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Many of the posts mention the mind's connection to the brain. I, personally, don't think this connection is as point blank. I would say the mind is more like a composition of thoughts (conscious, subconscious and unconscious), awareness, personality, spirit, energy and consciousness.
Your explanation leaves a lot to be desired. I'll agree that the mind is a "nut-shelling" of phenomenons, like awareness, personality, spirit, energy, and consciousness, but these phenomenons themselves need their own explanation. Are they products of the brain (as I would put forth), or something more--something that exists outside of the brain that influences or interacts with the brain?
What a great video! I'll add it to my collection. QualiaSoup is quite a genius--I've seen and posted his videos in the past (on other websites), and I am fond of the Open-Mindedness video.
But alas, no wonder I'm having such difficulty trying to work with Mystic's arguments in the first place--they're incoherent to begin with. Now it makes sense.
The mind is the cumulative patterns occurring in the massive neural network of your brain. Alter the brain, some patterns become impossible, and the mind changes. Since the mind is a conceptual realization of the physical impulses in the brain, anything that affects or generates those impulses affects the mind. Hallucinogens, for example, randomly stimulate far more impulses than your brain normally generates on it's own, thus inciting much greater activity in the mind. Likewise, a lobotomy, the severing of one more connections in the brain, will make some thoughts, emotions, and thought patterns impossible, thus altering the mind.
There *are* two selves, and there *is* a bridge between them. The brain is divided into two redundant hemispheres. I say redundant because each hemisphere is a brain unto itself. Each is capable of the same functions. They both have thought, speech, interpretation, logic, inspiration, and emotional centers. What one brain can learn, the other can learn. Yet each also has it's own personality, each has it's own unique patterns and connections, and each can process the same thought, idea, or stimulus to different results. The bridge between them is a physical neural highway called the corpus callosum. There are other, more primitive connections between the sensory areas of the brains, but the corpus is the big one. And the brains use that bridge to communicate, evaluate, and regulate each other.
It is this dual brain system, with the corpus callosum, and the ability to spatially conceptualize symbols as ideas that give rise to what we think of as "consciousness", which is, at it's core, one brain reviewing the activity of the other, aka, self-awareness.
And then there are such warped emotions in the lives of many people that we see such things as paranoid schizophrenics, multiple personalities etc. Your description is accurate for a normal physical brain but does not address the mind which has been affected by emotional trauma.
I maintain that the way a person conducts theirself as an adult is a product of intelligence, environment and sensitivity during their infancy and childhood.
Your explanation leaves a lot to be desired. I'll agree that the mind is a "nut-shelling" of phenomenons, like awareness, personality, spirit, energy, and consciousness, but these phenomenons themselves need their own explanation. Are they products of the brain (as I would put forth), or something more--something that exists outside of the brain that influences or interacts with the brain?
Well, energy is distinct in itself. Without energy, nothing would exist.
Spirit is energy and not reliant on the body.
Personality, a combination of spirit and body, developed through experiences and interactions with the material world.
Have you ever read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy? It gives a pretty interesting understanding of consciousness.
And awareness of awareness is what separates humans and animals (so we assume). This is again an interaction and combination of spirit and body.
(That was fun to write up ) I am most definitely not saying that this is fact. It is just how I understand it all and am very aware that people would disagree. Personally, a completely physical, structure-of-the-brain explanation doesn't make sense. Either way, I'm pretty happy with this version!
Well, energy is distinct in itself. Without energy, nothing would exist.
I'll more or less agree to this. The distinction between matter and energy is clear, but they are two sides of the same coin.
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Spirit is energy and not reliant on the body.
This is a meaningless statement--it's a definition by synonym, which explains nothing. If spirit is energy they are indistinguishable from one another. I presume you mean something more than just energy when you say spirit.
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Personality, a combination of spirit and body, developed through experiences and interactions with the material world.
Still doesn't explain much about what you mean. The red part is good, but how is personality a combination between spirit (which you need to work on still) and body, how does that work, and where does it develop?
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Have you ever read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy? It gives a pretty interesting understanding of consciousness.
I haven't. Please elaborate.
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And awareness of awareness is what separates humans and animals (so we assume).
I've had a lot of enjoyment rediscovering studies of animal awareness. One of the tests for self-awareness is known as the mirror self-reflection test. A variety of animals pass (including ourselves), but brain damage has shown that even we can sometimes fail it.
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This is again an interaction and combination of spirit and body.
You'll have to elaborate on what you mean by spirit.
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(That was fun to write up ) I am most definitely not saying that this is fact. It is just how I understand it all and am very aware that people would disagree.
Discussion should be fun!
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Personally, a completely physical, structure-of-the-brain explanation doesn't make sense. Either way, I'm pretty happy with this version!
I'll more or less agree to this. The distinction between matter and energy is clear, but they are two sides of the same coin.
Agreed
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This is a meaningless statement--it's a definition by synonym, which explains nothing.If spirit is energy they are indistinguishable from one another. I presume you mean something more than just energy when you say spirit.
Yes, you're right. My apologies.
Have you ever seen something die? Or been to an open-coffin funeral? There is something eerily different. The person physically looks the same...there is something that doesn't feel the same. As though an essence, that which makes them what they are, is missing. That “essence” is what I call spirit.
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Still doesn't explain much about what you mean. The red part is good, but how is personality a combination between spirit (which you need to work on still) and body, how does that work, and where does it develop?
