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Currently the blog contains 149 entries.
Further thoughts on consciousness .... from New Scientist 19 September 2011
Recent research links the sensory function of smell with emotion and the limbic system and consequently an element of consciousness. "What's more, it is becoming clear that the brain's olfactory centres are intimately linked to its limbic system, which is involved in emotion, fear and memory. That suggests a link between smell and the way we think." "Other work has found that scent can influence our cognitive skills. A study this year by William Overman and colleagues at the University of North Carolina Wilmington found that when men were subjected to a novel smell - either good or bad - during a gambling task used to test decision-making skills, they performed significantly worse than normal. The researchers conclude the scent stimulated brain areas connected with emotion, making their decisions emotional rather than rational (Behavioral Brain Research, vol 218, p 64). Smells also seem to direct our visual attention, and they may play a key role in consolidating memories too (see "Blast from the past").AN EXPLORATION OF CONCEPTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS - some basic thoughts.
The current definition of consciousness is:
Zen and the art of watching films
This draws on a published conversation between Zoran Josipovic, a neuroscientist with an interest in meditation, and another neuroscientist, Rafael Malach, who has performed experiments that may be relevant to this area. Malach argues that at least in some cases conscious perception does require any form of 'observer' inn the prefrontal area, but needs only activation in the sensory cortex. This claim is based on fMRI studies performed by Malach and colleagues. In one study where subjects had there brains scanned while watching a film, there was widespread activation of the sensory cortex in the rear part of the brain, coinciding with relatively little activity in the frontal areas. It was further shown that the more engaging the film, the less activity there was in the frontal areas. The subjects were in a sense out of themselves or detached from everyday cognition by the gripping nature of the film. The experimenters also noted a high degree correlation between the brain activity of the different subjects, something also sometimes claimed for meditators.
EARTH, CANCER, AND THE 100TH MONKEY
"Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and Monsanto´s pesticide Roundup are amongst the most dangerous products of modern times, joining a list that is heavily populated by other Monsanto products such as PolyChlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), dioxin and bovine growth hormones.
End-of-Life Experiences
At the recent 'Towards a Science of Consciousness' conference in Stockholm, Peter Fenwick gave a very interesting lecture on end-of-life experiences (ELEs), which may not yet be in more general circulation.
The Emotional Brain
Emotional processing in the brain revolves around a system of 'rewards' and 'punishers'. Representations of the external world are produced in the cortex, but these are initially neutral in terms of reward value, until they are projected to other brain regions and particularly to the orbitofrontal cortex, which samples the entire sensory range. The orbitofrontal is seen to encode the relative value of rewards. It responds more strongly to sensory inputs related to rewards than to neutral stimuli. Thus it responds more to the pressure of velvet than the pressure of wood. Studies show that the level of orbitofrontal activity correlates to the subjective pleasantness of sensations rather than the strength of the signal being received.
Right Understanding of Time is Bridging Science and Spirituality
Spiritual experiences are known to be “timeless”; time disappears; one enters the “eternal here and now”. The results of our research group demonstrate that space in the Theory of Relativity is four-dimensional. Time is not the fourth dimension of space, time as measured with clocks is the numerical order of changes that take place in a 4D space. Cosmic space is timeless; past, present and future exist only as mind models through which we experience changes in a timeless space. The established scientific practice is experienced through inner psychological time and is therefore “temporal”. By practicing watching the mind regularly one discovers the “inner time” and experiences changes as they take place in a timeless cosmic space. This “a-temporal” experience is conscious; it reveals the sacredness of the world. Rational “temporal” scientific experience and conscious “a-temporal” mystical experience are complementary. The former gives us a quantitative experience of the world; the latter gives us a qualitative experience of the world. A-temporal conscious experience is the source of true human ethic and that is the only thing that can change this world for the better. Rational mind without consciousness is like a lantern without oil. In order to create a human civilization which will live in peace and in a harmony with nature we have to awaken consciousness in each individual world-wide. The right understanding of time is one of the paths leading to this global awakening. Real power of science is uncompromised search for Truth.
12 Problems in Consciousness Studies
The revived consciousness studies of the last quarter of a century has become mired in an orthodoxy that lacks explanatory power. Twelve problems can be seen as responsible for the present unsatisfactory state of consciousness studies.
The Beginning of Death
A character in Philip Roth's book "Exit Ghost" remarks on the initial evolution of single cell structures; that they reproduced through sub-division and thus at that stage of evolution death was unknown.
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