Thought is brain activity. An epiphenomenon of matter. And thoughts trigger other thoughts.

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? --Woody Allen

in other words as long as you are alive you are CONSTANTLY thinking... or put another way, if you ever stop thinking you die?

~ PSYKO ~

Umh...the other way 'round. If you die, you stop thinking. Or if brain activity ceases, whatever wording you prefer.

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? --Woody Allen

we all know that if your brain shuts down you die, unless of course you have MACHINES that do all the work for your body that your brain tells your organs to do for themselves, and if indeed thinking IS brain activity (in other words EQUAL TO) then is it true that it takes a thought to breathe, have a heartbeat, contract a muscle (even in spasm), to hear a sound, to feel an itch and to taste your breakfast, (which you wouldn't be able to do without being able to smell it by the way) and it takes a thought to see the wind blow over a tree.

however, it has long ago been made clear that it DOESN'T take a thought for this to occur... or does it?

is it possible that you can have SUBCONSCIOUS thoughts at the same time that you have CONSCIOUS ones? If so, wouldn't it be safe to say that it is MIND power, and not BRAIN power that makes your body keep breathing... and at the same time, isn't it the SUBCONSCIOUS that does the actual decoding of the sights you see? if so... then isn't it also safe to say that the reason I can take a look at the countryside and see the same general picture that you would see is simply because you and I are (subconsciously) having the same general thought?

We don't know what powers conscious thinking other than our will to think, but what powers SUBCONSCIOUS thinking, we cannot CONSCIOUSLY decide to think with the subconscious, yet it is the SUBCONSCIOUS thinking that keeps us alive.

~ PSYKO ~

it can't be one way or the other shaka.

~ PSYKO ~

psyko: The medulla oblongata takes care that our hearts keep beating and that we keep breathing. That has nothing to do with thinking. The brain does a lot of other things as well, not just thinking.

"If we are going to teach creation science as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction." (Judith Hayes)

You should step out of absolutisms every now and then. You'd see that the world is much more complicated and interesting,Thinking is brain activity, but that does not mean that any sort of brain activity results in a conscious thought or process. The brain stem, for example, regulates many unconscious processes such as breathing (in most cases). Unconscious and conscious activity coexist at any time, and it's not unconscious thinking that keeps us alive, but unconscious brain activity. Your use of a word referring to such an abstract concept, that of mind, is entirely arbitrary.

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? --Woody Allen

ok so here is where you PROVE that you really don't know what you are talking about because of your lack of consistency... I thought you said that thoughts ARE brain activity... (in other words, EQUAL TO) and for that statement to be accurate, you have to put it on the other side of the equation and say that BRAIN ACTIVITY is thinking... (that is to say, EQUAL TO) which I can accept for the sake of consistency purposes even if I don't agree, but for you to say at one point that they are EQUAL, but then turn around and make them SEPARATE (or UNEQUAL) in this statement is NOT acceptable.

~ PSYKO ~

What exactly IS the medulla-oblongata?

~ PSYKO ~

and how and why does it funtion?

what other purpose (if any) does it serve?

~ PSYKO ~

....
Ok, sit down and listen, I'll try to keep it simple so that even you can understand it. A German shepherd is a dog. A German shepherd equals a dog. Are all dogs on this planet German shepherds?

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? --Woody Allen

all dogs very well could be German shepherds if they live in Germany and are used for the purpose of tending to live stock, but I can see your point here. so YOUR answer to my question is that THOUGHTS create brain activity?

~ PSYKO ~

or are you saying that it takes brain activity to make a thought?

I'm lost here.

I would assume that it takes two german shepherds to make a german shepherd, but does it take 2 thoughts to make ONE?

~ PSYKO ~

Medulla oblongata is the lower part of the brainstem. It takes care of autonomic functions, which means basically everything that needs to work without us even thinking about it, for example respiration, swallowing, heart rate and vomiting. It's probably the most important part of the brain because without it we would die right away.

