How to study the connection between consciousness and the brain. Brain and consciousness

04.04.2021 moon

Every person constantly comes up with a variety of thoughts, but where do they come from? Why can't thoughts be stopped, and do they belong to a person at all? Is the mind (consciousness) a person? Or is man more than the mind? To answer these questions, I invite you on a journey into the world of a human being and its secrets.

What is Consciousness?

“Anyone will say:“ I control my consciousness. This is my consciousness. I do what I want". We talked a lot about this. Sit down with a pen and a piece of paper and write down everything that it shows and tells you. And then read it and see: did you want it? Have you ordered these thoughts? Have you ordered these wishes? And why is all this happening. "

Man is not thoughts or consciousness. From nature, two principles are laid in us: Animal (material body and consciousness) and Spiritual (Soul and Personality). In reality, a person is a Personality, i.e. Personality is who you really are. Life force constantly flows from the Soul to the Personality, and the Personality already chooses where to redirect it, i.e. which of the two began to pay attention to her. And what the Personality chooses, it strengthens with its attention.

Consciousness is an intermediary between the Personality and this material world. With the help of consciousness, we communicate, see, hear, grieve or enjoy this world. Pictures in the head, thoughts, emotions, desires, habits, sensations of the physical body - these are all elements of the work of human consciousness.

To understand that a person is not consciousness, one can give an associative example with the theater. Personality is a spectator, and “artists on stage” is consciousness. And here the "artists" show you, as Personalities, various scenes: they tell you what you need in life to make you happy; argue with each other, prove their point of view; show you different fantasies, making you a winner in an argument, a superhero, someone else. They show you something that did not happen in reality, twisting everything beyond recognition, which is essentially magic. Those. "Artists on stage" offer and impose on you, as a spectator, to live their life. And the brighter the picture, the more attention the Person puts into this illusory "theater in the head". And this is funding for "artists". Those. "Artists" do everything to evoke emotion in you, to attract your attention. And you won't be able to run away from these "artists".

But this does not mean that a person does not need to develop his consciousness.

“Tatiana: Now, Igor Mikhailovich, you said that consciousness is an instrument, and I remembered how one person, talking about Knowledge, or rather ... his consciousness betrayed the other extreme:“ Since consciousness bothers me, since it deceives me so, it means , that's it, I'm not going to develop it "...

Igor Mikhailovich: Well, and thus equate consciousness with a monkey. That is, to have an underdeveloped consciousness, to be disoriented in modern times and to do what others order you to do. Weak-minded, let's just say. This is the dream of so many managers: to have a dull, incomprehensible, unconscious society. "

From the program " CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERSONALITY. From the deliberately dead to the eternally Living»

The essence of consciousness is to be a tool for communication in this three-dimensional world. Without consciousness, a person will not be able to communicate, analyze, it is even banal to know that his body needs to eat. Therefore, it is impossible to live in the material world without consciousness, but it, like any instrument, must perform its functions and be well developed. The wider your horizons, the more you understand, the more you have in store for understanding this three-dimensional world, and then you can easily come to the conclusion that the material world originated from the Spiritual world.

"If you develop as a Personality, then a well-trained consciousness is only to help, it is not harmful ... A well-developed consciousness makes it easier to understand this world, improves communication with other people."

From the program “CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERSONALITY. From the deliberately dead to the eternally Living "

However, one must understand that although consciousness is an instrument, it is an instrument with its own disposition. And if the Personality does not control consciousness and does not use it for its intended purpose, then consciousness from an instrument and a servant turns into a dictator. Which begins to exploit the Personality and impose its programs on it. Consciousness does not have its own source of energy; it functions only due to the investment of the power of attention of the Personality. As a computer is powered and works from electricity, so consciousness is powered and exists only due to the fact that the Personality puts the power of his attention into the programs offered by the consciousness - in the form of pictures and thoughts. If you unplug the computer from the outlet, then all programs, all pictures will accordingly disappear and it simply will not function ... Unfortunately, for most people in modern society, consciousness has turned from a convenient tool into a dictator. And now it is not the Personality that controls the consciousness, but the consciousness controls the Personality and imposes its priorities on it.

Scientists have already scientifically confirmed that if the consciousness is not engaged in activities that are necessary for the Personality, but is in a state of so-called rest, then 80% of the thoughts offered by the consciousness are negative. Why? Because negative thoughts accepted by the Personality cause stronger emotions. And emotions are like additional food for consciousness. For a Personality, emotions are destructive, because the life force that comes from the Soul for spiritual growth is redirected to the dead and spent on the empty. And instead of Living, investing attention in Love, Joy, Happiness - the Personality chooses emptiness, illusion. Consciousness is a liar! And the result of such a choice of the Personality is death.

It's just that the Personality needs to rationally invest its attention, and precisely into what the Personality needs, and not into what the consciousness imposes on it, that is, the "artists" in the head. You must always remember that consciousness is not you real, that all thoughts and pictures are what consciousness offers.

Research by scientists and their statements about consciousness

Official psychology believes that consciousness is associated with the human brain, and this is the person himself. This erroneous assumption misleads society and has serious consequences for future generations.

Consciousness — it is not the human brain, and the most important thing is that consciousness is not the person himself. This fact has already been confirmed by many neurophysiologists and other people who study this issue, and at least observe themselves.

A research team led by Sam Parnia conducted an experiment for 4.5 years with 2060 patients in 15 hospitals. Scientists have collected evidence that human consciousness is still working, even if the rest of the body (including the brain, as an organ) can already be considered dead.

Charles Scott Sherrington (British scientist in the field of physiology and neurobiology) in his book "Man and His Nature" (1946) wrote that "the brain cooperates with the psyche", considering the brain and psyche (by "psyche" he meant consciousness), as independent and separated from each other, connected only by the principle of interaction.

Wilder Graves Penfield (a Canadian neurosurgeon of American origin), as a result of many years of studying the activity of the brain, came to the conclusion that "the energy of the mind is different from the energy of the brain's neural impulses." (Penfield W. The mystery of the mind. Princeton, 1975. P. 25-27).

Used sources:

A. Novykh "AllatRa"
Program “CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERSONALITY. From the deliberately dead to the eternally Living "
http://mirpozitiva.ru/pozitiv/pritchi/pritchi29.html

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Interest in the relationship between consciousness and the brain has arisen for a long time. For Russian physiology, starting from the time of I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlova, it is traditional to a certain extent. However, for a long time, the solution to such a complex problem was considered a matter of the distant future. The understanding that the study of the problem of consciousness is an urgent task today came to physiologists relatively recently: the rapid progress of brain science brought this topic to the front pages of journals on neurosciences. The breakthrough in this area was largely associated with the emergence of techniques for "imaging a living brain", such as positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance and multichannel recording of electrical and magnetic fields of the brain. The latest devices made it possible to see on the display screen which zones are activated when performing various tasks that require mental exertion, as well as to determine with great accuracy the localization of lesions in diseases of the nervous system. Scientists have gained the ability to obtain the corresponding images in the form of colorful brain maps.

