Our brains control and regulate all the functions of our bodies. They have logical and computational abilities. All our senses are processed through our brains. And our brains are tied to our emotions. But our souls do not originate in our brains.

The soul is that aspect of ourselves that is indestructible and eternal. The brain is subject to all kinds of diseases and accidents that can impair its functioning. It can be crushed by weapons or destroyed by poisonous chemicals. We could be completely brain-dead yet our soul is still intact.
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Our brains enable us to communicate our experiences through language, the manipulation of vocal chords, and muscular movements of the mouth. The soul is more of an experience than it is an object. It is not a thing that lives in a certain part of our brains. If anything, our miraculous brain lives in our soul,, which is something we will never see but can easily experience once we know the path.

Neuroscientists have been able to show parts of the brain “lighting up,” as a person become emotionally or intellectually conscious of an object. But if you are referring to higher consciousness, it does not reside in the brain. The brain resides in it.

Higher consciousness is an energy field. The hyperactive brain, with its non-stop cascades of thoughts, can actually be a deterrent to discovering it.

The brain, like other parts of the body, such as the hand, is a useful tool for the purpose of survival. It has enabled us to rise to the top of the food chain because it coordinates our intentions with our behavior, and mixes in a bit of logic and memory.

The brain also learns from experience and cultural indoctrination. And it helps us to organize our mouth movements and sounds into language so we can communicate with each other. But it is not the seat of higher consciousness and cosmic connection.
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To find that level of consciousness, we need to go somewhere other than the brain: It is a combination of the heart and the gut. These are the receptacles for the “peace that passeth understanding” or nirvana or samadhi or heaven. If scientists continue to look for consciousness in the brain, it will be fruitless, for that is not where it lives. They will have to understand that higher consciousness is not contained in a bone-encapsulated mass of jelly and fluids. This miraculous system exists within the Higher Intelligence of the universe.

Hegel doesn’t think we can have consciousness unless we are self-aware first. But to be self-aware we must be conscious of “the other,” which is not ourselves. We are the subject which has consciousness of objects (including other people). These objects are apart from ourselves. But we can never really know ourselves if we are not aware that other people are aware of us.

By now your brain might be spinning from all this. Hegel gets into some difficult mental acrobatics in which he declares that subjects are also objects to other subjects. So you only become aware of yourself by seeing yourself through the eyes of another. This is what he terms “self-consciousness.” It is the awareness of another person’s awareness of you.

Now a struggle arises. The self and the other come together—which causes self-consciousness come into being. But also we become aware of the otherness of the people who are aware of us. This becomes a struggle between two unequal individuals. One becomes the master and the other the servant. But they really depend on each other to complete the picture.

The servant knows the master sees him as an object. He is a thing, not a person to the master. This is frustrating to the one who is in the servile position because he cannot express his full self-consciousness (since he is not a subject). The master is dominant because the slave is an object to him. But it is not a satisfying position either, because self-consciousness depends on subject-subject interaction of equality.

At the same time, the master does not find his position completely satisfying. In negating his own otherness in the consciousness of the servant, in turning the servant into an object unessential to his own self-consciousness, he does not recognize the servant as a consciousness equal to himself. And therefore he cannot fully realize his own self-consciousness.

But, according to Hegel, the servant is actually better off because he is able to get satisfaction from labor. This allows him to work on and transform objects through which he rediscovers himself and can claim a “mind of his own.” So through labor, a person’s consciousness can come into being as well.

This is all terribly confusing. Many people are ready to throw Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit containing the chapter on “Self-consciosness” across the room. Yet a lot of of twentieth-century philosophers and psychoanalysts have used Hegel’s ideas as their basis. Before him, Kant discussed the difference between subject and object. But Hegel believed that the subject, or the self, is aware of its self only as a distinct entity through the eyes of another self.

This is different because it implies that all our consciousnesses are interdependent with each other. We can’t have any concept of ourselves without having actually experienced a moment of identification with “the other.” We know ourselves through the view we think others hold of us. This can be extremely stressful when others see us as objects, things, and not other living consciousnesses.
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I don’t agree with Hegel, especially about this glorification of the slave’s labor. However, once we get past all the talk about masters and slaves, I can see what Hegel is getting at. We all exist in relationship to our society and other people. If we did not differentiate ourselves from “the other” there wouldn’t be any self-consciousness.

I would rather go a step further. If we go beyond how other people hold us in their opinions, we could all recognize ourselves as part of the Universal consciousness. And what others thought about us wouldn’t matter at all. We would still know we exist—which is true consciousness.

The concept of Karma is tied into reincarnation. We may be reaping the consequences of our behavior and actions in other lifetimes, not only this one. This lifetime is an opportunity to clean it all up. Most Europeans have not included reincarnation as a central concept to the meaning of life and the immortal soul. It is a concept that has come out of Eastern religious thought.

Jewish and Christian holy literature, upon which European ethics are based, places more emphasis on getting it right this time around. It is presumed to be our only lifetime and we are punished or rewarded according to how we follow the holy word. We can also be rewarded by grace or by our demonstration of faith.

Yet in spite of this denial of reincarnation, in Matthew 17: 10–14, it appears that Jesus is telling people that John the Baptist is the reincarnation of the prophet Elijah. He says:

• 10 “For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
• 11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. . . .
• 14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elijah, which was for to come.

Other than that, both the Old and New Testament are full of a version of Karma, which is, “What goes around, comes around,” or “You reap what you sow.”

Here are just a few examples:

Isaiah:

“Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.”

Galatians:
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“. . . for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

Proverbs:

“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.”

“Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.”

“Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.”

“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.”

“A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.”

Matthew:

“. . .whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

“Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

Romans:

“. . .never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Hosea:

“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”

Colossians:

“For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.”

Ecclesiastes:

“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.”

Psalms:

“His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.”

Job:
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As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

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Common sense has to do with “Everyone knows. . . , “ Everyone knows if you stand outside in the rain, you will get wet. Everyone knows that if you jump off a roof you will get hurt. Everyone knows that if you play in traffic, you will get crushed by oncoming vehicles.

Philosophical inquiry has to do with finding answers to questions that maybe nobody has been able to answer. What is the meaning of life? Why am I on this planet? How do I act if I want to be a good person? When did the dawning of consciousness occur? Can we ever truly “know” anything?
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Common sense means accepting the prevailing notions of what is harmful and what is helpful for our survival. Philosophical inquiry goes beyond survival. It seeks to answer the questions that make people’s lives meaningful above and beyond saving our skins.