Posted: Nov 20, 2014 8:40 pm
GrahamH wrote:Macdoc wrote:unconscious people don't ever make any attempt to run, or avoid danger,
untrue for sleeping people....you don't fall out of bed for instance.
The problem is setting a hard dividing line between conscious and unconscious....it's not....it's a spectrum within the various aspects of the neural network just as your reflexes, blinking etc are outside conscious control but you may or may not be aware of them.
Basically there is a broad twilight zone between alert and aware and deeply unconscious ala coma and even in the latter state there is evidence of brain awareness through neural imputs.
I don't think there is a continuum of consciousness. The brain isn't an inherently subjective entity. I think we experience only what the brain works out as conscious experiences, and if it doesn't do that for any moment then you have no experience of that moment. Not falling out of bed doesn't require subjectivity.
It certainly requires awareness. And some level of either unconsciousness responsiveness or low-level conscious responsiveness when you roll over to the edge of the bed....
As far as a spectrum I believe there is but it may experiences, thoughts, etc. may get subsequently 'assigned' to reality or imagination and even that is not true in the case of mental problems or brain issues they they may be completely mixed up.
For example, hearing voices, experiencing aural or visual hallucinations which are completely real to the person experiencing them.