Diagrams of the Consciousness

From the book Self-liberation by Luis Ammann

Figure 1 shows the most basic scheme in which the stimuli reach the consciousness, which then acts and gives responses.

Figure 2 includes greater detail and shows that the stimuli come from both inside the body as well as from outside it. The stimuli are received by the senses as sensations and are carried to the consciousness as perceptions, that is, as structured sensations. The consciousness then acts and produces images that carry energy or "charge" to the centers of response, producing external or internal responses depending on the type and location of the image.

Figure 3 is more complete. Here the senses are differentiated into the external senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch) and the internal senses (cenesthesia: pain, temperature, muscular tension, etc. and kinesthesia: bodily position and movement).

Stimuli from both the external and internal environments reach the consciousness structured as perceptions, and are simultaneously recorded in the memory. The memory also carries stimuli to the consciousness as remembrances. The consciousness then transmits images that act upon the centers, and the centers make external (motor) and internal (vegetative) responses. Each response by a center is then detected by both internal senses and the consciousness. Thanks to this, the consciousness is aware of the operations being carried out. We call this feedback of the response. These responses are also recorded in the memory; this is the basis of learning, which improves as the operations are repeated. If for any reason there is a blockage of the impulses or signals which should come from the senses, the impulses generated by the response of the centers, or the impulses from the memory, this will perturb the functioning of the consciousness. The consciousness will also be perturbed if excessive impulses reach it. The signals or impulses that run through this circuit can vary in intensity. The impulses may have normal intensity and be within the usual thresholds; they may have very little energy and be below the thresholds; they may be excessive and exceed the maximum thresholds of tolerance; and finally they may have zero intensity, that is, they may be blocked.