Consciousness Requires Thought

When your mind goes 'blank,' your brain activity resembles deep sleep, scans reveal

Thinking obviously requires different parts of brain for different kinds of thoughts. This result indicates that, when your mind goes blank, your neurons are all waiting for each other to say something first. The simple truth is, your neurons can take cat naps. They organize according to proprioception, attempting to predict the next punch line, and just do nothing if nobody can connect the dots.

Note, this means it is possible to measure consciousness, but only statistically.

 

That’s a wild way to put it – neurons waiting on each other like awkward people at a party, no one wanting to speak first. I kinda love that image. When the mind “goes blank,” it feels less like nothingness and more like this quiet collective pause, right? Like the system’s still humming underneath, but every part is holding its breath. It makes sense that scans would mirror deep sleep; maybe consciousness isn’t a constant flame but something that flickers, rests, even hides behind itself.

I’ve noticed that feeling especially when I’m in sensory overload – too many inputs, too much noise, and then suddenly it’s all gone quiet inside. Maybe that’s the neurons calling a truce. I’m curious about what you said regarding measuring consciousness statistically. If we’re only tracking it by probability, does that mean we can never truly pin it down in real time? Like it’s always half a ghost, half a signal? Feels poetic in a way – the brain dreaming even while awake, waiting for itself to remember it’s alive.

 

In physics, it is the lowest possible energy state, like a car engine idling. Stomping on the gas gives you acceleration, and the lower the car can idle, the faster it can go. The more in tune your subconscious is with the humor in life, the easier it is to avoid bullshit, and figure out what you want for yourself.

The lowest possible energy state also comes with a "Local Minima", which is how badly you can tune the car, without it stalling out immediately. Our conscious minds, resemble the local minima, but its what makes us creative. When our neurons relax altogether, someone can startle you and make you hit the ceiling. They're like little kids who cuddle and relax in front of the TV, but the only way they can do that, is if they ignore the conscious mind and, the alternative, is for them to form giant amplifiers, sort of a fire alarm.

 

Yes, the human body vibrates. Whether it's the brain or whatever, it means the signals pulse on and off. So every second we go in and out of consciousness many times. Our brain puts them together like frames in a movie to achieve awareness.

Of course in reality there is only one moment, time not with standing.

 

This is contrary to the philosophy and methodology of meditation and mindfulness/awareness which states that consciousness can exist without thought but thought cannot exist without consciousness.

The process of meditation here is to be still and aware witnessing the habitual thinking and emoting process of the mind till they reduce in intensity to a trickle and finally to total thoughtlesness, and no-mind is the term used to address this state.

Consciousness then uses thought as a tool for practical purposes and switches it off when not needed, and is not overwhelmed by it. This is not the case with most unconscious people living compulsively in psychological time of past memories and future based imagination.

The state of consciousness without compulsive thought is termed as samadhi or satori in eastern philosophy, and is said to self-generate peace and bliss as the innate charecterestics of pure consciousness. This is why meditation is a source of relaxation and bliss for many trained meditators with zero expense.

On the other hand, compulsive thinking and consequent emoting is considered to be the source of psychological suffering and is considered to be the characteristic of an untrained mind as per eastern philosophy.

So thinking unconsciously to prove to oneself that one is conscious can be detrimental to mental health and well-being, imho. Meditators in general also show better mental health as per research as well as physical health due to possible psychosomatic effects.

Eckhart Tolle clarifies on the same , “The philosopher Descartes believed he had found the most fundamental truth when he made his famous statement: "I think, therefore I am." He had, in fact, given expression to the most basic error: to equate thinking with Being and identity with thinking. The compulsive thinker, which means almost everyone, lives in a state of apparent separateness, in an insanely complex world of continuous problems and conflict, a world that reflects the ever-increasing fragmentation of the mind.”