[MUSIC] >> Stanford University. >> All right, welcome back. It's hacking consciousness, session two,
consciousness and physiology. So let's cover a few logistical things. First before we get started, I'm going to circulate again some sign in sheets, so
if you're taking these for units please sign
in otherwise I don't know if you are here. So I'm going to start right here and you
can just pass it through, and also you might have
noticed we're in a bigger room. So thanks for your feedback. I'm glad that we're much more comfortable
now. It was a little bit cramped in the other
room so this should be quite a bit nicer. Also, I'd like to welcome one of our course advisors that wasn't there last
time, Dr. Caesar Molinas, and I mentioned him
last time, so thank you for being here. He's helped tremendously with the course
and the content so thank you very
much. Also many of you have asked me about the video of last session, so it's
finished editing. There's just a few more logistical hurdles
that we have to go through and it will be posted on iTunes
U and YouTube pretty soon, and before we get
started are there any other sort of logistical questions that you have
about the course, the content? Anything? Yes? >> Is it okay to record, through the
[INAUDIBLE]? >> sure. That'd be fine. Yeah. As long as our speaker is okay with that. >> It's fine. >> It's fine okay. Any other questions? Yes? >> We're supposed to sign in, even if we're
not taking the course for credit? >> If you're not in the email list, please
leave your email so I can sort of email you, if you are then,
don't worry about the sign in. Good. Other questions. [SOUND] Good, looks like we have a great
audience today. So, let's start with a recap first of
what we learned in session one so we've
introduced you to essentially the light motif or the
thesis of hacking consciousness, and what doctor
John Hagelin talked about was essentially that nature is
structured in layers. It starts at the gross level, goes to the
molecular level, atomic, sub atomic, and at the basis of
all of that. Is the unified field and that in our
thesis is consciousness. It's a field of pure being, pure
intelligence, pure silence, pure bliss, and within that field is the
type of programming codes, that really structures the other layers of nature, and
so that really brings us to our next speaker
who will talk a little bit about what is a programming code, and we've also talked
a little bit about how you access that sort of programming code, that
unified field. Dr. John Hagelin mentioned [UNKNOWN] of
transcending, and by transcending, it means to touch that
field directly. And through transcending, you get a lot of benefits out of, essentially, that
particular technique. There are health benefits related with it,
there are mental benefits. There are social benefits and even
environmental benefits associated- With transcending and touching that
particular field and enlivening that in all your activity. So, that brings us to our esteemed guest,
Dr. Tony Nader. Thank you so much for being here. A little bit of a background on Dr. Tony
Nader. He received his MD from the American
University of Beirut. Then went on to get his PhD at M.I.T. in
cognitive and brain sciences. I actually studied cognitive sciences as
an undergrad so it's very close to my heart, and finally he did his
post doctorate at Harvard and he became an expert at
neuroscience human physiology and what he also found is he was really on
a quest. For total human knowledge, and that led
him to work with [UNKNOWN] and under his guidance, he essentially published
three books to really study in very, very great detail this programming code of
nature, and one of the books is called, Veda and Vedic literature in human physiology, and I'm sure Dr. Tony
Nader will talk a little bit about it, but
that's all I have to say. So please enjoy our esteemed guest
speaker, Dr. Tony Nader. Thank you for coming. [APPLAUSE] >> The topic of consciousness is, is
something that has recently been recently meaning in the past 30 years, quite
profoundly studied in science. Science in the past has limited itself to
things that are usually considered physical and amenable to laws that we can analyze and
study and make. Conclusions about, as you know all the
fields of psychology, even medicine about 100 years
ago was an art, and more recently, meaning in the past 40, 50
years, we start to understand that there are laws that, control. or manage the fields, not only of the
physical, but also of the mental. Psychology is becoming, or is a science
now. Even sociology, the study of behavior in a
group is getting to be more and more of a science,
art to some extent is starting to be of course not fully a science
but analyze scientifically in terms of what makes something beautiful or
harmonious or, pleasant or pleasing and so even consciousness
which is something very. abstract, has become, interesting, to the scientists, in today's time,
because science wants, really, to understand, everything about who we are,
where we are, and where we are going. So, the study of consciousness is a field
which is quite wide because of its abstract nature
consciousness lends itself mostly to philosophy and because it
is most intimate to us as human beings we wonder where it comes
from. So I would like in this session and the
next one which I will be giving also in a week to familiarize ourselves with the
field of consciousness broadly and to present to you specifically the
findings and the proposals of a new way, which is actually, ultimately very ancient also, of
understanding what consciousness is. Where this thing comes from. So we'll be on a journey of research, in a sense, together, and you should feel free
to ask questions, and I want to start by saying by modern
scientific understanding, consciousness is not a
problem that is yet fully resolved. So there are many hypotheses, many
thoughts, and many angles. So it's a field which is very. very active. So I am not going to be presenting to you,
necessarily, a final conclusion about what science has decided
today about what consciousness is. Although, I would like to present the
conclusion that I have personally. Solved what consciousness is and what I
feel through my personal experience and my
research what this field is so there is something to
contribute as a proposal and I have recently been studying this
from quite some, even mathematical perspective, which
is not yet fully published. But I would like to share some of these
aspects with you. First, let's see what consciousness is. What is consciousness? We have here some terms you'll have
looked at them you know, awareness, alertness,
attention, vigilance, focus, wakefulness. These these are aspects of consciousness
and we want to know wh..how they relate to what we call
consciousness. The definition of consciousness is by the
factors that makes consciousness exist. What is consciousness? Is the ability to be conscious of
something. But what about awareness? What, what is there a difference between
consciousness and awareness? We'll come back to that. Alertness, attention, vigilance, focus, we
don't need to. Comment much more, but they are kind of
levels of, the acuity or the quality of consciousness within the
wakeful state, the wakefulness state. I put conscience here, because in some
languages, nay, namely Latin languages, there is not
really the. The term conscience for consciousness is
the only one where that they use, but conscience is something
which is ethical. Which is often moral value. You have good conscience, you have bad
conscience. You feel you've done the wrong thing. Whereas consciousness is just the
ability to be awake and aware and able to evaluate ourselves and our environment. Now scientists find
very interesting things and that is where consciousness and
awareness can be handled. As different things, and I want to tell
you, already, that these definitions are not
set and fast. Some scientists, or some philosophers,
might use these terms interchangeably. Some might say awareness is the ability to
be aware of something whereas consciousness is only a
state we are talking about a state of being, being conscious and a
conscious individual which means you are conscious individual but you
are not aware that something's happening in the street outside, and you are still a
conscious individual. They, science has also discovered that
sometimes an individual can be conscious and his physiology aware of
something whereas he or she is not aware of that
thing on a conscious level. What does this mean? They tried some experiments that were
done, and magicians used this. You can have a split screen and you
project onto one eye, let's say, a person who is frowning, and on the other eye, you
project some colorful kinds of rectangles. That are moving around, because of the
quality of the picture, somehow your brain decides not to see the
frowning person. It is being projected to the nervous
system, but you don't see it. Which means, after the experiment is done
and the person has been exposed to this little experiment. Persons ask, what did you see? And they will say, I've seen the, you
know, colorful rectangles moving around. Did you see anything else? Absolutely not. They have literally not seen it. Yet when you analyze what happen in the
brain and physiology, if you are putting them under
