Intangible Consciousness

Russian religious thinker Vl. Solovyov suggested in one of his arguments to make an imaginary walk inside our brain in order to see what is happening there. During this fascinating excursion one could observe how a complex mechanism of thinking comes into play, as "the smallest brain particles" interact with each other, as electrical flashes occur in different parts of the brain. However, if we compare what is happening in our minds to what we see in the structures of our brain, then it may immediately appear that these are two completely different processes. It is to such conclusions that Vl. Soloviev: "What would an outside observer see? He would have seen the structure of the brain .... but that would not be at all like the image that you imagine at this moment, often without knowing anything about brain movements and electrical currents. At the same time, an outside observer sees this only: it directly implies that there is no formal identity between the two. " In other words, the human brain and his whole body are a well-established machine, very complex. Some parts of this machine set in motion others for the body to move, work, experience sensory sensations, eat, continue its genus. The body is just a movement of matter, the union of material particles into a single whole, while our consciousness, thoughts, and mind do not have physical nature.

This conclusion is reached by dualists on the grounds that the thought that was born in consciousness does not have a material nature. For example, the chair on which we sit, has clear signs of a material object: position, shape and color. You can touch it, feel it, move it. The image of the same chair that arises in our mind even at the moment of the absence of its sensory perception is not a physical object in the strict sense. An imaginary chair can not be felt with the help of feelings, feel it as real. In addition, if we so choose, it will easily dissipate in our consciousness, as if it did not exist at all. We can, again, if desired, make various changes to the imaginary image of the table, change its shape, color, whereas the real table, as an object of the material world, will remain unchanged in its place, as it has not had any physical impact.

Consciousness has always been viewed by dualists as a whole, inseparable. Thus, it is qualitatively different from the structure of the body, which is a set of individual physiological processes. The brain fixes individual aspects of external existence, consciousness unites the data received by the brain into integral and harmonious ideas about the world. The mechanism, consisting of various details, needs a single mind in order to give its work a certain direction, to define goals and objectives. It is consciousness that should become such a unifying principle, an indispensable condition that ensures the unity of mental life. Without this unity, our psyche would be the sum of experiences not connected with each other, which would certainly split our personality. At the same time, we see that it is an integral spiritual substance, subordinated to a single will and mind. "Soulful life," noted SL. Frank, - is not an aggregate or complex of separate mental phenomena of processes. It is, on the contrary, a kind of primary indivisible unity. "

According to the dualists, the human brain is not a self-regulating system and needs the activity of some kind of non-material essence that ensures the unity of its work. It is thanks to this activity of this essence that our consciousness and our entire psychic life are integral. Professor of Psychology McDougall wrote about this: "The fact of psychic individuality ... .. can not be understood .... Without postulating a certain basis of unity, not a brain or a material organism. " The English neurologist Charles Sherrington in his articles claimed that a certain "mental principle" lying outside of us triggers the mechanisms of the brain. Head of the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Eisley believes that "a spiritual factor must guide the development of the brain." Naturally, based on such statements of scientific luminaries, it becomes possible to theoretically substantiate the existence of a super-physical soul, without which a full-fledged personality is not conceived. At least a number of scientists, voluntarily or unwittingly, come to this conclusion. The Australian researcher in the field of neurophysiology, Kyubi, directly declares the existence of an intangible spirit that ensures the functioning of consciousness and thinking. The famous vitalist, Professor Drish, said that "the essential agents responsible for the formation of the organism are not agents acting in space and having a starting point in particles of matter, they are agents acting in space, if allowed to use This is a paradoxical expression. " And if these self-sufficient "agents" are formally outside our natural nature, then in case of death they also have to go to outer space, which is actually a proof of the immortality of the spirit. Professor McDougall also talks about a spiritual structure that does not have spatial characteristics, but, nevertheless, influences matter.

Supporters of the concept of "immateriality of consciousness" ask a question to physiologists: "How, show us, can consciousness be generated by the brain like bile, for example, a liver?" In their opinion, it is completely unjustifiable to call consciousness a property of the brain. In the material world, any object has properties: color, odor, shape. Meanwhile, our thoughts have no color, no shape, no smell. Thoughts can not be touched, one can not feel their weight or smell. The thinking itself, according to A. Men, "is impossible at all desire to take in hands" or to register its contents with the help of some device. For example, using an electroencephalogram, it is possible to record electrical vibrations produced by the brain. However, with its help it is impossible to discern the "flash of consciousness". Electric discharges caused by brain activity are a physiological process, and psychic movements are processes of a different nature. Thus, no modern super-power devices capable of penetrating even into the invisible world of molecules, it is impossible to "catch" a thought, to see the process of its inception, to describe the structure of thinking. The impossibility of knowing our thinking with the help of natural science methods was said by the American neurophysiologist P. Bailey, who at one time asserted that "we have no right to study the psyche with the help of physiology." The same opinion was held by another neurophysiologist Charles Sherrington. The English scientist Kyubi believed that consciousness is an abstraction and can not be the object of scientific research. "