Is conciousness an illusion?
Here is my attempt at being philosophical. Is consciousness merely an illusion? If so then why do you think so? My opinion is that consciousness is not an illusion. I am not trying to prove that consciousness is independent of the brain or anything else considered "spiritual" but if you want to take it that way then so be it. I am just giving my two cents as to why (I think) consciousness is not an illusion. Well I am sure we can agree that an illusion is something that isn't real. If something isn't real then that means it cannot effect physical reality. It may look real or feel real but it isn't real and thus cannot truly manipulate physical reality an illusion cannot move or change a physical object. The human body on the other hand is NOT an illusion. We can interact with the physical world we can talk to people, move stuff around etc etc. So now the big question. Does consciousness influence physical reality? The answer is yes. How? The answer is the placebo effect. You hurt your arm and I give you a sugar pill and claim that it is a powerful pain killer and you believe it. You take the pill and your arm feels better a few minutes later. What happened here exactly? Well you (the consciousness that is aware) truly believed that this sugar pill was a pain killer and your brain reacted to this belief by releasing opiates into your blood stream which reduce or eliminate your pain. If consciousness truly was an illusion then wouldn't this be impossible? An illusion cannot manipulate a physical object but the brain IS a physical object and the only reason the brain released those opiates was not because of the sugar pill but because YOU (the conscious you that is aware) believed that you would feel better after taking this pill. Since consciousness was able to manipulate a physical object (the brain) into releasing opiates because of its belief that a useless pill could make its body feel better then it is logical to conclude that consciousness is indeed a real thing.
Well there's my argument. Hope this is interesting for the rest of you.