So personality would be the “essence’s” interaction with the material world, via the body.
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I haven't. Please elaborate.
Have you ever done any kind of meditation? Or sat still in a silent room? There is often a…very low vibration, is the only way to describe it… an odd sort of stillness. I understand this is very subjective and no sort of proof what so ever.
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I've had a lot of enjoyment rediscovering studies of animal awareness. One of the tests for self-awareness is known as the mirror self-reflection test. A variety of animals pass (including ourselves), but brain damage has shown that even we can sometimes fail it.
Absolutely!
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Why not?
Bruce Lipton, Candace Pert (and many others) are biologists, who eventually came to the conclusion that not everything is dependent on genetics. The attached youtube clips are an interview with Bruce Lipton which makes sense to me…it resonates. (Together, 18 minutes long)
Many of the posts mention the mind's connection to the brain. I, personally, don't think this connection is as point blank. I would say the mind is more like a composition of thoughts (conscious, subconscious and unconscious), awareness, personality, spirit, energy and consciousness.
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Originally Posted by Konraden
Your explanation leaves a lot to be desired. I'll agree that the mind is a "nut-shelling" of phenomenons, like awareness, personality, spirit, energy, and consciousness, but these phenomenons themselves need their own explanation. Are they products of the brain (as I would put forth), or something more--something that exists outside of the brain that influences or interacts with the brain?
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Originally Posted by SpidrAkirE
Well, energy is distinct in itself. Without energy, nothing would exist.
Spirit is energy and not reliant on the body.
Personality, a combination of spirit and body, developed through experiences and interactions with the material world.
Have you ever read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy? It gives a pretty interesting understanding of consciousness.
And awareness of awareness is what separates humans and animals (so we assume). This is again an interaction and combination of spirit and body.
(That was fun to write up ) I am most definitely not saying that this is fact. It is just how I understand it all and am very aware that people would disagree. Personally, a completely physical, structure-of-the-brain explanation doesn't make sense. Either way, I'm pretty happy with this version!
The misunderstanding about what is and is not On Topic about this discussion of the Mind suggests that a move to my Re-education Philosophy thread would be a good idea. If there is actually any real interest in pursuing an understanding of it, that is.
Yes, you're right. My apologies.
Have you ever seen something die? Or been to an open-coffin funeral? There is something eerily different. The person physically looks the same...there is something that doesn't feel the same. As though an essence, that which makes them what they are, is missing. That “essence” is what I call spirit.
The person is no longer breathing, making noise, there is a significant loss of color, etc. "signs of life," but I wouldn't argue something is lost or has left.
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So personality would be the “essence’s” interaction with the material world, via the body.
This "essence" would be neural activity and specific neural connections which result in certain dispositions and behaviors of a person--the personality.
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Have you ever done any kind of meditation? Or sat still in a silent room? There is often a…very low vibration, is the only way to describe it… an odd sort of stillness. I understand this is very subjective and no sort of proof what so ever.
Is it a sound?
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Absolutely!
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Bruce Lipton, Candace Pert (and many others) are biologists, who eventually came to the conclusion that not everything is dependent on genetics. The attached youtube clips are an interview with Bruce Lipton which makes sense to me…it resonates. (Together, 18 minutes long)
Better? Yes. Do I agree? No. Lipton isn't being entirely pure. He discredits "positive thought" psychology, but he's making money from this exact phenomenon--and more specifically, homeopathic and holistic medicine rituals.
He takes several establish concepts and speciously ropes them together to make what he is saying sound scientific. It seems legitmate on the surface--but it begins to break down when you scratch the coating and realize his gold is a lump of lead.
He's just making money off gullibility and pseudoscience.
What a great video! I'll add it to my collection. QualiaSoup is quite a genius--I've seen and posted his videos in the past (on other websites), and I am fond of the Open-Mindedness video.
But alas, no wonder I'm having such difficulty trying to work with Mystic's arguments in the first place--they're incoherent to begin with. Now it makes sense.
Most of what mystic says make sense, but then he tries to twist it so that only his version of the "mind" must be true. Where it could be a number of possible options; he seem to only choose it, because it fits with his belief system..
I really can't believe a Dr. would be deliberately misleading, when he focuses on the word "dogma" in biology.
I quote straight out of my first biology text book. BIOLOGY CAMPBELL.REECE: "Genes program protein synthesis via genetic messages in the form of messenger RNA. Put another way, cells are governed by a molecular chain of commands with a directional flow of genetic information: DNA -> RNA -> proteins. This concept was dubbed the central dogma by Francis Crick in 1956. How has the concept held up over time? IN the 1970s, scientist were surprised to discover that some RNA molecules can act as a template of DNA, a process you'll read about in Chapter 19. However, this rare exception does not invalidate the idea that, in general, genetic information flows from DNA to RNA to protein.
So as you see, Bruce isn't being very truthfully. The term "central dogma" is just a name..
Though I agree that DNA is influence by something other then matter and energy as we know it, but to what extent is unknown..
I have to disagree with him on the placebo effect.. If he was right, then hospital wouldn't need medicine, they could just give people sugar pills and everyone will be just fine.. as long as they think it is medicine..
I'll be waiting for the empirical evidence he is no doubt trying to find for this idea..
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) I am most definitely not saying that this is fact. It is just how I understand it all and am very aware that people would disagree. Personally, a completely physical, structure-of-the-brain explanation doesn't make sense. Either way, I'm pretty happy with this version! 
