-order. For example, within one experience I may distinguish a book, a blue color, a blue book, the left side, a blue book on the left, and so on.
- Information: Consciousness is specific: each experience is the particular way it is—being composed of a specific set of specific phenomenal distinctions—thereby differing from other possible experiences (differentiation). For example, an experience may include phenomenal distinctions specifying a large number of spatial locations, several positive concepts, such as a bedroom (as opposed to no bedroom), a bed (as opposed to no bed), a book (as opposed to no book), a blue color (as opposed to no blue), higher-order "bindings" of first-order distinctions, such as a blue book (as opposed to no blue book), as well as many negative concepts, such as no bird (as opposed to a bird), no bicycle (as opposed to a bicycle), no bush (as opposed to a bush), and so on. Similarly, an experience of pure darkness and silence is the particular way it is—it has the specific quality it has (no bedroom, no bed, no book, no blue, nor any other object, color, sound, thought, and so on). And being that way, it necessarily differs from a large number of alternative experiences I could have had but I am not actually having.
- Integration: Consciousness is unified: each experience is irreducible and cannot be subdivided into non-interdependent, disjoint subsets of phenomenal distinctions. Thus, I experience a whole visual scene, not the left side of the visual field independent of the right side (and vice versa). For example, the experience of seeing the word "BECAUSE" written in the middle of a blank page is not reducible to an experience of seeing "BE" on the left plus an experience of seeing "CAUSE" on the right. Similarly, seeing a blue book is not reducible to seeing a book without the color blue, plus the color blue without the book.
- Exclusion: Consciousness is definite, in content and spatio-temporal grain: each experience has the set of phenomenal distinctions it has, neither less (a subset) nor more (a superset), and it flows at the speed it flows, neither faster nor slower. For example, the experience I am having is of seeing a body on a bed in a bedroom, a bookcase with books, one of which is a blue book, but I am not having an experience with less content—say, one lacking the phenomenal distinction blue/not blue, or colored/not colored; or with more content—say, one endowed with the additional phenomenal distinction high/low blood pressure. Moreover, my experience flows at a particular speed—each experience encompassing say a hundred milliseconds or so—but I am not having an experience that encompasses just a few milliseconds or instead minutes or hours.
— Dr. Giulio Tononi, Integrated information theory, Scholarpedia[3]" - Wikipedia