Consciousness and Thought: A Reflection

I’ve come to see more and more that there is a deep confusion in the way conventional science approaches the question of consciousness. It so often treats consciousness as though it were just thought — as though awareness itself were nothing more than the chatter of neurons in the brain.

But I don’t believe this to be true. To me, the distinction is absolutely clear: consciousness is not thought.

Consciousness as the Source

For me, consciousness is the creator. It is the pure awareness in which everything arises. It isn’t bound by time or space. It doesn’t come and go. It just is.

Thought, by contrast, always belongs to time and space. It has sequence. It has boundaries. It relies on memory of the past or imagination of the future. It is always moving, always limited.

Consciousness, however, holds thought within itself — just as it holds galaxies, atoms, sensations, and all of life. Consciousness can hold thought, but thought can never hold consciousness.

The Role of Thought

Our egos operate through thought. Thought is like the ego’s program — running its comparisons, protections, and plans. Artificial Intelligence does something similar. It can process, generate, and even surprise us with clever patterns. But it has no inner knowing. No awareness of being.

That is the crucial difference: a program cannot create consciousness, but consciousness can create a program.

Science’s Blind Spot

I feel that this is where science has taken a wrong turn. By reducing consciousness to thought, it has mistaken the shadow for the light. The brain and its activity are real enough, but they are appearances within consciousness, not the source of consciousness itself.

It’s not that consciousness is inside the universe. Rather, it feels much truer to say the universe itself is inside consciousness.

Why It Matters to Me

Recognising this has changed how I see myself and the world around me. I no longer take my thoughts to be the whole of who I am. Thoughts are useful, yes — but limited. Consciousness, by contrast, is limitless.

When I rest in that recognition, there’s a deep peace. I feel a closer alignment with truth. Creativity flows more easily. And I begin to see the difference between what is only noise of the mind, and what is real.

For me, this is the heart of it: Consciousness transcends time and space. Thought exists within them. Consciousness is the creator. Thought is its creation.

That is what I know to be true.

✨ I share these reflections not to persuade, but simply to offer them. If they resonate with you, let them deepen your own journey. If not, that is also fine. We each have our own path to walk, and truth has a way of finding us in its own time.