Neuroscientist says your sense of "self" may be merely a hallucination

[moyshekapoyre]

And my hallucinatory self is sending this to your hallucinatory self:

Enlightenment and the Brain. The Night the Buddha was Free.

A scientific explanation of how enlightenment changes your brain by making small changes to one deep brain part. The neurology of final liberation.

www.shaktitechnology.com

(Buddhists believe this hallucination of "self" is caused by the use of drugs called "beliefs.")

 

[joedirt]

I really enjoyed reading that.

...So, following the rule of science that the simplest explanation is probably the closest to the truth, two things about the sense of self stand out.

One is that the sense of self is partly made up of language. Although it's different for each person, we maintain a constant stream of inner dialog, talking to ourselves. We rehearse conversations before we have them, and when we lose an argument, we then spend time thinking of what we should have said.

...

The second simple thing about the sense of self is that it may be an hallucination. The brain parts that support it are also the ones behind hallucinations. And, in looking for the human 'self,' science is coming up empty-handed. Cognitive science understands quite a lot about the modalities in which it operates, but not much about what holds them together.

Very interesting.

I actually agree very much with a lot of his final conclusions as well.

So why meditate?

Because it increases your sensitivity to your own anger, fear, sadness etc.. In meditation, you learn to be aware. As that happens, you become aware of your own emotions and feelings along with everything else in your experience, right as they happen.

And you will probably find that you're in some sort of discomfort most of the time, and that most of it comes from within.

As you get more aware, you see that each negative thing you create for yourself is a process. It starts off with hearing somebody say something you don't like. You have an emotional response. Your body gets tense. Your thoughts sprint into looking for a response. It's a whole process, not just one event.

The more aware you are, the sooner you notice that it's happening. If you notice it quick enough, you can re-route things.

All in all a VERY long ready, but if you are into neuroscience and meditation then you will probably enjoy the read.

Peace.