This reality consists of physical reality (space, matter, energy, and the laws of physics) and consciousness. It is clear that there is a link between the two. By simply willing it to happen, we can make our bodies move, interacting with and changing physical reality. If you pick up an object, you are using consciousness to manipulate physical reality. It is also clear that physical reality can affect consciousness. If your body is injured, you consciously experience pain. If you stand near a flame, you consciously experience the sensation of heat. This suggests that one is subjective to the other and therefore its existence arises from the other. Mainstream, contemporary science would have us believe that consciousness arises from physical reality. However, scientists have no evidence for this. All they know is that there is a link between a brain and consciousness. That only proves that there is a link; it provides no indiciation as to which arises from which.
The closest thing to a physical explanation for consciousness we have is neurons. However, neurons control our entire central nervous system, not just our brain, and they are still there when we are unconscious while sleeping. Our brains make our bodies breathe even when we are not thinking about it and even while we sleep. Our brains turn information from photons into visual images. They do a lot of things that we are not consciously responsible for. Neurons are the basis of a body's central nervous system, not of consciousness. The only evidence that a brain or neurons are responsible for consciousness is that there is a link between the two and there is no other physical explanation for consciousness. However, there does not have to be a physical explanation for consciousness if consciousness is not subjective to physical reality.
We already know that consciousness can affect physical reality. We also know that we dream and essentially create our own realities within our minds. There is no reason to doubt that this can be taken to a further level. There is no evidence, philosophical or empirical, that physical reality can create something as complex and perfect as consciousness, but we already know that consciousness can create anything it wants within its own thoughts. This suggests that this physical reality is subjective to consciousness and is essentially a collective dream of all consciousness experiencing it. Consider also how perfect, how complex yet simple, consciousness is. If it was simply neurons, we would be artificial intelligence no different than an advanced computer, not truly conscious. Consider how perfect physical reality is. It cannot have occured by chance. Everything fits together far too well. It has to originate from consciousness. This leads to only one conclusion: Conscious creates physical reality. We do not exist within the Universe; rather, the Universe exists within us.
That realization answers what, to many people, are the biggest and most important two questions that can be asked: What is the purpose of the Universe? What is the purpose of life? The Universe is what consciousness creates for itself as an environment for experience. Life is what consciousness creates for itself as a means for experience.
This realization, however, leaves another, arguably more important question unanswered: What happens when we die? This question relies in large part on whether or not we, as conscious beings, exist forever. To answer these questions, one must consider what reality really is. Of course reality conists of physical reality and consciousness, but physical reality is subjective to consciousness. Objective reality, then, is essentially two things: Consciousness and time. However, time is not really a thing, so it might be more correct to say that objective reality is only consciousness. Time is simply something that passes. It is objective. That leaves consciousness. Each conscious entity is objective and can be seen as a quantum of consciousness.
Time is infinite. Your life is finite. It is only approximately one century out of eternity. One century out of eternity is a finite number out of infinity, or one out of infinity. One out of infinity is infinitesimally small--so small that most mathematicians would say that it is exactly equal to zero. Although that is not technically correct, the difference between a finite number out of infinity and zero is infinitely small. If your existence is finite, if you die when your body dies, then the chance that this moment in time happens to occur during your finite existence out of infinite time is one out of infinity. That is, if your existence is temporary, then the chance that you currently exist is zero. Yet you exist.
It could, of course, be argued that the above argument is invalid because there will always be someone who exists, and out of infinite possibilities, some extremely unlikely or even infinitely unlikely possibility will always exist. This is true. The current state of the Universe, down to every detail, is one out of an incomprehensibly large number of possibilities, yet here the Universe is, in its current state, despite the unliklihood. This moment in time is one out of infinite. However, it is guaranteed that the Universe exists in some state. It is guaranteed that we are currently in a finite moment in infinite time. Although the chance that the Universe exists in its current state is extremely low, and although the chance that we are currently in this exact moment out of infinite time is infinitely small, the current moment and the current state of the Universe were not chosen at random for this thought experiment; rather, they were chosen because we currently exist in this moment in time and the Universe currently exists in its current state.
With consciousness, one could make a similar argument. Go outside and look around. Do you see a man? Yes, that man exists right now, but what if he does not exist a few decades from now? Why can he not cease to exist? Why can there not be infinite conscious entities over all eternity, each one having a finite lifespan? Why can that conscious being, that man, not cease to exist, only to be replaced by another? Was that man not chosen simply for this thought experiment because he happens to exist right now, in the same way that the current state of the Universe and the current moment in time were chosen in the last thought experiment not at random but because they currently exist? This is true, of course. That man was chosen not at random, but because he happens to be right here right now. Perhaps he will cease to exist and another conscious being will come into existence. That man's existence proves nothing to me. It proves nothing to you. My existence proves nothing to you. Your existence proves nothing to me.
I fucking love this board.
With consciousness, however, it is not that simple. Although that man's consciousness and your consciouss prove nothing to me, my consciousness proves something to me. Although that man's consciosness and my consciousness prove nothing to you, your consciousness can prove something to you. Your existence is everything to you. Literally everything. All you know, all you ever have known, all you ever will known. To you, your existence, your perception, is the entirety of existence itself. If your perception is finite, if it has only existed for a few decades and will only exist for a few more decades, then the rest of infinite time is nothing. It is not like being in this moment where there will always be another, but rather, it is this moment or *nothing*. All other possibilities are identical: Nothingness. All possibilities except this one tiny sliver of eternity. Yet it is this one tiny sliver of eternity, the only one that differs from the rest, the one out of infinity, that currently exists. If it is true that the rest is nothingness, that you will cease to exist, that consciousness can die; that chance is one out of infinity. If your existence is finite, then the chance that you currently exist is zero. If you currently exist, then the chance that your existence is finite is zero. This leaves only one conclusion: Conscious exists forever. Consciousness cannot die.
