Understanding The Complexity Of Consciousness

A factual definition of consciousness; Consciousness is “2: the state of being characterized by sensation, emotion, volition, and thought: 3: the totality of conscious states of an individual.”(Pp. 1). One is able to physically feel, understand emotion, is a willing individual, and are

“The really hard problem of consciousness is the problem of experience. When we think and perceive, there is a whir of information-processing, but there is also a subjective aspect. As Nagel (1974) has put it, there is some-thing it is like to be a conscious organism. This subjective aspect is expe-rience. When we see, for example, we experience visual sensations: the felt quality of redness, the experience of dark and light, the quality of depth in a visual field. Other experiences go along with perception in different modalities: the sound of a clarinet, the smell of mothballs. Then there are bodily sensations, from pains to orgasms; mental images that are conjured up internally; the felt quality of emotion, and the experience of a stream

The primary purpose of Chennu et al.’s (2014) research was to identify the specific deficiencies in neurological networks found in pathological unconsciousness. Their experiment compared neural networks in patients with DoC to those of healthy

Daniel Bor, a psychological researcher, and author, wrote an article titled “When Do We Become Truly Conscious” published on September 4, 2012 and in this article he discusses the idea of consciousness. Through use of deductive reasoning Bor refers to early opinions viewing consciousness as magic and discusses the science behind demystifying consciousness. Bor also discusses the ethical arguments behind learning for about consciousness. Bor also lists some of the emotional arguments centered on human awareness. Bor’s use of rhetorical strategies is designed to state his opinion in a simple and easily read way.

The phenomenal consciousness consists distinctive characteristics that are challenging to explain in the higher orders theories. The subjective components include properties are challenging since the subjective aspects involve feelings and personal process to undergo through their mind. According to the higher order theory of consciousness, the mental feeling, thoughts, and perception people have in life consciously occur but not always since people sometimes sense things subliminally hence independent in people consciousness.

374, para. 3). According to John Collins Harvey, a senior research scholar and professor emeritus of medicine at Georgetown University, feeding tubes should be removed from patients in PVS because there is no hope for recovery. Harvey explains that the cerebral cortex the area of the brain that controls conscious thought, language, and sensory perception has been irreparably damaged by a lack of oxygen (Harvey, 2004). However, recent studies on DOC have revealed the difficulty of diagnosing PVS, especially because a few PVS patients recovered consciousness and demonstrated awareness as a result of drug therapies and functional imaging studies (Fisher & Appelbaum, 2010). Obviously, these patients were not in PVS, an irreversible condition. The awakening of persons after the administration of specific medications brings attention to the possibility that VS is often over diagnosed (Sara & Pistoia, 2010). “The differential diagnosis of disorders of consciousness is challenging. The rate of misdiagnosis is approximately 40%, and new methods are required to complement bedside testing, particularly if the patient’s capacity to show behavioral signs of awareness is diminished” (Monti, Vanhaudenhuyse, Coleman, & Boly, 2010, para. 1).

Explain what the unconscious contains and how those contents can enter into consciousness. Give an example that is not in the textbook.

Many of the individuals who sustain brain damage go into a coma for a short period of time. A coma is a state in which a person

Patients should be able to respond, be aware of surrounding (Liddle, 2013). In this case, Ajay after roused, reported of feeling cold dry mouth, cried and complained of pain, which shows that he was awake. Whereas, level of consciousness vary with depths and time as it depend on many factors such as anaesthetics, duration of surgery and patient’s pain stimulation (Sinclair & Faleiro, 2006). As stated above, opioid is known as respiratory suppressants and it produce analgesia via receptors. Those are two factors that affect on consciousness level. Additionally, Sinclair & Faleiro (2006) also found temperature contribute in delaying recovery of consciousness. Neurological and respiratory disturbance affects brain tissue. This changes explain Ajay’s temperature is hypothermia with 35.0oC thus affect his consciousness level. Nevertheless, other study argued that long period of time patients been in theatre and anaesthesia leads to hypothermia (Liddle, 2013). Furthermore, Ajay has symptoms of thirst, drowsiness and confusion, which could be caused by uraemia results in dehydration in loss of blood or fluid during surgery (Sinclair & Faleiro,

