The non-reality of nothingness

[Jonathan Bricklin]

Nanda Chandran writes:

"I'm not denying the continum which still persists while we're in deep
sleep. Obviously there is. What I'm unable to understand is how this
continum can be termed consciousness, for all consciousness imply a
subject and an object.

Infact, has any of you ever fainted? One moment you're awake and then
the next there's absolutely no consciousness at all, till you regain
consciousness. Ofcourse you remember the moment you lost consciousness
but nothing between that and the moment of regaining consciousness. And
definitely one can't equate the state of being faint with consciousness.
So why can't this be the same as the state of deep sleep?"

Previously I spoke of a week in which I felt myself in deep sleep, but with no other thought than the consciousness of blackness.  I have become convinced ever since that black-outs are no more than black-ins, in which the sense of self goes out;  when we "come to" we come to to a sense of self whose first memory is the blackness of the last moment of the black-out.  At any rate, surely your statement that "there is absolutely no consciousness" needs to be qualified.  I don't even think it can be accepted as an inference, since you are inferring an incomprehensible state.  For consciousness minus consciousness  equals the absolute zero of a non-relativized nothingness.  And what would that be?  Many if not most people believe in an annhilation of consciousness.  But you can't even think of such a state, let alone talk about it.  Mostly what they HAVE IN MIND is blackness.

\Regards,

Jonathan

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"I totally believe in fate."  Mark McGuire  September 8, 1998

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