Notes on Consciousness

What I think is that consciousness in the sense of intending, being the author of the action, etc., is a byproduct of higher brain function. Like a virtual reality system. Consciousness only has access to certain brain functions. So the "narrator"(or the subjective "I") isn't just reading what's really going on. The narrator only has access to certain parts of the story, and has to guess at the whole thing. It can easily be deceived. There's proof that there's a strong sense of authorship when the intent occurs virtually simultaneously with the act, even though the act can be proven to be caused by something else. Which suggests that the "narrator" is deceived into thinking it caused the act, and vice versa. Studies have shown that when the brain is hooked up to electrodes that measure intention, that those electrical brain signals cause a slide to be moved BEFORE the person's conscious choice occurs to m0ve a slide. So how can there be any real authorship, although obviously it WAS the person's decision even if they are not aware of it. (who's else could it be?) In other words, consciousness attributes authorship to the person where there is none, and denies it, when there IS- all based on timing, rather than reality. So the bottom line is, the conscious mind attributes authorship, but it only has limited access to what is really going on. So much of the time, it is mistaken, science has shown us. Everything happens automatically- the times we think we're intending are because the awareness has access to info that makes it seem that way, even though it's not reality.