Keith Ward - What Is Consciousness?

[@leonoradompor8706]

Why do we only rest in peace, why don’t we live in peace too *****

[@maxwellsimoes238]

Rambling

[@MBicknell]

💥💥💥

[@abelincoln8885]

An intelligence ... has a mind, free will, NATURE, and consciousness. An Intelligence .. can think, believe, say & do ... whatever he/she wants. The Function, Intelligence & Mind Categories ... prove the Universe & Life are Functions, composed entirely of Functions and can only be made by an INTELLIGENCE ... with a mind that is unnatural & nonphysical( spirit/soul). God did created Man in His likeness with a body & soul to live forever as His Children if Man does not sin. God clearly stated that if Man sins ... He ( body & soul) will die. Jesus(Son of God) confirmed 2000 years ago with the Great Commandment that the Mind of Man is the body & the soul. The body can also love or hate God. This is why the Messiah had to be born of a virgin ( made by God) and not have a corrupt human body. The corrupt body of Man .... is his Nature. Everybody will will freely think & do evil .... because we all have a corrupt body. Even the Son of God would have sinned if He was actually descended from King David and Adam & Even. Man has free will ... and a corrupt Nature. All will sin ... and God must punish all with death of body & soul. Unless you accept the free gift of salvation by simply believing in the life, death & resurrection of the Son of God. Science proves an Intelligence created the Universe & Man. Christianity proves God (The Father) is the intelligence that created the Universe & Man with His Son ( bereshit elohim) and knew it would take 7 x 1000 years for the last "Child of God" to be pro-created by Man. God had a reason for the 6 day creation & the 7th day belongs to God, and 1 day is like 1 year or 1000 years. Jesus( Messiah) died exactly 40 years before the Temple was destroyed ( Daniel 9:26 and Jonah's messianic prophesy with the people of Ninevah to repent their sins0. Jesus (Son of God) will return to rule for 1000 years before judgement day with 144 000 male Jews who die during end times believe in the Christ. The current Jewish Year since the fall of Man is ... 5782. 6 x 1000 years Man rules the Earth 1 x 1000 years God rules the Earth. Judgement Day ....and either eternal life as God's Children or death of body & soul. Only the Children of God will live in peace in the new Heaven & Earth. And salvation is as simple as believing in the life, death & resurrection of God's Son.

[@justa_dude]

It takes consciousness to live in peace :)

[@oskarngo9138]

Because “Scarcity” is Reality...! Simply put; there is Not enough for everyone... ...Therefore we must fight against each other.... ...Most will die...only few will survive...! ...You you don’t believe in Scarcity... ...send me your monthly paycheck... What is “Climate Change Legislation”...... ....But an euphemism for “killing off the poor”...

[@david.thomas.108]

Nice lucid interview, thanks.

[@rb5325]

Interesting chat - I took this: we all know consciousness as we are it. It is simple and does not need a lot of analysis. It appears to change, but actually the changes are the objects that appear in it from the material sensed world. We become more conscious through the practice of impartial observation (meditation) and less conscious through attraction, attachment, over-identification with and delusional 'ownership' of those obects.

[@popeck27]

Consciousness is a subjective experience of reality and then we should explore it by ourselves to understand it. There are many level of consciousness to explore thanks to meditation, psychedelics or even NDEs (which prove that consciousness is not created by the brain). So please interview people who experience these level of consciousness and listen to them instead of scientists who do not have any clue!

[@PatrickLHolley]

Well, I would not say they don't have a clue, but I agree with you that there are are plenty of scientific researchers who explore more the likelihood that consciousness is independent of the brain.

[@jayjames7055]

"... thoughts are things ..." please expand.

[@controllerbrain]

Are we all just atoms arranged in the right way?

[@MBicknell]

Graveyard...nice setting

[@burkhardhuegerich4408]

Question: does not the simple fact of being alive - so being able to act upon experiences - needs the property of consciousness? So in general, consciousness equals being alive and everything being alive has some level of consciousness.

[@williamburts5495]

Yes, you exist, and to know that you exist you have to be conscious that you exist so life and consciousness are synonymous.

[@skipsch]

It's probably important for creatures with such large brains to not recklessly act like zombies mindlessly just going along with what everyone else is doing. A sense of independent perspective has got to be important because of that. We are distinct, and also not.

[@FalseCogs]

Division of labour; different personalities: each person has more or less fitment for a given role, including going along with the hive versus leading others versus acting alone.

[@brawlpups3517]

what was prior to consciousness.

[@Light_EnterTainmenT7]

@brawlpups May be, A Conscious mind who created Consciousness

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

Is conscious experience an ontology that leads to knowledge?

[@haroonaverroes6537]

this must reach future generation, it is already written years ago but important: so-called personal identity is a kind of mirror of self concept, self concept generate both consciousness type one and personal identity. personal identity related to both consciousness type one and consciousness type two, but during awake it generates personal identity by simulating itself using the right hemisphere and using left hemisphere in conscious process (more complicated than that especially the relationship between the two sides). to concise consciousness process is within larger process that is why it is weak in other animals or incomplete in case of brain damage.

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

Might consciousness be everywhere for experience? Is it simpler to accept consciousness as axiomatic in nature, which allow experience of everything in nature, in some way or another?

[@garywalls5181]

Consciousness is life.God gives life.

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

The being conscious process is a member of the set of all the processes of life. This means they are not the same thing. And the gods are hypothetical so one cannot know what they may or may not do.