A feature of the human psyche is the awareness of many processes of his inner life. Consciousness is a function of the human brain. The evolutionary-epistemological interpretation of consciousness can be supplemented with a neurophysiological component, which makes it possible to define this phenomenon as a way of existence of neural systems, in the process of which the relative arbitrariness of the reactions (degrees of freedom) of individual neurons and / or their complexes is maintained, reflecting the arbitrariness of the external (in relation to the nervous system ) environment. Most researchers are supporters of the verbal theory of consciousness. They talk about the decisive role of speech activity in the phenomenon of consciousness. These views are supported by neurophysiological data. The absence of a verbal account of the conditioned reaction means a lack of awareness of it. For the awareness of any external stimulus, activation of connections between the perceiving area of the cerebral cortex and the motor speech area is of decisive importance. The optimal conditions for conscious perception are provided by the inclusion of the mechanism of selective attention. Selectivity of attention is provided due to the fact that although unnecessary information is perceived, then the transmission of information to the structures of the hippocampus is blocked. Thus, the idea of the important role of memory in the emergence of subjective experience receives additional confirmation in studies of attention.

G.V. Gershuni described the so-called sub-sensory zone, i.e. the zone of subthreshold stimuli, to which conditioned reflexes can be developed, but which, however, will not be realized by the subject. Thus, at an unconscious level, conditioned reflex activity is possible, although in a rather narrow zone, near subjective thresholds. The discovery of the functional asymmetry of the brain emphasizes the connection between consciousness and the functions of the dominant speech hemisphere. The representation of speech function in humans is asymmetric. It is located in the left hemisphere. This phenomenon is called functional asymmetry. Asymmetry is characteristic not only for speech, but also for other mental functions. Today it is known that the left hemisphere in its work acts as the leading one in the implementation of speech and other functions related to speech. The right hemisphere performs non-speech functions, and the corresponding processes usually proceed at the sensory level. It should also be emphasized that the specialization of the hemispheres occurs in the process of individual human development. The study of possible mechanisms of consciousness in connection with the functional interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain led to the idea of some interhemispheric distribution of the functions of consciousness. So, verbal consciousness is represented in the dominant (left in right-handed) hemisphere, and the feeling of "I" (self-esteem, self-awareness) - in the subdominant (right in right-handers). Therefore, right-brain lesions lead to personality disorders, and left-brain lesions lead to speech disorders.

The functions of the "interpreter" of the motives and actions of the right hemisphere are also attributed to the left hemisphere, even if these motives are unknown to him; in this case, of course, interpretations may be erroneous.

Unilateral lesions of the hemispheres lead to different impairments of consciousness in left-handers and right-handers, depending on the characteristics of their interhemispheric asymmetry. In this regard, the term "asymmetry of consciousness" is introduced. So, the defeat of the right hemisphere in right-handers is characterized by paroxysmal ignorance of the left space, the emergence of experiences of the distant past (for example, childhood); defeat of the left hemisphere leads to loss of speech and understanding, memory lapses, inappropriate actions (with subsequent amnesia), manifestations of twilight consciousness, automatic unconscious activity. Impairment of consciousness in left-handers in such situations is less differentiated, more diverse and not so rigidly associated with the side of the defeat.

In a normal state of the brain, the dominant (more often left) hemisphere plays the leading role in assessing the situation, making judgments and making decisions, although the subdominant hemisphere is also involved in these operations at a subconscious level.

An important property of consciousness is the ability to hold in the head the sequence of events that have occurred and arbitrarily extract them from the depths of memory.

The last decades have been marked by a breakthrough in the study of their brain mechanisms. Long-term memory is believed to be associated with the associative cortex. Along with the hippocampus, the frontal cortex plays an important role in storing the sequence of events in memory. Three groups of neurons can be distinguished in it: some react to an acting signal, others keep its trace until the moment when it is necessary to give a behavioral response, and, finally, the third include a response.

Let us summarize the ideas about the most probable mechanisms of consciousness. Comparison of newly received information with past experiences determines the content of consciousness as a constant adjustment of personal experience and what can be called the feeling of the inner "I". Consciousness is based on the idea of renewal, which gives life its highest meaning and determines a person's constant striving for novelty.

A study of the literature has shown that the question of the close connection between the brain and consciousness remains open. Scientists who hold "monistic" positions, working in neurosciences, believe that the key to unraveling the mechanisms of the psyche and behavior lies in the study of neurons, neural networks, and functional brain mapping. However, this approach is not the only one possible.

It has been scientifically proven that consciousness is always associated with the following processes occurring in the brain and does not exist apart from them:

1.consciousness is the highest form of reflection of the world and is associated with articulate speech, logical generalizations, abstract concepts, which is inherent only in man;
2. the core of consciousness, the way of its existence is knowledge;
3. labor develops consciousness;
4. speech (language) form consciousness;
5. consciousness is a function of the brain;
6. Consciousness is multicomponent, but constitutes a single whole;
7. consciousness is active and has the ability to influence the surrounding reality.

Thus, the activity of the brain and the activity of consciousness are inextricably linked.

site- The role of the brain as a source of consciousness and thinking is questioned by the neurophysiologist, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Natalya Bekhtereva. In her book “The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life,” she writes: “Deepening in brain research, including on the basis of fundamentally new technologies that have not yet been created, can provide an answer to the question of whether there is a brain code for thinking. If the answer (final!) Is negative and what we observe is not the code of thinking proper, then the rearrangements of impulse activity, correlated with the zones of the brain activated during mental activity, are a kind of “code for the entry of a link into the system”. If the answer is negative, it will be necessary to revise the most general and most important positions in the problem "Brain and psyche". If nothing in the brain is connected precisely with the subtlest structure of our thinking, then what is the role of the brain in this process? Is this only the role of "territory" for some other processes that do not obey the brain laws? And what is their connection with the brain, what is their dependence on the brain substrate and its state? "

At the same time, it has been scientifically proven that consciousness is always associated with processes occurring in the brain and does not exist apart from them.

The brain is a vital organ. Even his insignificant damage can cause serious harm to a person, cause loss of consciousness, amnesia, mental disorder. At the same time, cases of severe brain damage, including congenital malformations up to the absence of a brain, have been documented in medical practice, in which, however, a person continued to live and function normally.

In medical practice, enough cases have been attested about people living without a brain, which forced us to reconsider the accepted dogmas in neurophysiology.

Practical cases

There is 16th century evidence of a boy without a brain. The boy died 3 years later after a severe skull injury. Autopsy did not find his brain.

In the 19th century, Professor Hoofland (Germany) described and documented an amazing case in detail. He had the occasion to open the skull of a very elderly man who died of paralysis. Until the very last minutes, the patient retained his mental and physical abilities. The result led the professor to extreme confusion: instead of a brain, there were 28 grams of water in the deceased's skull.

In 1940, Dr. Augusto Iturrica, in his report at a meeting of the Bolivian Anthropological Society, spoke about a 14-year-old boy who was in his clinic with a diagnosis of a brain tumor. The patient remained conscious and sane until his death, only complaining of a severe headache. During the autopsy, the doctors were extremely amazed. The entire cerebral mass was separated from the inner cavity of the cranium and looked rotten long ago. Blood had no access to her. In other words, the boy simply didn’t have a brain. For doctors, the normal functioning of the boy's consciousness remained a mystery.

