Thread: mind-body rambling

Just some inane philosophizing here without any real direction:

Thinking about the metaphor known as reincarnation makes me wonder at what an unlikely thing it is to constitute the consciousness one particular organism. Can you imagine a form of reincarnation where everytime you went to sleep you woke up as a different person? This would mesh with reality because, having taken on the new structural substrate (ie brain) for consciousness in its entirely, you would wake up with those new memories and other inertias. You would be this consciousness for the day, thinking you had been at it since birth, and during that day you would make your own contribution to that organisms inertia.

What if the pool included all consciousness-bearing organisms in the universe?

What if consciousness weren't stuck being a singular organism at a time? What if it is how you suggest, only the experience is forever blocked off from "you" because the memories are tied to the organism, so that way you don't run into the problem of all organisms being active during your time as a particular being. What I mean is, what if this giant pool or stream of consciousness were not limited by simply being one being at a time, or experiencing the... experiences as a single being at once. It simply is all, but there isn't a way to tell, again, because the experience it has with any particular organism is locked into that organism itself. Or rather, any organism with memory and awareness that is.

I love these what ifs.

I do like to imagine consciousness as a singular entity which experiences the world through every sentient being at once. But since every body is different, the experience is separated. I visualize it by seeing a mass of water (consciousness) that descends down on a table with many empty cups (bodies) and fills them up. After a while, the cups break (death) and the water spills, it gathers again and the cycle continues as so.

I don't believe this; it's just a nice "what if" like you say and it gives me a different perspective on the people around me... It helps empathizing with others.