Logical Evaluation of Human Self

[Pathfinder]

PERCEPTION OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS



The unfertilized egg cell would remain unsentient forever without the interaction of the sperm cell. Once impregnated by the sperm some 'unknown force' of life is activated and growth begins. This is physiological when looked at under a microscope, but what the scientists do not see there is that mysterious force that drives the sperm to search for the egg and penetrate it. They also cannot see the consciousness that will develop as the fetus develops. The fact is, that without this mysterious driving force, the sperm would remain motionless, and the egg inert. There is certainly something behind the scenes of the obvious, which without, nothing else occurs. This, to me, is proof that there is design and purpose behind it all. Why would there exist a water bucket if there was never an intention to fill it with water?

We Learn To Trust Our Brain

From the moment we are freed from the womb our brain is bombarded with information. At first this information is in the form of the most basic awareness of what our 'senses' are experiencing. The brain receives input from sight, sound, touch, taste and smell like a sponge absorbing the experience of the water it is exposed to. But our quest here will consider if this sponge has any pre-programmed information for 'deciphering' what it absorbs?

At this point the only awareness the infant has is of its direct contact with its environment and the things it is subjected to within it. As infants our perspective of life is purely subjective and physiological. At what point of this stage of our development we begin to discern and wonder about the things we are being subjected to no one knows for certain. An infant does however become reactive to certain stimuli. And in some individuals the reaction is more than just physiological; it becomes intuitive. Some children can develop an intuition for what they like and become eager to experience it again, and also for what they do not like, so they do not want to experience it again.

Learning To Seek After Pleasure

For example. the infant that will not care if it has a dirty diaper will not fuss about it until that mess causes an irritation, which will then trigger the brain resulting in a pain signal. That is physiological reaction.

Other infants however, long before the rash develops, and sometimes immediately, become aware that they do not like anything in their diapers and will fuss for the attention of their guardians to be relieved of the annoyance. This is an 'intuitive process of consciousness' in its very early stages of development. The human is learning how to interact with instances that its environment brings upon it by using an instilled degree of consciousness that allows that individual the ability to consider self gratification, much different from the reaction of the unconcerned infant. This difference between the unconcerned and the self gratuitous attitudes will become the key factor in the differences of the mindset of each human as they mature.

The dirty diaper example is one of many experiences that a young human will confront, and its brain will store the input learned from these experiences as memory. Over time, and number of similar occurrences, this memory becomes very routine, almost reflexive, so that the human is going to respond to a particular experience almost subconsciously, based upon the prior 'conditioning' of the brain to the same reaction time after time.

Complacent Conditioning - Habit Forming

In essence, the brain is being conditioned over time to respond a particular way and the human becomes so accustomed to this routine reaction that it is never questioned or thought out. It is simply performed. In this way the human goes from the 'subjective' awareness of consciousness, to a 'passive' reaction to routine stimuli. And this is exactly where the human begins to develop the dangerous trait of 'habitual reaction'.

During this stage of development the human has also gained an awareness of a 'connection' between its desires and its environmental routine reactions. This awareness, or connection, is what will later be defined as 'self' awareness; the gratification of the brain, body, senses and what it desires from its environment.

An infant is obviously not going to be aware that it is a human, or of the difference between it and any other life form, or of the relationship of its biology and physiology to the environment. What it is aware of is that it is an 'entity' that feels and knows what it likes and dislikes. That is the extent of 'self' at this stage of development, but it still is a recognition of some inner awareness, however diminutive. It will even respond to its name, and the people within its environment in a way of familiarity and acknowledgment that there is some sort of a bond between them and itself. In this way the infant self is acknowledging its existence and reality by associating itself with other entities that its brain is accustomed to recognizing, while being aware of a reciprocal recognition and reaction of familiarity. It begins to 'identify' itself with other humans.


