Consciousness and emotion (Introduction)

by BBella , Friday, October 28, 2011, 05:40 (4754 days ago) @ dhw1
edited by unknown, Friday, October 28, 2011, 05:46

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 body is not the source/cause of our feeling but is the way we "feel" emotion. What we observe within the mind or outside of it (ie the memory of the loss of a loved one, music, etc)is the source but the "feeling" is felt by the body. I'm confused how we "feel" emotion without a body to feel it? Our mind can conceive of it and imagine it...but can it actually "feel" it without a body?

The awareness of loss is the cause of the pain,

Yes, it is the "cause" of pain but it's the body that "feels" the pain by "feeling" the physical part of emotion. You asked "what part of the self actually feels the emotion?" I would think it is the body.

and the accompanying “heartache” or whatever you call it would not occur if the thoughts themselves didn’t torment us.

Right. Mental anguish, aesthetics, etc do cause the body's physical reaction. It's cause and effect. The cause is thinking or imagining something or seeing/hearing something that then gives the effect of feeling the emotion it gives us within the body.

In other words, our prime suffering is mental, not physical.

I can't see how this is. Our prime suffering, as I think of it, is from what happens to us in the physical sense. Lets say we got a pleasant feeling every time we thought of the loss of a loved one as we do when we hear good music...I would think in no time we would have no mental anguish over our loss. It is the pain we feel, in a physical sense, of the loss of a loved one, abuse, etc that helps continue the emotional feeling of pain connected to the situation. If we think of these terrible things it brings back the physical pain of the loss or abuse, etc, so in the end, where we feel the pain is in the body. Maybe I'm just missing the boat here?

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.(?)

I'm completely lost at your question above. Can you rephrase it perhaps?

bb