Dualism (Identity)

by dhw, Tuesday, March 10, 2015, 19:35 (3325 days ago)

dhw: (Under “What makes life vital”) When people say consciousness “emerges”, they usually mean that it is produced by the interplay between the neurons. If consciousness exists independently and the brain is a receiver and not a transmitter, the progressive complexity of the nervous system and of brains is the RESULT of increasingly complex consciousness, not the producer. Is that what you mean?-DAVID: The concept of receiving consciousness arises from the discovery that NDE's demonstrate consciousness independent of a living brain. The theory is really a form of dualism. -I'd have thought that consciousness existing independently of the brain was the whole point of dualism, and NDEs, OBEs, and many other psychic experiences seem to suggest this is so.
 
DAVID: I am sure the extreme complexity of our brain, as compared to lower animals, results in a much more complex form of consciousness, which we certainly have. -This seems contradictory. If consciousness is independent of the living brain, how can the complexity of the brain RESULT in complex consciousness?
 
DAVID: Under this thought, there is a universal consciousness 'out there' with lower and higher levels that can be 'received' by the brain at its current level of complexity (or "receivingness"). Since I believe as God, the universal consciousness, it all fits with my way of looking at things.
-Vaguer and vaguer. Why does there have to be a universal consciousness just because each of us has a complex consciousness of our own? Why not zillions of individual consciousnesses? What you have written actually suggests that we are not thinking our own thoughts at all, but thinking (“receiving”) God's thoughts. Exit free will.