Consciousness, identity, OBEs... (Identity)

by dhw, Saturday, January 15, 2011, 13:15 (5060 days ago)

Please can we take this discussion off the epistemology thread.-TONY (B_M): We are not even able to pin down the nature of consciousness itself, so we are in essence unable to locate the 'receiver', should there in fact be one.-This part of the discussion was sparked off by my TV analogy in response to Matt's claim that consciousness ended with the destruction of the brain. The point of my analogy was that the destruction of a TV set (the receiver) did not mean there was no transmitter. I was therefore equating the brain with the receiver, but the subsequent discussion now appears to be equating the "soul" (if there is such a thing) with the receiver. In NDE's and OBEs, the soul appears to perceive physical events, and some patients have said they did not wish to return to earthly life, which indicates emotion and a will ... even if they don't get their own way! Clearly, then, the "dead" patient retains his/her identity (and in this context I would bracket identity and consciousness together). What is the role of the brain if a person's identity is entirely "spiritual"? My suggestion was that the soul is encased in the body, which is why people often talk of death releasing the soul. An OBE/NDE would be just such a release. The brain receives the signals emitted by the soul and sends instructions to the body to react accordingly, although the body also sends signals through the brain to the soul, which actively processes them in order to take the relevant decisions and, again, send out its instructions. If, however, the soul is the receiver and not the transmitter, doesn't this mean that our identity is imposed on us from outside? What exactly is being signalled, and from where?