Closer To Truth: The Brain And The Mind

Closer To Truth: The Brain And The Mind

There is an ongoing PBS TV series (also several books and also a website) called "Closer To Truth". It is hosted by neuroscientist Robert Lawrence Kuhn. He's featured in one-on-one interviews and panel discussions with the cream of the cream of today's cosmologists, physicists, philosophers, theologians, psychologists, etc. on all of the Big Questions surrounding a trilogy of broad topics - Cosmos; Consciousness; Meaning. The trilogy collectively dealt with reality, space and time, mind and consciousness, aliens, theology and on and on and on. Here are a few of my comments on one of the general topics covered, subjects dealing with the brain and the mind.

What Things are Conscious?

Consciousness is just awareness. It includes awareness of your immediate environment as in that clap of thunder. It includes awareness of the state of your body as in I'm hungry or I'm tired or my knee hurts. It includes awareness of what's on your mind as in will he ask me to marry him on our date tonight. In that sense, all living things have consciousness since all cells have to be aware of at least the state of their immediate environment and respond accordingly. So all living things are conscious, albeit to varying degrees. However, if I apply that statement, "to be aware of at least the state of their immediate environment and respond accordingly", then I would have to acknowledge that the fundamental particles are conscious (and have some degree of free will in their response). I'll just cite one example for the sake of being brief. An electron gun fires an electron at two side-by-side slits. If one or the other slit is open, the electron will pass through and impact in one spot on a detector screen opposite. If both slits are open, the electron will go through both slits by shape-shifting into a wave, interfering with itself (as waves tend to do) but the detector screen opposite will still record the impact of a particle. However, if one slit is open, then many electrons fired one after another will pass through that one slit and will hit that one or very near that one lone spot on the detector screen. If both slits are open, although each individual electron that passes through both slits simultaneously (as an apparent wave) will be recorded as hitting one and only one spot on the detector screen as it morphs from particle to wave and back to particle again, the sum total of many electron hits will show the smear or spread of a classic wave interference pattern, even if one electron is fired and hence recorded on the detector screen before the next electron is fired. Now the implication is that any one electron is conscious and aware of whether one slit or both slits are open, and its behaviour changes accordingly. Further, all electrons are aware of what all the other electrons did and where they impacted before it became its turn. In other words, an electron heading towards both slits being open, not only is aware of that fact, but seemingly knows when it morphs back into an electron after having passed through both slits at the same time, not to impact exactly where the previous electron impacted, but to pick a choose an impact point that will uphold the wave interference pattern. What things are conscious? Maybe at the most fundamental level all things are conscious.

Why a Mind-Body Problem?

Is there a mind-body problem? Is the physical (body and brain) and the mental (mind) really two entirely separate and apart things each governed by differing laws, principles and relationships? Probably not, because that might suggest that the mind has an independent existence separate and apart from the body and brain. Can the mind exist independently of the body/brain? Can the body/brain exist independently of the mind? Well the mind cannot exist independently of the body and the brain. Destroy the body; destroy the brain and what are you left with? I very much doubt your mind is still intact and wondering where the body and brain got to. On the other hand, you can be mind-dead due to extensive disease or injury to the brain or brain chemistry, yet both the brain and the body can be externally supported on life support and thus be technically alive. But there is no mind to be had although the brain and the body are artificially being kept ticking over. Should the body and the brain end up recovering following such heroic medical efforts that doesn't mean that the mind will reappear. How many cases have there been of life support being terminated because even though the brain and body can be technically kept alive almost indefinitely, there is no hope that the mind will ever come back. So, the mind is 100% dependent on the functioning brain and body; the body and the brain is not dependent on the viability of an intact and fully functioning mind. The mind and the body are linked with the mind subservient to the body/brain. The mind has no separate and apart existence.

Are Brain and Mind the Same Thing?

The mind and the brain are not synonymous. The brain can exert control over the body in areas that the mind can't as in that autonomous nervous system which makes sure your heart beats and your lungs breathe while your mind sleeps. In fact your mind often does a disconnect and not just when you sleep but when you lose consciousness for any reason, say passing out for lack of oxygen. However, your brain is on duty, on the job, 24/7/52. Even if your mind is wide awake, your mind, your self-awareness, cannot will your heart to stop beating or your lungs to stop breathing. Your mind has no final say in denying feeling thirsty or hungry or tired. The brain ultimately rules the roost. The brain obviously exists and functions even when the mind is in limbo-land; but the mind is never on the job while the brain is in limbo-land. No brain equals no mind, but no mind doesn't translate into no brain. That's a no-brainer!

