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December 12, 2015

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"The brain creates our reality"?

Is the brain also a "part" of "our reality"?

If so, then it must also be creating itself, like some sort of Escher drawing, no?

Nice - that's the appropriate level of incomprehensible mystery for the subject matter at hand. (cough cough, subject matter was pun, in case it was missed :)

Here's a couple of rather good articles (though incredibly basic, as all such online articles have to be) which are proferred for perusal as an antidote to Brian's recent materialistic postings on the brain and consciousness:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/can-integrated-information-theory-explain-consciousness/

https://aeon.co/essays/how-and-why-exactly-did-consciousness-become-a-problem

Interesting comments by Jim Carrey about reality and consciousness...

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/09/14/jim-carreys-response-to-reactions-over-his-bizarre-interview-really-has-people-thinking/

On September 10, 2017, we released an article sharing a controversial interview with Jim Carrey during New York fashion week. In the interview, Jim said a number of things that either had people thinking he was crazy, or recognising that he was trying to share a deeper message.

His controversial interview contained statements like:

“There’s no meaning to any of this. I wanted to find the most meaningless thing that I could come to and join, and here I am. I mean, you’ve got to admit, it’s completely meaningless.”

“There is no me. There is just things happening… Here’s the thing: It’s not our world. That’s the key. We don’t matter. We don’t matter. There’s the good news.”

Interview September 14, 2017

We’re a bunch of ideas cobbled together to look like a form. There’s a body and there’s a mind, but the body is part of the field of consciousness, just dancing for itself and it’s no different than a plant or a chair or your phone—it’s all one thing. Because we are sentient, there’s a consciousness, and we have to deal with this thing we create, like a fortress of ideas around it. So we say, ‘This is my name and this is my heritage and this is my nationality and here’s my hockey team and these are all of the things that I am.’ That’s the mistake.

When asked how we avoid this mistake, he had this to say:

The only way to it is to step into the river of tears and the sorrows of your life. The things that everyone is avoiding with everything from drugs to drink to sex and gadgets and whatever else you can distract yourself with, all of it is designed for you to never stop going and moving and, for god sakes, not feel the abyss. Don’t allow yourself to feel the abandonment and pain that you’ve suffered. And I’ve done it; I’m through it. I’m sure there will be things that happen again, but I realised that by letting myself fall into it completely, that it’s not to be feared. Death is not to be feared.

Thanks, Jen, for that. I think Carrey expressed it clearly. It might sound depressing, negative, or crazy to someone unfamiliar with this perspective, but it really takes a load off. There are still easy days and difficult days but there is no ownership, nothing for it to stick to. Life can't be tethered. It just comes and goes. We are like a sieve with openings larger than the particles of life.

Well Jen, now that Jim Carry
has said it, do you believe it?

;)

Hi tucson,

Its taken me quite some time, many emotional ups and downs and at the same time maintaining a questioning attitude and also practising letting go. Then there is a kind of understanding, kinda strange and wonderful. Its a fascinating world our brains are creating.

Hi Spencer,

I resonate with what Jim is saying. Confirmation bias of how I am nowadays :)

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