The Science of Consciousness From the Ancient Scientists of India  Sakunthala SK (Electronics And Communications Engineering, Thusharam, Calicut, KERALA India)   C22

The concept of consciousness has been highly researched in ancient India .The Hindu scriptures from thousands of years back have detailed descriptions and explanations about consciousness .The Upanishads is one ( but not the only one) source. As such,the theory of consciousness is a very old one .Modern scientists are studying it now because they have started having doubts about the veracity of the brain being the centre of consciousness . But Eastern traditions,and more specifically Indian sciences have presented and preserved the concept that the brain is not the centre of consciousness . The brain is the physical organ which receives stimuli from the external world and passes it to higher planes .The brain is also involved in receiving commands from higher planes . To understand this, it is necessary to make know the concepts of the different planes of consciousness and the multidimensional human body . This paper discussed this concept which is already widely known to those who are aware of the spiritual side of existence. It is time that science looks beyond the brain and the physical body , to the wisdom and knowledge of the scientists of the Eastern tradition ,because the answers are already available there. We start with the statement that man ( a gender ?neutral term meaning human being)is a multidimensional entity having multiple bodies corresponding to these dimensions. There is a visible physical body and many subtle invisible bodies interpenetrating the same space. The universe is energy and the human body is also the same. The different bodies mentioned above have different vibrational frequencies .The physical body constitutes energy at a low frequency and the other bodies are at higher frequencies invisible to physical vision. It is well known that energy is equivalent to matter . Thus the physical body is made of gross matter and the other higher bodies constitute finer matter . Human consciousness springs from the eternal source of cosmic consciousness.In Indian sciences ,the words Paramatma and Brahman are used to denote this source. A spark of this ,denoted as the atma, is the individualized consciousness which resides in every being . The atma which is pure and without attributes, uses a number of vehicles to exist in the physical world, as an individual with a distinct identity . Each vehicle corresponds to a specific plane, designated as planes of consciousness or states of being . The vehicles are the energy bodies mentioned earlier. Each body is also a sheath of matter that covers the atma and brings it down from the spiritual plane to the physical plane. These sheaths correspond to the planes of consciousness for spiritual bliss, wisdom, intellect and emotions and one for directly supplying the life force ( prana) for the physical body . How consciousness descends from the higher planes to the physical plane and the mechanics at work for this ,is the content of this paper.