JITOTM42: Consciousness Questions
It's one of our favourite things to do, but let's face it, we don't do it enough. The comments and emails from listeners are always often intriguing, sometimes inspiring, and always interesting. We took a few moments on a summer's afternoon to discuss the consciousness of twins, the power of neural marketing, the Pepsi challenge, Jay's multiple trips to the MRI in the cause of science...
It's a little random and at times, lofty - fundamental disconnect between human consciousness and nature, anyone? - but it's a whole lot of fun. Whether you're being complimentary, confusing, supportive, or argumentative... we're listening, and we love it.
Especially when we get to sing heavy metal riffs to cure your earworms: You have to hear it to believe it... dear listeners, these are your Consciousness Questions. Enjoy!
posted by David Newland at 8:24 PM
3 Comments:
Hello once more Jay and David,
I hope that your summer is not feeling to pass as quickly as mine is. First of all I would like to thank you for responding to my comment - your podcast is apparently full of surprises. I enjoyed listening to this week's summer session and look forward to future ones. Hopefully I will be able to keep listening to the coming episodes, as I am travelling to Italy for the coming year for school.
Anyways - onto my two rather distinct questions. My first is perhaps more of a clarification than a question that I am making in order to hopefully further stimulate some of the ideas I attempted to present in my first post. I wanted to talk about the effects that consumer society can be having on the state of the human mind (or, in the case of a possible theory of collective consciousness, our societal mind). The link that I find interesting between democracy and consumerism comes around voting time (i.e. 1-2 years before elections), as candidates begin 'selling' themselves to what has essentially become their consumer audiences. I wonder whether this stark change from past 'runs' for office (i.e. Abe Lincoln debating for over 6 hours) is reflective of a deeper shift in not just the perspective but the actual functional nature of our individual/collective mentallity and whether it is colgate that is to blame. "An ad does not convey information(...); rather, it relies on deceit and illusions to create uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices. Much the same methods are used to undermine democracy by keeping the electorate uninformed and mired in delusion." These words, borred from Noam Chomsky, I think more adequately express my thoughts. Jay, you mentioned the resources and rediculous sums of cash that went into research efforts to understand the potency and effect of various means of advertising - which is essentially an attempt to implant an idea/desire on the mind of an individual through non-violent coercive means; now not meaning to come of as a conspiracy nut, but is it not entirely possible that the results from these studies have allotted a certain amount of authoritarian and undetectable coercive power to those with the cash to buy time on the radio/tv/etc?
OK. That is question one, I don't know if I have managed better illustrate my thoughts, but hopefully something interesting may come. Now, if it is not too much to ask (I know I am being unpleasantly long-winded), I have another conversation starter. My attention recently has been brought to bear on LSD in a few different instances. The first was the peculiar experience of having a couple of friends come and visit me while on an acid trip at my home (while at school) in Peterborough a few months ago. Talking with them and simply analysing their altered state of perception was fascinating.
I have thought on and off about the drug since that night, but then was confronted with an absolutely fascinating article in the June2007 edition of The Walrus entitled "Peaking on the Prairies" by Jake MacDonald. The article, which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND for summer hammock reading and perhaps some discussion on your show, had the interesting function of at once educating me quite a bit about some of the history behind LSD's infancy and also creating a whole lot of new loose neuron ends in my understanding of human mental functions. It is difficult to paraphrase, particularly with the already lengthly state of this post, but if either of you have any interest I would love to hear each of your thoughts on the topic of LSD.
Anyways, check it out! I know you will be at least as stimulated by it as I was (though hopefully not as stimulated as you may be from taking one said 'trips').
If you have read this long I must thank you a great deal for your patience and look forward to any response.
Peace, Brennan McConnell.
2:46 PM
Hey Jay and David,
it was awsome to hear your response on the pod-cast. Apparently Christmas has come early for me:) I just wanted to say that it is WE who are the organic automatons. And as far as the raccoon consciousness opinion goes, Ive changed my mind, because with a robot you could have a print out of its precise thought process(reading minds isnt impossible, nor is it supernatural for humans). Humans can be robot like or even zombie like under certian conditions. In the super market or mall I dont think people know what to think besides "I dont want to be in this environment" - anyhow- I wanted to say that acting mechanically is like Stoicism. "what is the logical soloution, then exicuting the appripriote actions" - fear is a way we are controlled - I wont elaborate on that, just putting it out there.
Now what I ponder is, is it thoughts that create reality? Ive swayed towards a less quantum "you create reality" idea. I believe that the life you think of, then come to living is because you have a proper understanding of the world as it is.
thank-you again.
10:29 PM
I just read Magic Dan's post and also found in it the seeds for an important conversation that I would love to hear on your program, although also needs to be discussed in the wider public commons. That is, the idea being advocated throughout Opra's booklist, in books like 'the gift'; human beings can control the their future and even the circumstances of their own present situation simply through the use of their MIND to manipulate their world. Now, from a purely scientific point of view, this is absolutely rediculous to the point of being one of the more pop-science propositions in human history... however, somehow this idea continues to gain ground, despite adequate mocking exposition being carried out by sources of popular ridicule like SNL and South Park (another possible topic, why is it that humans appear so capable of accepting truths in the form of a joke rather than the blatant statement... from Shakespeare, and earlier, down to the present in incarnations of the archetypal 'fool' like Jon Stewart and Rick Mercer, somehow people just down react the same way to damaging and revealing truths when posed in the form of a joke.. is this psychological or social?). Back to topic, the idea that the mind can somehow impose its will on the environments that surround it (MAKING reality entirely from the desires of the individual) is both shockingly simplistic and distressingly individualistic. That our society takes pleasure in believing such an absurd notion is troubling in and of itself, but please, tell some of our possible believing viewers, why exactly is this concept of human god-ness (as surely this is) is so ridiculous. A nice debunking of popular mythology is what I live for, please make my wish come true,
Thanks for the summer specials, and I (now moved to Bologna for University) am really looking forward to the next season.
Enjoy the Canadian sun while it lasts, darkness falls...
Brennan.
4:07 AM
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