Fwd: Our Conscious Mind Could Be An Electromagnetic Field- comments

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " hersh_b " <hershbhasin@g...> wrote:

 

Namaste Mr OClery

 

Thank you for bringing this article to our attention: " Our Conscious

Mind Could Be An Electromagnetic Field " at

http://unisci.com/stories/20022/0516026.htm

 

This brings us closer to what Patanjali and Sankhya say about mind.

However it again confuses mind with consciousness.

 

The following snippet matches what Patanjali says about the nature

of

mind (NOT CONCIOUSNESS!)

 

<snippet>

Are our thoughts made of the distributed kind of electromagnetic

field that permeates space and carries the broadcast signal to the

TV

or radio.

 

Professor Johnjoe McFadden from the School of Biomedical and Life

Sciences at the University of Surrey in the UK believes our

conscious

mind could be an electromagnetic field.

<end snippet>

 

 

However the following snippet about consciouss being the

electromagnetic (em) field does not match with

Patanjali. This is still the " lake " of mind and NOT CONCIOUSNESS!.

 

<snippet>

One of the fundamental questions of consciousness, known as the

binding problem, can be explained by looking at a tree. Most people,

when asked how many leaves they see, will answer " thousands. " But

neurobiology tells us that the information (all the leaves) is

dissected and scattered among millions of widely separated neurones.

 

Scientists are trying to explain where in the brain all those leaves

are stuck together to form the conscious impression of a whole tree.

How does our brain bind information to generate consciousness?

 

What Professor McFadden realized was that every time a nerve fires,

the electrical activity sends a signal to the brain's

electromagnetic

(em) field. But unlike solitary nerve signals, information that

reaches the brain's em field is automatically bound together with

all

the other signals in the brain. The brain's em field does the

binding

that is characteristic of consciousness.

 

<end snippet>

 

Again I quote from the champion philosopher Vivakanand and you will

be surprised how similar his thoughts are. Please note as explained

in an earlier post, mind and matter both are forms of Prana.

 

1) Prana : From Complete-Works / Volume 1 / Raja-Yoga /Prana

 

What moves the steam engine? Prana, acting through the steam. What

are all these phenomena of electricity and so forth but Prana? What

is physical science? The science of Pranayama, by external means.

Prana, manifesting itself as mental power, can only be controlled by

mental means. That part of Pranayama which attempts to control the

physical manifestations of the Prana by physical means is called

physical science, and that part which tries to control the

manifestations of the Prana as mental force by mental means is

called

Raja-Yoga.

 

2) Mind and then Will compared to Electricity: Complete-Works /

Volume 1 / Raja-Yoga / The psychic prana

 

Next we shall take one fact from physics. We all hear of electricity

and various other forces connected with it. What electricity is no

one knows, but so far as it is known, it is a sort of motion. There

are various other motions in the universe; what is the difference

between them and electricity? Suppose this table moves that the

molecules which compose this table are moving in different

directions; if they are all made to move in the same direction, it

will be through electricity. Electric motion makes the molecules of

a

body move in the same direction. If all the air molecules in a room

are made to move in the same direction, it will make a gigantic

battery of electricity of the room. Another point from physiology we

must remember, that the centre which regulates the respiratory

system, the breathing system, has a sort of controlling action over

the system of nerve currents.

 

Now we shall see why breathing is practised. In the first place,

from

rhythmical breathing comes a tendency of all the molecules in the

body to move in the same direction. When mind changes into will, the

nerve currents change into a motion similar to electricity, because

the nerves have been proved to show polarity under the action of

electric currents. This shows that when the will is

transformed into the nerve currents, it is changed into something

like electricity. When all the motions of the body have become

perfectly rhythmical, the body has, as it were, become a gigantic

battery of will. This tremendous will is exactly what the Yogi

wants.

This is, therefore, a physiological

explanation of the breathing exercise. It tends to bring a rhythmic

action in the body, and helps us, through the respiratory centre, to

control the other centres. The aim of Prânâyâma here is to rouse the

coiled-up power in the Muladhara, called the Kundalini.

 

3) Concentration - Its spiritual usesHome / Complete-Works / Volume

1 / Raja-Yoga /

 

Finally Patanjalis Yoga aphorisms starts with " yoga chitta vridhi

nirodh " . The mind is compared to a lake and thoughts are waves in

the

lake which we have to control. This is a rather long extract but I

did not want to shorten it as it explains how perception takes place

and the relation of the mind to the buddhi, ego and finally

consciousness.

 

Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Chitta) from taking various

forms

(Vrittis).

