Is an Agreeable Definition of Consciousness in the Offing?

All too often I see consciousness described as an inner dialogue of me with me that no one else can hear. There were words and sentences … oh, my. But studies actually show that most of our “thoughts” are preverbal, with words being applied only when we attempt to explain to ourselves or others what was running through our heads. Think of it as a variation of dream research, just when you are awake.

And when are we going to get an adequate definition/understanding of what thoughts are. Surely that needs to precede or t least accompany such a thing for consciousness.

And while early consciousness explorers didn’t dome up with much in the way of answers, they did come up with some very good questions. And example of which is “Has the reader never asked himself what kind of a mental fact is his intention of saying a thing before he has said it?” (William James)

And it is recognized that whatever mental activity is going on, its form isn’t fixed. Some “thoughts” are images, others fragments of words, others scents or other sensory information, and others cultural feelings (love, appreciation, etc. in other words nonsensory).

Alluding to dreams as a surrogate for consciousness, dreams are often cobbled together out of sights and sounds from memory. A common dream I had when young is racing across my junior college campus because I was late for a test, as I raced, the test became a final, but also I couldn’t remember where the classroom was, because I hadn’t gone to class for weeks. This often morphed into a search for a bathroom, which were inevitably locked, under construction, or backed up (ew!). This later part of the dream I was able to “interpret.” It meant I had to get up and go to the bathroom to empty my bladder.

People tell me these incredible descriptions to their dreams, something I do not experience. They speak of immense levels of detail and my dreams are like fast cut movies, the minute I “see” something the scene cuts away to another locale. Chaos, utter chaos. But that may be a conclusion reached from my memories, which are vast and detailed. (I can still read snatches from pages of a textbook I had when in high school. What value that had escapes me, but it was something I remembered (probably distorted all to hell as memories are very, very (Very!) plastic.

So, do you think we are on a path that might lead to better understanding of what our conscious mental processing consists of (and I hope our subconscious mental processing, too)?

The realization of what seems to be the case, namely that thoughts are mostly not made of words, words only come to them when we try to explain or communicate the thoughts sits well with my ideas that dreams, psychedelic visions, and whatnot are nonverbal and only get “interpreted” when we try to explain/understand them. This is why the woman experiencing a NDE and senses a glowing figure tells us she “saw Jesus.” The interpretations come pre-packaged as cultural tropes.

And as someone who teaches the mental side of a sport, the realization by one researcher, Christoff Hadjiilieva, that “The big lesson of meditation,” Hadjiilieva said, “is that the mind cannot be controlled,” is very interesting.