Does Brain Make Mind?

I think that it is relatively easy to conceive of a brain without a mind but relatively difficult to conceive of a mind existing without a brain. Mind is associated with awareness in general and self-awareness in particular, including all those sorts of things referred to like sensations, thoughts, cognitions, intentions and feelings. However, when you are asleep, or passed out drunk, or knocked unconscious, or under anaesthesia while under the knife, your mind is in never-never-land. Yet one would be rather hard-pressed to suggest that your brain was in never-never-land while asleep, drunk, etc. If the brain should be destroyed, well the mind goes too, but as I've already pointed out, lack of mind doesn't mean lack of brain. So, the brain and the mind are certainly linked with the mind subservient to the brain. So, does the brain make a mind? Well the mind can't make the brain!

Anything Non-physical about the Mind?

To my way of thinking, the term "non-physical" implies that there isn't any matter or energy involved in whatever you are applying non-physical to. The mind is generated by the electrical (energy) and chemical (matter) processes of the brain. If you cease all electrical and chemically induced brain activity, well that's a pretty good definition of being brain dead, and therefore biologically dead unless an artificial source of chemicals and electricity is applied to keep the body ticking over, as in being on life support. Regardless, if you are brain dead, you are mind dead. If there was something non-physical about mental activity then presumably the mind could still be ticking over inside a dead brain. Why does that strike me as being unlikely in the extreme? Maybe that's because it is unlikely in the extreme.

What's the Meaning of Consciousness?

Consciousness has meaning, or at least meaning in an evolutionary sense; in a survival-of-the-fittest sense; as a consequence of natural selection. Consciousness is awareness. If you are not conscious then you have no awareness, and if you have no awareness or consciousness of what's going on around you, then the odds are pretty high that you are not going to be passing on your genes to the next generation. Consciousness might have started out as a random accident; but that consciousness should still exist today means you don't need philosophical jargon or metaphysical waffle to explain consciousness. Charles Darwin did that job for you over 150 years ago.

What's the Essence of Consciousness?

The essence of consciousness is awareness. In fact IMHO the two words are synonymous. That awareness could be three-fold. Firstly, you are conscious or aware of your external environment. You see the lightning; you hear the thunder; you feel the wind; you smell dinner cooking; you taste the food. Secondly you are conscious of, or aware of, the state of your body. Your heart is beating rapidly; you have acid indigestion; you are sleepy; your nose is itchy. Lastly, you are conscious of, or aware of, the inner workings of your mind that come to the fore. You are depressed at the ever ongoing gloomy, cold and damp winter weather. You grieve over the death of your pet. You think that you'd better start to get dinner on the stove. You imagine all of the goodies you are going to buy at the start of the mid-season sales. So, a trilogy of facets of reality (environment, body, and mind) that requires your attention and therefore has your awareness, is the essence of your consciousness.

Does Consciousness have Purpose?

Does consciousness have a purpose? You better believe it! Consciousness is just awareness, an awareness of the external environment, an awareness of the body, and awareness of the mind. When it comes to coping with all that life throws at you, and I don't mean just humans and just now, but all life forms that have survived, even thrived throughout geological time, then awareness is a must part of your arsenal. If an organism has no consciousness, no awareness of what is going on around and inside of it, it is not going to survive, and therefore hardly thrive, for very long. If there is prey or predators in your immediate environment, you need to be conscious of that. If your body tells you it's time to mate, you'd better be aware of that too or else you aren't going to pass on your genes. If your sensory apparatus alerts you to danger, then your mind has to decide to fight or make flight. An organism's very ability to survive is totally dependent on it having some degree of consciousness or awareness. Survival, that's the purpose of consciousness.

Does Human Consciousness have Special Purpose?

The phrase "special purpose" implies some sort of direction or design imposed on our consciousness. Purpose might be the result of natural selection, more likely as not our consciousness increases the prospects for survival and thus the ability to pass on our genetics to the next generation, but "special" purpose is heads and shoulders above that concept. Perhaps, if we 'live' as simulated beings in a Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe, then we have been programmed with a special purpose consciousness in order to perpetuate the existence of simulations. We are the Supreme Programmer's way of creating further simulations on down the line, much like the chicken is an egg's way of creating more eggs.

Is Consciousness an Illusion?

