Who am I?...

…It’s a question that has bothered humanity since the time they realized they are human beings. All the advancement of science and technology has failed to give a rational answer. The first question asked could well be the last one to be answered, if at all. Are we the body, governed by our brain? Or is there a conscience that controls the brain?

REF: http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3186960557/

Our brain is suppsoed to be the most supeiror thing in the univrese. Our brain is cabaple of redaing even this. The odrer of alhpaebts is not imoprtnat as lnog as the fisrt and last wrods are same. You picture an elongate 20cm long, 4cm in girth (not that one silly), yellow, edible, sweet fruit when you see the word ‘banana’. So much information retained in the brain associated with just a pattern of drawing. Incredible, isn’t it?

Is it just some chemicals in neurons that store the information we call memory? Are the feelings of love, hate, joy, depression, just chemical locha in our brain? Anti-depressants are chemicals that reduce depression, so advantage brains.  If all our thoughts are controlled by our brain then isn’t the idea that ‘our brain is the most superior thing in the universe’ an opinion of the brain about itself? What are the odds that our brains ain’t (sorry Chintan) aren’t biased? But that is a different issue.

We take too many things for granted, like our senses...the space around us. You might have perfect vision but no sight; you might see the words but not recognize the texts; you might hear but not recognize the rhythm of your favorite song. A condition called agnosia. The memories and experiences stored in the brain makes no sense if there is no space. But where exactly does the ‘space’ reside? Injury to a particular portion of the brain can make a person space-less (read this) (see picture above). In one particular case a person lost the sense of his left half of the world after a head injury (spatial neglect). So it is all there inside the brain, the brain is still wining. Hurt it and you hurt yourself and your conscience doesn’t come to rescue.

So what about the emotions, feelings, moralities and virtues that defines us? It’s the thyroid hormones that control your anger; it’s the testosterone that controls your urge of having sex. It is the chemicals inside the mind that made someone plant a bomb outside Delhi High Court. Same chemicals made our overstressed Home Minister declare that Karnataka and Varanasi are not his home. Our feelings and emotions are hormone driven, organic chemistry, controlled by our brains. It is the chemicals that gives signal to a person and tells him to be corrupt. It is the same chemicals that told Anna to fast. It is the same chemicals that make a candle light dinner feel romantic…how unromantic!

Very gently press the extreme left corner of your closed right eye. You will see a small halo of light without a single photon entering your eyes. The pressure in your eye creates an electric signal that is same as the signal created by the protons hitting the rods and cones in your eye. Thus, you fooled your brain to think that there was light. So, brain isn’t wining everything after all. There is something else that fooled your brain. There are people who hear shapes, see noises and feel sounds! Ever heard of synesthesia? This unification of senses is quite surprising considering the fact that there is no central control system in the brain. Each sense is controlled by different part of the brain. What then unites all these senses?

Is it conscience? Or is it my ego that wants me to be more than just organic chemistry? Is ego also just chemistry? If you have read my post God Unveiled you will remember Quantum Zeno Effect. Observe a decaying atom consciously and it will never decay. Yes, you might even stop atom bombs from exploding just by looking at it. Everything we see, feel, influence, exists only in our brain…or…there is something more powerful than the brain that can influence everything that there is. Or may be, just may be, both are true.

Ah! Why can’t I ever come to a conclusion, why is there always a loose end? So, what are we?