Human Awareness- Familiarity

This process of identifying with familiar lifeforms in our environment can be seen in all of the animal kingdom. Even to the extent that a dog that was raised by a feline mother, and never been exposed to another dog, will think of itself as a cat. It will still have the instinctive urges of a dog subconsciously, but its relation to its mother and other cats will be as a cat. There is a bonding process which takes place between newborns and their parents, (or what their brains are telling them are familiarities), that is well documented in scientific fields as 'imprinting'. The human child, imprinting themselves with their human relations, and realizing their very acute sensitivity between their senses and what their senses are exposed to, develop an inner self identity unique to itself and its own personal experiences.

So at the very earliest stages of development the human intuitively acknowledges an identity it forms as being an awareness of its individual bond to its environment through both sensory perception and social aspects.

Because of this vulnerability to external influence this 'self' development becomes entirely at the mercy of what it is exposed to in its life experiences. Among these experiences there is also the teaching of its adult caregivers, and the hands on experiences it endures through the mere living of life. As a result of this ingraining process that the environment has on the development of 'self identity' during the maturing of the human being, it can be stated that a human sees themselves as an inner awareness of their environment that they associate with their human brethren. Their actual identity however becomes a hodgepodge of individual experiences unique to their own particular lifestyles and events, and the way that their brain has been conditioned by these circumstances.

Devising Self Through Association

It is this individuality, and its extreme vulnerability to being molded by its experiences, that creates who and what we are as our 'selves'. Because of that, many of us become who and what we are directly because of influences in our immediate lives, and how intellectually we are able to discern them.

However, we do not all have the same degrees of intellectual ability to apply logic and reason to our circumstances. Regardless of our educations, this wisdom is very individual, and not solely the result of accumulated information. This 'self' that we own becomes what it is through a process of influences upon both our physiology and on our psychology, and the 'degree' of intellectual ability we attain determines how the psychological portion of our 'self' develops and interprets the influences it is exposed to.

If, intellectually, we are able to differentiate between what our senses are trying to tell us, what our brethren are teaching us, and what our rationale is revealing to us, we can have the potential to reach higher degrees of understanding about exactly what our self is.

Inevitably our identity comes down to 'thought'.

Thought process being the ability to rationalize our circumstance by considering the perception of our senses, and our logic ability to theorize about the results of our forthcoming actions in any given situation and decision; the ability to hypothesize about the possibilities of our environmental situation.

Discerning Our Self

Who are we, and what are we doing here? And are we confined to this physiology that seems to keep us bound to our environment? The human being is unique in being able to question the reality of their existence, and to even care about the answers one way or the other.

As we mature from the infantile stages of 'subjective awareness', growing into a more habitual 'passive consciousness', and then based upon individual degree of evolved wisdom, reach even higher stages of intellectual ability, our brain becomes more than physiological. Somewhere within its biological makeup there is a very individual mind that acknowledges and recognizes itself. Most people are passively aware of this identity and simply take it for granted, never really understanding it. Their decisions and choices in life are based more on peer pressure and personal desire, than on any deeply thought out considerations. They easily accept the direction of their brain and physiological needs as their guide through the confusion of life, never requiring any answers to the mysterious aspects of reality. Reality to these passive individuals is what they can see, taste, smell, touch and hear. Nothing else is relevant to life until they are confronted by a situation that is more psychologically intrusive than physiologically, like dealing with the helplessness of death.

But there are others!


Using Intelligence To Separate Mind From Brain

These 'other types' of humans have somehow attained a higher degree of awareness and are not as passive about their reality. They are more in tune with this inner consciousness that most people take for granted as simple identity. They recognize a deeper reality that extends beyond the biological and physiological, and they have strong urge to seek after the mysteries they confront in life. Biologists will tell us that what most people think is some spiritual entity within us is really nothing more than our brain reacting to stimuli, creating the 'illusion' of self awareness. They will say that our identity is nothing more than biological function. But they do not, and cannot, answer many of the questions regarding the higher degrees of intelligence which reveal much more than mere biological function that include theorizing, loving, artistic talent, rationalizing and even many more mystical abilities that have been known to occur. They do not answer to that mysterious force of life that we all know exists within every living entity, or to the origin of the universe around us. They propose a big bang theory that always runs into the wall of the 'chicken and egg paradox'.

