There is one theory that has passed through my and many other person's minds as i talk throughout my life, and that is the question of what...What is defined by some as Earth and Universe, or by others as God's green earth, but what is it really? We will never truly know, at least not in this lifetime. But yet we yearn for some kind of answer and i have an answer for you, though it may not be correct but still let it intrigue your mind and think about it and reply...

Now, we have our lives and our minds. We have something known as our soul, but what is our soul and what ties it together with other people's souls to form relationships? Well, I believe that our minds are tied by a single consciousness. Now that may sound a little out there, but i believe that we are in fact tied together. If not by a single consciousness then not by many, because our minds are smalll things compared to the spectrum of everything else. I believe that everything that is witnessed and acted out by us is part of this single consciousness and that we are actually reliving the consciouseness' dreams, therefore we are living out of our own thoughts.

Then of course there is the question of what does that make everything else? Well that makes this all a realization of thought and mind, that there is indeed no physicality but just mental state of being. that what we touch is all tied together in a single web of thought. That would also tie in everything living from bacteria to primates. That would mean that when you and another person get together and form a relationship you indeed have a mental connection with that person that is stronger than that of your neighbor or a stranger.

Now just for the sake of me not having to type consciousness a few dozen more times, lets call this a philotic web. So you have the philotics connecting your family, friends, even pets and this draws your mental states together. Therefore everyone's thoughts would be acsessible to our minds through our philotic connections. This goes back to what i said when i first started, everyone is part of a single conciousness witnessing itself in its own false reality or false state of mental being...

so what evidence is there for a philotic web?

I have unlimited evidence that if a communal consciousness exists, mine is not working at all!

Ok, what was I doing 10 minutes after I wrote this post?

I agree to the existence of single consciousness.

The "individual" consciousness or "mental state of being" we feel or experience is not real. Feeling of existence should be continuous. Instead we experience three dimensions/states "awake", "sleep (deep sleep without any thought)" and "dream". So there is a fourth continuous state which is the base for all these three states to happen which is nothing but the Single consciousness.

Have we ever thought what happens to our individual consciousness in sleep? In sleep our individual consciousness gets merged in the Single consciousness. In sleep everybody is same merged in their "Source" without having/feeling the difference (i.e. individuallity). Single Consciousness is the source which energizes our individual consciousness. Remember that, if our mind is tired it needs sleep (to get energized from its source)

So if we are able to goto sleep consciously (nothing but Meditation. Sleep is unconscious meditation & Meditation is conscious sleep) we can experience the Single Universal Consciousness.

We are born with Single Consciousness but the development of mind/ego/"false self" covered the realization of Single Consciousness. So if we do the "Undo" process and drive your ego/mind to its Source we will permenantly exist in our Single Consciousness ( back home :-) )

Ok ponns, and welcome to Brainmeta by the way,

You agree that we each have a singular consciousness.

What evidence do you have that a common consciousness exists?

I presume here that you would mean that the thoughts going through the head of a close relation/person would be known to you without them being voiced.

I often 'know' what a person is thinking, but this is not a psychic ability, or 'common consciousness' but based on my experience of all previous reactions, body language etc., ie., it is a prediction. It is often right too!

I once had a boss who thought I was psychic for another reason, by the way.
I used to tell him what my next job/jobs was/were going to be.
I can read upside-down text, so was prepared for his future sentences by reading his notes on the desk as I faced him!
He didn't twig this for many years!
As a final aside, I will add that I suspect our subconcious capabilities may outweigh our concious abilities in some circumstances. We should give them free reign when in doubt!

Thanks Rhymer for welcoming !!!

Single Consciousness or Common Consciousness or Super Consciousness are different linguistic terms referring the same subject.

Super Consciousness exists between our Consciousness & Sub Consciousness. As we move from one state to other among the 3 states 'awake', 'sleep' and 'dream' we are in super conscious state for a very very brief moment. This state is latent by default. By practice we can experience this state.

The thought we get during awake state and sleep state (i.e. dream ) are same. The mind (knower) will have same experience (knowing) for the thought happening in wake state and dream state.

Our thoughts Originate from the common source i.e. Super Conscious state. When we start observng our thoughts as a Witness without involving or attaching or judging the thought we are starting to enter Superconscious state. But still there is a long way to go deep :-)

Imagine how the sound of passing vehicle originate from Silence and subdues in Silence again. The same way when we start observing the thoughts they arise from the thoughtless source and subdue in the same source. As the degree we detach our self from the thoughts increases, we experience thoughtless super conscious state.

Since Super consciousness state is common source for the thoughts of everyone if we are able to abide in the state we can read the core thought of anybody if willing.

Since our topic is subjective and beyond the reasoning of our conscious mind I am not able to provide you an evidence as you expect.

Here's an experiment that could provide evidence. Have a subject enter the super conscious state and read the core thought of a poker player and bet accordingly. Winning consistently at poker would be evidence.

Ha! ha! good one Rick. I don't think that David Blaine or even Houdini can pull that trick!

What evidence do you have that consciousness exists at all? Are you a behaviorist, or are you asking others for evidence on a subject that you simply accept as fact without evidence yourself?

This is sure to be an interesting thread. I hope that the members here follow through with the discussion.

Consciousness means that you have the concept of 'I', and are able to actively observe your
thoughts and actions. As for evidence well no one seems to be disputing this on the grounds that it absolutely does not exist, but rather, on the grounds of how it is defined.

Hi scifell,

Are you aware that you asked those questions?

Sounds like constructive epistemological relativism to me. I don't mean to discount it totally as I do believe we have a collective consciousness and that all is ultimately metaphysical but as far as I can tell our collective consciousness is suicidally schizophrenic at the moment. Through time, though, with some intelligence, the new communication technologies we are developing, the motivation of human beings to better their conditions rather than witness them decay to self-annihilation, I hope humanity embraces and finds itself as the singularity. Improvement of human awareness through statistically exhaustive though non-subjugating communication strategies and the new technologies that will make efficient communications more accessible will bring it about. As far as I can tell trusting some machine intelligence outside of our own consciousness is asking for trouble. There is every reason in the world to strive to make the singularity us. In the mean time it is only in formation and not realized.

In the words of one of my favorite music groups, Moody Blues "and soon I hope there'll be, in perfect harmony, a planet with one mind. Then I can tell you all the things inside my head."

I don´t think that the subconscious is necessarily more ´capable´ of processing information than the conscious. But I have absolutely no idea, as it doesn´t really seem too important to me. I find the differences between roles (of the conscious and subconscious) more intriguing. At the moment the explanation that makes most sense to me is that the subconscious concerns itself with decisions that need to be made, but that are quite easy to calculate. The conscious mind on the other hand deals with issues that are unable to be decided by simple algorithms, and in this way it acts as a mechanism for more extensive consideration. (Just my opinion, probably wrong.)

Actually, what you've defined is Self-consciousness, which is different than consciousness itself.

I registered to point that out. Teeheehee

ponns - I agree to a very large extent, and draw from personal experience with the superconscious. Too many details to describe how it happened, but there was one bit of truth that was possibly more important than anything else... it was shown to me because I had this sense of familiarity with the experience.

When I finally "connected" the dots, i.e. connected the memory map created, I realized it went back as far as I could remember, connected to every memory I could recall related to sleeping or dreaming.

It then became painfully obvious to me... every night while you, I, we sleep... we tie into the superconscious in some way. It heals us, teaches us, guides us, and even tests us. Call it God, or call it a human-born phenomenon, but it was as real as the sky or the grass.

Of course, it begs the question, how can you consider anything to be real when the concept of a self is entirely intangible?