Consciousness. What is it? According to one definition, it is a specific kind of mental image, typical of human. Nice to know;).. So I'll ask the same question, but differently: What are the qualities of this mental image? What is it built of? Where, in which organisms and on what conditions can it 'exist'?
The so-called 'mirror test', in which humans and animals were exposed to their own mirror images so that one could observe if they can recognize themselves. Human children older than 18 months and most of other great apes, and pigeons, elephants, bottlenose dolphins, magpies, have all been observed to have passed the test. A lot of scientists, however, quite reasonably suggested that the test merely detects certain cognitive coordination. Moreover, some people who suffer from prosopagnosia - the unability to recognize faces - would fail the test.
Some other tests gave clues that consciousness must be somehow linked with the short-term memory, as well as increased activity in prefrontal cortex and other parts of the brain. It is scientifically proven that unconscious stimuli as well as the conscious ones have influence on our behaviour (nothing new, really), but the conscious ones are linked with more activity in some parts of the brain.
So, for now all we know almost for sure is that, basically, there is a link between consciousness and brain activity. Yet, a popular idea that consciousness exists only in humans has not been proven.
Still, examining what consciousness is, when and where does it occur does not neccesarily have to solve the problem (yeah, I am a proponent of the so-called 'hard problem of consciousness', if your familiar with the term;))
What causes conciousness? What is it made of, once again? I'll try to first question few paragraphs below.
Another observation: altered states of consciousness are somehow related to time perception, aren't they? Wouldn't you agree that in states such as being on psychedelics, lucid dreaming or deep meditation, there is no such thing as 'time', or there is... but it doesn't really matter - all that is, all that can ever be, so to say, is the present moment. I have experienced this a lot, how about you?
Let's assume the thesis that profound consciousness implies timelessnes is true. Timelessness means... no death... no such thing as eternity... Eternity is being fully conscious and that's all.
It may be the same the thing the Jesus has talked about - I am the Path, Truth and Life - I am the Love - God - consciousness - it may be the same. What Buddha talked about - nirvana - consciousness. And so on.
The question arises: what the hell is this consciousness? How to achieve it?
How to be conscious? The answer is simple. By being conscious. How do you get lucid during dreams? Can you tell me exactly the thing you do to become lucid, on the most basic level? I suppose not. You do a reality check - which induces consciousness, because you become _aware_ that what you are experiencing is uncommon. Or you just become lucid spontaneously, so it is even more striking that you just become conscious and it has very little to do with thought processes, by which I mean here rationalizing and grasping something through your rational mind.
Why? Recall all the thousand times you explained to yourself in a dream that you are casting magic spells on people on the street because you have enlisted for a course for magicians or, for that matter, your grandma taught you yesterday how to do that, or you are back in school years because they've recently invented a time machine, and so on.
Look. In missed lucid opportunities, you realize that something is wrong. You notice it. But this not makes you conscious yet. Consciousness is just an act beside our understanding, noticing, rationalizing. It's just 'click!' and you're lucid, isn't it?
Why aren't we usually conscious in our dreams, yet we are able to be? Maybe... because we're used to be unconscious in waking life? This would interweave perfectly with what Stephen LaBerge wrote in his 'Exploring the Wolrd of Lucid Dreaming': being able to have lucid dreams enhances your waking life quality.
To my mind, in thinking about consciousness there is one common methodological error, a terrible one. Precisely, a good scientist must remember that whenever two things occur in similar circumstances, and are related to one another, the A may case B, OR, B may cause A. And what if it is the consciousness, which we know nothing about, causes brain activity? Saying it the other way round may as well be just a sub-conscious desire to omit the other possibility, if we've got only a bit of arguments for the first one, or the first one seem more rational at first glance.
You might ask, 'so what, basically?' One can draw many different conclusions, or one might say I'm talking bullshit or obvious things, anyway think... That the quality of our life - happiness in our life - is independent from our mind. Independent from all the good and bad decisions we make, since that's all rationality. Rationality has nothing to do with consciosness. And consciousness, as I strongly believe, is the way to happiness.
I know all this sounds too lofty and stilted, sorry, this is because of the serious topic and my style. Thanks for any comments.
