IMO, reason is related to conciousness, and first we have to determine if energy, which everything is made up of, has conciousness or not.

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There are some things that travel faster than the speed of light; the thoughts of an imbicile (To paraphrase Gabriel Voisin, automotive and aero engineer, 1934)

Perhaps "TRUTH" lies in the middle of what appears to be a paradox (ME)

Matter is basically frozen energy (e=mc2). To argue that energy has conciousness (whatever that may be) would be to argue that everything composed of matter possesses conciousness. To me that seems a just a tad bit preposterous, given that you all have been arguing whether animals are concious. If my point contains a scientific fallacy, please notify me of my error, whether it be grievous or a venial quibble.

Personally, I think all annimate things have conciousness, and some Native Americans believe all things have conciousness, annimate or not.

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There are some things that travel faster than the speed of light; the thoughts of an imbicile (To paraphrase Gabriel Voisin, automotive and aero engineer, 1934)

Perhaps "TRUTH" lies in the middle of what appears to be a paradox (ME)

Or, perhaps the word you might be looking for here is spirit. In which case I confer with dretceterini's notion about the Native Americans believing all things have consciousness or, a spirit.

By the way Icanbepretentious2, Welcome aboard!

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?

Yet it's quite possible to use energy as a means to store information isn't it? If we can use it to fully illustrate a picture on a TV set, why couldn't it also be a means by which to convey our thoughts and feelings as well as experience them?

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?

That's kind of what I have been saying. The matter part of energy "stores" the data, and the wave part of energy "transmits" it.....

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There are some things that travel faster than the speed of light; the thoughts of an imbicile (To paraphrase Gabriel Voisin, automotive and aero engineer, 1934)

Perhaps "TRUTH" lies in the middle of what appears to be a paradox (ME)

Was going to continue with a reply here, but decided to post it under a new thread called, The Collective Unconscious. Thanks!

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?

From the JREF Forums thread, lifegazer's logical conclusion ...

Yes, and if it wasn't for the conscious cartoonist which created the cartoon in the first place? Isn't this in effect what lifegazer was just saying? ... that it was perceived by A MIND.

Yes, but how do you know? Can't you see, that consciousness is the only criteria we have for determining whether anything exists? Indeed, how would we know? There wouldn't be a damn thing to tell us about it now would there? And, if that's the case, it kind of leads me to wonder if consciousness isn't some sort of super-entity which exists all about? Something besides us humans has to define what existence is all about doesn't it? What's to keep a rock from becoming a cloud if there wasn't some sort of definition to separate the two? Something must be aware of something else in order to allow such a definition to arise. And isn't this in fact what consciousness does, gives definition to or, at the very least acknowledges that definition in what we see? So maybe by virtue of the fact that we're conscious makes us that much closer to the original mind which created the whole she-bang in the first place?

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?