There seems to be an obvious connection between these mysteries of life and creation, and the mystery of the mind and identity. They all become a part of that strange 'force of life' that underlies everything sentient. Whatever this force is that brings life and creation into existence is also the same mysterious element behind the difference between biology and metaphysics; the brain and the mind, or self.

To the many humans that live entirely by passive subjection, metaphysics and the unknown, unanswered matters of the universe have no importance or appeal. Their identities are solidly packaged within the framework of their physiology and never opened. But for those of us who dare to challenge the unknown, and peek into the package, this identity, this self that we get a small indication of, becomes a priority far above the comfortableness of physiology. Great minds lead to great inquiries, which lead to great discoveries. The truths revealed in this world were not discovered by the passive physiological brain that relies entirely on its senses. They were made by the inquisitive, ever searching human mind. All of our great civilizations, technologies, and virtually every advancement has been made by this human identity that dwells deep within human physiology, but acts separately from it. That illusion of the mind to appear to be separate from the brain, is what causes the human to separate themselves from the reality of their true consciousness, and creates the difficulty and confusion around defining what self really is.

On the one hand we must understand that passive brain function is purely physiological, but what we would naturally define as individual self, or mind, is not a primary biological function. Therefore the normal routine function of the brain leads to our being brainwashed by our environment. We live according to our senses. However, on the other hand, higher intellects realize that there is a mystery to be considered outside of the biological functioning of the brain where we find the workings of the more intelligent human mind. But as we enter that domain we tend to begin to define our 'selves' as individuals and this is what causes the confusion. The brain makes us think we are individuals applying individual thought. The problem with understanding self is that we look at it 'individually' and try to devise a unique identity of one person, when in fact consciousness is an element of humanity, not individuality.


Consciousness Is Not An Individual Entity

The brain causes us to think according to our sensory perceptions. Our mind acts quite differently, but, if we try to separate the two from each other, and create an individual, we also unwittingly create the dilemma of defining a self that really exists only as human thought about its interaction with its environment.

Self is thought! Without thought there is no self. Identity is an attempt to individualize that thought as one entity belonging to one individual. In reality, the only true way that a person can define their self is as a human being. We are all inseparably conjoined to the DNA strand that makes up our true identity; that as a part of humanity as a whole, reproducing itself time after time. When we try to separate that union by devising an individual consciousness and name it our 'self', we create all sorts of problems that arise from our 'self' gratification. As a whole humanity survives by its reproduction, family structure and cooperation. Every human consciousness is bound to its parental ancestry and a universal megaconsciounsess that supersedes its own petty desires. But trying to be separate from that whole, we suddenly desire to please our 'selves'. We begin to look at that delusional entity of our mind's device, as our true identity and we place it first above all else. We build lives around this self, and the way we choose to feed its desires and hunger. We alter the 'survival of the species' to become the 'gratification of the individual'. The result of this is the greed and power mongering that rules the planet and has done so since the first of our ancestors began thinking that their 'selves' were more important than their humanity. It seems that the higher intellectual abilities of some humans who are misled by their brain's biological functioning are as detrimental to humanity as they are beneficial. Understanding this, and being cautious about the natural invasion of the biological brain upon the mind, and the conflicts this interaction creates, will be vital to the evolution of the human consciousness.

Our consciousness is certainly not 'collective'. The many philosophies and religions we find in society are proof of independent mind. But just like we are all a reproduction of our physiological ancestry, our ancestral consciousness has also reproduced many times over from its origination.

In the ancient past, human life developed from an origin, and with it, a consciousness that reproduced along with it. In the most minute components of that consciousness is the key to that mysterious force of life that spawns this sentience. It is deep within that most minute detail, that utter mystery, that the human self finds its true identity. Not as our individual entity traveling through space and time as some separate dynamic of singularity, but as one tiny component of a vastly larger unit that makes up the whole of the human consciousness.


