Mystery of Consciousness
Part-II Human mind in the flow of life
When we find things strange in our daily life, we have a feeling that what or why it is. However, we will forget soon and return to our daily life. Later we notice that our awareness has changed for a moment. What kind of movement did we have at that time? We can notice that we do not understand something and concentrate on thinking for the time, but if we have something else to do, we will change mind. At this time, the feeling of trying to continue the state of normal life and the feeling of wanting to find out something that cannot understand by our knowledge alternate. Here, I think that our consciousness has two directions, such as the mind of everyday to keep and the mind to research to know. Moreover, I think that these two directions are the same as the directions that life has as a living feature.
Living organisms are made of cells, and many cells are organized together to form one closed organism. The individual has a mechanism to maintain the internal reaction to sustain the living activation. In order to do that, an individual needs to create energy internally, so it is constantly in the process of taking in and discharging substances. Moreover, organisms act as one unit as a whole in order to make their living activities efficient. Here, a living being is involved in performing various internal reactions from one to the next and the somewhat mysterious power that governs the action as one unit.
In other words, there are two types of energy that support the individual living body, one is a force that continue many reactions to live, and the other is a force that control the whole body as if the genes in all cells resonate each other to support the continuation of life.
The force that controls a living body relates with preservation of species such as growth and proliferation, and that force has the property of complicating features and functions by generational change, and attracts the movement that many substances centralize as one closed body. It has the flexibility to respond to changes in the environment, and has the property of making individuals more complex across generations. This situation seems to be in every living thing. From a broader perspective, it may be safe to say that many creatures rooted in the Earth share “Consciousness of Life” that has the "will to live" and all living things are in the big stream of life, it maintains the same in all living things. In other words, it seems that each living thing under the influence of the flow of life has its own “Consciousness of Life” and its behavior holds the state of activation centered on this consciousness.
<Mirror Test>
From various studies, we understood evolution of life that living organisms became complicated their body, and as a result, human being developed the cerebrum and has been aware of its own existence clearly. On the other hand, pre-human creatures act influenced predominately by the information inscribed in the gene, and they act instinct as their species, and repeat growth and reproduction as living species. We cannot find individual differences in behavior of animals. Like pets kept by humans, we can see the effects of environmental influences on individual responses and differences in behavior, but it does not appear that pet animals can recognize themselves and improve independently with their own actions. Here, I will introduce an interesting experiment called "Mirror Test", in the sense of clarifying the contrast of whether living things are self-aware or not, in front of a mirror. The mirror test is to mark surface of animal’s body so as not to notice by itself at a place where the mark cannot reach the eyes. When the animal is in front of a mirror, you can check the action whether it can judge that the mark is on its own body. Most animals act as if a moving object in the mirror is different one from itself like an enemy or a companion. However, some mammals and birds know to be their own sign on their bodies, and they act in a manner that bothers them or takes them. In the case of human beings, it seems that by the age of two, it is possible to find out what is in the mirror, as own body.
What is suggested from this experiment is that it is after becoming a species of humanity that "clearly conscious" about own-self, and I think that the world of mind has been opened by the relation aware of own-self and then aware of others. The evolution of living things up to humans is that living organisms have gradually fostered self-awareness. Moreover, being conscious of own-self adds a new development to the flow of sustaining life. There marked a new stage of evolution, and the flow of life has stepped up some stages before humans. At a single cellular stage, in the membrane in contact with the outside world, differences in the reaction in the molecular structure cause it to take in and out by action such as binding or repulsion. In complex cellular bodies such as animals, they do not just response to stimuli accordingly, but identify the information what is in danger or food, because the brain and sense organs have developed, though each cell maintains its activity through molecular connections. At this stage, animals give priority to survival of species, which imprinted behaviors in genes, as food intake and information attacked by natural enemies, keeping through appropriate reactions. I think that there should be a stack of many sacrifices behind survival of the species through the accumulation of experience. Inexperienced individuals might come out in front of a natural enemy and become food, and individuals that could not find out foods might starve in harsh environments. However, since I know the circulation at the level of atoms and molecules on the earth, there is no problem from the side of the food chain in the big flow of life.
