Is a brain scanner helpful to look into our brains to find out how the brain works & how to eliminate suffering?

Last Updated on January 27, 2025 by pg@petergamma.org

Brain scanners are helpful, but can they solve this problem?

Francis Crick and Christoph Koch published in 1990 a paper with the title”:

Towards a neurobiological theory of consciousness”

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Francis+Crick%2C+Christoph+Koch%3A+Towards+a+neurobiological+theory+of+consciousness&btnG=

This was a paper which formulated a theory how to solve this problem. Which means that Christoph Koch wanted to find out how the brain works already in 1990. And Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org

too. But this problem is not solved up to the present day.

Since in 2023, Koch lost a 25-year bet to philosopher David Chalmers. Koch bet that the neural underpinnings of consciousness will be well-understood by 2023, while Chalmers bet the contrary. Upon losing, Koch gifted Chalmers a case of fine wine.[26]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christof_Koch

And what exactly is the reason we want to find out how the brain works?

As the Dalai Lama

once said

„nobody wants to suffer

everybody wants happiness“

But as long as we do not yet have understood how the brain works on a scientific basis in detail, how should we then be able to understand with a brain scanner how to eliminate suffering?

Do you know a spiritual teacher who says he was trained in a brain scanner?

Brain scanners which cannot monitor what happens at the cellular level in detail. A level at which phenomenon such as consciousness, suffering, but also happiness most probably happen?