Human Emotion & Subconscious Thought Theorizing. Please share your opinion.

This thread is meant to attract and discuss various theories pertaining to human emotion and subconscious activity. I'm not interested in debating or defending particular theories, only discussion of alternative opinions on emotions and unconscious thoughts. Where do emotions generate from? What purpose do unconscious thoughts serve? What possible evidences do they provide? And anything else relevant to this topic.

For instance, society symbolizes caring for another, or loving, as an emotion related to the heart. We don't actually believe this feeling comes from our actual heart, but where does it reside? Surely we do not lose this feeling towards another should we lose this organ? Heart transplant patients aren't reporting a new group of loved ones following surgery. So what holds this feeling, our brain? Or is it our soul, or spirit?

What about subconscious thoughts? Unlike emotions, this phenomenon could be argued as a definite function of the brain, but is it really? Are dreams, deja vu, out of body experiences, near death experiences, or even that little voice in our heads, all coming from our brain? What about intuition? If you've ever really tuned into your intuition you know how amazing it feels. It feels more likely to be coming from elsewhere than within your brain. Or is our brain tricking us?

Could all these things be connected? Could this be evidence to our having a soul? Is this what drives people to believe they have a soul?

I am very interested in individual thoughts on this. Please share your own personal beliefs on this.

Peace.

With my experience on dreams, I believe what you dream is an interpretation of what you went through on that day. for example, if I am stressed, I dream that the world is going through a nuclear war, when something good happens, I always dream of being with someone I love, or dooing something I love. Even if I don't pay attention to my day I notice this.

I also dream things and then they come true.

My dreams are powerful to me. They show me that I need to change something in my life to make me happier.

reply to post by Zerbst

We don't actually believe this feeling comes from our actual heart

Certainly feelings come from the heart. Think about it. When you feel joy or pain, where do you feel it? In your heart. Oh sure...you can speculate that the brain is involved, "interprets" the data, etc. But if you cut your hand, where do you feel the pain? In your hand. The hand may be "trasmitting a signal" to the brain for interpretation, but regardless of the brain being involved, the origin of the signal sensation was still the hand.

Similarly, I suggest that emotion does come from/through the heart.

Please share your own personal beliefs on this.

I'm not entirely certain that these things are "manufactured" in the physical body at all. Rather, they may be channeled through bodily organs from an entirely external, non-physical source. But...lines of distinction may start to get vague. You can feel an emotion in your heart, but that emotion may also register as secondary effects in the physical body. Your love and fear cause changes in heart rate, blood pressure, etc., and these effects are very much experienced in the entire physical body at large.

What about subconscious thoughts? Unlike emotions, this phenomenon could be
argued as a definite function of the brain, but is it really?

These things might very well function in layers. You yourself differentiate between conscious and subconscious. Much of our experience may be similarly layered. It's possible that some amount of our experience does in fact originate in purely chemical processes in various organs. And it's possible that some layers of the experience do not originate in the physical form at all, but rather are channeled, as through "chakras".

But, as we journey further into speculation...at some point the "layers" become more vague. Is your mind a part of your body? I think most people would say no. But some schools of eastern thought suggest that it is. Simply a layer of your body that manifests in a subtlely different manner. You've probably heard of the notion of the astral body laying alongside the physical. Why not emotional and mental bodies as well?

If so...then experiences of thought and emotion might not actually be originating or travelling through your physical heart or brain at all, except as relatively inconsequential chemical side effects. The real experience...the emotion itself, the thought itself...really occurs in the emotional and mental bodies...and the real you is experiencing all of these bodies simultaneously in addition to the physical body.

"emotion" is a state of being internal with respect to the body. because the body, itself, is generating these sensations, emotions are typically tied up with and affected by the survivability of the organism. the better fit for survival is the individual, the better his emotional outlook.

emotions have a characteristic reactive quality, or in other words: the individual is reacting (without thinking) to situations which have been previously experienced in the PAST. therefore, emotions are internal/past.

in contrast, "mind" is an external/future state of being. the purpose of analyzing any given situation is to attempt to determine the outcome which has not yet happened. generally, these situations come toward us from outside of us. in other words, the mind is awareness directed outside (with respect to the body) and into the future.

we as individuals exist at the crossroads of these two completely opposite types of mind. their processes can be either segregated or interactive. when the two minds interact, it is possible for many complications to arise.

but in the simplest sense:

emotion = internal/past
analytical = external/future

reply to post by Zerbst

Where do emotions generate from?

chakras?

What purpose do unconscious thoughts serve?

filters?

What possible evidences do they provide?

our connection to eachother and ...?

What about intuition?

pre feedback?


imho i get the feeling there are intelligences working with us "whispering in our ears" - "spirits", if you will, that tug at our strings sometimes.

reply to post by capgirl


I have dreams that come true as well, very fascinating subject but back to this thread.

I believe the emotional experience of life, the part involving love is part of the evolutionary process that we endure as a developing sentient conscious being. Love may be more then biological and more akin to a form of realization that has no material component, rather an origin that comes from what it means to be one's "self".

That Love is a condition and response of the "self" which may be more then a physical product and closer to the root of all reality, and from which all reality flows.

Love is evolutionary and learned through repeat experiences and challenges. A very important developmental process for evolving consciousness. More then a physical thing, its part of the Big Picture.

reply to post by Zerbst

Originally posted by Zerbst
What about intuition? If you've ever really tuned into your intuition you know how amazing it feels.
Peace.

An interesting book to read is called "blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. The book essentially talks about intuition. Even though Intuition, as mysterious as the feeling is, it can be seen in the brain. Under EEG testing, certain areas of the brain light up when we are "calculating a decision". There were some examples in the book where a patient was given a choice. During the decision process the EEG lit up much sooner before the patient actually made the choice.

My views of intuition are somewhat similar, I think that the brain is constantly gathering in information throughout our lives, and recycles the information when we sleep. Some of it gets stored for later, some of it gets forgotten, but essentially almost nothing gets erased. Out of all our subtle experiences, it only takes the right combination to spark familiarity, danger, excitement or just being uncomfortable. We may not know why until after words, or if you are really good at evaluating your subconscious, you might know why during the feeling.