1980 year. An article was presented in the American magazine "Science", which described an interesting case no less than the previous one. A young student went to the hospital with slight indisposition. The doctor who examined the student drew attention to the excess of the norm, the volume of the head. As a result of scanning, the student, like the clerk, was found to have hydrocephalus, but his intelligence level was many times higher than the norm.

In 2002, a girl from Holland underwent a serious operation. She had her left brain hemisphere removed, which is still believed to contain speech centers. Today, the child amazes doctors by the fact that he has mastered two languages perfectly and is learning a third. Dr. Johannes Borgstein, observing the little Dutch woman, says he has already advised his students to forget all the neurophysiological theories they are studying and will continue to study.

In 2007, a British medical journal wrote an article entitled "The Clerk's Brain". It told the absolutely fantastic story of a French clerk who sought medical help. A 44-year-old resident of Marseille had a leg pain. As a result of long examinations in order to find the cause of the disease, the doctors prescribed a tomography (brain scan), as a result of which the doctors found that the clerk did not have a brain, instead of brain cells, the bulk of his head was occupied by cerebrospinal fluid. Hydrocephalus or (dropsy of the brain) is a well-known phenomenon in medicine, but the fact that a clerk with such a disease functioned quite normally and his IQ was no different from that of a normal person amazed the doctors.

Another case, an American named Carlos Rodriguez, after an accident, lives practically without a brain. He had more than 60% of his brain removed, but this did not affect his memory and cognitive abilities.

These facts force scientists to admit the fact of the existence of consciousness independently of the brain.

The fact that consciousness exists independently of the brain is confirmed, for example, by studies conducted by Dutch physiologists under the leadership of Pim van Lommel. The results of a large-scale experiment were published in the authoritative biological English journal "The Lancet". “Consciousness exists even after the brain has ceased to function. In other words, Consciousness "lives" by itself, absolutely independently. As for the brain, it is not thinking matter at all, but an organ, like any other, performing strictly defined functions. It may well be that thinking matter, even in principle, does not exist, ”says the head of the study, Pim van Lommel.

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

FEDERAL STATE BUDGETARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION OF HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION "TYUMEN INSITUTE OF STATE AND LAW"

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL LEGAL DISCIPLINE

TEST

Consciousness and human brain

Completed

1st year full-time student

I.A. Ivanov

Checked

Ph. D., associate professor of the department

A.S. Grigoriev

Nizhnevartovsk, 2014

Introduction

The psychophysiological problem is one of the points of contact of philosophy with a group of special sciences and, first of all, with the physiology of the higher nervous activity of animals and humans and human psychology. The key to solving the psychophysiological problem lies in the depths of philosophical science, since philosophy performs special ideological and methodological functions that, by themselves, can not be performed either by individual special sciences or by the totality of specific scientific knowledge as a whole.

The relevance of the chosen topic of the test is due to the special significance of the psychophysiological problem for solving one of the main questions of philosophy - about the essence of consciousness. The psychophysiological problem is one of the main components of the question of the relationship between consciousness and the brain.

The history of the concepts of the relationship between mental and physiological processes is a consistent movement towards understanding the essence of the problem and contains a number of valuable guesses. Having received a deep study in the XX century, the psychophysiological problem still does not have a generally recognized solution and is one of the most important problems of philosophy.

The nature and state of the solution of the psychophysiological problem have always been closely associated with the development of psychology and physiology. The psychophysiological problem arises initially in a pre-scientific (mythological, religious) form in the form of a problem of the soul and body, and in the 17th-18th centuries it becomes a problem of emerging physiology and psychology.

The purpose of the work is to find out the state of development of a psychophysiological problem in modern psychophysiology and philosophy, its philosophical foundations in domestic and foreign science, to determine the main directions of further development of the problem. This goal defines the following tasks:

1. to study the problems of consciousness in philosophy to identify the relationship in the pair of consciousness - the brain;

2. to analyze the development of psychophysiological problems in modern scientific literature;

3. to explore the basic psychophysiological concepts of consciousness and give descriptions of their philosophical content.

philosophical consciousness brain substance

1. Consciousness and the brain

1.1 Problems of consciousness in philosophy

Consciousness has always attracted the close attention of philosophers, for determining the place and role of man in the world, the specifics of his relationship with the surrounding reality, presupposes elucidation of the nature of human consciousness by analyzing consciousness as a specifically human form of regulation and control of human interaction with reality. This form is characterized, first of all, by the allocation of a person as a kind of reality, as a bearer of special ways of interacting with the outside world, including managing it.

This understanding of the nature of consciousness presupposes a very wide range of issues, which becomes the subject of research not only in philosophy, but also in special humanities and natural sciences: sociology, psychology, linguistics, pedagogy, physiology of higher nervous activity, and now also semiotics, cybernetics, informatics. Consideration of individual aspects of consciousness within the framework of these disciplines is always based on a certain philosophical and worldview position in the interpretation of consciousness. On the other hand, the development of special scientific research stimulates the development and deepening of the actual philosophical problems of consciousness. Sharp and topical issues of modern social development, the interaction of man and technology, the relationship between scientific and technological progress and nature, the problems of education, communication of people, etc. - all the problems of modern social practice turn out to be organically connected with the study of consciousness.

The most important philosophical question has always been and remains the question of the relation of a person's consciousness to his being, about the involvement of a person with consciousness in the world, about the possibilities that consciousness provides to a person, and about the responsibility that consciousness imposes on a person.

A person's being in the world is always associated with consciousness, "permeated" by it. There is no human existence without consciousness, regardless of one or another of its forms. It is another matter that the real being of a person, his relationship with the surrounding social and natural reality act as a wider system, within which consciousness is a specific condition, means, prerequisite, "mechanism" for inscribing a person into this integral system of being. Thus, if we proceed from the understanding of human reality as a whole, then the secondary nature of consciousness in relation to human being appears as a secondary element in relation to the system that encloses it and includes it. In this sense, a person's being constantly goes beyond the limits of consciousness as an ideal plan, a program of action, it turns out to be richer than the content of the initial representations of consciousness. At the same time, this expansion of the "existential horizon" is carried out in activities stimulated and directed by consciousness.

If we proceed from the organic involvement of man in the integrity of inanimate and living nature, then consciousness acts as a property of highly organized matter. Hence, it becomes necessary to trace the genetic origins of consciousness in those forms of organization of matter that precede man in the process of his evolution. The most important prerequisite for such an approach is the analysis of the types of attitude of living beings to the environment, within the framework of which the corresponding regulators of behavior emerge as their "serving mechanisms". The development of the latter presupposes the formation of bodily organs, thanks to which the processes of the psyche and consciousness are carried out. We are talking about the nervous system and its most highly organized division - the brain. However, the determining factor in the development of these bodily organs is the real vital function for which these organs work. A person is conscious with the help of the brain, but consciousness is not a function of the brain itself, but a function of a certain, specific type of relationship of a socially developed person with the world.

If this premise is taken into account, then consciousness from the very beginning is a social product. It arises and develops in the joint activities of people, in the process of their work and communication. By being involved in these processes, people develop appropriate ideas, attitudes, norms, which, together with their emotional coloring, constitute the content of consciousness as a specific form of reflection. This content is fixed in their individual psyche.

