Thread: Why is "everything", but dialating time possible in a lucid dream

Though Tofur's response said enough:

Originally Posted by PresentMoment

It would seem to me in that case, Sageous, that if the entire brain was destroyed, experiencing conscious states would become impossible because their connection to the real world would be permanently out of order. I can't say for sure, but I doubt this is what advocates of the brain as a filer/reciever hypothesis believe, as the whole point of their idea seems (at least to me) to be to present a reasonable non physical basis for consciousness, that isn't completely at odds with neuroscience and, most importantly, allows for experience after death, which doesn't follow if a functional brain is needed for the 'signal' to be experienced.

The filter hypothesis also seems to be inconsistent with the fact that we can induce certain conscious states quite reliably by stimulating certain brain areas. For instance, if we can see that the amygdala is active while someone is in a state of fear, and if we can induce a state of fear by activating the amygdala, then we have more than a mere correlation, but clear cause and effect. I don't see any room for an outside signal here, if you don't think that our activating the relevant brain region to induce fear is actually where the fear is coming from, then I guess you could claim that the outside fear signal is coming in at the exact same time that the activation is taking place, but this is obviously an unparsimonious explanation. All we need to explain the fear is the brain activation, you're adding an extra, unnecessary, dimension.

Like I said, it was just a thought... I didn't even realize you were referencing a "brain-as-filter" school of thought; I assumed you were presenting a metaphor.

That said:

Wouldn't experience after death follow, using this filter plan? After all, once we're dead, we're no longer connected with the physical world, right? That signal is only for experiencing the physical world, after all; there isn't much need for that after we've moved on. Also, just as unclogging certain bits of filters make them work better, there's no reason to assume that triggering specific circuits in the brain won't simulate physical-world related events (i.e., fear). In other words, the only fear you're explaining is the brain's mechanical process for "filtering" fear, when the actual event happens.

Again, I wasn't adding any dimensions; I was simply sharing a thought your post gave me; I've never heard of this brain-as-filter school, and though I'm certainly not a member, I have to admit that their logic, as you presented, seems fairly straightforward.

And, just for the sake of relevance, wouldn't a consciousness independent of the brain be helpful in dilating our perception of time? After all, since the circuitry of the brain might not be capable of handling the information necessary to dilate time, some other factor might be nice. Don't you think?