Editing Consciousness (section)

==Stream of consciousness==
{{Main|Stream of consciousness (psychology)}}

[[William James]] is usually credited with popularizing the idea that human consciousness flows like a stream, in his ''Principles of Psychology'' of 1890.

According to James, the "stream of thought" is governed by five characteristics:<ref>{{cite book|author=William James|title=The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1|year=1890|publisher=H. Holt|page=225|author-link=William James}}</ref>
# ''Every thought tends to be part of a personal consciousness.''
# ''Within each personal consciousness thought is always changing.''
# ''Within each personal consciousness thought is sensibly continuous.''
# ''It always appears to deal with objects independent of itself.''
# ''It is interested in some parts of these objects to the exclusion of others.''

A similar concept appears in Buddhist philosophy, expressed by the Sanskrit term ''Citta-saṃtāna'', which is usually translated as [[mindstream]] or "mental continuum". Buddhist teachings describe that consciousness manifests moment to moment as sense impressions and mental phenomena that are continuously changing.<ref name=Aggregates>{{cite journal|author= Karunamuni N.D.|title=The Five-Aggregate Model of the Mind|journal=SAGE Open|volume=5|issue=2|pages=215824401558386|date=May 2015|doi=10.1177/2158244015583860|doi-access=free}}</ref> The teachings list six triggers that can result in the generation of different mental events.<ref name="Aggregates"/> These triggers are input from the five senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or touch sensations), or a thought (relating to the past, present or the future) that happen to arise in the mind. The mental events generated as a result of these triggers are: feelings, perceptions and intentions/behaviour. The moment-by-moment manifestation of the mind-stream is said to happen in every person all the time. It even happens in a scientist who analyzes various phenomena in the world, or analyzes the material body including the organ brain.<ref name="Aggregates"/> The manifestation of the mindstream is also described as being influenced by physical laws, biological laws, psychological laws, volitional laws, and universal laws.<ref name="Aggregates"/> The purpose of the Buddhist practice of [[mindfulness]] is to understand the inherent nature of the consciousness and its characteristics.<ref>{{cite book|title=Losing the Clouds, Gaining the Sky: Buddhism and the Natural Mind|chapter=Taming the mindstream|author=Dzogchen Rinpoche|editor=Doris Wolter|year=2007|publisher=Wisdom Publications|isbn=978-0-86171-359-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/losingcloudsgain0000unse/page/81 81–92]|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/losingcloudsgain0000unse/page/81}}</ref>

===Narrative form===
In the West, the primary impact of the idea has been on literature rather than science: "[[stream of consciousness (narrative mode)|stream of consciousness as a narrative mode]]" means writing in a way that attempts to portray the moment-to-moment thoughts and experiences of a character. This technique perhaps had its beginnings in the monologues of Shakespeare's plays and reached its fullest development in the novels of [[James Joyce]] and [[Virginia Woolf]], although it has also been used by many other noted writers.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Humphrey|title=Stream of Consciousness in the Modern Novel|date=1992 |orig-date=1954|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-00585-3|pages=23–49}}</ref>

Here, for example, is a passage from Joyce's ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' about the thoughts of Molly Bloom:

{{blockquote|Yes because he never did a thing like that before as ask to get his breakfast in bed with a couple of eggs since the City Arms hotel when he used to be pretending to be laid up with a sick voice doing his highness to make himself interesting for that old faggot Mrs Riordan that he thought he had a great leg of and she never left us a farthing all for masses for herself and her soul greatest miser ever was actually afraid to lay out 4d for her methylated spirit telling me all her ailments she had too much old chat in her about politics and earthquakes and the end of the world let us have a bit of fun first God help the world if all the women were her sort down on bathingsuits and lownecks of course nobody wanted her to wear them I suppose she was pious because no man would look at her twice I hope Ill never be like her a wonder she didnt want us to cover our faces but she was a well-educated woman certainly and her gabby talk about Mr Riordan here and Mr Riordan there I suppose he was glad to get shut of her.<ref>{{cite book|author=James Joyce|title=Ulysses|year=1990|publisher=BompaCrazy.com|page=620|author-link=James Joyce}}</ref>}}