My real name, the human brain and life after death

It’s funny how you wake up with answers to questions you had knocking around in your brain.  This time it was an answer to a question that I thought I had already answered.  I was pondering whether to use my real name on this blog.  My initial conclusion was:  Why risk it?  Why risk being harassed on-line or worse, pissing off some jihadist.  Then I thought,  “You chicken-shit, be a man.”  Then I thought:  “OK, if & when I try to start making money at this, I’ll put my name out there.  Why would I risk anything for nothing?” 

When I woke up, the answer and focus was different.  This post is as much about the answer to this question as it is about the awesomeness of the human brain.  Again, I wasn’t even thinking about this anymore.  Question had been asked and answered.  Then, a few minutes after waking, the question popped back into my head with an answer from a completely different perspective.  The reason that I didn’t want to put my name on my blog was that I was afraid of incurring the disapproval of my employer.  After that, I was afraid of my own government, the IRS primarily, because I point out from time to time the fact that the 16th Amendment was never ratified and I promote its repeal.

So, when I first thought about this concern, what popped into my head were bully-bloggers and suicide-bombers.  What I woke up with was the clear awareness of the fear of my employer and my government that was the true deterrent. 

But, you know what?  People have faced much greater risks throughout history for raising their voices...

But, again, the real point of this post is how neat it is that the human brain continues working on questions without our conscious awareness.  How many times have you been unable to recall someone's name or some other bit of information and had that name or bit of info pop into your brain later, long after you had moved on to other things?  This might suggest that the physical brain is separate and distinct from consciousness, and, if this is true, then the opposite must be as well.  And, if consciousness exists separately from the brain, might it also be conceivable that consciousness continues after we die?