Consciousness and the Brain, with Eckhart Tolle

We have examined the brain. We know quite a bit about the brain. But in reality, we know very, very little. Scientists don't even know what a thought, what is a thought, what is the material, physical representation of a thought in the brain. Nobody knows. Where is that memory that when I was 15 years old, I fell off my bicycle and hurt my leg and I still remember that? Where does this memories, how does this memory survive in the molecular structure of my brain, plus a million other memories. Do they hide in my brain as little molecules where I fall off my bicycle? These are the molecules of this memory. And then at some point, the molecules pop up again. What is the relationship between thought and the physical brain? What is the relationship between thought between the physical brain and consciousness? Mainstream science will tell you that most of them, there are few who are beginning to doubt that the mainstream narrative, it will tell you that consciousness, if they even mention the word, most of the time they don't even talk about it because they have no idea what it is. And you can't examine it under a microscope. And when you cut open the brain, you will not find consciousness. In fact, when you cut open the brain, you will not find nothing of you. Little traces, perhaps, but nothing, not a thought, not a single thought. No consciousness, your memories, nothing will be fine. You are 99% of who you are is invisible. It does not exist in the physical realm, only your physical body. But who you are, your thoughts, your emotions and the underlying consciousness, it's all invisible. That's why the. In the. There's a lovely. I believe it is, you know, a little work of literature from. It could be the little. The Little Prince or something like one of those works, French. There's a beautiful phrase. What is essential is invisible to the eye. What is essential is invisible to the eye. Beautiful and very, very true. But that means all the things that are essential in human life, of course, love, joy, a sense of aliveness, all your emotions, all your thoughts, they are invisible to the eye. Consciousness is invisible to the eye, which means you cannot find it with your senses. You can't see it or touch it. So when you look at a person, all you see is the outer body, the physical form. And even of that, you only see the skin. If you penetrate it, just the tiny bit beyond the skin, you would be shocked at what you would see. Just imagine, no skin. All you see is the organs of the body. Oh, my God. And that is underneath this touch, this very thin layer of skin, when you look, you're looking at a human. But that's and that's. But all that is the tiniest part of who you actually are. And that's what's left for a short period of time. When you so called die, all the things that you are not, the physical vehicle is still left. Not for long, because then it disintegrates, but that's what left and you will be gone. The body is still there. The essence of not just the essence, your entire being is invisible to the eye. So even the greatest microscope cannot figure out all the aspects, even of your personality, let alone the deeper levels of your being. So the big question about consciousness is what is the relationship between the physical brain and consciousness? Mainstream Undoubtedly there is a relationship. There is no doubt about that. If you hurt the physical brain, you will lose consciousness. That's a conventional expression. As I often say, when. If a brick falls on my head, hopefully by saying it, I'm not manifesting it right now. If a brick falls on my head, I will not be able to continue to speak. Now, is that proof that consciousness is produced by the brain? Many people will tell you that that is proof that consciousness is produced by the brain. And the conventional expression is consciousness is a byproduct or an epiphenomenon of mind, act of the chemical soup in the brain. Many scientists actually deny that consciousness even exists. I don't know where they're going with that, because to deny that consciousness exists, you need to have consciousness. And they don't want to go there because it's so unknown, they realize they cannot dissect it. So it's better to leave it alone and to say only we live, still living in a materialistic age. Materialism means materialism in its philosophical and deeper meaning doesn't mean that you're interested in money. Materialism in the deeper meaning means that you believe that physical matter, that everything in this world can be explained with reference to physical matter. Atoms, molecules and basically matter. Of course, if you go more deeply into physics, materialism disappears because you realize that matter is a kind of illusion. There is no matter. If you go deep into the atomic structure and beyond, you realize there's nothing. This, what I perceive as matter is just rapid movements of atoms and molecules giving me the illusion that this is matter and the same in my body. Ultimately there is no matter. And yet there's still, within conventional science, the belief that the universe is matter. It can be explained with reference to matter. So does the brain produce consciousness? The other possibility is that the brain receives consciousness and channels consciousness into a particular form that then creates your experience of the world and creates you. That consciousness is the organizing principle behind the formation of the brain. In the same way that a radio or a television does not produce the program that you watch. I can destroy the television set that happens to be playing, showing an orchestra playing the ninth Symphony. And then I destroyed. Have I destroyed the ninth Symphony? No, it's just, it's no longer transmitting. It's no longer functioning as a receiver. So science will come to that realization. And there are already some scientists who are, who have enough courage to question conventional interpretations. And it's usually scientists who are approaching retirement age because before reaching retirement age it would be too destructive for their careers to go outside the mainstream interpretation. But once you reach retirement, you've got nothing to lose. You can speak out. And so that's a good thing. So the greatest mystery in the entire universe is not the infinity of space, or magnificent as that is, or the infinity of subatomic space, the macrocosm and the microcosm. That's mysterious enough and we know little about it. But the greatest mystery of all is the fact that the universe is conscious. That is so incredible. The universe is conscious. How do I know that? Well, it's self evident. I'm conscious. If I'm conscious, it means the universe is conscious. I am the universe, the universe. So that is the self evident thing, the one thing that you cannot question. The absolute truth. Perhaps the only thing that you cannot question. The thing that Descartes was looking for when he was asking himself, the famous, the French philosopher Descartes a long time ago. He came at the end of the Middle ages when they had all kinds of absurd ideas of how many angels can dance on the pin of a needle. And kind of mental, little strange mental structures built up. And he said we must do away with this. What are things that we can know for sure, because we cannot know for sure how many angels are able to dance on the point of a needle. The. And so he's asking questions. And then he came, as I mentioned in the Power of Now. And as you all know, he came to the conclusion that the one thing that I cannot doubt is that I am because I am thinking. I think, therefore I am. I think, therefore I am. Cogito ergo sum. In Latin je pence donc, je suis. I'm just showing off. Of course, now he was thinking all the time. He did not realize that thinking is an aspect, a manifestation of consciousness. So if he had waited a few more years, perhaps he could have gone more deeply within and realized even When I am not thinking, and even more, when I am not thinking, I am. When my thinking ceases, I am more fundamentally myself. Sam.