Consciousness, Yoga, Samapatti & Me

How Consciousness Arises in the Brain by Alan J. Oliver

Science has developed technology which has enabled researchers to relate brain activity to electrical and chemical events within the brain, and through carefully designed experiments these events have been shown some consistency with the theory of how the brain works. That consciousness is real is obvious enough, and we don’t need a theory to prove its existence. Moreover, the activity mentioned above is easily related to the brain having fairly predictable responses to external inputs and internal activity co-incident with thought. The fact that we personally have no conscious awareness of the external world during periods of anaesthesia or head trauma seems to validate the view that consciousness is a process in the brain. In a paper appeared in [2], the authors submit a model which I believed was similar to that given in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Pandit Usharbuddh Arya. I have appended the Yoga Model of the entry of consciousness into matter in Fig.1. The reason I found their paper similar to the Yoga Model was that both seemed to progress through the same or similar steps in a journey from prespacetime to the everyday reality in which we exist. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/389

What I Think about Consciousness by Alan J. Oliver

Consciousness is a property of Akashic space to the extent that it has no boundaries. The apprehension of a memory is normally limited to the experience of the individual, and I believe this is a function of Ahamkara, the self-identity of the individual. We are all a memory address code. Memory, in the general sense, is generated by mind and in turn memory influences mind. There is more to it. Memory begins with an event or experience being observed by buddhi. In Yoga Sutra Patanjali describes two kinds of memory. The first is the general kind of memory in which the object of apprehension is primary. The second kind of memory is one in which the instrument and process of apprehension are primary. These distinctions allow me to discriminate between my experience of Samapatti and that of the subject. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/389

Consciousness, Lack of Imagination & Samapatti by Alan J. Oliver

Let me say from the outset that in all of the material written on the issue of consciousness I have found little, if anything at all, about the presence of imagination and what part it might play in a discourse about consciousness. In view of the ubiquitous nature of imagination, at least for most people, this is hardly surprising. For people like me, lacking that faculty, it is quite a different story. Over a lifetime trying to understand why most people find the way I think a bit odd, autistic even, I have had to find my own answers, only to find that what the absence of an imagination can provide as an answer for me just deepens the puzzle. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/390

An Ongoing Model of Reality Alan J. Oliver

The distinction between the physical reality and Prespacetime has been called the virtual state in some papers. For the sake of consistency I will use the latter term. In the virtual state the five elements would exist, as Bohm and others have suggested, as information in potential. It is interesting that the ancient teachers of Yoga described the finest particle as being a point without mass, adding that where a conjunction of these points occurs, a point with mass can appear. One could say their observation is analogous to a scientist’s description of the particles which pop in and out of empty space. What I draw from this is that every real particle of matter has its virtual potential in the virtual state. What is less obvious is the likelihood that this potential exists outside of the dimension we call time. Moving our focus to the point of the Big Bang, a moment in which there is an absence of matter, such as the state of a singularity or the Big Crunch, there would be a potential corresponding to that state, capable of triggering the appearance of the precursor to the formation of hydrogen, resulting in a new state which involved space and time in the physical sense. Thus the evolution of reality unfolded. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/391

On the Subject of Consciousness in Samapatti by Alan J. Oliver

Here I report my recollections of my experiences of Samapatti. These experiences led me to the view that consciousness is not necessarily confined to an event arising from electrochemical interactions in the brain. It is equally likely that the electrochemical processes in the brain arise from consciousness. My reading of the Yoga Sutras lends substance to view that there is a distinction between Mind and another level of conscious awareness called Buddhi. When we speak of Mind we are talking about our normal awareness, which is involved with sensory inputs, memory and imagination. Buddhi on the other hand is the observer of the Mind. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/392

On the Process of Thinking in Public Life: A Conversation in the Interest of Democracy Alan J. Oliver

We all have our own individual system of checks and balances, which kick in quite unconsciously before we speak and even before we listen to someone. The neurological research shows the myriad of connections and networks in the brain when we operate through our senses, when we move any part of the body and when we speak, think and remember. Given such knowledge, it is possible to assume that everyone else uses the same processes and inner structures, giving rise to the further assumption that we are the same in every way so far as remembering, learning and thinking are concerned. The main points of this essay are that the mind is always busy and this busyness is spread over many issues; obviously there is a need to set aside the busyness before one makes a decision. A simple practice is to stop and reflect on what is in your mind. Begin counting to ten and restart when a thought appears. Over time this practice will reach the point where you reach ten before a thought appears; and the goal is to have the mind become still, and that is the state in which we can make a truly valid decision. It is also the state in which we can cast a valid vote in an election for any of the three levels of government. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/393

Evolution & Modifications of the Mind by Alan J. Olive

One life in different bodies would have a similar range of awareness in each body. As the need for different aspects of awareness became necessary for survival, some would be selected for that aspect through evolution with the necessary restructuring of the neural networks following. The mind is always vigilant, assessing every moment against the inputs present. We call that thought when the outcome or decision is made known through our awareness. More generally, we just say we are conscious. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/394

Yoga, Samapatti & Me by Alan J. Oliver

In this article I review Samapatti and the issues the experiences have brought for me personally [1-4]. First and foremost was the question of why I am able to enter this state without any preparation. The second was the obvious question of how does this work. Over some years people had asked to sit and talk with me about their problems, despite the fact that I have no training whatsoever in counselling or any other therapies. This was the early eighties and seminars on just about everything under the sun were on offer. I joined a ten day residential for Vipassana meditation and after sitting meditating for ten days I was no different and life continued as usual. It was obvious that most of those I listened to thought I was some kind of healer, others said I was a good listener, while some asked me to teach them to do what I did. My position was that I could not possibly, or ethically, teach something that I didn’t know anything about. Not about how it worked, if it worked, why it worked and what was it that I did. At one point I was asked what I would do next, and to my surprise I said I would not do any more of this because I needed to find out how it worked. So began this long undirected journey into thinking and consciousness. In the Yoga tradition, buddhi is consciousness in its own right and has been defined by some writers as acognitive knowing. My view is that acognitive knowing means knowing without the mind, and of course that is what Samapatti provides to the seer. And what this means in our seeking to understand consciousness is precisely what I referred to. There are possibly a number of models we could posit to accommodate this position, all of which would be counterintuitive for science. I will simply offer one which arises from the acognitive model. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/395

A Brief Response to the Question: How is the World Created from Nothing? by James Kowall

An answer is given to the question: how is the world created from nothing? The answer is based on recent discoveries of modern physics. This answer not only solves the mystery of how the world is created, but also solves the mystery of the origin of consciousness. See http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/396