Do you believe in free will?

[Perhaps]

So, you are proposing three categories of metaphysical existence - material, abstract and mental (the one you refer to as "the mind"). You see the third one as a separate category in and of itself, but that does not clarify any other details regarding its existence. Unless you can specify how it interacts with the other two forms of reality, there is no reason to even consider its separate existence.

It is what creates the other two forms of reality. It therefore controls how the material and the abstract behave. What are we past our perceptions? What exists outside of consciousness? What allows you to 'know' that things outside of your mind exist?

You contradict yourself. As you have maintained, the mind is dependent upon the brain for its existence and it does not outlast the brain. In that case, it is the material construct which would allow for the existence of the mind.

You are viewing the supposition from the reverse. When the mind ceases, so to do our perceptions of the material world - including the brain. We perceive the brain ceasing as the end of the mind, but it is the mind ceasing which causes an end to the brain's perceived existence.

Here's where you start going demonstrably wrong. Reality refers to the material world. What is true and what is not is determined by correspondence to that world. A true material world is a redundant expression.

The differences in perception do not affect the objectivity of the material world. They are due to the differences in the mechanism of perception. This explanation more than accounts for the differing perceptions of the material world - it also accounts for the same perceptions. Your explanation does not address why two people with completely different minds would perceive the same thing.

As I see it, your error comes from two faulty premises. Firstly, you sate, in contradiction to your earlier statement, that mind's existence is not allowed for by material construct. Second, in order to account for differing perceptions of an objective phenomena, instead of the more obvious solution of different mechanisms of perception, you go for the untenable position of attacking the objectivity of the phenomena. The result here is that you start placing the secondary form of reality (the mind) before the primary (the material). Since mind cannot exist without a material construct, since mental awareness cannot exist without a material world to be aware of - these statements place "mind" as a consequence of the material. Using subjectivity to try and switch places creates a contradiction. These two mistaken premises erroneously lead you to place "mind" outside the chain of causality - or rather, every mind as a first cause of its own.

What is the material world? What is true? We are confined by our perception; we are limited by our awareness. The true material world is simply what you perceive your world to be. Once again, the material world does exist, but as for how closely our perceptions of that world are to being what it truly looks like - we can never know. An objective material world (not like the one you believe you are experiencing) would explain the same perceptions, while the mind accounts for the differing perceptions among this objectiveness.

Simply stated, the idea that we are all experiencing a hard surface right now would be a good inclination towards believing that a hard surface is a part of the objective material world (that our perception is close to what the actual material world looks like). The idea that you see 'red' when I see 'blue' reinforces that color is merely a perception created by the mind and is not innate within the 'true' material world.

Very simple multiple choice question for both of you, are the electrical impulses in our brains material or non-material?

Material.

---

Let's suppose a thought experiment to help clarify some of my justifications...

1. You are the only person in existence in the material world
2. You do not possess, nor can you possess, a mechanism through which you can 'view' or 'see' the world
3. This material world which you exist in has the same attributes as the one which we exist within currently
______________________________________________________________________________________
4. Do colors exist?

Yes.

How do they exist if there is nothing to acknowledge their existence? What is existence outside of perception?