The Consciousness

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The Consciousness

• What it is and what it does

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What is Consciousness?

• The awareness of an organism of or about what
  is happening inside and around it. The awareness
  of itself.

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Who is self-aware?

• Teenagers and older are self-aware
• Some animals are self-aware
• Self-awareness in animals is measured with dots
  and mirrors

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What is Consciousness?

• Consciousness involves a map of where we are in
  space
• Consciousness involves a series of stored and
  viewed images of ourselves

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Levels of Consciousness

• Conscious awareness
• Subconscious level of conscious just below
  present awareness
• Feelings about environment
• Déjà vu
• Unconsciousness thoughts or desires that we are
  not aware we have
• Intuition

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Hypnosis

• Unnatural state of consciousness
• Relaxed state, but fully conscious
• Heightened ability to focus on some things while
  ignoring distractions
• Subject is very vulnerable to suggestion
• Person only does what they are told to do if they
  want to.

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Meditation

• Unnatural state of consciousness
• Person filters out the outside world by focusing
  on steady rhythm or sound
• Allows body and brain to relax
• Lowers heart rate and blood pressure

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Near-death Experience (NDE)

• Occurs at the time of death
• Reported when the person is revived
• 8 million Americans have experienced NDEs
• Person reports seeing heaven, hell, dead
  relatives, activities in room
• Possible explanations
• Hallucinations of dying brain
• Soul that separates from dying body

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Extrasensory Sensory Perception

• Perceiving things that are outside of normal body
  sensations
• Types
• Clairvoyance seeing things occurring somewhere
  else at same time
• Telepathy reading thoughts
• Precognition seeing the future
• Retrocognition seeing the past
• Telekinesis moving things with the mind

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Extrasensory Sensory Perception

• Is ESP real
• Some (including Freud) believe that primitive
  humans used telepathy for communication
• Some believe that we all have some ESP
• ESP tests have been given, but none have been
  conclusive or reproducible
• Most believe that ESP is really an ability to
  perceive events and use the subconscious
  effectively

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The Sleeping Mind

• Sleep has various stages
• Sleep has a variety of events
• Sleep recharges the brain
• Sleep purges the brain
• Sleep helps us make sense of our day
• Sleep restores the body
• Sleep allows brain chemicals to replenish

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Stages of Sleep

• Twilight Stage
• 1st Stage
• Slowing of electrical activity
• Relaxation
• Mind wanders
• Thoughts drift

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Stages of Sleep

• REM Sleep
• 2nd Stage
• Rapid-eye movement
• During periods of light sleep
• Every 90 minutes
• Organized dreams occur in real time
• Body is paralyzed
• Difficult to awaken

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Stages of Sleep

• NREM
• Follows REM
• non-rapid eye movement
• Deep sleep
• Brain is active, but lacks organization
• In adolescents, growth hormone is secreted very
  important! This is why you need so much sleep!

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Brain Changes during Sleep

• Beta waves awake and active
• Alpha waves relaxed beginning twilight sleep
  meditation
• Delta waves deep sleep very slow and regular
  NREM
• In REM sleep, brain shows combination of alpha
  and delta waves

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Dreaming

• Everybody dreams!!!! (including animals)
• Dreams occur during REM sleep
• Dreams lengthen as night progresses

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Nightmares

• During REM
• Minor body changes
• More common when REM periods have been missed
  (alcohol/not enough sleep)
• No connection with spicy foods!

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Night Terrors

• Vivid dream that is horrible and realistic
• Occurs during NREM when the body isnt ready for
  it
• Drastic body changes (breathing/hr speed up)
• Feelings of panic and fear
• Sleeper often seems to be awake, walks, sits up
  in bed

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Dreaming

• Everybody dreams!!!! (including animals)
• Dreams occur during REM sleep
• Dreams lengthen as night progresses

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Why do we dream?

• Three theories
• To process information while chemicals are
  replenished keeps the brain busy without adding
  new stimuli
• To work out unsolved problems
• To make sense of random bits of information as
  the brain flushes out unnecessary garbage

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What causes dreams?

• Electrical impulses in the brain control
  thoughts, memories, actions
• During sleep, these impulses occur in bursts at
  90 minute intervals
• The electrical bursts hit portions of the brain,
  stimulating memories causing eye movements

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What do dreams mean?

• Contain memories of things that have recently
  occurred
• Contain common, normal people and events, but
  sometimes in unexpected ways or situations
• The brains attempt to make sense of unrelated
  occurrences
• Dreams are 50 black white, and 50 color

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Sleep Issues

• How much do you need?
• Teenagers need 8-9 hours
• What causes walking/talking in sleep?
• Random electrical impulses hitting areas for
  speech body movement
• What is insomnia?
• Difficulty sleeping. Usually self-created.

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Sleep Issues

• What is narcolepsy?
• Ability to go into instant REM sleep at anytime
  of the day
• How do drugs/alcohol affect sleep?
• They block REM sleep, causing physical and mental
  depression. Over time, the person begins to dream
  while awake.
• What is sleep apnea?
• When breathing is interrupted during sleep and
  the sleeper keeps waking up.