"If we are going to teach creation science as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction." (Judith Hayes)

oh... I get it, BRAIN activity stimulates the FIRST thought, which in turn produces more brain activity that produces MORE thoughts, which trigger other thoughts and even more brain activity which produces more thoughts and when you reach your limit the brain completely short circuits itself because all those thoughts have produced so much activity that it just shuts down, and then THAT'S when you die... but ummm... how fast does all this happen and where did the WILL to have that initial thought come from?

~ PSYKO ~

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? --Woody Allen

So what does the MEDULLA OBLONGATA use as it's power source??? what messages can it send and receive, and where do they come from?

~ PSYKO ~

how does it know when you have gone long enough to take your next breath, when you are asleep and also just after a nice jog?

~ PSYKO ~

do we have any STUDENTS or even PROFESSORS of neuropsychology or ANY psychology discipline here on mail friends?

~ PSYKO ~

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? --Woody Allen

Medulla oblongata uses the autonomic nervous system, which is, just as it sounds like, independent from conscious thinking. These things happen automatically. The messages are the same kind of messages that go in all other kind of nerves.

"If we are going to teach creation science as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction." (Judith Hayes)

so the unconscious brain activity that has NOTHING to do with thinking(which how can you state so sure that SUBCONSCIOUSLY you are not thinking, if it was conscious, then it wouldn't be UNCONSCIOUS would it?) is what sends the signals from one part of the brain and it's stem to the rest of the body to keep it alive, and whenever you SUBCONSCIOUSLY have the WILL to have a conscious thought, you can. and then thoughts trigger more thoughts and you would short circuit your brain if you didn't go to SLEEP and stop all that thinking... but then again unconsciously, you have dreams (which can be memory or imaginary) and we all no that DREAMING is unconscious thought, that is no CONSCIOUS WILL TO EXPERIENCE the cognitive phenomena that is dreaming... so your subconscious can think but only when you are unconscious after that, you have it only creates BRAIN ACTIVITY which has nothing to do with thought and your consciousness takes over and you are awake...

~ PSYKO ~

Thank you shaka... I rest my case... brain activity is INDEED a product of cognitive function whether that functioning is conscious or unconscious.

~ PSYKO ~

Key word here outi, CONSCIOUS

~ PSYKO ~

with all this being laid out on the table... it is COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING of some kind(conscious or unconscious) that is responsible for your being alive right now. one indicator of this is the fact that one can CONSCIOUSLY alter each and every autonomic function... you can change your heartbeat and breathing rates with CONSCIOUS thought, but only if you know how to... you can even change your BLOOD PRESSURE with conscious thought, even though that is supposed to be autonomic... (I have done it, it has been recorded by medical professionals in the past, so please don't argue this point)

The problem is, there is NO physical explanation of what cognition really is, it's abstract, it's philo-scientific if you will... it's not philosophy, but it's not science, yet it IS philosophy, and it IS science.

~ PSYKO ~

Maybe you could just STOP trying to over complicate things???

~ PSYKO ~

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? --Woody Allen

You might try and stop oversimplifying things. Simplistic explanations of very complex phenomena explain nothing and remain woolly.

How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? --Woody Allen

The medulla oblongata,without google is a little thingi in your brain with a stem and a sort of unopened rose at the end,to my eye anyway. the hebrew expression for it is little brain,the brain within the brain.It appears to be multi use,for example as outie said it moniters our heart and keeps it beating while at the same time it keeps our sphincter,sphinctering..On the otherhand it seems to have a great deal to do with motor functions while we bear in mind that the motor nervous system seems to be able to override it in terms of immediate response to certain experiences.For example if we put our hand on something painfully hot we do not require a long drawnout thought process before we remove our hand,we simply pull it away ,high speed,an action some believe to be controlled by the motor nervous system located in the human spine...No doubt most of us have seen war movies when a highly motivated soldier takes hits but in the swansong he manages to get off that last burst... my empirical observation has been that when the medulla oblongata is hit there is no last burst..So from this i at least,believe that the med ob is capable of and in fact does,multitask..So much for that..Reading between the lines this conversation between the main protagonists is merely a continuation of religious differences coupled with a powerful need for oneupmanship...

Sometimes shaka, simple explanations are all one needs.