The dilemma of the mind is an old one and nobody is immune to wondering about it. Some people though are more susceptible than others. I am one of those.
It gripped my imagination in 1994 when I was beginning college and it continues till today. The biggest impact of such an obsession has been the sobering realization of the magnitude of our existence.
When we go about the normal (normal ??) course of our lives, we don't often stop to think whats going on around us. We are born, we are taught all the old assumptions by our parents and society, we live using them as a basis and finally we do the same for our children. But sometimes, not very often, we ask ourselves "Hey what is going on here ? Is this all there is to it ? " And the shocking realization we get is that if we were to throw away all the biases taught to us over the years about God and religion, we don't have the foggiest idea who we are or what we're doing here. Throw away all the words ever taught to you, forget about where you came from or who you think you are, eliminate every shred of information (names, places, reasons, theories) ever given to you and look around yourself without their aid. What do you see ? Who do you feel you are ? What are those twinkling lights that you see above you ? One gets the overawing realization of being less than the merest speck and yet being one with everything. And then normal life intervenes.
I have over the past few years grappled with the problem of the mind and, although I do not pretend to have its solution, I do have an idea. It relates to the meaning of consciousness and how it may be evoked artificially. I've put down this idea in two parts:-