The Biggest Mystery
Consciousness is the most intimate thing we know, and the most elusive. It is the “I” that experiences, the flickering light behind every thought, emotion, and memory. Yet when we try to examine it directly, it slips through our fingers. Neuroscientists can point to brain waves, chemical signals, or neural circuits, but none of these are consciousness itself. They are correlates, not causes.
The prevailing scientific view holds that consciousness arises from the brain, emerging from the complex interactions of neurons and synapses like heat from friction, or music from strings. Under this view, when the body dies, so does the mind. Consciousness is extinguished, like a flame snuffed out. This is the materialist account: elegant, consistent, and, perhaps, cold.
However, is it complete?
Even within science, cracks are showing. Some physicists and philosophers argue that consciousness may be a fundamental property of the universe, not just a product of matter. Panpsychism, for example, suggests that all things, from electrons to animals, possess some degree of inner experience. Others, drawing from quantum mechanics, speculate that consciousness may exist in a non-local, perhaps even timeless, field — only temporarily “tuned in” by the brain.
Then there is lived experience. Mystics, monks, and ordinary people under extraordinary circumstances have reported states of awareness beyond the physical body: near-death experiences, lucid dreams, sudden expansions of self. Are these hallucinations? Or glimpses of a reality science cannot yet explain?
If consciousness is not entirely confined to matter, then perhaps it does not perish with it. Just as light refracts through many prisms, might awareness find other vessels? Could the death of the body be less an end than a change of form — a shifting of perspective?
We cannot know for certain, but we can remain open.
Not to superstition, nor wishful thinking, but to mystery. For whatever consciousness is, it is not something we own, but something we are. And that mystery deserves not dismissal, but reverence.
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識者 人所最親 亦人所莫測 蓋心中之「我」即是此識 念之所起情之所發憶之所藏皆倚此識而有焉 然每欲究其真貌則如捕風捉影難以執著 醫理家雖能指腦波之變 化學之應神經之動 然此諸象乃與識同現非其本體 其為伴非其因耳
今世之學說咸謂識由腦發 蓋神經細胞與突觸錯綜交互 其精微處感生覺識如火生於摩如音出於絃 若信此說則形既朽識亦滅如燭之既熄神光俱泯 此為物論者之說 整然成理然或未盡情理之極
果其盡耶
夫科學之林 今亦風起雲動 有物理學者及哲士言 識非物之產 實為宇宙之元質 彼「萬有靈性說」者謂天地萬物無論微如電子大若群生皆具其一念一照 又有緣於量子之說者乃推識或非定於一處 或存於非時非地之域 腦者但為一機 一時之契耳
至於世間之感驗亦不乏奇異之例 或有修行者或有凡人 遇生死關頭夢中清明或心神驟覺擴張 皆言超出形體之外另有一層覺照 此豈幻覺之作耶抑或科學未及之境耶
若夫識非盡繫於形則形壞而識未必亡 譬如光之折於萬鏡 識之顯亦可因無數之器 則肉身之死 未必為終 蓋或為轉化為易形為觀照之更移也
究其然否誠難盡知 然不必因未知而斷為虛妄
所當為者非迷信之信非希冀之想乃是存一敬畏之心 夫識者非吾所有實吾本然 其不可測者尤當敬之不可輕之