certain types of analysis of brain functioning and brain
metabolism, and certain reactions that happen in the brain that we are now
able to. Analyze and know what's going on. In fact, the brain has seen the picture
and actually reacts to it even. So you are reacting to something, which
means your physiology is aware of it, and yet you are not really
conscious of it. So this is just to let you know about the
so many factors that actually influence our physiology and what we call
our consciousness. Now, there are what we call states
of consciousness. You can be waking, dreaming, and sleeping. These are the usual three states of
consciousness, They are states of consciousness not just on the experience level of what waking is,
dreaming and sleeping is, but also on the physiological
level. Every one of these states of consciousness has a corresponding
physiological activity. Your brain waves during waking and your
physiological structure are different than when you are dreaming
or, when you are in deep sleep. I must say the purpose of this, course or talk, is not to make you either
a neuroscientist or a philosopher of, of consciousness, but to open to the awareness the different areas that are
being discussed. So there is no point for me to say, for example, in what way waking is different from dreaming different from sleeping on a
physiological level? You have to believe me that they are
different. If you are really interested of course we
can discuss any of these points. So these are states of consciousness. Now within these states of consciousness. You have variations, what we can call
impaired states of consciousness. For example, anesthesia is not a normal state of consciousness that is usually
known. You give somebody some chemicals, and then the brain goes into certain type of
functioning, and then, you know, is not really
conscious, and it has also its own physiological
changes. There are states which we call locked-in
state, which nobody would really ever want to be
in. It's a terrible state. From a medical standpoint who knows what
that is, anybody has an idea? Okay, not too many so let me tell you what
it is, some movie I think there was at one point where what happens is in locked
state the whole physiology is paralyzed. There are some areas in the brain, nervous
system, stem, brain stem, et cetera, that can be
paralyzed or due to chemicals or something that has
happened and therefore the body is completely locked, but the
brain is aware. So one is imprisoned within one's own
body. It's a terrible state, it's not something,
you know, I, I personally would rather be in coma than in
a locked state. [LAUGH] I hope you know none of us has to
go there, but there is another state which is
called minimally conscious state and this minimally conscious state
is a state where the brain is going through the cycles of waking, dreaming,
and sleeping yet. The individual is an assort of what we
call vegetative state, okay? Why I'm telling you all this is because
this is part of the whole debate about consciousness and the physiology,
and if you want to understand consciousness, it's
good to know. These different states of consciousness, these different impaired states of
consciousness. So that we can make a judgement about what
is influencing what, and where this comes from, or the
other thing comes from. So this minimally conscious state is
medically a state in which the individual physiologically goes
through waking, dreaming and sleeping, and therefore, if you do
analysis of the brain waves and the physiological changes,
you can tell this person is now sleeping in deep
sleep. This person is now dreaming and this
person is now awake. Yet what you have in front of you on a
medical level is somebody who's very minimally responsive which means can
barely, say, move the eyes, many times you have to say they would move
the eyes, look at the right maybe they look at the right and
then they fall asleep. Pinch me, they can try to pinch you or not, and that is minimally conscious
state. The vegetative state is a state in which
some aspects of the states of consciousness are available but the
person is totally non responsive. Totally nonresponsive, which means, pinch
me, turn the eyes, you talk to them, and you have no idea whether they
hear you or not. Or whether they are conscious of anything
or not, and their cycles of waking, dreaming, and
sleeping are disturbed. The person who is in a coma state, is a person who actually doesn't go through
waking, dreaming, and sleep cycles. So when you hear somebody is in coma, then
you know if you analyze their physiology, you find
this person is just in one state. A minimal state, which is even more minimal than the minimally conscious
state, okay? So this give us an idea of all of these gradations of different levels of
consciousness. So to be just complete in our, we are
still defining consciousness. [LAUGH] And what kind of consciousness we
can face. So you have of course, altered states of consciousness which can be altered by
chemicals, hallucinogens. There are people who live lucid dreams. Lucid dream which means you are actually
dreaming, you know you're dreaming but you actually control the dream, and
you can extend it further. You can reduce it and you can enjoy it
if you're enjoying it, and it's actually dreaming, yet you are
controlling the dream. You are, you know, if somebody is dreaming
of flying they say oh I want to fly more, let's fly
more. Like that, some people are awake and
sometimes during lucid dreams they might wake up because there is
some noise or something and then they have the ability
to fall asleep again and continue the dream, and it's not
cheating, it's actually dreaming. It's a real state of consciousness. If you analyze it, you know, they're actually
dreaming. Another kind of state of consciousness
which is also altered is sleep walking which you all
have heard about. You know somebody's literally sleeping
which is in this case the contrary of almost the lucid dream where there is a conscious awareness of controlling
something. But in sleep walking, the person's
actually sleeping. The brain is sleeping, the physiology's
sleeping, but the person is walking. [SOUND] Sometimes [LAUGH] sometimes these patients are quite also violent, because
there is some disturbance there, so there is a great association of, I mean a higher association of violence
during sleep walking. Hypnosis of course is another state in
which the individual is awake but his his his decision making is a little
bit under the control of the hypnotist. So all of these are variations of what we
call consciousness. Now, there are people who have a
religious, spiritual experience of ecstasy or communion with the divine, or
something like this, extraordinary. These are also some kinds of experiences,
and that are experiences of what we call
transcending. Nirvana or Samadhi if you have heard of
this, which is a state of pure consciousness
being experienced by itself, and this states the individual
does not have any specific experience of any
particular object or thought. But just experience consciousness itself. So as if consciousness is experiencing
itself. There are millions of people who actually
have been studied. and have reported this
transcending. Thorough particularly the transcendental
meditation technique, where they have these moments of awareness and consciousness yet without an object of consciousness except
consciousness itself. So it's like consciousness looking at its
own self. Know what is interesting is that in these states of consciousness, like
transcending. You actually also have a different
physiology. Like we said for sleep, waking and
dreaming there are different physiologies, and the
transcendental state and the state where there is this deep transcending, there is also a
different psychology, different brain functioning, much more coherence in
different parts of the brain. Right and left, back and forth, and there
are very profound transformation and very deep
rest in the physiology. The physiology is much more restful than
even deep sleep, yet the awareness is very very
high. There is very high awareness with very
deep rest. So all of these define the differences between what we call different states of
consciousness. So when we look at consciousness therefore
we have these possibilities which are consciousness
being a relative state which is changing, and the relative
means, it's object referral. Meaning it's referring itself to some
thought, some activity, some functioning, and we have what we can call absolute
state of consciousness. Which is a non-changing pure,
self-referral reality. The question that we have before us, is,
is consciousness a something? Is it a something? Or is it just a product of language, a product of the brain, due to situations
and circumstances? And due to transformations and changes and brain activity, and that's what modifies
it. There is a lot of evidence of course to suggest the intimate relationship
between consciousness and physiology. There is no doubt that when something
happens in the physiology, something takes place
in consciousness also. There is no doubt that when there is something that takes place in
consciousness. Something also happens in the physiology. If you are walking somewhere and you see something that is scary, even if by itself
is not scary, but you just analyze it in your
