The Best Yet: "Theory of Everything."

[Drifter]

My central claim is that the ontology of all the phenomenological worlds we enjoy--whether those of dreams, computer-generated models or waking "reality"-is basically the same: the realities experienced are always "virtual". The neural mechanisms capable of bringing about any sort of sentience at all are buried inside our skulls and, thus, cannot reach out from there--the non-virtual world outside the skull is, in itself, black and imperceptible. Neither the neural mechanism of consciousness nor the phenomenological consciousness itself is able to travel backwards on the causal chains--through the afferent neural pathways--to the real world out there, and "sense" it, touch it, hear it or see the objects out there. We all know that this is so: if consciousness exists at all; if there is a phenomenological level of organization realized in the neurobiology of the brain, there is no way it could travel outward from the brain. If consciousness cannot exist in the world outside the brain, it inevitably follows that the world we experience must exist inside the brain. If there is a consciously experienced model of the world constructed in the brain, causal chains from the world outside must travel inward, in order to constrain this model; virtual actions performed on the model must immediately travel outward, in order to have effects on the world outside. Let us approach this VR metaphor of consciousness through a thought experiment.
The Black Planet. Imagine that you are going to land into an unexplored planet. When you get out of your space capsule, you are engulfed by an impenetrable darkness and silence. You cannot see anything, hear anything, feel anything. There certainly is an environment somewhere out there, but you are utterly unable to sense it in any way and, consequently, there is no "organism-environment interaction" to speak of. You feel like floating in a sensory-deprivation tank, not even able to perceive the position of your body, let alone the environment you are surrounded by. Somehow you manage to return to the mother ship. You examine carefully all the data that was collected from the planet's surface. You find out that actually there is a lot of physical activity going on but of a kind you have never encountered before. Consequently, you were not able to perceive anything. Well, you do not give up--you design a suit that has sensors for the alien radiations and vibrations on the planet, translating them to the sort of physical stimuli that your body is able to handle. Thus, a certain sort of alien radiation is translated, by your goggles, into electromagnetic radiation of the visible wavelengths; the vibrations of the planet's strange atmosphere are translated into vibrations of air near your ears, and so on. When you return to the planet, you step into a quite different, spatial and extended world of objects, colors and sounds. Now your brain is able to construct an experienced model of the world which enables you to successfully interact with the world. Of course, the world, in itself, is still silent and dark, but nevertheless, your brain is now clothing it (its model, that is) with properties that do not really exist out there. The phenomenological level of organization is, thus, an illusion created by the brain, but still, a most useful one.
It may not come as a surprise if I now tell you that actually the strange planet is the earth, the spacesuit is our physical body, especially its sensory organs; the "translation" of alien physical signals to familiar ones is the transmutation from physical stimuli to neural firings; and the useful illusion somehow created inside the brain is the thing that we ordinarily call "reality": the experienced model of the world with the self as the central actor. "Reality" is only the "VR" constrained by current sensory input. For the neurobiological systems realizing the phenomenological level of organization, electromagnetic radiation of any kind or wavelength is just darkness; the vibrations of any gas or liquid are just silence, and the physical contact of skin with objects is nothing but anesthesia. For the brain, for the neural mechanisms underlying consciousness (such as the thalamocortical complex), the sensory and motor systems are nothing but a "brain-mounted 3D display" connected with a whole-body "data suit" and a telepresence system which allows virtual movement to be translated into real effects in the world through voluntary muscles.
If the technological variety of VR has made it possible for us to experience "out-of-the-body experiences" with telepresence robotics, mother nature certainly clothed us, that is, the phenomenological level of organization, with a built-in "out-of-the-brain" experience. But, remember, we are not really out of our brains in our experiences--how could we if all the required neural machinery sits tightly there--no more than Rheingold was really out of his body in the Japanese laboratory. No, we are only virtually out of the brain and in the external world. In fact, we did not invent VR at all--evolution invented it for us millions of years ago. We have merely invented one fresh way to use, with the help of computer technology, the natural VR machine in our brain. Through all these millennia, the natural, ultimate VR was humming inside our brains, producing dreams and waking experiences. And, lacking the concepts of "virtual world" and "virtual presence", we were fooled to think that we are somehow reaching out from our brains in our experiences. Finally, we know better.
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Title:Consciousness, dreams and virtual realities.Authors:Revonsuo, AnttiSource:Philosophical Psychology; Mar95, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p35, 24p

[austintorn@aol.com]

The brain utilizes the 'spies' of the senses that are in direct contact with "out there", then paints a useful and even better face upon.

[Drifter]

The idea of an Ego Tunnel is based on an older notion that has been around for quite some time now. It is the concept of a "reality tunnel," which can be found in reasearch on virtual reality and the programming of advanced video games, or in the popular work of nonacademic philosophers such as Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary.