[@williamburts5495]

Consciousness is absolute existence because it supports our material experience of wakefulness, dream, and deep sleep therefore it exist as the substratum of the material experience but it doesn't mix with it. Being the observer of the transitory material objective states makes our awareness an " eternal in the now existence that knows only "sameness " that contrast the ever changing material drama that it observes. So by underlying the material experience it transcends it as well.

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

One must be conscious to be. One must be to be conscious.

[@dominicmccrimmon]

What is not made clear in the opening sentence, is that Keith Ward is an esteemed member of the Anglican Church and that his opinion is Church doctrine established hundreds of years before he was born. The purpose of Church teaching is to help people negotiate life with peace in their hearts and minds. It was likely never about equivocating realty. It is unhelpful, or wrong to approach spirituality with systematic and logical reasoning because the purpose of spiritual doctrine is not to explain reality, but to aid people in dealing with reality.

[@FalseCogs]

We may need to start from the beginning and devise an unambiguous vocabulary before having a meaningful discussion about consciousness, awareness, and mind. I am not merely suggesting giving definitions in words alone, but including other modalities too, when available, such as images and other sensory experiences and tests. Even a simple quale can be divided into apparent aspects. Moreover, and perhaps as important, what is to say that different people are even experiencing the same set of mental happenings? From what I have heard, different people have substantially different dream states. From apparent differences in personality and proclivity, it would seem plausible there being significant differences in base awareness.

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

Can experience be described by science or mathematics?

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

No. Language is necessary for descriptions.

[@christopherwall444]

This gentleman is offering little to the mystery of how 3 lbs of brain matter creates all that is awareness

[@dare-er7sw]

Science offere little when it comes to the mystery of consciousness. This man is saying consciousness is not in the brain but fundamental. We are immortal beings.

[@stellarwind1946]

Well no one has any idea how to scientifically explain consciousness.

[@dare-er7sw]

@@stellarwind1946 'Cos consciousness does not originate in matter. Advaita Vedanta in India is talking about consciousness since the 7th century. In more modern times now we have the ever growing near death experience accounts and there are some many famous ones. They can't be all hallucinations, no way. The brain is flatlined and still the person is more conscious than ever! Figure that out. The evidence is mounting and I believe the human nervous system is best equipped to explore the levels of consciousness. We all know three states -- the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Advaita Vedanta points to a fourth state of consciousness -- the Turiya. "In Hindu philosophy, turiya or chaturiya, chaturtha, is pure consciousness. Turiya is the background that underlies and pervades the three common states of consciousness. The three common states of consciousness are: waking state, dreaming state, and dreamless deep sleep." The fourth dimension is of awareness, witnessing - what Patanjali calls turiya. ... now everything is conscious, the inner light is burning bright. Turiya means 'the fourth' in Sanskrit. It is the fourth state of consciousness, the background that underlies and permeates the three states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping. For this, we are concerned with the process of how we slip into sleep and how we emerge from sleep. This semi-consciousness is the living consciousness; it takes us from the world of matter to subtle, causal matter and then to pure consciousness. My take on Advaita or Nonduality is that if our waking state of consciousness is possible along with states of matter, if dream state is possible along with people and places arising in the dream, and if deep sleep is possible along with total blackness/darkness, then a fourth state of consciousness or turiya along with subtle dimensions of existence as experienced in near death experiences is also possible. For all we know we follow the different states of consciousness without any choice. We don't have a choice and it has a very significant meaning. The fact that the states of consciousness like the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep dictate the rules, it means consciousness came first before any choice was exerted by a physical entity like the brain. Think about it. Consciousness is fundamental!

[@ferdinandkraft857]

Maybe because 3 lbs of brain matter do _not_ create awareness.

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

What is meant when say consciousness an illusion? That human being not see full reality, or not see any reality?

[@MeRetroGamer]

Nothing is consciousness, that's a biased question from the beginning. There's nothing, anywhere, anytime that you could point to and say "that's consciousness". Consciousness is about a fact, not about a thing, it's "to be conscious of", the problem is that we've made a noun from a sentence, as well as we make nouns from other verbs, qualities or patterns... Yes, that's the point, it's all just about phenomena. Phenomena and aliveness that actually comes out from no one, it's just what nature does. It is just what it is, but we're lost in a labrynth of nouns.

[@london9842]

Is it possible that physics calls consciousness what spirituality calls a soul; same concept. Consciousness is primarily thoughts, feelings, intuition and desires. Consciousness is the ghost in the machine spearheading our reality. Brain is nothing more than computation, algorithms and probabilities

[@nyworker]

Exactly but modern "philosophers" want you to believe Church Philosophers were not great thinkers.

[@scambammer6102]

nope consciousness is awareness. A bug is just as conscious as you are.

[@london9842]

@@scambammer6102 I doubt a bug is conscious as a human; there are levels of consciousness or awareness. Dogs are conscious. However, do they think about tomorrow or a week from now? Assuming a soul exists, should it be limited to only humans and not animals? Furthermore, awareness is looking at consciousness through a broad lens. As I said before, consciousness is feelings (love, hate, sadness, happiness, etc). Intuition is consciousness, isn’t that some of the same characteristics of a soul. I’m not saying a soul exists; I’m saying if consciousness isn’t computation; then you could infer it’s possibly non local. Ps I am not religious or believe in religion(s) I’m a deist. Nikolas Tesla was a Deist, I agree with him on the same belief for a God. Maybe God is an infinite consciousness and we’re tiny sub packets of consciousness

[@fabiopilnik827]

Physics doesn't call anything anything. We're the ones who have a name for the mathematical principles of natural philosophy. I'm supposing consciousness had already been thus called when the four elements were earth fire wind and water instead of distance time mass and energy.

