--- In [email protected], "hugheshugo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@> > wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "hugheshugo" > > <richardhughes103@> wrote: > > > > > > --- In [email protected], Rick Archer <groups@> > wrote: > > > > > > > > More cogently, we have to ask whether the research approach is > > > > really appropriate to the subject. Are brainwave measurements, > > > > no matter how sophisticated, really indicative of the > > > > operation or qualities of consciousness? > > > > > > Of course they are, consciousness is a quality of the brain > > > therefore measuring the brainwaves gives us at least an idea of > > > what's going on. > > > > Whenever I hear something like this, I find myself > > wondering whether everyone who says it has completely > > forgotten the Bardo experience, between death and > > rebirth. Consciousness doesn't stop. It's there while > > the body is lying dead in its coffin and the brain is > > no longer functioning, and its there long after the > > body has been reduced to ashes in the crematorium. > > So what part of that consciousness do you believe > > is based on your physical brain? > > What part of ME isn't based on my physical brain?
Do you believe in reincarnation? I'm asking because many (if not most) TMers do, yet still believe in the "the brain is me" theory. > Memories are held there, moods, emotions have their seat > in hormonal functioning. Do you believe in karma, and in samskaras (with their accompanying moods and emotions) that carry over from one lifetime to another? I'm asking because many (if not most) TMers do. Where exactly are these things "stored" when your brain in one body/lifetime dies? > It sounds depressingly clinical but it's all easily demonstrated. To those who ignore the questions posed above, or whose world view does not encompass reincarnation. > To me reincarnation is an idea that raises more questions than it > answers, Why don't we remember past lives? Many of us do. And almost without exception, those of us who do would say that remembering them is of no more value than remembering last week. Nor is it of any *less* value. If you are able to remember last week, and the way you became angry in traffic and fucked up the rest of your day as a result, you can possibly avoid becoming angry the next time some idiot cuts you off and almost causes an accident. Same with remembering past lives. The value of the memory is the use you put it to. I *do* understand the position of those for whom memories of past lives, or of the Bardo between lives are not a part of their subjective experience. If that has been your experience (or if that marks the limits of your experience so far), then it makes sense to believe that the brain is "me." But if one *does* have access to such memories, and lives with them as a daily reality, the "the brain is me" theory doesn't work, because it doesn't cover experiences that we can *remember*. Similarly, if one believes strongly in reincarnation because it makes sense to them philosophically, and *still* believes in the "the brain is me" theory, then I might suggest that one has not sufficiently explored the implications of their belief system. I tend to believe that the human brain is merely the mechanism *through which* one accesses the *real* place that memories are stored. When the brain dies, that "place" is still present, and can be accessed (through the mechanism of a new brain) in future lives. It's just a theory, but so is "the brain is me." :-) To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
