Does consciousness exist independantly of the body?

Thoughts?

No. Humans were made to fuck, and fuck they shall.

You mean about the possibility of disembodied conscious beings, or the transplant of a conscience to another body?

In general, I believe the body - or perhaps more specifically, bodily functions - to be linked with consciousness. I think dreams kind of visualize my point - we don’t actively put any thought into it, but our body does the work for us, taking images from our minds and connecting them somehow.

I was leaning more toward afterlife, but you bring up an intriguing idea :open_mouth: Elaborate.

Read the Blank Slate by Steven Pinker.

That was a hell of an answer. :smiley:

And I think no. I think all the records of people floating above their own bodies on operating tables and stuff like that are things the brain and body itself it are creating to stop you going crazy or something.

Aw, but that costs money :frowning:

Can you summarize it quickly?

Waitaminute, THIS is why you told me to shut the hell up! :stuck_out_tongue:

Actually, certain magnetic fields can fuck up how your conciousness perceives itself, like the floating above the operation table things.

I believe the word I used was “FUCK.” :stuck_out_tongue:

Am I the only one who sees the pun here (probably including Hades himself)?

I caught that myself, actually. Had a chuckle.

As for the afterlife, I don’t believe in one.

Disembodied beings: I’m an extremely practical and scientific guy so, by my knowledge, a being’s consciousness springs from the brain’s electrical pulses. For a disembodied conscience to exist, it would require a different kind of energy that could recreate the same process that causes those pulses without requiring any physical manifestation. So no.

I read somewhere that the Earth creates a strange kind of magnetic field of unknown purpose and that it resonates in the same way as the human brain does. Can anyone confirm this?

About conscience transplant: Like Cala said, many bodily functions can alter aspects of you conscience. If you were to switch someone conscience to another body, it would be likely that several aspects would change.

No, as our conciousness is merely an illusion to itself created by the electrical currents in your brain. Think about that! Or can you?

I beleive you need a brain to be conscious, and you need one to be unconscious. Since your brain is a part of your body, my belief is that consciousness does not exist independent of the body.

SG summarized one of Pinker’s points. The debate you’re referring to, Hades, is the presence of the ghost in the machine, the idea of a soul. The problem with discussing the soul is figuring out when “ensoulment” occurs. Is it when the egg is fertilized by the sperm? When you’re a blastula going to the uterine wall? Or when you’re undergoing gastrulation to develop the tube connecting your future ass and mouth? You can’t really start specifying. The concept of consicousness, personality, soul, is a highly romanticized one and from a scientific standpoint, it is extremely hard to define because of what SG said and many other arguments.

Sin needs to bleach his hair white and get a really long katana. Then go about slashing up the employees of a corporate giant’s head office.

The afterlife, if there is any… is to rot in hell. No HUMAN shall go to heaven so… humans were made to fuck. And fuck they shall.

I liked the ass-mouth comment. I feel dirty now. I’m gonna go brush my ass.