[@london9842]

@@fabiopilnik827 Consciousness goes far beyond the four elements. In addition, consciousness cannot be measured in energy as energy is made up of particles. As of now, consciousness can only be measured through first person reports; no particles, no energy no mass. How is possible for a brain with millions of neurons and synapses give arise to feelings, sensations and taste. There’s no evidence that brain produces consciousness. Therefore, we cannot exclude non localized activity. Artificial intelligence has a mechanical brain identical to a human brain in terms of computation, algorithms and probabilities. However, no evidence of consciousness. If brain produces consciousness, we should see A.I as conscious robots. This would eliminate non locality and any belief in an intelligent designer.

[@eniopasalic]

Consciousness is a curved fabric of thoughts and feelings

[@mikefinn]

An individual's reality emerges when space-time, the emergent outcome of mass and energy interaction, intersects with their consciousness, the emergent outcome of their complex chemoelectrical brain activity.

[@scambammer6102]

reality exists independent of human thought

[@mikefinn]

@@scambammer6102 I was speaking about an individual's reality. I'll correct my statement.

[@genius1198]

Adjusting the earth by use of symmetry and thought

[@chayanbosu3293]

Lord Krishna says our existence consist of 3 levels 1.gross body 2.Subtle body i.e mind, intellect and ego 3.Soul. Now conciousness emarges from soul and mind is the interface between outer world and soul.

[@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices]

Kindly repeat that in ENGLISH, Miss.☝️

[@chayanbosu3293]

@@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices Lord Krishna says in Bhagbat Gita that we are at our core spiritual but all conflicts happen because of interaction between spirit soul and material body , now mind , intellect and ego also material but subtle material objects, such as software, mind is like a software we are the users and outer device is our gross body.

[@scambammer6102]

@@chayanbosu3293 fictional book says fictional stuff news at 11

[@chayanbosu3293]

@@scambammer6102 What is fictional ? What is reality ?

[@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices]

@@chayanbosu3293 I’m afraid that I am unfamiliar with PIDGIN. 🤔 Therefore, Slave, if you would care to repeat your inane comments in a tongue which is comprehensible to me (such as ENGLISH), it would be appreciated. 🤓

[@1SpudderR]

Hmm? “I know that i am that I know!” Makes more sense than this guest speaker.

[@bgs03548]

Consciousness ‘The ability of a Being to recognize patterns and meaning with respect to events taking place within One’s self and in the Realm in which the Self exists and operates’.

[@ferdinandkraft857]

What does it mean "to recognize"? What is "self"? These concepts _assume_ consciousness, so your definition is circular.

[@rabidL3M0NS]

If perception is an illusion then what’s perceiving the illusion? Consciousness isn’t froth on the wave, the contents of consciousness IS the froth on the wave of consciousness.

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

English people sometimes use 'illusion' to mean immaterial.

[@Belinor6]

Describing consciousness in this way, comparing it with reality or existence is a bit useless, like there's not a on/off switch for reality is it? There's no different states of reality, that are manipulable are there? The reality doesn't go off every 24h and then restarts again on its own does it? Is reality made of non real components or has it evolved from non real things? Then how can someone argue that such obviously complex phenomenon is so simple that is irreducibly analysable? Also there's like really important applications of further understanding consciousness, for instance we need to determine if someone is conscious in severe brain damage cases to possibly turn life support off, this is really hard to do given our current understanding of consciousness and often it take the inputs of several specialists. I can't remember the last time I had to call a specialist in reality to determine if something in front of me exists

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

Unless one hold that reality consists only of one's thoughts then reality will remain permanently unknowable because thoughts are all we got.

[@nyworker]

If Robert would have stood in front of an old TV set from the 1950's with all of those glowing vacuum tubes, he would have been just as mystefied.

[@scambammer6102]

OMG it's consciousness!!! whatever shall we do???

[@nyworker]

@@scambammer6102 Exactly!..If you don't have the skills, you don't have the necessary intuitions to find the hidden treasure.

[@nowheretobefound4431]

C G Jung says in volume 8 of CW para 568 "the idea that consciousness is a freak of nature is somehow difficult to digest.............which, we shall luckily never be in a position to prove (any more than we can prove the contrary).It is a question that belongs to the realm of metaphysics, where no criterion of truth exists."

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

Conscious awareness about the present time?

[@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC]

(6:20) *KW: **_"Could there be one cosmic consciousness which is aware of everything that was going on in the universe?"_* ... When you look at consciousness merely as a highly evolved state of information that's able to process all prior forms of information (like a CPU), then the idea of a universal consciousness makes sense. This "universal consciousness" isn't like a god, autonomous authority, or anything capable of rendering its own personal judgements, but rather a benign, totally neutral, nondimensional database of all available information that's being held within Existence. All of your thoughts, dreams, experiences, prayers, rage, love, hate, and all other information you produce within your finite lifetime is added to this collective database of Existence. Existence then uses all of this human-enacted information to facilitate the next stage of evolution. Just like we do when we reach adulthood, Existence has just entered the self-evaluation stage and is using an increasingly divided humanity to render that evaluation. All of our individual "value judgments" provide Existence with an unbiased, outside review for determining whether "Existence" is worth the price of admission. Sorry, ... _no refunds if you determine that it's not!_

[@scambammer6102]

rubbish

[@scambammer6102]

@Terre Schill that's even bigger rubbish. consciousness is trivial. It's just an organism's awareness or its environment. Bugs are just as conscious as you are. Rocks aren't though. And god is just a silly fiction for children.

