CONSCIOUSNESS AND BRAIN

      I have been intrigued by the debate as to what is consciousness. The debate has gotten more intense with medical and neuroscience advancement. We did not have CT scan till 1980  and the PET SCAN came later on . The PET scan is more biological while the CT scab is more anatomical. And there is now MRI .As one can easily understand the subtle things mind and intellect and CONSCIOUSNESS can not be seen by in anatomical scan and needs ADDITIONAL THINGS  and so far there is no scan which shows the consciousness. The MRI is Magnetic Resonance Imaging . Since there is magnet and there is iron in blood and red blood cells one can at least see if there are areas in brain which light up with certain emotions etc. This is promising field of investigation. 

  The question is what is consciousness  and where does it come from. As I mentioned above ,we have Brain as the source of all out thoughts  and memory. So does the brain - anatomical brain - produces consciousness or is the consciousness causes brain to function or the 2 are independent entities ? There has bee number of neuro scientist who are working on it . As I have mentioned in past the chemical reaction or the electrical activity that happens when we see or touch or hear , are same ,no matter what we are seeing - a table or spouse or cake. Then why do we have different reaction ? Then the answer given is it jogs our memory and based on our previous experience, we react. But the question is how is the memory stored in a cell - if it is in some form of chemical or electrical activity, then how is it different for different things ? How would my memory in form of chemical or electrical activity be different for cake than my spouse? We certainly have no answer as yet . We are making progress on where is memory stored in anatomical brain. I feel that there the memory is stored in 'ABSTRACT' form in ASTRAL brain  and  it is carried from one life to other .Again there cannot be direct proof to such a statement only circumstantial. We often see children born of same parents ,brought up under similar conditions having  entirely different liking. 

    I know I started with consciousness , but ended with something different. Some feel that that the so called consciousness is produced by brain . Roger Penrose has been talking about microtubules in neurons  and some others are saying that it is like symphony .In symphony one has a sound produced by many musical instruments playing at the same time  and the final product is symphony music . In that same way multiple neurons firing at the same time produce consciousness. These scientists do not feel that the consciousness is anything independent from anatomical brain and is product of neurons firing . Again I do not agree . But my thoughts in next blog.