Odin
How does the self react with the body?
and how does reincarnation work?
Hans
how does the interaction between the physical brain and thoughts happen? How does the brain manage to limit those non-physical thoughts?
Traveller
just because it (i.e the self or consciousness) is immaterial does not mean that there can be no explanation for how it operates, accessess memories, interacts with the physical.
I see that people simply do not understand the point I was making about mechanistic thinking.
In a strict sense science does
not explain why things happen. All it does is describe. We find that all change in the Universe appears to be governed by laws and that these can be described by mathematics. But we do not know
why physical laws are as they are, or why physical laws exist at all, or why they can be described by mathematics.
So we cannot give answers to why objects continue in a straight line at uniform velocity unless acted upon by a force, or indeed why anything in the Universe behaves as it does* -- all we can do is
describe and predict what happens.
Now it's the same when dealing with the self and its interactions with the world. Questions such as "how does the interaction between the physical brain and thoughts happen?" is analogically akin to asking
how does a pool ball move after another collides with it. But of course we don't know how, or even whether the question is meaningful. All we can do is describe the respective motions of the 2 balls. Likewise all we can do with questions as to how the self affects ones body is to note it does happen and we can move our limbs -- within the obvious limits -- according to our desires and intentions.
The same goes for all the other "how" questions. It would be as absurd to conclude that objects can't fall down because nobody is able provide an explanation of why they fall down, as it would be to conclude that reincarnation can't possibly occur because we can't provide explanations. The world is just
given and we might be able to describe its processes, and even be able to model these processes using mathematics, but no-one is able to say
why anything happens as it does. Indeed, if anything, the behaviour of conscious being such as ourselves is arguably not as inexplicable as non-sentient existents, as at least we can explain why we behave as we do with reference to our intentions. But asking
how can the self move its body is not something I can answer -- just as I cannot answer why a ball moves when another impacts on it.
Now I can repeat my hypothesis about why we need brains. As I have said before:
If the brain only modifies consciousness or minds, rather than being the progenitor of the mind, the question then arises as to why we need brains at all.
The first thing to recognise here is that processes within the brain are akin to any information processing system. As with any such information processing system there are architectural constraints and these serve to limit the mind so we only have access to those perceptions that follow the familiar and regular patterns that we associate with the physical world. This then allows us to function proficiently whilst we subsist in this empirical reality.
Now when the mind operates in detachment from the brain, when it is temporarily or permanently disembodied, then its processing is released from the constraining influence of the arrays of primitive processing units (essentially the brain). It will then have access to all other perceptions apart from our everyday perceptions. Those other perceptions will be driven by some other "engine", and the person may seem to be passing through other worlds. This would be broadly consistent with the anecdotal experiences of some out-of-body experiences, especially near-death experiences - and indeed with reportedly channelled descriptions from the dead, as well as with traditional accounts such as those found in the "Tibetan Book of the Dead.
*with the exception of conscious beings who behave in such a way to fulfil intentions or desires.