[@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC]

@Terre Schill *"How can you say this consciousness would not be an autonomous authority, or capable of rendering its own personal judgments"* ... Because Existence consists of all information ever generated that's held within this database. Any self-evaluation judgments would result in circular reasoning. An unbiased "outside review" is required to remove that potential breach of logic. This is why we have no idea about why we exist or anything else. ... _It keeps us neutral!_ *"and if its not, how do you know it would be "benign."* ... Every particle has its antiparticle for a reason. Existence employs a dichotomy-based template which mandates neutrality. *Example:* One person may focus on the brutality of nature. Their individual "value judgment" may determine that nature is a brutal, cruel, and heartless arena. Someone else may determine nature to be a perfectly balanced arena of flawless beauty and precision. These are *two separate individuals* rendering diametrically opposed judgments about the overall process of nature. "Existence" is not making these determinations. ... _We are!_ Existence then pushes forward via consensus. *"seems to me we are getting pretty close to a God concept in a classic monotheistic sense."* ... God is just a temporary word (like consciousness, multiverse, and superposition) being used until humanity has a better understanding of what's really going on. I lay all of this out in my book. Existence has a beginning and represents "all available information" that has evolved over the past 13.8 billion years. Theism's God is defined as all-knowing, eternally existing, and requires no evolution. This violates the 2nd Law of Existence (also in my book).

[@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC]

@Terre Schill *" It's like math, you gotta show your work. Those are all empty opinions if you don't share your thought processes."* ... Agreed! Whenever I get those one-word, negative responses with no counterargument included, it lets me know I'm onto something. If he had a valid argument, he would have posted it.

[@JONSEY101]

I think we often get caught up in our own thinking when thinking and talking about consciousness. I understand the need to think about such things on a deep level, i'm a deep thinker myself but we can also get caught up in a loop of thinking which gets in our way. I've often wondered, how much of the mind could we take away and yet still remain conscious? Ok, so we know we could remove motor neurons and we wouldn't be able to walk etc but we'd still be conscious. If we continue down this path, we would of course, come across some parts that would get in the way somewhat with our consciousness so for now, keep that there. We could work systematically in the way and it would help us gain a better understanding of consciousness and what parts are involved. We know for example that the left and right hemispheres of the brain talk to one another. We also know that the left and the right are like two different people thinking because they each see the world differently. It's important to have both of those ways of thinking to no only understand the world around us and to learn but also to be able to come up with new ideas, new ways of thinking and looking at a problem to find solutions. This in some way seems important to consciousness but we would still be conscious without one of them just in a different way to how we normally would. If we continue with this line of thinking and understanding, i think we'll discover what's important for consciousness and which parts of the brain are important to being conscious.

[@youdontexist.]

I was thinking about something similar with life or intelligence in the universe. Is it necessary for intelligence to be contained in physical body? Carbon based body like us? Or could it be a gas, luquid whatever. And would it be conscious? Now back to Earth. What if we were able to transfer our mind into computer and it would actually function somehow. Would you be conscious?

[@Jim6593]

First 🥇

[@Jim6593]

Thank you all for the support. Consciousness is a difficult question

[@scambammer6102]

@@Jim6593 it isn't

[@ksdogg]

@@scambammer6102 Got evidence?

[@scambammer6102]

@@ksdogg your inability to understand consciousness doesn't make it a "difficult question". Every fg bug has consciousness, it's trivial.

[@ksdogg]

@@scambammer6102 Garbage, you've got zero evidence. Biology doesn't need consciousness.

[@prestonbacchus4204]

Isn't "consciousness" always associated with life? Of course we get our life from our parents and ancestors and the only question is, how far back does that go. Was life and consciousness born in exploding stars, too, like the matter of our body? If "life" ultimately springs from the big bang, then our consciousness is a function of what the universe itself is a function of, if anything.

[@scambammer6102]

BB and stars created rocks too and they aren't conscious

[@prestonbacchus4204]

@@scambammer6102 It's hard to tell what is conscious. If I asked you if you are alive (and conscious) you would say yes. OK, when you say you are alive, specifically, WHAT are you claiming is alive?

[@scambammer6102]

@@prestonbacchus4204 It isn't hard to tell if something is conscious. All living organisms are conscious ie aware of their environment. We know that because we can see them move volitionally to eat, survive and reproduce. Non-living substances are not conscious, because they don't do any of that. Consciousness = life.

[@prestonbacchus4204]

@@scambammer6102 Again, when you say you are alive, specifically what are you claiming is alive? The atoms? The molecules? The tissue? The dna? Your brain? Isn't it the whole thing that is alive, but not the individual particles? What constitutes the whole living body? Consider, you would not exist or be alive or conscious on an ongoing basis if not for the matter of the rest of the Galaxies in the universe who's gravity and electromagnetism hold our own galaxy, our own solar system, our own planet, our own body together and rendering it "alive".

[@skipsch]

I feel like consciousness is responsibility. We're carried along for this ride and get all this sensory data directed at us to give us this feeling of being distinct. That feeling is probably necessary to some degree, in spite of the fact that everyone is made of their context, including eachother. We probably need to have a sense of "activation" and my guess is that of course it's going to feel like what consciousness is. The larger the brain the more potential impact a creature seems to be able to have, and a larger brain also corresponds to a larger consciousness, or at least a more robust awareness and feeling like the lights are "on"

[@skipsch]

I don't think the responsibility is strictly a matter of how you contribute. I think it's more basic, and if someone is living properly then simply knowing how to enjoy and appreciate the ride they're on is what generates good for them and others [as long as there's awareness of self and context], without any external dictates unnaturally telling a person what their duty is

[@scambammer6102]

large brain small brain makes no difference all living things are conscious. But humans are the only ones who think they are special.

