Mars Man said:
All experience has to be by the brain--I cannot see any way around that. We know that the person can change into a very different person with brain damage and change. It is quite clear that the brain of one with autism is exactly that brain, that person, that consciousness.
Tsuyoiko said:
There are two books that convinced me that brain function entirely explains human consciousness: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks and The Undiscovered Mind by John Horgan. Has anyone read those, and still believe in a soul separate from the body?
I have not read those books nor do I desire to as I have a completely different view based on real life experience.
To me, the brain is just a conduit, a "resting place" so to speak, the most complex organ of the physical body, in order that the soul/conciousness can experience the five senses in this physical world of ours. Now if something were to happen to the brain that would render me incapable of acting my "normal" self that the people around me have come to know me as, it would not mean that I am a different person. I would still be the same person but with no control over the damage to to my brain that rendered me a "different" person. That would be a most terrifying experience.
Let me try and put it a different way. When I was younger I had the misfortune of being diagnosed with
grand mal seizure disorder. In other words epilepsy. The worst kind. This was caused by some blunt trauma to the brain when I was young and was clearly seen on x-rays and scans by the neurologists. This damaged part of the brain would sometimes "misfire" and I would have seizures. At its worst I would have a seizure 2 or 3 times a month.
I guess I was fortunate in that I would know when a seizure was coming on in that I would start to hallucinate and begin to feel weird and not my "normal" self. As a youngster of 12 this really startled me. I had absolutely no control over it as much as I tried. I would begin to feel funny, see things that really weren't there in the physical world, talk incoherently and then I would black out. Sometimes with violent shaking and spasms and sometimes not.
I once hallucinated, or transported myself to an outdoor scene that was like 200 years ago! I was sitting outside at a big table with all kinds of food on it, the sky was clear with a few clouds, there was a slight breeze that I felt on my face and I could also feel the warmth of the sun! I could smell the food on the table and hear all sounds around me. The people were speaking in a language that I thought was English, but could not quite comprehend. What really freaked me out was that everyone was dressed in Pilgrim clothes of the early English settlers to America! I can recall that scene to this day in it's most minute details as, to me, I was actually there and did experience it. I know what a dream is and what it feels like. This was NO dream. That I am certain of.
When I would come to a few hours later after blacking out I would have complete amnesia and would not know where I was or even recognize who my parents were! Inside my soul/conciousness I would know who I was. I was still the same person I always was! It just terrified the hell out of me that I could not, for the life of me, recall who these people standing around me were or where I was or what had happened to me. Luckily, gradually but surely, my memories returned within an hour or so. But what a freaky feeling to be able to know you were still you but could not recall anything!
I once opened my eyes from one of these seizures and was completely paralyzed. I mean I couldn' move a muscle. Talk about a terrifying experience! People were trying to talk to me and I was trying to answer but my brain wouldn't respond. I was still the same person I always was with the same thoughts and all, but I had no control as my brain had failed to relay my thoughts to my limbs and vocal chords. Within a 10 minutes or so my brain was able to function and I could move and talk as usual.
The shame of it is is that the medical profession just blew off these hallucinations and paralysis as just my "imagination". But, they are not me and they DID NOT experience what I experienced! They did not know that my conciousness/soul never changed one iota. It was just my brain that changed. What wonders could be discovered if people like doctors and scientists didn't have closed minds?
Now if my brain were severely and permanently damaged and I started acting like a different person or became violent I believe that it would not mean that I had changed as I was still "me", the conciousness/soul residing in the brain. It would mean that my brain had failed to function properly and I had lost all control of the real me operating inside this body and trying to partake normally in the physical world.
Does this explain violent behavior in people? I think not as I believe that some people are pure evil. But it might explain some schizophrenic behavior in people or people with autuism and other illnesses whose brains have failed to function properly for one reason or another. Inside they are still the same person they always were and always will be.
Look at people like Mohammed Ali or Michael J. Fox who have Parkinsons disease. They have absolutely lost all control over the muscles of their body. Does this make them a different person? I think not as I know from first-hand experience what it feels like to lose control over one's muscles, vocal chords, and memories. Inside we are still the same person we always were and always will be. It's just that our physical brain, that organ that alllows us to function normally, has failed in one way or another and it is a most terrifying experience to feel normal on the inside with absolutely no control of a failed brain.
Therefore, I cannot comprehend that the brain and soul/conciousness are one and the same. That upon death "we" cease to be. Based on my experiences with a flawed brain, it just doesn't make sense. To me they will always be seperate and, upon death, the soul/conciousness departs the physical body and the physical world for a life that, here in the physical world, we are forbidden to recall.
Luckily I have not had a seizure in 25 years or so. The doctors say I may have outgrown it, but they always say it may return one day as the "spot" on the brain is still there. I pray not. However, being much older and wiser, I may look forward to those hallucinations again just to see what the brain is capable of and seeing if I can "control" the hallucinations as it is said that we humans only utilize 5-7% of our actual brain capacity.