Is consciousness an illusion? Well, if it is, you're not going to survive and thrive for very long. Consciousness is your awareness, awareness of the state of your current environment, awareness of the state of your body in the here and now, and awareness of your current and ongoing mental state. If your external environment is an illusion, if your body is an illusion then I guess you are just a brain-in-a-vat since at least your current mental state cannot be illusionary - "I think therefore I am" I believe is the relevant quote. You respond to what your awareness tells you (that's self-awareness) as in it is raining outside so up goes the umbrella; I keep yawning so maybe I should get some shut-eye; I hate my next door neighbour so I'm going next door and shoot him. My variation on the famous quote is therefore "I respond, therefore I am." If you think (awareness) and if you respond (self-awareness) then it's rather unlikely that you are giving rise to thoughts or actions that are in response to illusionary stimuli. If the stimuli isn't illusionary, then your awareness of it, your consciousness, isn't illusionary either.

Why did Consciousness Emerge?

Although it would appear that when coming to terms with quantum physics one needs to deal with the apparent consciousness (or awareness) possessed by the elementary particles, and thus one could argue that consciousness emerged at the very Big Bang beginning, I'll ignore that and just assign consciousness as an emergent property of life which is pretty much what the consensus is. Now I equate consciousness with awareness. Any unicellular critter or cell that emerged from any sort of primeval soup had to emerge with awareness intact; as part of the biochemical apparatus of that living structure, or else. Survival of the fittest started in earnest from the very beginnings or origins of life, or nearly from the start, once life-forms had to start eating other life-forms, which is to say when the nutrients of the primeval soup were depleted. These first unicellular critters had to be aware that there were nutrients to be had in the primeval soup, then aware that other critters were potential prey or predators. If they did not emerge with that awareness, or consciousness, they did not survive, far less thrive. So, it is not surprising that consciousness, or awareness, emerged nearly cheek-by-jowl with the very first life forms. Awareness has survival value even now, just as it was in the beginning.

Quantum Physics of Consciousness

There are micro happenings that are just too small to have any significant impact in the macro realm. A baseball that hits the outfield wall out in Yankee Stadium isn't going to destroy the ballpark. Photons of light have energy but if you go out into the sunlight you are rather unlikely to be knocked flat on your back. You may have a wave-function but nobody is likely to see you in two places, or see you both dead and alive, at the same time. If the Earth went down a Black Hole, the Black Hole would consider the Earth just another minor cosmic snack. If one person runs in the opposite direction to the Earth's spin, the world still goes on turning as it should. And so it is with consciousness. The chemistry, the chemicals, the physiological structures that ultimately control consciousness are too much in the macro realm for quantum effects to have much, if any, effect.

Is Consciousness Entirely Physical?

Yes, consciousness is entirely physical. The proof of that pudding is that you can change the state of your consciousness via the intake of physical substances. Such substances include well known drugs, both legal and illegal. So can certain foods. A lack of oxygen will alter your consciousness state of play. A physical disease can change your state of consciousness; ditto a physical injury such as one resulting in amnesia. A change in your physical or body chemistry including your brain will change the state of your consciousness, as in going to sleep. Sleep can be induced via an anaesthetic which is surely a physical substance. Getting away from humans, you'd be hard pressed to say that a cat under the influence of catnip has the same state of consciousness as a cat not under the influence of catnip.

Does Consciousness Cause the Cosmos 1?

Assuming that the cosmos is not a simulation but a really real place, and assuming that only living things exhibit consciousness, then consciousness played no part in the creation, or even the early evolution of the cosmos. If the Big Bang event scenario is correct, even in the broadest context, then immediately post Big bang, and probably for quite some time thereafter, the cosmos was not even close to being a Goldilocks Universe and thus the cosmos was devoid of life and devoid of consciousness. Immediately pre Big Bang, assuming a before the Big Bang (which I do), the conditions would also not have been suitable for life, as say in any Big Crunch that would of eventuated just before the Big Bang. Any time close to that Big Bang event, on either side of that Big Bang event, is not a time any intelligent and conscious life forms would want to find themselves in. As we note in the movies, and in real warfare, any time that bomb is about to go off is a good time to head in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, in space-time either side of the Big Bang event, there may not have been any other direction to head into. And so the odds suggest no life and no consciousness pre Big Bang as well as post Big Bang and thus consciousness played no role in and around the Big Bang event.

Does Consciousness Cause the Cosmos 2?

