XPost: alt.paranormal.reincarnation   
   From: duke_of_diddly@hotmail.com   
      
   On Sat, 05 Jun 2004 11:29:41 GMT, "Steve S."    
   wrote:   
      
   >If "soul" = "consciousness", then we lose our soul every night when we are   
   >unconscious. That's not it--soul must be something more basic than   
   >consciousness.   
   >   
   >Steve S.   
   >   
      
   I think you're oversimplifying sleep.   
      
   Scientists who are attempting to find the neurobiological basis for   
   what they call self-consciousness do so, in part, by comparing how the   
   brain funtions in the two states when we have self-consciousness   
   (self-awareness) - which is when we are awake and when we experience   
   dreaming sleep - with the one state in which we do not experience   
   self-consciousness - which is dreamless sleep. Based on the research   
   of neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinas and others, there is a hypothesis   
   that self-consciousness is related to brain waves that are coupled   
   between "oscillators" in the thalmus of our brains (the intralaminar   
   nuclei and another "family" that connects neurons in the thalamic   
   nuclei).. During wakefullness & dreaming sleep, these "oscillators"   
   are coupled, but during dreamless sleep, they become decoupled.   
      
   What do folks think their "souls" are, and where are those "souls"   
   while we're in dreamless sleep?   
      
   Jerry   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)