Consciousness and emotion (Introduction)

by dhw1, Thursday, October 27, 2011, 17:59 (4754 days ago) @ BBella

Dhw: So what part of the self actually feels the emotions that cause the material reactions?

BBella: It seems to me, the part of the self that feels emotions IS the body not the brain, altho the brain does detect the emotion/feeling in the body.

You later talk of vibrations in the body, which I can easily understand in relation to music, and to other aesthetic effects caused by an external physical or sensual impression. But many of our emotions are inextricably bound to the mental processing of information that is NOT connected with such impressions. Take grief as an example. The death of someone you love is registered by your conscious mind. This may send out distress signals to the body, and the chemical processes may even kill you, but I don’t see how the body can be seen as the source of our feeling. The awareness of loss is the cause of the pain, and the accompanying “heartache” or whatever you call it would not occur if the thoughts themselves didn’t torment us. In other words, our prime suffering is mental, not physical. Of course, as David says, all of this is tied to the mystery of consciousness, and just as we ask how material cells can be aware of themselves, I’m asking how material cells can experience immaterial feelings.