(Bb.1) Consciousness must always
coexist with the sensory perception of the presence of physical
things in both brain and environment.
Indeed, without things to sense, consciousness
cannot occur at all. And take away the things or the sensing
of things and the consciousness of them no longer persists,
leaving only the possibility of a memory of them from time
past.
As an example, apples may exist on an apple
tree, but until you sense them with sight, you are not conscious of
them. Similarly, when you no longer see, the apples on the tree, you are no longer
conscious of them and have only a memory of
seeing them on the tree remaining stored away in your brain. Indeed,
someone may have plucked the apple from the tree and eaten it,
in which case the apple no longer exists.
(Bb.2) We experience this coexistence continuously
in our wakeful hours. For example, we take the action to
place our hand on a table top and your brain takes in sensory data
from the eyes and hand, compares them to data stored in memory
in the brain and creates consciousness of the presence of a table
with you hand on it. Shut your eyes and remove your hand from the table and you
loose consciousness of the table because consciousness
can only exist with the sensory perception of the presence of physical things.
(Bb.3) Consciousness, requiring the presence of physical
things, depends upon the laws of nature for its creation.
For example, your hand never actually touches the table but rather the
repulsive force of the separate electric fields in hand and table. The laws
of physics dictate that closer the hand and table to each other, the
greater the repulsive force. This repulsive force is
transferred form the surface of the hand through the skin to neural cells below
skin which, obeying the laws of physics product an
electrochemical signal that travels along a chain of axons between neural cells
in hand and brain to pass the sensory data directly
to the brain. Upon arriving at the brain, this electrochemical data
is directed to another groups of neuron in the brain which are
interconnected in such a way to evaluate the data
and either map it to exiting memory for recall or map it to new a
memory for immediate use. It is during this electrochemical
mapping of data to memory the sensation of consciousness
arises. However, no new material entity is created, only a
new configuration of existing material neurons.
(Bb.4) The physical brain has no sensory
receptors and, as such, can have no consciousness of itself. Indeed, the
brain itself is not sensitive to the emotion of
pain, because it lacks pain receptors. So it is that the source of the consciousness
of headaches arises from pain receptors in head but outside the brain.
Like all other sensations, only the sensation of
pain from locations outside the pain occurs in the brain itself
and for which the brain may be conscious.
(Bb.5) The processes brain uses to create the phenomena of
consciousness remains unknown perhaps may also
be unknowable. Because brain and consciousness are
so closely linked, perhaps consciousness may be some form of a self
awareness of the physical brain of itself and/or its
configuration but we have no evidence to substantiate
this speculation. But whatever the processes of it may be we can know that
they must obey the laws of physics.
(Bb) Consciousness must coexists with awareness of things in the physical world. Consciousness of a thing not physically sensed cannot exist. Consciousness of a thing that no longer exists and/or no longer is sensed can only persist as memory stored in the brain.