[@jackarmstrong5645]

Consciousness for a human is subjective experience as he says. It is a subject and the experiences of that subject. As subjects we experience brain generated experiences. We do not experience the world itself. That is impossible. All we can experience are our experiences.

[@David.C.Velasquez]

This is the mind/body problem in a nutshell. Our inner experience is limited to so-called qualia, that are themselves, representations of sensory stimulation.

[@jackarmstrong5645]

@@David.C.Velasquez The external world does not have color. It does not have sound. Color and sound only exist as brain generated experiences. They are not something you could ever find out in the world.

[@David.C.Velasquez]

@@jackarmstrong5645 I agree, and that reiterates my statement, but... although red may not exist 666nm photons do, so what's the difference subjectively. We can only experience reality through qualia, that were assigned to sensory input, genetically or through association as infants. Usually red is associated with heat or rage for obvious reasons, but blue is predominantly thought of as cold, when counterintuitively, with black body radiation, blue is hotter than red. This serves as a prime example of human fallibility in discerning objective reality.

[@jackarmstrong5645]

​@@David.C.Velasquez We experience our experiences. We call our experiences "reality" but we can't experience reality in any way. We experience an evolved virtual reality.

[@moayadsalih3563]

What is the outcome of your endless questions Mr Kuhn?? Please stop it. i think if you were genuinely seeking the truth you would have arrived at it long ago

[@Upuaut4572]

even illusions are presented to conscious beings. How can consciousness be an illusion?

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

English people sometimes use 'illusion' to mean immaterial.

[@lindal.7242]

Consciousness is the divine spark that animates the universe and all within it.

[@TurinTuramber]

Woo woo alert.

[@lindal.7242]

@@TurinTuramber woo woo, supernatural, consciousness...tomato, 🍅

[@HuMI317]

When I was under anaesthesia I lost my awareness for a few hours. No dream, no nothing. Where is Consciousness? I guess it’s similar to people in coma or deep sleep where time is lost in unconscious state.

[@dare-er7sw]

But how come you are aware of the blackness or darkness which you experienced when under anesthesia? Advaita Vedanta differentiates between consciousness and awareness. It's awareness that knows there is no consciousness and this awareness is non dual , when consciousness goes , the subject and object merge in awareness. Check the book I AM THAT by Nisargadatta. PDF is free.

[@drew-shourd]

Great video, thank you for making/ posting it. Imo, consciousness is not much different than the Illumination of a light bulb. Meaning, for a light bulbul to light, certain things are needed, obviously first the bulb, then a socket, wiring, fuses, a power source etc. when a person is conscious, it is like switching a light switch, and when one passes the back up means i.e. ‘support system’ cease to exist. A bulb with no socket, no wiring and no power source cannot illuminate, such is consciousness.

[@PatrickLHolley]

Thank you for this comment. The struggle I have with this view is that I don't understand how anything which can be an object can be the source of the subjectivity it supposedly generates. The subject seems to have to be more fundamental than the object. Since I can observe my brain I don't see how the brain, being an object, can be the creator of the subjective consciousness which sees it. If you can help me see the flaw in this way of thinking, I would be grateful.

[@drew-shourd]

@@PatrickLHolley ….for me, there are no flaws in one’s opinion. We all see things from a unique perspective and therefore, all are valuable.

[@PatrickLHolley]

@@drew-shourd I agree that there is value in the fact that anyone has an opinion, but I don't think that means it does not have flaws. Some things are more accurate than others. I want to be as accurate as I can. :)

[@drew-shourd]

@@PatrickLHolley I say stay open minded and remember, a ‘flaw’ until proven otherwise, is not a flaw at all. My initial response to the video was simply an analogy, meant to streamline, simplify if you will, a concept of a question that has been perplexing mankind ever since the extraterrestrials running this simulation manipulated our DNA.

[@PatrickLHolley]

@@drew-shourd I'd like to see the science behind that assertion. 😉

[@HouseofRecordsTacoma]

I think therefore I am................... I think

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

Sometimes you are. Sometimes you are not. There are no unconscious thoughts.

[@audriussiliunas1222]

Something what we don't have

[@gsmith207]

I am conscientious because I am aware of the consciousness that I am aware off. Just sayin

[@1SpudderR]

Consciousness is the Ocean which has all sorts of conditions, including waves, droplets, splashes, And contents!? “Being Content”!?

[@colinwhite5355]

When the guest appears not to find the question of, ‘what is consciousness’, difficult to answer then it’s, perhaps, time to switch off and go in search of someone who does.

[@dare-er7sw]

Why doesn't he ever interview Sarvapriyananda? Check him out. Funny thing is that this consciousness seems to survive death. I was watching news reporters interview many kids and even a teenager in India who remember their past lives have now met their previous families. One girl after she turned 18 even moved to live with her family from her previous birth. How do these children have all the memories if consciousness dissolves at death?

[@scambammer6102]

so...make something complicated whether it is or not. You are not supposed to reveal that strategy.

[@haroonaverroes6537]

someone wrote a book out of my comments here on closer to truth, not only that: she attributed it to herself and to persons who denied that through documented interviews ! many others used patching techniques, not only that ! I have noticed something weird: someone wrote a book about time out of one comment, I posted it on The Michael Shermer Show # 261 KZbin channel, but the weird part is ! I have noticed that he read all my previous comments on closer to truth ! yeah for sure exactly what I have wrote "laterally" complete sentences ! they use scrappers or what ! I pretty sure he read both ! I am pretty sure: the way I think is completely different ! the sentences I wrote are concise, that is why they wrote books out of them ! here The Michael Shermer Show # 275 is literally blunt theft !

