What Is Not Consciousness ?





 Consciousness is a critical topic to discuss as its nature is not determined by modern science yet.  Neuro scientists are nowadays are only dedicated to the mystery of consciousness. 

Neuroscience has discovered so much about human brain and it's gross aspects like how the brain waves functions ,about how electrical signals transported by nerves and how human nervous system works all together but still can't find the source of Consciousness and reason behind the             "  first person experience ".

Neuroscientists proposes that consciousness may come from pre frontal cortex ,which is frontal region( lobe) of human brain . 

It has been seen that throughout evolution human brain structure changed  . 

During the process of evolution,  ancestors of human race ( Homo sapiens) went through enormous changes in their pre frontal cortex region . It has been claimed by scientific communities based on the findings of skull remains of our ancestors ,that they went through cognitive evolution in which changes in frontal skull structure has been  noticed.

The prefrontal cortex said to be became larger in size , till it reached its maximum state ,through million of years of evolution. 

But this changes in size of prefrontal lobe do not imply that it is the reason for the formation of consciousness . But this structural  changes in brain can only give rise to cognitive capabilities. 

Other group of Neuroscientists proposes that it is the" hind- brain " which give rise to consciousness . Hind- brain consists mainly cerebellum ,pons ,medulla . But this proposition also fails to explain that how can these parts of brain give rise to consciousness. 

Neuroscience fails to explain" subjective qualitative experience "or" Qualia ". 

The model of NCC ( Neural correlates of consciousness) fails to explain why we have different conscious experiences and have forms other phenomenal experiences like we have during meditation and dreams or why we experience subjective realities of the same world. 

Some philosophers say that consciousness is just a emergent property of matter or gross physical body and if matter configure itself or we can configure matter   externally in a complex form like humans ,it can give rise to consciousness. Hence consciousness can be a outcome of computation of a complex system . 

Consciousness is not in the realm of science today ,because its impossible to give this reality i.e. consciousness an material outlook.  For Modern science the world is just made up of matter and everything else is just a epiphenomenon  of the matter including consciousness. So ,the whole outlook of modern science is based on the notion of        " reductionism" which says that everything in the universe can be reduced to the level of matter or gross reality .

 The theory of reductionism has a big problem that it can not explain subtle expressions of the universe like mind ,soul ,emotions ,feelings ,love etc. According to this theory ,mind is the emergent quality of matter and it can not have a seperate identity . The reductionist denies and refutes the existence of soul and even consciousness since they can not objectify and materialise this aspects. 

Some scientists today even refutes                   " quantum  physics" which deals with these subtle expressions like "string theory" ,          " quantum  entanglement" , " quantum field theory" .  

Even scientist like Albert Einstein refused to acknowledge the quantum mechanics and refutes the theory of "quantum entanglement" which came out to be true later . 

But can the quantum physics explain the theory of consciousness? 

Astrophysicists like Carl Sagan  believed that the universe itself has consciousness .  

Recently in 2017 , Astrophysics and theoretical physics  believing in the theory of " pantheistic Cosmo psychism" which was given in the " sankhya philosophy " and this theory also give the solution for "hard problem of consciousness" , already have been demonstrated by swami vivekananda in his lectures on cosmology in American soil. 

So ,as far consciousness is concerned ,only Vedas and Upanishads,especially " Advaita Vedanta" and " Sankhya Darshan" comes in to  the picture of explaining universe as a concious entity. 



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