Is Mental Activity Consciousness?

Recently, I watched a short video presentation by Dan Dennett, a modern Western Philosopher, who considers himself a Philosopher of Consciousness. He indicated that other modern Philosophers look down on him with scorn, because they believe there is no such thing as, "human consciousness."

In his presentation he quoted an idea of another modern Philosopher, to the effect that, "All philosophy is based on rational arguments." Professor Dennett then went on to explain that, in actuality, what people consider to be their consciousness is a, "bag of tricks."

These statements, made by modern Philosophers, came as little surprise to me. I also consider myself a modern Philosopher, and, based on this short video, have decided that I am also a Philosopher of Consciousness. I, however, do believe that there is such a thing as human consciousness; that it is real, and that it is achievable. I have come to the conclusion, however, that normal brain activity has nothing to do with becoming conscious, and is, in fact, a hindrance to achieving consciousness..

That modern Philosophy, as all other forms of modern Scholarship, is an outgrowth of the ideal of rational/scientific thought has been obvious to me since I began to understand the role Programming and Indoctrination play in all of our lives and our resultant lack of true Consciousness. One of the primary underlying Beliefs of Western Science and Philosophy is that Humans are physical, and nothing but physical entities.

Professor Dennett went on in his video talk to explain, and demonstrate, with examples, why in actuality humans are not capable of consciousness, but are, rather, vehicles animated by hundreds-of-trillions of robotic cells, which themselves do not have consciousness either. (This is another example of, "the blind leading the blind" which are rampant in this modern-day world!)

According to Professor Dennett, what humans consider to be consciousness is only made up of strong opinions on anything and everything about which they have no expertise, i.e., accurate knowledge. And, additionally, that everyone believes him/herself to be an authority on their own consciousness. Unfortunately, this is true of the vast majority of "modern" humans.

As an example of brain activity, (equated by him and other, modern "thinkers" with consciousness), he gives that, when the human brain is presented with something or other, it goes off into a stream-of-consciousness, rather than information processing.

Unfortunately, this is actually, relatively, true about the average human brain/mind. When presented with: a new idea, individual, image-of-something, experience, etc., etc., the human brain/mind proceeds to go off into an uncontrolled stream-of-consciousness about whatever it has been presented with, rather than evaluate whatever it has experienced as a new thing, unique to itself. Much of this stream is made up of our Belief System's contents.

There have been some individuals who have come to realize that they cannot even see/remember whatever new thing it was that they had encountered, because of this how-the-brain-functions problem.

Most modern, Western and other, humans' Awareness Systems are being continually bombarded with self-inflicted, and otherwise, stimuli from morning until they go to bed at night. This is true, "in Spades" of the, "younger" generation. Do not think this is, "accidental," or a byproduct of modern life, it is not.

I have named the human ability to feel, see, observe, experience and remember, the "Human Awareness System." While this System is incapable of being overwhelmed, it is certainly being kept occupied with our continual bombardment of it with constant irrelevant input.

Those scientists and others, who purport to think about the human brain's functioning, even Philosophers, pay no attention to this major aspect of human existence, primarily, because it is not considered an aspect at all. In actuality, I believe it is there that true Consciousness may reside! By removing oneself from outside-of-the-Self distractions, to any degree, one can begin to tune in to this major System of awareness and memories. Without doing so, it is unlikely that one will achieve even a modicum of true Consciousness.

Having failed to recognize the existence of the Human Awareness System as a major, if not the most important, part of human existence, it has been possible to hoodwink humans into believing that the brain is the, "seat of consciousness." As a result there exists the "Scientific" squabble over whether there is even such a thing as Mind, as opposed to The Brain, at all.

The Human Awareness System is vast, being partially made up of what is called the five, "senses"--sight, hearing, feeling, smell and taste. This System also includes what has been called a sixth sense, which, because it has no physical base, is debunked as existing at all. Another aspect is the awareness of feelings--happiness, sadness, grief, fear, humor, exasperation, etc., etc. Additionally, the Human Awareness System incorporates a record of everything we have ever done, seen, experienced, felt, dreamt, etc., etc. This has been well established through the use of hypnotic regression techniques.

It is my tentative opinion that the Human aspect, which has been called, "mind," as revealed by such hypnotic regression techniques, may in actuality be an aspect, or outgrowth, of the Human Awareness System. In other words, the Human Awareness System is the key to understanding Consciousness. Consciousness itself has many aspects, the first being: becoming aware, moment-to-moment, of what is being experienced; the second can be expressed as, "becoming aware of what exists beyond the physical," (something which is also denied existence by Western Science and Philosophy). Through what is called, "metaphysical" readings, one learns that even greater awareness' are accessible; these have been called, "Peak Experiences," by the Psychologist Abraham Maslow.

It is, therefore, my conclusion that the physical brain is not the seat of, consciousness, but that consciousness can begin to be achieved through a process of, firstly, becoming aware of what one's mental activity consists, then practicing certain techniques, such as meditation, and other methods now available, for example, the ever expanding field of biofeedback and brain hemisphere balancing, to begin to expand ones Awareness System.