lemmingllama Posted October 24, 2011 Report Share Posted October 24, 2011 So, this one takes a bit more thinking than your average forum post, so lets put on our thinking caps and read.So, can your brain actually have experiences? There are two schools of thought on the matter. One says no, the brain is unable to experience anything and is merely a tool that interprets what our senses show us. If we removed it from our meat suit, then we would be unable to experience anything. The other says that our brain is our mind and soul. There is something empheral and that our brain represents that. If we removed the meat suit, it would mean that our brain could still experience but might have fun moving around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaoru Posted October 24, 2011 Report Share Posted October 24, 2011 The brain and the body *have to* co-exist, that's a given; so in the same sense I'd say the brain simultaneous has and is the experience- if that makes any kind of sense. I dunno i left my thinking cap in the car =P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmingllama Posted October 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 The brain and the body *have to* co-exist, that's a given; so in the same sense I'd say the brain simultaneous has and is the experience- if that makes any kind of sense. I dunno i left my thinking cap in the car =PSo if i took your brain and put it in a jar and force-fed it thoughts about sensations then your body would feel them too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Libitinarius Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 The brain is nothing without the vital organ systems feeding it:The arteries of the heart supply it with important nutrients--blood, oxygen, diffusion of h20 across permeable membranes of our cells. The veins remove waste products (CO2, ect;) where it is eventually filtered through the digestive system or urinary tract.The heart doesn't beat without the lungs, therefore no O2 would be fed to the brain which leads to asphyxia followed by death. And no CO2 waste products would be distrubted out of the lungs also causing adverse reactions with the amino acids of the body.The brain also wouldn't react without the nervous system or motor neurons (nerves) that integrate the body and fire off innately/purposefully. Without a vessel (our body) the brain is nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
failedhornet Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 What about dreams, they seem to me be experiences that operate independently of my senses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmingllama Posted October 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 What about dreams, they seem to me be experiences that operate independently of my sensesBut isnt a dream just a regurgitation of past experiences? So its wholly based on experiences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
†Mute point Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 The heart doesn't beat without lungs? Sure it does... Just not for very long since the brain will die without lungs filling the blood with all the good stuff that comes with breathing. And of course, no brain means no heart beat... Unless you hook it up to a machine and shock it into beating anyway... but that's totally different!Without the brain, if your body could still move, you would touch without feeling, breathe without smelling, eat without tasting. You would be deaf and blind. Does that mean that the brain has these experiences? Only with the body feeding it the electrical impulses required to form senses and thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diablo Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 So if i took your brain and put it in a jar and force-fed it thoughts about sensations then your body would feel them too?If you put the brain in jar and provide thoughts the brain will have capacity to think. But theoretically it isn't possible.But isnt a dream just a regurgitation of past experiences? So its wholly based on experiences.Actually it's not the eyes that see it's the brain that has the visual power, our eyes just send the signal to brain which it converts into signals. Do you know that blind people do not see visual things in their dreams they hear voices or noise in their dreams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
†Mute point Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 Do you know that blind people do not see visual things in their dreams they hear voices or noise in their dreams.Depends on why they're blind, and if they were born that way, or something caused it. If they lived as a sighted person, and were then in an accident that damaged only their eyes, they would still see images in their dreams. If the accident damaged the visual center in the brain, they would not. And if they were born blind, their brain wouldn't know what visual stimulation was, so they wouldn't see anything even in their dreams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katongo Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 Good question in fact i had a lecture about this just a few weeks ago. Can your brain actually have experiences? No, your Brain does not have sensory receptors hence it can not experience touch, pain, temperature.... An experiment was conducted with part of the skull removed and the Brain was touched and no sensation was felt. Like you said it the brain is unable to experience anything and is merely a tool that interprets what our senses tell us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exiku Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 Actually it's not the eyes that see it's the brain that has the visual power, our eyes just send the signal to brain which it converts into signals. Do you know that blind people do not see visual things in their dreams they hear voices or noise in their dreams.Interestingly, did you know people who grew up watching