As result after a long period of time, human beings have become aware of themselves. If you judge what is reflected in the mirror even when you were a child, and you determined that it is no less than you, then you have an identification function that can be determined it is you, and you can distinguish yourself clearly in relation to miscellaneous information around you. In other words, to recognize own-self is to identify your self from regarding various surrounding information coming in from the sense organs, and as a result, you understand in your brain the relation with yourself. You have built up your own inner world while you grow up, because you can receive the situation around you from the sense organs and identify it in relation to yourself. In the mirror test, if an animal finds that a prominent mark attaches to its own body, a motive for action to that mark will occur. In a same manner, when you can identify differences and changes in a mirror, you will take action. It seems important that you "know immediately" the part as your own body, and understand the obtained stimulus from the vision. Here, I can see the stage of the gradual advancement of the mind about the continuation of living. It makes sense not only to identify the environment and respond efficiently to survival, but also to act in an understanding of your own body. The scope of identification is expanding others in contrast with own-self. That is why humans could start using tools by themselves. That stage of evolution occurred close to the intelligent organism, humans. In other words, organisms have a long history of evolution that internally complicates the functions of identification and selection as if it intended as becoming intelligent organisms. The "Consciousness of Life" that should be present in all living things headed to the state where the cell assembly was brought closer to an intelligent living thing, and it steered in a direction to clearly recognize itself as own-self.
In general, when consciousness to sustain life is superior, preservation of species prioritizes and focuses on continuing survival. It is a basic thing even for intelligent creatures. Even humans, adolescents become interested in the opposite sex and their desire for reproduction increases. As one example, when animals form a group, territorial awareness develops and protects the internal area. Those accept friends but reject others. Considering in human case, you desire to be a strong individual to survive, even in the same species, you may foster the mutual fighting spirit. At the past, humans began with tribal warfare and affected a wide range of conflicts, such as from sports competitions to modern exam trials. As a result, the ones remain that win the various competition, and the dominant gene is selected. On the other hand, human beings are gradually creating the domain of mind by clearly recognizing oneself, identifying others and thinking about their relationship with others in contrast with oneself. Even if you are in your individual world, which is influencing from groups around you, and you can act in balance with your own desire and the group's discipline and coordination.
Being in a large group and getting in touch with other people will help you to understand different values and different personalities and avoid unnecessary competition. The development of the domain of mind extends to the consideration of others as well as yourself, and it will share memories of emotions and compassion. You have a desire to enrich the world of the mind, and your emotions enriches with the appreciation of paintings and landscapes and listening music. Nowadays, shifting work to machines has given us more time, and now you are seeking to enjoy your spare time, such as travel and hobbies. We can see a tendency to enrich the world of mind in people. That potential of the diverse spheres of mind reveals the complexity of relationships, because the world in the brain of oneself becomes more and more abundant. However, if you stop relating with others and only react in your own world, it will lead to the laziness of maintaining your current state. If you are not a transcendent or a saint, you will be difficult to complicate the domain of your mind in a closed world.
Under that situation, as for what we can understand, to become aware of the various relationships is necessary for life accompanied with becoming complicated. For example, we know that there are all kinds of living things living around us, such as many microorganisms and plants on the earth. The human society has become rich after the time when it was only hard for us to live. I have the feeling that we can afford time and do something interesting. So, should we just live in a place where we can live, raising families and increasing money? Content that has accumulated experience in the life of an individual has shifted from burying everyday living to the fulfillment of the mind from time to time. We have not only the desire to live but also "enhancement of the mind" gradually growing. That desire will be a wide range of things, such as the direction of hobbies and entertainment, the direction of research to find out what you do not know. Along with that, our sense organs and brain functions will be able to identify more diverse information differences. Moreover, there will be a desire to focus what we will be aware of things as rich and fulfilling mind.
<Summary>
If all living beings maintain the life of an individual and let the living activities continue by means of "Consciousness of Life ", that consciousness which is aware of the existence of the own-self in the human domain makes me an impression that has gone beyond one stage. The evolution of life up to human beings is a road of raising awareness of one's own consciousness, and at the human stage of evolution will evolve on the base of the awareness of oneself. Human beings have reached a new stage as living beings by clarifying their own consciousness. The flow of consciousness in the universe has traveled with the direction of life, with material gathering, identification and selection. The consciousness centered on a life being is that it has further developed in human beings and become aware of own-self. If this flow of life is dependent on the structure of the universe, the path to clear awareness is an inevitable direction, and there is a way for humanity to head toward extending that trend.
At the bottom of life flow, first substances gathering to become centralized a cell, next an organism becomes a complex tissue according to the environment and knows the direction to the optimal form. There, we should be able to find out the direction in which our consciousness is deepening. Moreover, it means finding the direction to identify ahead. If there is an “all-knowing-consciousness” that ultimately wraps the whole, it may be synonymous with God. If all substances connect to the end of that overall consciousness, and all substances have small fragments of consciousness, there should be some shared direction. I think that it may decide the direction of the mind in our future. Not only do humans complicate in entanglement of groups, we will need to explore the universal structure that should be in our mind.
Written by Ichiro, 05/12/2019,