Quotes About Consciousness

Everybody has a jury, the voices they carry inside.

A wonderful area for speculative academic work is the unknowable. These days religious subjects are in disfavor, but there are still plenty of good topics. The nature of consciousness, the workings of the brain, the origin of aggression, the origin of language, the origin of life on earth, SETI and life on other worlds...this is all great stuff. Wonderful stuff. You can argue it interminably. But it can't be contradicted, because nobody knows the answer to any of these topics.

Skeptical scientists often point out, as Carl Sagan has, that the wonders of real science far surpass the supposed wonders of fringe science. I think it is possible to invert that idea, and to say that the wonders of real consciousness far surpass what conventional science admits can exist.

We are one of only three species on our planet that can claim to be self-aware, yet self-delusion may be a more significant characteristic of our kind.

As the practical value of altering consciousness becomes recognized, procedures to effect these alterations will become increasingly ordinary and unremarkable. The whole concept of changing states of consciousness will cease to have a threatening or exotic aspect.

The very concept of time travel makes no sense, since time doesn't flow. The fact that we think time passes is just an accident of our nervous systems—of the way things look to us. In reality, time doesn't pass; we pass. Time itself is invariant. It just is. Therefore, past and future aren't separate locations, the way New York and Paris are separate locations. And since the past isn't a location, you can't travel to it.

Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience.

El rasgo humano característico no es la conciencia sino el conformismo, y el resultado característico es la guerra religiosa. Otros animales luchan por el territorio o el alimento; los seres humanos, en cambio, son los únicos en el reino animal que luchan por sus creencias.

Yes, she answers and does not move. She might, at this moment, be nothing but a floating intelligence; not even a brain inside a skull, just a presence that perceives, as a ghoast might. Yes, she thinks, this is probably how it must feel to be a ghost. It's a little like reading, isn't it-that same sensation of knowing people, settings, situations, without playing any particular part beyond that of the willing observer.

It's remarkable, being alive.

Krivak slammed the hatch shut and waited for the depth gauge to show the ship coming shallow, listening to the other missile launches. What a beautiful sound, he thought.   The fourth-launched Mark 98 Tigershark torpedo struggled to an angry consciousness, its

LA PERSPECTIVA E-MYTH El conocimiento y la conciencia son similares en sus esferas respectivas. El uno se encuentra en el centro intelectual; la otra, en el centro emocional. El conocimiento es saber. La conciencia es sentir. MAURICE NICOLL Comentarios psicológicos

El problema consiste en que pensamos que estamos despiertos. Pensamos que ya somos objetivos. Pensamos que ya somos individuos. Pensamos que ya somos libres. ¡Pensamos que pensamos!

When a person is only half an ass like me, and not a complete one, she senses certain things.

I desideri non si possono evocare, né soffocare a piacimento. Essi nascono dalle profondità più remote del nostro animo, più nascosti di ogni altra intenzione, siano essi buoni o cattivi. E ha nostra insaputa.

Cînd te-ai n?scut? Momo se gîndi ÅŸi spuse într-un tîrziu: ? Dup? cîte îmi amintesc, am fost din totdeauna.

Benim anlayamad???m baÅŸka bir ÅŸey,' diye aç?klamaya çal??t? Bastian. 'Her ÅŸey ancak ben isteyince mi var oluyor, yoksa önceden var da ben onlar? bir biçimde ortaya m? ç?kar?yorum yaln?zca?' 'Her ikisi de,' dedi Graograman.

Senin görüp duyduÄŸun ÅŸeyler, insanlar?n zaman? deÄŸildi MoMo, dedi Hora Usta. Bu yaln?z senin kendi zaman?nd?. Her insan?n içinde senin az önce gördüÄŸün yer gibi bir yer vard?r. Ama oraya yaln?zca benim gördüklerim eriÅŸebilir. Ve bildiÄŸimiz gözle oras? görülmez.

Orada her ?ey hesapl?, her ?ey planl?yd?. Her santim ve her an. Zaman tasarruf edeyim derken asl?nda ba?ka ?eylerden tasarruf etti?inin kimse fark?nda de?ildi.

YOU-reka! When you keep your hands and brain occupied—whether with video games, gardening, or removing a spleen—it means you're putting your brain into the state you want: not thinking about eating and not automatically reaching for something to put in your mouth.

lie of scapegoating, this unconsciousness of scapegoating (to have a scapegoat is not to be aware that one has a scapegoat), therefore means that a text that openly mentions scapegoating cannot be a scapegoat text. I have confidence that this will be done and is already being done by interpreters of the Bible who use mimetic theory.

Memory is the only afterlife I have ever believed in. But the forgetting inside us cannot be stopped. We are programmed to betray.

Intolerance is a form of divided consciousness in which abstract, conceptual, ideological hatred vanquishes concrete, real and individual moments of identification.

Los psicólogos de finales de los años cuarenta habían detectado, o afirmaban haber detectado, que la mente tenía la capacidad para defenderse de lo que en apariencia no quería percibir.