The Puzzle Of

CONSCIUOSNESS
By- Vivek Kushwaha
Date- 23rd May, 2020

V eronica was sitting in a restraunt with her friend Gina, listening to Gina’s recounting of a party

she went night before. For a while Veronica was intrested in what she was saying, but as Gina went
on & on about the mutual acquaintance of theres was wearing. Veronica lost intrest, looked down her
watch and then let her mind begin to drift. Suddenly, Gina said sharply, ‘Veronica!, you haven’t heard
a word I said!’ Indeed Veronica had not heard what Gina had said, and when she looked down at her
watch, she was stunned to see that 10 min had passed.

Sounds like a familiar experience? If so, you are in good company. One
survey of random sample of adults found that more than 80% acknowledged
they had the experience of missing part of conversation because their mind
‘wandered’. This experience is reffered as Altered state of consciousness, it
exists when there is a change from an ordinary pattern of mental functioning
to a state that seems different to the person experiencing the change.
CONSCIOUSNESS is a slippery concept. It isn’t just the stuff in your head. It is
the subjective experience of some of that stuff. When you stub your toe, your
brain doesn’t merely process information and trigger a reaction: you have a
feeling of pain. When you are happy, you experience joy. The ethereal nature
of experience is the mystery at the heart of consciousness.

Consciousness is one
of the most important
psycological concept in
the twenty-first
century which has
implication for
scientific and
philosophical
disciplines, including
artificial intelligence
(AI), neuroscience and
medical humanities.

Consciousness is
term most people
think they know until someone ask them to define it. Various sorts of
scientists, psychologists, neuroscientists, philosophers, and even computer
scientists (who have been trying to develop an artificial intelligence for some
time now) have tried to define consciousness, and so there are several
definitions—one for nearly every field in which consciousness is studied.

So, where does it leave us in search of a working definition of consciousness.

Simplest way to understand Consciousness is-

‘Consciousness is your awareness of everything that is going on around

you and inside your own head at any given moment, which you use to
organize your behavior, including your thoughts, sensations, and feelings.’

Consciousness is generated by a set of action potentials in the communication

among neurons just sufficient to produce a specific perception, memory, or
experience in our awareness. In simple words,-your eyes see a dog, the
neurons along the optic pathway to the occipital lobe are activated, and the
visual association cortex is activated to identify the external stimulus as a
“dog.” Bam!—consciousness!

Automaticity & Dissociation : Driving a car & response to accident.

Controlling our actions, is an important aspect of

consciousness. Some of our daily activities are practiced so often that they
become habitual / automatic.

Like learning to drive a car require intense concentration at first, we have to

concetrate on co-ordinating the different actions together and can scarely think
about anything else.

However, once the moment become automatic, we can carry on a conversation

or admire the scenery without being conscious about driving, unless a potential
danger quickly draw our atttention to the operation of the car.

You can undoubtly think of other examples of well learned, automatic

activities that require little conscious control.
Now, come to the part where duirng a automatic action, a potential danger
distrupt us from our consciousness, here comes the concept of Dissociation,
originated by French psychiatrist Pierre Janet, told that under certain
condiotions some thoughts and action become split off, or dissociated, from
the rest of consciousness & functions outside of awareness.
When faced with stresssfull situation, we may temporarily put it out of or
mind in order to functon effectively, when bored, we may lapse into
daydreaming. This is a mild example of dissociation that involve dissociating
one part of consciousness from another. The extream cases of it are seen in
patients of Dissociative identity disoreder, commonly called as Multiple
personality disorder.

In Indian Perspective

Almost all systems of Indian philosophy delve into psychological analysis of

consciousness, the Upanishads, Vedanta, Yoga, Buddhism, and Kashmira
Shaivism have distinct approaches.

The Upanishads, which are the foundational texts of Indian philosophy,

present a psychology that is rooted in understanding and actualizing the
deeper dimensions of the self whose core is contended to be pure
consciousness. The discussion of the mind in the Yogasutras is brought out in
the context of raising awareness about deeper levels of consciousness
through practices of samyama and ashtanga yoga. Buddhism analyzes
consciousness in the context of understanding different sensations. Kashmira
Shaivism focuses on the concepts of self and the causal mechanism in
understanding the creative aspects of consciousness.