What is consciousness?

I am Experiencing "I am"

The most sophisticated thinkers left tongue-tied and confused on the very mysterious topic of consciousness.

The abstract noun “consciousness” is not frequently used by itself in the contemporary literature, but is originally derived from the Latin con (with) and scire (to know).

Dictionary definition of consciousness is - "the state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings." or " a person's awareness or perception of something."

Our personal feeling about the consciousness and the essence of awareness is the 'something unknown' that makes us, us? Something lovely apparently buried inside us is aware of ourselves and of our world. More clearly; I am experiencing myself and simultaneously I am experiencing the world too. 

The curiosity about the world and things and realization of "i-ness" and realization of the outer world around is only due to this consciousness. Consciousness is the window through which we understand everything.  

The only reason why one experience life and aliveness is because he/she is conscious. If you are unconscious, you do not know whether you are alive or dead.

Perhaps the most commonly used contemporary notion of a conscious mental state is captured by Thomas Nagel’s famous “what it is like” sense. When I am in a conscious mental state, there is something it is like for me to be in that state from the subjective or first-person point of view.

So at the base level consciousness is the fact of being awake and processing information. But being conscious is also a neurological phenomenon, and it is part of what allows us to exist and understand ourselves in the world.      

 There are about one hundred billion interacting neurons in human brain. How the network neurons compute information is generally known to a Neuroscientists but how the human brain would know this is a mystery. 

Dr. Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist from the University of Southern California who has studied the neurological basis of consciousness for years, says, "Many species, many creatures on earth that are very likely to have a mind, but are very unlikely to have a consciousness in the sense that you and I have," It means there are different levels of consciousness but universal consciousness is the same everywhere. What is actually different is the way one precepts and experiencing the consciousness. 

More interesting is that human being also experience it differently. It means different people are experiencing different level of consciousness. My consciousness level is different than that of you and your consciousness level will be different than your friend or your mother. father and other persons you know.

The story of consciousness would going to very interesting further in my coming articles. 

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