Consciousness in the broad sense of the word, of course, should also be associated with the idea of self-awareness. The development of complex forms of self-consciousness occurs at rather late stages in the history of human consciousness, where self-consciousness acquires a certain independence. However, it is possible to understand its origin only on the basis of considering the essence of consciousness as a whole.

Consciousness acts, therefore, as a key, initial philosophical concept for the analysis of all forms of manifestation of the spiritual and mental life of a person in their unity and integrity, as well as ways of controlling and regulating his relationship with reality, managing these relationships.

1.2 The relationship between the brain and consciousness

An important property of consciousness is the ability to hold in the head the sequence of events that have occurred and arbitrarily extract them from the depths of memory.

It has been scientifically proven that consciousness is always associated with the following processes occurring in the brain and does not exist apart from them:

1.consciousness is the highest form of reflection of the world and is associated with articulate speech, logical generalizations, abstract concepts, which is inherent only in man;

2. the core of consciousness, the way of its existence is knowledge;

3. labor develops consciousness;

4. speech (language) form consciousness;

5. consciousness is a function of the brain;

6. Consciousness is multicomponent, but constitutes a single whole;

7. consciousness is active and has the ability to influence the surrounding reality.

Thus, the activity of the brain and the activity of consciousness are inextricably linked.

2. Modern psychophysiological concepts

2.1 Psychophysiological problem

The first views about the soul and body arose in ancient times and were presented in views of the soul as a kind of independent entity located in the human body. The doctrine of the soul is the first form of knowledge that served as the basis for the development of ideas about the inner world of a person, spiritual, psychic. On the one hand, the unity of the vital activity of our organism is provided by the genotype. But, on the other hand, it is quite obvious that a person is something more than an organism. This special kind of integrity that transcends the unity of our body is captured by the classical concept of the soul. From the posing of the problem of the relationship between the soul and the body, the psychophysiological problem actually arises, which was first described in the works of ancient Greek philosophers.

Democritus, referring to the problem of the relationship between the soul and the body, explains nature from it itself "as having no beginning in time, but existing eternally." His soul is not some kind of supermaterial substance, but a completely physical entity, a set of atoms "round and fast moving ... like those that make up fire", possessing internal energy, it is the cause of the movement of living beings, the fiery principle in the body. The animal, unreasonable part of the soul is evenly distributed throughout the body. She is the source of mobility and vitality of the body. The philosopher argued that: "the soul is mortal and dies along with the body." “Souls ... perish. For that which is born together with the body must inevitably perish with it, ”that is, the ideal was thought on a par with the material - as a single substance. Thus, a discrete picture of the world that has existed for more than two millennia was created, in which being was thought to consist of the smallest and isolated particles of matter, and the relations between these particles were considered not being itself, but only a property of material substance.

The idea of reincarnation of souls belongs to Pythagoras. The philosopher taught that the soul is immortal. He believed that everything that happens in the world is repeated over and over again after certain periods of time, and the souls of the dead after some time move into other bodies, giving them life. The main idea of the philosophy of Pythagoras was the transmigration of the human soul after death into the bodies of other creatures. His followers believed that the particles of dust in the air constitute the soul, since they appear to be incessantly moving. Diogenes has air, which consists of the smallest particles, has a soul. Air is the first, the most subtle, the beginning of everything, and everything comes from it. That is why the soul is capable of movement and knowledge.

The psychophysiological problem developed further in the 17th century, thanks to R. Descartes, who put forward the theory of the division of all things into two substances (bodily and spiritual). The bodily substance has manifestations associated with signs of movement in space (breathing, nutrition, reproduction), and the spiritual is associated with the processes of thinking and manifestation of will. R. Descartes believed that higher mental processes cannot be directly derived from physiological (bodily) processes, or even more so reduced to them, so he began to look for an explanation of how these two substances exist in a person. This explanation was called psychophysical interaction and was defined by R. Descartes as follows: the body affects the soul, awakening passions in it in the form of sensory perceptions, emotions, etc., and the soul, possessing thinking and will, affects the body, forcing it to work and change your turn. R. Descartes's theory of psychophysical parallelism gave rise to the formation of psychology as an independent science.

As the theory of psychophysical parallelism developed, several more ways of solving the psychophysiological problem were put forward. One of them was proposed by T. Hobbes, who believed that there is only one substance - corporeal, or material, which is also a thinking substance. T. Hobbes believed that thinking is a derivative of bodily processes, and should be studied by observing various movements of the body and in the body. He justified this by the fact that thought is a subjective phenomenon, and bodily movements are objective, since they have as their source some external influence of the object on the sense organs.

G. Leibniz, trying to refute the theory of R. Descartes, put forward his own way of interaction between soul and body. According to G. Leibniz, the soul and body follow their own laws: the soul acts according to the law of final causes (for example, in accordance with the goal), and the body - according to the laws of acting causes. They cannot influence each other, but interact in harmony, since they are the essence of the same universe. Nevertheless, in this harmony, the spiritual in a certain sense dominates the body, and the body is a derivative of the soul.

B. Spinoza developed a possible solution to the psychophysiological problem in the spirit of monism, putting forward the concept that there are no two separate substances, but there is a single nature (God), which has different properties (attributes), from which it follows that consciousness and body are attributes of nature ... The position of monism affirms the unity of the world in its various manifestations (spiritual and material). Since a single substance has both the attributes of extension and thinking, B. Spinoza concluded that the more active a person is in the world, the more perfectly he acts, that is, the higher the organization of the body, the higher the spiritual consciousness.

V.M. wrote directly about the materiality of the psyche. Arkhipov: “In the XX century. science has taken a giant step forward. Natural science facts, accumulated by it, make it possible to finally solve the question of the materiality of the psyche. The work of the brain can be explained by some physiological, material factors. " Based on the work of I.P. Pavlov, who argued that a temporary nervous connection is a universal physiological phenomenon and at the same time it is also mental, the scientist believed that the mental is identical to the nervous, and the laws of higher nervous activity are the laws of the dynamics of mental states, and a scientific analysis of the psyche can only be an analysis of the material nervous process.

I.P. Pavlov, on the other hand, put a sign of identity between the concepts of the nervous process and the physiological, not having in mind that "nervous" is a broader concept than "physiological".

2.2 Psychophysiological concepts of consciousness

In modern studies of the psychophysiological problem, three main concepts can be distinguished: the concept of a "bright spot", the hypothesis of information synthesis, the concept of the communicative nature of consciousness.

The hypothesis about the connection of consciousness with a certain area of the cortex was first expressed by I.P. Pavlov. In search of an answer to the question: “what nervous processes occur in the cerebral hemispheres when we say that we are conscious of ourselves,” he suggested that consciousness is represented by the activity of the “creative” part of the cerebral cortex, which is in a state of optimal excitability, where it is easy to form conditioned reflexes and differentiation. Other areas where predominantly the maintenance of already formed reflexes occurs are associated with what is called unconscious activity. I.P. Pavlov expressed in a figurative form: “If it were possible to see through the cranium and if a place with optimal excitability shone, then we would see on a thinking conscious person how a bright spot, constantly changing in shape and size, whimsically changing outlines, moves along his cerebral hemispheres ".