brain, and we usually give the example, if you have a rope in the night, and you're
walking on the street, and there is a rope, some rope somewhere, and you tumble
on it and you think let's say it's a snake. It's not an everyday occurrence in
downtown San Francisco, but it can happen, you
know. Somewhere in the forest, and then you are
scared. The fear because of your mind thinking oh,
I am facing a snake, there is a fear. The fear creates changes in your
physiology and the physiology can go through lots of
transformations. What happens in this is what we usually
call the cycle neuro hormonal endocrine. Immune system reaction. So there is this access cycle neural endocrineal immunological
physiological reaction. Which means from the mind to the brain to the hormonal system to transformations
in the body. So this access exists this way and it
exists the other way also. You might eat the wrong thing, take some
pills or some chemicals and your whole consciousness is transformed like
anesthetics or we have in hallucinogens or we have in
anything. You know that happens physiologically,
physically, it also leads to a different experience on the level of
consciousness. So the intimate relationship that's what we call the changing object referral
consciousness, the other question is is there something that we call absolute state of
consciousness? We'll come back to this because that's
very. Important in our study and the attempt to
hack consciousness. That we have to have all of these factors
kind of available to us because the more valuables we have the better we
can actually analyse consciousness. This chart shows the different here and
there conditions and states of consciousness and
where they stand in [INAUDIBLE] terms of what we call levels of arousal so
along the x axis we have the levels of arousal
and. On this side we have the awareness of the
environment, or the awareness of the self, self
awareness or environment awareness. So there is something physiological and
something on the level of consciousness, and something on the level
of the awareness of the individual. We don't need to go through all this but. You can have these, and look at this chart
a little bit. We take just a half, a minute or 15
seconds, so that you have an idea of where these things
stands one with the other. You have any questions on that? >> Perhaps we can ask again if anyone has triple-A
batteries. >> It's not working. Works on this one but it's weak. It's okay, I mean, the slides are simple
enough I guess. Okay, so this slide is clear. It can also be presented, some scientists
present it like this, and this slide shows the relationship
between different states of consciousness and metabolism in the brain, how the brain
metabolizes different use of oxygen mainly, during these
different states of consciousness. For example, you can see here this one is
zero, because you take the margin here. This is brain death, that is of course, no
consumption of oxygen. The one on the right is the usual
awareness, normal consciousness. You have this kind of reference of how
much conception is. This is to say that there are techniques
that study the activities of the brain, and we have a
relationship between the level of alertness, arousal,
awareness, and how much the brain actually consumes
energy, consumes oxygen. 'Kay, when you are awake, you consume
more. When you are not awake, you consume less. >> Can you explain what the colors mean,
the yellow and the red and the blue? >> yes. The colors means more or less oxygen
consumption. No so like of course [CROSSTALK]. >> Black would be no, right?. >> Yeah, the lower the darker is the less
less utilization and it shows in which areas that are more
or less. So in fact the colour is just not only to
differentiate the total amount of oxygen utilization
because the total amount is. On the Y axis, but the brain is colored to
show the differences between the different parts of the brain and where
it is more, where it is less, okay? Now, information processing, how we as
humans process information. We are process them consciously or
subconsciously. So that is what we call implicit
perception. And implicit learning. Not all that what you learn is a
consciously learned process. When there is a novel experience, something interesting, something new,
the areas of the brain that are related to consciousness are activated, and you get
more. Metabolism or oxygen consumption in those
areas but once you have learned what you're learning it seems the brain
takes it down back to lower levels of the nervous system and stores it there
in terms of memory. And then you don't have to use as much
oxygen, or metabolism, to activate those areas of the higher level of awareness and consciousness, and things
become automatic. It's like you know familiarity with riding
a bicycle or driving a car. At the beginning there is a lot of
attention. And you have to consciously make sure what
you're doing is happening properly and then gradually
it becomes a reflex activity. So there are, there is in the nervous
system different levels of the learning process that ultimately when the process
is well learned. It becomes more on a lower level, this is
one aspect. The other aspect is that we learn a lot
subconsciously also. without having conscious awareness of
something we learn from subconscious levels, so there
is also the unconscious. And I'm bringing these out so that you
become familiar with these terms in the field of consciousness
all of these are important. What is awareness? What is consciousness? What is subconscious? What is unconscious? And what happens in these different
values? And these are all the topics that I usually discuss when we are studying and
analyzing. Consciousness. Now there is another level which is,
scientists differentiate between what is called background consciousness and the
actual consciousness. The background consciousness is the sense
of self. Who you are where you are, your conscious
of being Mr. So and so or Mrs. so and so or Ms. so and so, you
are, you have an identity, you have a name, you see
yourself as being something, a role that you play, or a status that you have, this
plays in the background consciousness. And then you have actual consciousness
which are your intentions, your wishes, your
emotions, your thinking and all of these aspects of activity that are also related to
consciousness. Now, there is an individual consciousness
and there is the others consciousness. Okay, so now we're starting into the
having defined the issues in general that we have at hand, we're going to start to get into some problems that even science is
facing today. For example. It sounds obvious to say my consciousness,
your consciousness, but how can you ever tell that I have a
consciousness? Anybody can be sure that anybody else in
this room has consciousness? It's a big problem in science nobody can
be sure at all. I could be the only one who has consciousness [LAUGH] and all of you are
zombies. [LAUGH] How can I tell you laugh because you know
how to laugh because if a joke is there you laugh if I
pinch you. You cry, you yell, you know it's just
completely an automaton. And if you ask, do you have consciousness,
you say of course I have consciousness. Who says they are not lying? Or what is there inter, that is their,
assessment of what consciousness is, or what their
consciousness is? It's a very interesting aspect. Consciousness is one of the most intimate. Aspects of our life. Because without consciousness, we can't do
anything at all. We can't evaluate anything at all. Except, of course, if we are a zombie or a
computer. Now, the question becomes. What is the consciousness of a monkey? What is the consciousness of a tree? Do they have consciousness. And that these are questions that actually
I would like to try to answer as we go along in this, in
this seminar. Now, [COUGH] now we come to the issues of
consciousness. And how scientists have finally solved,
there is two things in consciousness. There is the easy problem, and there is
the hard problem. The easy problem of consciousness is as
easy as figuring out, how many galaxies are in the
universe. How many universes are in our universe? What is at the basis of the [UNKNOWN]? You know, what makes, life evolve as it is? Where do we come from? So, it says the easy problem. It's actually quite difficult. But why it's easy? It's because it says that there is an
aspect of consciousness that we will one day be able, for certain,
to be able to grasp. That is when I look at the red flower. I can tell, and I'm, as we are studying
it, that there are some photons of a certain frequency
that travel in the electromagnetic field. Very complex things, but they are true,
they go through my retina, they hit my eyes, they excite some neurons, they
inhibit other neurons, these neurons. Really some chemicals and little and
electrical activity that goes to this part of the brain, that part of the brain to my
visual cortex from my visual primary cortex it goes to the second
visual area, association area to the third it combined with my memory, with my memory
knowing that this is like that. And I say this is a red flower. All of this is the easy problem. Is no problem with one day finding it. We don't know all the details, but more
and more science is discovering this. So the easy problem is rather easy in that
