The scientists now concluded that you are(self) not the brain (form)

The scientists now concluded that you are(self) not the brain (form). Consciousness requires the joint operation of brain, body and world. "You are not your brain. The brain, rather, is part of what you are."

The Biology of Consciousness

by Alva Noë. Hill and Wang, 2009

Alva Noe, a University of California, Berkeley, philosopher and cognitive scientist, argues that after decades of concerted effort on the part of neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers "only one proposition about how the brain makes us conscious ... has emerged unchallenged: we don't have a clue." The reason we have been unable to explain the neural basis of consciousness, he says, is that it does not take place in the brain. Consciousness is not something that happens inside us but something we achieve it is more like dancing than it is like the digestive process. To understand consciousness the fact that we think and feel and that a world shows up for us we need to look at a larger system of which the brain is only one element. Consciousness requires the joint operation of brain, body and world. "You are not your brain. The brain, rather, is part of what you are."

Thus, science is going in the right direction in its invention and one day it will declare that everything is consciousness, which Sage Sri,  Sankara declared 1200 years back –everything is Atman  because Atman is in the form of consciousness.

All that Science has discovered only gives one an idea of something that is ever passing away; hence if scientists understand this and ask "Is there a Remnant, a Real?” they will come to non-dualistic truth through such soul-centric inquiry.

Everything in this universe will vanish as its formless substance.  Hence one ought not to get attached to the body and the world of the waking experience. Not only the individuals will change die, but all the contents of the universe within the waking experience will vanish as formless non-dual consciousness.  Thus one that becomes waking, dream and deep sleep is nothing but consciousness. Thus consciousness alone is real and three states are mere illusion created out of consciousness.

A seeker has to start with matter (mind or universe)and spirit (soul or consciousness).  He has to analyze three states and taking away from it all that is impermanent then he gets at formless witness or consciousness, which is the innermost self. Without the consciousness the three states ceases to exist. The consciousness can exist with or without the three states. It remains without the waking or dream in deep sleep. 

The three states are an object to the formless subject which is consciousness. When seeker is able to make the distinction between formless witness (soul , the innermost self)and witnessed (three states) he will understand that every living creature, even animals possess the consciousness (formless witness). In this sense only, he will come to understand that consciousness is present everywhere, provided consciousness is taken to mean the consciousness (formless witness).

The nature of the mind, which is present in the form of universe, is constant flux.  The universe appears as waking or dream. Without being aware of the existence of the formless witness the three states people think everything is in flux in the universe.

 The permanent thing is the substance of the mind or universe.  The formless substance is the witness of the mind (I) or universe.  The formless substance and witness are one in essence. That essence is soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.  The soul or consciousness is real and permanent.  The universe is mere mirage created out of consciousness.

World is both real and unreal. It is real because it is a manifestation of consciousness, but is unreal, in the sense, that it is not absolute and eternal like consciousness itself.

Intellectuals   approach was more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the world, they take it as real.

On the standpoint the soul, the innermost self the universe is mere mirage.  The soul is the permanent all else mere illusion.  Man and exist in the unreal universe and by discussing on the standpoint of the ego (waking entity) which is the false self within the false experience will leads to perversity. 

  

In self-awareness the body is not considered as body, ego is not considered as ego and the world is not considered as world because body, ego and the world too are nothing but consciousness.   In self-awareness there is no flux. There is unity in diversity.  Only in ignorance the illusion is experienced as reality. The nature of the illusion is impermanent and constant flux whereas the nature of the soul or consciousness is permanent and still.