Consciousness

thumb|17th-century representation of consciousness by Robert Fludd, an English Paracelsian physician

Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involves a subject to which various items are presented. In this sense, seeing a yellow bird on a branch presents the subject with the objects "bird" and "branch", the relation between them and the property "yellow". Unreal items may be included as well, which happens when experiencing hallucinations or dreams. When understood in a more restricted sense, only sensory

faculty of the mind which intentionally selects the strongest desire from among the various desires present

transient loss of consciousness and postural tone

Vedanta (; , ), also known as Uttara Mīmāṃsā, is one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy and textual exegesis. The word Vedanta means 'conclusion of the Vedas,' and encompasses the ideas that emerged from, or aligned and reinterpreted, the speculations and enumerations contained in the Upanishads, focusing, with varying emphasis, on devotion, knowledge, and liberation. Vedanta developed into many traditions, all of which give their specific interpretations of a common group of texts called the Prasthānatrayī, translated as 'the three sources': the Upanishads, the Brahma Su

advanced emotion, subjective experience of total involvement of the subject, with an object of their awareness

Introspection is the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies on the observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one's soul. Introspection is closely related to human self-reflection and self-discovery and is contrasted with external observation.

Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the directions of the person (if any) who has induced the trance. Trance states may occur involuntarily and unbidden.

In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness. The term was already popularized in the early 20th century in areas ranging from psychology, religion, and spirituality. The concept was heavily popularized by Joseph Murphy's 1963 self-help book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.

open question in philosophy of how abstract minds interact with physical bodies

upright=0.65|thumb|The "redness" of red is an example of a quale.

disorder of consciousness caused by severe brain damage

thumb|300px|alt=A lady seated by herself|This next to last scene of the Admonitions Scroll shows a palace lady sitting in quiet contemplation, presumably following the admonitions in the accompanying lines: "Therefore I say: Be cautious and circumspect in all you do, and from this, good fortune will arise. Calmly and respectfully think about your actions, and honor and fame will await you."

In psychology and philosophy, awareness is the perception or knowledge of something. The concept is often synonymous with consciousness; however, one can be aware of something without being explicitly conscious of it (e.g., blindsight).

philosophical theory that mental phenomena are non-physical and that matter exists independently of mind

behavioural technique

thumb|upright=1.2|Determining which animals can experience sensations is challenging, but scientists generally agree that vertebrates, as well as many [[invertebrate species, are likely sentient.]] Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations. It may not necessarily imply higher cognitive functions such as awareness, reasoning, or complex thought processes. Some theorists define sentience exclusively as the capacity for valenced (positive or negative) mental experiences, such as pain and pleasure.

thumb|3D representation of a living cell during the process of mitosis, example of an autopoietic system

field in cognitive science

Unconsciousness is a state in which a living individual exhibits a complete, or near-complete, inability to maintain an awareness of self and environment or to respond to any human or environmental stimulus. Unconsciousness may occur as the result of traumatic brain injury, brain hypoxia (inadequate oxygen, possibly due to a brain infarction or cardiac arrest), severe intoxication with drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system (e.g., alcohol and other hypnotic or sedative drugs), severe fatigue, pain, anaesthesia, and other causes.

thumb|upright=1.3|Svetlana reflects herself in the mirror (painting by [[Karl Briullov, 1836).]]

Epiphenomenalism is a philosophical theory on the mind–body problem in philosophy of mind. It holds that subjective mental events are completely dependent for their existence on corresponding physical and biochemical events within the human body, but do not themselves influence physical events. According to epiphenomenalism, the appearance that subjective mental states (such as thoughts and intentions) are causally effective themselves and directly influence physical events is an illusion generated by brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex, with consciousness itself being a by-product of

shared beliefs and ideas in society

the problem of explaining how and why organisms have qualia or phenomenal experiences

any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking state

Blindsight is the ability of people who are cortically blind to respond to visual stimuli that they do not consciously see due to lesions in the primary visual cortex, also known as the striate cortex or Brodmann Area 17. The term was coined by Lawrence Weiskrantz and his colleagues in a paper published in a 1974 issue of Brain. A previous paper studying the discriminatory capacity of a cortically blind patient was published in Nature in 1973.

psychological philosophy that considers mental life and behaviour in terms of active adaptation to the person's environment

quality or state of self-awareness within an animal

defines, among other things, the conditions of identity that make one subject of experience distinct from all others

perception of environmental elements and events with respect to time or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their future status

Split-brain or callosal syndrome is a type of disconnection syndrome when the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres of the brain is severed to some degree. It is an association of symptoms produced by disruption of, or interference with, the connection between the hemispheres of the brain. The surgical operation to produce this condition (corpus callosotomy) involves transection of the corpus callosum, and is usually a last resort to treat refractory epilepsy. Initially, partial callosotomies are performed; if this operation does not succeed, a complete callosotomy is performed to mit

medical condition that inhibits consciousness, sprituality

inability to describe conscious experiences in soley physical or structural terms

thought experiment in which one plays Russian roulette with the trigger connected to the Geiger counter measuring the decay of a radioactive atom

classifications that denote whether a term describes an object with a physical referent or one with no physical referents

perceptual phenomenon

bodily components, such as electrical signals, correlating to consciousness and thinking

affective quality referring to the intrinsic attractiveness or averseness of an event, object, or situation

Philosophical term denoting the supposed terminus between mind and body

theory within consciousness research

aspirational level of awareness

idea held by dualists and idealists, that minds are made-up of non-physical substance

optical phenomenon

Neurophenomenology refers to a scientific research program aimed at addressing the hard problem of consciousness in a pragmatic way. It combines neuroscience with phenomenology to study experience, mind, and consciousness with an emphasis on the embodied condition of the human mind. The field is very much linked to fields such as neuropsychology, neuroanthropology,and behavioral neuroscience (also known as biopsychology) and the study of phenomenology in psychology.

term used at the interface between neuroscience, cognitive science and philosophy of mind that has multiple meanings

measure of arousal other than normal

quantum physics concepts developed by David Bohm regarding wholeness and non-locality

model of consciousness (1988-)

American research institute for contemplative neuroscience

Mind-wandering is broadly defined as thoughts that are task-unrelated and stimulus-independent. This can take the form of three different subtypes: positive constructive daydreaming, guilty fear of failure, and poor attentional control.

Darwinian approach to understanding global brain function

philosophical position on the mind-body problem

Enactivism is a position in cognitive science that argues that cognition arises through interaction between an acting organism and its environment. It claims that the environment of an organism is brought about, or enacted, by the active exercise of that organism's sensorimotor processes. "The key point, then, is that the species brings forth and specifies its own domain of problems ...this domain does not exist "out there" in an environment that acts as a landing pad for organisms that somehow drop or parachute into the world. Instead, living beings and their environments stand in relation to

Conceptual issue in the philosophy of mind

thumb|200px|Matryoshka doll|Stacking dolls provide a visual representation of subpersonalities. A subpersonality is, in humanistic psychology, transpersonal psychology and ego psychology, a personality mode that activates (appears on a temporary basis) to allow a person to cope with certain types of psychosocial situations. Similar to a complex, the mode may include thoughts, feelings, actions, physiology and other elements of human behavior to self-present a particular mode that works to negate particular psychosocial situations. American transpersonal philosopher Ken Wilber and English human

Tibetan Buddhism advanced practice

thought experiment about a machine that provides any pleasurable experience one wants

something that happens in the mind, such as a thought