The Consciousness (part 1)

"Neuroscientists find least controversial...the idea that our thoughts, sensations, joys and aches consist entirely of physiological activity in the tissues of the brain. Consciousness does not reside in an ethereal soul that uses the brain...; consciousness is the activity of the brain." - Time Magazine Mind and Body Special Issue (Jan 29, 2007)

I found some really amazing articles with profound meanings in this Time issue that I think everyone should read! So I'm going to give a little teaser here by quoting some really interesting stuff about the mind, and giving my own comments. First, let me preface by saying that science can be a precise tool to understand the universe, while spirituality can be an approximate one. I don't see how we can consider science and spirituality as irreconcilable. Some religious explanations have already understood these things that science is only beginning to scrape the surface of. The thing is just that religion usually understands these things by use of metaphors and analogies.

The Illusion of Control

Using functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), cognitive neuroscientists can almost read people's thoughts from the blood flow in their brains. They can tell, for instance, whether a person is thinking about a face or a place or whether a picture the person is looking at is of a bottle or a shoe.
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Surgery that severs the corpus callosum, separating the two hemispheres, spawns two consciousnesses within the same skull, as if the soul could be cleaved in two with a knife.
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And when the physiological activity of the brain ceases, as far as anyone can tell the person's consciousness goes out of existence.

If we have machines that can somewhat read our minds, how hard is it to believe that people with genetic mutations can too? I've had someone "read my mind" before. What he did was he would ask me to think of and focus on my mom's maiden name, and he would write it down on a pad. He did the same telling me to think of my high school's name, city I was born in, a random word, and other things. He got them all right. I think those who can't believe this are close minded. Think: there are tons of waves and things flying around us everyday - light waves, sound waves, microwaves, electro-magnetic waves, radio waves, whatever waves that are used for phones or wireless. Our human body can only detect light and sound waves. Some animals can't even detect light and sound! We had the fortune to evolve from amoebas and develop organic sensors for light and sound. How hard is it to believe that some, through genetic mutation, have developed sensors for mind waves? Our machines can do it already.