KMGURU I have done that,,,,I know exactly what you mean, I know the feeling. It is an inspriing feeling and what you have said is important for many reasons than some may realize. If the entire world can experience that feeling of self awareness they will reailze the common thread that runs though all of us that connects all of us. You are correct we are ultimately aware under creation.....was it Carl Sagan that said.....we are Star Stuff, but it goes beyond physical creation. I LOVE THIS TOPIC!!!
Teerum: My first experience, that I can never forget, was after my high school. I was only 14. I was waiting to be accepted at a local college. It was summer time, and I was in the courtyard outside setting up a portable bed to sleep. It was exhilarating...most people will think we are nuts, if we describe what we felt.... There is a poem that describes it well (Desiderata): You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars and you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Thanks for sharing....
I can tell you that I am at times, very much at a loss for how most people I know are not completely mezmorized by the night sky as I am every time I look up. Sometimes I think I may have been dropped here by some alien and I am hoping someday I will get back home. But reality is here on earth, and all the nonsense that goes with it. We are SO Small............But a Large part of what is infinate......
hey all Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! good point bobby lee so do you have self awareness to evaluate your selfcentred self? now theres a confusing question :/ groove on all Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Whether or not plants are intelligent seems, to me, to be irrelevant to our discussion. Are we moving to equate intelligence with self-awareness?? I would tend to disagree with this but, if we are going to move this way, we must then discuss what it is that we mean when we use the word 'intelligence'. In any case, the excercise of relaxed breathing while staring up at the night sky is an excellent one. It's an effective method towards removing ourselves from distractions. It has always been my experience that doing this enables me to lose my sense of self, if anything. That being the case, it would seem to me that the 'self' is strongest in the midst of a busy, stimulating environment. Perhaps the environment even plays a creative role??
Just wanted to add... That of course animals and plants have self awareness, a consciusness. But the plants have however a very different kind of consciousness than humans and animals. Then there are certain animals that are almost plants and falls somewhere in between. The difference in the physical consciousness between different existences have to do with the difference in the physical form. But on a spiritual level, we all can connect to the consciousness of a tree, an animal, a stone, a cloud, a planet, anything. There are no limitations. But for us as physical human beings, to get conscious of your own true nature, the individual soul and it´s purpose for this particular physical existence , seems to be the hardest. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!...If that is the case, most employees in a corporation do not have it....When I ask, why are you doing this, they reply: "I do not know"...or "we have been doing this since the company was founded"...and so on....they never thought to ask themselves "Why?"....Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
and so we have cults that rape, murder and kill societys heart like a callis child with a handgrenade! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
<i>"What is self-awareness or consciousness?"</i> I didn't have time to read through the whole of this thread, so forgive me if I'm being redundant: I read once that a thought cannot see its self and has only im, image, imagination through which it can be.
Self awareness is double sided.... I believe you need to be introspective, but without the power to observe and understand others, it will that more difficult to be SELF aware. I think as a species we tend to limit ourselves and our ability to be self aware, by ignoring others to much. Some of us do anyway, It is clear that by simply observing others you achiieve a greater understanding of yourself. Now if we get in a rocket ship and look at the Earth from space......we take self awareness to another level, we reach beyond the physical world and into the reality of imagination.......the "thought" as you have mentioned Browser is to me is the door to awareness (OH what happened to the SELF?) Is there a SELF??, in awareness, or by letting it go, do we truly start to understand ourselves????
That is an interesting vista. I tip my hat to you. When dealing with the branches and leaves of our existence, I would think it necessary to first understand the self. We would then better understand others. Awareness is, and I think you are correct here, "double-sided" when examining the surface. We have yet to discover the seed, however.
You know in a sense it does not really matter what we do, we are aware on many different levels........all the time, if I consider the times I am NOT on the top of my game, not 100%, maybe that is a sign I am Aware of a complexity that I choose to rise above at other times. Ahh I don't know...........thanks for the reply.......
Ever wonder about the terms of "We all have our days?","I'm not myself today?","Not at the top of one's game?" It makes you aware that self recognises that it has seen days when this was not beyond it. It recognises the implications of not always being as sharp as it is capable of. We have even tried to explain it through biorhythms. Basically the body and hormones afftecting the mind and it's perceptions.
I agree wet 1.......and then some of us find ourselves becoming aware of madness............which I myself fear at times......
Kmguru I noticed your quote, I do not know who that author is, but have you ever read Consilience by Edward Wilson? It's about the unification of knowledge, enlightenment etc......
Hi teerum: Alvin Toffler wrote a few books whose contents are germane to the information age. It is all coming true. You can check out his books at a local library or a used bookstore. In ancient Greece, every subject was philosophy. Then the enlightenment came, and the subjects were split into specialties. Now, we have sub-specialties within sub-specialties. So goes the course of science. Edward O. Wilson suggests that now is the time to start pushing the pendulum in the opposite direction. Neuroscience and sociobiology have brought together physics, psychology, and evolution. Can we go even further and bring all of the subjects closer together by building bridges across the sciences? Wilson claims that the answer is yes. I practice what Wison preaches. But it is very difficult to convince people, specially upper management. But we will keep trying...
Hi everybody, I am a bit disappointed here, for two reasons. 1. You start a discussion only favorite subject the day after I have left for holidays. 2. Why do I not read a word about the mystery of the discrepancy between the third-person and the first-person point of view? Let me explain. When I describe an experience or sensation it will be in the third-person for someone else, but also for me: there is no actual experience of the sensation described in describing it or listening to it. The same holds for the material description of the neural responses to a sensation. For example: when you look at the neural activity in my brain the moment I pick up my cup of coffee, you will see some activity in certain regions. Some of that regions "are about"/"are consistent with"/"coincide with"(?) my sensations related to me picking up the up. BUT this neural activity DOES NOT EQUAL my sensation! How do the two relate? [SMALL]I do have an idea, which I will keep to myself for now... [/SMALL] back to the original question of the thread: To my opinion self-awareness is the third-person counterpart of the (first-person) consciousness. For that matter: an elephant, robot, ant, ant-colony, zombie, whatever may be self-aware - but that does not necessarily guarantee that they are conscious. Please respond. This truly is the Capital Question of life! ~Merlijn