Black and White television dream in Black and White?Depends on why they're blind, and if they were born that way, or something caused it. If they lived as a sighted person, and were then in an accident that damaged only their eyes, they would still see images in their dreams. If the accident damaged the visual center in the brain, they would not. And if they were born blind, their brain wouldn't know what visual stimulation was, so they wouldn't see anything even in their dreams.This is something I have to look forward to, since having a progressive genetic condition that will result in me losing my sight in...maybe 25-50 years, I'll let you know how that goes whether my dreams are in 'fullscreen' or 'limited screen' until nothing I could probably ask people in my support group actually...kind of makes me wonder if a person's sense of vision affects what they see in their dreams...As to the topic, I don't think the brain itself can have experiences on its own...seeing as if it's taken out of the body, it loses the mechanism by which it experiences the world. The two are meant to work in tandem for something (your awareness to encounter these experiences) to exist.As for the idea of it being the seat of the Soul...I don't think so, but that's a whole other discussion. Don't get me wrong, I do believe in a Soul, but I don't think it's a spiritual manifestation of my current being. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaoru Posted October 25, 2011 Report Share Posted October 25, 2011 What about dreams, they seem to me be experiences that operate independently of my sensesNot really, I'd say they work with them; dreams are manifestations that occur in REM sleep, but you only actually experience the dream in the stages you are almost about to wake up, it kinda works backwards if you get my meaning, you're not dreaming in the moment but it feels that way when you are about to wake up. REM sleep is been said that it is the only way our brain has of resting itself, and while it does this, what we perceive as dreams are chemical reactions that take place afterwards. Another way of thinking about it is, even your dreams, you have to reccur to your senses given that you see or hear things when you dream; but all your doing is acessing information while your actual senses are still in lock, so to speak. Good question in fact i had a lecture about this just a few weeks ago. Can your brain actually have experiences? No' date=' your Brain does not have sensory receptors hence it can not experience touch, pain, temperature.... An experiment was conducted with part of the skull removed and the Brain was touched and no sensation was felt. Like you said it the brain is unable to experience anything and is merely a tool that interprets what our senses tell us. [/quote']Of course you're 100% right, no one's suggesting a brain could sprout legs and walk around =P (i hope not anyway)But there is a deeper philosophical question underlaying the physical one, since our brain is basically the core to everything, the one organ no one can replace or live without, and to my knowledge one of the few that still poses many unknowns, in many fields. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Libitinarius Posted October 26, 2011 Report Share Posted October 26, 2011 The heart doesn't beat without lungs? Sure it does... Just not for very long since the brain will die without lungs filling the blood with all the good stuff that comes with breathing. And of course, no brain means no heart beat... Unless you hook it up to a machine and shock it into beating anyway... but that's totally different!Without the brain, if your body could still move, you would touch without feeling, breathe without smelling, eat without tasting. You would be deaf and blind. Does that mean that the brain has these experiences? Only with the body feeding it the electrical impulses required to form senses and thoughts.What I meant to say Mute, was the heart cannot function properly without the lungs. Common knowledge that the right side of the heart is oxygen poor, the left side is oxygen rich. Without oxygen and glucose, your body doesn't not produce AdenosineTriPhosphate (ATP); which leads me into the point of the brain needing another source of energy to function as all the internal organs of a normal human anatomy (and also regulate) the human brain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
†Mute point Posted October 27, 2011 Report Share Posted October 27, 2011 So, after having Mal tell me about your response here, other than clarifying your point, which still doesn't invalidate what I said about your point, you're saying that the body needs the brain, and the brain needs the body. I agree, which is why I said pretty much that exact same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RikuoAmero Posted October 27, 2011 Report Share Posted October 27, 2011 Interestingly, did you know people who grew up watching Black and White television dream in Black and White?That would make sense if the only thing they literally see in their lives is the B/W TV. I'm pretty sure that folks from back then turned it off every once in a while and went out to the big wide world, which would be full of colour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exiku Posted October 27, 2011 Report Share Posted October 27, 2011 That would make sense if the only thing they literally see in their lives is the B/W TV. I'm pretty sure that folks from back then turned it off every once in a while and went out to the big wide world, which would be full of colour.True, but my mum hardly had time to watch TV in her day (she was a very busy girl) and she still dreams in either Black and White or Colour - her childhood was around the time of when Black and White transitioned into Colour. So I guess like anything, psychological findings have to be taken with a grain of salt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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