Where do YOU think your consciousness resides?

Question

Do you agree with Descartes that it is in a gland or somewhere else ?

What happens to it when you die?

Answer 1

I don't think that consciousness resides somewhere. The "cogito ergo sum" (I think though I am) formula of Descartes doesn't enable us to find consciousness at any physical place.
Paradox: If consciousness exists, it could never localize itself, because there's no reflection outside the consciousness. So what could locate it then?

Answer 2

The most important question of all.

I'm tempted to say that consciousness is a mere delusion in MY brain.

But what do I mean by MY?

And the concept that consciousness is delusion only works (for me) concerning other people -- I feel that the idea does not work for my consciousness, for me. Then it becomes a hard problem.

Yet there is nothing special about ME.

And so I must conclude that other people might feel the same about it, and that their consciousness would not be shear delusion.

A very difficult problem -- perhaps there is a ghost within the machine and maybe it survives death.

My thinking suggests delusion -- by gut suggests something else.

Best I can do!

Answer 3

No I do not agree with Descartes that it is in the penal gland, I believe it is very much in the Brain, modern science would not allow any other answer really.

Not really sure what happens to it when you die! Doubt if anyone really knows!

Answer 4

Consciousness is my benign self-interest into the goings on of my physical world; it is also my intent reach farthest and to seek out what is unfamiliar to my conscious mind, to make all that can be familiar and known. Consciousness is like a sphere of light round a candle; in human mind it is realisation of self in physical form. I have an allusion that my self is limited because I am conscious only of my physical reality that is limitative and specifically attributive – each thing in physical form is relatively special and unique - this is consciousness. There is nothing unique in existence, there is all but one thing – this is Truth.

Consciousness does not reside in physical form, physical form on the other hand resides in consciousness. I do not only know but I know things I do not know. But I would not know, first of all, who I am if I am not conscious of my physical being – something that I know. If I see my world and myself in it as two different things than this important knowledge I derive from my consciousness. I am conscious of my self therefore I am. And when I pass away my consciousness that has illuminated my path all my along will gently go off, just like passing out of a candle upon the approaches of morning hour.

Answer 5

Consciousness discerns, so no matter where it is located knowledge requires intelligence and a point of interest, the bridge that joins these two is consciousness. So consciousness by itself can only exist when it is discerning something else. So if you had unified consciousness, nothing except consciousness understanding itself, then you would have pure knowledge.

Answer 6

Consciousness isn't in a gland, it doesn't secrete like saliva. It's in the Hippocampus, near the Pre-frontal cortex. And when you die, your brain dies, so does your consciousness. Maybe you meant to ask where your soul is? That's a philosophical questions, yours is a biology question.

Answer 7

Well, the only place that makes sense (to me, at least), would be the brain.

As for what happens to it when you die... I believe it simply disappears. The brain is a VERY complex organ, and we have yet to figure out even a fraction about how it works. I think that one's personality is mapped out through both specific biochemicals and DNA instructions (nature and nurture; the biochemicals allow for the nurture to occur while the DNA strands represent nature).

So, when you consider that I believe that every aspect of one's personality can be accounted for by physical matter, I am of the belief that when a person dies, their consciousness dies with them. It's the only thing that really makes sense to me, out of all of the possibilities.

Answer 8

I think consciousness is in the brain, I do not know what happens when you are dead. But, don't take any chances, be good so you don't end up in hell (if it does exist). It is no secrete that you will only be alive for a relatively short time here on earth compared to eternity.

Answer 9

A person's consciousness is a result of the existence of their mind, which is entirely a process running in their physical brain. In other words, if you're asking whether or not souls exist, they don't. And when you die, that's it, your consciousness vanishes and you don't experience anything anymore, not even yourself or your thoughts, just nothing at all. Luckily, it may not be possible to die:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_immortality

Answer 10

Well, I think that it is as a result of biochemical reactions in the brain and thus would therefore die when we die, and reside in the consciousness of others as a memory.