I'll try to sum up the Theory of Knowledge of Dialectical Materialism.
-There's no soul separate from brains.
-No motion without matter, therefore no mind without matter in motion
-No consciousness without matter (brain). However, consciousness is not matter (brain).
do you think that our intelligence is merely dictated by the locations of electrons?
Objective reality reflects through the senses into our brains. That is consciousness. Consciousness is not brains. It's a product of our brains and environment in our brains. Without brains AND senses, there wouldn't be consciousness. Those electrons in our brains can't alone create consciousness.
I myself am constantly amazed of our human mind. That however, has quite a logical explanation. Consciousness is what we use to understand the world. Of course one of the most complex objects of study for our consciousness is the consciousness itself. How could one, using his/her consciousness, rise above one's own consciousness? Rationally, I can understand the very basic laws of consciousness, but in the level of feelings I will always think "how wonderfull" human mind is. The two aspects (explaining consciousness by dialectical materialist philosophy / being amazed by the "wonders" of mind) don't contradict each other.
Proctor wrote:As you probably guessed from my post, I think there is a soul. I've never previously taken to the 'astral plane' concept much, but the idea of everything about me, my imagination, my thoughts, my memory, being made up entirely of protons, neutrons and electrons, it just seems...wrong.
Well... It is wrong! Your mind is not made up of protons etc., but of their motion which in turn, through senses, is dictated by objective reality. No need for mystical "soul", but neither do we have to resort to such
vulgar mechanical materialism, as to say that consciousness was matter. Consciousness is one type of matter's motion. It exists materially, but it isn't matter.
Here's
'MATERIALISM AND EMPIRIO-CRITICISM' by
V. I. LENIN
http://www.marx2mao.org/Lenin/MEC08NB.html
Large sections of this books deals with consciousness and the Theory of Knowledge.