“Consciousness," according to current scientific thought, was something the higher mammals had evolved in order to help them reproduce, much the way a garden slug secretes slime. It had no special ontological status. The "self" was a genetically modulated and biologically useful illusion.” WaySelfHelpingOrderConsciousnessSpecialHigherIllusionGardenCurrentsMammalsSlugsSlime Book:The Perseids and Other Stories Source: The Perseids and Other Stories
“Special qualities are required of the essayist. A poem or a novel may spring from the inner consciousness of an author. Reasoning poers must be brought to reinforce imagination.” MayImaginationConsciousnessQualityNovelSpecialSpringReasoningEssayists Author:Flora Thompson
“The capacity for loving strangers, whether one thinks of them as fictional beings or stars one will never meet, is a profound reflection on the new consciousness whereby every individual leads his or life while aware of all the billions of other people on Earth. Perhaps it is a fantasy or a fallacy that we can feel for so many strangers. Perhaps it is a mask for selfishness. But no matter the modern stress on special effects, there isn't a sight in movies as momentous as shots of a face as its mind is being changed. And only movies have allowed that.” PeopleThinkingFeelsMindMatterEarthFilmFacesIndividualStarsConsciousnessFantasyModernSpecialEffectsChangedReflectionShotsCapacityHollywoodSightStressProfoundStrangerBillionsSelfishnessMaskFallacySpecial Effects Author:Edward Jay Epstein
“The line that I am urging as today's conventional wisdom is not a denial of consciousness. It is often called, with more reason, arepudiation of mind. It is indeed a repudiation of mind as a second substance, over and above body. It can be described less harshly as an identification of mind with some of the faculties, states, and activities of the body. Mental states and events are a special subclass of the states and events of the human or animal body.” MindHumansStatesReasonBodyTodayLinesAnimalConsciousnessSpecialEventsActivityDenialSubstanceMaterialismFacultyConventionalIdentificationConventional Wisdom Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
“In the light of consciousness all sorts of things happen and one need not give special importance to any. The sight of a flower is as marvelous as the vision of God. Let them be. Why remember them and then make memory into a problem? Be bland about them; do not divide them into high and low, inner and outer, lasting and transient. Go beyond, go back to the source, go to the self that is the same whatever happens.” NeedsGivingSelfProblemLightHappensRememberPeaceMemoriesConsciousnessVisionSpecialFlowerSourceLowsSightImportanceThings HappenLastingDividesMarvelousTransientWhatever HappensBlandHighs And LowsMaking Memories Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.” DifferentFormLyingConsciousnessSpecialTypeNormalConsciousWake UpScreensRationalWaking Book:Writings, 1902-1910 Source: Writings, 1902-1910
“If I use the word consciousness, in our lab, in our institute, what we mean is the special quality of mind, the special features that exist in the mind, that permit us to know, for example, that we, ourselves, exist, and that things exist around us.” IfsKnowsMindMeanUseConsciousnessQualitySpecialExampleFeaturesPermitInstituteLabs Author:Antonio Damasio
“Our science fails to recognize those special properties of life that make it fundamental to material reality. This view of the world - biocentrism - revolves around the way a subjective experience, which we call consciousness, relates to a physical process. It is a vast mystery and one that I have pursued my entire life.” WorldWayRealityProcessViewsConsciousnessFailingMysterySpecialMaterialsFundamentalsPropertyRelateSubjectivePursued Author:Robert Lanza
“The way of peace is a soul journey. . . . If you can live from the level of your soul, you are doing something very special. The important thing is how much consciousness you add to the whole of human existence, for that is how eternity expresses itself, like a lamp shining through the window of eternity.” IfsWayHumansImportantSoulWholeSpiritualLevelsExistenceConsciousnessJourneySpecialWindowEternityImportant ThingsAddShiningYour SoulLampsHuman ExistenceShining Through Author:Deepak Chopra