Is consciousness a product of the brain?

It was the objection postponed since the definition of the soul: brain injuries change personality — does that not prove consciousness is the brain? Tom's answer closes the circle opened many pages before.

Roger, thoughtful, says:

— But Tom, do you remember that earlier the question of whether consciousness is a product of the brain was left unanswered? Do these studies answer that?

— They do, Roger. If consciousness were merely a product of the brain, it would be impossible for patients in cardiac arrest, without any measurable brain activity, to have detailed and verifiable conscious experiences. And it would be impossible for children to recall previous lives with precision. The correlation between the brain and consciousness does not mean that the brain produces it — it means that the brain is the instrument through which the spirit manifests itself in the material world. When the instrument fails, the spirit's ability to manifest through it is reduced — like a radio with interference, which distorts the signal without the source of the transmission ceasing to exist. The complete liberation of the spirit from the physical body only happens at death.

Roger says: — When a person suffers a brain injury, their personality changes. They lose their memory, or their speech, or their judgement. There are cases of people who changed completely in character after an injury. If the soul were independent of the brain, how do you explain that a blow to the head changes what a person is?

Tom says: — Return to the image of the television. Imagine a faulty television set. The picture appears distorted, the colours wrong, the sound broken. Would you say, on seeing that, that the fault changed the programme being broadcast? No. The programme, at the broadcasting station, remains intact. What changed was the set's ability to show it faithfully. The brain is that set. When it is damaged, the spirit does not change — what changes is the way it is able to manifest itself through a faulty instrument. The personality we see altered is not the soul that changed; it is the soul expressing itself through a broken receiver. Remove the fault, and the signal passes through clearly again. And there is something that materialism cannot explain: if the brain produced consciousness, an injury should only diminish it, erase it little by little. Yet there are documented cases of terminal lucidity — patients with brains severely destroyed by dementia who, hours before dying, suddenly recover their clarity, recognise their relatives, say their goodbyes. If consciousness were the brain, that would be impossible. A destroyed organ does not produce lucidity. But a source that is intact, freeing itself from an instrument that no longer confines it, does.

Roger falls silent, and then says: — The faulty television does not ruin the programme. It only ruins the way of seeing it. I understand the analogy.

Tom smiles: — Exactly.

Excerpt from the work The Great Discovery, by César Manuel Malainho de Oliveira.
Read the full work · Listen to the work