Quotes About Consciousness

I got better and Daisy didn't and I can't explain why. Maybe I was just flirting with madness the way I flirted with my teachers and my classmates. I wasn't convinced I was crazy, though I feared I was. Some people say that having any conscious opinion on the matter is a mark of sanity, but I'm not sure that's true.

There is thought, and then there is thinking about thoughts, and they don't feel the same. They must reflect quite different aspects of brain function. The point is, the brain talks to itself, and by talking to itself changes its perceptions.

Reality was getting too dense.

Whatever we call it - mind, character, soul - we like to think we possess something that is greater than the sum of our neurons that 'animates' us.

A volte, quando avete capito che il vostro treno non si sta veramente muovendo, potete passare un altro mezzo minuto sospesi tra due regni della coscienza: quello che sa che non vi state muovendo e quello che invece ne ha la sensazione. Potete svolazzare avanti e indietro tra queste percezioni e provare una specie di vertigine mentale. E se è così, siete nel territorio della pazzia: un luogo dove le false impressioni hanno tutte le caratteristiche della realtà.

There is thought, and then there is thinking about thoughts, and they don't feel the same.

There is a thought, and then there is thinking about thoughts, and they don't feel the same.

When I was supposed to be awake, I was asleep, when I was supposed to speak, I was silent; when a pleasure offered itself to me, I avoided it.

Por el simple hecho de que existe el cuerpo - decía -, somos sombra de todas manera, somos anfibios como las ranas: una parte de nosotros vive aquí, en lo bajo, y la otra tiende hacia lo alto. Vivir es tan sólo tener conciencia de esto, saberlo, luchar para que la luz no desaparezca derrotada por la sombra. Desconfíe de quien es perfecto - me decía -, de quien tiene las soluciones ya listas en el bolsillo, desconfíe de todo, salvo de lo que le dice su corazón.

Ich begann zu begreifen, dass es eine Welt in meinem Kopf gab und eine andere draussen und dass diese beiden Welten nur sehr selten auf die glücklich Idee kamen zusammenzufallen.

Kebebasan sejati bukanlah melakukan apa yang kita suka

I was steeped in denial, but my body knew.

That which is not comprehended by the mind but by which the mind comprehends—know that...

As fire, though one, takes the shape of every object which it consumes, so the Self, though one, takes the shape of every object in which it dwells. (The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal, pg. 35)

I cannot say that I know Brahman fully. Nor can I say that I know him not.... Nor do I know that I know him not.

He is within and without: He lives in the live and the lifeless: Subtle beyond mind's grasp; so near to us, so utterly distant: Undivided, He seems to divide into objects and creatures; Send creation forth from Himself, He upholds and withdraws it; Light of all lights, He abides beyond our ignorant darkness; Knowledge, the one thing real we may study or know, the heart's dweller.

If individuals breathe through the right side, they said, they tend to become more active and aggressive, more alert and more oriented toward the external world. Breathing through the left side, on the other hand, produces a quieter, more passive psychological state, one more oriented toward the inner world.

I wonder: Can a brainless animal feel curiosity? Does it want to play? Or does it only "want" toys or food the way a plant "wants" the sun? Does a sea star experience consciousness? If it does, what does consciousness feel like to a sea star? Clearly, I have entered a world I cannot

The self," Blackmore writes, "is just a fleeting impression that arises with each experience and fades away again. . . . There is no inner self," she argues, "only multiple parallel processes that give rise to a benign inner delusion—a useful fiction." She argues that consciousness itself is a fiction. The

humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness" and that "nonhuman animals, including all birds and mammals, and many other creatures, including octopuses [italics added], also possess these neurological substrates.

Then suddenly, we saw the voltmeter flash. "What's going on?" I asked Scott. "I thought the eel was asleep." "He is asleep," Scott answered. And then we both realized what was happening. The eel was dreaming.

species from elephants to monkeys purposely eat fermented fruit to get drunk; dolphins were recently discovered sharing a certain toxic puffer fish, gently passing it from one cetacean snout to another, as people would pass a joint, after which the dolphins seem to enter a trancelike state.)

So, if an octopus is this smart, Steve asked Bill, what other animals are out there that could be this smart--that we don't think of as being sentient and having personality and memories and all these things?

I wonder: Can a brainless animal feel curiosity? Does it want to play? Or does it only "want" toys or food the way a plant "wants" the sun? Does a sea star experience consciousness? If it does, what does consciousness feel like to a sea star? Clearly, I have entered a world I cannot judge by the rules I have learned on land among vertebrates