I'm not sure consciousness can be reduced to simply chemical brain connections.
It could be much more fundamental and go much deeper than that.
The pribram-bohm hypothesis is something to be considered. [...]
This technical explanation is very interesting because it would fit into the observations made by Carl Jung when he tried to dig as deep into his subconscious as possible.
I feel like I have to explain first that philosophical, religious and psychological texts need to be read with a truly open mind very often, a dozen times or even more, for core meanings to become apparent to people not used to the deepest levels of thinking or discussion. An analytical, truly objective viewpoint is also necessary for true understanding without feeling attacked by statements that go against personal beliefs. Our mind sadly is used to always think itself as perfect in its perception regardless of how smart or aware one is. In theory human minds are perfect but in practicality it needs much training which people might or might not receive within their lifetimes because of upbringing or drawing false conclusions too early.
The extremely shorted version of Jung is:
After death we join the collective consciousness of humanity. All human souls come and go from there and gain guidance through instinct.
This is the core statement, any more or less falsifies its meaning.
So, this statement can be interpreted in a multitude of ways.
One negative interpretation would be that this makes individual lives meaningless as this over-soul is more important or the only thing of importance. We as individuals would be mere bacteria compared to it, insignificant to the highest degree. Bad people and evil acts, which there are always too many of, only serve to sabotage all our wellbeing for an excrutiatingly long time if not forever. Paranoia and anxiety on an infinite scale.
But a positive interpretation would be that every new life leads this over-soul to improvement and either we are improving infinitely or there is an end point that could give us eternal bliss. But it necessitates the annihilation of our egos to be able to feel this fullest of joys.
All religions (including spiritual movements) are based on this same concept of a collective and/or bliss at the end, but all have differences between each other just as most humans are different. The biggest religions can't or don't want to understand the core truth that would connect all of them as they put emphasis on a single key aspect of the whole that eventually consumes people negatively when driven to its logical conclusion. This doesn't mean that religions are evil, they are good for keeping those who want to spend less time thinking on a relatively right track and most humans never had the luxury to think deeply so it was and still is necessary. This is also why religions always condemn suicide because it just wastes time from a worldly perspective, but in actuality these mental blockades are plain necessary to overcome if one wants understanding and will eventually be overcome. Popular religions can't answer everything because one element has to override the reality of some details in order to make the narrative of the religion plausible yet easy to the people in need of guidance.
Many christians appear fake or fearful to outsiders from the belief because they have no dark side in them or suppress it, forcing themselves to be good for their god and the rewards of his kingdom. The fear of damnation in hell or their strong allegiance to god ruins their ability to connect with most people and gain love from one another, they are too dependent on God for their safety to be anything else but a reflection and might be broken because of the pressure.
I agree with esse_estpercip, Buddhism is tyrannical and insensitive. They deny themselves all pleasures of life out of the belief that this is a necessity, and put too much emphasis on the suffering. But this makes them inhuman and out of balance. Self-denial is a way of life for those who don't feel pain as strongly and are without a self (I doubt there are many, if any that really fit this mindset and don't take it on out of false beliefs). Buddhism is weird in that it recognizes in part that it can't end suffering and is mostly merely useful for coping in the real world. With this acknowledgement they transform suffering into their reason for existing and biggest enemy at the same time. At this point you either need rejection of that reality by substituting an after-existence or one needs the fullest annihilation of the self possible, but such extreme measures are obviously unnatural and beside the point when one considers that if suffering were the only point to life, why is there still some fleeting goodness around?
Hinduist karma concepts in India similarly place too much emphasis on eventual justice to guilt everyone into feeling content with their now in spite of the unjust reality they experience in the chaste system.
Some of the newest and closest yet weirdest religions must be Nosso Lar & Flipside. They are basically all the above collective consciousness stuff but in completely material and real world terms. The collective consciousness is made out to be an infinite city and everyone walks around and is nice to each other. You can learn about what you want and do what you want as our lives on Earth are voluntary life-lessons necessary to ascend into yet another, higher realm at best (Nosso Lar edition) or our beautiful and horrific lives are mere multiplayer videogames and fun theater plays to treat these godly peoples boredom at worst (Flipside edition). The latter especially is perfect for the age of materialism and instant-gratification, people that want to put as few thought into the values of their character as possible but still able to feign absolute superiority as they will get what they want regardless of their actions. But this is probably necessary to get the importance of good behavior across to most of the living today because people dislike thinking about theoretical concepts of immaterial space and timeless existence since it is so contradictory to what we experience in the now unless we force ourselves to think about deeper than surface level.
@noname223:
Overpopulation is something between a scattered mind and a trauma for the collective consciousnesses in this context. The last century was dictated by war and conflict so the consciousnesses rejects itself and fractures. People want to be further away from each other yet crave togetherness with identity politics that only comes slowly and is rejected when forced onto people. Eventually the problem will sort itself out and the population recedes when it fractured too much, or rather nothing is ever a problem when time is seen on a large enough scale.
On the concept of dog heaven: each species is its own collective according to Jung.
Then these collective consciousnesses of non-human lifeforms might be interconnected in some way which can only be guessed at based on real world evolution and similar instinctual behaviors between species. For example all mammals might depend on each others collective consciousness. In Flipside ideology non-human life appears unified and content with its lot in life of being at the mercy of humans and aware of reincarnation during their lifetimes. There might be some truth to that as they lack our intellectual capacity which complicates our understanding of the world, but are closer to nature and always find happiness in it.
To finish off:
It isn't necessary to be anything aside from what you want.
But to get what you want and stay happy with it, it must eventually lead into a higher ideal that carries you through the work and teaches resilience as Will alone can't bring you anything containing everlasting joy.
If you want material existence you get that in a reincarnation,
if you want to fix a past mistake you can do that in a reincarnation,
if you want a completely new life you get that in a reincarnation,
if you want to not exist at all you can do that and don't get reincarnated
Whatever you truly want with your heart will happen, if not now then later when your heart and reason know how to work together to achieve their goal. To understand this means you have all the time and choice in the world, which should give you the strength to make a first step out of misery.
If anyone has something to add like questions or logical flaws, I would like to read them. It's an interesting concept and I think we could all learn something from it.