sense. The difficult problem is. How do I subjectively experience the
redness of the red? How do I personally get conscious of being
conscious of what I'm doing? How is this possible? Where this abstract reality comes, from
this very physical activity. Of our nervous system. And today science has absolutely no clue. So that's why I like to give an answer to
that. And we will get to this. But before we get that, let's a little bit
look at again, consciousness from these different
perspective and we'll come back to that. And let's look at the easy problem. The way the scientists want to resolve the
easy problem is by looking at we call the neuronal correlates, the neural correlates of
consciousness. And that's where cognitive science is,
where there are different techniques of electroencephalography,
magnetoencephalography, positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance
imaging, and other techniques that actually today allow us to study fine
details inside the brain. So that today we are actually able to some
extent to even know what the person is overall
thinking even. Because you can tell somebody, "Think that
you're playing tennis," and you look in the brain and
there are very specific areas that are activated
just by thinking "I am playing tennis and being on
the court. Hitting the board. There are these very specific parts of the
brain that are activated. And we have such an ability to detect now
which are the parts that are being activated and such very fast computers
that can analyze all of these and put them in
algorithms. That we can say this person is thinking of
playing tennis. Or this person is thinking now of walking
in their home. Or walking on the street. Or thinking of something nice or something
not so nice. So we are able, actually, to follow these
thoughts. Inside the brain and this has been very
helpful in the study of coma and vegetative states because these
patients, they sit there and it's a big suffering for them and the family and we want to know,
"Is this person really aware of something, are they suffering or is it just, just you know, a vegetable sitting
there?" And that's something which you can do, you
can take them inside the machine, and like a positron emission tomography, and tell
them, now think of playing tennis. Usually, you don't see anything with the
person when you tell them, "Think of playing
tennis". In the past 20 years, we couldn't have any
clue of whether they hear you or not. Whether they respond or not. And that's where we started to
differentiate between minimally states, minimally conscious states for example,
and coma and vegetative states. They started to have gradations. Because some of these patients that we used
to think they have absolutely no consciousness, you put them in the
machine, and you say think of playing tennis, and the parts of the brain that
actually, are a normal subject, lit up during thinking of playing tennis, they
get lit up in this particular patient. So, this is one technique which is used to
start to note to what extent the patient is aware of what, even though
outside is just, nothingness is there. There are other techniques where you fire, magnetic, Input on one part of the brain or the
other and you follow it and you see how it
reverberates. Those who have consciousness normally, it
doesn't just go in but it actually reverberates and go through
different parts of the brain. So this is the way we studied the easy
problem. We look at the neural correlates of
consciousness and then this we have. Of course aware that this part of the human nervous system, are involved in
consciousness in general. The brain of course, and more specifically the cortical area, the cortex of the
brain. And more specifically inside the cortex of
the brain, the areas which we call the associative regions, the
associative areas of the brain. And within that, the more deep values of
the physiology, we have the thalamus and other subcortical
areas and the reticular formation. This is the brain was in different colors,
the different. Sensory areas that we receive information
for hearing, for touch, for vision, and where areas we
activate our motor function. What you have here is two things, there
are areas in the brain that receive the
primary information. For example, in the visual. Cortex when you see a flower the, the
input from the flower comes to the back of the brain,
it's called the occipital lobe, and there is a
V1 region which is the primary visual cortex that receives
the information. The two actually are not conscious of this
information when it's in this area. it goes to a second area which is called
the associative area for vision, and that is where you start actually being conscious of seeing the
flower. So, this area here. Is the primary visual cortex. And this area here is where you become
conscious of seeing the flower, `Kay. If you damage this area, you will not see
the flower, you become, one becomes blind. But funnily enough you are aware of the
object that is in front of you. So there are these blind recognition of
objects which means we don't need to go into this very much
but. When this areas are damaged you can
present something in front of the patient and tell them what do you see, sees nothing I'm blind he doesn't see anything
absolutely nothing. Now you put several objects on the table
and you say. Choose the object that you think maybe I
have showed you or I've asked you about by
touching it. So the patient goes touches, and in every
case, would choose the right object. So the brain was aware, even though the
eyes didn't see. And so this is how we make conclusions
about which parts of the brain are related to
consciousness. And the parts of the brain most related to consciousness are not necessarily the
primary areas. This is what we see here, primary areas of
perception. But the association areas that are near. And there are first level, second level, third level association areas that
are related to consciousness. So this is. Another, the same picture but in a clearer
way. Now, you have to be awake, at least, to be
conscious. And this is where there is a modulator in the human nervous system that modulates
the level of awareness. That's usually the reticular formation,
which is a part and this part of the brain stem. This, by the way, of course is the cortex in the brain, for those who think it's a
mushroom. [LAUGH]. This is, where the reticular formation is. What the reticular formation does, it
modulates consciousness. It's like a thermostat that turns up and
down your level of awareness. So, when you're drowsy or sleepy this part
is turning the thermostat down or turning it up to
wake you up. All the sensory aspects of our physiology
bring information past first to the reticular formation and then
send that information to the cortex. Okay. When you're sleeping and you have your
alarm to wake you up, this is where this
happens. This is the culprit. This is the one that suddenly turns the whole thing up
and you wake up. The brain wakes up. It's not that you hear the alarm in the, in the the brain and you realize it is
conscious and now you have to wake up and then you wake up, it actually works the other
way around. The alarm sets the, excites the reticular
formation, the reticular formation open the doors of
perception. And then, you say, okay, I am awake. And there is an alarm, and I have to go to
work. Okay? So, these are important things so that we, we understand the elements, again,
that are involved in the study of
consciousness. Now, that is what we call selective
consciousness, which, as we said, is dependent on
attention, how much attention we put on something, how
much interest and how much novelty there is in
it. There is the example of picture camouflage
that I have given you at the beginning. Which shows that there is a selective
ability of the brain to decide where to go or where not
to see and what to see, but the brain is
still influenced by these factors, even though
we don't consciously see them. And that's what we have in terms of subconscious processing in the nervous
system. So also decisions, reflex actions, and
subcortical memory are things that are stored in us but are no
more a conscious process. The body, like if you want to juggle some
six, seven, eight balls in the air. It's impossible. There is no time for the brain to analyze
this, and to do it. So, what happens is, you first learn it,
and your brain and cortical areas will be very
active in this. And, then gradually, it gets stored in
subcortical areas, lower parts of the nervous system and then you don't have
to think about it. So when your arms are moving and your
muscles are moving and you're juggling as if you are analyzing every motion of every ball, has absolutely nothing to do with
this. It's an automation, a computer would have
done the same. It's literally become an automation inside
the nervous system. Now, another aspect of consciousness which
is very important is the self. And the self, we can say, there are two
kinds of self in terms of physiology. There is the physical self and the
cognitive self, and some like, some scientists like Damas who tried to
say that there are three values. The proto-self which is related to the
bodily function and homeostasis, and that is in the brain stem area in the
hypothalamus. In the lower parts of the brain. There is the core self, which is in the