[@PaulHoward108]

That's one of the best answers I've seen on this show.

[@nuqwestr]

Keith must then believe in machine consciousness.

[@loki-oq1lj]

Read Vedas

[@longcastle4863]

Consciousness is a product of Evolution and Natural Selection --- with increased complexities in brains and consciousness being selected for the further we go up the phylogenetic tree -- because of it's benefits in giving the creatures that possess them an edge in survival.

[@StrangerByTheHour]

So your contention is that there are stages in a creatures evolution where they were unconscious, or semi-conscious yet still making choices that were beneficial or detrimental to their fitness? You sure about that? Did the completely random phenomena consciousness evolve incrementally or spontaneously in these evolving creatures? Can you see how incoherent and full of holes this is?

[@scambammer6102]

@@StrangerByTheHour it isn't "full of holes" it's just a little more complex than your limited imagination can handle. All living things are conscious, period. There is no such thing as more or less conscious.

[@scambammer6102]

I would avoid implying that complexity is an evolutionary advantage. Bacteria might disagree. Complexity is just a product of social structure (in humans) which MAY be advantageous in certain envrionments.

[@StrangerByTheHour]

@@scambammer6102 You have a very coherent and consistent explanation, so long as I grant you a priori the tools of logic right? We can talk about consciousness being an emergent phenomena and you can have a theory about all living beings being conscious, but you still can’t bridge the gap between the phenomena of consciousness and your materialist worldview. We evaluate consciousness using the laws of logic, but we cannot isolate either consciousness or logic as existing materially.

[@mikefinn]

As soon as life emerges it begins its quest for energy so it can grow and reproduce. This energy quest drives the direction of natural selection. This can be called the Energetic Principle of Natural Selection. Brains require a lot of calories but were proven useful by Natural Selection for finding, gathering, producing, storing, and preparing food sources of energy. Brains also process and store information, in many ways an energy analog.

[@IamKlaus007]

My consciousness is as personal to me as it gets as it is to all human beings. How can I explain, present or prove what my consciousness is to another when I have no way of presenting it in a way that allows them to understand from my point of view what is essentially my personal experience. Were I to experience a personal incident (constructed scenario) in the horror of war where I was witness to my 'buddies' bodies being torn to pieces by a bomb in front of me with blood, bones, brain and other organs flying around me and hitting all over my body, the thoughts and feelings of that experience coursing through my mind and body would be something no one else could comprehend. Even if the listener had gone through a similar experience it would still be personal just to me.

[@maxwellsimoes238]

Guys conscieness definitions are so elementary or superficial. Science or neurociência ignore how figuret it out só far. In this ways conscieness are unpredicted with randon reality. In other words guys minds are out serious conscieness definitions until he explains why conscieness are unpredicted.

[@whatshisname3304]

i think we have a special form of consciousness because our minds are not constricted by simple needs. we can think about anything we choose, but we are constrained to a degree by the biology of our senses. the limit of our awarenesses and the ability to process complex information.

[@deanwilson8955]

It’s my view consciousness exists on a spectrum similar to light waves. Our eyes only see a small portion of the light wave spectrum and it’s possible our consciousness is a small portion of cosmic consciousness, and an ant perceiving an even small portion. Fascinating subject.

[@udaykumar-lv4xo]

being conscious is not just being awake into physical reality. consciousness is about observing and experiencing the different states of consciousness like wakeful state which is experiencing body , dream state experiencing mind alone, deep sleep state experiencing soul alone and the 4thstate called spirit state when the soul merges and experiences the universal conscious state which we have been missing sleeping unconsciously.

[@BradHolkesvig]

How many times are you going to talk about this subject also known as the MIND. The MIND is like a computer processor, CAD and Photoshop all working together to process invisible vibrations into visible images of the correct size and colors for the eternal ONE that you cannot see in a mirror will be able to observe.

[@scambammer6102]

nope. new age drivel.

[@BradHolkesvig]

@@scambammer6102 I have been connected to the Creator's eternal thoughts for the last 14 years that have taught me everything it wanted me to know before my body is killed. You know nothing about how we're created or what the MIND is that I just described. No scientist will ever understand what it is.

[@Patrick-yq4gp]

@@BradHolkesvig 🤡

[@BradHolkesvig]

@@Patrick-yq4gp This channel is filled with unbelievers who have no idea how they are created.

[@scambammer6102]

@@BradHolkesvig sure thing pal. 'cause you're SO special

[@hershchat]

“Consciousness is an illusion” is a dumb statement. Maybe you want to say that that which you’re conscious of is an illusion. You THINK you’re a man, but actually you’re a plasmid? Your man’ness is an illusion. That is totally different than saying, “there is no consciousness, we just think we’re conscious”. That is a meaningless statement.

[@adamsawyer1763]

Nice to hear a professional say what every sane lay person knows: if your theory says consciousness is an illusion then your theory is incorrect and also you're probably nuts 😂

[@REDPUMPERNICKEL]

English people sometimes use 'illusion' to mean immaterial.

[@bluelotus542]

Consciousness is the symptom of the soul.

[@scambammer6102]

Symptom? lol is it a disease?

[@TurinTuramber]

Citation needed.

[@bluelotus542]

@@TurinTuramber

[@TurinTuramber]

@@bluelotus542 Yeah that's what I thought you would say. Thank you for taking the time away from reading horoscopes and drinking homeopathic remedies to reply.

