Page 305 - Microsoft Word - SPIRIT AND THE MIND.doc
P. 305

Appendix I
GLOSSARY OF TERMS ON CONSCIOUSNESS
Mainstream Western psychology has assumed that consciousness is a function or product of mind originating in the physical brain. Terms and definitions relating to different aspects of our consciousness reflect this attitude. For instance, the glossary of the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry /111 (1980, p. 3318), for the term “consciousness” says “see sensorium” and then defines sensorium:
Hypothetical sensory center in the brain that is involved with a person’s clarity of awareness about himself and his surroundings, including the ability to perceive and process ongoing events in light of past experiences, future options, and current circumstances. It is sometimes used interchangeably with consciousness.
However, many new findings in the behavioral sciences challenge the assumption that consciousness is a function of the mind linked to the brain. As Dr. Kenneth Pelletier states in Toward a Science of Consciousness, consciousness may not “be adequately attributed to an epi-phenomenon of neurophysiological and biochemical processes unique to the human brain . . . .”1 Consciousness is being recognized as more fundamental than mind and, in fact, may have created mind and the entire cosmos as well.
265


































































































   303   304   305   306   307