What if you are not the “highest” level of consciousness in your own body?

I see the human organism as a layering of different levels of consciousness. Each layer supports mostly automated processes that sustain the layers beneath it.

For example, we have cells that only know what it’s like to be a cell and to perform their cellular processes without any awareness of the more complex layers above them. Organs are much more complex than cells and they perform their duties without any awareness of anything above them either. And the complexity keeps increasing with various systems like endocrine, cardiovascular, etc. Then we have our subconscious and finally our conscious.

At our level, we do not consciously control any of the layers beneath us. Our primary task is to keep our bodies alive.

This got me thinking… isn’t it a little too self aggrandizing to think that we have a near infinite layering of consciousness beneath us and then it just stops at our level of awareness? What if there is some other conscious process that exists above us within our own bodies?

When people take psychedelic drugs they often describe achieving a higher level of awareness akin to ecstasy. Well what if this layer is always there actively ”living” within us but we are just the chumps that go to work, do our taxes, and exercise, while it doles out just enough feel good chemicals to keep us going (sometimes not even that)?

roanescence,

Petition to open a new lemmy community for questions like these. Philosophical, life related, society related, nostalgia related. Like @askinglife or something… Or maybe @asklives or maybe @askbeings (cus we are humans and we know talking about life is the best thing) Or idk what name. Just upvote if you agree, reply if you wanna make that happen with me

c0mbatbag3l,
@c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

In order to extend the logic all humanity would be part of a hive mind.

gunslingerfry,

What kind of organism would want to wage war on itself? Kill and mame other “cells?” But while there may be the possibility of an emergent world consciousness, a “hive mind” if you will, I’d imagine it’d be a slow processing one.

GarbageShoot,

This seems to just be rehashing the logic of simulation theory without considering that most of those levels of consciousness are not capable of reflection remotely similar to what we experience even just to consider this question.

Cethin,

I have one issue with this. You’re assume that this “higher level” is not us. Wouldn’t it be us as much as the cells that make up our body be us? We are whatever we’re made of. Once we discovered the brain controlled almost everything didn’t make us not us. Being conscious of something doesn’t make it exist. It either is or it isn’t. If this higher level is controlling a lower level, we’re as much it as we are the lower level.

Thisfox,

I find it hard to imagine being conscious but unable to control any part of your body as anything but a terrible nightmare. Shut-in would suck, higher consciousness or not.

0xE60,
@0xE60@hexbear.net avatar

As a cognitive scientist, this is my jam. Firstly I’d just like to point out that there is no widely accepted definition of consciousness, so we don’t really know what being conscious means. There are theories, but all of them have large holes in them at the moment.

Secondly, most people report the feeling of being “conscious” but can’t pinpont how it happens or where it happens. There are some individuals in the world that have trained their whole life to better understand their body and are able to control parts of their organisms that are deemed as part of the autonomic nervous system.

There is a branch of philosophy that deals with a large chunk of what the main theories of consciousness are, but in a manner on how we experience things as humans. It’s called Phenomenology and it’s a super funky science, I recommend it to anyone and everyone interested in learning how they ‘tick’.

But yeah at the end of the day it’s an interesting thought. Personally I think the evolution of “consciousness” is due to our collective nature and that our “consciousness” at the end of our lives is the mark that we left onto the world.

HawlSera,

Wait cognitive sciences take this seriously? that does wonders for my depression!

Dragon, (edited )
@Dragon@lemmy.ml avatar

It’s possible that there are multiple consciousnesses within a single person, and when each of them reads this post, they all think it refers to them. “You” are just one of the consciousnesses, thinking you are the main one. Or maybe you think it refers to you, but another consciousness in the same body is aware of itself as well as you and laughing at your ignorance.

aCosmicWave,

Could these be the negative and positive thoughts within ourselves?

dylanTheDeveloper,
@dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world avatar

The voices in my head tell me things all the time

Modern_medicine_isnt,

You’re just jealous because the voices talk to me.

Masimatutu,

The brain, your conciousness, is the central coordinating centre of you as an organism, the highest level of control. It is formed with the end goal of propagating its genes, which one might however argue makes it a submechanism arising from the super-conciousness, evolution which has the intention of creating as many organisms as possible.

CanadaPlus,

Fun fact, the human gut has as many neurons as a cat.

Maybe they’re just laid out very simply, but I don’t think anyone has proof. And, apparently, after surgery your intestines will inch their way back into perfect position on their own.

Reality_Suit,

The thalamus filters input to the brain. LSD removes this filter.

needthosepylons,
@needthosepylons@lemmy.world avatar

À very interesting questions. I’ve long felt there was two possible answers to this. You can see a more complex layer at the level of the relationship we have with other beings or even objects (Me + My Favorite Song would be a being of n+1 level of complexity). I call it the Deleuze/Spinoza hypothesis.

Then, you could see it as a kind of personal truth you’re embodying, not as a creator but just as an operator, a tool. Although “personal” wouldn’t be the right word. You would embody, express, a fraction of a deep truth which is specific to each being.

Or maybe something else I’m unable to imagine.

needthosepylons,
@needthosepylons@lemmy.world avatar

Also, if I may add and as other have stated, some do not see consciousness as the most complex layer of the human being. Some even consider it as an off-product of our highest functions.

aCosmicWave,

I love the way you’ve articulated the n+1 level of complexity! As if the information that we consume alters the complexity of our own consciousness.

fromaj,

We’re all yeast.

Hamartiogonic,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

A group of brain cells begins to have emergent properties such as consciousness and intelligence. A group of human brains has similar emergent properties. An individual human mind wants this and that, but an entire human community will have completely different priorities.

I prefer to think of the human population on Earth as a single massive organism that spreads like the mycelia of a fungus. Individual cells have simple needs and goals, but the organism as a whole will do much more than just expand everywhere and extract nutrients.

SpudTech,

I will ponder on this when I go to feed my ant colonies later this evening. I think it will be fish flakes tonight.

Hamartiogonic,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Think about the behavior of the colony. What does it do and when. How does the colony solve problems. That’s emergent behavior far beyond the capabilities of a single ant.

Malfeasant,

I’ve been thinking this for years, but never been able to put it into words to convey the idea to someone else… emergent properties is a start…

Hamartiogonic,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

See also: emergence

Bread,

That is interesting and I have no opinion on whether it is real or not, however I think it would be a great plot to a movie learning of the higher consciousness and working with what it can do.

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