Why can we Ignore the body's messages?

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Why can I ignore my body?

This is a reality we all experience.

For example, I get hungry. I can ignore the messaging from my brain.

Why?

Thank you,

Mike
 
Our corrupted human state creates a disconnect between our minds and bodies, which **should **be a total unity.

ICXC NIKA
 
I’m not a biologist, plus I see you put this in the philosophy forum, but thinking in terms of biology, we have the ability to prioritize to some degree. We may experience different needs simultaneously, and have to be able to organize them. Impulsively obeying them could lead to some not good situations.

(For example, see what happens to animals who just have to cross the street that very instant.) :o

I would say that it’s a part of free will. We can choose not to do things.
 
You can’t ignore them forever.

What is the alternative to ignoring hunger when you have no food? Humans, for most of history go through periods of having little to eat.

However, If you are hungry and you have food, but you ignore it like say when fasting, then I would say it is because you have an intellect and a will. A will because you chose not to eat despite your body telling you otherwise, and an intellect because of the reasons you chose not to eat.
 
ffg said:
Why can I ignore my body?

This is a reality we all experience.

For example, I get hungry. I can ignore the messaging from my brain.

Why?

Thank you,

Mike
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If you are used to eat ordinarily and are healthy, the lack of food in your digestive system will determine your feeling of hunger. However, your hunger does not determine the movements of your body that would fill your stomach with food. Why? It simply does not.
 
I should say that animals can also ignore hunger as that ability is a part of animal bodies in general. For instance, I heard this one story about a teacher and a class in which some class mates found a stray dog. The class asked if they could keep the dog as a school pet. At first the teacher did not want to, but then he said they could keep the dog as long as they followed his rules. And these were that they could not touch the dog or pet it. They could feed it, but they could not pet it. As time went on eventually the dog stopped eating and he died. What happened the students asked? The teacher said I wanted to illustrate to you that without love even a dog will lose the will to live.
 
fisherman_carl said:
I should say that animals can also ignore hunger as that ability is a part of animal bodies in general. For instance, I heard this one story about a teacher and a class in which some class mates found a stray dog. The class asked if they could keep the dog as a school pet. At first the teacher did not want to, but then he said they could keep the dog as long as they followed his rules. And these were that they could not touch the dog or pet it. They could feed it, but they could not pet it. As time went on eventually the dog stopped eating and he died. What happened the students asked? The teacher said I wanted to illustrate to you that without love even a dog will lose the will to live.
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That happened to my sister’s dog, so I heard (I was living out of town at the time). She had been living with my Grandma, and when GM passed, the dog just stopped feeding and pined away.

I’d call this a psychological dysfunction however, rather than a normal ability, as it leads to death.

ICXC NIKA
 
Thanks all.

I kept the question quick without a whole lot of direction, to hopefully get a bunch of backgrounds. It didn’t work.

Thoughts on these couple of lines:

" ‘matter’ directing traffic (ex: hunger), can be ignored by the same ‘matter’.

That seems illogical, so there is a reality outside of matter."

I’ve only received 1 answer from multiple people with this one, who generally share the same opinion that a physical reality is the only reality.

Any guesses to the common answer?

Take care,

Mike
 
Because the Creator wants us to aspire to something greater than our bodily impulses. Sexual impulses, for example, should not be acted out whenever we please. It’s hard to control, but controlling your sexual appetite until marriage is part and parcel of living a pure life.

We shouldn’t ignore it altogether, though, because celibacy is not for everyone.
 
ffg said:
Thoughts on these couple of lines:

" ‘matter’ directing traffic (ex: hunger), can be ignored by the same ‘matter’.

That seems illogical, so there is a reality outside of matter."

Mike
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I think there is reality outside of matter. However, the proposition you are presenting above is not illogical at all, ffg. It might be false, if you like, but not illogical. Besides, you can see, for example, how bananas are not attracted by magnets (some matter “ignores” other matter, you see?).
 
JuanFlorencio said:
I think there is reality outside of matter. However, the proposition you are presenting above is not illogical at all, ffg. It might be false, if you like, but not illogical. Besides, you can see, for example, how bananas are not attracted by magnets (some matter “ignores” other matter, you see?).
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Thanks for the reply.

I think you missed the word ‘same’, it’s a key to the ‘il’ in the logic.

My grey matter can’t direct traffic and ignore the traffic at the same time.

There is something else doing the ignoring, while my grey matter is directing.

This is the outside of matter reality, of which we agree exists.

Take care,

Mike
 
ffg said:
Thanks for the reply.

I think you missed the word ‘same’, it’s a key to the ‘il’ in the logic.

My grey matter can’t direct traffic and ignore the traffic at the same time.

