Conscious will be one of the most profound studies of a lifetime, an endless study that will appear to have no conclusion. Your Consciousness is what we know as you, everything about you, and what exactly you are. Without it, you would be unaware of your existence. Could you exist without complete Consciousness, or can Consciousness even stop existing? These are questions that even ancient thinkers used to question, yet no proposed answer is promised with certainty. Sadly, despite how smart I may be, I don't have the answer for you either. I will, however, tell you why you should study Consciousness and why it is a lifelong journey worth exploring. Keep reading to find out.
The scientific reason
I shall discuss the scientific approach to Consciousness to keep all of my skeptical readers. Scientists have looked at the properties of Consciousness and studied individual parts of Consciousness without being able to research Consciousness as a whole. No fault to the scientific community; testing and experiment are exceptionally challenging. For simplicity, one could interpret Consciousness as "experience" for "the experience that a life is undergoing at its perceived moment in time," which we will find is not a physical concept that can be measured in a material setting. A scientist can not simply grab Consciousness and use a ruler to measure it or put it in a lab for testing. One can work on another's brain, our closest connection to Consciousness, and hope for accurate results from the subject's report. Any person who studies psychology could explain that studying through reports and surveys is only sometimes the best form of data through bias, misunderstandings, and unforeseen problems (confounding variables).
Therefore, you should expect the lack of scientific evidence on Consciousness as you search the web. As of now, we understand that impacts on the brain affect the expression of one's Consciousness of the world (my wording is specific for a reason) and that one loses Consciousness in states of inactivity of the brain. So, that means that our Consciousness is our brain, and we solved the mystery, right? Not quite. Our understanding of Consciousness is very limited; the research and the data are all so limited. Let's ask some questions and see if the scientific community has enough evidence to dispute it.
Q: Does our Consciousness die with our death? Is there an afterlife?
A: While studies are being conducted, no study has been able to conclude when Consciousness may have ended. Studies of near-death patients suggest Consciousness continuing after being declared clinically dead (flat-line in a hospital bed), but no one has been brought from being biologically dead (every cell in the body dying)
Q: What does someone see when Consciousness ends?
A: No study has been able to measure that.
Q: Is everyone's conscious view similar
A: No study has been conducted that reflects someone's perspective. We can measure the light entering someone's eyes and the activation of someone's senses, but we simply can not take someone's view and put it on a screen.
Did you read the following Q&A as a no? They aren't; they are a "we don't know" response. Many people make the one-to-one connection that if the brain impacts the Consciousness, then the
Consciousness must die when the brain dies, and the Consciousness ceases to exist. Instead, that is a rational answer, but it is not for certain. Let us put the driver and vehicle argument into question. Let's suggest that your brain (body) is a vehicle, and your Consciousness is the driver. Now suggest that your vehicle is a car and the car got damaged. For example, suggest that your lights got damaged in a crash. Could the driver always communicate with other cars when it is turning or present? No. Let's also suggest that the car gets damaged and things like the engine being damaged ruin its performance. Could the driver operate smoothly and correctly on the road? No. Now...
Does this reflect the condition of the driver at all?
No. While the condition of the vehicle may suggest the conditions of the driver, it does not express the condition of the driver. Even if the vehicle were to die, the driver could still be in perfect condition. This is very similar to the brain and Consciousness. What science has found suggests the state of one's Consciousness but cannot express the state of one's Consciousness cause Consciousness can not be physically measured. We are trying to measure the state of the driver measuring the car. This is only one of many deep-thinking arguments that still challenge Consciousness's conclusion. Even if one thinks that the brain is the same as Consciousness, one will find conflict in the discussion.
So, what is the point? Just because something is yet to be found in science doesn't mean it can't be. Furthermore, there are many times when science states one thing and soon learns that it is another. The scientific reason for studying Consciousness is that it can still be studied. What I mentioned before was obstacles, simply that. The possibility of the ability to study Consciousness has yet to be founded. It may be possible for Consciousness to be studied, and if that is so, then someone should do it. Having an open mindset has served the scientific community more well than a closed mind has ever done. So don't settle with the idea that Consciousness is just the brain; look into it while holding scientific standards and seeing if there is more to it. There can be more to it, scientifically.Â
Research is being done on consciousness.
Animal consciousness
There is research on how animals experience Consciousness within our world. One could see many attempts at understanding animals' Consciousness through first-person narratives created for the animals, showing only the colors their eyes are measured to see or infrared visions for animals that humans suspect to have infrared. Professor Harvey from the University of Dundee and a member of the psychological study investigates the possibility of Consciousness in his book "The Science of Consciousness: Waking, Sleeping, and Dreaming. He discusses comas, animal versus machine possibility of Consciousness, stages of Consciousness, and remaining questions within his published textbook.
2. Neural connection and correlation with Consciousness.
While scientists have discovered quite a bit about the connection between the brain's neural activity and Consciousness, there is still significantly more research that needs to be discovered, especially regarding the black box theory. You can think of it like an ocean; even though we have explored much of it, we still have a long way to go. As technology advances, our ability to study neural activity improves rapidly. For example, Scientists have looked into more depth of our connection of vision to our perception, measuring the neural activation from our eyes and the afterimages within our Consciousness; read below:Â
3. Artificial Conscience
As of this moment, conscience is defined to only be within a living being, so animals and humans appear to be the conscious ones in our world. However, with technology rapidly increasing and AI becoming more popular than before, many question the possibility of AI gaining a conscience or even already having a conscience. Researchers have actually found this to be worthy of study, suspecting that there may be a slight chance of artificial life mimicking conscience similar to how they mimic our knowledge. While artificial intelligence may never have a conscience the way you and I have a conscience, they may still have a form of conscience worth being prepared for.
As much research grows new in the world of psychology, Consciousness remains a strong topic for research.
How does conscience connect to the rest of psychology?
As mentioned before, Consciousness is a vital aspect of our lives. It is the very essence of our mind; without it, our existence would become abstract. Due to its vitality in our lives, it is connected to everything in ways that one may have never found worth noting. When you refocus yourself in class and attempt to teach yourself the context quickly, that is a strong use of your conscience. The mere fact you were distracted is a use of your Consciousness. Conscience impacts how we feel with our emotions, how we think, how we communicate, how we overcome previous ideas, and how we live on a day-to-day basis. The research of conscience can have a strong connection to any field in psychology due to its being such a vital part of our mind. Researching and understanding our conscience can be beneficial to one's journey in studying psychology.
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