Post by Jasmin Galvan on Jun 11, 2015 17:13:51 GMT
1. The virtual simulation theory of consciousness is a theory that our consciousness simulates a virtual world based on our senses. In the book Is The Universe an App? The author notes “what we see, hear, touch and smell are the results of how our central nervous system processes both external and internal stimuli and then reconstructs a virtual environment in which we react accordingly.” This essentially says what we consider to be real may be anything but since things we are experiencing physically is what our consciousness wants us to believe. An example of this theory can be found in the film we watched Disneyland of Consciousness where a woman was convinced that an animatronic figure specifically Abraham Lincoln was in fact a real live actor. I personally think the theory implies that the world we view as real may be a simulation of one state of consciousness and the world in our dream is yet another state of consciousness.
2. “The brain tricks us into believing something to be real when it is not, provided that such trickery provides with a survival advantage.” In the book Cerebral Mirage the author discusses how we perceive our world and that in fact our day to day reality is a relative construct which helps us survive. Case in point the author discusses the phenomena of near death experiences. Many people who have had these NEDs described varied experiences, some people see their lives in retrospect, others see religious or spiritual entities, and yet others like described in the book see a bicycle or a chapatti. “It may well be that whenever the body-brain is under severe stress (such as when one has a heart attack or is in a car accident), consciousness elicits an ultimatum package of patterned meanings, drawn specifically from one’s own unique biographical/psychological history, to encourage one to live and resist dying”, in this way the brain tricks us or uses our own memories, faith, feelings in order for us to continue living.
2. “The brain tricks us into believing something to be real when it is not, provided that such trickery provides with a survival advantage.” In the book Cerebral Mirage the author discusses how we perceive our world and that in fact our day to day reality is a relative construct which helps us survive. Case in point the author discusses the phenomena of near death experiences. Many people who have had these NEDs described varied experiences, some people see their lives in retrospect, others see religious or spiritual entities, and yet others like described in the book see a bicycle or a chapatti. “It may well be that whenever the body-brain is under severe stress (such as when one has a heart attack or is in a car accident), consciousness elicits an ultimatum package of patterned meanings, drawn specifically from one’s own unique biographical/psychological history, to encourage one to live and resist dying”, in this way the brain tricks us or uses our own memories, faith, feelings in order for us to continue living.