DrNoGods wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 11:45 pm
Non-materialists, on the other hand, claim that consciousness is some mysterious "thing" that can only be defined amorphously and can only be explained by mysticism or related kinds of arguments. Please give us a nonscientific theory of consciousness since you claim no scientific theory exists, and explain why this should be believed over the simple materialist claim (inferred from observations) that consciousness is an emergent property of a working brain.
Suppose one day you wake up, and you notice that you have no sense of self. You feel loose and boundless as if you can be part of everything. Either you conclude that you are having a depersonalization disorder. You can also conclude that you had one of the most profound experiences that someone can have in this lifetime. This all depends on the circumstances.
Linda's first-hand report from
Yoga International:
I was home alone, walking through the living room, not thinking of anything in particular, when suddenly my consciousness erupted. It no longer ended at the surface of my body but expanded outward, filling the surrounding space. I experienced everything around me as inside me and absolutely identical to myself. I was no longer Linda Johnsen; I was everything. The bliss of that single moment was beyond description.
It wasn't as if I was the universe. I really was the universe. It happened spontaneously, and even though it only lasted a few seconds, I emerged from it changed forever. Any confidence I had in the materialistic scientific paradigm collapsed.
These experiences have all been part of a tradition that has existed for thousands of years. The mystics tell us pathway is none other than discovering consciousness in its pure form.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791389/
As already mentioned, under normal conditions, pure consciousness is only reflected in the intellect and not recognized. Gaining access to pure consciousness and dwelling therein is, in fact, the highest aim in the system of Yoga (to see reality as it is),
The result of having gained access to pure consciousness and dwelling therein is known in the literature as, for instance, “enlightenment” or “realization.” And consequently, the Yoga system also has a procedure for reaching that desirable state.
Only if the fluctuations of the mind can be brought to a standstill will the connection between intellect and pure consciousness become strong enough to achieve the desired access and enable the yogi to dwell in pure consciousness 5.
On the way to attaining freedom, the yogi may (as in the Buddhist path) acquire several kinds of extraordinary cognitions (siddhis) when the last three steps mentioned above are applied in certain ways and to certain objects (see third book of the Yogasutras; see also Braud, 2008). Examples are knowledge of the past and future, clairvoyance, clairaudience, psychokinesis, and telepathy. But the ultimate aim of developing extraordinary cognition is (as in Buddhist approaches), liberation or enlightenment, which can be described in Samkhya-Yoga as gaining unobstructed access to and then dwelling in pure consciousness, without any further reincarnation.
You are also in error about what science is. Everything I am telling you is Science. Mystics have also inferred from their observations and use field research. You don't need technology and a lab to do science. The real problem is you don't like their observations.