midbrain, and the amygdala area, which is related to
visceral activities, to emotions. And then there is the cortex, where you
have language, speech, and higher values, cognitive values of what we
understand to be the self. Now, scientists also analyze the factor of
time in terms of consciousness, what the moments
of consciousness are. And I wanted to say this also so you have a complete overview, at least, of what the
topics are. It takes about 30 to 50 milliseconds for
any information to reach the brain. And then about 150 milliseconds to process
it. And by the time you're conscious of
something, it takes a quarter of a second. So, when you are leaving around in the
real time, you should realize you are always a quarter of
a second behind. [LAUGH] Okay, and there are factors which
are called masking, masking which means if you put things in fast repetition, it
seems the brain masks the information. So that if the repetition is faster than
the minimal conscious time, you can have what is called backward
masking or forward masking. Which means some things you will actually
never see. You think you're looking at something
that's happening continuously, but some things you see, some things you
actually don't see. because those who have not had the time
within this framework of time to be processed, they are masked, because there
is no time to process them, okay. So, we've analyzed anatomy, physiology,
the timing and consciousness and its neuro caller rates and in which areas
it is available. And the fact that the brain and the
physiology has very specific parts that deal with very
specific things and that much we are aware and all of this which seems
maybe somewhat complicated is really part of the most basic aspects of the easy
problem. Sometimes people based on timing, we have
patients that have a sense of cinematographic vision, which
means they actually in certain diseases or certain lesions of the brain,
you can see things as if, you don't know, this is not
your time. But in the old time, when I was your age,
sometimes you go to these movies and the film which was running gets burnt
or something, and then it starts coming very slow, you start seeing picture by
picture, and that's, you know, is, in some
patients, when they have certain lesions, they start
experiencing the world like this, picture by picture
almost. So this can also happen. There is something which you might be
familiar with also and that is whenever there is an accident that happens, you
feel as if time slows down. You have heard this. You know, if somebody's going on a bicycle
and they strike something, or there is an acci, a
car accident. They feel as if the whole time became so
slow and you become very much aware of the varied details, and a long, as if a long
way you've seen it happen, it takes its time, and whereas it usually
happens in a fraction of a moment. Okay? So all of these are aspects of
perceptions. And aspects of the easy problem. I felt I had to cover the easy problem
with you so you know what the problem, problem of consciousness in
science is and how modern science is dealing with it,
how modern science is trying to handle it. And we have seen all of these different
values. Now we come to the most, challenging, yet I feel most fascinating aspect of the
topic. And that is the hard problem. The hard problem about consciousness. What is consciousness? The hard problem is sometimes referred to
Qualia. Qualia are these moments of experience
like the feelings that one has that are every personal and
subjective and intimate. The feeling of what the redness of the red
means to you. What the flower actually gives you in terms of sensations and feelings and
emotions. What makes us humans, what makes us
individual who have decision making ability, who have
choices, who have beliefs. Who have all of these different values
and, of course, there are scientists that try to say that this ultimately will
be also found to be in the nervous system. And in these, there are two general
categories of scientists. One say there is the grandmother cells in
the brain. What this means, is you know, you want to see a flower, okay? The flower has millions of specific
things. It has a color, it has a shape, it has an
idea about it, it has a smell. It is at a certain distance from you, all
of this, millions of bits of information, they go through your
brain, and they start getting distill, distill,
distill. And at the end, they go from, like a
pyramid, from the bottom of the pyramid, up and up and up to the
top of the pyramid. Which means they first involve millions
and millions of neurons, and then they keep getting
refined. This is, this is a plant, this is, a tree, this is, a flower, this is what kind of
flower, etc., until you get to the final one cell that
would say, this is such and such. For example, in face recognition, human
recognition, you know, you see somebody, it's not it's not a monkey, it's
a human being. And then, okay, that's a category. And then it's not a, a lady, it's a man. It's not any man, it's a man that I know. I know the features. Yes, it's my brother. [LAUGH] So, there is one grandmother cell
for your brother. One for your sister. One for your friend. One for your teacher. One for the classroom people. This is a theory, huh? This is not. And therefore, they say, okay, it gets
distilled down and then you get to that one cell. When that one cell is activated you recognize that it's that situation or that
individual. And there are others that say, no, no,
it's a neuronal synchronization. What's actually happening is that a large
number of neurons, they get together. And they take the information, they
analyze it, and based on their collective functioning they decide it's
your brother, or sister, or, your friend. Okay, and consciousness therefore is seen
as the integration of these neuronal activities,
and its informational. With the advent of quantum mechanics,
there are now more scientists who say, why don't we see consciousness as
being a quantum mechanical phenomenon. Which means it's not classical, it's
something that takes us to deeper levels of nature. And you have heard from Dr. Hagelin what
quantum mechanics is, and what different layers of brain and
activity are. 'Kay. And this, and this quantum mechanics, you
know, that is a famous, analysis that it's some microtubules in the brain that seem
to have some quantum mechanical activity. And therefore, if they are altogether
integrated, they create something which is more than the sum of
its parts. And that is what consciousness is about. Now, consciousness is not only the hard
questions that we have to analyze. It gets us into all kinds of issues about life and nature and living and
decision making. That's why you see these values of, are
we, do we have free will? If there are laws of nature that determine
everything. Are we a free thinking, free willing, free
deciding people, which involves consciousness, or
is there a determinism? Because, if you know the initial
conditions, and there are strict laws of nature, when you go through this, this,
sequence of cause and effect. You seem to have absolutely no choice! Everything is completely deterministic. [COUGH] Is there law and order in the
universe? Is creation something that has led to
consciousness? Or is it chaos and somehow consciousness
appeared out of matter. And then, are these classical and quantum
mechanical values that are involved and there is all what we call sensory
experience versus intellectual reasoning. Which means, do we trust our senses or do
we have to trust our logic or our reason? One of the core aspects of the hard
problem of consciousness is mind body relationship or matter and consciousness,
physiology and intelligence. Are these two related? Are these two the same? Is one producing the other? So you have heard from Raja Hagelin that
matter, what we call matter. If we want to solve the problem of
consciousness from the perspective of material reality, matter is made out of atoms, particles, elementary particles,
and then fields. And then you have the unified field and
the singularity of natural law, and in all of these and coming to the
solution of the hard problem. I want to point out the relative nature of
our ability to, number one, experience on the sensory
level and, number two, even reasoning and our ability
to reason. There was a time when the Earth was the
center of the universe. This geocentric vision has led to very
complicated issues and problems in understanding the
movements of the planets, etc. There was a time where space and time were also considered immutable,
nonchangeable, okay? Now we know the world is not like that. It's all probabilities and wave functions
and to whatever extent you'd be interested we can go into this the quantum and the standing of quantum de-coherence, the
Copenhagen interpretation about the importance of how an observer can collapse the wave function so that
particles which were suppose to be in all different
places suddenly is found in one place. And then the issues of singularity and the
unified field of all the laws of nature. These are very interesting topics and they've been discussed over and over
again. They do have a relevance to the study of
consciousness because whatever image we have of our universe will influence how
we can analyze this very important part of our existence which
actually is the tool that we use to understand and to get knowledge