The general idea is this: Yes, there is an outside world, and yes, there is an objective reality, but in moving through this world, we consciously apply unconscious filter mechanisms, and in doing so, we unknowingly construct our individual world, which is our "reality tunnel."

We are never directly in touch with reality as such, because these filters prevent us from seeing the world as it is. The filtering mechanisms are our sensory systems and our brain, the architecture of which we inherited from our biological ancestors, as well as our past beliefs and implicit assumptions.

The construction process is largely invisible; in the end, we see only what our reality tunnel allows us to see, and most of us are completely unaware of this fact.

[Drifter]

I will confine my discussion to the phenomenon of conscious experience, to develop a better an richer understanding of why exactly it is exclusively internal. One question to be addressed is, How can all this take place inside the brain and at the same time create the robust experience of living in a reality that is experienced as an external reality. To understand what Finnish philosopher and neuroscientist Antti Revonsuo calls an "out-of-brain experience". Like now the robust experience of not being in a tunnel, of being directly and immediately in touch with external reality, one of the most remarkable features of human consciousness. You even have it during an out-of-body experience.

[austintorn@aol.com]

We see even better than we could if we had to sort waves into colors and forms 'by hand', which would still work, to some degree, but would take too long. Luckily, our 'spy outposts', the senses, do this for us, being of both 'old flesh' and brain, and so it is that we can manipulate what's out there, even building devices out there with stuff from out there—that function perfectly well out there.

If we want to know more of what's out there, beyond our senses, we use scientific instruments, for example, to detect and learn of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Then that information becomes "in here" and then we really know a lot.

[austintorn@aol.com]

I had an out of body experience while half-dreaming, half-awake, for that's what it is, a paralysis of muscle movement accompanied by a dream vision, I saw my dream arm diverging and moving while also seeing my real arm lying perfectly still. This was a lucky insight.

[Drifter]

All content of the phenomenal self model.[PSM]
A filter of sorts, of the conscious model of the organism as a whole that is activated by the brain. [aka, ucid dreaming]
See the rubber-hand illusion, "Rubber Hand Feels' Touch That The Eyes See, Botvinic & Cohen

The resulting activation of neurons in the premotor cortex.

[austintorn@aol.com]

Another time, I kept some dream music playing, by lying very still, upon awakening; then it faded. Out of body is really just in-body.

[Drifter]

Consciousness; is all there is. Out of body is still, in mind, or is it?
That integrated inner image of ourself is usually firmly
anchored in our feelings and bodily sensations;
the world-simulation created by our brains includes the experience of a point of view.

We are usually unable to experience and intospectively recognize our self-models as such [models], much of the self-model [PSM] is what philosophers might say is transparent.

Transparency simply means that we are unaware of the medium through which information reaches us. We do not see the window but only the bird flying by. We do not see the neurons firing away in our brain but only what they represent for us.


A conscious world model active in the brain is transparent if the brain has no chance of discovering that it is a model ---we look right through it directly onto the world.


Sound as if you're in touch with the self model theory of subjectivity, the conscious experience of being a self, which emerges because a large part of the PSM in your brain is transparent, most of our 'time' is not spent in the lucent dreaming state [meditation]. Which is simply put; another state of consciousness that many/most do not/cannot experience. A virtual reality.

I believe the imperative is dependant upon a purification of sorts, or it/that, state or stage, cannot/will not transpire.

The light that shone from the eyes of sages and wise men of antiquity is the same light that shines forth from our human eyes and lights our world, the more things change the more they stay the same.

(my humble opinion alone)

[melanie]

When you are sleeping and dreaming, and someone wakes you up, you feel thrown out of one world to a different one.
It is the same in the life we call reality. It is possible to wake up from it.

One who has managed to still his mind and senses may go on living and acting in the world like the person in the cinema hall, who is no longer interested in the movie.
He learns how to get out of the illusion and wake up.
If he is no more a slave to illusion and dreams, he is free.

He sees everything as it really is.....Hilarious IMHO....ROLFLMAO

Contrary to what you might think, such a person functions in his daily life in a better way, is stronger, happier, very practical and free from worry.(I'M LIVING PROOF)


Excellent posting Drifter as always. Thank you I am really enjoying my Imagined Self...(An object of my desire)

Due to convenience of speech we call these objects by many names, but they are really "made" from the Original Substance,
an object is not a "real" thing standing by itself.

Nothing has a reality of its own. How could it have? - Tis impossible?

A mirage is not real, but yet we see it.

A dream taking place while sleeping is not real, yet we experience it during the time of the dream as a reality.

A hologram looks 3D, while it is actually flat.






Everything is in the mind....where ever that is?