Dr. Laureys: We should try to find some, and reconnect to the spirituality.
Sadhguru: Anesthesia has nothing to do with consciousness.
There is consciousness even where there is no body.
You have the necessary instrument to experience this.
This will become an access point.
The scientific knowledge and the technology and modern medicine has really
incredibly improved our quality of life and our life expectancy.
But at the same time I think we should try to uhm...
find some, and reconnect to the spirituality,
or the pure experience, as you say.
Would you agree with that, that it's this kind of balance?
Sadhguru: See, it is like this: if you take a motorcycle mechanic,
he's very good with the motorcycles, let's say, but now you ask him to fix a computer.
Well, he can use his screwdriver and open the cover;
beyond that, he doesn't know a thing about it, all right?
This is just like this, objective sciences are like this.
It is always 1 + 1 is 2, that's the only way objectivity can work.
You cannot say 1 + 1 is 11 also, forget about a million, all right?
You cannot say that because this is the nature of objectivity,
and our objectivity is coming from our intellectual process.
Intellectual process it's coming from memory, so memory cannot be fudged.
If you fudge the memory, it's a mess.
I remember this is 1, and this is 1,
and now I put these 2 things together, and say this is 2.
Now, this has a memory basis – if I fudge this, then my intellect becomes useless, all right?
So, intellect is handling one aspect of our life,
which essentially we call it as self-preservation.
For our self-preservation, our intellect is vital, without it we cannot function.
Right now all the things that you said, “it has improved our life expectancy,
it enhanced our life in so many ways.”
No, it has not enhanced the quality of our life at all.
It has only enhanced the comfort and convenience levels in the world,
and definitely life expectancy – all this is definitely self-preservation, isn't it?
It's survival process. So, when it comes to self-preservation, our intellect is vital.
Without this one functioning, you cannot survive in this world.
All the 5 senses are functioning, they are feeding the data into your intellect,
and from there you're using it;
how efficiently you use it will determine how efficiently you survive.
So, your life expectancy enhanced means your efficiency of survival has increased, that's all it is.
So, you're more healthy than what people were in the past – I don't think so, but suppose we are –
it simply means your survival process is little more efficient.
So, leaving the survival process, now you're talking about consciousness.
Consciousness means... see, the English word ‘consciousness’ is very loosely used.
If you say somebody is in anesthesia, if they come back you say,
“Oh he's come back to his consciousness.”
See, everything that you do with your anesthesia has nothing to do with consciousness,
it has something to do with body, and various functions of the body.
You're shutting down certain aspects of the bodily functions.
One of them is transmission of pain, which is the main interest when somebody's going to surgery.
You don't want to stop their heart, you don't want to stop their brain,
you would like to see the transmission of pain stops.
Whatever is being cut is being cut, whatever damage or fixing that is happening is happening,
whatever parts of the body may be being removed, what is not vital may be being pulled out,
all that is happening, only transmission of pain is not happening.
This has got nothing to do with losing consciousness and gaining consciousness – there's no such thing.
Because there are no alternate words, we use the same words.
Language is a different aspect, language is also a product of our intellect,
so, it can only talk in opposites.
Without polarities there is no language, without polarities your intellect cannot function.
But when you talk about consciousness, you are not talking about 2 polarities.
There's no A-consciousness and B-consciousness,
there's no positive consciousness and negative consciousness – there's just one.
As we sit here, this is my body, that is your body,
distinctly established; right now it is 100% like this.
I don't know what you're drinking, I can't see, but whatever you're drinking,
what's in the cup is not you – the moment you drink it, after some time it becomes you.
This is happening right now.
So, though what you think is your body and what I think is my body is just a piece of this planet,
right now it is distinctly clear, this is my body, that is your body – 100%.
This is my mind and that is your mind, these are my emotions and those are your emotions,
these are my experiences, those are your experiences,
but there is no such thing as my consciousness and your consciousness.
This is a living consciousness. We blew our own bubble.
I'm sure you have... that little wonderful boy who came on the screen,
I'm sure he's blowing soap bubbles at you some time.
So, if you blow a soap bubble, this is my bubble, that's your bubble.
‘Puup!’ it went, then there is no such thing as my bubble and your bubble,
there's no such thing as my air and your air. Consciousness is just like this.
Right now you have blown your bubble, I have blown my bubble, this is me, that is you.
But when this goes ‘puup!’ there is no such thing as my consciousness and your consciousness.
It is just that, it is only the human creature on this planet
who has the neurological capability and sophistication of mechanism
that if they allow it, they can access this dimension of consciousness.
No other creature is really capable of accessing it.
This doesn't mean there is no consciousness in them;
without that, the life process wouldn't happen.
There is consciousness even where there is no body, all right?
Only thing is, you need a certain sophisticated instrument to access that,
which is the human mechanism – this is why we consider being human is a great privilege,
because you have access to dimensions beyond your physical boundaries.
That is the fundamental significance of being human.
So, let us not misunderstand the instrument, and what we see.
If you take a telescope and you saw another galaxy,
but the galaxy is not produced by the telescope, the galaxy is there.
The telescope only gave you an access.
Similarly, your body, your brain, whatever, I don't want to identify different things,
from your hair to your toes, everything is body as far as I'm concerned, including your brain,
it is just another dimension of the body.
So, this body, if we keep it in a certain way,
if we do not contaminate it with too many ideas, philosophies, identities,
if you keep it in a certain level of openness, this will become an access point
to what we are referring to as consciousness, or the basis of the life that we are.
You have the necessary instruments to experience it.
Not the instruments in your lab – you as a person, you have the necessary instrument to experience this.
Will you allow it or not is the only question.
As I said in the beginning, it all depends on how you're identified.
If your identifications are limited, you have lost the ability to experience it.
If your identity is, you know, not identified with anything, you kept yourself loose like that,
then there is a possibility of experiencing it.