The interdisciplinary field of neuroscience has been my centre of focus for the past year. It is, needless to say, a subject of great depth (being an academic cocktail of biology, chemistry, and psychology), and requires a certain degree of self-discipline. As students, we learn of the mechanisms that control automatic processes such as breathing and heart rate. We've also spent time learning about the muscle and sensory systems. As astounding and intricate, delicate and elegant the brain clearly is, what many neuroscientists and students likely consider to be its most intriguing characteristic would be its product of consciousness.
Consciousness is perhaps the most complex product of the brain's many complex processes, considering we still don't know exactly how it's processed. A short and simplified definition of it is self-awareness: the awareness of one's self and his/her surrounding world.
The awareness of my existence amongst the trees, the rivers, the lakes, the mountains; the awareness of the life existing around me, as well as existing in me. The knowing of billions of stars in the sky that sleep in galaxies far beyond our reach; the feeling of insignificance amidst a significant universe. This is consciousness in its simple, beautiful sense. Without it, I would be unable to enjoy the outdoors. The thrill of the harvest. Consuming life as it consumes me. And to think that we are only beginning to really understand what consciousness is...
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