"I mean, our true nature is to cooperate, not compete." This is why we have an altruistic gene. While I leave it to the philosophers and quantum physicists and theologians to figure out what consciousness is and what it means, I have always subscribed to what Descartes said simply: "I think, therefore, I am." That doesn't mean I've never had an transcendential experiences. Here's one that is rather vivid in my mind: I was in my 20s and minding my best friend's apartment. I slept on her couch that was next to a window. In the middle of the night I awakened and as I gazed sleepily out the window at the night lights of the city, I suddenly felt this all-encompassing love that surrounded me and entered into my being. Despite all our troubles in the world, this love clearly existed and sustained all beings and things. I have had a lot of other kinds of mystical things, such as ESP events, feelings of total oneness at concerts, and more. I too have had several "lives" compacted into this particular life.
"I mean, our true nature is to cooperate, not compete." This is why we have an altruistic gene. While I leave it to the philosophers and quantum physicists and theologians to figure out what consciousness is and what it means, I have always subscribed to what Descartes said simply: "I think, therefore, I am." That doesn't mean I've never had an transcendential experiences. Here's one that is rather vivid in my mind: I was in my 20s and minding my best friend's apartment. I slept on her couch that was next to a window. In the middle of the night I awakened and as I gazed sleepily out the window at the night lights of the city, I suddenly felt this all-encompassing love that surrounded me and entered into my being. Despite all our troubles in the world, this love clearly existed and sustained all beings and things. I have had a lot of other kinds of mystical things, such as ESP events, feelings of total oneness at concerts, and more. I too have had several "lives" compacted into this particular life.