Tattva-viveka
Consciousness and the brain
Anuraga Das - March 31, 2014 2:36 am
I was trying to place this in the science section but it wouldnt let me so I decided to place it here and on facebook.
Not something related to Vaishnavism but I was watching a documentary on human and chimpanzee ancestry where interpreting could take place. During the documentary, a case was brought up of a man by the name of Dr. Robert White who managed to transplant the head of one chimpanzee to another chimpanzee body (was dead) in order to test if he was capable of transferring consciousness i.e. within the brain. The surgery was a success according to the video where the new host responded to taste sight and sound. They also made the bold claim that consciousness is within the brain and can be transferred. This made think of the lectures I heard by GM where he explained that consciousness is too abstract to define and could not be found within the brain. I would like to hear from all of you on your opinions and thoughts of this especially those in the neurological and psychological field.
Swami - April 1, 2014 2:38 pm
I have addressed this same question on Facebook.
Braja-sundari Dasi - April 1, 2014 6:19 pm
Anuraga, would you be so kind and post Guru Maharaja`s reply on FB here? I couldn`t find this discussion there...
Anuraga Das - April 5, 2014 8:42 pm
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Swami Tripurari By "consciousness" we refer to first person subjective experience, not merely functions of the brain that others define as consciousness, perception, response to stimuli, etc.
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Swami Tripurari And if the chimp's body was dead, it's heart stopped and so on, it sounds like White took the head off of a living chimp and transplanted it. How horrible! Anyway, then the head functioned in the reverse of a chicken with its head cut off. Nasty experiment.