So far in this series of articles about consciousness (i.e. articles 1 and 2), I’ve reached the following conclusion:

Our minds are separate
from our brains and
can influence them.

This is a fascinating conclusion, although Rene Descartes came up with it over three hundred years ago so it’s actually no big deal. Fortunately, thanks to the progress of science, we’ve now got ways of actually proving that this is the case. We can use electroencephalograms (E.E.G’s) and electronic random number generators (R.N.G’s) to test what the mind and brain can do.

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Tags: science, the brain, mind, consciousness

I loved the first ‘Star Wars’ film, I still do. I don’t think any film will ever have as profound affect on me as that movie. A big part of its influence was because of its timing. It came out when I was seven years old; a skinny kid living in suburban london who loved fantastic ideas and stirring stories. I wanted something big and awe-inspiring and slick and glorious and grandiose and absurdly naive. Read More...

Tags: star wars, sex, life, butterkist popcorn

In the last article, I described how, one day, I was reading a book out loud. While I did that, my mind drifted off. I then became aware that my brain and body were reading away by themselves. It was a very strange feeling. It seemed that my brain could do complex tasks (like reading out loud) without me being involved. The experience threw up some strange questions; did I have to be involved at all? Was I, my self, actually doing nothing at all? Was my brain doing everything while I just got the deluded idea I was in charge? Read More...

Tags: consciousness, the brain, mind