JITOTM36: Kinds of Consciousness
You know what consciousness is like... for you. But what was it like for an early human? What would it be like if you could heed your gut feelings better? What if you had a better sense of smell? Let's get really funky: what if you were a bee? Or a robot? Or a computer program trained to fly like a bird?
You don't know, do you? Neither do we. But we're talking about what it's like, anyway - it's just too interesting to resist - on this week's episode of JITOTM, Kinds of Consciousness.
posted by David Newland at 7:06 PM
2 Comments:
This isn't really "another kind of consciousness" but it's something I've often wondered about and thought I'd see if you had any insight.
My son, who is eight, has, not one, not two, but a whole suite of imaginary friends. The first one, Millie, came into being when he was about three. There is no doubt that, even then, he was aware that she was imaginary -- when she was first introduced to me he pulled me down and whispered "she's just imaginary, so you can't really see her. But don't tell her, she doesn't like to hear that."
Over time, Millie was joined by several additional friends, both male and female, about whom my son can tell you as much, if not more, than he can tell you about his real-world school friends. He knows all their names, what they look like, how old they are, where they live, what they do during the day, and more. These elements of their lives have changed appropriately over time -- they have aged as he has, they have moved when we have, &c.
He regularly talks to these friends, sub-vocalizing his side of what usually sound like rather complex conversations whenever he is doing something on his own. He even created an imaginary cell phone that he picks up and uses to call them when he's bored in the car!
Are his thoughts and memories of these imaginary friends as deep and personal
as they appear? Is the richness of the information available about them an indication that he is as conscious of them as he is of his real-world friends?
On a similar note, while my son is aware that these friends of his are not "real", there are some people with mental illness who do speak to people who are not there without being aware that their conversational partners are "imaginary". What, then, is the difference between the consciousness of a normal child talking with an imaginary friend and that of a mentally ill adult carrying on a conversation with someone who exists only in their mind.
Thanks,
Jenni Merrifield
3:29 AM
A while ago, I read Jay Ingram's book-- Talk, Talk, Talk. Jay mentions a survey which reveals that 70% of the population has heard a voice in their head other than their own... so clear even, that individuals would often look around the room...only to find no one present.
The theory that I am about to share is remarkable and frightening at the same time... certainly it gives food for unconscious thought. It is 100% possible, that modern man...or at least some, are more than one individual. Nature after all does have a propensity to twin it's living creatures... in fact, isn't that how the diverse life forms came to evolve-- that single cell amoeba had to have changed-- mutated/twinned... the one celled creature becomes two, etc until you have multi celled creatures.
In our own world we see evidence of conjoined twins, in fact a program just recently was aired for several months -- two teenage girls (at least one of them) sharing what appeared to be a single body, but with two heads. In the case of this particular conjoined twins, each brain operates one half of the body... they have to cooperate (and they do very well),in order to walk and run.
Now here is a 'what if'. What if conjoined twins could blend in even better-- so that they appear not only as one body, but one head as well. And what if this had been going on for a very long time in our evolutionary process... to the point where natural selection would have created a 'super human' (after all two heads are better than one... as long as they cooperate). So would it not be feasible to think that one would then have evolved in the subconscious (a super brain, that could feed information from what would appear to be the unconscious mind to the conscious).
Now here is the real mind bender-- what if these super'unconscious' brains could communicate with one another (unbeknown to our conscious selves). This could explain phenomena such as the 'collective consciousness' and of course, clairvoyancy... and as well, Genius.
I watched a program recently where a scientist being interviewed had made two great medical discoveries, the science of which involved locating genetic markers. The Interviewer questioned him on how he could make the discoveries considering the probability ratio of making the first discovery was one in millions. In other words it was an accident. She went on to say, "... the probability ratio of making the second discovery, was again, the same... how did you do it?!" (double luck?!)
His remark, "I don't know, I got on a path and it simply just felt right."
It is certainly food for thought... and it is very possible that if this theory is correct, then one day we may see a 'coming out party' like no other.
7:58 AM
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