about ourselves and the universe. So, there are two kinds of realities that
we face in our understanding. Some are material, changing. [COUGH] And others are considered [COUGH]
non-changing, non-material. This gives us two kinds of sources of
knowledge. Also, there is subjective knowledge and
objective knowledge. The objective knowledge means science and
analysis and scientific study. And the subjective knowledge, which is
things that come from our intellects and reasoning,
and analysis intellectually. So what is reality? Ultimately, what is our perception? Is it an illusion, a fantasy, is it a
dream? When we analyze things from quantum
mechanical perspective, we realize that the world that we observe through our
senses is really not what it seems to be. That our nervous system is only a machine
that depending on how good it works, or how bad it works, will give us a different sensory
experience and a different ability to reason and
decide about it. How many are not at all familiar with,
like wave function and quantum mechanics? They have no idea what this is? Okay. [LAUGH] How many think that this bottle is
actually sitting here on the table? [LAUGH] Almost everybody. Can it be in another universe? So these questions are real questions that
physicists, not just to waste time and because they are bored ask [LAUGH],
but they actually ask these questions. Is the cat dead or alive? And they have found after big discussions
that the cat could be dead and alive at the same
time. [LAUGH] It has a probability to be dead, and it is
probability to be alive. But when you come to observe it, you
observe it, your observation collapses the wave function, and the dead you will be
finding as either dead or alive. Some will say, that's ridiculous. And what is their answer to the big
question? They have no answer, they say the dead,
the cat is actually dead in this universe and
alive in another universe. You think I'm making jokes but this is what most scientists of physics today
spend time trying to resolve, because the equations,
the equations that they have show this to be the
reality. There is no way out of it. An electron, a particle has a probability, of some sort, to be anywhere in the
universe. Anywhere. More probability to be this place, a
little less there, a little more there. But when you observe it or measure it,
they say you collapse the wave function and then you see it to be
here in that particular position. This is real physics, it's not philosophy. What this tells us, that our senses are
only a very small portion, of, what the true
reality is. You wake up in the morning, you see the sun coming from the East and going to the
West. You say the sun is moving in the sky. That's what your senses tell you. Now you look at the planets that move in
the sky and you see them sometimes going
forward, sometimes going backward. It drives you crazy. You try to make all kinds of analysis, and
it doesn't solve the problem. Why the planets go back and forth? Why they sometimes stop and then move and
one sometimes move this way and the other time move that
way? And that drove crazy lots of people who were trying to understand the movement of
planets, about the few thousand years ago or is
even less than that, much less than that. And the reason was because their concept
in their mind of the reality of life was
wrong. They were thinking this, this, the earth
is the center of the universe and everything is
moving around it. So why these things go back and forth? It doesn't work. They had to have a complete revolution,
they had a hard problem and that hard problem could
not be solved with the dogmatic belief that the Earth is
the geocenter of the universe, that the universe is
centered around the Earth. There had to be somebody who said, very
quietly, [LAUGH] that it's actually the sun and we are
turning around it and they took them to prison and took care
of them in different ways so you know. They dare to say something different than
the common belief and [COUGH] yet, this is how the problem of the
movement of the planets was solved. Because the planets are moving back and
forth only because when they rotate around the Sun and you are sitting here, and you
are rotating around the sun. At some point, because they go faster or
they're in this position or that position, they seem
to be moving back. But when you are in another place, they
seem to be moving forward. The problem was solved very, very easily
when you changed some paradigm, some belief, that
was very strongly held. When they started to analyze the speed of
light and all of these conditions of, how light hits where, and the movement
of light, and whether it's used. There were very complex, findings that was impossible to solve, absolutely impossible
to solve. So the problem was really a hard problem. How it was solved, somebody said look,
stop thinking that time and space are something
rigid. They're actually flexible. They move, they dilate, time dilates,
space dilates. You know, even if we say this today,
believe you are crazy, what do you mean, this table can be suddenly
shrinking, and then suddenly expanding? Yes, it can. It absolutely can. It depends on your speed. If you go very fast, it will do something. If you go very slow, it will do something
else. But since we are moving only usually
within certain ranges of speed, you see space to be very
solid. The room is very solid. We go through our life with a certain
body. It doesn't seem to expand or dilate. Times to seems to be going on the clock. When you have a meeting, you come on time,
there's no problem. But if you start moving at the speed of light or near it, things will
completely change. Space will dilate, time will change also,
will dilate. This is counterintuitive in a sense
because our senses teach us something and the reality is
something else. In quantum mechanics today, the findings
actually tell us, literally, that we could be sitting in different universes
at the same time. That we could have different outcome for
everything we do at the same time or as that our consciousness is
collapsing the wave function and there is no way to explain this really,
except with with values and analysis that is beyond
anything we know in classical physics. Of course, there are theories of quantum decoherence, that any measurement can do
it. We don't need to go about this, but this
slide tells us, really, that there is more to what our senses see and
science is discovering that the reality is not as we have always thought
it to be. So what can we trust, our senses, our
mind, our intellect, mathematics, logic, reasoning, scientific
experimentation, or what? Now, of course, we can trust our scientific experimentation but in
relative terms, which means under those conditions, under those situations in our universe, under
those situations, this is what the reality is,
but in terms of trying to find things as what is consciousness, what is
absolute reality, what is ultimate truth? The problem is much more complicated. For us human, what is certain, in these
circumstances? One thing only is certain. Only one and one thing only, that we are
conscious. The physical body depends who you are
asking. If you ask a classical physicist, it's
something. If you ask a quantum physicist, it's
something else. If you look at it from your eyes, with a
certain ability to see at a certain wavelength of light, etc.,you
see something. If you analyse it with a, [COUGH] electron
microscope or with some kind of magnetic field, It will
be different. So the way we see things and perceive
things is very, very uncertain. From all, even modern scientific
understanding. What is certain and only certain is that
we are conscious. That is why, if you know, Descartes, of
course, said, Cogito ergo sum which means I think therefore I am,
which means that this is the one thing I am sure about, and that's why I
can for sure say that I exist. It's because I have consciousness. Now, the origins of consciousness, I won't
get you through all of these, but these are all the kinds
of theories. Basically they can be summarized in two
different big categories. Categories of dualism or pluralism, which
means, there are two realities or many in life. One of them is physical, the other one is
spiritual, is the mind consciousness? They are two different realities, that's
what Descartes said and these two, they interact with
each other. How they interact with each other, nobody
has any idea. Or you have the Monistic perspective, in
which you have two kinds of approaches, one is what
is called physicalism, or materialism and these are the idea that there is only
the physical reality to which is real. Everything else comes from it, which means your consciousness comes from it, your
feelings come from it, your everything, if there is a soul it comes from the matter, material
life. Everything is material. And that is the other side of monism, the
idealism, is that there is only spiritual value and everything else is an
illusion and that is what is called the neutral monism which says
that there is one thing we don't know what it is and from that thing everything else
comes from, okay? Now you have seen maybe with Dr. Hagelin
this chart, it's called the unified field chart and if we start analyzing
matter and the material life we find that from society to an
individual, then you have organs, organ system, which means you're