[@shinymike4301]

We will never know what Consciousness is, any more than we will ever know what happened before the Big Bang.

[@johnyharris]

That's a very defeatist attitude. Why on earth would you think that?

[@prestonbacchus4204]

If we had a correct model, and assuming the universe itself is a function, we could infer the nature of that which the universe is a function of by studying our own universe, in the same way that by studying you a scientist could learn a lot about your parents. Again, assuming our universe is a function, the most likely scenario would be that our universe is a function of other "parental" universes like our own. Like our galaxy which is a function of other pre-existing galaxies that merged to form the Milky Way.

[@scambammer6102]

we absolutely know what consciousness is. It's an organism's awareness of its environment. Sorry. I know you really wanted to cram god into that gap

[@mikefinn]

We can make observations and form a hypothesis that can be tested. When you do that, things, often never imagined, emerge from the fog.

[@prestonbacchus4204]

@@mikefinn An hypothesis is normally the first order of business in trying to explain an observed phenomenon. Here is a standard definition of that: "a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation." A "theory" is a much more developed explanation, here is a definition of that: "A theory is a carefully thought-out explanation for observations of the natural world that has been constructed using the scientific method, and which brings together many facts and hypotheses."

[@Elsith01]

So Keith is basically saying ignorance is bliss, so don't try to understand how things work.

[@علي-ش7ث8ب]

*The Soul is from God*

[@zap...]

Consciousness is the chemical reaction to stimulus.

[@bradyportwood9398]

Oh wow you solved the problem to self awareness

[@kjartan46]

Excellent intervju objekt, wish you could change the intervjuer😓

[@mosa64470]

Consciousness is background of brain , like magnetic field is background of electricity .

[@gracerodgers8952]

Wait, let's overthink this.

[@scambammer6102]

should be the slogan for this channel

[@SamCheryl-s6q]

Thomas Jeffrey Wilson Thomas Martin Laura

[@JungleJargon]

You don’t know who you are?

[@haroonaverroes6537]

the thieves are only interested in what they can steal, but not interested in facing their bitter reality ! real sick irrational thief apes !

[@scambammer6102]

get meds

[@haroonaverroes6537]

the apes changed their stagey ! smart apes!

[@nealcampbell620]

It's just something we don't fully understand yet.

[@ChildofGod98765]

Dear Jesus please help me with the fear and worry I am dealing with. I won’t believe the lies of the enemy. I will make it through this hard time. I have two beautiful boys both are autistic and non verbal. I’m so overwhelmed at times. My husband passed away years ago. So I’m all alone. I have no family to lean on. I lost my job over declining the vaccine. I declined due to my pre existing health conditions lupus and heart disease. I’ve been struggling to provide for myself and my children since losing my job from Forsyth hospital. Every month is a battle to not end up on the streets with my two children. I’m constantly in fear of losing our home. To even think about being on the streets with two young children is terrifying. But even as I face homelessness seemingly every month. I have faith, God will provide. HE HAS THIS FAR! FAITH IS ALL I NEED. Faith over fear. THANK YOU JESUS! I BELIEVE God will provide. Spreading Love is what Jesus taught. ❤️ I LOVE you JESUS

[@scambammer6102]

shouldn't this have been directed to santa claus?

[@caricue]

Consciousness is what being alive feels like to matter.

[@anxious_robot]

It's an emergent property of the sim we live in that makes reality exists.

[@scambammer6102]

nope. you misspelled "simp"

[@TurinTuramber]

Our brains evolved consciousness as a tool to work through our check list of biological wants. What do people think about? Hungry people think about food, horny people thinks about sex, scared people think about safety etc etc.

[@frontsidegrinder6858]

Imagine, he would interview Alan Watts.

[@rickwyant]

There can be no consciousness without a brain.

[@Dion_Mustard]

what rubbish! you keep repeating this one sentence with absolutely no evidence. you keep believing that...

[@Octwavian]

this guest has no clue. he is totally stuck , not even close to understanding the question. sorry.

[@scambammer6102]

meaning you didn't like his answer

[@haroonaverroes6537]

shame on the thief apes.

[@deepaktripathi4417]

Now let's see what experts have to say.

[@phuzbrain]

This guy is good a double talk but makes no real sense.

[@youaresomeone3413]

Consciousness is manifestation of heaven and hell we were cast into this low vibrational relm for punishment physically and mentally because of the crimes and sins we've committed

[@scambammer6102]

nope. btw your tag clashes with your ideology. It should be "WE are scum"

[@mikefinn]

Or we did not commit any crimes or sins but are here as blank slates and can choose to learn, help, grow, interact and enjoy life as we move upward.

[@youaresomeone3413]

@@mikefinn Or its all pre determined and fate is the only thing that's real.

[@mikefinn]

@@youaresomeone3413 I think we have free will and hope that we learn it is almost unlimited.

[@jeffamos9854]

There are some relatively recent theory’s of consciousness I have not heard addressed on CTT. Brains magnetic field theory and relativistic theory of consciousness. I will not attempt to explain them but they are serious study’s about consciousness. Think in the near future consciousness will be explained with a coherent theory and we can put aside woowoo and god for an explanation

[@mobiustrip1400]

Consciousness cannot explain itself, just like teeth cannot chew themselves (paraphrasing Alan Watts)

[@frontsidegrinder6858]

yes! And it's absolutley not a problem at all.

[@gmlgml780]

Yeah. 'Cause of the title I'm listening, woohoo, we will know what consciousness is. And after that, the usual guessing, theories and questions. Nothing. We know nothing. Click &bait.

[@danzigvssartre]

"What is consciousness?" The dumbest question on Earth.