There is something else doing the ignoring, while my grey matter is directing.

This is the outside of matter reality, of which we agree exists.

Take care,

Mike
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I see what you say…, but perhaps I am still missing something:

Given that you talk about “the grey matter” I tend to think that with the phrase “The same matter” you mean just “the same kind of matter” (so, the “banana-magnet” example does not apply easily). Still, If that was the case, then I would tell you that two different parts of the brain could be causally associated to the same parts of the body in such a way that in certain circumstances there could be a conflict of energies proceeding from those different parts of the brain -so to say-, each one pushing the body to act in a different manner. It seems that this kind of things really happen. The brain is not a simple entity.
 
Indeed, internal conflict within the head is sometimes glaringly evident in split-brain patients: those who have had the left and right brain surgically separated so as to control epileptic seizures. Normally, each half of the brain acts as a check on the other, but when the brain is split, that cannot happen.

An example was given of a man who, after such an operation, was fitted with electrodes in his head that researchers could use to directly raise one of the man’s arms. “Keep your arm from moving,” he was told.

He could not control the affected limb once the power was turned on; but he could hold the arm down with his other hand.

ICXC NIKA
 
JuanFlorencio said:
I see what you say…, but perhaps I am still missing something:

Given that you talk about “the grey matter” I tend to think that with the phrase “The same matter” you mean just “the same kind of matter” (so, the “banana-magnet” example does not apply easily). Still, If that was the case, then I would tell you that two different parts of the brain could be causally associated to the same parts of the body in such a way that in certain circumstances there could be a conflict of energies proceeding from those different parts of the brain -so to say-, each one pushing the body to act in a different manner. It seems that this kind of things really happen. The brain is not a simple entity.
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Certainly the brain can work on the same body part differently, like the heart, a valve might be getting signals to work normally where a muscle section is fighting to work normally (perhaps this is more of a lack of signal).

I don’t know if I could say the brain can tell, say a valve, to work normally and not, at the same time. (Or perhaps it can send the message and not complete the task, like that example above, or the message is stuck in the outbox)

The brain is amazing. The brain is working my heart, lungs, and fingers right now, while also calculating what I’m seeing and helping me develop thought, based on my current experience (reading your post), all at the same time.

At the same time I just got a hunger message from my brain (it’s close to lunch, and I am bad about not eating breakfast), I had, and have right now, the ability to ignore that message.

It’s really an honest question, I want to hear support that carrying out this act to ignore is something that can be answered in light of a ‘material only’ reality. If I was a ‘material is only’ person, I would need this answer to be such.

The common (and always) answer is ‘we haven’t figured that out yet’. There has to be a better answer and I’m most willing to listen.

It seems the puzzle is going left and right at the same time. It seems there has to be 2 things moving.

Take care,

Mike
 
The heart can operate without (name removed by moderator)ut from the head. Conversely, the lungs cannot.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
The heart can operate without (name removed by moderator)ut from the head. Conversely, the lungs cannot.
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Like the stomach (post #15), the heart also has its own neurons. Not sure but I think those are the only two “brains” aside from the one between our ears.
 
inocente said:
Similar to how adaptive cruise control ignores the set speed when the car approaches something slower. Just one system overriding another. For instance, see scientificamerican.com/article/gut-second-brain/
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Thanks for the reply and the link.

I’d say a car’s computer program in such case is ‘if/then’.

I don’t see it as similar as the same matter acting in opposite directions, at the same time.

As what seems to be the case with the brain, if only matter - is.

Take care,

Mike
 
GEddie said:
The heart can operate without (name removed by moderator)ut from the head. Conversely, the lungs cannot.

ICXC NIKA
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Ah questions!

I know this derails, (can you derail your own thread?) but I have to ask - Doesn’t the potential positive outcome with a shock the heart by an AED imply that there is (for lack of the proper term) ‘wiring’ that’s been shorted at the heart?

What would be the source of the wiring?

Take care,

Mike
 
ffg said:
Ah questions!

I know this derails, (can you derail your own thread?) but I have to ask - Doesn’t the potential positive outcome with a shock the heart by an AED imply that there is (for lack of the proper term) ‘wiring’ that’s been shorted at the heart?

What would be the source of the wiring?

Take care,

Mike
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As was said earlier, the heart has its own neural circuits (sinoatrial node?) This is why it can beat for example, in a headless body, or even without a body, until it runs out of blood.

Dysfunction of this neural system results in atrial fibrillation, where the heart does not stop but rather goes into spasm, with potentially life-ending results. The “shock paddles” applied to the body are designed to reset the natural rhythm.

Chronic dysfunction of the “wiring” is corrected by the use of a pacemaker.

ICXC NIKA
 
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