[First Amendment]

Having been a generous partaker of hallucinagens long ago, I can personally attest to how they change and color one's consciousness. I am not saying that Prozac and Zoloft (or even alcohol) don't change people's moods or influence their emotions. My statement is that the brain or any other chemical or physical structure is not the cause of consciousness. There are many evidences to support this; one of which is out of body or near death experiences. It can also be experienced through various types of meditation.

There have been scientists who have understood the fact that the brain itself is not the source of consciousness, I'll have to look up some if you want names. Not that the brain doesn't filter stuff - it's like a computer. If your computer is malfunctioning, it makes everything hard or impossible to do. So problems in the brain make it hard to think straight or whatever. But the basis of depression is not chemical in origin. It's not that some brains are just lacking in Prozac or whatever the chemical name of it is.

If chemical imbalance were the cause of all emotional or mental turmoil and suffering, no one would be able to cure such illnesses without drugs, and all would become cured with them. It's a mechanistic solution, based on the materialistic vision that there is no soul, no atma, no eternal self. If you subscribe to that belief system, then you won't agree with me no matter what I say.

[jlogajan]

My statement is that the brain or any other chemical or physical structure is not the cause of consciousness.

Appealing to a supernatural dimension does not get you closer to the point of being able to define the limits of insanity. If anything it adds a whole other dimension of uncertainty and ambiguity. So rather than increasing your ability to place blame on the individual, it dilutes it.