"Pagan Blog Project: The Cauldron of Consciousness"

"Consciousness is a tricky idea.  If you don’t believe me, read this article (if you are interested in more, check out the author’s scientific publications).  

One of the ideas that is discussed is the idea of the “easy problem” of consciousness versus the “hard problem” of consciousness.  

The “easy problems” aren’t necessarily all that easy, but they are problems with testable (and therefor scientific) answers–how do we see/hear/feel/taste/smell and integrate those senses, how do we explain our feelings or observations, how do we regulate behavior on the basis of sensory input and observation, how do we know if we are asleep or awake? 

The “hard problem”, on the other hand, is one that might not have an answer that can be given by science…how does the physical processes occurring in the brain–the firing of neurons, the flow of electrons, the transmission of neurotransmitters, transform into the subjective experiences of the person?

Consciousness: the having of perceptions, thoughts and feelings; awareness. The term is impossible to define except in terms that are unintelligible without a grasp of what consciousness means… Nothing worth reading has been written about it.
~Stuart Sutherland

Consciousness is something that I think Pagans should spend some time thinking about.  Probably lots of time, if they have the chance…  Because I think it is here, in the place between the firing of neurons, the flow of electrons, the transmission of neurotransmitters, and the conceptualization of the experience that our experiences with the Divine occur, whether it be in the making of magic or the encountering of deity.  What is actually going on in that moment, I have no idea.  Nor do I think that it ultimately matters.  What matters is what we do with it, what we create starting within ourselves, and what we create as we move outwards from ourselves, into the world and into the universe.

‘Consciousness’ is a word worn smooth by a million tongues. Depending upon the figure of speech chosen it is a state of being, a substance, a process, a place, an epiphenomenon, an emergent aspect of matter, or the only true reality. 

~George Miller, ‘Psychology: the Science of Mental Life”, 1962

All of us, I think, are cauldrons of consciousness. Cauldrons for consciousness.  What makes us who we are is the *something* that is  between sensation and experience.  And that *something* is where the magic happens, within the magical vessel of us.  Our cauldrons are where our magic happens, regardless of how we choose to interpret and frame it for our own understanding.  And what we brew in our cauldron, in our consciousness,  matters.

And yes, I also think the magic happens here…or should I say that I think more powerful magic happens here.

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 Source of Post
http://nuannaarpoq.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/pagan-blog-project-the-cauldron-of-consciousness/