The concept of a "bright spot", first expressed by I.P. Pavlov, was developed in the latest hypotheses in the form of the "searchlight theory". This concept was formulated by F. Crick, co-author of the double helix theory and Nobel laureate.

The main provisions of the "spotlight theory" are as follows. All information enters the cortex via sensory pathways through the switching nuclei in the dorsal thalamus (including the geniculate bodies adjacent to it). The excitability of these switching nuclei can be selectively changed by collaterals from the neurons of the thalamic reticular complex, which is part of its ventral section. The relationship between these parts of the thalamus is constructed in such a way that at any given moment one of the neuronal groups of the dorsal thalamus is in a state of high excitability, which significantly increases the impulse flow to the corresponding parts of the cortex, while other groups are, on the contrary, inhibited. The period of such high excitability lasts about 100 ms, and then the increased influx enters another part of the cortex. F. Crick assumes on this basis that the area of the highest impulse is at the moment, as it were, the center of attention, and thanks to the movement of the "spotlight" to other areas, it becomes possible to combine them into a single system. In this process, the synchronization of the activity of neuronal groups at the same frequency plays an important role, which also occurs due to the influence of ascending thalamic projections with a short-term modification of the activity of the corresponding synapses.

It is important that the number of neuronal groups involved in the joint activity includes neural ensembles in different areas of the cortex. Such integration, according to the author, ensures the implementation of higher mental functions. It is also assumed that several "spotlights" can operate simultaneously.

It is important that the number of neuronal groups involved in the joint activity includes neural ensembles in various areas of the cortex.

According to F. Crick, such integration ensures the implementation of higher mental functions. It is also assumed that several "spotlights" can operate simultaneously. This concept was developed primarily for processing visual signals, but the author of the concept assumes that the described scheme is common to all analyzers.

Information synthesis hypothesis. For the first time, the idea of information synthesis as the basis for the emergence of subjective experiences was put forward in the mid-70s. last century A.M. Ivanitsky on the basis of studies of the physiological mechanisms of sensations.

The idea of the re-entry of excitation into nervous structures as the basic mechanism for the emergence of subjective experience has been expressed in recent years by many authors. It was most fully developed in the works of the Nobel laureate (for the study of antibodies) J. Edelman, whose theory of consciousness has become quite widely known.

Moreover, these rear projections can connect both anatomically close and distant structures. This re-entry provides the ability to compare the previously obtained information with the changes that have occurred over the period of time from the previous re-entry.

According to J. Edelman, the emergence of subjective phenomena is based on the mechanism of re-entry of excitation into the same neuronal groups after additional processing of information in other groups or the receipt of signals from the external environment.

The main provisions of the theory of functional systems reflect the idea that the psyche arose in evolution because mental experiences contain a generalized assessment of the situation, due to which they act as important factors of behavior.

The concept of the communicative nature of consciousness was developed by P.V. Simonov. By his definition, consciousness is knowledge that in an abstract form can be transferred to other people, which is reflected in the etymology of the word "consciousness" - "shared knowledge."

Consciousness arose in the process of evolution on the basis of the need for communication, the transfer of knowledge and the joining of efforts of highly organized members of the community, such as our ancestors. However, since the inner world of a person is hidden from an external observer, the transfer of information from one person to another can occur only through abstraction, that is, in the form of signs. Such a symbolic form of communication is speech, which is formed in the process of communication. On the basis of communication, consciousness also arises as the highest form of the mental, peculiar only to people.

The connection between consciousness and speech has been shown in studies of people coming out of a coma. In this case, speech contact with patients, which, as clinicians know, is an important sign of the return of consciousness, coincides with the formation of coherent connections between the electrical activity of the gnostic (parietotemporal) and motor-speech (lower frontal) parts of the left hemisphere.

The statement about the connection between consciousness and speech should not be taken oversimplified. This is evidenced by observation data on patients with temporary loss of speech functions, for example, as a result of cerebral stroke. After the return of speech, patients in this case, as a rule, remember all the events that occurred during the loss of speech, and can talk about them, which indicates that their consciousness is preserved during the period of illness. The way out of this contradiction, probably, lies in the fact that other functions of the frontal lobes associated with the ability to abstraction and remembering sequences of events remain intact. The patient, therefore, could encode events in a different, non-verbal form and remember them.

Perhaps it is more correct to associate consciousness in its highest form not only with speech. We have already mentioned the connection between the frontal regions and abstract thinking. Another property of the frontal cortex also plays an important role. It has been established that its medial divisions are related to the ability to build and store events in memory as sequentially unfolding in time, which is a characteristic feature of consciousness.

In memorizing the sequence of events, along with the cortex, the hippocampus is also involved, which is associated with declarative memory. On the basis of building a sequence of events, the ability to predict and plan arises, which is also one of the properties of consciousness.

Finally, according to D. Edelman and D. Tononi, the basis of "consciousness of a higher order" associated with speech is the same principle of re-entry of excitation into the fields of the frontal, temporal and parietal cortex, responsible for the performance of individual functions, with the implementation of speech centers the information received in the corresponding phonemes.

Conclusion

The problem of consciousness is clearly interdisciplinary in nature. Nevertheless, numerous data allow us to single out a special psychophysiological aspect of the problem of consciousness. Its content is the objective state of consciousness, its development under the influence of various external and internal factors and the reflection of this dynamics in the indicators of bodily functioning.

The individual consciousness of a person is inextricably linked with the material processes taking place in the human body, primarily in the central nervous system and the brain. The problem is to establish exactly what material processes, mechanisms and states of the brain underlie consciousness. The solution to this problem is fraught with great theoretical, methodological and methodological difficulties. And the main reason is that in the study of the brain mechanisms of the human psyche, there are still a number of fundamental problems that do not have even an approximate explanation.

The problem of the relationship of consciousness to the organization of the brain can be presented both as a special problem of neurosciences, and as a strictly philosophical psychophysical one. The vision of the latter in modern philosophy of consciousness is multifaceted. At least, it is not reduced to a special psychophysiological problem, the solution of which is to find a correspondence between certain neural processes in the brain and mental phenomena perceived or unconscious by the subject. The solution to the problem of the relationship between consciousness and the brain as a special psychophysiological problem is presented by such concepts as the concept of "bright spot", the concept of information synthesis and the concept of the connection between consciousness and speech.

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What is Consciousness?

First, about what Consciousness is in general. People have been thinking about this question throughout the history of mankind, but they still cannot come to a final decision. We know only some properties, possibilities of consciousness. Consciousness is awareness of oneself, one's personality, it is a great analyzer of all our feelings, emotions, desires, plans. Consciousness is what sets us apart, what makes us feel ourselves not as objects, but as individuals. In other words, Consciousness miraculously reveals our fundamental existence. Consciousness is our awareness of our "I", but at the same time Consciousness is a great mystery. Consciousness has no dimensions, no form, no color, no smell, no taste, it cannot be touched or turned in the hands. Despite the fact that we know very little about consciousness, we know with absolute certainty that we have it.

One of the main questions of humanity is the question of the nature of this very Consciousness (soul, "I", ego). Materialism and idealism have diametrically opposed views on this issue. From the point of view of materialism, human Consciousness is a substrate of the brain, a product of matter, a product of biochemical processes, a special fusion of nerve cells. From the point of view of idealism, Consciousness is - the ego, "I", spirit, soul - an immaterial, invisible spiritualizing body, eternally existing, non-dying energy. The subject always participates in the acts of consciousness, who, in fact, is aware of everything.