A good deal of explanation is necessary here. We have to understand

what Chitta

is, and what the Vrittis are. I have eyes. Eyes do not see. Take

away

the brain

centre which is in the head, the eyes will still be there, the

retinae complete,

as also the pictures of objects on them, and yet the eyes will not

see. So the

eyes are only a secondary instrument, not the organ of vision. The

organ of

vision is in a nerve centre of the brain. The two eyes will not be

sufficient.

Sometimes a man is asleep with his eyes open. The light is there and

the picture

is there, but a third thing is necessary the mind must be joined to

the organ.

The eye is the external instrument; we need also the brain centre

and

the agency

of the mind. Carriages roll down a street, and you do not hear them.

Why?

Because your mind has not attached itself to the organ of hearing.

First, there

is the instrument, then there is the organ, and third, the mind

attached to

these two. The mind takes the impression farther in, and presents it

to the

determinative faculty Buddhi which reacts. Along with this reaction

flashes

the idea of egoism. Then this mixture of action and reaction is

presented to the

Purusha, the real Soul, who perceives an object in this mixture. The

organs

(Indriyas), together with the mind (Manas), the determinative

faculty

(Buddhi),

and egoism (Ahamkâra), form the group called the Antahkarana (the

internal

instrument). They are but various processes in the mind-stuff,

called

Chitta.

The waves of thought in the Chitta are called Vrittis

(literally " whirlpool " ) .

What is thought? Thought is a force, as is gravitation or repulsion.

From the

infinite storehouse of force in nature, the instrument called Chitta

takes hold

of some, absorbs it and sends it out as thought. Force is supplied

to

us through

food, and out of that food the body obtains the power of motion etc.

Others, the

finer forces, it throws out in what we call thought. So we see that

the mind is

not intelligent; yet it appears to be intelligent. Why? Because the

intelligent

soul is behind it. You are the only sentient being; mind is only the

instrument

through which you catch the external world. Take this book; as a

book

it does

not exist outside, what exists outside is unknown and unknowable.

The

unknowable

furnishes the suggestion that gives a blow to the mind, and the mind

gives out

the reaction in the form of a book, in the same manner as when a

stone is thrown

into the water, the water is thrown against it in the form of waves.

The real

universe is the occasion of the reaction of the mind. A book form,

or

an

elephant form, or a man form, is not outside; all that we know is

our

mental

reaction from the outer suggestion. " Matter is the permanent

possibility of

sensations, " said John Stuart Mill. It is only the suggestion that

is

outside.

Take an oyster for example. You know how pearls are made. A parasite

gets inside

the shell and causes irritation, and the oyster throws a sort of

enamelling

round it, and this makes the pearl. The universe of experience is

our

own

enamel, so to say, and the real universe is the parasite serving as

nucleus. The

ordinary man will never understand it, because when he tries to do

so, he throws

out an enamel, and sees only his own enamel. Now we understand what

is meant by

these Vrittis. The real man is behind the mind; the mind is the

instrument his

hands; it is his intelligence that is percolating through the mind.

It is only

when you stand behind the mind that it becomes intelligent. When man

gives it

up, it falls to pieces and is nothing. Thus you understand what is

meant by

Chitta. It is the mind-stuff, and Vrittis are the waves and ripples

rising in it

when external causes impinge on it. These Vrittis are our universe.

 

 

Regards

Hersh Bhasin

 

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " hersh_b " <hershbhasin@g...> wrote:

>

> Namaste Mr OClery

>

> Thank you for bringing this article to our attention: " Our

Conscious

> Mind Could Be An Electromagnetic Field " at

> http://unisci.com/stories/20022/0516026.htm

>

> This brings us closer to what Patanjali and Sankhya say about

mind.

> However it again confuses mind with consciousness.

 

Namaste,h,

 

Yes, I agree, that's why I wrote getting closer. In the end result

the body and brain are just hardware to play the programmed software

of mind. However the mind itself can only be of 'mind-stuff' or

prana, so really we are talking about varying degrees of

manifestation from gross to subtle to subtlest. There is only prana

and karma of course.IMO.

So what is consciousness? It has to do wlth illusion of Saguna

Brahman. In the end result there is only NirGuna and consciousness

would be superflous and non existent, as it was always.

However science is getting close and closer to the mystical, at the

basic non philosophical level.

So consciousness is a reflection, but of what and in what? There has

to be a vehicle no matter how subtle. Ultimately all this just leads

me back to the idean of ajatavada and that nothing ever did

happen...........ONS..Tony.