Consciousness Evolves

In consideration of the fact that our physiological reality is recurring through reproduction generation after generation, and when understanding that the higher degree of intellect realized by some humans could not be reached in one lifespan, why is it not possible that consciousness might also reproduce itself. It is all a part of that same unknown force responsible for creation and life. If the physical reproduces, why not the metaphysical as well?

So far this discussion has been observation based. But to ponder further on self and identity we must move into that which is not observable by scientific standards; the metaphysical.

What we have logically concluded thus far is that from birth the brain devises an imaginary self which interacts with its environment through sensory perception and subjection.This self is really nothing more than the human using its brain to consider the dynamics of its sensory perceptions; in other words 'thinking'. Others however develop a higher degree of intellect/consciousness and are able to theorize and speculate, which leads to a greater advancement of human capability and awareness.

It is clear to see that there is a 'variety of degrees' in reaching higher consciousness and awareness, which also means higher degrees of understanding how the brain creates one's self, and what our actual consciousness is in relation to our physiology. It is also obvious, although not scientifically provable, and yet not deniable, that there is some force within us that bears life and consciousness, which without, we would be a corpse of unliving flesh, brain and all.

So what we know about the human self at this point through what we are actually able to observe and rationalize, is that each human contains a 'force of life' which brings with it 'varying degrees of consciousness' that the brain seems to naturally identify as an identity subjective to what it perceives within its direct environment, but this consciousness is also able to reach higher degrees of intellect and wisdom allowing for a more evolved sentience.

Now we step into speculative metaphysics applying what we have already established through logical observation. Considering what we know, how than shall we perceive our self?


Metaphysical And Physiological Harmony

Considering the vast complexity of the universe and its amazing design, it would be wise to also consider any speculation to be at least as possible as the creation we already know. Being open minded about the possibilities, let us rationalize that if a human can be born once into this universe, and reproduce biologically, than we can easily assume that the mysterious 'force of life', being as metaphysical as it is physiological, may also reproduce the consciousness as well. Is it possible that this life, when it is instilled into a human body, carries with it an evolved consciousness that is also being reproduced?

The theory of reincarnation suggests that a person is born into a new body in another life, from one life to another. There are different teachings about the details of this, but this possibility, when looked at from our point of view, considering the possible reproduction of consciousness from one lifespan to another, does seem to allow for an evolution of consciousness to higher degrees of intellectual ability, which is exactly what we do observe in our world. However, given that we are observing this 'self' as a 'device of thought', we must determine that there is no reincarnation of a specific identity or entity. It is not you, or I, that is reincarnated because those concepts of thought end as soon as the consciousness of that body leaves it. When that life force is no longer in a body there is no consciousness thinking in terns of me and I, or self.

So in the next incarnation, the next reproduction of this consciousness, there is no continuation of any previous thought of self. However in order for there to be any reproduction, or continuation or evolution, of the consciousness of that life force, the new reincarnation must somehow acquire this continuing consciousness. As we know, consciousness is not one mass collective, but many varying degrees of differing individual 'life forces' bringing sentience to many millions of humans with many levels of and degrees of intelligence. So this suggests reincarnation of millions of these life forces where continuing reproduction and evolution of individual consciousnesses are being passed on from generation to generation.


Reproduction Of Human Life Is Not Individual

In my rationale, considering everything we have speculated here, 'self' derives from the consciousness interacting with the human brain, and exists only in the thought process. Consciousness however, exists as a reproductive aspect of that mysterious 'force of life' that brings sentience into existence, which is found in such varying degrees of intensity that it suggests an evolutionary growth that seems to take place only in the human being. This observation concludes that consciousness is bound to humanity, as a whole, and evolves as a whole, and not as individual entities. The life forces that bring each individual human into being are individual as they perform their roles in existence, but the human consciousness is bound to the evolution of the species as a whole and evolves with it in the individual humans it uses to reproduce and evolve.

When we finally understand this dynamic of human consciousness, reproduction and the illusion of individual 'self', we also come to realize the importance of our bond to our humanity as taking priority over our own delusional 'self gratification'. Which is why I adamantly teach that the human will only evolve to higher degrees of sentience when they begin to harmonize with each other as a species. I sincerely believe that our goal as humans is to achieve harmony with each other, and that upon reaching that goal we will evolve into a 'state of being' that surpasses our physiological bond to this earth and biology, and takes the human consciousness closer to the mysteries of the universe that encompass us all.