If you are interested in purely religious ideas about the soul, then religion will not give any evidence of the existence of the soul. The doctrine of the soul is a dogma and is not subject to scientific proof.

There are absolutely no explanations, let alone evidence from the materialists, who believe that they are impartial scientists (although this is far from the case).

But what about the majority of people who are equally far from religion, from philosophy, and from science too, imagine this Consciousness, soul, "I"? Let's ask ourselves the question, what is your “I”? Since I often ask this question in consultations, I can tell how people usually answer it.

Gender, name, profession and other role functions

The first thing that most comes to mind: "I am a man", "I am a woman (man)", "I am a businessman (turner, baker)", "I am Tanya (Katya, Alexey)", "I am a wife ( husband, daughter) ", etc. These are, of course, amusing answers. Your individual, unique "I" cannot be defined by general concepts. There are a huge number of people in the world with the same characteristics, but they are not your "I". Half of them are women (men), but they are also not "I", people with the same professions seem to have their own, and not your "I", the same can be said about wives (husbands), people of different professions, social status, nationalities, religions, etc. No belonging to any group will explain to you what your individual “I” represents, because Consciousness is always personal. I am not qualities, qualities only belong to our “I”, because the qualities of one and the same person can change, but his “I” will remain unchanged.

Mental and physiological characteristics

Some say that their "I" is their reflexes, their behavior, their individual ideas and preferences, their psychological characteristics, etc.

In fact, it cannot be the core of the personality, which is called "I" Why? Because throughout life, behavior and perceptions and addictions, and even more so psychological characteristics, change. It cannot be said that if earlier these features were different, then it was not my "I".

Realizing this, some make the following argument: "I am my individual body." This is more interesting. Let us examine this assumption as well.

Everyone else from the school course of anatomy knows that the cells of our body are gradually renewed during life. The old ones die (apoptosis) and the new ones are born. Some cells (epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract) are completely renewed almost every day, but there are cells that go through their life cycle much longer. On average, all cells of the body are renewed every 5 years. If we consider "I" as a simple collection of human cells, then the result is absurd. It turns out that if a person lives, for example, 70 years. During this time, at least 10 times a person will change all the cells in his body (i.e. 10 generations). Could this mean that not one person, but 10 different people lived their 70-year life? Isn't that pretty silly? We conclude that “I” cannot be a body, because the body is not permanent, but “I” is permanent.

This means that "I" can be neither the qualities of cells, nor their totality.

But here especially erudite ones give a counterargument: “Well, with bones and muscles it is clear, it really cannot be“ I ”, but there are nerve cells! And they are alone for life. Maybe "I" is the sum of nerve cells? "

Let's reflect on this issue together ...

Does consciousness consist of nerve cells?

Materialism is accustomed to decomposing the entire multidimensional world into mechanical components, “testing harmony with algebra” (AS Pushkin). The most naive fallacy of militant materialism in relation to personality is the idea that personality is an aggregate of biological qualities. However, the combination of impersonal objects, whether they be atoms or neurons, cannot give rise to a personality and its core - "I".

How can this most complex “I”, feeling, capable of experiencing, love, be just the sum of specific cells of the body together with the ongoing biochemical and bioelectric processes? How can these processes form "I" ???

Provided that nerve cells made up our "I", then we would lose part of our "I" every day. With each dead cell, with each neuron, the "I" would become smaller and smaller. With the restoration of cells, it would grow in size.

Scientific studies carried out in different countries of the world prove that nerve cells, like all other cells of the human body, are capable of regeneration (restoration). This is what the most serious international biological journal Nature writes: “Employees of the Californian Institute for Biological Research. Salk found that fully functional young cells are born in the brains of adult mammals, which function on par with pre-existing neurons. Professor Frederick Gage and his colleagues also concluded that brain tissue regenerates the fastest in physically active animals. "

This is confirmed by a publication in another biological journal - Science: “Over the past two years, researchers have established that nerve and brain cells are renewed, like others in the human body. The body is able to repair itself the disorders related to the nervous tract, "says scientist Helen M. Blon."

Thus, even with a complete change of all (including nerve) cells of the body, the "I" of a person remains the same, therefore, it does not belong to a constantly changing material body.

For some reason, in our time, it is so difficult to prove what was obvious and understandable to the ancients. The Roman Neo-Platonist philosopher Plotinus, who still lived in the 3rd century, wrote: “It is absurd to assume that since none of the parts has life, life can be created by their aggregate, .. besides, it is absolutely impossible that life produces a heap of parts, and that the mind gave rise to that which is devoid of mind. If someone objects that this is not so, but in fact the soul is formed by atoms that come together, that is, indivisible bodies into parts, then he will be refuted by the fact that the atoms themselves only lie next to one another, not forming a living whole, for unity and joint feeling cannot be obtained from bodies that are insensitive and incapable of unification; but the soul feels itself "

“I” is the unchanging core of the personality, which includes many variables, but is not itself variable.

The skeptic may come up with one last desperate argument: "Could I be the brain?"

Is Consciousness a Product of Brain Activity? What does science say?

Many have heard the tale that our Consciousness is the activity of the brain at school. An unusually widespread idea is that the brain is, in fact, a person with his “I”. Most people think that it is the brain that perceives information from the outside world, processes it and decides how to act in each specific case, they think that it is the brain that makes us alive, gives us personality. And the body is nothing more than a spacesuit that ensures the activity of the central nervous system.

But this tale has nothing to do with science. The brain is now deeply studied. The chemical composition, parts of the brain, the connections of these parts with human functions have been well studied for a long time. The cerebral organization of perception, attention, memory, speech has been studied. The functional blocks of the brain have been studied. A huge number of clinics and scientific centers have been studying the human brain for more than a hundred years, for which expensive and effective equipment has been developed. But, having opened any textbook, monographs, scientific journals on neurophysiology or neuropsychology, you will not come across scientific data on the connection between the brain and Consciousness.

For people far from this area of knowledge, this seems surprising. In fact, there is nothing surprising in this. It's just that no one has ever discovered the connection between the brain and the very center of our personality, our "I". Of course, materialistic scientists have always wanted this. Thousands of studies have been carried out, millions of experiments, billions of dollars have been spent. The efforts of scientists were not in vain. The parts of the brain were discovered and studied, their connection with physiological processes was established, much was done to understand many neurophysiological processes and phenomena, but the most important thing was not done. It was not possible to find in the brain the place that is our "I". It was not even possible, despite the extremely active work in this direction, to make a serious assumption about how the brain can be connected with our Consciousness.

