The Self Illusion - Susan Blackmore

This is a clip from Susan Blackmore's talk at Science and Nonduality Conference 2012 in The Netherlands.

[bayreuth]

Dan Dennet also claims that consciousness is an illusion- but he seems to forget that an illusion is a mode of consciousness. The claim that consciousness is an illusion presupposes consciousness, so Dennet has cut off the branch he was sitting on.

[RossMccully]

My best friend died 18 months ago his name is zenn, the past couple of months have been harder than the previous 16. I have been really starting to think God hates me and it's been taking over a bit. Tonight I came across Susan's talks then this video and seen zenns name. I think he brought me to this video to let me know God doesn't hate me and to break me out of this thought cycle. I believe god is real and my best friends spirit and soul is still out there somewhere we will never understand while we live. I miss my best friend like crazy and hope to see him again 1 day

[BillPorter]

A very nicely done lecture. It brought to mind an idea that has occurred to me many times over the past 40 years or so, the idea of the 10 second man. While most of us agree that in significant ways we are no longer the person (self) we were years and years ago, we tend to maintain that we are the same person we were a few years ago. But it seems that "a few years" is far too long a stretch of time for a continuous self to exist. And the more you meditate or wake up in some sense, the time span during which a continuous self exists grows ever shorter. Down to a few seconds. The self who started writing this comment is no longer here nor ever will be here again. And as she said, one feels a gratitude toward that self and the army of prior selves and a concern for the well being of the selves yet to be manifest. I hope I read this comment at some time in the future without embarrassment.

[anonymoushuman]

She talks about letting go of the self. Who or what lets go of it? There's an abiding awareness capable of using language both before and after the loss of the ordinary sense of the self as a separate, solid, distinct being. There is continuity of memory and the ability to talk about experiences being had, even if the third person and passive voice are preferred. (Should she have refrained from using the word "I" in this talk?) Am "I" talking about the same kind of experience as "she" is, though? There are different kinds of experiences that can be described as letting go of the self.

[grantstrachan]

Someone always has to bag out here hair! I would suggest that she isn't her hair, so it makes no difference and judging her for it is a distraction and says more about the person that makes a point of it..

I love the way she expresses herself through the colour of her hair. Go for it Susan, brighter the better. :)

[rotorblade]

I thought of this some years ago and tried to explain to some people but nobody seemed to understand what was I talking about, it’s good to know there are many people aware of this :)
about last topic, the organism as a machine has evolved through survival of the fittest so the ones that seek survival were more likely to survive. But the “self” does matter if it survives or not although it interferes with the fitness. For example if we now discover the truth it may make us say less likely to survive or less willing to survive in miserable with no end of pain situation and those individuals will simply not pass the genes on. So the idea is you have to put this into the equation as well

[alexanderedwards]

wow, in all my years of enquiry I've never heard the nature of the mind described in this way. I like your ideas

[inri]

But even if we are only our brain and nothing immaterial, brain structures have continuity throught time..so we continue with the same brain...how then we will be someone else? In my viewpoint this clearly doesnt make any sense..the absence of a stream of undivided self doesnt equal with the absence of brain continuity..so then of course we will be the same structure in the future and not somebody entirely different. A car is going to be the same car in the future even if its consists of different parts. (If the parts are going to be the same). I think she is confused

[Ndo]

Both self and no-self are just concepts for interpreting phenomena. It is just a matter of definition. There is really no truth or untruth to either perspective.

[tcrown]

This lovely lady is up there with the best of them. A formidable intellect.

[myscat]

me is not the experience you are focused on, but the emptiness behind, which always stays

[samhomfray]

The collapse of several observational strands into a single self through the process of observation is a very similar parallel to the collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanics

[anduinxbym]

For there to be an experiencer having a stream of experiences only breaks down if you look at reality through the confines of reductionism. The fact that isolated brain processes never come together in one place, as she says, means nothing if consciousness is not reduced to brain activity. Rather than throw out her own irrational beliefs in favor of more logical alternatives like monistic idealism, she discards the self. This is the ultimate example of making reality conform to theory, rather than theory conform to reality.

[Torrriate]

@Stephen Paul King: Consciousness might not actually make a difference for real life actions at all. Thought processes that may be ultimately non conscious, at some point, obviously do make a difference. But consciousness itself could actually be epiphenomenal.

[darrylsanders]

I would never pay money for talks like this...perhaps helpful for some..but, I trust my own understanding of reality

[janfarrell]

lose you sense of self via temporal lobe epilepsy, parkinson disease,  bad  drug trips and you'll soon know what the sense of self is by the realization of what you have lost.

[geoffbowcher]

So explain the the difference between ego, self, and PERSONALITY.

[Teaganbear]

this reminds me of smoking salvia, and trying to find who was "saying" my thoughts to me

[Aluminata]

Her true self is actually the frog in her throat. ( desperately trying to get a croak in edge ways.)

[claudelebel]

For some reason,
I prefer the question:
Am I aware now?
To
Am I conscious now?