...Continuing this post:
Person B: The dead bodies are evidence because they are what the persons were.
Person C: Please explain.
B: People have a hard time understanding the simple fact that we
are the brain. The brain dies so the person dies. It is really that simple.
C: How much do we actually know about the brain? I mean, do we know everything there is to know about it?
B: No but we know more than we ever did and certainly enough to understand that we are it.
C: You are speaking about consciousness?
B: Yes. Consciousness is a property of the brain.
C: It is owned by the brain?
B: No. It is a tool of the brain. A creation of the brain.
C: It is a creator?
B: Yes.
C: Before it created consciousness, how was it able to create?
B: What do you mean?
C: I mean, before something can create something, doesn't it need to have an idea of what it wants to create and a reason for wanting to create it?
B: Yes, but this happened very gradually over a long long period of time.
C: So the brain at some point in this process developed consciousness by degree?
B: Yes.
C: Where did it get the idea to do this thing?
B: Like I said, it was gradual. It wasn't so much an idea but a natural necessity which came about gradually.
C: Like waking up from sleep?
B: Something like that, yes. The necessity came about because of the situation. Life on earth is a matter of survival so your learn fast or you die.
C: But you said it was a gradual thing.
B: Yes but in relation to the age of the universe, it was nonetheless fast.
C: This would suppose that there had to be a time and place on the planet where threat of survival was not such a problem.
B: No. Survival is that which prompted the development of self awareness.
C: How do you know it wasn't the other way around? That self awareness prompted the realization that survival was necessary?
B: Well most likely it was aspects of both.
C: Okay so when you say 'you are your brain' you are saying that the 'you' part is the brain understanding itself as consciousness - being self aware. You are not saying that you literally
are the brain.
B: No I am saying you are literally the brain...or rather the consciousness which the brain developed. That is why when your brain dies, you are dead and there is nothing else that you are going to experience.
I am saying that because consciousness is simply a development of the brain which gives it the
illusion of being self aware, when it dies, that self awareness also dies. It is quite simple.
C: I can understand why you would think it so. However, why do you say it is an illusion? Are you saying that the universe is an illusion, that the whole experience of your life is an illusion?
B: It is an illusion because you die. You are the illusion. The universe is not an illusion. It is real. What is the illusion is that you think you are real.
C: How can something exist in a real thing and not be real itself?
B: The thing which thinks it is real is simply a creation of the brain, so that the body can do things in the real world, which it cannot do if it didn't have the illusion it was real.
C: So consciousness and the impression that you are a real individual having a real experience are illusions?
B: Yes because the brain created it, but it is not a 'thing'. Consciousness is not a thing. It is an illusion created by the brain in order to function in reality.
It is not really
real. It is just something the brain created.
C: Did the brain create this non thing in order to make its experience real?
B: No. The experience is real. The brain developed consciousness in order to work within the reality and survive long enough to do things with its body.
C: So when you say 'you are the brain' you are saying really that you are that which the brain developed in order to be able to function within the body and do things with the reality it is within, but that consciousness is not real, and therefore you are not real. You are really the brain, which is real?
B: Yes. People think of their brain as this thinking, processing machine that does the work of consciousness, and think of themselves, as that - as the core, or the "soul," the essence or whatever is something separate, something apart from their brain, and that they will survive the death of their brain. But consciousness is really an illusion of the brain.
C: How can you be sure either way? I mean. What evidence is there to support this beyond mere belief supporting the idea?
...to be continued...