One possible form of reality is that life, the universe and everything is a wetware simulation. It might be that you have imagined or dreamed or daydreamed up the entire cosmos from scratch and that all reality just exists in your mind; in your consciousness or perhaps subconscious. Or, perhaps someone (or something) else has consciously or perhaps subconsciously dreamed up life, the universe and everything and you are a part of their mentally-generated reality. I'm not sure how this possibility could ever be disproved, so in theory, maybe a consciousness did cause the cosmos. Now as long as that entity that contains that consciousness doesn't wake up or decide to invent a different cosmos, then all is right with the cosmos we virtually inhabit.

Must the Universe Contain Consciousness?

Must the [rest of the] universe contain consciousness? Absolutely not, any more than the rest of the universe MUST contain other extraterrestrial life forms. Life on Planet Earth, or at least a lot of life on Planet Earth, has consciousness. But, that could be a one-off fluke. You can't argue consciousness being a bit of a universal property throughout the cosmos from a statistical sample of one. The universe can contain consciousness since some terrestrial life forms exhibit consciousness, like ourselves, but that doesn't mean it MUST contain consciousness across the cosmic board. An extraterrestrial life form like a virus on the Planet Zork may not of necessity exhibit any consciousness. It might be hard to argue that a virus exhibits consciousness, and viruses could well be distributed throughout the cosmos via that seeding process known as panspermia.

Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Consciousness?

That consciousness exists means the universe must be fine-tuned enough to allow consciousness to emerge from those basic laws, principles and relationships that rule the cosmic roost. However, consciousness is not inevitable. There was a time in the cosmos when life, hence mind, hence consciousness did not exist, so consciousness did not spring into existence nanoseconds after the Big Bang event. We only have one example in the entirety of the vast cosmos of consciousness existing, so consciousness may well be a fluke. It's hard to extrapolate from a statistical sample of one. There wouldn't appear to be any other form of consciousness anywhere else in our solar system so it's difficult to argue that consciousness is universal or built into the fabric of the cosmos. Just because there is one green apple in a barrel of red apples doesn't mean the barrel was required to contain any green apples.

Powers of the Subconscious

Truth be known, I believe that the subconscious is a far more mysterious realm of the mind or of the brain than consciousness. I'm in total awe of what the subconscious accomplishes, and not just in the human species but any species that has even the most basic rudiments of a neural network system.

Can the Mind Heal the Body?

Normally the body heals the body. If you suffer a bruise, a scratch, a pulled muscle, a broken bone, or get a headache, over time the body heals the body, albeit it takes longer the older you get. There are of course situations where it is beyond the body's ability to heal the body and for that one then usually requires externally applied specialized chemical (as in pharmaceuticals) and/or physical (as in surgical) treatments. Sometimes nothing chemical or physical can heal the body. Ultimately healing, even post-surgery, is a function of natural body chemistry (like blood clotting) or of chemistry that is taken into the body (like prescription drugs) or of changes of body chemistry induced by the mind. The mind - chemistry connection is a two-way street. Chemistry can influence the workings of the mind; the mind can influence body chemistry. But when all else fails, is there mind over matter? Can the mind heal the body without resorting to chemistry? Is there such a thing as the healing power of positive thinking that doesn't involve matter and energy? Probably not, and for two reasons. The healing process involves physical things (like drugs) acting on physical things (like body tissues). Non-physical things cannot influence physical things. A non-physical Wednesday cannot have any control over whether a physical thunderstorm will or will not happen. The second thing is that people still die even though all of their mental powers have been brought to bear on that not happening. You suffer from terminal cancer. No natural body chemistry, no prescription drugs, no surgery is going to change that. The power of your mind is not going to change that. You suffer a major heart attack and your heart stops beating. No amount of wishful thinking is going to make things better and re-start your heart, only something physical is going to come to your rescue in time. If the mind alone could heal the body when all else fails, there wouldn't be any logical reason why you should ever die. Clearly everyone who has ever died has had a mind and probably would have applied that mind in a last ditch effort to prevent their demise. It doesn't work that way.

How does Memory Work?

