A tape that plays and observes itself over and over again
Reflections on the nature of consciousness
Everything that we see and don’t see, experience, feel, and think about are all abstractions. There is no proof that these things exist. The fact that you think that you feel pain or that you exist doesn’t mean that it’s real.
The mind runs simulations all the time. Every object in the perceivable and invisible world is an abstraction. Are you sure that your feelings and emotions are “real”? Hm…I would argue against that. The fact that you experience pain doesn’t mean that it is “real.” Referring to the rubber hand illusion, your mind thinks that the fake hand is your real hand even if it knows that it is not true.
Elizabeth Loftus conducted false memory studies which proved that people don’t really remember past events accurately and that over time they come up with details which never happened. You can convince anyone of anything about a past event. This may be what we consider “reality,” but I doubt that an objective reality exists.
Or there could be different versions of the same reality. Check out this latest experiment where the outcome of the experiment differs for different observers, proving that reality and truth are completely arbitrary concepts.
Are you sure you are fully conscious?
To some extent, we could argue that every night when you go to sleep you “lose your consciousness”… you don’t “belong” to yourself, you don’t make decisions, and all mental processes happen automatically.
Then a signal goes from your spine to your brain to wake you up to return you to consciousness and to start your “self-identification” game all over again, the story you’ve created for yourself of who you are. But when you sleep…you are not fully invested in the process of “self-identification” — you are unconscious.
Have you ever undergone surgery? You are completely cut off from reality and have no idea what is happening to you during the surgery. You are not conscious. You are just an immobile body lying on a table. The only thing that makes you human is the conventional social agreement that all humans share in which doctors perceive you as a human and treat you accordingly. But the truth is, from a neurophysiological perspective, you are completely unconscious in that moment.
If we agree that there is something called “existence”, something in which we are self-aware, cognizant, intelligent, observant of our environment, and we invest in the belief that “something” is constantly running simulations to form our perceptions of reality and that the world of causality that we live in is one of the simulations of that “conscious existence”, then everything, including humanity, is a property of conscious existence that is simulating everything (in which layers of abstractions are constantly being created).
Once you cut away all layers of illusion, you experience what “true emptiness” is. Full enlightenment is pure experience where the artificial constructs of identity, time, space, and causality are abandoned.
Genuine consciousness is the fundamental truth of existence where all layers of abstractions are removed. This is not possible to scientifically prove or measure. It’s something that observes itself and plays itself over and over again. Once you deeply comprehend that paradox, you have a chance to get out of the matrix and become unified with that tape.