[Null-A]

You: "This is physiological when looked at under a microscope, but what the scientists do not see there is that mysterious force that drives the sperm to search for the egg and penetrate it."

This is silly. Sperm cells are extremely dumb, they demonstrate very little intellectual behaviour which includes "searching for an egg" or a psychological "drive". Supposing a "mysterious force" is simply not necessary.

Semen analysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Total motile spermatozoa (TMS)[14] or total motile sperm count (TMSC)[15] is a combination of sperm count, motility and volume, measuring how many million sperm cells in an entire ejaculate are motile.
Use of approximately 20 million grade 3+4 sperm in ICI,"
"Approximate pregnancy rate varies with amount of sperm used in an artificial insemination cycle. Values are for intrauterine insemination, with sperm number in total sperm count, which may be approximately twice the total motile sperm count."


This means that in order in-pregnant a women, you need at least 20 million functional sperm (grade 3+4). And of those 20 million, essentially only ONE manages to penetrate the egg.

Not to mention approximately half of the male ejaculate is dead/dysfunctional sperm (grade 1+2).

[Pathfinder]

You might want to read a post before bothering with replies such as this.

Regardless of how many sperm cells are in an ejaculate, it only takes one to find its way to penetration to begin the life process of the human being.

A sperm cell may not be as intelligent as you, ( thinking, thinking...) , but it is certainly driven to perform its task by some unseen force.

[Zetherin]

Originally Posted by Pathfinder

A sperm cell may not be as intelligent as you, ( thinking, thinking...) , but it is certainly driven to perform its task by some unseen force.

What about every other cell that performs function, such as your respiratory cells, your digestive cells, etc. - do you think these are all performing because of "some unseen force"?

Or, is it only sperm cells in which you believe this? If so, why?

[Pathfinder]

I understand your desire to question the life force aspect of this discussion guys but could we please keep to the topic of consciousness and self identity here.

This is an evaluation of how the human comes to develop self awareness and what that is in reality in relation to their humanity.

[Subjectivity9]

Pathfider,

I am going to have to take what you have written here in pieces, forgive me. : ^ )

First of all I see one huge assumption on your part, well actually two, that life and consciousness is not omnipresent, and that they/IT requires some physical means in to come about, like a sperm penetrating an egg in order to cause life, and a fetus developing to some specific degree in order to incorporate/develop consciousness.

What if Life and Consciousness cannot BE separated, or “you can’t have one without the other.” What if these two (seemingly different) words are simply 2 names for the ‘One?’

P: This, to me, is proof that there is design and purpose behind it all. Why would there exist a water bucket if there was never an intention to fill it with water?

S9: First of all you are the one who decided to call it a “water bucket,” what if (in fact) it is a milk bucket, and you naming it doesn’t necessarily make it a water bucket?

2ndly, What if it is just a dream bucket and has no real purpose outside of dreaming itself…and so on.

P: At this point the only awareness the infant has is of its direct contact with its environment and the things it is subjected to within it.

S9: At this point in our history, we have very little information about what infants actually witness or know.

Setting this aside:

I do not believe that all of our information comes in through the 6 senses (mind being considered the 6th sense by many). In fact, if this WERE true, how would we know this mysterious thing that you are referring to, outside of our own speculations? We could never know IT directly.

I’ll stop here, and give you a chance to reply, my old friend.

S9

[Pathfinder]

Originally Posted by Subjectivity9

Pathfider,

I am going to have to take what you have written here in pieces, forgive me. : ^ )

First of all I see one huge assumption on your part, well actually two, that life and consciousness is not omnipresent, and that they/IT requires some physical means in to come about, like a sperm penetrating an egg in order to cause life, and a fetus developing to some specific degree in order to incorporate/develop consciousness.

What if Life and Consciousness cannot BE separated, or “you can’t have one without the other.” What if these two (seemingly different) words are simply 2 names for the ‘One?’