Knowing that physical reality is subjective to consciousness, and knowing that consciousness exists forever, leaves one question still unanswered: What happens when we die? Given that physical reality is subjective to consciousness, we clearly exist beyond the confines of the physical Universe. When our body dies we break free not only from our body, but from this Universe. Philosophical thought experiments alone cannot tell us for sure where we go, but it is reasonable to assume that, given the fact that we, consciousness, created something as complex and perfect as this Universe, we have the freedom and ability to create other realities and do whatever we desire when we are not bound by the limits of a physial body. Perhaps when our body dies we return to pure consciousness until we are ready to be born into this Universe again, or perhaps we go to a sort of in between reality where there is some level of physical reality but we are more free as if in a dream, or perhaps we remain in this Universe, our perfect creation, but simply without the limits of a body. All that we can be certain of is that, eventually, we will live again. Between birth and death, we experience life. Between death and birth, we can only speculate what we will experience. Regardless of what exists beyond physical incarnation, dying in this life is like turning off your Xbox: You leave the game and return to 'real life'.
Do not fear death. Death is an illusion. Live a good life. Accomplish something worthwhile with your life. Leave Earth a better place than it was when you arrived here. Enjoy your life. When death arrives, accept it openly and move on to your next adventure in this expansive reality and infinite eternity.
>By simply willing it to happen, we can make our bodies move, interacting with and changing physical reality.
>too stupid to understand causation properly
>>80245
If they are not separate, then one must be part of the other, which makes the former subjetive to the latter. My points hold true.
>>80258
I do too. I've waited a long time for a philosophy board.
>>80245
>>80258
>>80276
Shut the fuck up and let him finish.
>>80323
>If they are not separate, then one must be part of the other
>must be part of the other
Why?
>>80355
I took your use of the word "separate" to mean that [if they are "separate", then] they are not the same thing and that neither one is part of the other. The only other options would be for one to be part of the other or for them to be the same thing. If you meant something else, please clarify.
bump
>>80699
Is that person on the right a human-anunnaki hybrid?
>>81267
I don't think she was.
>>82192
Ignore this tool OP
>>82312
How do you know consciousness is outside the physical world?
>>82416
>the history and humanities board is for people to make up /x/ shit
That isn't what philosophy is faggot.
Show me consciousness isn't part of the physical world.
>consciousness outside the physical world
Forgive me for my ignorance if this is the case, but didn't Gilbert Ryle already blow this idea out of the water? You know, Ghost in the machine and all that.
>>82427
You're the only one in this thread who said that.
>>82593
Nope. Just an anon looking for an answer.
>>82636
The mind absolutely dies when the body does (or within a few minutes at most, once the brain can no longer function at conscious capacity.)
Consciousness as you think of it is not true consciousness. It is mind-chatter. Consciousness is the space in between the chatter.
>>82636
>suddenly three posts referring to consciousness being outside the physical world
>all using the phrase "physical world"
>all three posts taking the same stance
>not samefag
Alright kid, have fun using Firebug and pretending we are stupid enough to believe you.
>>82607
Read the OP, they paint a pretty clear distinction between the two
>>82815
No, I was those first two posts. I wasn't trying to not be a samefag.
>>82914
OP clearly fucking says that there is a connection between consciousness and physical reality, dumbfuck. Learn to read.
>>82914
The OP says conciousness is distinct, not outside.
>>83061
Are you retarded? Even if consciousness is subjective to physical reality, consciousness and physical reality are not the same thing. That would simply mean that consciousness is part of physical reality (which it is not, by the way).
>>83061
>I can ctrl-v
Grats bro
Fyi the connection between your food and the texture of your shit is because the shit is made up of all the molecules you didn't absorb. So you basically have no point, man.
>>83151
>a discussion on philosophy has literally devolved into a discussion on shit
Anonymous, why do you never cease to disappoint?
>>83432
>do you have evidence of anything existing beyond the physical reality?
Yes. Consciousness. Read the OP.
>>83516
holy fuck, i want /x/ pretending to be philosophy to get the fuck out
don't bother replying, you can have your thread
I'm just gonna go shitpost on /x/ to balance it out
>>83592
>I'm just gonna go shitpost on /x/ to balance it out
>>83516
Is this a troll?
OP, I'm not here to talk about your topic. It might be well thought out and intriguing, I don't know, I didn't read it. You want to know why I didn't even read one sentence of it?
Because you're a tripfag and have a such a faggoty name like "The Shadow of Truth". Good God. Go away and get back to listening to Linkin Park and reading Ayn Rand.
>consciousness not being a part of reality
>consciousness not just being the presence of information, being fired by neurons connected by axons in the prefrontal cortex and parts of the parietal lobe
>consciousness not just being this information reaching down to the thalamus, where it can be directed to other parts of the brain
>consciousness not just being the brain being in a wakened state by the reticular formation in the brainstem
>consciousness being any psuedointellectual, stoner, edgy, transmetaphysical garbage
>and not just many parts of the brain working together, to put a living machine to work
Trolling or retarded, you got a response out of me after half of the first paragraph. 9/10
