Contacting Seperate Consciousnesses?

I read something on the net (I'm too lazy to provide a link but just google "multiple consciousness" or something like that) about the brain possibly containing more than one consciousness. A famous example is cutting somebody's brain in half, each half then begins to act like a different person. Another example is invoulanry actions (it's a condition or something) by one side of the body such as being in the supermarket and your left hand reaches for other things that you do not have conscious control over. It seems it's real but these are the questions I have:

1) Do these multiple consciousnesses exist in a healthy human brain, unbeknownst to us?

2) Co you think these consciousness/es could be seperate people; they think for themselves and have completely different plans for your life, but they can't communicate to you naturally.

3) If the top two are true, could you contact a seperate consciousness in a dream, as a dream character! You would actually be interacting with a "different person" with it's own mind and thought processes! That's one DC you wouldn't think about raping when lucid!

I know it's a pretty advanced topic but it has really caught my interest.

First off, how do you define "consciousness"? I think that's what it really comes down to. You could perform a conscious act, meaning an act that you are in control over. Or you can be in a state of consciousness, as in awake or aware. Or you could be an conscious being, unique to another conscious being.

A conscious being is capable of doing conscious things (or thinking consiously). But consciousness itself can also be a unique trait.

My take on involuntary actions is that it's simply an action that is performed by a conscious being, but in a state where they are not actually aware they are doing it. It's a mix of motor and mind (like breathing, heart beat, digestion, etc).

The thing about the half brain functioning on its own - I've simply never heard of that so I can't comment. If true, I don't see how they can test whether each half is simply carrying out the tasks it had stored from it's previous "being", or literally being split into a new being.

Spooky stuff - think I'll move this to extended discussion.

*oh, edit: as for your 3rd question- some might believe you are in touch with another conscious being. Others believe you're tapping into your own self, just a part that you don't have access to when you're awake.

Well we already believe a subconscious does exist... but as far as having a separate and equal conscience on my conscious level, I wouldn't say so.

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1) Do these multiple consciousnesses exist in a healthy human brain, unbeknownst to us?

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I believe if they do, they aren't on the same conscious level as my conscious whole is. I can see subdivisions of my conscious whole, but as far as having another conscience on the same conscious level as me, only the subconscious would come close because it's directly based of my waking conscience. But you bring up a great point about the brains being split... If my brain was to be split in half... and one half was placed in a different body, things would get really interesting.

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3) If the top two are true, could you contact a seperate consciousness in a dream, as a dream character! You would actually be interacting with a "different person" with it's own mind and thought processes! That's one DC you wouldn't think about raping when lucid!

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I really think this happened once to me. But I believe it was my subconscious. I called it out (I finally remembered to do that one LD) and asked it to help me to fly. It was like talking to another person. There was absolutely no influence on my part at that present time because what I was told I would have never thought of. It was based off how airplanes fly in real life, and using a technique or running down a street very quickly, and then jumping forward into a glide position. When about four feet off the ground, dip towards the ground to pick up some speed, and take off. It was really cool. And it worked really well.

I remember when I was on mushrooms a while back and some friends who were not tripping anywhere near as hard as I was were talking about going to a bar. I had a very strong perception that "some" of me wanted to go to the bar but "some" of me thought they were tripping too hard to go out in public. The two groups seemed to be struggling against each other over the issue. It seemed plain as day to me/us that I/we was about ten different conscious entities merged together as one collective consciousness. (not that this proves anything)

Looking back, I was way too wigged out and paranoid to be going anywhere in public. I probably would have just hid under a table at the bar if I had gone.