Concepts in Vedanta Applicable to Explanation of Consciousness

Concepts in Vedanta Applicable to Scientific Explanation of Consciousness by Syamala Hari

Consciousness and its relation to the physical body were thoroughly analyzed in the Indian philosophy (Vedanta) of ancient times. This philosophy contains many concepts which can lead to scientific answers to some of the questions that brain scientists and modern consciousness researchers are concerned with. In Indian philosophical literature thought is often described as being very fast and one that never comes to stop. Properties of thought described in this literature are very similar to those of faster-than-light objects, known as tachyons in modern physics. It will be possible to describe mental processes and interaction of mind with ordinary matter, in the terminology of mathematics and physics and quantum mechanics in particular, by means of a theory based on this philosophy’s concept that mind consists of superluminal objects. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/383

Mind and Tachyons: Mind-Body Interactive Dualism by Syamala Hari

Following on the observation in Vedanta that mind is restless and faster than matter, we propose that memory and thought in the brain involve tachyons. Although experiments to detect faster-than-light particles have not been successful so far, recently, there has been renewed interest in tachyon theories in various branches of physics. We suggest that tachyon theory may be applicable to brain physics as well. As a first step, in an earlier work, it was shown that in the quantum mechanical model of exocytosis by Beck and Eccles, a zero energy tachyon can precisely do the task of an Eccles’s psychon and therefore that our proposal can mathematically model mind’s action on the brain. We see below that our proposal can mathematically describe how the brain acts on the mind as well. Assuming that the brain is a non-relativistic quantum system, and representing mind-brain interaction as tachyon interaction with ordinary matter, we see that the brain creates subjective experience in the form of tachyons if the mind made up of tachyons, pays attention to the brain while it receives sensory inputs. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/384

How Vedanta Explains Conscious Subjective Experience by Syamala Hari

What is consciousness? Why does a purely physical lifeless system never seems to exhibit consciousness whereas human beings (and probably some other living beings) do? Can we explain subjective experience in objective (scientific) terms? These are some of the questions being debated by modern researchers of consciousness coming from both physical and social disciplines and philosophies. The modern philosopher Chalmers says that answering why some physical processes in the brain (body) are accompanied by experience, and why a given physical process generates a specific experience for example, experience of red or green is the “hard problem” of consciousness. Consciousness, the mind, the body, and their relations were thoroughly analyzed in the Indian philosophy (Vedanta) of ancient times. In this article, we describe how Vedanta explains occurrence of conscious subjective experience in living beings. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/385

Does Ordinary Life Ever Have a Conscious Moment without the ‘I’? by Syamala Hari

As long as we are awake and even while dreaming, a sense of “I am seeing, hearing, or doing, etc.” seems to be an inevitable content of any conscious experience. One may wonder whether it is ever possible in our ordinary lives to have an experience where the “I” is not present, or briefly, have a self-transcendent experience. I describe below a few of my experiences of short duration that are quite ordinary with nothing mysterious about them and argue that they are all self-transcendent. To explain how the self (ego) is present or not in an experience, I describe some properties characteristic of the self such as its sense of personal identity and ownership of action. Manifestation of these properties in an experience indicates the presence of the self and absence of these properties indicates its absence. In an act of observation, full attention paid to what is being observed seems to push every thought, including the self, out of the conscious mind and keep it fully occupied with the act of observation. A characteristic property of the self-transcendent state seems to be that one can only recognize such a state as being free from the self, but one cannot prove that it is so because the outward effect of the state may be the same as that of an alternative state where the self is present. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/386