Consciousness Has Less Control Than Believed, According To New Theory

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: enlightenedservant

I hope you realize this has little to nothing to do with the actual OP. Not sure why you're debating this. Nobody seriously thinks we're in control of our autonomous functions in full, and the OP is talking about the role consciousness has on things like free will. Nothing to do with what you're talking about.

Yep

Double

originally posted by: enlightenedservant
a reply to: luthier

No it doesn't. That's all acclimation and adaption. We still don't have conscious control over those specific systems or cells. Getting our bodies to adapt to new circumstances is nothing at all like consciously controlling individual cells to do specific things.

Like I said, we can't even consciously control our breathing when we sleep. Or consciously control which bone grows at specific rates. And who can say "now" and make their fingernails grow or contract? That's the point I'm making. Our consciousness has no control whatsoever over nearly all of our bodily functions. All we can do is try to stimulate our bodies, provide our bodies with nutrients/substances, and then wait for a result. That's not controlling something.

I've taken anatomy & physiology, so I think that maybe you're underestimating how many functions our bodies do automatically. Even our best engineers can't replicate a "simple" human hand. Because we would have to make them self-healing, skin generating, with a defense system that isolates & eliminates any foreign threat, with growing nails, with a microscopic fluid circulation system, with a microscopic waste filtration system, self lubricating at the joints, etc. And that doesn't include the self healing & self growing bone/skeletal & muscle systems (levers, pulleys, rods, and joints).

All the meditation in the world isn't going to grant a person power over those functions.

First off you didnt read the articles because your comments reflect such. If you can permanently change your body with your conciousness the op is not valid. Changing dna with your mind alone.

Changing your brain waves with your mind, changind your physical brain with your mind so that it functions differently through consciousness is free will. The op is a short sighted ethnocetric profile of the extrememly small group studied. Its more pseudo science from psychology.