segunda-feira, 1 de julho de 2013

Mystery Of Consciousness


A nossa consciência é tão frágil!
A perceção da realidade do mundo que nos rodeia depende daquilo que aqueles que estão à nossa volta e em quem confiamos nos dão a inalar. E muitas vezes não nos dão nada a inalar, apenas nos contam histórias: dão-nos palavras que nos cegam.
 

 
"Suddenly the man stopped, in midsentence, and his face lost animation; his mouth froze, still open, and his eyes became vacuously fixed. For a few seconds he remained motionless. I spoke his name, but there was no reply. Then he began to move a little, he smacked his lips, his eyes shifted to the table between us, he seemed to see a cup of coffee and a small metal vase of flowers; he must have because he picked up the cup and drank from it. I spoke to him again, and again he did not reply."
 
This incident occurred more than three decades ago, when Dr. Antonio Damasio was a medical student in Lisbon, Portugal, and he has never forgotten it. How was it possible, he wondered, for someone to be there and yet not be there, to be awake and yet not be awake, to be aware of his surroundings and at the same time be oblivious to them? The more Damasio puzzled over what had happened to the patient during an epileptic seizure, the more he felt compelled to confront a much larger question: What is it about the human brain and its networks of neurons that give rise to consciousness?
 

 
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“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.” E.E. Cummings

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