Some decades back, an overwhelming question in the world of life-science was, ��What is the relation between mind and brain�� or ��How does soul interface with body��. This question has also haunted me for years but the answer seemed superficial as most suggested that consciousness was a mental process involving both attention to external stimuli and short term memory. Recently, I happened to read an article on the subject by Noble Laureate Francis Crick, who helped determine the structure of DNA and fellow biophysicist Christof Koch, which explained how consciousness could be better understood.

The article dwells at length on the following ideas.
Mind��s most mysterious aspect is consciousness or awareness, which can take many forms, from the basic senses of pain and pleasure to higher feelings of self-consciousness. All these aspects of the mind can be explained in a more materialistic way as the behavior of a large set of interacting neurons electro-chemically with each other. Thus, consciousness is not a thing but a process that occurs in the intricately folded sheets of nerve tissues containing billions of neurons and several axons.

Now, the question is how to explain mental events as being caused by electrical firing of large set of neurons? Some scientists say, this cannot be solved by existing science but possibly be done through Quantum Mechanics. If man has been able to work out complex instrumentation and logic systems while designing robots, going a step higher, and understanding our emotions, isn’t too far.
Experiments on monkeys have shown a rough correlation of ��visual awareness�� with the activation of neurons in the visual neocortex of the monkey��s brain. Since visual awareness is only a sub-set of the whole consciousness, it is believed that once we master the secret of ��visual awareness��, we will be close to understanding this central mystery of human life: How the physical events occurring in our brains while we think and act relate to our subjective sensations, �� that is, how the brain relates to the mind.

Do you agree consciousness is just another process in your brain? Or do you think mind will never understand itself so our scientists are wasting their time and energy to seek an answer?

Consciousness is a process of the brain. However, we have input so much information about the brain to the brain, by which it has certainly processed an awareness of itself. Go brain! You the man!

they also say we only use 10% of our brains, but that doesn't seem very true... in a sense, everyones mind controls their individual universe... so that would be billions/trillions of universes intersecting at any given time... maybe that is the consciousness..

If consciousness is just a process happening inside a brain, how can then we explain Out of Body Experiences, Near Death Experiences etc.

Some people who have experienced OBE or NDE during brain surgery are convinced that consciousness does not need a brain to survive. A brain carries or manifests consciousness but doesn't create it.

did't they call that "soul" or "spirit"..?

Our brain is quite the magician constantly directing, redirecting; constructing, deconstructing; wiring, rewiring; and so on. While doing so it can create an illusion or mirage that plainly does not exist in reality. OBEs can be caused by NDEs and most probable the result of the brain's reaction to deprivations that sustain life thereby creating these so called phenomena experiences.

...OR...are we just part of...

Neo!

I often doubt our own physicality; actually being an illusive projection underscored with zeros and ones.

I reject the thought of it for my sanity's sake.

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/consciousness.html