Free Will, Consciousness, Identity (Identity)

by David Turell , Saturday, August 25, 2012, 15:42 (4472 days ago) @ dhw


> "You" create... "you" control the energy. But in dualism "you" ARE your immaterial will/memories/ emotions etc. It is these, your own faculties, that send signals to your brain ... they are not "radioed" from somewhere else. Once you start claiming that the mind does separate in an NDE, you are committed to the idea of an immaterial mind which is independent of the brain. -'I think therefore I am' is not off the mark. My physcial brain is the most complex computer in the universe, and if there is a universal intelligence, as I believe, and my 'think' is a part of the UI, it offers explanations.-> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120822181228.htm
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> "Here, we have a patient who is missing all the areas in the brain that are typically thought to be needed for self-awareness yet he remains self-aware," says co-corresponding author Justin Feinstein, who earned his doctorate at the UI in February. "Clearly, neuroscience is only beginning to understand how the human brain can generate a phenomenon as complex as self-awareness."
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> Neuroscience is not even beginning to understand consciousness, and that may be because neuroscientists have already made up their minds that it is generated by the brain. -But it probably is. A material brain produces an immaterial consciousness, a tiny part of the consciousness of the universe. This is why I am a panentheist.- 
> However, the mind/identity is constantly changing, again through an inexplicable process of abstract experience imprinting itself on the dualist's immaterial energy (or the materialist's brain). If I remember rightly, our process theologian Frank talked about God releasing particles of himself, and this might perhaps fit into the dualist scenario: that each living being inherits a particle of God's conscious energy, and this is exposed day in day out to the experiences of life, which progressively fashion the identity. The body will inevitably influence it, since the body is also part of our experience, and as this energy is enclosed in a physical framework, naturally the two interact so long as the physical framework is alive. When it dies, the particle returns to the universal energy, while still retaining the identity it has formed during the life of the physical being. This would account for many mystic and psychic experiences.-Now you have something. Frank and I are close together.
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> Alternatively, we are nothing but our material cells and their chemical interactions. A much simpler theory, but just as incredible, incomprehensible and confusing.-An emergent property joining the UI. The brain is a radio sender and receiver, whence the 'psychic' phenomenon you alluded to above. The electromagnetic waves of radio signals are not intelligible until received by a proper decoder. Seen as waves, they are just waves. They are information only when properly decoded. Yesterday, my psychic wife had to shop for groceries. Her choice is two areas equally far away from us. She felt compelled to go to a specific area and found a food item we have been searching for over several weeks in other areas without success. Remember I've described her 'seeing' things before. I was startled the first time, but I've gotten accustomed to her telepathy now.