asking yourself, what are we made of? What are we made of even physically? And as you look deeper and deeper into what science discovered, you find
that ultimately. Particles go into elementary particles,
into fields. The fields are unified into one unified
field of all the laws of nature. So science is taking us to this
singularity, "singularity" which means one reality of
one field. That is the source of all other aspects of
the material universe. This one reality is called the unified
field, or the singularity in some ways. And on the mind level, you have. The knowledge and experience by those who have practiced techniques like
transcendental meditation, who say that if you close the eyes and let the
mind settle down, and it does settle down, and you have millions
of people who have experienced this state, they reach a state where they have pure
consciousness, a state of pure. Experience, which is non-specific, which is holistic, and which is pure
existence, pure being. So the theory is that this unified field of consciousness is the same unified
field. Of the material existence. Which means there is one field of life,
which when it reverberates, it creates the magnetic field, the electric field, the weak force, strong
force. And then these when they reverberate,
interact together, they appear as. Particles and when they collect together
they appear as atoms and molecules, and molecules
gather together they become, tissues and organs, and organ
systems, and a human body, and the society, and the
entire universe. So, the solution about consciousness. That I'd like to propose to you is that
Consciousness with a big C, an uppercase C, is
singularity. It is the unified field of all the laws of
nature. That brings a lot of issues and problems
that have to be solved. But for now this is the assumption, we're
starting from that perspective so there is something out there that is consciousness, that's the proposed
solution, that consciousness is actually primary, it
doesn't depend on anything, it doesn't come from anywhere, it is not the product
of physical activity, of anything. And actually, it does not even create
anything physical. because the main problem that we face in
science is not as much the theory that there is something abstract out there,
whatever it is, that we can call consciousness, and
something. That exists like that beyond time and
space. The problem is, how does something which
is non-physical brings about the physical? That's the main problem. How is it possible that something
non-physical creates something physical? Where did it get its energy from? Where did it get its matter from? One solution is, it's God and you don't
know, it's a mystery. He created it and that's it. It's a solution. It's a solution. The proposed solution is actually there is a consciousness, this consciousness is
primary. And my proposal to you is nothing came out
of it. The big problem is how we are here and
talking about it. Where did we come from? Okay it's a big problem. I'm afraid the solution will come in the
next session. I want to. [LAUGH] I wanted to make sure if my session, the
first one, was a little boring, that you'll
still come back. [LAUGH] But I felt I had to cover with
you, these problems of consciousness. Its not fair that you, as students, at
Stanford University, come to a. A seminar about hacking consciousness and
not be exposed to the issues that scientists and
philosophers are asking today. And even in these brief introduction if
you have learned everything I've said, you have really a very deep grasp of
all the issues. Maybe not individually and in the detail
of what are things that are being discussed in
this area. Okay, I'll not leave you without anything. So, we have a simple, what I like to call,
"hard solution". We had the hard problem. Hard problem of knowing how is it possible
that consciousness comes? How is it possible the physical create
something so abstract like consciousness? That was and that is the hard problem of
modern science. The hard solution is. That consciousness is all that there is. It's simple because it's a simple
proposition. Theoretically it's very simple. It's very hard because consciousness in
this case is both singularity which means one
reality. And plurality, which is all of us because
we exist, and how we exist. We have consciousness. How we have consciousness? How it comes about? So this, what I call, hard solution, is
simple also because consciousness is most familiar and
most intimate to us. And because, we said this is the one thing
we are certain about. We are conscious, we are certain about
this. This is the only one thing we can be
certain about. It is hard because what we trust most,
which is our senses, is being proposed to you that
this is deceptive. You are being deceived by your senses. now it's also simple because it solves
many issues if consciousness is absolute and non
changing it does not have to come from anywhere and doesn't have to go to
anywhere so the problem that you always ask and continue to
ask about yourself. What was before that, is solved, [LAUGH]
because there was nothing before, and nothing came, and
nothing after. There is absolutely nothing. [LAUGH] So the problem is really solved. It is very simple, but it's hard because there is unity and diversity at the same
time. There is something which is manifest and
non-manifest at the same time. So we have to solve all of these problems. `Kay, these are issues that I have alluded
to before which require hard solutions. It was hard to come from the geocentric to
the heliocentric problem. Why was it? It was easy because it was enough to get
out of the dogma that. The Earth is the center of the universe
but it was hard because it changed so many beliefs and so
many things about the senses. You wake up in the morning, you see the
Sun moving in the sky, you don't see yourself moving
around the sun. And therefore. It was difficult to accept, difficult to
digest. And space time is very difficult also to
understand how space and time are actually variables and vary was, they are
relative, they are not absolute. So, I think time is over soon. We have about five minutes but. >> For five minutes. [COUGH] So either I can continue or I
leave time for questions. [COUGH] What do you like? [LAUGH] So we can continue next time, take
five minutes of questions? To give you a hint. How am I going to solve this problem? The problem is solved by the fact that
consciousness is what? Is consciousness. [LAUGH]
it's not just nothingness. It's nothingness material it's nothing
that's physical it's nothingness by any kind of quantum mechanical value or
you know. Not trying to look like tubules or anything quantum mechanical is also
physical. By the way, physicalism and materialism. People used to talk about materialism but
since now we've moved into the quantum mechanics, so
there is physicalism. It's neither physicalism nor materialism. It is just one kind of abstract reality
which is consciousness. The solution comes in the fact that it is
consciousness. The fact, that it is consciousness creates
three values within it. Because, to be conscious is to be
conscious of something. Otherwise why is consciousness. Why not call it, I dont know, something
else. It is consciousness means it is conscious
of what? It's conscious of itself. There is nothing else but itself. It the only thing that there is. But it has three values. Why? Because. There is an observer, there is an observed
and for the observer to look at the observed
there must be a way, a connection between them,
so there is a process of observing, the
process of observation. So the unity of consciousness. Is actually has actually within it
already, inherent within it, the three values of observer, observed,
and process of observation. Now who is the observer? I'm asking. >> Consciousness. Consciousness. Who is being observed? >> Consciousness. >> Consciousness. What's the process of observing? >> Consciousness. Consciousness. So unity is there, yet three values are
there. Why? By it's own nature. Of being consciousness, it has three
values within itself. This is how the symmetry breaks. And the next will be in the next session. And we see how the whole universe will actually come very comfortably from
that reality. >> Can you use language? [UNKNOWN] go back to some of her, books and she would say [UNKNOWN] so it has also been described as. >> And this and appears to be a bird you
know to be. >> Is it a verb? >> Is it adverb? >> I think this is what we can handle the
next session because first we go through the
dynamics of how this consciousness. Differentiate into multiplicity and
understand that, understanding that it will be easier to look at that. Cause the verb is a process. [LAUGH] And the, the noun is you know is, is, a state if you like a
condition and so its a very interesting topic but
it'll take us more into philosophical consideration
which maybe we'll save for the next session, there was
a question. >> Yeah my question will be answered next
session as well when we address whether a monkey or a tree
has consciousness. >> My question my curious to this debate about whether or not consciousness can
unified, you know. >> It's very humancentric point of view
right because if the laws of nature apply. >> All these things trees, animals,
