What is consciousness? Scientists and philosophers have been asking us the same question for years: consciousness is first and foremoscy what we feel: it is the calm of this embrace of the person we love, it is the sweetness of this strawberry ice cream that we love so much, it is the pain of the end of a romantic relationship, it is the deep curiosity that one feels when he looks at the stars, it is the fear of dying , it’s happiness.
Consciousness is everything, because, as Descartes said, it is the essential property of the mind, everything that happens there, whether thoughts, desires, longings or reflections, builds its particular form and foundations in each person, all these processes define what the Australian philosopher David J. Chalmers asks for simple explanations.
Consciousness is the voice of the soul; passions, that of the body?. ?William Shakespeare?
Everything we see and feel is captured by our conscious mind, she interprets, treats and even is able to verbalize all this, however, then comes the complex explanation, on which the whole scientific and philosophical community does not seem to be unanimous.
How do our senses, neurons and chemical processes shape this different entity in each individual?
William James, who in addition to being a famous psychologist was also a philosopher, said that consciousness would, in fact, be formed by three?I? Different, that the brain itself is responsible for defining according to everything we consciously experience. way, according to James, would we have one? I material, a social self and a spiritual self.
As we see, the challenges, proposals and theories to explain this dilemma have not ceased to arise, however, it should be noted that neuroscience is making great progress in trying to define what consciousness really is and even where it is.
To begin with, it should be noted that consciousness is not the same as discernment, there are those who are wrong and we must outline all aspects: consciousness is the ability of most living beings to feel and recognize themselves in it. discernment focuses exclusively on the moral aspect, what is right and what is wrong according to a social code.
After clarifying this issue, it is also interesting to talk about an idea that is very present today: the need to be aware, to open our consciousness, this repetitive message in the field of personal development and spirituality also has its own perspectives.
Our conscience, in fact, is always receptive; it is impossible not to feel, for example, toothache, the freshness of freshly cut grass or the proximity of a storm.
Furthermore, in 2012, a group of Cambridge scientists broke into the study of this subject by stating that this faculty is not just for humans. Animals also have this attribute, which is why it was specified in what is called the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness.
Renowned neuroscientists, such as Harvard University’s Dr. Philip Low, have also pointed out that it is time to separate the spiritual aspect from the concept of consciousness, and neuroscience offers us revealing and fascinating answers to this topic.
Fritjof Capra is a physicist at the University of Vienna who has written a book entitled The Web of Life, in which he explains that an organism’s degree of self-awareness is based on his interactions with the environment in relation to a brain.
That is, every time we perceive something, sorry, see it, establish a relationship, a conclusion, learn or experience something, our consciousness is gradually built.
There comes a time when all these millions of synapses and nerve impulses cross a line, where the formation of this entity that we call consciousness, which defines humans and animals, occurs.
There are those who, knowing this, ask themselves the following question: could a computer, or an artificial intelligence, realize it if it were put to the test day after day?Antonio Damasio, the famous neuroscientist, says no, that this will never be possible because machines simply have no emotions.
We have another interesting study conducted by physicist Roger Penrose and anaesthetist Stuart Hameroff, according to these two specialists, consciousness is an inherent skill of any biological system, to every living being.
This is the result of certain quantum changes in our neural circuits and microtubules (protein structures that are part of the cytoskeleton in cells) that gradually create a certain structure made up of billions of moments, called protoconscience.
René Descartes said the record of consciousness is in the pineal gland, however, scientists say something very different: Harvard University published the first clues on the subject in a study published in the scientific journal Neurology.
The son of one of the scientists who participated and promoted this research wrote a very complete article on the subject in the journal Psychology Today, in which he provides details about this interesting work, so today we can say that the place where all the processes of setting up our consciousness were developed are, in fact, concentrated in three regions :
Currently, this research continues to be carried out within the framework of the so-called Connectome project, which aims to restore awareness to patients in a vegetative or coma, getting them back not only to our reality, but to do so with all their faculties, it is an exceptional challenge that science still faces.