Where did the assumption that Consciousness is in the brain come from? One of the first, such an assumption was put forward in the middle of the 18th century by the greatest electrophysiologist Dubois-Reymond (1818-1896). In his outlook, Dubois-Reymond was one of the brightest representatives of the mechanistic trend. In one of his letters to his friend, he wrote that “exclusively physical and chemical laws operate in the organism; if not everything can be explained with their help, then it is necessary, using physical and mathematical methods, either to find a way of their action, or to accept that there are new forces of matter, equal in value to physicochemical forces. "

But another outstanding physiologist, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (Ludwig, 1816-1895), who headed the new Physiological Institute in Leipzig in 1869-1895, who had become the world's largest center in the field of experimental physiology, did not agree with him. The founder of the scientific school, Ludwig wrote that none of the existing theories of nervous activity, including Dubois-Reymond's electrical theory of nerve currents, can say anything about how acts of sensation become possible due to the activity of nerves. Note that here we are talking not even about the most complex acts of consciousness, but about much simpler sensations. If there is no consciousness, then we cannot feel and sense anything.

Another major physiologist of the 19th century, the outstanding English neurophysiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, Nobel laureate, said that if it is not clear how the psyche arises from the activity of the brain, then, naturally, it is just as little understood how it can exert any influence. on the behavior of a living being, which is controlled by the nervous system.

As a result, Dubois-Reymond himself came to the following conclusion: “How we realize - we do not know and will never know. And no matter how we delve into the jungle of intracerebral neurodynamics, we will not throw a bridge into the kingdom of consciousness. " Raymond came to a conclusion, disappointing for determinism, that it is impossible to explain Consciousness by material reasons. He admitted that "here the human mind comes across a 'world riddle' that it can never solve."

A professor at Moscow University, a philosopher in 1914 formulated the law of "the absence of objective signs of animation." The meaning of this law is that the role of the psyche in the system of material processes of regulation of behavior is absolutely elusive and there is no conceivable bridge between the activity of the brain and the field of mental or mental phenomena, including Consciousness.

The largest specialists in neurophysiology, Nobel Prize winners David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel recognized that in order to be able to assert the connection between the brain and Consciousness, it is necessary to understand that it reads and decodes information that comes from the senses. Scientists have acknowledged that this cannot be done.

The great scientist, professor of Moscow State University Nikolai Kobozev showed in his monograph that neither cells, nor molecules, nor even atoms can be responsible for the processes of thinking and memory.

There is evidence of the absence of a connection between Consciousness and the work of the brain, understandable even to people who are far from science. Here it is.

Suppose that "I" (Consciousness) is the result of the work of the brain. As neurophysiologists know exactly, a person can even live with one hemisphere of the brain. At the same time, he has Consciousness. A person who lives only with the right hemisphere of the brain certainly has "I" (Consciousness). Accordingly, we can conclude that "I" is not in the left, absent, hemisphere. A person with a single functioning left hemisphere also has an “I”, therefore “I” is not in the right hemisphere, which the given person does not have. Consciousness remains regardless of which hemisphere is removed. This means that a person does not have a region of the brain responsible for Consciousness, either in the left or in the right hemisphere of the brain. We have to conclude that the presence of consciousness in a person is not associated with certain areas of the brain.

Maybe Consciousness is divisible and with the loss of a part of the brain it does not die, but only gets damaged? Scientific facts do not confirm this assumption either.

Professor, MD Voino-Yasenetsky describes: “In a young wounded man, I opened a huge abscess (about 50 cubic cm, pus), which undoubtedly destroyed the entire left frontal lobe, and I did not observe any mental defects after this operation. I can say the same about another patient who was operated on for a huge cyst of the meninges. With a wide opening of the skull, I was surprised to see that almost all of the right half of it was empty, and the entire left hemisphere of the brain was compressed, almost impossible to distinguish it.

In 1940, Dr. Augustin Iturrica made a sensational statement at the Anthropological Society in Sucre, Bolivia. He and Dr. Ortiz took a long time to study the medical history of a 14-year-old boy, a patient at Dr. Ortiz's clinic. The teenager was there with a diagnosis of a brain tumor. The young man kept Consciousness until his death, complaining only of a headache. When, after his death, an autopsy was performed, the doctors were amazed: the entire cerebral mass was completely separated from the inner cavity of the cranium. A large abscess has invaded the cerebellum and part of the brain. It remained completely incomprehensible how the sick boy's thinking was preserved.

The fact that consciousness exists independently of the brain is also supported by research recently carried out by Dutch physiologists under the direction of Pim van Lommel. The results of a large-scale experiment were published in the authoritative biological English journal "The Lancet". “Consciousness exists even after the brain has ceased to function. In other words, Consciousness "lives" by itself, absolutely independently. As for the brain, it is not thinking matter at all, but an organ, like any other, performing strictly defined functions. It is very possible that thinking matter, even in principle, does not exist, said the head of the study, the famous scientist Pim van Lommel. "

Another argument that is understandable for non-specialists is given by Professor V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky: "In the wars of ants that do not have a brain, intentionality is clearly revealed, and therefore rationality, which is no different from human." This is a truly amazing fact. Ants solve rather difficult problems of survival, building housing, providing themselves with food, i.e. have some intelligence, but have no brain at all. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Neurophysiology does not stand still, but is one of the most dynamically developing sciences. Methods and scale of research speaks about the success of studying the brain. The functions, parts of the brain are being studied, and its composition is being clarified in more and more detail. Despite the titanic work on the study of the brain, world science today is just as far from understanding what creativity, thinking, memory are and what is their connection with the brain itself.

So, science has definitely established that Consciousness is not a product of brain activity.

What is the nature of Consciousness?

Having come to the understanding that there is no Consciousness inside the body, science draws natural conclusions about the immaterial nature of consciousness.

Academician P.K. Anokhin: “None of the“ mental ”operations that we attribute to the“ mind ”have so far been directly connected with any part of the brain. If in principle we cannot understand how the mental arises as a result of the activity of the brain, then is it not more logical to think that the psyche is not at all a function of the brain in its essence, but represents the manifestation of some other - immaterial spiritual forces? "

At the end of the 20th century, the creator of quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize laureate E. Schrödinger wrote that the nature of the connection of some physical processes with subjective events (to which Consciousness belongs) lies "outside of science and beyond human understanding."

The largest modern neurophysiologist, Nobel Prize laureate in medicine J. Eccles developed the idea that it is impossible to find out the origin of mental phenomena on the basis of the analysis of brain activity, and this fact can be easily interpreted in the sense that the psyche is not a function of the brain at all. According to Eccles, neither physiology nor the theory of evolution can shed light on the origin and nature of consciousness, which is absolutely alien to all material processes in the universe. The spiritual world of man and the world of physical realities, including the activity of the brain, are completely independent independent worlds that only interact and, to some extent, affect each other. He is echoed by such prominent specialists as Carl Lashley (American scientist, director of the Primate Biology Laboratory in Orange Park (Florida), who studied the mechanisms of the brain) and Harvard University doctor Edward Tolman.

With his colleague, the founder of modern neurosurgery, Wilder Penfield, who has performed over 10,000 brain operations, Eccles wrote the book The Mystery of Man. In it, the authors explicitly state that "there is no doubt that a person is controlled by SOMETHING outside of his body." “I can experimentally confirm,” writes Eccles, “that the workings of consciousness cannot be explained by the functioning of the brain. Consciousness exists independently of it from the outside. "

Eccles is deeply convinced that consciousness cannot be the subject of scientific research. In his opinion, the emergence of consciousness, as well as the emergence of life, is the highest religious mystery. In his report, the Nobel laureate relied on the conclusions of the book "Personality and the Brain", written jointly with the American philosopher and sociologist Karl Popper.

