Consciousness -- or something like it

I’m running on empty right now, not much I have to chat about.  No, my mind’s not blank – I’m chewing up all my personal CPU right now on the concept of consciousness.

It’s one of my favorite topics, the whole idea of what exactly consciousness is and isn’t.   Is it limited to humans, is the entire universe conscious, is consciousness something that can be measured concretely and why are we each experiencing a separate consciousness, or are we…how is it we know anything?  What is the mechanism by which we experience life (and perhaps experience pre-birth and post-death)?  It’s all fabulously interesting, heady stuff to me.

There are a few websites devoted to the understanding of consciousness.  My favorite: Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS).  This organization was founded 30 years ago by Edgar Mitchell, astronaut on Apollo 14.  Dr. Mitchell had an epiphany while en route home to Earth; the immediacy of his “knowing” and understanding prompted him to find others of similar understanding, to begin studies of human consciousness.  IONS is the resulting organization, dedicated to science and study of knowing and its potential.

Another website which has a fair collection of links on the subject of noetics; Noosphere is a nice collection, a starting point, but tends to be a bit on the New Age side versus the science of consciousness.

Another site of interest is Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research – Scientific Study of Consciousness-related Physical Phenomena.  Truly fascinating: did you know this study noted an anomaly within the hours prior to 9/11, and have noted other anomalies prior and during other major events?  No, not fluffy stuff here, real data collection on a global basis.

So much to chew on, to hash over and not a comprehensive vocabulary available or a single library of consciousness knowledge to be found on this subject.  I don’t know that this is not what I’m meant to work on, maybe this is part of my dharma.  It’s been a frustration of mine for some time, seeing all kinds of studies and reports published which may relate to the nature of consciousness in some way, yet never seeing a unified compilation or theory about consciousness.  I had a couple recent exchanges with Dr. Mitchell on this subject.  I have to wrap my words around this matter before I go back to him with an idea of what I want to do.  Why not now, since I have some time on my hands?  Why not build whatever this is I’m seeking?

I’m not certain where I’ll come up with all the resources, but then I’m not entirely certain what this will look like if I get started and when I’m done.  Or maybe I never will be.

Who knows?

5:36:06 PM    comment []

Runaway desires

Meg at not.so.soft baits us this week with a guess-what-this-is teaser and then discloses all while recounting a childhood desire to run away from home.

A good many of us must have tried to run away or at least planned it out at some point in our childhood.  It could be a natural part of the separation process – one has to want to get the hell out of Dodge before one moves to their very adult and very separate-from-parents self, otherwise we’d still be sitting on the parental couch eating their Cheetos and fighting for the remote control.

When I was four I got something in my craw -- don’t ask me what it was because I can no longer remember.  I was annoyed enough by whatever it was to swath myself in an old sheet, pretending to dress like a Bedouin shepherd or some such thing, and then wandered off in search of my flock.  It didn’t last more than a block; I freaked out and panicked when I couldn’t see the house or recognize any landmark.  My mother found me and prodded me home after finding me screaming my lungs out down the street.

Running away must be a current meme in the cosmic consciousness.  I hadn't even read Meg's disclosure about wanting to run away when my son told me that he was going to run away.  Rather matter-of-factly, he said he thinks that since his dad won’t buy him a puppy that he’ll have to take matters into his own hands.  He'll run away and find a dog, then bring it home.

Sure, son, go ahead. 

When you start screaming “MOOOOOM” at the end of the block, I’ll be there in a jiffy.  I guess I better buy a leash, just in case.

11:05:48 AM    comment []

Mardi Gras: laissez le bon temps roulez…

While channel surfing last evening, hubby pronounces he’s fed up with Mardi Gras this and Mardi Gras that, upon seeing Emeril Lagasse prancing around his set with a feathered mask and everyone in the audience draped in beads and laughing.

What’s up with that? I ask him.  Don’t you think everyone needs a good party right now, that maybe they’re fatigued from a lousy economy, the on-going threats of war and terrorism and whatever else is hanging over their heads these days?

He didn’t have a rebuttal.

Party hearty, friends, you’ve earned it and then some.

9:48:32 AM    comment []