which has no consciousness in my view, you also do not have
the understanding. Computers can do wonderful things.
You can make them play chess very well and so on. But the
understanding comes from the person who programmed
the machine. A machine by itself does not have this quality.
Consciousness also has other roles where it is responsible for
the feeling of pain and so on. But understanding is a particular
aspect of consciousness which one can begin to see, if one likes
to, why it is valuable and how it could have selected advantage.
Even if you take strictly a biological point of view, why has it
evolved in being conscious? The answer is that it would select
advantage, which enables a creature to understand what is
going on around. In my understanding, consciousness is not
purely for only a human being, but something which goes far
down the animal kingdom, but I do not know how far down.
[Excerpt from the book, Savijnanam vol-3-4— Scientific Exploration
for a Spiritual Paradigm, Bhaktivedanta Institute, Kolkata]
On the Shoulder of Giants
John Carew Eccles
(Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine)
John Eccles (1903 – 1997)
“ We come to exist through a divine act. That divine
John Carew Eccles was born in Melbourne, Australia, on
January 27, 1903. He was a prominent researcher in the field
of neurophysiology. He won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine in 1963 for his research on synapse. His research work
contributed to understanding complex neurophysiological
processes in the human brain.
After completing his studies in Melbourne High School,
John Eccles graduated from Melbourne University in 1925.
He won a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue his higher studies
at Oxford University, where he worked under the renowned
neurophysiologist Charles Scott Sherrington, and obtained
his Ph.D. in 1929. He continued to work with Sherrington for
some more time and returned to Australia in 1937, where he
was engaged in military research during World War II. In 1952,
he worked as a professor at the Australian National University,
where he and his colleagues performed a research work that
won him a Nobel Prize.
Apart from his contributions to science through brain research,
Eccles wrote extensively on the interactions between brain and
mind. Eccles challenged the idea that the mind is identical with
different physiochemical states of the brain. After an extensive
research career in neurophysiology, Eccles concluded that the
mind and brain are two separate entities. He also highlighted
the incompleteness of the Darwin's theory of evolution by
stating that it fails to explain why each individual living
being's consciousness has a unique identity. In Eccles' opinion,
each living being is a divine creation. He writes, “We come
to exist through a divine act. That divine guidance is a theme
throughout our life; at our death the brain goes, but that divine
guidance and love continue. It is the only view consistent with
all the evidence."
While describing the personality of John Eccles, Dr. Jerry
Bergman says, "Eccles spent his entire half-century-long
career in brain research and published widely in the scientific
literature on this subject. He concluded from his research, and
his extensive review of the research of others, that the idea
that the mind is a product of evolution is wrong and badly
misinformed. In the end, he concluded that only an intelligent
guidance is a theme throughout our life; at our
death the brain goes, but that divine guidance
and love continue. It is the only view consistent
with all the evidence."
creator could account for the existence of the human mind."
In 1966, Eccles moved to the USA and worked at the Institute
for Biomedical Research in Chicago, and at the University
of Buffalo. In 1975, he retired, moved to Switzerland and
continued his writings on the mind-body question. He passed
away in 1997 in Locarno, Switzerland.
Eccles was an accomplished researcher as well as a spiritualist.
He was one of the few voices in the scientific circles who did
not agree with the prevalent theories based on improbable
assumptions. Eccles also delivered a keynote address titled
‘New concepts on the Mind-brain problems’ at the 'First
International Conference on the Study of Consciousness
within Science', San Francisco, USA (1990) organized by
Bhaktivedanta institute. He goes beyond the materialistic
concepts of Darwinism and very clearly puts forward the point
that there can be no physicalist explanation of the mysterious
emergence of consciousness and self-consciousness. He firmly
believed that the universe and life are created with a purpose.
About the naturalists who do not believe in the purpose and
intelligent design of the world, he wrote, "They need a little
more humility."
In one of his final books, he humbly wrote, "I here express
my efforts to understand with deep humility a self, myself,
as an experiencing being. I offer it in the hope that we human
selves may discover a transforming faith in the meaning and
significance of this wonderful adventure that each of us is
given on this salubrious Earth of ours, each with our wonderful
brain, which is ours to control and use for our memory and
enjoyment and creativity and with love for other human
selves."
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