Initial Curiosity

This planned chat is to be about an ambiguous topic (which to me conceptual ambiguity is often interesting just on that basis alone) though one that is underlying much if not all philosophical consideration: the nature of reality. Jerry, who has given me some prior topics and is one of the most regular members of the group, will propose his ideas for 5- 10 mins at the beginning of the meeting on the nature of reality. His ideas are not set in stone, and they are intended to challenge you to think about reality in new ways. It’s quite possible, beyond just this posted date, that this group is best suited for thinking in new ways rather than necessarily (though it’s possible) finding ‘the answer’ anyway.

For anyone who has had any near death experiences, have you learned/realized the meaning of life? Does life have a meaning or do we create our own? Is meaning in life to some extent relative to the person?
All these questions are stimulating to me, though my focus in this session is the NDE relation (if any) to the meaning of life.

That cake above. I know I didn’t include all that is in this whole picture. But that cake… sure is pretty en’nit? Maybe tasty too. Anyway…the plan is for an attendee to pick a topic for today prior to the meeting. A topic within the view of (meaning not necessarily exclusive to) philosophy, spirituality, music or political. It can even be a topic related to/similar to one I’ve previously posted. If no topic is selected prior, we can talk at the beginning and I'll choose one the day of (whether it's my own or someone else's).

Mainly because of a zoom presentation I attended by Cynthia Sue Larson, posted by another meetup group, I’m interested in talking about Consciousness. It is a subject/topic that gets my attention again in some form eventually already. What would you, member, say “Consciousness” is? Jerry, one of my appreciated group members is returning to share a few words (a short summary) on what he has learned about Consciousness from studying, plus his own ideas. For this conversation, even if one does choose to bring a scientific description, for this, I can ask a couple of example questions accordingly. Are there philosophical implications to the scientific description of “Consciousness”? Are there “metaphysical” implications to the scientific description of “Consciousness”? The scope of this chat is purposefully wide, which also, purposefully, isn’t quite new for this group.