3 ms·
Firstly, this is a very very difficult topic. Some ancients books have tried to communicate the same ideas I am trying to convey here, but have been less than s
by kukkeliskuu 3y ago
Firstly, this is a very very difficult topic. Some ancients books have tried to communicate the same ideas I am trying to convey here, but have been less than succesful. There appears to be deep psychological reasons why these things are difficult to grasp. So I hope you will forgive me if I cannot fully convince you about my experiences.
Actually, I am not trying to prove anything to you (or others) or say how people should think about consciousness. I am just sharing my experiences and what I have found based on them, so others can try out and see for themselves, so perhaps we could learn together more about these.
Neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinas did an interesting experiment on himself, and explained it in an interview on Science Network about his book "I of the vortex". He was able to consistently turn his foot inwards by placing a strong magnet at certain position on his head. Then he decided he would move his foot outwards when the magnet was applied on the same spot. When he did this, his foot still moved inwards. His experience was that "I changed my mind". He was able to repeat this experiment many times, and each time he felt he had changed his mind. So he could not distinguish between really changing his mind and his body doing something and his mind making up a post-hoc rationalization for his body doing it.
This story, as well as my experience of trying to understand my consciousness experimentally has led me to become very suspicious about my own memory and thoughts about my conscious experiences. And consequentially, about other people's thoughts and memory about their conscious experiences as well.
So my question to you is, how would you know that 100% of the times you have had a similar experience, you were 100% of the time 100% focused in deeply thinking about something?