Neuroscience has made giant strides in explaining how intricate networks of neurons in your brain endow you with sight, speech, memory, and even emotions. Some researchers believe that the origin of consciousness itself will eventually be traced to neurons. But according to Advaita Vedanta, consciousness cannot be produced by the brain, nor can it be studied by conventional science.
0:00 The Quest of Neuroscience
6:21 The Neural Source of Consciousness
12:52 The Independent Reality of Consciousness
23:47 The Hard Problem of Consciousness
Neuroscience has made huge strides in understanding the brain and its 100 billion neurons. Particular regions of the brain involved in sight, speech, memory, balance, and so on are being methodically explored and mapped out in great detail. Brain tissue is microscopically studied to see how neurons are interconnected with each other. The electrical signals that neurons use to communicate are measured, either by directly probing the brain, or indirectly, using EEG instruments and magnetic stimulation. More recently, functional MRI and PET scans are being used to create highly defined images of neural activity throughout the brain. In the future, new technologies might make it possible to measure the neural activity in your brain accurately that your innermost thoughts and feelings can be decoded.
Will scientific research ever locate a particular network of neurons in the brain that are responsible for consciousness itself? Decades ago, some researchers considered this idea, but ongoing studies have completely ruled out the notion that consciousness arises from a single, localized source in the brain. All current theories suggest that the source of consciousness is decentralized or distributed.
Bernard Bars describes the origin of consciousness in the brain through his Global Workspace Theory. By global workspace, he means a decentralized network of neurons that functions like a screen, a screen onto which various images and ideas are projected. According to Bars, consciousness emerges from the interaction of neurons in that global workspace.
Francis Crick received a Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA. Later in his career, he collaborated with a researcher who considers consciousness to be a fundamental property of complex neural networks. Together, they theorized that, in a part of the brain known as the claustrum, neurons become synchronized with each other, and their synchronous activity gives rise to consciousness.
Giulio Tononi developed a mathematical model of consciousness called Integrated Information Theory. He claims that consciousness is nothing but highly integrated information. According to Tononi, the enormous integration of information in the brain's powerful cerebral cortex gives rise to consciousness.
According to the Attention Schema Theory of Michael Gaziano, when the interactions of neurons throughout the brain are filtered by the faculty of attention, a simplified model or representation is created. For Gaziano, that representation or schema is responsible for consciousness.
Finally, Robert Penrose is a Nobel Laureate in physics who believes that consciousness cannot be explained through ordinary physical and mathematical laws. So, he postulates the existence of quantum gravity, and concludes that consciousness is the result of quantum effects which are thought to occur in the microtubules found inside cells.
Those theories are highly speculative and extremely difficult to verify. Such theories are called materialist or physicalist. They're physicalist because they accept the existence of matter and energy alone, but they reject the existence of any kind of non-material, non-physical reality. But in Advaita Vedanta, consciousness is a non-material, non-physical fundamental reality.
"The hard problem of consciousness" is an expression coined by a philosopher named David Chalmers. He uses it to describe the apparently insurmountable obstacles that prevent neuroscientists from directly observing or studying consciousness. Much like in Advaita Vedanta, Chalmers differentiates the objective existence of thoughts and emotions from your subjective, conscious experience of them. And he proposes an alternative to the physicalist world view, the view that accepts only matter and energy as being fundamental. Chalmers says that consciousness is another fundamental reality that exists in addition to matter and energy. Other philosophers propose idealism and neutral monism. But none of these theories are widely accepted, nor do they offer a completely satisfactory solution to the hard problem of consciousness.
Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: www.arshabodha.org/