Have you ever watched how animals are being slaughtered? I have the occasion to witness of slaughtering of sheep during the ritualistic slaughter during the Islamic festival of 'Idil Adha' - the Festival of Sacrifice. It is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Prophet Ishmael as an act of obedience to God.
The sacrificial animals are all arranged in a wooden barricade and each one of them are slaughtered. I watched the sheep giving minimal resistance when the 'subjugators' pull them to the nearby drain and laid them sideways and slaughtered the sheep. Do the sheep know what is actually going on with them? Are they conscious of their surroundings and what was happening to them? After that incident, I registered a 'painful' experience and wanted to go a vegetarian diet. But I did not long as I felt very lethargic after two weeks. I had no choice and had to revert to a more 'balanced' diet.
What is consciousness? It is a sensation of how awaken are you with your thoughts, feelings and the environment or surroundings. For illustration, if we encounter such 'life and death' matter we would have given a 'big' fight to the entire scene. It is because we are conscious. Our consciousness and animal 'consciousness' is very different.
What is consciousness?
If our lives are a recorded movie, can we rewind backwards in time to test how conscious are we? Move 10 years back and can we remember the things that happen to us. I think I can. It was a time when my third child came to this world and I moved in to my current home. I was lighter in body and mass as I had enrolled in gym. I had a nice mustache and a little younger. My children were very young and they were not so rebellious. My wife is still as beautiful. My profession was consistently with property management. 20 years back in time, I had my first marriage anniversary. I was living in a 4 room apartment many kilometres away from where I am staying now. My job was still in property management. It was a period I had experience my first born- a son.
The animals are dreaming while living
When I was 18 years old, I was studying in a private college worrying about my 'pimple' face. I did not want to engage in any kind of dating activity as I thought it was not genuine thing to do. I was more concern with spiritual matters.
When I was eight years old I can fairly remember the games I played and my favourite play toys. I can fairly remember my childhood friends. I can still remember my spiritual teacher who likes to wear white attires. When I was a year old, I cannot remember anything. The picture is blank. Consciousness is how awaken are you with your thoughts, feelings and surroundings. I find this interesting site about consciousness
Consciousness is when the knowledge about what is happening around is crystal clear and we are able to sense the outcome of the stimuli of the environment. You can be able to sense the good and bad about your thoughts and feelings. You are so called AWARE of your living.
Baby Brain
The brain size of a baby human is a little more than one quarter of its adult. Can you remember any incident when you were a year old and below? We hardly can because during that period only the lower portions of the nervous system (the spinal cord and brain stem) are very well developed, whereas the higher regions (the limbic system and cerebral cortex) are still rather primitive.
Our brain has evolved from a primitive stage to the existing one. Human brain was once similar in size and limited to the lower portion of the nervous system. The spinal cord and brain stem. This is the reptilian brain. It is the oldest which controls the body's vital functions such as the heart rate, breathing, body temperature and balance. It only consists of the brainstem and the cerebellum. The reptilian brain is reliable but tends to be somewhat rigid and compulsive.
Size of brain
It has been found that drinking alcohol can have adverse effect in brain size. It is intoxicating because consciousness is affected by the decrease in size. Pregnant mother also report of forgetfulness as the mother experience changes in size of brain. If a very minute decrease in size of brain can affect our consciousness what happens if the neo cortex is not developed or not there? If you can compare any animal brain to that of human we can see the difference. The size of brain matters. It is at the neo cortex that sensory and motor regions are located. Predatory mammals have larger neo cortex area than herbivorous animals. When a tiger attacks and kill its prey is all by 'non conscious' display of survival. But when we survive we do it with consciousness taking its good and bad, and fully aware its result. When we attack we have to have a reason to that. We do not live in forgetfulness unlike the animals. To say simply the animals truly living in a fantasy world - life is like dreaming to them. -but it is not for us. We live consciously.
Folds of the brain
The increase in the folds of the cortex has been a major factor in the evolution of the brain. These folds, by enabling a larger surface area to fit inside the cranial chamber, allow for a better organization of complex behaviours. This is another vital difference between a human brain to that of animal.
Conclusion
In my opinion, animals are living but they are living as how a dreamer will live. The consciousness in any animal is not consciousness to human standard. When we think and observe that the pain inflicted to the animal is registered by some measure it is not what they are experiencing. They are all dreaming while living.
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