Consciousness and memory

Somewhere in the past week has come into my mind that consciousness is not an attribute entirely contained in the brain, but involves interactions with the world outside in the form of people, images, the written word, visits to places, and so on. This concept has been reinforced by my revisiting archived colour film negatives with a scanner, from the distant past. All of a sudden one realises that one knows and comprehends very much more than comes to mind if one just sits in one's chair and trys to remember. The old images bring to mind much associated detail that one had thought forgotten.

In a similar way, listening to old recordings that one has made as an instrumentalist brings back the state of mind one was in when one recorded them. The point is that the information in the recall is lots more than the information in the prompting image or recording, but would not be accessible without that prompt.