planets, all the way down to string theory. >> And then below that is in fact you
know, and then that's consciousness. >> That's the thirteenth century. >> So how does, how does applied you
That's correct. That's exactly what we'll be answering in
the next session. >> [LAUGH] We'll be answering all these
questions, actually. So you have to come next time. [LAUGH]. >> Some people at work would be very happy
if the universe is a dark and empty place and other people
would like it to have some personal feeling to it, so if we start
with, the idea of this field which everything comes from which is still itself and has not really
manifested. >> Just is just a field, I want to take
away the word just but is a field are we sort of saying that's it very
impersonal and that nothing matters and all those kinds
of feelings or is it somehow going to feel like it's
personal could have some personal aspects to it and that we
feel you know. >> What part of it, and so forth, you
know? Very good, very important question,
because if we say consciousness we're going to come to
the question of is this consciousness person, does it
have anything personal in it, or is it just a mechanics? An impersonal mechanics just arising
within itself. And the two are true, both are true. Both are true, it's a complex answer,
but the way it will be answered is, all
possibilities are there. Because as you will see the mechanics of
dynamics of transformation of consciousness, leaks
to all kinds of possibilities. one of them, one out of many can be very
personal. And many others can be impersonal. So, both are true and it's, it you know,
relates also to the question of. Whether anything else is conscious. There is nothing but consciousness, so how
is it that we will say that the atom is conscious, is the tree conscious, is
the monkey conscious, to what extent it is
conscious. See and it can lead to the idea of, you
know, is there something as a creator or as not or,
or is it, you know, that's what you're trying
indirectly to say a little bit that, you know, it's not just like a
mechanical thing that's taking place. We're starting with consciousness, so
that's already quite a relief in terms of the mechanical dynamics
of what comes about. >> I think this idea of consciousness I'd
like to understand the relationship between God and consciousness
because he's the creator of that which possibly relates the
systems is always there. But at the same time, we'd want to know
that, that would make appearance within consciousness so even that
appearance, how does that relate to. >> It's the same questions, basically,
yes. >> Could you repeat the question. The question about where is God in all of
this? >> [LAUGH] Yeah. >> [LAUGH] I was wondering if there were
any studies in looking into the brain of how [UNKNOWN]
children assimilates reality because it seems that
their level of consciousness, their analysis of
awareness being learning or analyzing is very
different because it seems to be they are not necessarily
conscious of learning. Whereas if I learn a language today, I'm going to be conscious of learning the
language today. Whereas when I am a child, a child I, I
absorb this in a very natural way. >> Yeah this comes back to the implicit
learning. And children, yeah, children do have
implicit learning at the beginning, before they, kind of
start looking at it from their self and acknowledging
who they are, and being conscious of what
they're learning. Children learn a lot by copying, by copying others, imitation, by imitation at
the beginning. They learned a lot, the brain is, you
know, you show them something or say something to them, they
learn actually the mechanics of it. And not by intellectually analyzing it so
there is. The primordial learning, which is implicit
learning that doesn't come from, necessarily analyzing
the steps of learning. For example, you teach child golf, to play
golf. They will not learn by, as much by, you
have to do this and you have to do that. This comes that you show them how it is
and they learn. They don't either conscious of the
specifics, you know, they see it they repeat it. The brain kind of takes a picture and
repeats that. That's how they learn mostly at the
beginning. And then later of course you add to that. Intellectual understanding and some things
that they have to do that they couldn't see because maybe it happened too fast
when you were showing them something. And if it happens too fast there is this
masking process that takes place. You can't see all the very fine details of
the movement so you have to bring it to the
attention. When you bring it to the attention, it
gets registered. >> And so, do we have any idea of when does, when do we become conscious
[CROSSTALK]. >> When it's mostly, you know the child's
consciousness is seen as if it's quite expanded in a sense
of everything is the self in a way, at the beginning, before they start seeing
themselves as an individual. So there is consciousness of course. Consciousness is everywhere but it's more
total and it starts when they start saying I and mine and recognize
that it's them. And the children usually always talk about
themselves at the beginning in the third, like he is doing or, you know,
Tommy wants this or, you know. >> Did it have any experiments, so does
that, does that teaches, does that teaches about the monkeys' consciousness or the tree
consciousness. >> Yes, yes, yes. Beautiful. Yes, it's true. Gives us an idea, and also, you know,
brain damage experiments can give you an idea, if somebody's
damaged in this way or that way, how they evaluate things and
do things so you can look at the animals who don't have
those parts anyway. And can have an idea that maybe they're acting with a lower level of
consciousness. It's more automated, less. So when we understand for example how the
lower parts of the brain work, and to what level they are conscious or
not, or involved in consciousness. And then you compare it to animals who
don't have these parts, the higher parts, you can imagine that the
animals experience is what is it like. It's, you know, it's taking the experience
from this level, lower level of the brain, and the other is not as much
available to them. So the more we understand about. How the brain works and the more we can see the difference between different
species or different people, the more we will
evaluate the refined or less refined levels of
awareness and understanding. >> So did Descartes do us a huge disservice when he limited us by saying I think
therefore I am? >> Well he, no, he was a philosopher and
he had an idea [LAUGH]
and, you know there was no way at that time to believe that the body could
be kind of as unreal as modern science today allows
us to think and stand and say it full face, you know, because the senses say differently. And at that time nobody could deny the
existence of the body and yet they have the intuition that it's changing, the body's changing all the
time. I was a little boy and then grew up, it's a different body, it's a
different structure. He was a, you know, he was a driver. He became a doctor. He was a basketball player. He became, I don't know, a physicist or
something. And so your role has changed. You've, your body has changed. There is not even one atom in your body now that was there, you know, 40 years
ago. And so everything has changed, the
structure has changed. It has evolved, it has changed. And, your, your role has changed. You still keep that name. You could even have changed it if you know
for whatever reason and still you have that sense of self that I
am, and I am. So this consciousness that stays with you,
that is you, is the self is part of the problems that are
discussed in consciousness. How do we maintain that sense of self and
refer to it throughout life and recognize it as one while the
physical is completely changed. So they had that knowledge of the change
of the body and because it changed they said I can't count on this thing which is
changing but my consciousness is there. And that one I can count on and therefore I know that it's true, it's not an
illusion, because this idea of illusionary and this was, was
there in the ancient knowledge of Vedas and you
know the Vedic. Structures and ancient knowledge of India
the whole thing use to be considered Maya, Maya
means illusion. It's all an illusion. So, it's the philosophers, the thinkers
have already thought about that. But today we can say it with a straight
face because we have physics and, and, you know, modern findings that actually tell
us how much can you trust your senses? How much can you trust that you are here? You are here of course but are you also in some other place having some
different story? I mean, that's not the point in this
course to go into this but the reality that is offered to us by modern
understanding is allowing us. Actually to realize the possibility of the primacy of consciousness and how the
mechanics of the dynamics of consciousness can lead to the
physical world, to the reality of existence, to
everything. But what is it made of. That is the issue. The made of is out of the unified field,
and we only perceive it on a gross level as we do,
because of our nervous system having only that
capacity. To understand that you'll ask me about
where did the nervous system come from. But that's what we will deal with next time. >> [APPLAUSE]. >> For more please visit us at
stanford.edu