[@SpiritualPsychotherapyServices]

🐟 06. CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS: Consciousness means “that which knows” or “the state of being aware”, from the Latin prefix “con” (with), the stem “scire” (to know) and the suffix “osus” (characterized by). There is BOTH a localized knowing and a Universal Awareness, as explicated in the following paragraphs. Higher species of animal life have sufficient cognitive ability to KNOW themselves and their environment, at least to a measurable degree. Just where consciousness objectively begins in the animal kingdom is a matter of contention but, judging purely by ethological means, it probably starts with vertebrates (at least the higher-order birds and fishes). Those metazoans which are evolutionarily lower than vertebrates do not possess much, if any, semblance of intellect, necessary for true knowledge, but operate purely by reflexive instincts. For instance, an insect or amphibian does not consciously decide to seek food but does so according to its base instincts, directed by its idiosyncratic genetic code. Even when a cockroach flees from danger, it is not experiencing the same kind of thoughts or feelings a human or other mammal would experience. The brain is merely a conduit or TRANSDUCER of Universal Consciousness (i.e. Brahman), explaining why the more intelligent the animal, the more it can understand its own existence (or at least be aware of more of its environment - just see how amazingly-complex dolphin and whale behaviour can be, compared with other aquatic species), and the reason why it is asserted that a truly enlightened human must possess a far higher level of intelligence than the average person. The processing unit of a supercomputer must be far larger, more complex and more powerful than the processor in a pocket calculator. Therefore, it seems logical to conclude that the scale of discrete (localized) consciousness is dependent on the animal's brain capacity. See Chapter 17 to understand the distinction between enlightenment and mere awakening. Three STATES of awareness are experienced by humans and possibly all other species of mammals: the waking state (“jāgrata”, in Sanskrit), dreaming (“svapna”, in Sanskrit), and deep-sleep (“suṣupti”, in Sanskrit). Beyond these three temporal states is the fourth “state” (“turīya” or “caturīya”, in Sanskrit). That is the unconditioned, eternal “state”, which underlies the other three. The waking state is the LEAST real (that is to say the least permanent, or to put it another way, the farthest from the Necessary Ground of Existence, as explained towards the end of this chapter). The dream state is closer to our eternal nature, whilst dreamless deep-sleep is much more analogous to The Universal Self (“brahman”), as it is imbued with peace. Rather than being an absence of awareness, deep-sleep is an awareness of absence (that is, the absence of phenomenal, sensual experiences). So, in actual fact, the fourth state is not a state, but the Unconditioned Ground of Being, or to put it simply, YOU, the real self/Self, or Existence-Awareness-Peace (“sacchidānanda”, in Sanskrit). Perhaps the main purpose of dreams is so that we can understand that the waking-state is practically indistinguishable to the dream-state, and thereby come to see the ILLUSION of this ephemeral world. Both our waking-state experiences and our dream-state experiences occur solely within the mental faculties (refer to Chapter 04 for an elucidation of this phenomenon). If somebody in one of your dreams were to ask your dream-state character if the dream was real, you (playing the part of that character) would most likely say, “yes, of course this is real!” Similarly, if someone were to ask your waking-state character if this world is real, you would almost undoubtedly respond in kind. An apt analogy for Universal Consciousness is the manner in which electricity powers a variety of appliances and gadgets, according to the use and COMPLEXITY of the said device. Electricity powers a washing machine in a very simple manner, to drive a large spindle for laundering clothes. However, the very same electrical power may be used to operate a computer to manifest an astonishing range of outputs, such as playing audiovisual tracks, communication tasks, and performing extremely advanced mathematical computations, depending on the computer's software and hardware. The more advanced/complex the device, the more complex its manifestation of the same electricity. Using the aforementioned computer analogy: the brain is COMPARATIVELY equivalent to the computer hardware, deoxyribonucleic acid akin to the operating system working in conjunction with the memory, the intellect is equivalent to the processing unit, individuated consciousness is analogous to the software programme, whilst Universal Awareness is likened to the electricity which enlivens the entire computer system. A person who is comatosed has lost any semblance of local consciousness, yet is being kept alive by the presence of Universal Consciousness. The fact that many persons report out-of-body experiences, where consciousness departs from the gross body, may be evidence for the above. So, then, following-on from the assertion made in the third paragraph, one could complain: “That's not fair - why can only a genius be enlightened?” (as defined in Chapter 17). The answer is: first of all, as stated above, every species of animal has its own level of intelligence on a wide-ranging scale. Therefore, a pig or a dog could (if possible) ask: “That's unfair - why can only a human being be enlightened?” Secondly, it is INDEED a fact that life is unfair, because there is no “tit for tat” law of action and reaction, even if many supposedly-great religious preceptors have stated so. They said so because they were preaching to wicked miscreants who refused to quit their evil ways, and needed to be chastized in a forceful manner. It is not possible to speak gentle words to a rabid dog to prevent it from biting you. There is evidence of Consciousness being a universal field, in SAVANT SYNDROME, a condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrate certain abilities far in excess of the norm, such as superhuman rapid mathematical calculation, mind-reading, blind-seeing, or astounding musical aptitude. Such behaviour suggests that there is a universal field (possibly in holographic form) from which one can access information. Even simple artistic inspiration could be attributed to this phenomenon. The great British singer-songwriter, Sir James Paul McCartney, one day woke with the complete tune of the song, “Yesterday”, in his mind, after hearing it in a dream. American composer, Paul Simon, had a similar experience when the chorus of his sublime masterpiece, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, simply popped into his head. Cont...

[@scambammer6102]

farts