P: This, to me, is proof that there is design and purpose behind it all. Why would there exist a water bucket if there was never an intention to fill it with water?

S9: First of all you are the one who decided to call it a “water bucket,” what if (in fact) it is a milk bucket, and you naming it doesn’t necessarily make it a water bucket?

2ndly, What if it is just a dream bucket and has no real purpose outside of dreaming itself…and so on.

P: At this point the only awareness the infant has is of its direct contact with its environment and the things it is subjected to within it.

S9: At this point in our history, we have very little information about what infants actually witness or know.

Setting this aside:

I do not believe that all of our information comes in through the 6 senses (mind being considered the 6th sense by many). In fact, if this WERE true, how would we know this mysterious thing that you are referring to, outside of our own speculations? We could never know IT directly.

I’ll stop here, and give you a chance to reply, my old friend.

S9

Well S9 I am not sure what you are supposing to begin with. When life is spawned into this world it is always through reproduction of some sort so what are you suggesting?

As far as consciousness goes I see the consciousness of the human as something very different than the consciousness of an animal obviously.

And not to take the bucket and water metaphor out of contest but regardless of linguistics if a thing is designed for a specific purpose, than its existence is proof of something existing to require that purpose.

And you are very wrong about the knowledge we have attained through science and psychology with regard to the various stages of infantile development.

I really dont know what you meant by your last statement S9. It sounds as though you agree with my point that we have an ability to access the consciousness for information that we do not gather through our sensory abilities. But you say it as though we are in disagreement somehow.

I guess to rrespond to what you have said here I would simply say that I do acknowledge as is clear in my writing that the human has the ability to access information through consciousnesses that has evolved through many reincarnations, and that life is more than just the physical body and cannot be separated from this evolving consciousness which uses the body to interact with its environment. Where you disagree with me i am left a little confused.

[memester]

One point is that we start our interaction with the environment upon conception.
If we look at life history of other species, we can see that egg hatching ( which occurs at differing times in a batch, and at differing times between batches, and so on, is not a true chronological start of age-keeping. After hatching, there is also some difference possible on time of absorbtion of yolk sac, transition from embryo to larva, and so on. Different organs appearing, signalling a phase where it will eat from the environment.

Whereas birth, for us, is a more clear cut stage in this developmental process. We are born, and we now take in food from the environment; we are on to exogenous feeding at that stage.

If we go back to egg layers, we see that the hatched fish is being influenced heavily by it's environment during the embryo phase.

As are we, but do not readily acknowledge that environmental signals and responses made by the self are already affecting development in every way.

[Reconstructo]

We should take into account that we were invented by humanoids from Saturn with a cruel sense of humor. They created an inferior doppelganger of their own species. It's something like a horse race for them and something like high art. We are one of their 8 million cable channels.

[Pathfinder]

Originally Posted by memester

One point is that we start our interaction with the environment upon conception.
If we look at life history of other species, we can see that egg hatching ( which occurs at differing times in a batch, and at differing times between batches, and so on, is not a true chronological start of age-keeping. After hatching, there is also some difference possible on time of absorbtion of yolk sac, transition from embryo to larva, and so on. Different organs appearing, signalling a phase where it will eat from the environment.

Whereas birth, for us, is a more clear cut stage in this developmental process. We are born, and we now take in food from the environment; we are on to exogenous feeding at that stage.

If we go back to egg layers, we see that the hatched fish is being influenced heavily by it's environment during the embryo phase.

As are we, but do not readily acknowledge that environmental signals and responses made by the self are already affecting development in every way.

I believe the human is unique in its ability to access the evolved status of their consciousness which makes them different than animals.

---------- Post added 12-20-2009 at 11:18 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Reconstructo

We should take into account that we were invented by humanoids from Saturn with a cruel sense of humor. They created an inferior doppelganger of their own species. It's something like a horse race for them and something like high art. We are one of their 8 million cable channels.

I try to have an open mind for possibilities but I also try not to give credence to anything that the mind can devise without reason.