If our consciousness comes from our soul, why do drugs affect our cosciousness?

I wonder why material things like drugs can affect are consciousness if our consciousness is supposed to be immaterial. I personally believe that the soul is just trapped in the boby until we die, this is why drugs affect us. I believe the soul is like a prisoner to the boby.

[edit on 22-10-2006 by thehumbleone]

[edit on 22-10-2006 by thehumbleone]

I don't know - I think perhaps it is more a matter of perception; which is something relative to both our soul and our body - and no doubt varies in a myriad of subtle ways from individual to individual.

I agree with the soul being imprisoned in the body, however.

Perception sometimes changes and causes us to forget our bondage, maybe?

Yeah, maybe it is just the perception that changes, kind of like the way our perception changes when we are in the dream state.

Hmm.. good question. I pretty much agree with the other posters. Since right now in this form our souls and our bodies are "joined" the state of both are dependent on the other. Our consciousness is affected by our physical actions just as much as our physical bodies are affected by our thoughts (ie: psychosematic illnesses).

Good topic!

Good question.
Might be 2 points to explain this theory. I think drugs increse our level of perception in a way that we actually recieve images and sounds from different levels of communication. Because for me, our body it's just being a temporary stowage to our soul

Imagine yourself inside a car, driving it.
Every sensation that external influences do to your car you will feel it. Like the "texture" of the road. Every bounce, every shock, every stop, etc.

Must be pretty much the same thing with drugs, as you "drug" yourself with substances that make your body work unproperly, or driving you to have sensations that you've never had before, if your body is feeling it, so is your soul.

And... Well, I forgot my second theory

[edit on 22/10/2006 by tunin]

yeah, i agree with kokoro about the way "right now in this form our souls and our bodies are "joined" the state of both are dependent on the other". tunin, that was a good anology about the car and the way we feel the "external influences" on the car. Kind of like my body is the car, and my soul is the person inside directing the car. thanks for helping me understand guys.

I think Huxley or someone describing his works defined the brain as a filter...it filters many things into a few things which form our personal experiences and our filtered consciousness.

IF the brain is truly a filter that limits information that we receive at a conscious level, then it could be seen that a drug, which directly affects the brain, in turn affects one of the functions of the brain (the filter of consciousness) which in turn either allows more things through the filter or limits certain normal things from getting through.

I read the idea of the brain as a filter and how it affects consciousness (and what some people perceive and others do not, etc...), and was truly amazed by what it can explain. But in regards to the drugs, mess with the brain and you mess with the filter which allows more or less things to get through.

Not saying this is the true answer - who knows...but the idea of the brain as a filter for what forms your consciousness is amazing to me...sit back and think about it for a while...it could explain many things. And just as some people are born with certain body types, it could be said that certain people are born with different 'filters' or lack of filters in the brain - which explans the rare few that seem to have an outside source of knowledge seeping through them all of the time.

Anyway, not sure if I did the idea true justice, but at this time it makes sense to me...may be true, may not be...if my filter opens up I'll let you know (or if I grow my own cactus).

i know which book you're talking about ratboy. it's called "The Doors of Perception" by Aldous Huxley. It's a very interesting book that talks about the effects drugs have on the consciousness. He used himself as the test subject under the influence of mescalin and explains what happens. You can pick it up at any bookstore, it usually comes combined with another one of his books, "Heaven and Hell", at a cheap price of about $10.

Thanks thehumbleone. If the brain does function like this, it would be amazing to open the filters a little. I am not sure what the impact would be though. If we were able to see more waves with our eyes, we may not be able to function normally - it may be the same with the brain. Either way, I like the concept.

Yeah i agree ratboy, i think Huxley said something like if the brain didnt filter out some of this information we would not be able to function. While he was on mescaline he said these filters had became open and he saw everything as it is, infinite an immortal. very interesting to think about.

[edit on 24-10-2006 by thehumbleone]

You got your physical mind and your consiousness, when your seriously drunk your physical mind as no connection to the consiousness, that's what i believe.

Soul and spirit are not the same. The soul is our perceptions, emotions,desires, et cetera in the physical realm. The spirit is the eternal "breath of life."

I think your confusing consciousness with awareness....Dr. Stuart Hameroff who is an anesthesiology discusses this very issue on coast to coast.
www.coasttocoastam.com...
www.quantumconsciousness.org...

I think your confusing consciousness with awareness....Dr. Stuart Hameroff who is an anesthesiology discusses this very issue on coast to coast.

Whats the difference? if you're self aware that means you are conscious right.

Whats the difference? if you're self aware that means you are conscious right.

I know this will seem like semantics...awareness comes from the physical domaine and consciousness come from the spiritual domaine.

Another way to look at it is the brain is the hardware and consciousness is the software anytime drugs are introduced to the body it affects the functioning of the brain (hardware) like a hard drive crash.

There are also documented medical cases where people who are undergoing surgery and are under anesthesiology have out of body experiences and are abel to describe what was done during surgery and what the doctors said.

Quantum entanglement also show that all consciousness is connected and non local meaning it does not orginate from the brain.
dreamtalk.hypermart.net...

Originally posted by thehumbleone
I wonder why material things like drugs can affect are consciousness if our consciousness is supposed to be immaterial. I personally believe that the soul is just trapped in the boby until we die, this is why drugs affect us. I believe the soul is like a prisoner to the boby.

[edit on 22-10-2006 by thehumbleone]

[edit on 22-10-2006 by thehumbleone]

First and foremost I would like to clear up the mucky water here..

consciousness is the ability to be aware of certain waves of potential.
What this means practically is ... consciousness is just observation filtered through the bodies nervous system.... it means 'What I am focused on' and I do not just mean the I that chooses, I mean the senses,...

Therefore ... DRUGS or really ANY Material Possession, alters the WAVES of potential, and 'shifts' the nervous systems from its previous formulations/operations.

We really need to view the world in a different way... bad and good are poor examples of behavior. It is... a sub-routine to something else, which is Tangible(Solid, having effect) and InTangible (noncorpreal, not having direct effect)
... We should realize that we take Things which are Thoughts that are InTangible in nature, and turn them into something that is Tangible...


We would love to think we are trapped inside something, and cannot escape until we DIE, This is so unhealthy a thought that it perpetuates death.

The thing is the only trap is our thinking, We THINK we are a certain person based on InTangible concepts that are DEAD.... The past is an InTangible concept therefore anything that happened in the past is also InTangible... Now I may be misunderstood here, because people will say that my past has VERY real and very Tangible results in my life now.... and my statement would be, ... We have the power to Resurrect the dead do we not? ...
So you think now, well if the past is dead, and the past is WHO I am now, than WHO am I in the future? .... well the answer is very simple. You are also dead, therefore you must resurrect that being as well, because the future is an InTangible concept aswell, ... so you ask yourself now, .. WHO CAN I BE, and my response would be, whoever you so choose, but my response would be, only resurrect the dead that is beneficial, when its beneficial.