Consciousness: A process not a thing

Biologist Gerald Edelman (1929-2014)

Consciousness, like a flame, is not a stored thing but a process that emerges under the right conditions. A flame isn’t hidden inside a match - it arises from a chemical reaction when the match is struck. Similarly, consciousness isn’t a fixed object within the brain but the result of ongoing neural activity.

Disrupt the match, and the flame never appears. Disrupt the brain (through anesthesia, coma, or death), and consciousness ceases. Both are dynamic, emergent phenomena, NOT static entities.

Just as a flame depends on the match, consciousness depends on the brain.
Neither exists independently - they emerge from complex interactions.