Robin wrote:
>But I'm not talking about metaphor or meaning. I could not
Yes, but, Robin, consciousness is only one type of experience. There is
only one consciousness at any given moment, but their may be many or
experiences going on within the mind or body at that same moment, all of
them as real and valid as the stream of consiousness--if not as articulate
or vociferous.
>agree more strongly that meanings run in parallel, that one
>event can have any number of them. But we were talking about
>"experience", weren't we? For me, there's experience, and
>then there's the interpretation of it. There can be multiple
>interpretations, but there can be only one stream of
>consciousness.
Have you ever been somewhere and your "brain" told you one thing while your "body" [1] said another? Of course you have, we all have. I remember the first poetry slam I read at, the whole time my brain was saying, "It's cool, they're getting into it, keep going, this is good..." while a somewhat less articulate part of my brain was screaming, "What are you doing! Run! Get out of here! There's the door! Quick, you can make it! I'll cover your back--GO! MAN, GO! Get us outta here now! Jesus!!!"
And the two were *not* experienced serially by any stretch of the imagination.
-Prof. Tim
[1] This is actually just another part of the mind. The part that does the talking, the consiousness, just likes to tell you its the only _real_ mind inside your head. And since it's doing all the talking, who's to argue, right? ;-)