How does memory work? I haven't a clue! What I am certain of is that somehow memory must be an emergent property of chemistry. There are many different types of chemistry. There is soil chemistry. There is food and cooking chemistry. There is liver chemistry, and blood chemistry, respiration chemistry and the chemistry that digests your food. There is the entire petrochemical industry. There is the entire pharmaceutical industry obviously based around chemistry. There is the chemistry of photosynthesis. There is mineralogy. There is the chemistry of metallurgy. There are dozens of forms of chemistry. None of those other forms of chemistry ever result in the emergent property of memory. Then there is the chemistry that's part and parcel of the neurosciences. Somehow that type of chemistry ends up determining an emergent phenomena of memory. But there's a bit more to it than that. Various products of chemistry have been deliberately given a fixed memory, like a film-strip, a CD or DVD, a magnetic tape, even a book or hieroglyphs. But that memory is absolutely fixed. The film or the CD or the book plays the same from start to finish no matter how many times you watch or hear the contents. There is one other emergent property associated with biological memory, and that is creativity. You can take a piece of music on a CD. The CD's memory plays the music in a fixed absolute way again and again. Now take that same piece of music that's part of your memory. You can in your mind speed up the piece of music, slow it down, hum it in a different key, change the notes or the lyrics if you wish. So chemistry, brain chemistry, not only gives you memory but also creativity based on those memories. How the heck atoms and molecules can do that is IMHO one of the Big Questions yet to be given a satisfactory answer.

What is Self-Awareness?

Awareness is the same as consciousness. It just means that you are aware of your surroundings. Your surroundings include the environment external to yourself which you perceive via your five senses. It could mean internal awareness of the state of your body. It could mean being aware of your thoughts, emotions, and related. So you are aware or conscious of the fact that it is really hot inside your home. You might be aware or conscious that you have a headache. You could be aware or conscious that you are worried about your car being low on gas. Self-awareness is being aware or conscious of those various facets that have registered and that are specific to you and then acting on them. It's my variation on the famous saying - I respond therefore I am.

You might be aware that many people maybe hot, have a headache, and need to refuel their car, but self-awareness acknowledges those facets of your surroundings as they apply to just you. Self-awareness then enables you, and only you, to take direct action to deal with those facets that have arisen in your awareness, or at least deal with them if you are able to. You might not be able to deal with someone else's headache or even want to, which in itself is a self-awareness reaction. So, your self-awareness that you are hot translates into you turning on the air conditioner. Your self-awareness that you have a headache translates into taking a couple of aspirin. Your self-awareness that your car needs to be replenished with gasoline translates into taking the car to the service station and topping up the tank with fuel. So, self-awareness is acting on what your awareness or consciousness is telling you.

What are Altered States of Consciousness?

Normal consciousness, whatever normal actually means, is a reflection of your brain chemistry. The proof of that pudding is that a change in your brain chemistry, and that includes changes induced by meditation, sleeping, disease and injury as well as by drugs of any type including those in the foods you eat, will change your normal consciousness to something other than normal consciousness, albeit at times by so little an amount that it is hardly apparent. Altered states of consciousness are just variations on the theme of normal consciousness, part of the consciousness continuum. Just like you have the electromagnetic spectrum that goes from very short wavelengths to very long wavelengths you have a range of states of consciousness. What goes gamma-ray wavelengths tell us about the 'normal' visible range of wavelengths or the range of radio wavelengths? They are all are the same, but different, but not different in principle. All the range of wavelengths just sort of gradually merge from one label (gamma-ray) into the other (visible) and the next (radio). So one altered state of consciousness merges into another state if the brain chemistry is tweaked, and perhaps there is no really defined or definable normal state of consciousness - every state of consciousness can be considered an altered state of consciousness relative to every other state. All states of consciousness are the same, but different, but not different in principle.

Does Consciousness Lead to God?

It is difficult to decide that issue about consciousness alone or awareness in isolation leading to belief or non-belief in a supernatural deity because humans are subjected to all sorts of other influences on the subject like books and parents and teachers and how the general culture you are immersed in has slanted the issue. America is a religious country and has in general a low tolerance for atheists; Muslim dominated countries even more so, while Europeans tend to be way more tolerant. So, to decide the issue, one needs to take another closely related species that has consciousness and observe if that species exhibits any sorts of behaviour that would be suggestive that they have belief in a god and a spirit world on their mind. That sort of observation might be relevant regardless whether or not God is responsible for consciousness since clearly even if He is, that relationship hasn't translated or eventuated or taken hold as a universal belief in that God in all and sundry. I certainly haven't observed any sort of behaviour in my many cats over the years that would be suggestive that they have the concept of a deity or a spirit world or an afterlife on the brain, and I would argue that they on the other hand do exhibit consciousness. Perhaps some behavioural scientists who work with primates either in the laboratory and/or in the wild might be able to shed some light on this.

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