What is the nature of emotion?

Question

Is emotion an illusion, much like the illusion of consciousness?
Is emotion a physical reaction to consciousness?
Are emotion and consciousness two sides of the same coin?
Can you have consciousness without emotion?

I personally dislike using the word 'God' because it is all to often associated with an intelligent transcendent being. Consciousness is not dependent on intelligence, the two are totally unrelated.

Why do animals not possess consciousness? Do they not perceive that natural world in the first person (as we do)? Consciousness and that sense of 'self' is required for the instinct to survive! Without a sense of ‘self’, why would an animal have a desire to survive?

Hmm, so do plants possess consciousness? Do plants possess the desire to survive? What is the nature of desire? Remember, intelligence and consciousness are very separate – so what is the origin of consciousness? Is it an evolved illusion? If so, what is the nature of choice?

I do not agree that an emotion is a feeling. Consider your list of examples, you say love and hate. These are definately emotions. Then you say hot and cold. How are hot and cold emotions? These are physical stimuli and result in a reaction. What physical stimulus can be attributed to the emotion of love? Is it nothing more than our desire to reproduce? Why, then, do I feel the desire to 'mate' with some women, but the desire to 'settle down' with others?

Answer 1

Is emotion an illusion, much like the illusion of consciousness?
Nature of spiritual emotion is eternal and real.
Nature of material emotion is temporary and false.

Is emotion a physical reaction to consciousness?
Physical reaction comes from the physical objects which is inferior. Lord Krishna gives the hierarchy in the Bhagavad gita. The soul is superior of all and the consciousness is the symptom of the soul
dull matter
working senses
mind
intelligence
soul

Let us now hear from A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) in the Introduction to Bhagavad-gita-as-it-is as

What is this consciousness? This consciousness is "I am." Then what am I? In contaminated consciousness "I am" means "I am the lord of all I survey. I am the enjoyer." The world revolves because every living being thinks that he is the lord and creator of the material world. Material consciousness has two psychic divisions. One is that I am the creator, and the other is that I am the enjoyer. But actually the Supreme Lord is both the creator and the enjoyer, and the living entity, being part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, is neither the creator nor the enjoyer, but a cooperator. He is the created and the enjoyed. For instance, a part of a machine cooperates with the whole machine; a part of the body cooperates with the whole body. The hands, legs, eyes, and so on are all parts of the body, but they are not actually the enjoyers. The stomach is the enjoyer. The legs move, the hands supply food, the teeth chew, and all parts of the body are engaged in satisfying the stomach because the stomach is the principal factor that nourishes the body's organization. Therefore everything is given to the stomach. One nourishes the tree by watering its root, and one nourishes the body by feeding the stomach, for if the body is to be kept in a healthy state, then the parts of the body must cooperate to feed the stomach. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is the enjoyer and the creator, and we, as subordinate living beings, are meant to cooperate to satisfy Him. This cooperation will actually help us, just as food taken by the stomach will help all other parts of the body. If the fingers of the hand think that they should take the food themselves instead of giving it to the stomach, then they will be frustrated. The central figure of creation and of enjoyment is the Supreme Lord, and the living entities are cooperators. By cooperation they enjoy. The relation is also like that of the master and the servant. If the master is fully satisfied, then the servant is satisfied. Similarly, the Supreme Lord should be satisfied, although the tendency to become the creator and the tendency to enjoy the material world are there also in the living entities because these tendencies are there in the Supreme Lord who has created the manifested cosmic world.

Answer 2

An emotion is nothing more than a feeling, IE,
Love, hate, hot, cold, good, bad.

It is subjective, based on your own personal life experiences. What you may think is hot, is cold to someone else, etc.

Emotion is not a hallucination, it is a real thing that exists. You can really feel pain.

Emotion is not a reaction to consciousness, but rather, conscious beings have emotion. It is impossible to have consciousness without emotion. Things will always affect you in one way or another. If it is not making you happy, you are being dragged into sadness, if it doesn't hurt, it must be feeling pretty good, if it isn't dark, it must be light etc. Things cannot effect you without you having a like or dislike for them.

Emotion & consciousness are 2 separate things, but work together. For example, you can't have something that has no consciousness that has feeling because it doesn't know and understand what feeling is, simply because it doesn't know or recognize that it is "alive".

You can't have one without the other. They are not the same thing, but they can't exist without each other. If you have feelings, you are also conscious, if you are conscious, you have feelings.

Answer 3

emotion is created by 2 factors:

physiological arousal - the body creating more adrenaline, sweaty palms, faster heart rate, butterflies in the stomach ect.

cognitions on the situation - potential threats, attraction to others ect.

these 2 factors combined create the effect of emotion, according to Schacter and Singer's physiological-psychology study of emotion

Answer 4

Emotion is not an illusion, neither is consciousness.

Animals can display emotion (like fear) but have no consciousness.

Human beings are different, we are special, set apart, and are not like the rest of world.

Answer 5

The coin being God.

Answer 6

An emotion is another advantage of being a human being.
I Cr 13;8a