CONSCIOUSNESS

CONSCIOUSNESS: WHAT IS IT? ARE WE CONSCIOUS OF IT? DR. JOHN MOHAN RAZU Are you ‘conscious’ of it? If you are not ‘conscious’ of it, you will face numerous problems in life. So, in our walks of life usage of the word ‘conscious’ is quite normal and frequent. This raises a question: what then is ‘conscious’? ‘Conscious’ simply means ‘we are aware of and responding to the situations. For example, ‘though I was in pain, I was conscious’ meaning ‘having knowledge of it’. In short, ‘we are conscious of the extent of the problem’. At times, we tend to get confused with ‘conscious’ to ‘conscience’ and ‘conscientious’. If this is so, what is ‘consciousnesses’? The term ‘consciousnesses’ is derived primarily from the Latin word ‘conscious’ – ‘knowing’ or ‘aware. Thus ‘consciousness is the basic factor of perception and understanding. In short, it is defined as the capacity for perception and understanding, and is therefore the basis of any living thing. It has infinite potential for development either ascending to the heights of perfection or descending towards the depths of degeneration. In tune to this the 14th Dalai Lama said: “… consciousness has the potential to increase to an infinite degree.” Samuel Aun Weor says that “There are three types of consciousness: first, simple consciousness, second, individual self-consciousness, and third, cosmic consciousness. The animals have the first, the intellectual animal called a human being, the second. The gods have the third.” ‘Consciousness’ per se is one of the central philosophical and political categories that made a few to go deep into the term. Pranav Khullar, in “The Times of India’ dated 30th of May, 2024, wrote a short piece in The Speaking Tree titled Consciousness Is Brain’s User – Illusion of Itself brings to the fore that the “Cartesian notion of consciousness and the relation between the body and mind has been at the heart of modern Western though, with Descartes positing consciousness as the one undeniable and certain fact of existence.” At the same time he points out that “Modern scientific propositions of a unified field theory further dissolved the distance between the observer and the observed, proposing an indivisible consciousness running through mind-body, space-time, and energy-matter.” Prana brings-in Dennett who challenged Cartesian concept. He lays down “a purely materialistic physical paradigm of consciousness through a dissection of the physical human brain and mental phenomena. In laying down this model of consciousness, heterophenomenology, as he calls it, where a scientific methodology alone is applied to studying consciousness.” Pushing his argument further, Dennett argues against a Cartesian central point where conscious experience occurs. Instead, he posits a ‘multiple drafts’ model of consciousness, in which consciousness arises from the interplay of several physical and cognitive process in the brain.” “Overturning Descartes’ idea of an immaterial soul or mind, Dennett views the human and consciousness as a brain-computer operating a series of algorithmic permutations.” He contends that “the human brain’s billion neurons are warring with each other for influence over our brain’s circuitry, with the ‘winner neurons’ influencing our perceptions and action. The contents of our consciousness are an edit of the real world … The conscious experience is just an offshoot of the ‘winner-neurons’ being imprinted into memory.” 1 Pranav citing Dennett contends that “The notion of consciousness as an illusion arises from his larger philosophical conviction in the Darwinian theory of evolution by natural selection, which he contended accounts for all dimensions of human existence and behavior. One does not need a personal God, “an intelligent designer’, or an immaterial soul.” He argued that, “In upholding this Darwinian idea that all creatures, including human beings, were created by a series of undersigned and unintentional mutations.” However, consciousness is much deeper of knowing oneself or awareness of oneself that enjoins experience and cognitive that serves to modulate either to improve or decline. These factors involve functions like attention, memory, and reasoning. If we go by these considerations then one’s consciousness is based on cognitive factors and experience augments critical awareness. If we apply Marxian theory, Marx uses consciousness which is an awareness of one’s social and economic class in relation to the capitalists, and also an understanding of the ways in which economics determines in a class-stratified society. Over and above, consciousness asks questions such as who am I and what am I? It leverages the awareness of one’s identity – caste, tribe, gender, race, work, and other considerations that include his/her domicile, background, and community. Social and material conditions enjoined with social relations and relations of production shapes and enhance, and thus sharpen one’s consciousness as well. Consciousness or to know about oneself and the world around critically is good so that the acquired consciousness would push to establish or struggle for one’s dignity and rights. Critical consciousness paves way to tribal, Dalit, women, class and other identities. It is the social and material conditions of the milieu and the societal forces that one live and engaged with raises one’s consciousness. We come across conflicts of diverse nature such as caste, class, race, gender, tribal, and many other primarily revolve around on identity factor. Identity issues revolve around socioeconomic, politico-cultural and religious landscapes. Consciousness is layered in segmented ways – individual, familial, communitarian, societal, and national that emerges to the fore as situation demands. It is the society and our involvement in the day-to-day struggles with diverse forces shapes our consciousness. Consciousness is seated deepdown in our mind and body, space and time, energy and matter. It evolves, gets shaped and sharpened as we interact and interrogate with the societal forces. Only in and through the conflicts and lived-experiences our consciousness moves to another level vis-à-vis action-reflection-action. Usually majority of people gets struck at the identity levels and remain enmeshed with false consciousness which is dangerous and counter-productive. It is through engagement one’s consciousness gets activated leading to change. Consciousness thus leads to progression from one level to another in realizing the goals and demands and at the same time false consciousness just does the opposite. One should carefully nurture and shape the consciousness. 2