William Morton performed the first anesthesia over one hundred fifty years ago. Even then his patients described being awake during their procedure. It wasn’t until early in 1960s that cases of anesthesia awareness became a concept of question. There were reports attempting to determine the number of incidence and the lingering consequences of being aware during a surgical procedure (“Anesthesia Aware”, n.d.). Some may have originally thought that a person who described being awake during surgery was dreaming or maybe even crazy. However, research proved that they very well may have been awake. Thorough study of personal encounters, along with analysis of the anesthetic charting and the surgical procedure, can often narrow the window of time when the patient might have been aware. The same analysis can also apply to patients stating that they had a paranormal experience while they were thought to be unconscious while under general anesthesia. These cases can be very humbling for the anesthesia providers, however, they are always taken seriously and looked at as learning opportunities for true professionals (Woerlee,

Now that we got Consciousness out of the way next up is Altered States of consciousness. Defined it is a temporary change in one's mental state without being considered unconscious. It can be intentional with things like: hypnosis, meditation, biofeedback, and psychedelic drugs. Also, unintentional, with things like sleeping, daydreaming, sleep deprivation, sickness etc. I'm going to focus on a few of the intentional ones like hypnosis,

This rather abstract notion of phenomenal consciousness is simplified to the term ‘P-consciousness’. P-consciousness is phenomenal experience. Everything that P-consciousness can be is, in turn, everything that experience can be. It is the matter of when we utilize our senses (see, hear, smell, etc.) to gain information from the environment, as well as when an individual experiences internal reflection through sensations, thoughts, or emotions. All of these actions are continuously occurring with or without the intention of doing so. P-consciousness is always representational of the information derived from the event being experienced. Contrarily, Access-Consciousness is introduced as the mode of consciousness in which representation, unlike P-consciousness, is “poised for control of speech, reasoning, and action” (pg. 208 Block) . It is this mode of consciousness whose content can be broadcasted to communicate one’s inner events, unlike the phenomenal qualities of P-consciousness. The distinguishing factor between these two modes of consciousness is the element of qualia. P-consciousness is phenomenal while A-consciousness is representational; however, given that P consciousness can also be representational, P-consciousness can overlap in the A-consciousness realm during reasoning or the execution of actions. A consciousness is a

A couple quotes from people who said they felt nothing; “Overdosed on heroine, EMT’s said my heart stopped. Didn’t see anything, just like sleeping with no dreams.” and “Pure,perfect, uninterrupted sleep,no dreams.”. A quote from someone who felt like they could see what was happening while dead; , “I do remember a little bit of the ambulance ride, but not from my own body. It was seriously the strangest thing I have ever experienced. It could have been a dream, but I saw my own unconscious body completely flatlined in the ambulance. I remember the EMT who was in the ambulance with me (whom I did not see before I passed out)”. And here is a quote from someone who had an interaction; "I was standing somewhere. There was a fog all around me, and I saw my best friend (who at the time I'd been fighting with and he'd stopped talking to me) come out of the mist. He told me that I couldn't go yet, that I have to keep trying, and if I promised not to give up, he'd see me back on Earth. I wordlessly agreed, and I was instantly pushed (into?) my body.".

Consciousness allows a person to recognize their existence, and subsequently, to form their essence. The

A model of the mind was developed and describes the features of the mind’s structure and function using the analogy of an iceberg. On the surface of the iceberg is consciousness, which consists of thoughts that are the focus of attention now – the tip of the iceberg. The preconscious consists of the memories the mind can retrieved. Like an iceberg, the most important part of the mind; this cannot be seen as it is a big part in an individual’s actions – the unconscious.