Wilder Penfield, as a result of many years of studying the activity of the brain, also came to the conclusion that "the energy of the mind is different from the energy of the brain's neural impulses."

Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Russian Federation, Director of the Scientific Research Institute of the Brain (RAMS of the Russian Federation), a world-renowned neurophysiologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences. Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva: “The hypothesis that the human brain only perceives thoughts from somewhere outside, I first heard from the lips of the Nobel laureate, Professor John Eccles. Of course, then it seemed absurd to me. But then research carried out in our St. Petersburg Research Institute of the Brain confirmed that we cannot explain the mechanics of the creative process. The brain can generate only the simplest thoughts, such as how to turn the pages of a book you are reading or stir up sugar in a glass. And the creative process is a manifestation of a completely new quality. As a believer, I admit the participation of the Almighty in the management of the thought process. "

Science comes to the conclusion that the brain is not the source of thought and consciousness, but at most - their relay.

Professor S. Grof says about it this way: “Imagine that your TV set is broken and you have called a TV technician who, having twisted different knobs, tuned it up. It doesn't occur to you that all these stations are sitting in this box. "

Already in 1956, the outstanding outstanding scientist-surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky believed that our brain is not only not connected with Consciousness, but that it is not even capable of thinking independently, since the mental process is outside of it. In his book, Valentin Feliksovich argues that "the brain is not an organ of thought, feeling", and that "Spirit goes beyond the brain, determining its activity, and our whole being, when the brain works as a transmitter, receiving signals and transmitting them to the organs of the body." ...

The same conclusions were reached by British researchers Peter Fenwick from the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parnia from Southampton Central Hospital. They examined patients who came back to life after cardiac arrest, and found that some of them accurately recounted the content of the conversations that the medical staff had while they were in a state of clinical death. Others gave an accurate description of the events that occurred during this time period. Sam Parnia argues that the brain, like any other organ of the human body, consists of cells and is not capable of thinking. However, it can function as a thought-detecting device, i.e. as an antenna with which it becomes possible to receive a signal from the outside. Scientists have suggested that during clinical death, Consciousness acting independently of the brain uses it as a screen. Like a television receiver, which first receives the waves entering it, and then converts them into sound and image.

If we turn off the radio, this does not mean that the radio station stops broadcasting. That is, after the death of the physical body, Consciousness continues to live.

The fact of the continuation of the life of Consciousness after the death of the body is also confirmed by the academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, director of the Research Institute of the Human Brain, a world-renowned neurophysiologist N.P. Bekhterev in his book "The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life." In addition to discussing purely scientific issues, in this book the author also gives his personal experience of encountering posthumous phenomena.

Natalia Bekhtereva, talking about her meeting with the Bulgarian clairvoyant Vanga Dimitrova, quite definitely speaks about this in one of her interviews: “Vanga's example absolutely convinced me that there is a phenomenon of contact with the dead”, and another quote from her book: “ I cannot help but believe what I have heard and seen myself. A scientist has no right to reject facts (if he is a scientist!) Just because they do not fit into a dogma, a worldview. "

The first consistent description of posthumous life based on scientific observation was given by the Swedish scientist and naturalist Emmanuel Swedenborg. Then this problem was seriously studied by the famous psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler Ross, the equally famous psychiatrist Raymond Moody, conscientious scientists academicians Oliver Lodge, William Crookes, Alfred Wallace, Alexander Butlerov, Professor Friedrich Myers, American pediatrician Melvin Morse. Among the serious and systematic researchers of the issue of dying, it is worth mentioning the professor of medicine at Emory University and the staff doctor at the Veterans' Hospital in Atlanta, Dr. Michael Sabom, the systematic study of the psychiatrist Kenneth Ring is also very valuable, the doctor of medicine, intensive care physician Moritz Roolings was studying this problem , our contemporary, thanatopsychologist A.A. Nalchajyan. The famous Soviet scientist, a prominent specialist in the field of thermodynamic processes, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus Albert Veinik worked a lot on understanding this problem from the point of view of physics. A significant contribution to the study of the near-death experience was made by the world famous American psychologist of Czech origin, the founder of the transpersonal school of psychology, Dr. Stanislav Grof.

The variety of facts accumulated by science indisputably proves that after physical death, each of those living today inherits a different reality, preserving his Consciousness.

Despite the limitations of our ability to cognize this reality with the help of material means, today there are a number of its characteristics obtained through experiments and observations of scientists studying this problem.

These characteristics were listed by A.V. Mikheev, a researcher of the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University in his report at the international symposium "Life after death: from faith to knowledge" which took place on April 8-9, 2005 in St. Petersburg:

"1. There is a so-called "subtle body", which is the bearer of self-awareness, memory, emotions and "inner life" of a person. This body exists ... after physical death, being its "parallel component" for the duration of the existence of the physical body, providing the above processes. The physical body is only a mediator for their manifestation on the physical (earthly) level.

2. The life of an individual does not end with current earthly death. Survival after death is a natural law for humans.

3. The next reality is divided into a large number of levels, differing in the frequency characteristics of their components.

4. The place of destination of a person during the posthumous transition is determined by his adjustment to a certain level, which is the total result of his thoughts, feelings and actions during his life on Earth. Just as the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a chemical depends on its composition, in the same way a person's posthumous destination is determined by the "composite characteristic" of his inner life.

5. The concepts of "Heaven and Hell" reflect two polarities, possible posthumous states.

6. In addition to such polar states, there are a number of intermediate ones. The choice of an adequate state is automatically determined by the mental and emotional "pattern" formed by a person during his earthly life. That is why negative emotions, violence, the desire for destruction and fanaticism, whatever they may be externally justified, in this respect are extremely destructive for the future fate of a person. This is a strong rationale for personal responsibility and adherence to ethical principles. "

And again about suicide

Most suicides believe that their Consciousness will cease to exist after death, that it will be peace, a rest from life. We got acquainted with the conclusion of world science about what Consciousness is and about the absence of a connection between it and the brain, as well as the fact that after the death of the body, a person will begin another, post-death life. Moreover, Consciousness retains its qualities, memory, and its post-death life is a natural continuation of earthly life.

This means that if here, in earthly life, Consciousness was struck by some kind of pain, illness, grief, liberation from the body will not be liberation from this illness. In the afterlife life, the fate of a sick consciousness is even more sad than in earthly life, because in earthly life we can change everything or almost everything - with the participation of our will, the help of other people, new knowledge, a change in life situation - in another world there are such opportunities are absent, and therefore the state of Consciousness is more stable.

That is, suicide is the preservation of a painful, unbearable state of one's Consciousness for an indefinite period. It is quite possible - forever. And the lack of hope for improving one's condition greatly increases the painfulness of any torment.

If we really want rest and pleasant peaceful rest, then our Consciousness must reach such a state even in earthly life, then after natural death it will preserve it.

After reading the material, the author would like you to independently try to find the truth, double-check the data presented in this article, read the relevant literature from the field of medicine, psychology and neurophysiology. I hope that, having learned more about this area, you will abandon the attempt at suicide or commit it only if you are sure that with the help of it you can really get rid of Consciousness.